Bringing someone into the modern age of technology

A relative just visited whose current technology consists of a Windows computer and a flip-phone. It was one of those situations where someone was coming to me as a blank slate for a technology upgrade! So I seized on the moment and made some recommendations.

For a phone I said he should get either a phone from Motorola, Google, or Apple. It would come down to price and who was going to provide technical support as to exactly which phone they should get.

For a computer we actually gave the relative an old Chromebook. With no baggage as to some set of programs they had to have access to, it made the decision easy. Even if we didn’t have a spare Chromebook to give away I would have suggested a Chromebook for its price and ease of maintenance. This probably would have also led to a suggestion of a new printer that supported Google Cloud Print to work with the Chromebook. And then the final perk was the integration with Google Drive as a way to move them into cloud backup.

For watching movies I would suggest getting a Netflix account and either a [Chromecast](chromecast.com) or Roku box depending on their comfort level. I personally prefer Chromecast for its flexibility but I realize some people just prefer having a dedicated remote control.

Finally, we said to consider a music streaming service and Sonos. For ease of setup Sonos is great when someone doesn’t have pre-existing A/V equipment that they need to work with. And a streaming service like Google Play Music All-Access gives quick access to digital music to a level people who are upgrading their technological lives are not used to.