PRESTO!

For my grandmother's 88th birthday this year, we purchased for her a Presto Printer - which has turned out to be the best present we could ever have imagined getting her. She absolutely loves it; she calls us about every day to let us know just how much she is enjoying it (which I guess in essence defeats its purpose.) The reason we purchased it is because we felt that we needed to keep in better touch with her, and with her hearing at about 10%, and having little understanding of computers, both calling and or emailing her were not valid options (she still doesn't quite understand what email is - she thinks it is some sort of postman who types up your letters for you - hmm, not a bad idea or analogy.) At any rate, without having a great solution of how we might better keep in touch with our lovely grandma, Leah (she's a graphic designer) reminded me of the HP Presto Printer she had done some design work for. I went online and did a little research and thought, why not give it a try. It basically works like a fax machine that communicates through email. You sign up for an account ($100/year), which gets you an email address (ie. grandma@presto.com). The email address acts like the ip address for the printer - which you also buy from Presto (it too is $100.) When people email the address, the printer (which is connected through the persons phone line) downloads the info and will print it out accordingly.) It's super slick and easy. Not only can you manage the people who can send info to the person who has the printer (ie. only those you add to the person's presto friends account will be able to send info - obviously someone will need to manage the account - don't worry, my 2 year old could do this), but the printer only has two buttons, and isn't at all intimidating (the color ink cartridge just snaps in nice and easy, any type of paper will work, there are only two cords = 1 for power, and 1 to plug into a phone jack, and it looks nice too.) By no way am I trying to push or advertise for Presto - rather I am celebrating finding a great tool where everyone in our family can now communicate with our grandma at a click of a button, without her having to do anything - again, she loves it - and $200 divided amongst 20 grand kids was, well, only $10/piece - it definitely has been the best $10 I have ever spent.