As Our Parents Age

Timely Topics for Adult Children

iPad for Dad, #3 – After the First Lessons

Apple Computer Image

If you like this post, read some of the other descriptions of our Father/Daughter iPad adventure.  iPad for Dad, #1, iPad for Dad, #2, iPad for Dad, #3,  iPad for Dad, #4, iPad for Dad, #5, iPad for Dad, #6,  iPad for Dad, #7, iPad for Dad, #8,  iPad for Dad, #9, iPad for Dad, #10, iPad for Dad, #11, iPad for Dad, #12, iPad for Dad, #13,  iPad for Dad, #14,  iPad for Dad, #15, iPad for Dad, #16, iPad for Dad, #17, iPad for Dad, #18, iPad for Dad, #19, and iPad for Dad, #20.

On Saturday I visited my parents. Dad is using his iPad a lot.

What He’s Used So Far

Dad regularly uses the yellow electronic legal pad, the New York Times application, the WGBH application, and the iBook program, though he wanted a lot more instruction on the book reading. He easily searches with Safari, looking up topics of all types. In my absence my mom went online and printed out a number of instructions for various iPad functions, and my dad keeps these pages nearby.

iPad E-mail

As we started with the new iPad lessons, Dad asked to begin using e-mail. So we downloaded the Comcast application from iTunes (currently an iPhone app), inserted his login name and password, and learned the basics, all while sitting in comfort on the couch. Beforehand I alerted several family members in various geographic locations, so five people were busily sending e-mail back and forth all afternoon. Dad was especially excited to get an e-mail from his granddaughter. We sent and received at least 20 and maybe as many as 25 messages. Interestingly when we e-mailed an article from the New York Times to his Comcast account on the iPad, the article links were not live — an interesting discovery that we haven’t figured out at this point.

Challenges?

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May 16, 2010 Posted by | aging parents, iPad for Dad, seniors and computers, Seniors and Lifelong Learning, Seniors and Technology | , , , | 9 Comments