The likelihood of a computer being hacked at home is way less than your accounts and logins being hacked or sold from the servers of businesses, banks, etc. A notice board with your passwords next to your computer is safer than your passwords being held off site.
I agree with the observation about BackBlaze. Why can’t the web site and the app have similar interface layouts? The Restore function would have to remain with the website but the rest of the functions could match both.
Thank you Adam for a very relevant article regarding those of us who are seniors. My issue isn’t about passwords being a long time 1Password user. I go back to my Apple llC and have stayed Apple to my 27 inch 2017 iMac OS 12.4. Over the years I have used the installer in place upgrade. But the iMac’s getting slower and slower and despite having 16GB RAM has virtually ground to a halt. I was shocked to find that Activity Monitor listed over 600 processes running and presume most of these are rubbish and have no idea how to cull them out. But at 85 I can identify with Adam’s “have trouble with the constant change…that there is too much to learn and it changes too frequently”. Now I am stuck and wonder how many are in a similar situation.
The 2017 iMac should be doing fine. I have a 2020 8-core with 24MB which is overkill for most things. At the moment it is using about 17GB memory but half of that is Adobe Lightroom Classic which takes a lot of memory, posibly because I have a massive photo library. I have 686 processes going, these are not a problem because they take very little memory and computer time. Check that nothing is taking up a lot of CPU time. I occasionally see Safari web pages that are taking over 90% of a core. Some of the indexing processes seem to get into a mess and that can take CPU time. More likely is that you have some sort of disk problem. Maybe running out of space or too fragmented.
Your article was very long and I, a senior, skimmed through it so I hope I’m not repeating here. Reading now that text is gray instead of black is hard for people with poor eyesight. Apple has NOT been great with vision. Invert helps some, but screws up all the colors and makes the screen hard to sort out visually. It does help a lot with reading text (I read articles and books entirely with invert on my iPad at this point.). Increasing contrast is horrible since since UI has started using grays for everything instead of black and increasing contrast moves grays toward white, making them even harder to see. Thus things like borders around text boxes and check boxes become less visible, often invisible (they are hard to see with no adjustment). Try logging in when you can’t see the borders around the boxes where you have to put your login and password using grey text. (I’m having trouble reading what I am typing now because it is gray instead of black.) The contrast slider is horrible for this reason. Apple did do something that I have been advocating for for a very long time and when you click on the increase contrast button, it increases the black point by decreasing the level of gray that turns black. Thus textbook borders and check boxes and more move toward black rather than toward white, as they do with increase contrast. But…it would have been great if they had made the contrast slider adjust the black point so we would have some control over where the black point is and not just the check box. It is interesting that they left the label on the black point button “contrast” even thought it now adjusts the black point. Too much, Apple’s accommodations for people eyesight seem to be about the logic of 20-30 somethings rather than the experience of seniors.
I don’t think you need to be 70+ to have old computer hardware collecting dust in a closet. A 30 year old could easily have an old computer they used in college.
Problems maintaining passwords are also not necessarily an age-related problem and neither are problems maintaining backups. Even the best solutions can be time-consuming and occasionally confusing. The availability of network backups for ordinary users is a relatively recent thing. Time Machine has been around for a good while, but on more than one occasion I’ve seen it completely fail in a mysterious way. People of all ages sometimes require technical support for computer problems.
Older people are much more likely to have money in the bank than young people, because they have had longer to save. But being able to afford a new computer is probably less about age and more about other factors. Someone in a low-wage job, as many people are, is going to have trouble affording a new computer at any age.
Yes. We gave our granddaughter a Mac air 4-5 years ago and, even though she loves the computer, I don’t think she even knows there have been OS upgrades. She does all the razzle-dazzle instagram and tik-tok things on her iPhone (which is also old). She doesn’t even care about backups because she uses it mostly for classes and all of that material gets stored somewhere on the cloud. Her sister, 4 years behind her uses a Chromebook and doesn’t even care about what’s on the Chromebook because all her classes are online and she uses only her (old) iPhone for personal use.
I think computer system operators think computer users need the latest of everything. I’d love Mohave less upgrades. (and I hate AppleCare making you upgrade your OS to the latest before they will help you with anything). The real improvements for me are things like increasing the capacity of the notes app so it is useful, letting me send texts from my computer (trying to enter text on the iPhone is a huge effort and requires fighting spellcheck and making lots of corrections) and making improvements in email (email and listservs – called google groups and others things now – have been such a successful discussion medium over the years, they haven’t even changed much over time) might be places to focus on. I wish someone would do something with texting so it isn’t organized by conversation and could be sorted and searched like email can. So many people only use texting now and trying to find old posts is hugely difficult.
