Is a PDA a good way for grandpa to get email?

[argonaut]

Hey guys, I have a very old grandpa who lives in a nursing home and has extremely limited control of his body. He can type emails, but it takes him a very long time.

He would like to be able to communicate to his friends and family via email, but has no room for a computer. I have considered internet appliances, but can't seem to find any that are still available for sale. The MSN TV system won't work, because his TV is too high up for him to read the text well enough. He can't hold a laptop, because he doesn't have the strength and may drop it.

I thought a Palm would be good, but all the screens are quite small. This might not be a problem if he can hold it close to his eyes to read the text, so does anyone know of a PDA of any type that has a large screen? Or has anyone else encountered a similar problem? Thank you for any help you can offer. I just want to keep the poor guy connected to the world, it gets lonely in the home.

Jason

[tuffguy]

I don't think a pda is the answer your looking for. Besides the screen being very small as they all are due to the nature of a pda, sending and receiving e-mail through one of these things is not as easy as it should be. Of course if your grandpa is really into modern technology, a pda might serve a much greater purpose than only e-mailing, and it would keep him busy trying to figure things out.

[little-man]

I agree. Not only is it nearly impossible to use a PDA without a computer, the handwriting recognition would probably not work out very well for him. It manages to frustrate the best writers among us.