Today I learned about a portable word processor that could have made my life much easier while doing fieldwork, specifically the task of writing up field notes. I spent a lot of time traveling to/from meetings and the battery life of my MacBook meant that I couldn’t use it to capture everything I wanted to write down. This left me scrawling notes on legal pads in horrible handwriting that I later had to type up. Unbelievably inefficient.
If only I had known about the AlphaSmart Neo and its (still viable) predecessors the AlphaSmart 2000 and AlphaSmart 3000. This device is basically a keyboard with a small monochrome screen, but the Neo runs more than 700 hours on 3 AA batteries and weighs less than 2 pounds. It stores approximately 200 pages of writing.
You can learn more details from this very happy customer.
AlphaSmart has a large following among writers looking for a distraction-free writing tool, and I have to admit I’m tempted to get one not just for taking notes on the road or for writing on international flights, but for being able to write without the Internet looming nearby. This thing has no Internet capability whatsoever. No Solitaire, even.
I have doubts about how well an AlphaSmart would fit into my workflow beyond note-taking – I’d worry about keeping track of and syncing different versions of a paper, for one thing. Plus, the $219 price tag is enough to keep me from buying this on a whim. The older models can be had for $30-40 on eBay, but since these were originally produced for elementary schools I wouldn’t want to risk it.
Anyone have one of these? What do you think?
10 comments ↓
Jim, Jim – don’t get over-gadgeted! Just conform and get an iPhone and be done with any other portable, waterproof and bombproof portable toys.
Hmm, I guess for the price of a Neo you could get two iPhones, so maybe you have a poi…No!!! Whew. Almost succumbed! This is the anti-iPhone. You just write. No GPS. No restaurant locator. No iFart app.
And did I mention 700 hours? That’s pretty sweet.
I have to agree with Karen. If you’re going to spend a a hundred bucks, don’t get something quite so archaic. Go for a smartphone with a tactile qwerty keyboard and a good screen. If you’re concerned about distraction, look for one with an “Airplane Mode”. Even offline, most of them have text editor programs and there are apps that can Sync with Google Docs.
David, I think I’d ruin my thumbs if I went that route! After observing a 1-hour meeting I might type related notes (i.e., observations, reflections) for 1-2 hours, and that’s going full-speed on a full-sized keyboard. Can you imagine how long that would take on a smartphone?
I have a Palm Zire with a folding mini keyboard that was great for note-taking because it was super portable, but the keys were cramped and the connection between the Palm and keyboard was pretty sensitive – it always seemed about to break. Not ideal for some of the travel situations I’ve been in.
This wouldn’t solve your internet issue but one option to overcome the laptop battery problem would be an external battery pack like this:
http://www.batterygeek.net/Bat.....rygeek.htm
This was just the first hit I came across on Google for an external battery – this pack provides 7-9 hours and should continue to be useful when you eventually move on to your next laptop. I imagine there may be better values/products out there. If you are away from power sources frequently, this would give you a lot more flexibility than the Alphasmart.
I actually had one of the old Alphasmarts years ago. I had high hopes for it but I think I just got tired of typing on a screen the size of an old graphing calculator and sold it to someone else who thought it would solve his problems.
Thanks for the info, Conrad. That’s not a bad option, especially combined with the longer battery life of the new Macs or a netbook, if I ever decide to go that route. I like the idea of being able to leave my laptop safe at home and still write to my heart’s content while I travel, but I just remembered I also use my laptop on the road to make backups of interview recordings in case I lose my digital recorder. Maybe there are portable solutions for this, too, but I suppose a laptop is just the best all-around solution.
I suspect I could get tired of the small screen like you did.
I really kind of want an AlphaSmart myself, but I don’t know if I’d like the screen. An option for portable writing that never quite worked out for me was using an OLPC with its sunlight readable screen, but battery life wasn’t great and the Sugar UI is maddening. It wasn’t bad to type on when I reversed the screen and used my USB keyboard with it. Fairly portab
I invested in an Alphasmart 3000 (a massive $25 on ebay). The aim was to break my cycle of sitting at the computer to write… and then doing everything else except writing. The transition was difficult, but the main result was to break the constant write/review/rewrite cycle that it too easy to fall into when writing on the Mac. I find that putting myself into a different location with no tech distractions has forced me back into a “stream of consciousness” mode that is far more akin to a freehand approach. Upload a few pages to the Mac and review/rewrite when there is something more than a single sentence to rip apart!
With the massive battery life, low weight and cheap replacement cost, the thing gets thrown in the bag/car far more often than the laptop ever would.
For a new unit, the price may be a barrier because the new wave of Netbooks have far more bang for the buck than the Alphasmart, but at ebay prices for an older model, it’s worth considering if you find it difficult to break your computer-based social networking habit.
Thanks for your comment, Peter. I was considering the 3000 but then heard that its keyboard isn’t so comfortable to use (at least compared to the Neo’s). Since the thing is not much more than a keyboard, I thought that was a significant issue. But have you been happy with yours in that regard? Maybe it depends on how much use/abuse a particular unit has received before making it to ebay.
Time for a new blog post? It has been almost 6 months. What is on your mind?
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