It is time to purchase a new iPad for my father.
If you have followed this blog for the past several years you know that three years ago we (my husband, my daughter, my son-in-law, and me) purchased an iPad for my father’s birthday. The iPad for Dad project, beginning in May 2010, has been an enormous success, and it’s generated a long list of blog posts here on As Our Parents Age.
Rarely do I arrive at my parents’ house without seeing his iPad set up and a quick glance demonstrates that Dad, now 90 years old, has been using it or is about to sit down to write or search. He’s written over 400 journal posts on the iPad — tapping the little arrow and sending them off to his family of readers — and many of these mini-essays shared rich ideas (of course he’s always had these), interesting observations, and detailed family information (much of it new to me and other family members).
What I liked most about the iPad was its ease of use and the fact that it’s always connected to my parents’ wireless. It does not require waiting around while programs boot up, and from the beginning of this project Dad hardly needed any tutoring to get going.
We purchased the iPad for Dad about three months after Apple first started selling them, so my father received the original model. At that time iPads were new and suddenly popular, though to be honest, no one really knew how they might be received and used. Several years later, however, Dad is going strong, as is his iPad, but it does look a bit clunky compared to the newer models.
Why purchase a new one? The main reason is to get the camera and the newer system tools. We can no longer update the system on the Dad’s old iPad, and the initial model — the one he owns — did not come with a digital camera. As someone who has always enjoyed taking pictures, I know that Dad will get a kick of having digital camera capability at his fingertips without having to keep track of another device.
I’ll be sharing our experience picking out a new model iPad, and describing the steps we go thought to get dad up and comfortable with it. So stay tuned!
As Our Parents Age So Do We 
I purchased an iPad for my wife who has balance, eye site and cognitive difficulties. She had an iPad 1 and later an iPad 3 with the retina screen. She no longer has to try to navigate to office where the PC lives. Or more properly is stored. Surprisingly, the retina screen makes a big difference to her eyes. I can not see the difference between the old screen and the retina. However, on the iPad 1 she would often hit the key next to the intended one. On the iPad 3 that almost never happens. Tablets are a wonderful accessible computer.
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This is excellent information! I believe you could write an entire guest post on this, based on your observations and experience. Would you consider writing a longer iPad for Dad post?
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