Also, I know it's not meant literally, but its genderisation as 'granny' is a really problematic cliche that I wish tech folk would stop repeating.
I think my 70 year old mum, who is a grandma, would find it patronising and sexist to have a device pitched to her as an easier to use version of the iPad she is a bloody master of in every way. She's far more adapt than my dad, bless him, but even he can use WhatsApp and the like fine after being shown.
Maybe it's a country-by-country thing?
https://twitter.com/mrcatacroquer/status/1386318879572570112
> My Yaya is Felisa Romano Martin, from Segovia, 96 years old, and she is the best Yaya in the world.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alc%C3%A1zar_of_Segovia
[1] Source (Spanish): https://www.eladelantado.com/segovia/la-imagen-segovia/
Also, that grandmother is _96_. That is not even remotely close to someone in their ~70s. It is also dependent on the person: one of my grandmothers (around 70) doesn't like ipads, and can operate phones a little bit. My other grandma, similar age, loves her ipad.
You're being downvoted because you're treating this like a generalized business pitch, when it's a specialized hardware project someone did for their own grandmother, and gave it a cute name based on their language. If I made something specifically for my grandmother, I might include "bunica" in the name. Seeing as that's what my whole family calls her, and its a way to say grandmother in Romanian, which is a gendered language.
Also, I fail to see how the gender of the word for grandmother here is relevant for the discussion. Grammatical genders (also called noun classes) are not necessarily related to human sexes, but I digress.
Ok, fair enough, I accept your argument.
Also, the initial tweet itself talks about the issue in pretty generic terms: "a machine that helps our beloved elders to keep communicating with their grandchildren ."
My parents are around 80, and granted my father was an engineer and my mother a programmer they did have exposure to computers from their 40's and 50's. (Actually, my mother started around the age of 30, but my father only when he was 50.) Sure, another 15-20 years make a lot of difference.
However, plugging cables is more 1900's technology (reminds me of the manual switchboards). I doubt too many people alive today remember having to make a call like that as opposed to dialling. They did use radios that had push buttons and most of them for sure used ones with digital tuning. So while it looks very retro, a simple turning knob would have been a lot more sane. (Unless grandma used to be a switchboard operator :) and still has good hand coordination.)
The other thing I don't get is the thermal printer. I mean it's nice as a (very short term) archival device but an LCD screen (or even and e-ink display) would make a lot more sense. Of course, then you have to add scrolling (that could be a tuning wheel-like thing or just up/down buttons). Or well, maybe they would like to hear their grandchildren :).
But I digress: the point is that it was phrased pretty generally and I also think it's very patronizing. (My parents use skype, viber, email, fb chat as they did use SMS and their mobiles.) While sure, there is value in completely tailoring it to the needs of specific person. Just don't think it's in general a good approach.
This device is basic and captures all the needs. I think the only other cool feature would be a way to receive voice chats back and play them to her
Of course not all 80 year old will be able to use these efficiently or, for that matter will like using them, but that's a different story. You can still make those easier to use (e.g. with a customized android skin/ui) or build a thing that somewhat looks like an actual but specialized computer.