Device for Taking Travel Notes?

the Anonymous Wanderer writes "When I go in vacations, I like to take notes and upon return write a travel story for my friends. Until now I've been using a paper notebook, but found that I'm so busy when I come back that the notebook sits for weeks or months unopened. On the other hand, I have some 'dead' time during trips and I'd like to take the notes electronically (final editing could be done upon return). I don't want to carry a laptop or a PDA (too expensive, plus I want to be away from computers at least those 2 weeks per year). Any suggestions for a light, cheap, keyboard-equipped device? Like a travel clock + keyboard and more memory and USB? Thanks, the Anonymous Wanderer."

Comments

A different option

[strictnein]

A calculator is always nice to have. And you can plug in a keyboard. And while you're out traveling, you can also be collecting data!

Tandy

[speleo]

You want a Tandy WP-2 or Radio Shack Model 100. Go here: http://www.8bit-micro.com/wp2wp3.htm

Huh?

[jargoone]

You want an electronic device, that has a keyboard, you can type on, but is not a laptop or a PDA? Is there a punchline here?

Christ, buy a Palm IIIe and a keyboard from eBay. Way less than $50. If that's too expensive, stick with your notebook and buy a scanner.

Alphasmart!

[harrkev]

Try here: Alphasmart. They even have many models which will work off of AA batteries.

Cell phone text messaging

[erick99]

You may want to consider using a cell phone that opens up into a keyboard. (The Nokia 6800 is a nice choice). This would allow you to send text messages to your email address. Some of these keyboard cell phones are really cool.The Nokia 6800 opens into a QWERTY keyboard and works quite nicely. I've used it and was surprised at how fast I could enter text.

Happy Trails!

Erick

Here's a suggestion

[metlin]

If too expensive is the reason you do not want to carry a laptop or a PDA, then I strongly suggest you get one of those el-cheapo Palm Vx's off eBay for like $20 or something.

You can also get a foldable portable palm keyboard for less than $5.

It's really portable and quite comfortable to type in too.

I always carry these around when I go wandering -- they are good companions in the wilderness (read books, take notes etc) and you can read them in the dark too (they come with a back-lit display).

Besides, using them does not make you feel like you are using a computer-ish device, just think of them as nothing more than advanced note-taking tools with alarm clocks and games :)

And oh, if you are the type who hikes/climbs mountains etc., you could hook up a GPS to your Palm to look up directions using something like Cetus GPS - that way you have a GPS tool, alarm clock and a note-taking tool all bundled into one.

Re:Alphasmart is a great product

[C. E. Sum]

I would say that they are generally reliable, though not indistructable. I have an AlphaSmart 3000 that my wife used to take notes all through law school.

Physically, the 3000 is a small full-sized (or nearly so) keyboard with a 4x80 (I think) character cell display. It runs FOREVER on 4AA batteries and can paste text to a PC or Mac via USB or IR. (Some models ISTR have different connectors). No pasting mode is quick (19.2kbaud?), but it works just fine.

The pastica case is relatively tough, and if not beautiful, at least not butt-ugly. My wife essentially tosed it in her backpack for 3 years and it had 0 problems as far as I know. It is probably not waterproof, but I would not fear it geting damp or even a bit of rain on the outside. It has few phsyical ports onit for junk to get inside, and no moving parts other than the keyboard.

My only reservation for travel work is that it's not exactly small. It is relative light (700g?), but it will take up as much space as a very portable laptop.

If you have room for it, though, it would make a great travel log. The text editing software works reasonably well (more featurers than pico, fewer than Wordpad/TextEdit).