Tell me about your experience buying an iPad for an elderly person

My 88 year old father was given one as a gift. He is very pc computer literate. He struggles with the iPad. He has a Parkinson's shake that makes holding it a little difficult. He did comment when I was visiting last week after a Facetime chat with a grandchild that he had been waiting since the 1964 World's Fair for a video phone and finally got it. Crossed that off his bucket list. I would say that getting an iPad for an elderly relative is very dependent on the ultimate user.

One bonus point for the iPad is that there are (free?) classes at the Apple stores on using the device, so if there's an Apple store near by, and your mother can get there, that's another avenue for assistance. Plus, if she's in a senior housing complex, the staff may be able to assist her with minor questions.

My 91 year old father got an iPad 2 and loves it, he especially loves FaceTime and has been calling me and his grandson up daily for chats since he got it, which is great fun for all. For context, my dad has some familiarity with technology as he's built his own desktops in the past but struggles with stuff like file management (where did my file go?) and being too trusting on the internet (for cripes sake, don't click that link) and also suffered a mild stroke a few years ago. For now, he only has the stock iOS 7 apps on it and hasn't complained about not being able to figure out which app is which, which might be because he has just a handful to choose from. I plan to show him how to use the App Store when I visit: the big barrier for him here is being wary about buying things online. The biggest issue for my dad has been the maximum volume, it doesn't go up high enough for him to always be able to hear clearly (he's hearing impaired). I'm trying to figure out a way to amplify the sound in a way that doesn't cause conflicts with his hearing aid or diminish the portability of the iPad, however even with the lower sound level, overall our communication has improved over talking over the phone because we can see each other. Other issues have been he's dropped it several times, once glass-down right on the edge of a brick fireplace while Facetiming with me (that was an interesting sight). Fortunately the iPad has survived all the drops but I'm getting him ahttp://mashable.com/2012/12/26/ipad-cases-hand-straps/. Another issue is he gets fatigued holding it up for chat and starts to tilt the device back until I'm looking at his ceiling fan. I'm getting him a case-friendly stand for this. Related, he has a black one and thus doesn't have an easy reminder of where the front facing camera is so I've spent several sessions chatting with his thumb. I think I'll add http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2012/06/23/3/192/1922441/13c87eaadcc89a3d_Screen_shot_2012-06-06_at_5.04.32_PM.xlarge.png around the camera lens during my next visit. My dad's iPad was a replacement for an Android tablet (not a Fire) that he had significant user issues with: nothing someone who understood the meta-issues of why one would change that setting, disallow that permission or re-enter a password might have, but a big obstacle for him despite my setting up that tablet initially. I did no such set up for his iPad, he unboxed it himself and after I walked him through getting it onto his wifi (turned out he had forgotten his password), he's been on his own with it since. He's so very delighted by FaceTime that he's been calling all of his brothers and pestering them to go get one so they can all easily video chat. You can turn off iOS 7's Notification Center in Settings, there's many other settings in Accessibility that are helpful, including enabling Speak Selected Text.

Facetime was key for my in-laws getting their iPads set up. Being able to video chat with grandkids and see their pet dogs when travelling sold them. Also when they realised they could easily search youtube on it for hobby videos and get apps for certain hobbies - dance steps and tango videos. What is she super-interested in? Books, cooking, crosswords, geneology? Pre-load related apps and videos to make her want to use the iPad. You can filter on facebook so she can only see specific posts you've allowed, when she gets facebook eventually. It's a hassle but beats hurt feelings.

Both my Mom and my Dad individually got an iPad. My Dad, who was at the time 85, was unable to cope with it. The paradigms were too new and he essentially left it unused. For him I think it was more of a prestige item that he could show off having. Shortly after that his dementia seriously flared up (evidence is it was completely unrelated, just timing) and he hasn't been interested in it or asked about it since. We occasionally bring our updated iPad Retina to use for transcriptions and written communication (he's far better at reading than hearing/listening) and he likes it when we run it and show him things on it, but he also likes art books and other visual stimulus a lot now that he's in dementia-land. In contrast, my Mom (she was 76 then) got an iPad Retina a year or so ago in advance of taking a trip to England for a couple of months. With it she bought a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard and a Jawbone Jambox. She uses both still when she feels like it. Unlike me she's not a huge user of apps and often gets confused about its sleep versus shutdown mode and gets confused between web browser bookmarks and apps. But once I helped her get it set up the way she liked it, I think she uses it about as much as the (Windows Vista) laptop that seems to be more her speed and more what she's used to. The nice thing about the iPad is that it's essentially self-maintaining. So far there's no need to do disk defrags or spyware cleanups or antivirus scans and there's no getting scammed for those services. So far, folks aren't deploying ransomware trojans and doing other things to take advantage of user ignorance. So far there's nothing to have to be seriously careful about as long as you don't jailbreak the device and stick to the official app stores. All those things are golden for the older user. It is truly challenging to have to sort through the offers, the spyware, the popups and all the other crap on the Internet and it's truly easy to be taken advantage of and to end up paying your way out of it, or worse, sharing payment info and other Identity Theft vulnerable info with strangers who do not have your best interests at heart. If you can get across simple concepts like In-App Purchasing and basic security mindedness, the rest of the gap is bridged by the iPad being so extremely easy to use and maintain. it's really nice as a geeky child to know that the iPad's ease of use is basically taking care of my Mom.

My 70 year old mom loves the iPad we got her, and she hardly ever touched any family computers before then. Just having something that she can keep on the table next to her big easy TV chair opened all sorts of doors for her. I wouldn't get her an Android tablet since there's less chance/option to muck things up on the iPad, even though I dig some Android tablets myself.

I just got my 83-yo mom a tablet for Chanukah and the transition has not been as seamless as I'd hoped. She had been using my old Mac PowerBook, only for email and internet browsing so I cheaped out and got her a kind of crappy Acer, but there has been one huge and unexpectedly frustrating problem. Due in part to her arthritis, she is having a lot of difficulty with the touch aspect. It's one thing for her to spend a little time practicing on an icon or on opening a particular email, but it's been almost impossible for her to type anything. She might press and hold a little too long and end up with special characters, or she might accidentally flick her finger just enough to miss the letter or get nothing. Angry Birds was another exercise in frustration. She though she thought it was hilarious that the birds ended up flying all over the place and was much more good-natured about it than I was, but the point is she hard a lot of trouble with it. I think the conceptual difficulties she had are going to be anecdotal and have more to do with relearning what a back arrow icon looks like; the OS is the part that most people have positive reports about. It just never occurred to me that she would have physical difficulties. I'm going to buy her a stylus, and if that doesn't help I shell out for an iPad and see if that help. She is quite excited about it overall, however, even if she has moments of frustration.

Oh, and a stylus helps tremendously, often.

Go for an iPad with 3G and a long term data plan. I finally talked my very reluctant friends (80 and 86) into getting an iPad, just before I travelled overseas for 5 months so wasn't available for tech support soon after they got it. Neither had ever used computers before. The icons and touch makes it easy, and if you stress that "you're not going to break it" and to play around, they could get the basics very easily, especially email, weather, photos etc. I'd suggest a game, especially something old skool like Solataire. Encourage playing, and you'll find that the confidence gained in using the device will grow enormously. Keep your son on hand for iOS updates, but be positive and you will create an addict!