99-Year-Old Oregonian: iPad Changed My Life

The new iPad is sleek, stylish, and as such it's being gobbled up by Apple fanboys the world over. However, it might surprise one to learn that not all iPad fanatics are 20-something Silicon Valleyers -- instead, one 99-year-old Oregonian now claims the device has changed her life.

Virginia Campbell, who lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, purchased the iPad not long after it was released in early April. That's not a story -- but what is interesting is why Campbell bought the device. You see, Campbell, who once attended Reed College of Portland, Oregon, is (or was) an avid reader and writer -- that is, until glaucoma (a nasty eye disease that wears away the optic nerve) forced her to give up both.

Over the last few years, it's become increasingly difficult for Campbell to see the words and letters in her favorite novels, a devastating eventuality.

iPad Intuitive, Customizable, Appealing

But then came along the iPad, which, according to Campbell's daughter Ginny Adelsheim, has "changed her [mother's] life."

How so?

The iPad actually has the ability to increase the size of text to a readable level while sitting comfortably in Campbell's lap, just like a regular book. And unlike a netbook or laptop computer, it's a bit more intuitive and easy to figure out for someone who hasn't grown up tinkering with PCs. (Source: cnet.com)

After all, Campbell has never owned a computer.

Also helping: the iPad's easy-to-adjust display settings, which allow Virginia to tinker with brightness settings until she can comfortably read the words of her favorite books.

iPad's New Frontier: The Elderly

So pleased is Campbell with her iPad that she recently wrote this rather witty little limerick:

"To this technology-ninny it's clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad pioneer."

Thus far, it would seem Campbell's iPad story has been great advertising for Apple. A YouTube video with the elderly Oregonian has been viewed almost 50,000 times. (Source: trueslant.com)