How to get old dad internet connected?

[tri again]

He's 80 and does great with cell phone.

Has a land line in upstate NY but spends winters in N. Florida, cell phone only.

I have a spiffy laptop I could send him but he'd need a land line and modem and all the fun antivirus/update bs we all deal with.

I told him for the 45 bucks he spends on his cell phone every month, he probably already has internet capability and to go talk to someone at a cell phone kiosk at a mall or phone store.
Pretty sure he'd get overwhelmed with what they are trying to sell.

I gave up on new stuff a couple years ago and safe to assume I know NOthing about the newest and greatest.
Ipad, ipod, smartphones etc.

Are cell phones internet capable?
Some sort of touchpad things that need no modem. just cell service?

wow,
I DO know even less than I thought.
Not even smart enough to interpret the tv commercials.

He'd love to be able to look stuff up and as a collector, check prices and history of things, like wikipedia.

Thanks for helping.

j

[Big Mike]

have him buy a tablet from one of the cell providers that uses both wifi and cell service.

[tri again]

have him buy a tablet from one of the cell providers that uses both wifi and cell service.

Thanks Mike.
I'll look into 'tablets'.
Nice to know they use wifi AND cell.
Are those like the kindle readers with no keyboard?
like 8 by 10 and smaller?

I'll just send one to him as a surprise.
So?
He could use it at the library or other hotspot and than use the cell phone
feature when outta range.
...so then I'd need to sign up and prepay for some internet provider that he can hook to with the cell phone feature?

Thanks,
Guess it's time to look for deals now.

Netzero keeps hawking 9.95 a month unlimited so I guess we pay to use their access number and just dial up to it and awaaaay we go?

[Billy Golightly]

I've actually gotten my old man (80 next month) to play around with my iPad. I'd reccomend a 3G equipped one, as then you can use it pretty much anywhere there is cell service. Just make sure you end up getting one on a network that has good coverage in his location. In my portion of North Florida, its only Verizon. Everyone else's is plain terrible.

The ipad is really simple, I mean, including the on off switch, its got 2 buttons, and its touch screen, you can surf the internet, do email, check weather, pretty much do anything an 80 year old person would do on a regular computer.

[tri again]

I've actually gotten my old man (80 next month) to play around with my iPad. I'd reccomend a 3G equipped one, as then you can use it pretty much anywhere there is cell service. Just make sure you end up getting one on a network that has good coverage in his location. In my portion of North Florida, its only Verizon. Everyone else's is plain terrible.

The ipad is really simple, I mean, including the on off switch, its got 2 buttons, and its touch screen, you can surf the internet, do email, check weather, pretty much do anything an 80 year old person would do on a regular computer.

Will do Billy.
Verizon work in the mtns here too.

Yeah, dad is real close to where you are.
West of Gainsville about 20 miles or so.
He wanted to look at that acreage you had posted a few months ago.

I mailed him pix of Coral Castle in Homestead that he wanted to see and he's
always asking questions wanting me to look stuff up.


I've just been tortured about a laptop and modem and all that
stuff even 'we' have trouble keeping running.

Thanks

[Jfm0]

I agree. An I pad is the only way to go. He won't have to worry about viruses and if he gets a survivor case it will take some abuse. I have one and I wouldn't even consider going to a laptop.

[tri again]

Thanks.

so to review....
Tablets are either wifi or 3 g enabled (listed under connectivity) or some say 'external modem'.

3 (or 4) G enabled I'm assuming is the fact that they CAN dial up to an isp service provider.
so 3 or 4 g capable means thay Have a cell phone built in.?
If dad already has verizon for his cell phone at like 45 bucks a month, he may just be able to 'add' a new tablet.

Thanks for humoring my lack of knowledge with this stuff.

and as always, apple mac stuff is relatively immune to viruses and bs?

..and all the other (non apples) are just not worth the trouble, no matter how appealing.

I know I spend 1/2 my time updating virus and spyware and scanning and all that rot but I'm kinda used to it.

Certainly don't wanna send dad a can o' worms.

one more silly Q?
So you can actually use an ipad to make phone calls too?

man, I cannot believe how much I do NOT know about these things.

Thanks everyone.

[El Camexican]

Best of luck, at 75 I think my Dad is still struggling with the whole round Earth thing, let alone using a cell phone. He won't even LOOK at photos on my Mom's computer.

