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Service helping grandparents stay in touch seeing growth in Japan

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"The device, costing 19,800 yen ($177), is available online and at some department stores in Tokyo. Despite the service's 1,480 yen per month subscription fee, sales have been impressive, according to the company."

This is nice and convenient. However the monthly fee seems a bit steep. That is about three times what I would pay for rather good internet on it's own in the US and this device does not seem to be live, but pictures and videos only. And how much is good internet in Japan cost these days?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Or they could use any of the free services such as Line, iCloud, YouTube, or Facetime for live and video/photos. If, of course, they have an iPad, other tablet, or computer.

The ease here is in the TV connection; no computer ability required.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Skype, Facetime and Line are all free. grandparents just need to update their star trek era flip screen phones for a smartphone.

@john High-speed internet depending on the package is around 4000yen a month. or 6000yen for a smartphone a month with internet. about.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

My mistake. I miscalculated. It is only around $15 a month, instead of what I thought it was. Haha!

On NHK they showed a high tech rice cookers that either had a video screen or allowed to have a remote reminder (from their grown children) to eat.

Actually I enjoyed WebTV back in the day. The ease of use, (simply using your TV screen) dial up, using the credit card as I recall (I never did it) almost like a chip reader and was not no where near as expensive as a PC.

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Why bother, you can live chat with any one of several apps. We use Line, especially during the holidays, to "visit" relatives in three countries

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@ Zichi - you were right, it was Skype not Line for internationally. I don't know what I was thinking, but we do use Line within Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My parents see my kid via skype, facetime, email and Facebook more than once a week while living on the opposite sides of the planet from each other. Direct cost to us is zero, we just use stuff we already have for other purposes (mainly iPads) to make it happen.

I guess if you live in a house that otherwise has no 21st century technology in it this might make sense, but otherwise the Mago Channeru one seems like a waste.

The Snap Snap one on the other hand just seems like a waste period:

It allows users to peruse and buy pictures of events such as excursions and athletic festivals via the internet so schools do not need to display printed versions.

Or perhaps the schools could just put the pictures up for free on an invitation only Facebook account (or one of the other millions of ways modern science has provided us with distributing photos free of charge without the need to physically print them)?

At first I thought maybe this was explicable by some privacy rule preventing schools from putting photos on social media which this company was exploiting to create a niche for itself. Then I realized that this is of course a social media company which requires the school to do exactly that, so I'm left scratching my head as to why this exists.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My Family(global) uses Skype.

When my mother toom a turn for the worst, I could chat with her, her using my sisters Tablet in the Hospital.

No way me and my son could fly to europe to be at her deathbed in time(12hr flight).

See a lot of specialised services offered here.

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