That looks pretty sweet, actually.

It does look pretty sweet, but some questions I would have:

1) How much tech support from you and your sibs is it going to require? Things like "make sure it's turned on during the retrieval time" and "refill the paper tray" and "replace the ink cartridge". If your mum doesn't currently use a computer and a printer, she might not think to do these things, and thus might not use it if it seems like too much of a hassle.

2) It looks pretty expensive, to me, but then again I'm not the target demographic.

3) Ugh, can you imagine if your mum started to receive spam on the device? I don't see any mention of a spam filter, and it would be trivial for spam harvesters to send emails using a dictionary for the first part and "@presto.com" for the second part. (On preview, I see that there's a "Presto Friends List", which someone will have to set-up and maintain, so at least there won't be any spam)

This reminds me of the WebTV I got my dad, for the same reasons you're considering. But, you know, computers aren't really that hard to use, and the Presto, like the WebTV, isn't really that easy, either. It became clear that the reason Dad wouldn't use Mom's computer wasn't actually any inability to manage it, but a simple lack of desire.

That said, I didn't regret getting the unit for Dad. I mean, at least I tried, right?

Absolutely. Why should your mother be the only one in her circle who's never seen goatse, tubgirl or lemonparty?

Is your mom genuinely out of the loop because of email? Or does she just think she is? I mean, if your sister had told you something over the phone, and you repeated it to your mom, that wouldn't be seen as "out of the loop," but since your sister told you via email, it is? This Presto thing looks like one-way communication to me, just a faster way to send letters.

The spam issue is something I hadn't thought of when seeing this little beauty on TV. I also wonder, thinking of my own mom, if using the computer is ouside her range, will putting in ink and un-jamming the machine also be dificult.

I also think this is a great idea - if the above are non-issues. I just wish there was a way for her to respond as easely.

Maybe a service like Celery, which utilizes a fax machine instead of a printer, and allows for two-way communication? It will still have some of the same problems as the Presto, but the chance to write y'all some letters that you'll actually read and respond to might be enough incentive to learn.

Mailbug?

(Oh, and I know I've told this story before, but it's topical. My grandmother just wrote me a charming letter all about how my Dad taught her to use "the word pad" on his computer. Yes, she typed in a lovely letter, then printed it out and mailed it to me!)

Ah, I remember the days when PCs were just for fancy typing . . . .

Even with the Presto, there is _something_ to learn, some concept to get ones head around, even if it's a way to tell how the darn thing is on or out of paper. So, even though it might be easier than, say Windows Vista, there's still STUFF to learn. Plus, what if she finds herself adventurous and wants to reply back?

Also, I am personally a little leery of these proprietary products paired with proprietary services. If everything goes super with the hardware, what happens when HP cuts off the service cause it wasn't a money-maker? It will eventually become unprofitable for them. The hope is it will be profitable for many, many years, but you really don't know. At most this is a niche product and niche products aren't always the most successful at making money. I'm not suggesting the product will fail, but it's hard to know. If you buy a printer and it fails, you get a new printer. If you buy a Presto and they cut off service, then what?

(I suspect that HP made this product in response to the legendary Coming of the Retired Baby Boomers (cha-ching), but I think HP is mistaken if it thinks these people won't buy computers. They will. My father was introduced to a computer for the last five or so years before he retired and now he uses and wants to use a computer. It happened and he's okay with it. I suspect the majority of people will be like him. There. I've used exactly one opposite example to prove all of HP's marketing data wrong! NYAH! ;-)

My opinion? Get her an iMac and setup the system will all of her contacts and dead-simple icons. Set her up with LogMeIn so you can help her when she gets into trouble. And show her:

1. How to turn it on.
2. How to use a mouse.
3. How to open mail.
4. How to send mail.
5. How to reply to mail.

Help her. She'll have issues and you'll have to repeat yourself a lot. Be patience and loving and she'll get it and understand and become curious about how to do other things.

Cheers,

m

Thanks, everyone! (I got swooshed into work maelstrom today so disappeared.)

tcv, we did that. We did it over and over with my dad's iMac after he died. I wrote out the instructions and practiced with her. And she was getting there s l l l o w w w l l y. But the iMac was pretty old and sucky, and started crashing/freezing. So we tried to tell her about buying a new computer, but that was just a whole new freak-out topic.

I bought an email-only box for her once (I forget the name it was at Radio Shack), the idea was "something like WebTV." But when I opened it up it needed a monitor, and before I could get the monitor my mother panicked and then I had to leave town so I ended up returning it.

I'll look at the other products linked. I think with the Presto we (the sisters) would just program it to accept only certain emails (us, maybe the church email). Though I wonder if it would freak her out to explain to people (like, the people in her church) that she can't just give them her email address, that she has to get us to add the email address to the list, because she really won't understand how to explain it and it might sort of highlight the whole "oh my god I'm freaked out by computers and I'm the only one" thing.

That thing looks like a bad idea to me. Ignoring the obvious money issue, a low-end computer (probably a Mac, much as I hate to admit it) set up so that it is easy to access e-mail (I assume you can set applications to start automatically on boot-up with a Mac?) and don't even go there with Web browsing or anything else - just tell her it's an e-mail machine or something.

Get her a GMail account or something and set the whole thing up so that, when she turns it on, it opens to the inbox. The biggest flaw would be navigating Gmail (or any free mail service) itself, I suspect.

Once she gets used to doing that, she may become confident and curious about what else she can do. You can but hope, anyway.

Another option, perhaps, is hiring a real tutor for her. With all due respect, family members aren't necessarily the most patient with other family members. What you perceive and react to as a 'freak-out' may be something a tutor won't see quite as strongly?