Two weeks ago, my brother, sister and I decided it was time to get Mom to upgrade to an iPhone 4S. Part of what triggered it was my mother-in-law falling in the bathroom and dislocating her shoulder on Dec 23, and on Xmas day my sister not being able to get a hold of my mom all morning. Mom was OK, but had taken a medication that made her drowsy and she took a nap in the backyard far away from the phone, and her hearing isn't the best. Finding my mom could be easy with the IOS Find Friends app if she was set up.
Find the party. Find your family. Or find a place to meet up after work. And if you lose your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, iCloud can help you find it, too.
My mom is in her 70s and living in the home alone. My brother and I live 2 hr plane flight away, and my sister is only 10 miles away. The nice thing is her living in the same home for 45 years and being born in Alameda, CA there are lots of friends and family in the area to ask for help, but we needed a way to know if mom was in trouble. So, let's upgrade mom to an iPhone 4S and see if it would work.
Previously my mom had a clamshell simple phone that she would carry around, but leave off most of the time. Getting her to change habits and get a more complicated device is an obstacle that is typical. The safety and monitoring seemed worth the effort.
I worked at Apple and my sister, so getting my mom set up with an iPhone is not an issue. Even though my Mom has not had a problem using her iPhone having kids who worked at companies like HP, Apple, Oracle, Intuit, and Microsoft (not all at the same time) gives her tech support that is hard to match.
Having FaceTime to enable us to see how mom is doing at home is great for the grand kids and for us to check on Mom's health and safety. Seeing a person's face in a live video feed besides being social is a great indicator of health. Think about the term "you don't look so good." It is pretty hard to do when talking on the phone. With FaceTime you can see. Luckily my sister sees my mom a couple of times a week and I see my mom at least once a month on my frequent trips to the bay area.
After two weeks, my mom is using her iPhone to check her e-mail, surf the web, and text her family. Mom is using text so much, my sister upgraded her text messages to 1,000/month. Find Friends apps has worked great. We can check out here mom is and mom can check on us.
Typically, some one in their 70s is going to want a simple to use, low cost phone. Paying the extra money for an iPhone 4S would block most purchases. But, when you think of monitoring the health and safety of your parents, seems like it is worth the cost.