My mom wanted a Kindle for christmas, but we (the rest of my immediate family) passed on it as an idea because we didn't think she would actually end up using it much. We got her an iPod nano 2-3 christmasses ago, and only as of the past 6 months or so has she really managed to figure it out and start aquiring music from iTunes for it, as well as listening to Bob Brinkers weekly raido show on her own time with it (which was really how she first started to learn how to use it).
We got my dad one of the original Eee PCs (Eee 901?) from when they first came out because he wanted a small computer he could wander around the house with, and at the time it was basically the only netbook on the market. It has aged fine to do what he wants it for, but it has always been a pain to get it to connect to our wireless network. Usually it connects on startup, but when it doesn't it basically stops working until one of us re-enters our hotspot name and password after turning the wifi card on and off.
Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and get them both something better with just one device. I'd definately want to test out the hardware myself though to see if it meets "can my parents learn to use this?" first impression.