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 "When I got home, I did a search for any such devices, and came up with two choices: bulky 1980s machines with outdated connectivity options, found on eBay for pennies - some of these are actually programmable too, interestingly enough; and overpriced 'educational' machines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

Pencil/Paper

[fembots]

I think there's a major difference between your proposed cheap word processor and a handheld game/organizer, which is the output requrement.

I'm sure you would like to move your documents somewhere, maybe to a desktop for final processing, printing and whatnot? So maybe a USB, IR or a memory slot so that you can transfer data effortlessly?

Although these "expansions" are not expensive, they still cost money. So it's commercially inviable to produce it, because "for a little bit more" one can probably produce a PDA or mobile phone.

And what's wrong with the pencil/paper solution? Paper is a non-volatile memory so you don't have to worry about system crashes or forgetting to save your documents.

From my experience with PDA, you'll write/type about as fast on a PDA as you would on a piece of paper

Re:Pencil/Paper

[pdbogen]

I type much faster than I write, and I enjoy it much more, and it's a lot readable (to me as well as other people.) Plus, even a small/old word processor like this (TI used to make one; I don't remember what it's called, but I've read stories about how it's solid as a rock and still in use) would have significantly more capacity than a pocket notepad, or anything else of equivalent size.

Hold off on the "It's called pencil and paper" com

[Raindance]

Besides all the functional benefits something like this would have over a little notebook, which are significant (but also mixed), some people are more productive- and perhaps even think better- when at a keyboard than with a pencil and notebook.

People should use whatever device allows them to get their thoughts out into some coherent form. For some, that's going to be a little pocket notebook, and for others who usually do their thinking in front of a keyboard, it'll be a device such as this fellow is looking for.

I'm much more productive (at this point in my life, at least) with a keyboard under my hands than with a pencil in my fingers. Said like that it sounds so unromantic... but I'm interested to hear what sorts of devices are out there.

The pen and paper comments are cute, but

[jjsaul]

Some of us type more than ten times faster than we write and like to transfer our text conveniently.

There are easy solutions though - a used Jornada off ebay and a targus stowaway keyboard cost me less than $100. It isn't the perfect solution, but it actually addresses the poster's needs.

For all of you writing those novels on notecards with pencils, good luck with that. Seems to have worked for Stephenson.

Re:Sidekick

[bluephone]

This is not a troll. I don't carry a cell phone (don't want one), etc. But how hard is it to let it charge overnight while you sleep? You say you can't get 24 hours out of it, but do you regularly use it for more than 18 straight hours? Or does it take forever to charge?