Alpha Smart Neo 1

[lobelia321]

I know that some of you have this product so do you have any advice? I'm thinking of asking t'h to give me this for a combined birthday/Christmas present (as it's not cheap).

Any thoughts?

Alpha Smart Neo writing machine.



I know that you, birdgerhl, prefer this other computer that you have but I've forgotten the name of it.

Comments

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

i have an eeepc.

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Is that very light-weight? The Neo weighs under 1 kg.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

yup, less than a kg also.

b.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ah what the heck, I've done it now, I'm being given it for my birthday. What's advice for but to throw to the winds, eh?

*runs away through some wind*

[msilverstar]

nonono not the alphasmart! it's incredibly clunky and hard to deal with, and the kids in primary school had to use them ten years ago. Also they randomly lost all work way too often.

netbook would be fine, eeepc or whatever.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

But what about something that starts up instantly and that has no internet access?

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

... like a notebook, you mean?
The one really impressive thing about the alphasmart, for me, is the battery life. But I suspect I would find the teensy screen aggravating -- one of the nice things about word-processing is being able to see the shape of a paragraph, the flow of a page.

I confess to still missing my PDA + folding keyboard: instantly on, good battery life, and fits in a small handbag!

I am trying to sidle my way out of current don't-wanna-write by writing everything longhand first.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the battery life is very important! I take your point about the tiny screen; that is a real issue. :-(

What happened to your PDA? You loved that thing!

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

Oh, I still have a PDA -- and it's still where I read fic. But the software I used to use isn't available for this model, and my fabulous fold-out keyboard doesn't work any more. (Overuse!)

As for EEE .... I don't use it nearly as much as I'd thought I would. The keyboard is not quite normal size, which slows me down, and though I do have yWriter (my fiction-writing software of choice) on it, it runs pretty slowly. (Is much better for plain text writing.)

I ended up getting a plus-size battery for the EEE and still only get 4-5 hours out of it -- it's fine for a train journey or a writing-day at a friend's, but I don't really like rechargeable devices, would much rather have old-fashioned batteries!

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

also, re 'no internet access' (WORD) I found that simply not setting up web access on the EEE has worked a treat!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

So you have an EEE?? Any thoughts?

[msilverstar]

sure, jut not that thing!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Randomly using work is not a good thing. That is a concern.

Hm.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

The eee weighs about 1kg - 1.1kg, depending what size you go for. It starts up very quickly. Battery life - not particularly great, but mine's an earlier version, the later ones may be better. Mine's a 9" - I think now I'd go for a 10" if I wanted to type on it a lot. Internet access shouldn't be difficult to disable.

I've also heard that about the alpha-smart losing work - not sure I'd risk it.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ok, the losing work is a BIG no-no. Hm.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Why did I not check out your eee while I was there? How vexing.