I really enjoy having computers and use my laptop almost all through every day. Occasionally I just stop in my tracks and turn it off and just say, "Enough". While returning from a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah I sat next to a published author. She was typing on a weird keyboard looking thing. I had to ask, "What is that?" She told me it was an Alphasmart Neo. She said it took AA batteries and she wrote her romance novels on it. I love to write, but having to lug a laptop and then make sure it's either plugged in or has a full charge can be irritating. Well this past week I went searching for more information and found that an older version, the Alphasmart 3000 could be had on eBay for a song, so I began watching the bids and checking out more information about the little darlings.
I am now the happy owner of an Alphasmart 3000. Hubby removed the dead rechargeable battery and we replaced it with three copper topped AA batteries. I have been writing on it for a couple days now and just think it is marvelous. I can take it anywhere. It holds a long charge as it's nothing but simple text. I can plug it into my computer (you really need a USB printer cable) and open a Word document and then I press SEND and voila, it sends it to a word document. It has eight files and I think I remember it hold 100 pages of text in each file. It takes cheap batteries and even the battery that stores the text you're saving is an easy find and cheap replacement. I didn't even have to have software. I have both Macs and PCs, but used my Vista laptop and it installed a driver that let me receive the text from the Alphasmart!
I love finding technology that is user friendly and this one really is.
Looks like it would be good for my kids to take notes in class, too! Thanks for sharing!
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