Living Life Archives - Page 8 of 19

Scams & Older Adults: What to Do?

This series focuses on helping readers of all generations learn the fundamentals of scams, what scammers are after, how they use mail, email, mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers to steal your identity, your money, and even the Internet bandwidth you pay for every month to access the internet.

The information in this series on scams is intended to help you reduce vulnerability to scams for both you and loved-ones like parents, grandparents, etc. The key message is that to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Watching Video Together Despite Distance

I wanted a solution that would let me and my sister (who lives far away) do some joint activities. We decided to try “joint watching” of a video. It worked rather well and we both enjoyed it, so I am sharing it here.

Want Joint Activity with Distant Relative

Your parent or relative lives far from you, or for whatever reason in person visits are not realistic.

You have a way to talk with them via video already. But now you want something you can actually DO together "virtually".

Tech Support: How Do You Do It?

How do you keep your gadgets and computers working? Our explorers are talking about this topic, and comparing notes. Join the discussion. Share what you do in the comments below. Framing the Question: Back in the day, you could go to the Apple store, or get someone to drop in, or go to … Read more

Team Viewer for remote view/control of Computers

Team Viewer is a piece of software that lets you take control remotely of someone else's computer.

“Senior” Finds TV Hard to Use

As older adults develop physical and mental frailties, they sometimes have difficulty using products they want to be able to continue to use: such as the TV.

For example, physical impairments, like arthritis or tremor, may make it hard to press buttons. And cognitive impairments may make it hard for them to remember the way to navigate to a particular channel or streaming "show".

Control a TV with Voice or Pre-programmed Buttons

I found I needed different solutions, depending on exactly what problem the older adult in question had.

Below, I describe three solutions — starting with a simple voice command to set the TV to a specific program; and escalating to special pre-programmed buttons that can be positioned near the TV and which, when pressed, automatically start the desired program.

Remote Control of a Computer or Tablet or Phone

In this solution, I use a paid service that lets me remotely see and control both my Aunt’s PC and her tablet and smartphone.

Parent’s Computer or Phone “Not Working”

Helping family members who are technology-adverse, with their technical problems, has always been tough, but becomes even harder when they are remotely located or in an isolated facility. Part of the problem of remote support is “seeing” what they are seeing and “controlling” what they are doing.

Find TV Remote with “Tile”

There are three approaches to finding a TV remote using the Tile App. One uses an App on your phone. The second uses a “Voice Assistant” to interact with the Tile App. And the third uses a “button” to interact with the Tile App via Google assistant.