A Cheap and Portable Word Processor?

An anonymous reader asks: "Last evening I was waiting for a bus and realized that it would be very nice to have a little portable word processor; not a fancy PDA, but something with a bare minimum of processing power, small screen, and a cheap mini-keyboard, so that it could fit in a jacket pocket. It doesn't seem like an infeasable product - consider the price that all-in-one 8-bit game machines like the C64 DTV go for, add that to the price that the cheap organizers go for, and you get a retail value under $50. The only major difference would be in the software, and with some attention given to expansibility it might even be a decent device for homebrews. Does Slashdot have any thoughts on what might fill these gap, or is there really no product that tries to be small, cheap and low-powered like what I'm looking for?" "When I got home, I did a search for any such devices, and came up with two choices: bulky 1980s machines with outdated connectivity options, found on eBay for pennies - some of these are actually programmable too, interestingly enough; and overpriced 'educational' machines which are almost equivalent to the 80s machines (over $200 or even $300). Electronic organizers are going for under $20, but they are woefully limited machines. The only other cheap option is to get a used PDA."

Comments

Tape Recorder

[CypherXero]

Just buy a cheap tape recorder from Wal-Mart, and anytime when you get some creative spark (I assume you want this device to write creatively with), just turn on the recorder, and speak to your hearts content. Then, get home, and transcribe your notes onto your computer.

Google??

[l810c]

I took your exact article title and put it in Google

The very first hit led me to these two devices which seem to fit the bill exactly.

Alphasmart
Quickpad

Re:Google??

[JawzX]

That little Alphasmart thingie looks like a re-packaged TRS-80 portable (102)...

Maybe an old TRS-80 would fit the bill? 25-30 hours on 4 AAs, and you can even program in basic on it! There are few WP's with spell check available for TRS-80 portables too.

Re:Google??

[torinth]

I took your exact links and put them into my browser.

The very first link led me to a device priced at 800% of what the person reasonably expected. The second led me to one that only cost 400% more.

So no, neither of your links, nor their smartass delivery, fit the bill very well at all. It's pretty clear that he was already aware of these too, having made indirect reference to their kind in the article.

toshiba libretto

[demian031]

get an old toshiba libretto 70ct.

http://ophinity.com/pix/?album=/geek/toshiba_libre tto_70ct

wireless, linux, niceness.

Re:Sidekick

[ProfaneBaby]

I've had both a Sidekick and Sidekick II, and I agree. The Sidekick II is very nice, and the SSH and AIM clients are also very useful for people who enjoy being 'connected'.

The web browser isn't great, but it's also relatively useful.

So Why not a PDA ?

[Dale549]

I would think a PDA and folding keyboard could be snagged on eBay for not much over $50..

Re:Sidekick

[winkydink]

I see you glossed right over battery life and the lack of a replaceable battery. Both were deal-killers for me. Well, than and there was no desktop sync software (has T-Mo finally released this?) No way was I entering 900+ contacts using that itty bitty kybd.

Re:Sidekick

[ProfaneBaby]

I've never had a battery problem. I use it extensively (2000+ minutes per month of talk time, plus 20-30 emails per day and semi-regular IM use), and don't have any battery complaints.

I've always wanted one.

[OrangeTide]

I've always wanted some cheap portable device designed for taking notes, hacking etc. sort of a sub-$100 electronic notepad w/ a decent keyboard.

The Psion Revo/Diamond Mako was pretty close. It had a nice wide display (but it wasn't backlit), a decent keyboard (for being a 1/3rd size keyboard), a pen interface (for drawing a picture in your notes), and my favorite part is that it was a clamshell design so you could just fold-and-go.

The draw backs were that when it was new it was fairly expensive (I got mine for $50 new, but that's because the stores were just trying to get rid of them). And it had no flash memory (you let the batteries run down and you've lost everything since your last backup), and no way to insert external memory (MMC/SD/CF would have been nice).

A less powerful pda in the same form factor that sold for a little bit more than those "pocket organizers" would seem like a good idea to me. If oyu make it close enough in price to a pocket organizer, but flexible enough to do more than just addresses that'd be great.

Honestly I don't need a 400Mhz cpu, color screen, wireless headset, and 64Mb of RAM. Especially if it means I will have a $300+ device in my pocket that can get broken or stolen.