[hublake]

Both of you get the latest Ipad, get them set up on that to use Face Time. We talk to my son and his family all the time and is really simple. Plus you get to see each other.

[Billy Golightly]

Theres no dialing up anything with a 3G tablet. Its basically always connected, just like a cell phone. If its on, its getting data unless you have it turned off in the options menu (Like for airplane mode). That connectivity costs about $30-$45 a month.

A wifi only version only allows internet access at coffee shops, hotels, etc. anywhere where a wireless internet connection is setup and maintained.


For simplicity, a 3G tablet will be superior.

Thanks.

so to review....
Tablets are either wifi or 3 g enabled (listed under connectivity) or some say 'external modem'.

3 (or 4) G enabled I'm assuming is the fact that they CAN dial up to an isp service provider.
so 3 or 4 g capable means thay Have a cell phone built in.?
If dad already has verizon for his cell phone at like 45 bucks a month, he may just be able to 'add' a new tablet.

Thanks for humoring my lack of knowledge with this stuff.

and as always, apple mac stuff is relatively immune to viruses and bs?

..and all the other (non apples) are just not worth the trouble, no matter how appealing.

I know I spend 1/2 my time updating virus and spyware and scanning and all that rot but I'm kinda used to it.

Certainly don't wanna send dad a can o' worms.

one more silly Q?
So you can actually use an ipad to make phone calls too?

man, I cannot believe how much I do NOT know about these things.

Thanks everyone.

[tri again]

Best of luck, at 75 I think my Dad is still struggling with the whole round Earth thing, let alone using a cell phone. He won't even LOOK at photos on my Mom's computer.

Yeah, dad's stuck in between.
Still Loves 3 wheelers.
His first ride in a car was at age 8. Honestly was horse and buggy before that.
But he loves learning things and always wants me to look stuff up for him.

I'm 3,000 miles away so trying to make it work from a distance.
Guess he'll have to go to a cell phone computer place so they can set up the ip address and stuff like that.

He also like the ancestry website and looking for lost relatives.
I'm trying to get all the stories I can get out of him.
Guess some family escaped from Russia in the 1800 and some rolled up from s america somehow.

Anyway, if he's interested, I'll try to make it easy but it's obvious I know juuuust enough to get into trouble.

[tri again]

Theres no dialing up anything with a 3G tablet. Its basically always connected, just like a cell phone. If its on, its getting data unless you have it turned off in the options menu (Like for airplane mode). That connectivity costs about $30-$45 a month.

A wifi only version only allows internet access at coffee shops, hotels, etc. anywhere where a wireless internet connection is setup and maintained.


For simplicity, a 3G tablet will be superior.

so what I want is a 3g tablet with a service plan (30-40$ a month) that they come with,
Ipad preferred.
Got it.
Still can't believe I know NOthing about these things....AND I used to build computers in the old 8088, 286 , 386 days.

Thanks a million.
I try tracking one down today,
maybe just call a place near Gainsville he can just walk into, prepaid and ready to go.

[Billy Golightly]

You got it. With a wifi version you have to go in and change settings to connect from one to another, etc. etc. too much hassle for someone that doesn't know their way around stuff very well. 3G solves that. if theres cellphoen service from that provider, its on.

[El Camexican]

Yeah, dad's stuck in between. He also like the ancestry website and looking for lost relatives. Guess some family escaped from Russia in the 1800 and some rolled up from s america somehow.

Wow! Sounds like your family tree is in the same forest as mine! I need to check out that site.

[kb0nly]

While normally i am a big apple products hater, i got to say that the ipad is the most senior friendly internet tablet out there. There is some nice android tablets, but the ipad seems to be easier for most people to learn and get used to, unless of course they already got associated with an android based smartphone.

Definitely tablet though, either Android or Ipad, less concerns when it comes to virus and malware, and less troubles overall compared to a computer. I make a living fixing computers and over 80% of my customers are the 60 and up crowd. They try so hard to learn it to stay in contact with the younger family members but they struggle so much on a standard PC format. But usually on a tablet they can deal with it because they cant mess things up as badly or get into trouble as fast... LOL

Even a Kindle Fire is a good way to get them online, they can use email, web browse, read books and magazines and even newspapers in digital form... There is a lot of tablet options out there and they are all good.

Now in his case... Definitely get a tablet that has cellular data through his carrier, being that he moves between two locations makes it easier. If he ever gets stuck somewhere without good cellular data coverage he can still connect to WiFi as needed but most of the time he can just turn it on and go.