HomeKey £70 PC-On-A-Stick Launched For Elders

Broadcaster Valerie Singleton has helped launch the SimplicITy HomeKey in London – a £70 bootable computer on a USB, designed to give older or less able people an easy-to-use PC on cheap hardware.

The HomeKey runs Linux and although it may have superficial similarities to the £22 Raspberry Pi (the Linux system designed to get kids programming), the HomeKey is aiming to do almost the opposite job: hide the complexities of the system and provide an easy machine for people who have given up on getting to grips with Windows or the Mac. The fact that it can use otherwise-obsolete hardware is another advantage.

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“Most computer software is just too difficult for people to use,” said former Blue  Peter broadcaster Valerie Singleton, who has been a director of SimplicITy since it founded some years ago.”They are also too expensive for people to risk failure.”

SimplicITy launched its “envelope” interface about six months ago: it offers the user four main choices – Email, Web, Documents and Folders, and a Tutorial section. Clicking on any of these takes the user to a simplified system which uses words, not icons (most of the digital refuseniks don’t understand icons, said Singleton) and concentrates on simple actions.

The HomeKey idea was though up by SimplicITy’s Liam Proven, and is based on a bootable USB-stick, which launches Linux Mint, on which the Envelope interface is running.

This means a user can launch their own computer on any hardware that can boot from a USB device. It makes no use of the local hard drive, storing documents and emails in its own 16Gbyte store. Care homes could issue these sticks to residents, who could then share computers securely.

The Linux system updates itself in the background automatically, and the key can be protected with a password, if the user desires it.

On the basis of a quick hands-on session, the system looks robust and the interface for email and the web is indeed simple to use. The browser is Firefox, and the system includes OpenOffice for word processing. If users want to do more, it is possible to exit the Envelope and use Linux itself, getting the benefit of presentation software and other things.

In most cases, the Linux system can use any existing Wi-Fi or other networking in the machine it is plugged into, but if this proves difficult, SimplicITy provides its own Wi-Fi dongles. Printer support is also provided for common HP machines, while others have proven easy to implement, said Proven.

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