In a search for a writing tool more portable (and not as damn hot!) as my monstrous 17″ laptop, I stumbled across the Alphasmart family of products. Essentially portable keyboards with a built-in memory, they looked exactly like what I needed; they are cheap compared to a laptop, very portable, have a nice keyboard, and are geared only for writing. I ordered the Alphasmart Neo about a week ago and, having received it today, this is the first thing I’ve written on it.
These things were originally designed for use in schools, so they are both simple and tough. I’m impressed with the build of it — it’s definitely a no-frills device, and positively primitive by today’s computing standards, but it feels like a quality piece of kit. I’m really enjoying the keyboard, it’s better than most laptops I’ve tried, and has a nice responsive feel.
The screen on the Neo is pretty small — I’ve got it displaying six lines of text which seems to be the maximum — but thus far I’m not having any real trouble using it. Clearly this is not something I’d use to edit a document; it’s essentially a first draft machine, and for that it seems ideal. This little device does not replace a computer, rather it lets you work away from the computer and return to upload your text in whatever word processing program you wish (or directly into your blog’s post window, as I just did for this post).
Since these are early days yet for the Neo and I, I can’t yet gauge if it will be the productively-enhancer I’m looking for or not. You see, the biggest selling point of the Neo for me was that you can’t do anything else on it but write — no web, no emails, no games, no time wasted. That alone could make this a revolution in the way I approach writing, making this little device at least as valuable for the things it can’t do as for the things it can.
I’ll be featuring some more impressions of the Neo in the coming weeks, and I’d love to hear from anyone that uses Alphasmarts or similar products. The Neo is currently available at a discount through the NaNoWriMo website.
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Congrats on the new toy – I hope it fulfills your every wish for it. So are you testing the NaNo waters this year? I’m not, so don’t ask. Though you could update your von Darkmoor link to the new, improved
Apparently it didn’t like my hyperlink and so removed the whole end of the sentence. Try this: http://www.jasonmwaltz.com/thoughts/
Looking forward to reading about your new toy. I’ve been thinking about something like this for a couple of years now. A laptop is nice, but it’s more cumbersome than what I’d want to carry around … and there’s the price. Hadn’t thought about the benefits of something that was for “writing-only,” but that sounds like a plus.
Jason, I don’t plan on Nanoing actually — I’ve set a goal for myself of a hundred shorts before I try a novel.
Ty, the Neo just might be what you are looking for then. I’ll provide some more impressions once I’ve used it more — right now I’m still adjusting to the different keyboard (not that it’s ‘different,’ just every new keyboard takes a bit of time to get used to) .
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