Slashdot Mirror

Google. Better than pen-and-paper. The CalcuScribe is exactly what the poster is looking for. Cheap, AAA powered, can send text to any app. Actually, it's kind of pricey, but it's pretty neat. They've had things like this around for *years.* I've always wanted to get one, they seem neat.

This is the first thing that came up on a google search for portable PDA. Only can be bought in large quantities for lots of money (240 for 1-5) http://www.calcuscribe.com/ Here's another discussion about them. Should offer good reviews. http://www.itreviews.co.uk/forum/353 Here's the cheapest one I've found in what little searching I've done. http://www.adapt-it.org.uk/products/neoportablewor dprocessor.asp

http://www.calcuscribe.com/

Try taking a peek at a calcuscribe. Might be what you're looking for...

Try the calcuscribe. Light, small, fullsize keyboard and runs for months off three AA batteries. Oh yeah, and it connects via the keyboard port so it works with everything.

On the downside, they're staggeringly overpriced ($240) for a keyboard + flash memory + LCD screen.

"The closest I found was the Clio Vadem PC-1000 but it has a color screen and is rather big.. :("

You want a 10" screen but think the PC-1000 is big! I have to say that I've been looking for that kind of thing too. I guess marketing depts worldwide that B/W won't sell, even with higher res and better battery life than the colour alternatives.

The Vadem, its twin the "TriPad" and the Psion Series 7 were the closest I could find to what I wanted.

Taking the cue from the grandparent to look for word processors I also found some other options - mainly aimed at the educational market.

Of the links above, the two cheaper quickpads seem the most viable - it works as a wireless or USB keyboard at your pc, then just walk away with some text files (and apparently spreadsheets too?). At 11" its a bit large but it makes sense if you see it as a keyboard replacement. Interesting note on how it works in a review I found:

"When a user returns to the office, the QuickPAD allows the files in the Text Editor to be uploaded into any favorite word-processing program. This trick is accomplished by having the keyboard "replay" all the keystrokes of the text editor's file."

Interesting. So if you combine a Happy Hacking keyboad, a keylogger and a display, you'd have the same thing?

What's the matter, you afraid of getting sued by BT? ;)

Here's some links, folks:

brainium.com
quickpad.com
calcuscribe.com
alphasmart.com

Once upon a time, Radio Shack tried to replace the Model 100/102/200 line with a dedicated word processor called the WP-2. In theory, it had all the necessary ingredients to be a successful replacement for the M10x line. In practice, it never sold well and was discontinued after about a year and a half of lackluster sales.

It had a full-size typewriter style keyboard that was actually better than the M10x line had, featuring comfortable sculpted keycaps. It had an 80-column by 8 line display. It had excellent runtime on AA batteries. It had a parallel printer port (something the M10x family never had), it had a real serial port that could go faster than 19,200 bps. It just never sold well.

Why? Well, I think the problem was the display. The 80-column width made the characters too small to see easily. If the machine had a higher-contrast display, the battery life would have suffered, but I think the display was too hard to read and that doomed the machine.

Anything that's going to successfully carry on the Model 100's legacy needs to have a readable display above all else.

Oh, by the way. For people who'd rather just click on a link than copy'n'paste URLs, here are the websites mentioned in the post to which I'm replying:

www.alphasmart.com
www.quickpad.com
www.perfectsolutions.com
www.dreamwriter.com
www.calcuscribe.com
Alphasmart review
Quickpad review