Video Recorder + email + mother in law

My technophobic mother in law is complaining that the dvd thingy won't let
her record Poirot and Emerdale. Which actually means the VHS machine is
broken beyond repair. Also my wife and kids want to be able to email
mum/grandma.

So I thought, this'll be easy, someone must sell a nice net-top box with
integrated digital (Freeview) PVR features, the ability to send emails and
I'm lucky Skype like VoIP all wrapped in a _very_ intuitive user interface.

Unfortunately the internet seems broken and all references to this product
have been removed!

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers,

adam