MP3 player for non-computer literate senior

[ImThinkin2019]

I am thinking about getting my 90-year old Dad an MP3 player loaded with podcasts and maybe an audiobook or two.

I think a portable player, maybe with some headphones, might be great for him. He can walk around outside and in the basement while he listens to content.

He is not computer literate at all. Would need to be trained how to use an MP3 player and have someone else load the content. Has some great grandkids locally who could help.

Do any of you have experience with a simple player? I looked at the SIMPL player for people with dementia and it's too simple - has no menu option.

Everyone who reads this is computer literate but maybe those of you who live in a community full of seniors might be able to give me some advice.

Thank you all in advance!!

 

[target2019]

I was looking just the other day for a replacement mp3 player. Did not purchase yet, but would get this one:

AGPTEK 16GB Clip MP3 Player with USB Flash Drive, Metal Lossless Music Player Supports FM Radio Recording, Black(U2)

You may want to look at other models and competition. A bigger form factor may be right for senior.

Also consider that walking around with earbuds or earphones is not recommended.

If he has internet, maybe a google mini?
There are other types of MP3 players you can find, that would sit in the home or basement.

 

[RunningBum]

Not to pick on this device, but more to show how confusing the interface can be on most of these:

In the Amazon Q&A, how to get it to resume from where it left off.
"When the player is playing on the screen, press the VOL button and then press the center button to turn it off."

Yeah, right.

Requirements I see:
- Big enough screen for a 90 yr old to read.
- Easy to use buttons
- Intuitive interface

The last one is the hard one to find. Maybe he can get the hang of finding podcasts and books from home. If not I not sure you'll find one. Hopefully he'll never accidentally put it on shuffle and have to figure out how to undo it.

I wonder if it'd be easier to do with a Kindle or similar? I agree he should not be walking around while listening. Too easy to get distracted and not watch the terrain or traffic if crossing a road.

 

[joeea]

Do any of you have experience with a simple player?

iPods are very simple to use, as long as someone else loads them up using iTunes.

 

[mountainsoft]

Another option you might consider is a portable bluetooth speaker. I recently bought one of these for my 72 year old mom in assisted living (and a second for myself to use during power outages):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GGM7KJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00

There's no menu, you just turn it on and start listening. It does have buttons for volume or to go to the next/previous song. They have surprisingly good sound for such a tiny device, and have a battery built-in if you need to take it somewhere.

For my mom I loaded up several USB flash drives with a variety of different music. I used key rings to label each drive so she knows what is on the drive, and bought a little flash drive case to keep them in. She can plug in the desired drive, and flip the switch to turn it on. About as easy as it gets.

Unfortunately, while she found it easy to use she only listened for a day or two, then went back to watching TV all day. I don't think she listens to it anymore, so I'm glad I spent less than $40 on it.

 

[Jerry1]

iPods are very simple to use, as long as someone else loads them up using iTunes.

Or an old iPhone. We have an old iPhone 4. Not hooked up to the cellular service, but works with WiFi. You can also plug it into you computer with the USB cable so it’s easy to load and sync with iTunes. The WiFi allows me to stream Pandora. I kept it because it has the old connector which is the one that came with our treadmill. So, I can plug it into our treadmill and stream music without any other connectors. Charges and plays through the treadmill headphone jack.

 

[SumDay]

Is an Amazon Echo or Google device out of the question?

You could provide him with a list of commands, like:

Alexa, play bluegrass music
Alexa, play classical music
Alexa, tell me a joke
Alexa, play the latest episode of Fresh Air
Alexa, play the latest episode of This American Life
Alexa, what's the weather
Alexa, what's the temperature in Chicago
Alexa, wake me up at 8 a.m. with Lena Horne music


You get the picture. We did this for my 82 year old MIL and she's long since ditched the list and can probably do more with her Alexa than we can. Pretty sure this would require a Prime membership, but if you have one you could add him to yours, I believe?

Just thinking this would a much more flexible option. We have an Amazon Show, and can watch TV shows, videos on it, view our pictures, grocery list, weather forecast, etc. Having a screen might make it seem a little friendlier to him.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

Another option you might consider is a portable bluetooth speaker. I recently bought one of these for my 72 year old mom in assisted living (and a second for myself to use during power outages):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GGM7KJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00

There's no menu, you just turn it on and start listening. It does have buttons for volume or to go to the next/previous song. They have surprisingly good sound for such a tiny device, and have a battery built-in if you need to take it somewhere.

For my mom I loaded up several USB flash drives with a variety of different music. I used key rings to label each drive so she knows what is on the drive, and bought a little flash drive case to keep them in. She can plug in the desired drive, and flip the switch to turn it on. About as easy as it gets.

Unfortunately, while she found it easy to use she only listened for a day or two, then went back to watching TV all day. I don't think she listens to it anymore, so I'm glad I spent less than $40 on it.

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions. I like the multiple flash drives idea the best, coupled with this speaker. At least to start.

I will give this a try.

 

[bw5972]

Or an old iPhone. We have an old iPhone 4. Not hooked up to the cellular service, but works with WiFi. You can also plug it into you computer with the USB cable so it’s easy to load and sync with iTunes. The WiFi allows me to stream Pandora. I kept it because it has the old connector which is the one that came with our treadmill. So, I can plug it into our treadmill and stream music without any other connectors. Charges and plays through the treadmill headphone jack.

