Right Writing, and Fun, Too
Written: Oct 23 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lightweight, full size keyboard, cheap word processor
Cons: nothing
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| elliejo's Full Review: AlphaSmart 3000 |
At Christmas in 1998 my husband gave me the top item on my wish list, an Alpha Smart 2000, produced by Intelligent Peripheral Devices, Inc. Alpha Smart is a feather weight (2 lb.) but amazingly sturdy word processing device with a four-line LCD screen and a standard size keyboard. Originally designed for children, so exceptionally durable, the Alpha Smart is an inexpensive way to help me act and feel like a pro on the job, whether I’m researching, studying, writing, or interviewing subjects.
The Alpha Smart holds eight separate files with a total of 64 pages single spaced, before it becomes full and requires downloading into my PC. (It also downloads easily into a MAC) Downloading is a simple matter of connecting with a Y cable and disconnecting the standard keyboard of the PC while you hit one key "send" and within two or three minutes you've transferred an 8-page file into your hard drive, and are now ready to fill another file on your Alpha Smart.
Alpha Smart accessories available an AC adaptor, although the batteries last forever—I’ve only replaced mine once in nearly two years of frequent use; an included black polyester carrying case, and special cord connectors for easier transfer to MACs and PCs, though what could be easier than what I’m using now I can’t imagine. Use of the processor is like any other, you can curse forward, backward, up and down, and can delete by backspacing on the “delete” button only. Numbers and other simple characters are included on the keyboard, and the directions booklet is written in understandable English.
My star word processor is so light and convenient to carry, I can slip it into a large handbag and hardly know it’s there. There’s a risk with not using its special carrying case, however. Once on an inter-island flight in Hawaii, I failed to remove the batteries, tossed it into my purse, and lost a file, when something struck the on and delete buttons in the overhead bin! I am more careful now, because that ten-page story I lost I will never recover, and it was one I wrote on the beach at Waikiki!
So convenient is the Alpha Smart it now travels everywhere with me. It’s been on helicopter rides over volcanoes on the Big Island, on beaches in Maui, in the tulip fields of Holland, and kept me company on a wild, grassy knoll overlooking the Atlantic in the middle of a prehistoric circle of Druid stones on a Scottish Island. I take it poolside, in the car, on the bus, plane and train. It has been dropped on stone, cement and the streets of London, and continues to perform flawlessly. When and if it does not, the generous manufacturers have included a three-year warrantee, almost unheard of in the world of complicated electronic devices.
Need to take an easy writing gizmo with you on your travels? Tired of scribbling by hand to take notes or create a masterpiece? Sick of writer’s cramp? Get an inexpensive, excellent Alpha Smart 2000—only by now I believe they’ve graduated to Alpha Smart 3000, and they deserve it—they’ve passed every test I could come up with in the past two years, and at least four people I know have bought on my recommendations. Join the crowd.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
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Epinions.com ID:
elliejo
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Member: Eleanor Sullo
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 23 members
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