Pages and Numbers have lots of advantages over Word and Excel that I think is under appreciated. Microsoft apps are limited by bad things they can’t change because people are used to them and changes they think are good but make things worse. Pages and Numbers have the advantage of not having such a history. They do have some problems, of course.
Apple and others may be missing something big by apparently catering to younger people and not seeing the huge market there is for computers among seniors.
Excellent article and comments, all highlighting non-trivial issues that older Apple users face.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is now in his 60s, so one hopes that he’ll be more and more sympathetic to such concerns.
Adam,
I have experience with the situations you describe. I helped my father through decades of accounts and passwords and Mac computer use over multiple generations of software from Apple and Microsoft. He had local and web accounts. He continued using a succession of Macs as I handed down my former Macs, finally a MacMini, until his death at 93.
What worked for him was a simple practice of recording accounts and passwords in an Excel spreadsheet. Excel because he had learned how to create and keep updated an Excel sheet with all his investments. Being a meticulous electrical engineer gave him the mindset for details.
He also experienced issues of dexterity while working the keyboards and mice over the years beginning in the 1990’s.
We did a lot of screensharing to allow me to help while avoiding 40 minute drives each way.
I think it paid off for him because in addition to managing finances he emailed family and friends and loved getting photo images in email from their travels. Used his printer to produce letters he sent frequently.
Personally I use Time Machine and Backblaze for backups, and 1Password (macOs, iOS, iPadOS ) for my own use on iMac M1, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPad Pro. I am 74 years old and former programmer.
Larry
I’ve been using macs/apple since the apple plus- thats about 40 years plus. both at work in the 90s, and am now over 80 years old, using mini, mac pro laptop, and for the last 9 months an iphone. set up my own router, etc and used/using excel as the only microsquish software. Use time machine and carbon copy for backups. For the first time in memory last week my weekly check for first aid showed one of my 2019 mini volumes to have an error. Running 12.4 Monterey. So tried the recovery bit- the instructions said command r during startup- fine. Then lock appeared and was to put in password (which one ) used admin password, nope, tried two or three times, nope, tried apple id password, nope, tried several times, still nope
Used carbon copy which lnks to older ( 2014) mini for backup, and resolved problem.
Still could not figure out what password to use- dug up some old ( 2020 ) notes and found a note that FIRMWARE password was (******) . So tried again via boot to command r- entered FIRMWARE password and options for disk utilty repair , new install, etc came up
My poInt isI now have A firmware password, a appleid password, a so called 24 character recovery password, and an admin password. And which one to use for ’ recovery ’ is NOT clear at all. I had NO reason to consider a ‘firmware’ password to repair my volume issue. BTW I also tried the 24 character password to no avail before the final effort to use the firemware password.
side note -I use a landlne- but many business- medical- banks- financial seem to assume that everyone uses a smartphone and text message and has it on 24/7. And what I went thru to set up my rarely used iphone ( got it so I could use uber for travel to/from medical appointments )
Mention of a landline gets a response often like ( but polite ) referencing the pliostine age where dinasours still roamed or similar to an old movie 1000 BC
and the games with Facetime and Zoom and options certainly do not help
90 percent of apple ’ required’ software I do not use- and have not used for decades- but it gets updated or else.
Help !
May I humbly suggest that if Apple is targeting older users wishing to make new hardware purchases, they should be targeting people using Intel processors and OS’s at LEAST as old as Catalina. I rather doubt the Apple ecosystem is populated extensively with septuagenarians or octogenarians wondering about how to dispose of that “antique” M1 MacBook Air. Still, the idea of helping older users stay current with hardware and software is admirable, and as an old f%#t myself, I hope they’ll pursue it.
Example: my 67 yo wife does virtually all her use of IT devices on an iPhone. She has a MacBook Pro and a 1st generation iPad Pro, but almost never uses either. She sees me using my M1 iPad Pro with its extremely nice but extremely expensive “Magic” Keyboard, compares it to the very limited and flimsy Logitech Folio and wants new stuff, but hasn’t mastered the old stuff. That’s not a recipe for happiness for folks on fixed incomes.
