Don’t bring your technophobe to email; bring email to your technophobe

Everybody knows someone who just refuses to take the jump into the 21st century and embrace computers, the Intertube, or anything of more technological complexity than a microwave. How does one reach those people? No, seriously—how the heck do you get in touch with them? It’s not as if we can just write them a message on a piece of paper and somehow deliver it to them. We need to get these people on email, stat .

That’s the idea behind Presto. It’s a service that provides an email address which, when combined with a special HP printer, allows them to receive email and photos in hard copy. The printer includes an internal modem that plugs into a phone line and automatically downloads and prints emails and photos. Great for my grandmother, who’d love to see pictures of her great-grandchildren that are miles away.

My first thought was: what about spam? I hardly want my grandmother deluged with printed out copies of ads for Viagra and worse. Presto is configured to only accept email from known recipients (which suggests that someone with a little technical savvy will be instrumental in setting it up). Of course the ink cartridge and paper will have to refilled every once in a while, but someone in the family ought to be able to help out with that. The printer costs $150 and the mail service is $10/month or $100/year, which isn’t too bad for the priceless value of the funny pictures of cats in sinks you’re bound to receive.

[via Popgadget ]