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...company is called Sunnygram, a play on telegram or maybe gramma - though grandpas like Murray might appreciate the correspondence as, say, a Father's Day gift. Sunnygram is the newest entrant in a field of products trying to bridge the technical divide between those who e-mail and their loved ones who don't. Early efforts, like the Mail Station and Mail Bug, tried to create computer products simple enough for the elderly to learn to use. The next generation of services has scrapped that paradigm entirely. Instead, companies like Sunnygram, Presto and Celery are turning e-mails into faxs...
...Presto and Celery, which both launched in 2006, deliver e-mail printouts almost in real time because they require subscribers to purchase hardware to handle incoming messages. (In addition to personal updates and interesting articles, caregivers can send reminders about doctors' appointments and family functions.) Celery charges $13.98 a month to send and receive (color printouts of) e-mails - as well as Facebook and Twitter updates - via a fax machine, which costs $119 if you don't already own one. Presto - to which, full disclosure, my husband and I were early adopters, each of us having bought a machine...
...even more basics. "Our users are not technophiles, which is why they are interested in Sunnygram," says co-founder Matt Ahart, "so it seems inconvenient to burden them with having to set up and maintain fax equipment." Along with individualized newsletters, which are basically a compendium of all e-mails and photos sent to a person's account that week, Sunnygram subscribers get a self-addressed stamped envelope. They can hand-write replies and mail them to the company, which scans and e-mails the notes to the right people. Or they can call a toll-free number and leave...
...true; many people seek to simplify their responsibilities as they grow older. That's why these services all have strict spam filters: a message is delivered only if it comes from an e-mail address that has been explicitly preapproved. It's also why the companies say they don't worry about becoming obsolete, even though, eventually, the vast majority of Americans will be tech-savvy. "Many of our current customers were computer users prior to adopting Presto," says Radsliff. "They found that as they aged, they didn't want to hassle with owning a computer anymore." (See: "How Facebook...
...choice or chance, what Ahart calls the "unplugged population" has lost some important connections, especially the tradition of sitting around the family album sharing cherished memories. These e-mail services help fill in those gaps. Bellanca, for example, feeds her father's passion for photography by Sunnygramming him several pictures with notes each week. My husband's Gram, who has seven kids, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, complains that she receives so many photos her Presto ink runs out too quickly. Which, we assume, is a problem most grandparents would be happy to have - no matter the delivery method...