What would be neat is some arm-thumb or 68hc11 device with an MMC/SD slot(the interface to those is dead simple to do). Running maybe Contiki or some other 8-bit, but "modern" OS.

Although they have compactflash readers(look for SuperCard) for Gameboy Advance, and it's not hard to wire a small or fullsize keyboard into a GBA. You could probably build yourself something interesting with a cheap used gba and some hot glue. :)

TI calculator + keyboard

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Take a regular TI graphing calculator (you might have one already from high school or college) and add the TI Keyboard. If you have a computer uplink of some sort for the calculator (either a GraphLink or on-board USB for the newer models), you can transfer your documents to MS Word.

(Vernier's not the only source; they're just one of the cheaper ones. TI doesn't sell the keyboard directly anymore.)

Apple eMate / Sharp Zaurus

[energylad]

I'll agree with an earlier poster that the original Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick) has the best keyboard of any other like device, it has the absolute worst connectivity. The likelihood of getting my data off the thing dropped as near to zero as made no difference, so I gave up on it.

The old Apple eMate -- a Newton laptop -- did me well for years. It's got a tripod mount on the bottom, it gets 12 hours of battery life with no problem, it's a real trooper. They only made them for educational folk, but you can find them on eBay still for pretty cheap -- there are a number there now, from $28 to $100. And hey, no moving parts plus a great keyboard. It's the relatively modern equivalent of the '80s word processors mentioned above.

Today, the Sharp Zaurus is the most awesome thing I've used in some time. By that I mean the C750-class clamshell machine, on through the modern 3000 & 1000 devices, only produced for Japan but also available on eBay. And there's OpenBSD for the durn things now, too. Only drawback is battery life. And price -- you're looking at >$500 for one of those.

Psion Series 5 (look it up)

[jolyonr]

Now available cheap. Someone will come along and tell you who sold/branded it in the US - but it does exactly what you want in the way you want it to. No messy external keyboards, decent keys, just enough CPU to perform, etc. etc.

Jolyon

Alphasmart SUCKs

[Anonymous Coward]

http://container.50megs.com/alphasmart.html

Like a mini Alphasmart Dana?

[mjprobst]

This is something I would really like. PDAs are too small to type on. I type at 115 wpm and can't stand using PDAs at all, yet there are things I'd like to do without the power consumption, size, and weight of a full laptop.

I'd love something like the Alphasmart Dana except in clamshell style. Doesn't need to be incredibly tiny, just as big as a small keyboard.

Unfortunately, even if I liked the size of this device, it costs around $600. Smaller and cheaper than a laptop, my butt. I'm currently using a used IBM T21 laptop that cost $425.

What level of sophistication?

[jd]

Something like WordWise, Smart Wordprocessor or WordCraft would fit onto a small machine, with the largest of these fitting comfortably in 64K and the smallest into 8K. That includes everything you need for the program, the document and even a simple spell-checker.

On the other hand, if you want something that can create hevily stylized documents of high quality, but where you can enter the text quickly, you're probably after a TeX-aware text editor, where you can pipe the output through LaTeX to generate a quality document, but where the source is 100% editable on something that has very low overhead.

But, then, if all you want is a jotter, rather than an actual text processor, you're really wanting something that's a graphics tablet that has enough space for only one letter/symbol, with no display, and two buttons - space and backspace. It would have all the power you'd need for a jotter, and wouldn't have anything you didn't need (such as word recognition).

Now, if what is REALLY wanted is a very fast, very small device, then a 5-key chord keyboard, with memory, should be sufficient. 2^5=32, which means you've enough combinations for all letters and a good range of symbols. A bubble memory would be fine for this, as you're just storing and recalling linear streams. Bubble is good, because it is small, low-power and can survive total loss of power.

Windows CE Handheld PCs

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

A few years ago, a number of companies produced Windows CE powered "handheld PCs".

Many of the second-generation models had full-sized keyboards. They are cheap (often sub-$150), and have excellent battery life (10+ hours).

Not to mention that they boot instantly, have no moving parts, often have USB host ports, and have PCMCIA for adding Wifi or ethernet. Not to mention the color touchscreen and capability to add software like a full-featured web browser (NetFront) or word processor (TextMaker).

PSION 3c or 5x!!

