Tell me there's something better for this than the iPad...

[grizzle]

My parents have no idea how to organize their phone book/contacts. Right now they have over 100 stickies, loose papers, notes written on the back of garbage, etc. with important contact information for our relatives, emergencies and so on. I think they are beyond the help of a traditional old fashion address book, they need something else.

I have to admit, it was the iPad that made me think of this, but I don't necessarily want the iPad itself, since it has way more features than needed along with a larger than wanted price tag. What I would like though is something that can be an address book, wall mounted, touch screen and a decently sized view screen for easy reading and navigation. I would like to have it on the wall by the phone in the kitchen, allowing for a one stop shop for all the contact info that they may need, as well as allowing them to clean that horrible mess up that's been building for over 20 years (no lie, some of those scraps are over 20 years old, ie: I'm 29 in a week...they still have the number down there for the baby sitter who they use to call for me).

Does anyone know of something that can help me here? The reason the iPad made me think of this was because of it's slim design, large and bright view screen with touch. It would be easy to use and read and be out of the way all at the same time.

It sounds like you are asking for two things - one, a software organizer for stickies, notes, papers, etc., and two, a piece of digital hardware to hang on the wall by the phone. Since the latter is a very focused piece of hardware, it either has to be created/invented just for that purpose, or else you'll need to mod/hack an existing piece of hardware just for that purpose. I've never heard of anything like what you are looking for, but it sounds like someone needs to invent it!

For the former, Microsoft OneNote absolutely rocks for this and so much more. I was just recently turned on to it by a friend, and have found it useful for daily notes, To Do lists, notebooks worth of content, outlines for books, pages of original sheet music, videos, images, cut/paste from webpages, email excerpts, etc. Definitely look into it for an organizer solution. Let us know if you discover the digital wall phone contact list thingy - would really be useful.