AlphaSmart Neo- return of the Tandy 102
Some people just want a portable word processor to carry around with them so they can write whenever they have time. AlphaSmart has just released the Neo which does just that. The Neo is a simple word processor with a monochrome 6 line screen that is attached to a full sized keyboard. It’s light and runs on 3 AA batteries. It has a word processor (AlphaWord Plus) installed in ROM which includes a spell checker and thesaurus. It’s a definite retro device that some might find useful. At $249 I think I’d just get a Radio Shack TRS-80 Tandy 102 from eBay for less than $50. The specs of the two devices are amazingly similar, which is why I call the Neo a retro device. I had a TRS 102 back in the 80’s.
The Neo has a 700 hour battery life, which is much better than the old Tandy. Also, the Neo can work much better with modern computers.
These things are pretty cool. Over at the AlphaSmart site, there’s a guy who changed the color of his Neo to a retro red. Quite neat:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/vrf/isoview.jpg
http://www1.alphasmart.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000378;p=1#000012