Which reading app for the elderly?

[guymcd]

All,

If this is a duplicate thread I apologize.

The questions is, which reading app would you give to your grandparents?

Keep in mind that their hands are probably unsteady. Additionally, they may find learning the complex gestures and traversing the menus to be very hard or at least frustrating enough to justify staying with printed books. Not that that's a bad thing but it kills a great gift for people who already have everything.

Thanks in advance!

[dickloraine]

If they are comfortable to use a tablet, they should have little problems using any app. If ease of buying is in the consideration too, the kindle app and ecosystem should be the best. Otherwise if epubs are preferred I can recommend mantano reader and fbreader. Both have an easy to use library and simple menus.

If they don't own a device yet, maybe a dedicated e-reader would be best. They do just one thing and they do it in a very easy way. Probably there the kindle is the most easy to use overall. If they don't have wifi and enough spare money, the 3g model would allow them to buy books without wifi or a pc.

[Intruderdriver]

My elderly mother-in-law has absolutely no technological skills. She can barely answer her cell phone. I got her a Kindle Paperwhite and she loves it. I only load a few books at a time on it for her, as more than a page of menus is confusing. I don't think she could manage an android device.
One thing I find amusing, it must be generational, is her insistence on completely shutting the device down every time she's done reading. She refuses to believe that the sleep mode uses negligible battery.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Intruderdriver

One thing I find amusing, it must be generational, is her insistence on completely shutting the device down every time she's done reading. She refuses to believe that the sleep mode uses negligible battery.

You've made a major mistake there. You gave her too much information. More then she needs to know. That's why she wants to shut down instead of go to sleep mode. Never give someone who doesn't know and doesn't need to know too much information as you'll just confuse the situation.