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A new little toy for the technological cognoscenti
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
12/17/2007 5:56 AM |
I recently purchased a neat little device named Neo. It’s made by a company named AlphaSmart. The business was started by a couple of ex-Apple Computer employees, but they sold out their interest in the company awhile back. The “neat little device” I referred to is a simple little gadget that is absolutely ideal for writers. It’s a keyboard with an LCD screen. It has a mini-word processor inside and a calculator. It also has a built-in dictionary and thesaurus – and that’s pretty much it. Some people might think it’s pretty meager, but I find it’s ideal for just writing, punching in those random thoughts that won’t last long enough to commit them to paper, and all those other really neat ideas that occur to you for various stories, columns, essays, whatever. It’s small enough to lug around easily, and you don’t have to worry about AC power.
It operates on three penlight batteries, and if you use alkaline AA’s, they’re reportedly good for about 700 hours of use, which is just about a full month, running 24/7. The built-in software offers both QWERTY and Dvorak layouts, so it’s suitable for a wide range of users. I understand this little gem is also popular in some schools because apparently it can be used by teachers to administer tests and do a number of other chores teachers are often called upon to do. It comes with a robust case and supposedly can stand up to rough handling. No, it can’t connect to the Internet. It’s a writing machine only, and a stripped-down one at that. But that is the beauty of the device, you can’t go wandering off exploring the Internet when you should be writing instead. The cost, with case, is $219 plus shipping, but for a certain type of user, it’s a real bargain.
I plan to use mine a lot after I retire a couple of weeks from now. It doesn’t write files to a disk, but has enough built-in memory to hold a 100,000-word book. You don’t even have to remember to save your files, each keystroke is automatically saved as you type it. Oh, you also get an USB cable with the device which allows you to upload your text files to either a PC or a Macintosh, for more sophisticated editing, formatting, storage and printing. If you’d like to know a little more about this outstanding little writing tool, go to www.alphasmart.com. |
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Re: A new little toy for the technological cognoscenti |
By Warren Coleman on
12/17/2007 4:30 PM |
| You never said anything about the size? I would assume that it is a standard size keyboard, but how big is the screen? If a writer was....going to retire,<br>( in a couple of weeks ) why would he need one of these in retirement??<br>Warren Coleman<br>Oak Run |
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