For this Mother's Day I am thinking of getting my old mother either an iPad Pro (M1) or Macbook Air (M1). Emphasized on "old" because she is technically quite illiterate. She does use iPhone though. I wonder what will be the better gift for her? Is iPad quite foolproof? I am thinking of getting the magic keyboard as well and the mouse in case she needs a mouse.
Her workflow most likely just browsing, email, FaceTime, reading, thats all.
I'd go with the iPad for some casual content consumption, but in my opinion even the iPad Pro is totally overkill. iPad Air has already been upgraded to the new design and is much cheaper.
I'll echo the other comments about the iPad being the better choice in this case (though you may as well get the Air rather than the Pro - you can get the same Magic Keyboard as the 11-inch Pro for typing).
As well as being more familiar right away because it will mostly feel like a bigger iPhone, it's a better device for reading (put the Kindle app on there with a Kindle Unlimited subscription for a bajillion books and some free magazine subscriptions), it's got a better camera for FaceTime, if she's at all artistically minded there are a ton of excellent drawing apps to go with the Apple Pencil, etc.
The one big caveat I would point out is that the gesture controls have really poor discovery, so you may want to print out and laminate a cheat sheet (like the illustrated versions on https://ipadpilotnews.com/2020/04/all-the-gestures-ipad-pilo...) for easy reference.
YMMV. My formerly technically competent mother can no longer learn new skills. We've tried for years to teach her how to text, initiate FaceTime, play Word with Friends, etc.
My advice to future eldercare providers is to pick a tech stack, lock down those skills, and then stick to it.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but picking a tech stack and sticking too it kinda sucks. You never know when the manufacturer is gonna do something to screw you (MacBook keyboards from 2016-2019). And then you're stuck.
I'd go with an iPad over a MacBook Air, especially for the much better FaceTime camera. My parents (~80) use iPad Airs and thought the Pencil looked like a silly product until I convinced them to try using mine for a few days.
The current iPad, iPad Air, and iPad Pros all work with some version of the Pencil. Any recent iPad will have 1080p FaceTime rather than 720p of the MacBook Air. This new iPad Pro has even higher resolution with automatic panning that could be useful if they want to set up the iPad on the kitchen counter and walk around while they talk to you.
There’s the iPad mini or Air as well. None of those use cases requires the performance of the iPad Pro. It’s easy to use and just like a big iPhone if that’s what you want to do.
If she is familiar with iPhone, she will be right at home with iPad Pro after some small adjustments.
As for being foolproof, it is about as foolproof as an iPhone is. So if you count iPhones as foolproof, then you should be good to go.
MacOS, for all its good, is an entirely separate beast, and she will essentially have to learn a new OS, with all the caveats that come with it, not even mentioning foolproofness and such.
For your specific scenario, sounds like iPad Pro is the better of the two options.
The benefit of iOS is there is almost no way for them to mess it up, no matter what they click on. Troubleshooting is usually always turn it off and on, or uninstall the app. I have been pleased with the results of giving all of the older and non tech literate people in my family iPads.
I do not see why a non tech literate person would need an iPad Pro though. iPad Air (bigger screen is more comfortable for older eyes) or even Mini should easily suffice.
Her workflow most likely just browsing, email, FaceTime, reading, thats all.