Category: Communication

Jul 20

Have a friend in recovery? A relative losing their hair to cancer treatment? A coworker diagnosed with diabetes?

If you’ve looked, you know there are too few cards out there that say anything appropriate for the situation. “Caring Path” cards are helping change that.

Caring Path cards deal with Gimpiness of all sorts in a direct, caring and often off-beat way. Cait sent one to her mother when she was finishing up radiation treatments. The card stock was of high quality and the message unique.

Don’t be put off by the slightly sappy web site. There’s good stuff in there like the Bald Mona Lisa, Bob tells his friends about his cancer treatment and Happy Last Chemo!

Take a look. We will be ordering more.

Jul 5

Many older people remain resistant to computers and, therefore, are without e-mail. As one person told Marty, “E-mail is too zippy.”

Presto Services Inc. now offers technology that lets people without computers read e-mail. Recipients get printed e-mails but have no keyboard or computer screen for responding.

Brian Bergstein, the technology writer for the Associated Press, tested the Presto system on his grandparents who are in their 80s. His grandfather thought he wouldn’t like using it.

But the opposite happened - his grandparents were elated by even being brought part way into the e-mail fold, which meant a steadier stream of photos of their great-grandchildren.

“When you’re 86 and 87, such new sources of joy aren’t always easy to come by,” said Bergstein.

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Jun 28

Imagine a cellphone that does nothing but make phone calls — no Internet, camera, music, text messaging, or other complicated gimmicks.

GreatCall has built one and named it the Jitterbug — a “big finger-friendly flip phone with huge light-up number buttons,” says David Pogue, the technology writer for the New York Times.

Any big-name cell carrier can beat this phone on price, network coverage and features, Pogue says. But for we aging Gimpy types, the Jitterbug is an idea that works. Learn more

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