Finally email for the elderly?
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The internet has revolutionized the way people communicate, however with the elderly it has left them in the dust. As families move apart, communication begins to drift as well. Thankfully, email has helped these drifting families stay in touch at the holidays, and other important events. But what about Grandma and Grandpa in Florida, who don’t have a computer and INSIST the microwave is the television?
This is were Celery, is brilliant. It is email without the computer!
Celery is a simple device that allows people to be included in email � and to communicate electronically � without actually having to email or operate a computer themselves. It is for the group of people who do not use email, and therefore miss out on a popular and efficient way to communicate. Simply put, Celery bridges the gap between old, or traditional, forms of communication, and new. It is a low-cost, easy-to-use alternative to email for those who lack the desire, resources, or ability to own and use their own computer. It is extremely easy to use. [via]
Its seems really affordable and easy to use. Service costs $259 a year including machine, thereafter $139 a year for 900 pages a year. To use it, you send an email from your computer to, your relatives ‘@mycelery.com’ address and it’s faxed through to their phone and machine directly. Mind you it is a color machine so you can send photos as well. And if you relative wants to send a reply, they hand write it and stick it in the machine and simply press two buttons to send.
BRILLIANT!
I may actually look into this for my grand parents, they are horribly afraid of computers and haven’t gotten a new since…. well I gave them Mac PowerPC running OS 8.2 I think or something like that…. my grandpa installed a few casino games but since then, its just been gathering dust. I have to admit the initial setup fee is a bit of a stinger though.
Did someone just rename a FAX MACHINE?!
No Simon, the Fax Machine actually converts the faxes to emails and vice versa.
Dan, check out eFax…
Simon-
EFax doesn’t support color. Yes, you can go to Office Depot, pickup a color fax machine, find a service that supports color to fax email and vice versa, setup all the software on your computer, then preprogram Grannies newly bought machine with the speed dial to your eFax number. Or you can get this which has no software, supports color, and takes only two buttons to dial a fax.
sheesh it sounds like I work for them. Maybe we should do a DIY project. I didn’t say I LOVED celery product as a whole, I LOVE the concept.
Simon, thank you for the much needed very spirited debate! Cheers!
my grandparents + fax machine = unholy amounts of mess
if they could get this celery thing down to 1 button, and it loaded its own paper… then we’d be set ;)
and I have to agree with dan on this one, the $11/month for a year of service is almost $2 cheaper on the year for the service level that you get as far as sending and recieveing faxes… also the hardware is built into the price and customized…
cool idea, and a DIY project would be fun to try…
pushing the two buttons… what if they have arthuritis?? lol
The problem is that it has buttons, and moving parts. I got my Grandma an Amstrad email phone, she just didn’t get it. She tried our old Apple Mac plus to type letters, she didn’t get it. We got her a cordless phone, she didn’t get it.
The problem is buttons and concepts. Old people , in general, don’t understand the electronic button. They think they have to hammer it down, as if it’s going to drive a steam engine or something. This breaks things. Remote controls, washing machine, have all been broken by pushing these buttons too hard. But old people are still my friends.
Sounds great! Until the spam starts coming and eating up the paper and ink and 900-email limit.
Of course, the next step would be filters, but then there are the false positives.
And the step after that- making the filters configurable, but then we’re back to needing a computer!
Maybe there needs to be a magnified display of who it’s from, with ONE more button that allows the senior to accept or reject and then the machine remembers the preference.
Otherwise, an expensive frustration.
Spam’s not a problem as long as all of the user’s friends and relatives are put in the address book. When the user receives an email from someone he or she doesn’t know, the server sends an email back to the sender asking them to verify that they’re not a spam-bot (using what’s called a challenge-response spam filter). When the legitimate human sending the email responds to the challenge, they’re added to the user’s address book. Spam bots don’t respond and their junk never gets through.
This keeps everything as simple as possible for the Celery user. The only special thing he or she need do is make sure to add any mailing lists they join to the address book.
Adam,
Great product!
-d
What the hell happened to telephones……??????
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