[wernst]

Were it not for the need for wireless comunication, I would *still* be using my beloved Psion 3c as my daily PDA. While its time-scheduling abilities were top-notch, it came with, IN THE ROM, a very good word processor, spreadsheet, and flat-file database.

The 3c has a small, but complete, keyboard, and typing with two fingers, I could get 20-25 wpm. It has a built-in spell checker, 80-column wide screen by at least 10 or 14 lines, can print to many printers, and with PsiWin software, import and export MS Word and Excel files seamlessly. And it runs for weeks on a pair of AA's, and there's a good backlight.

The 5mx has bigger keys, a touchscreen, and a prettier GUI, along with all the benefits described above.

Both fit in a hip or coat pocket easily. Both connect to a PC via a serial port, and your PC probably still has one of those.

Check ebay for units with PsiWin software. Then Google around for a huge library of 3rd party software.

Yes, they are both old, but Psion had more PDA experience in 1992 than Palm has now. Psion software is almostly always amazingly good.

I use a top-o-the-line color wireless Palm these days, but I still think my Psion 3c had it beat in almost all areas relating to software, power, and convenience.

Re:PSION 3c or 5x!!

[tyagiUK]

I used to use a Psion series 3 (http://www.psion.com/) as a portable PDA/word processor. In fact, when I was at university, I wrote entire chapters of my projects on it while in a coffee bar or any area away from the network. It was portable, had a usable keyboard once you got used to it, and had some great applications. PC connectivity was over serial and I just dumped all my edits in plain text and imported them later to whatever app I was using on the desktop system.

One good thing was that I was using LaTeX at the time, and just marked up the text appropriately. Therefore, when it was dumped to my Linux desktop, I could just build the LaTeX and it was ready formatted.

The Series 5 was a good step forwards from the 3, with more power, better screen, stylus input etc. There's some info on it over at Geek.com: http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/pda/psionser5.htm.

If you can pick one up off Ebay, there's a great user community still there. Cheap now, too.

Good solution: Palm V + Palm V keyboard

[Dystopian Rebel]

I just solved this problem myself by purchasing a new-in-box Palm V keyboard for $1.25 on EBay. (I'm serious.)

The used Palm V itself cost a little more, but it's one of the best products Palm ever made. The Palm V is pocket-sized; the keyboard, when folded, is not much bigger.

This a much more versatile solution than a hunk of text-processing-dedicated hardware.

Re:Sidekick

[admactanium]

No way was I entering 900+ contacts using that itty bitty kybd.

of course, you could also just import all your contacts using tmobile's own importing tools on their website. of course, that would be the simple way to do it i suppose and it wouldn't give you any reason to complain.

the sidekicks I and II are both great form factors. the only major beef i have with it is that the camera is really awful and the lack of a good syncing tool. even with those limitations i prefer it to the treo.

Re:Pencil/Paper

[jhoger]

I'd say the difference is the input and output requirement.

You need a good keyboard, and you need a good display.

Here's the short list of true-portable laptops to check out:

Tandy WP-2
TRS-80 Model 100
Tandy 102
Tandy 200
Cambridge Z88
Amstrad NC100 or NC200'

All of these are 8-bit CPUs. Last for between 10 and 20 hours on battery (!!!). Available for between $10 and $50 on Ebay. Doesn't get cheaper than that.

Or the Alphasmart Dana which is basically a Palm V with a bigger screen. USB, IR, and memory slot.

Except for Dana, The interface for downloading to PC is serial port. You may need a $10 adapter if you only have USB on your machine.

-- John.

Re:Go used

[who what why]

I have a Psion Revo, sold in the U.S. as the Diamond Mako. It's a clamshell design with a small qwerty keyboard and a half-decent word processor. It runs the Epoc OS (which later became Symbian). There's plenty of third party software including a nice Python port and a bash-like shell. I also love the PIM software that comes with it - nothing like being able to actually enter in an appointment (with PDAs I usually just get a load of crap from Graffiti because my handwriting is awful.) It pretty much answers the O.P.'s question, since it was designed as a low price device in the typically expensive handhelds-with-keyboards niche.

The Revo is a great size to slip in a pocket, and not too embarrassing to use on the subway. It's designed to be held in two hands and thumb-typed or held in one hand and one-hand typed. That works pretty well, even though the keyboard is hinged. The keys are hinged at the bottom, so you need to be somewhat careful when pressing them.

