I love gadgets. My latest bit of technology is a tad dated—a nifty AlphaSmart 2000. It weighs under three pounds, is pretty darn near indestructible, and goes 120-300 hours on three AA batteries.
I bought it used on eBay for around $40US.The power adapter is missing (I knew that when I bought it) but, like I said, it can go nearly forever on three (count ‘em 1, 2, 3) AA batteries.
I also purchased an AlphaSmart “USB to ADB cable” (CBL-UT20) to transfer stuff I’d typed from the 2000 to my Powerbook G4. When I plugged one to the other, my Apple G4 recognized an external keyboard had been connected but that’s as far as it went. I can’t get it to connect fully.
Our friend Alethea also bought an Alphasmart 2000 for her trip to Chile. She bought a totally different cable. Ancient. The fine folks who support the Dana and Neo (formerly called the 2000 the later the 3000) had never heard of the cable she had. But, wonder of wonders, it connects to a PC laptop. So I typed this note on the 2000, transferred it to the HP laptop, put the document on a flash drive memory stick, and moved that to my Powerbook G4 to upload to this here blog.
It may have been faster to simply type directly into the blog, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.
Nullius in Verba 
I’m waiting for the technology to evolve to the point where I can hold my journal notebook in front of my computer and have it grab my scribbling and turn it into readable type.
What do you think daVinci’s notebook would have looked like if he had had a laptop?
LdV would’ve encrypted the bejeebers out of his stuff.
Have you tried any of the PC tablets or a Palm?
You’ve got me looking at them on eBay now.
I think I may want one…
Lexi,
I think you may want a 3000 at least.
I’ve not been able to get it recognized on any of my 4 PCs (two laptops and two towers). Each of those ‘recognized’ it, “new device found” yet didn’t accept the text as they were supposed to using the USB connection. So far it’s a serial connection to the HP laptop that I’ve been able to get to work.
But, for trips and school notes it is a literally a cool little machine. It does not get hot like a laptop.
We have a number of trips planned today and are taking Alphie with us . I have two reviews due before 4AM