I like the old iPhone idea. Just a couple of apps:

A podcast app (I use Downcast) would or could be setup to:
Automatically download new episodes of subscribed podcasts.
Keep track of where he was in any episode and resume from that point
Delete episodes once completely listened to

An ereader or kindle app for audiobooks

A music app.

 

[RunningBum]

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions. I like the multiple flash drives idea the best, coupled with this speaker. At least to start.

I will give this a try.

I think that's a great idea. A lot like putting in a VCR tape so the learning curve should be easy.

 

[Clone]

Technology shouldn't be this tough... I used to be on the cutting edge 40 years ago. Now I can't figure out how to transfer music from CDs (remember those...) to a flash drive so we can listen to it in our new vehicle. It has a USB port, but no CD player.

 

[davebarnes]

Now I can't figure out how to transfer music from CDs (remember those...) to a flash drive

1. Rip your CDs to FLAC. Save the FLAC files (in multiple locations) are they lossless and will be your new masters.
2. Copy/Convert the FLAC files to high VBR MP3.

 

[joeea]

Or an old iPhone. We have an old iPhone 4. Not hooked up to the cellular service, but works with WiFi. You can also plug it into you computer with the USB cable so it’s easy to load and sync with iTunes. The WiFi allows me to stream Pandora. I kept it because it has the old connector which is the one that came with our treadmill. So, I can plug it into our treadmill and stream music without any other connectors. Charges and plays through the treadmill headphone jack.

That's an excellent idea!

I have an iPhone 5s and need to upgrade soon. I had considered trading in my old phone (for a $7 credit if I recall). But it might make more sense to sae it for when my iPod dies.

Thanks! I'll add this to my "what I learned from e-r.org" list.

 

[deserat]

1. Rip your CDs to FLAC. Save the FLAC files (in multiple locations) are they lossless and will be your new masters.
2. Copy/Convert the FLAC files to high VBR MP3.

Well, those acronyms are lost on me and I consider myself fairly tech savvy...is FLAC media dependent or just a filetype? What is high VBR MP3? Is that media independent/dependent? What would suggest media-wise to save the FLAC files? If this is a file format, is it just for audio? Last, is there an easy application/device to do the ripping and end up with the FLAC filetype (if that is what it is) - do you have a recommendation?

I have a CD/DVD player/dongle for my laptop and have many DVDs/CDs that I would like to preserve. I also have some pictures on CDs and some of those files have degraded (can't get the CD to be read by the drive....). Your statement above makes me wonder if I have better way to preserve my files. Thanks!

 

[RunningBum]

This is going off topic, but I think the OP has a solution so diverting the thread probably doesn't hurt.

I'll leave the FLAC, etc, discussion to the audiophiles. Personally I don't think I can tell the difference between what's on a CD and what's been converted to MP3 so I haven't bothered taking it any further, but maybe with good enough equipment and good enough ears you can.

For your pictures and anything else like that, you've found the problem with saving stuff to a single place. If you lost the CDs, or data on them become unreadable (your case), you're out of luck. I put mine on my laptop hard drive, which gets backed up multiple places. If you don't want to put them on the laptop, at least back them up elsewhere. Do this now before you lose anymore. If they are important to you, perhaps a techie can restore them somehow, perhaps with a better drive or perhaps with some tools. Could be the CDs just have to be cleaned.

 

[mountainsoft]

is FLAC media dependent or just a filetype? What is high VBR MP3? Is that media independent/dependent? What would suggest media-wise to save the FLAC files? If this is a file format, is it just for audio?

FLAC and MP3 are audio file formats. There are many others like WMA, AAC, WAV, etc.

FLAC is the Free Lossless Audio Codec. Essentially, it is an exact copy of the original audio (CD or other source) compressed slightly to reduce storage space.

MP3 is a lossy codec, in other words, parts of the original audio are discarded when the audio is encoded. The upside is the file size is generally much smaller, allowing more songs to fit in less space.

VBR is a variable bit rate, using less bits for encoding on sections that don't need it, and more bits for encoding on sections that do. It's just a way of reducing the file size slightly. Personally, I just encode all of my MP3's at 320K CBR (constant bit rate). The difference in file size doesn't matter much anymore and the encoding is faster and supported by more devices than VBR.

If you plan to keep the original CD's I wouldn't bother with FLAC. Just encode to MP3 and store the CD's somewhere if you need them in the future. If you plan to discard the CD's, you could rip them to FLAC and archive them on your hard drive (remembering to keep multiple backups of your hard drive).

Note, "some" players support the FLAC audio format directly, but most are limited to MP3, AAC, or WMA. I use the 320K CBR MP3 format as it's the most widely supported and retains most of the original sound quality. It's unlikely you would be able to hear the difference from the original CD in a car environment or on a tiny bluetooth speaker.

Last, is there an easy application/device to do the ripping and end up with the FLAC filetype (if that is what it is) - do you have a recommendation?

I use EZ CD Audio Converter. It supports FLAC and MP3 formats (among others) and can rip from CD's or convert between formats. There are plenty of other converters and rippers out there though.

https://www.poikosoft.com/

I have a CD/DVD player/dongle for my laptop and have many DVDs/CDs that I would like to preserve. I also have some pictures on CDs and some of those files have degraded (can't get the CD to be read by the drive....). Your statement above makes me wonder if I have better way to preserve my files. Thanks!

Rip them to your hard drive, then keep multiple backups of your hard drive.