The main problems with the Revo are the lack of backlight (nice reflective screen, but useless in really low light) and absence of expansion slots (it'd be nice to have a CF slot for storage or wifi).

This has generally led me to try other similar devices. The obvious one is a Psion 5mx, which is the bigger brother to the Revo, with more expansion slots, a backlight and a non-hinged keyboard. The Epoc software really is great and there's even a linux distro for the Psions. I haven't been able to find one in my price range (they go for about $150 on eBay at the moment).

I recently picked up an HP Jornada 680. That's a handheld PC formfactor, with a pretty nice qwerty keyboard with proper (if tiny) keys and a color backlit screen. I picked mine up for about $100. The downside is that it runs Windows CE from ROM (shudder!) although it comes with Pocket Word which is definitely sufficient for banging out text. There's a linux distribution for this too, but it's not really useable yet (no power saving, so the batteries die after a few hours) - although it is being actively worked on.

So I second the recommendation is go used, and pick up a Psion (Revo or 5mx depending on price range). My worry is that these machines are all 5 years old and no-one is producing new hardware in the handheld form factor. I find a keyboard so much more useful than a stylus and I really don't understand why the markety just died (well, the $600 price tags probably didn't help). Hopefully phones-with-keyboards like the Sidekick may grow up to fill the gap.

Re:Software?

[Pandora's Vox]

don't need to port it to windows, the original windows connectivity software still works :-)

Re:Go used

[WhyCause]

I was going to say the exact same thing (good thing I read the comments first), but I have two things to add.

There are two companies (first for North America, the second for elsewhere), that will provide service for the Psion handhelds (your biggest concern will be batteries for the Revo/Mako models). So the fact that these machines are 5+ years old shouldn't be a real problem.

If you do decide to go the Psion route, go for the 5mx or the Revo Plus (also sold as the Diamond Mako in the US). These were incremental upgrades to the originals that had solutions for some hinge problems the first versions had. I got bit by both hinge problems (Series 5 and original Revo), and I ended up with a Diamond Mako. One of the best purchases I ever made. If I have a choice (I probably won't), EPOC/Symbian handhelds with a keyboard will be the only handhelds I will ever buy. I keep hearing rumors that Nokia may be releasing an upgraded Revo-style handheld (NOT a cell phone), but I think I'm just grasping at straws there.

Alphasmart products are excellent

[squeedelyspooch]

I have owned an Alphasmart Dana for about a year and a half now, and it lives in a backpack that goes with me pretty much everywhere I go. It is not as small as a clam-shell style device might be but it is lightweight, has a full size keyboard (that is a joy to type on) and is durable as hell. The battery lasts about 20 hours even after a year and a half and it will take three AA batteries in a pinch. It runs Palm 4 and has two SD/MMC slots, allowing for back-ups on the fly (with 3rd party software like CardBkup or Back-Up-Buddy) and a whole lot of additional storage (I have the complete American Heritage Collegiate Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus on mine, as well as a bunch of other things).

At the time that I bought it, the other option from Alphasmart was the AS3000, which did not appeal to me at the time. Since then, though, they have released the Neo. It is essentially the same as the AS3000 but with the form factor of the Dana and a screen that falls somewhere between the two. It runs for 700 hours on three AA batteries. If they had these when I was buying I would likely have chosen a Neo over the Dana. In fact, my mom and I split on a Neo for my sister who is in college now. She has a laptop (a fairly nice one, too) but wouldn't take it to classes unless she absolutely had to (for the normal reasons: weight, boot time, battery life) but the Neo is light and tough and instant on.

Alphasmart has a great user forum that I lurked through for quite a while before purchasing. I still go there from time to time to see what's up.

And no, I don't get any kickbacks from the peeps at Alphasmart. I am just a fanboy, apparently.

No, it's not bad at all.

[cbreaker]

The sidekick has a big problem in that the battery is not removable. However, my sidekick lasts two days of regular use (several calls, usually short, sometimes an hour or so) and it charges from dead empty in less then 60 minutes.

But I still hate the thing because you can't install your own programs without applying for a special developer key, which you can only get if you submit your programs to Danger *before* getting the key. (they have a windows-based dev tool you can use to write programs.)