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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"When I got home, I did a search for any such devices, and came up with two choices: bulky 1980s machines with outdated connectivity options, found on eBay for pennies - some of these are actually programmable too, interestingly enough; and overpriced 'educational' machines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."
Apple eMate
Basically a robust plastic drop-proof word processor running NewtonOS, with built-in IRDA wireless uplink. Ran for 24hrs on AA batteries. Horrendously overpriced (got ours free through a school, natch), but quite visionary and functional. I often wish I still had it.
I also worked for a company (well, several) that made these:
VTech Postbox Express and Companion
Our products pretty much sucked (sorry), but there were a number of s'okay competitors in the market. Rather than search for portable "word-processor", you probably want to look for "email/web appliance". It's a rich market, and there are some decent deals out there for $100.