The iPod For Old People

I don’t give gifts people want. I give gifts I want people to have.

My family is very slow to adopt new technology. I swear on this blog that my parents have a working betamax at home. They don’t use it, but it works.

I happen to be on the other end of the spectrum and that’s why I find myself here. I am the one who has to thrust technology on the rest of the family and usually my time to strike is at Christmas and birthdays.

My mother turned 59 yesterday and I took the gift giving opportunity to bestow a brand new pink anodized aluminum iPod Shuffle upon her much to the dismay of my wife and sister.

I’ll say it again, I don’t give gifts people want. I give gifts I want people to have.

But you ask, why get a 59 year old woman without a computer an iPod Shuffle? Because its the perfect iPod for old people, that’s why.

I had things to do before the birthday party so I asked my 5 year old daughter who has been brought up on Linux to assist me with ripping my mother’s CD’s into iTunes. Remember, my mother doesn’t have a computer so I decided to sync the shuffle with my MacBook Pro and give it to her pre-loaded.

Make a note of this: Pre-loaded iPods are great for old people without computers.

My daughter began the ripping process without any trouble because sometimes 5 years old can do things 59 year olds don’t want to learn. Notice I didn’t say “59 year olds cant do”, its just that my mom has other things on her mind instead of learning the highly difficult ritual of ripping CD’s by insert them and clicking “Yes”.

Back to my 5 year old. After she ripped Grandma’s CD’s she was responsible for inserting the USB cable and docking the shuffle for its baptism sync. She pulled it off just fine, although she can’t read the Apple Terms of Use. I’m a lawyer and I have trouble doing the same.

So the plan works like this if you want to get an iPod for someone that’s old and who doesn’t know what they’re missing, get an iPod Shuffle instead of anything else because:

• There is no screen so they don’t have to read, think or make choices. Keeping them away from a computer like interface might make them more comfortable and more likely to adopt the technology you are forcing upon them.
• There is no click wheel that might scare them. Again, keep old people who don’t want to learn away from new, exciting and functional interfaces.
• There is an old school “on/off” switch. This is the opposite of the computer like interface problem I was talking about earlier. An old school “on/off” switch is something my mom understands, its something that makes sense to her. She still turns her cell phone off when she’s not making a call so this was perfect.
• As my 5 year old daughter demonstrated better than a flight attendant before takeoff, the only options on the shuffle are volume + or -, skip forward or skip back, and play/pause. I didn’t go into the whole shuffle, don’t shuffle thing. What my mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her. As far as I’m concerned its called a “Shuffle” so its going to shuffle.
• To top it off, the colors look great.

I decided that for the time being, Grandma’s iPod Shuffle is going to be DRM free. Like I said, she doesn’t have a computer anyway so why get into the whole Digital Media Music Industry DRM thing? I am slowly learning that when thrusting technology on those who resist it, less works better in the beginning.

So now with the help of her 5 year old, tux t-shirt wearing, CD ripping, iPod formatting granddaughter, when Grandma heads to the gym, she rocks . . . or whatever you do with that CD collection of hers.