In many ways, I agree with you. I have a two screen 2017” iMac that was my main “tethered to a/c power” device up until just a month ago when hit on my bicycle by an inattentive motorist. Now I have a C2C3 cervical fix and the prospects of MONTHS in a rigid collar. I thought my 16” MacBook Pro would have become my main squeeze, but instead I’m mated to my 10.5 in M1 iPad Pro and the really lovely Magic Keyboard (but there’s no magic in its $250 price tag.
My one complaint about iPad OS is the “file system.” I’ll find myself replying to an email and encounter tremendous difficulty locating the incoming message while working on the outgoing. Occasionally, after looking for the “draft” unsuccessfully for 10-15 minutes, I’ll resort to moving to a macOS machine, where the more evolved structured file system makes it a piece of cake to find both. Or, I’ll do something that makes the virtual keyboard pop up and monopolize the whole screen while refusing to disappear when I press the “keyboard” icon. Rebooting the iPad is the only solution I’ve found for that.
But, with my rigid cervical collar a constant companion for at least the next 4 months and the iPad’s minuscule weight compared even to the macOS laptop, it’s a nearly constant companion for now.
Adam writes:
Here’s how you’ll prep a Mac for a new life if it’s running Monterey (this requires an M1 Mac or an Intel-based Mac with a T2 security chip)
Many seniors will have.a tough time Navigating System Information. For example, my wife’s MacBook Pro was released in 2018, has 2 TB3 ports, so seems reasonably contemporary, but pouring through System Information I find no mention of a “Controller” or “iBridge.” However, most Senior Citizens who use Macs probably know whether Touch ID is available or not. Of course, it’s not, on her laptop (Model Identifier MacBook Pro 14,1)
No Touch ID is the answer.
Perhaps Apple could develop a small workgroup whose main task would be to craft updates to legacy versions of the macOS and Mac hardware whose sole purpose would be to enable old users to dispose of old hardware and adapt more easily to contemporary hardware AND software.
I bought a Logitech Folio Touch keyboard trackpad for ½ the price.
I’m not sure what issues you’re having with email. You can always toss a draft you’re working on in email to the bottom of the screen and then search for the email. Or put up a second window next to the first.
Searching for an email with iOS/iPadOS mail app can be a challenge. Even on a Mac, it can be tough to find something.
My email provider is Fastmail, and I’ll pull up their app to find that missing email.
One of the biggest complaint about Apple is their mail client on all their platforms. Apple needs to ramp them all up.
I find the File App pretty good at finding files. However, the lack of tagging, locking, and making files stationary is bad.
It seems that way. Too many people assume what works for them will work for everyone. Back in the early days of graphic user interfaces and the web an outcry arose from visually handicapped people who had been using computer speech interfaces to read text documents on computers. That led to a wave of accessibility interfaces that solved the problem. Most of us never use the Accessibility options on the Mac, but they are valuable. What we’re getting now is a new wave of software and hardware that is breaking features that some people have depended upon – such as seniors who need sold black fonts and larger screens.
Car companies use “age suits” that mimic the physical limitations of old age and have their designers wear them so that they can design effectively for senior citizens. Maybe Apple should insist their designers wear something similar?
The suits include gloves that reduce tactile feel and motion and googles that blur vision – that would seem useful for testing UI design.
Do the aging suits also include a mallet that knocks you on the head every five minutes, so you’re in a constant state of dazed confusion?
From my personal experience, that would really help emulate growing old.
I get so tired of “beautiful” screens designed to make text impossible to read. Apple seems really intent on doing that on their website and it drives me nuts. They talk about how they provide such great accessibility yet I am constantly struggling to read what they are writing. Loss of my sight is not far away despite the assistance of two Duke specialists, and there are many other people suffering from the same issues. Sure wish “beautiful” gave way to “functional”. Thank you for a very fine explanation. Sorry for your difficulties but please know you are not alone!
My sympathy with your vision problems. I have potential retina issues because I was extremely myopic before cataract surgery, but so far nothing serious.
I saw you had trouble installing El Capitan (X.11). I recently had similar trouble and but I found the unexpected answer. Apple must have had three spirits about this, because El Capitan was available for download for free currently, but it is also blocked from installing after a certain date. And yet that isn’t mentioned. The answer is to disconnect from the internet. Physically disconnect the ethernet cables and turn off the wifi. Then use the Terminal to set the date to prior to 2018, I used January 2017. Then carry on with the installation. Looking today, I see that macos - This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading - Ask Different has some comments on this issue.