seniors

It's getting down to the wire for holiday gift-giving. I am afraid I missed the boat for making recommendations in time for Hanukkah, and I am just starting on my Christmas list. With online shopping, I go right down to the deadline that regular shipping service can handle.

I've been looking for some cool gift ideas for the grandparents in our lives. The seniors I know are fairly tech-savvy in at least one area of their lives, if not totally enamored with gadgets. My Mom still doesn't like her cell phone but she is an eBay maven, … Read more

Microsoft is apparently on a bi-generational education campaign.

This weekend at the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in San Francisco, the software giant hosted an exhibit designed to educate pediatricians on answering parents' questions about children's online safety. More than 750 doctors took Microsoft's 10-question quiz about kids and the Internet to receive a free copy of Vista, according to Adrienne Hall, the company's senior director of Trustworthy Computing.

"Physicians are getting a lot of questions from parents about Net safety, and through this (exercise), their awareness goes up," Hall said.… Read more

Why be a fish swimming upstream?

Keith Perry, CEO of Sears Methodist Retirement Services of Texas, didn't want to be that fish.

Because approximately 90 percent of seniors want to remain in their home, Perry questioned the merits of increasing the number of retirement centers, which cost about $55 million each.

"Maybe I have this all wrong," Perry recounted during a panel discussion on how senior-service providers are changing their business models. The panel, which met on Monday, was part of the fourth annual Healthcare Unbound conference under way this week in San Francisco.

And, so, 18 … Read more

Recent products from Japan's NTT DoCoMo continue to reflect that country's aging population, as we saw the other day with a phone created for the elderly or others hard of hearing. Its latest offering is aimed at seniors who might not be able to use a handset at all.

DoCoMo's new video phone device stays connected to NTT's broadband cellular network for health care and emergency situations, according to Electronista. Homebound patients, for example, can contact their doctors and show them their conditions on the device's 7-inch display, which also serves as a touch screen … Read more

If you're an 80-year-old resident of a retirement village who has a need for more than school-zone speed, Cruise Car has got the wheels for you.

The Sarasota, Florida-based company is showing off its line of solar-powered golf carts this week at Solar Power 2006 in San Jose, Calif. The top-of-the-line Cruise Car can reach 65 m.p.h., considerably faster than the average golf cart, for a cool $7,000. Or you can just get the solar panel, which sits on its roof, for $1,500.

"They are street legal in 35-mile-an-hour zones," says sales director … Read more

Now you can nag your mom and ask her why she never calls. The oldster-friendly Jitterbug phones, which we saw at CTIA earlier this year, are finally available nationwide. GreatCall, a new MVNO that specializes in services geared toward seniors, is the company behind these two basic handsets.

The Jitterbug cell phones are certainly suitable for the elderly; the Jitterbug Dial has a large brightly backlit keypad, while the Jitterbug OneTouch has only three one-touch buttons that connect directly to an operator, to emergency services, and to a user-programmed contact. And to make it even easier, GreatCall will preprogram numbers … Read more