 Dave at
MacWorld 1997
"Portable Keyboards, Say What?"
I have to admit, that was my first reaction. In the
middle of all the incredible high technology of the MacWorld Expo I cam across what was
reminiscent of some of the early portable word processors, the AlphaSmart Pro.
What is it? A portable keyboard. Yawn... right? Not
really, in fact my very first reaction and my almost arrogant attitude about such devices
might have caused me to pass by the booth. Yet this very thing, the oddness of seeing this
type of device, is what stopped me. I spent not the usual couple of minutes in the booth,
but maybe 30 minutes, and multiple visits.
For a long time I have wanted to purchase a laptop
for writing purposes. Often by the time you pull out a typical laptop, boot it up, load
the software, and settle back to write; the phone rings, someone shows up in the office,
or (if your home) your child, spouse, significant other, dog, or cat needs something. At
the end of the day the machine has been warmly humming away and nothing is done. So for me
this is an option for a low tech instant on input device to get the ideas "down on
paper" as one used to say.
Spell check - no, thesaurus - no, mouse - no; just a
typing device. At least 10 of these can be purchased for the price of a regular computer,
and that is their actual market. The real market is schools. Special carts are sold to
hold up to 36 of the units so that each student can have a writing tool to use in class at
the same time. An amazing concept; affordable computing for everyone, really affordable,
not just affordable in the eyes of some corporate president.
One of the things that makes this work so well
is that it plugs into your existing Mac or PC keyboard jack. Then, it's as simple as
pushing the SEND key to
start the unit typing right into your word processor. That's it, unless you want to send
information back to the AlphaSmart Pro which requires a small $19 utility. They also make
other accessories to cover most needs for interfacing into the keyboard on a PC or the MAC
desktop buss.
One other note, of surprise, it works with Macs even
running system 6.x or PCs running DOS, so they are assuming that the folks that need this
may not be at the crest of recent technology. This is a refreshing perspective for a
company to take.
Anyway, this is a short little mention of what
I think is a great little product for a specific market, though I think I may be getting
one soon myself, by the way, it runs on 2 AA batteries for 200 hours. For more information
and instructor testimonials check Intelligent Peripheral Device's website at http://www.alphasmart.com
or email at info@alphasmart.com.
 Dave "Sure Luck" Holmes
 
 
 
|
