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AlphaSmart Shows Palm-Based Laptop
krswan writes: "AlphaSmart, which has built proprietary 'mini-laptops' for education in the past, has released a Palm Compatible device with a full keyboard, built in rechargeable batteries, 2 USB ports, and two Secure Digital and Multimedia Card compatible slots - all for $399. It is only about 2 lbs and the screen resolution is 560X160. As a teacher, I would love 30 or so for my classroom. More details at the Dana website." It's basically still more a glorified keyboard (like the older AlphaSmart products) than a laptop, but that's not a bad thing.
I've got one of their original models (very limited memory, no spellcheck / IR / curvy blue plastic) that's still going strong. In almost 10 years of owning it, I think I've changed the batteries 3 times, once when I left it on for a week. I've replaced the keyboard (it just got too gummy and dusty for my taste) and the power switch (they sent me a replacement for free and I soldered it in) but it's been tossed, dropped, scratched, and neglected for 10 years and other than that switch has only cosmetic damage to show for it.
It's ugly as sin and fairly limited, but it does what it does with nothing to crash, with nonvolatile memory, and with nary a complaint. An upgraded product is definately appreciated, but somehow I don't see this new model providing the same trouble-free experience as the old standby.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
really a recycled Tandy 100 ...
But why not get the real thing instead, with a 32-bit preemptive multitasking OS?.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
The hypothetical backpacker's laptop is a tool
to facilitate email communications when all your
posessions must fit into a backpack and all
Internet access takes place in Internet cafes.
The requirements are:
1) cheap (in case it gets lost/stolen)
2) light
3) durable (whether on airplanes or chicken
trucks, luggage tends to get kicked around)
4) Has a keyboard and reasonable size screen.
5) Has a floppy drive.
The last one may not be obvious to those who haven't traveled in this manner. The only way
you can reliably move data between a laptop and
the PC at an Internet cafe is with a floppy. For
everything else, the machines will either be too
primitive or policies too restrictive.
A side note: Has anyone managed to get a USB
equiped PDA to talk directly to a USB floppy?
I have one of the older alphasmarts and love it. It's used for writing and that's about it. It's durable, not quite light but lighter than a laptop, but cheap enough at $200 that we don't have to worry about it getting destroyed or lost. The full-sized keyboard means that typing in a vehicle is a non-issue. Battery life is just no comparison to anything you've used before - especially when traveling away from electricty. And it emulates a keyboard to type in/uploads your documents into any computer (I wonder if the Dana does that) - even a web cafe - without any additional software. I did extensive comparison shopping for such a machine for writing while traveling and the Alphasmart won out over everything else, and if you look around you'll hear constant praise for the Alphasmart from teachers to writers to the New York Times. The only thing that I'd say could be improved over the older model is that the screen display is too small at only 4 lines of text. The Dana addresses this. It's a bit pricey but an obvious evolution - if they can get the price down for bulk orders (and they probably can) and get something to protect the screen from scratches then they'll find plenty of professional writers eager to get this new machine.