Rob and I are both obsessed with the chimeric ultimate portable writing device. The idea is simple: essentially, it is a tiny, lightweight word processor with a low price, quick startup and incredible battery life that does nothing short of allow you to jot off a few pages of an article or short story no matter where you are. A sort of small, hardware-based Writeroom platform, really.
It seems like it should exist, but it doesn’t: laptops are more fully featured but too expensive and netbooks fail on battery life. The idea, really, is far too specific to ever get any traction: like the Peek email client, it’s the sort of gadget that would only be reviewed based upon the criterion of what it was never meant to do.
So I’m sort of captivated by this Pomera Digital Memo. It’s exactly the device we are talking about: pocketable, with a full-sized folding keyboard, 2 second startup and 20 hours battery life. All you can do on it is type.
Unfortunately, it’s still far too expensive at $269, so the search continues.
Pomera Digital Memo [King Jim via Engadget]
One of my favorite rigs was a palm device (mine was a handera330) and a foldable Palm keyboard. Great for meeting notes and whatnot. This immediately reminded me of that.
Tandy WP-2 (Okay, it doesn’t fold up.)
Scaught, yeah, I had that for my old Dell Axim x3 as well, and it also came to mind.
My dad used to have a keyboard with a one (maybe two?) line LCD display and a buffer you could fill up with text, then plug it into a Mac as a standard keyboard to spit the text into whatever app you wanted. I don’t remember what it was called, but this was in the early 1990s.
It seems reasonable in comparison to similar-ish devices like the QuickPAD (189 USD) and the AlphaSmart Neo (175 GBP – guessing thats 175 USD given the usual tech exchange rate)
What I want is one that boots into emacs. All you vi users can have an etch-a-sketch.
Brianary: that was almost certainly the original alphasmart, the 1993 model only worked with Macs.
Psion Series 5 anyone? Great Keyboard and 20 hours use between battery change.
I hate to point this out on a gadget blog, but you can also do most of that stuff with, y’know, paper and a pencil.
You can also pick up an old Apple eMate for around $30 – $40 from fleaBay. Throw another $10 in for new rechargeable batteries (plus 1/2 hour with a soldering iron), and you are good to go.
The Windows synchronization software sucks, but you can’t argue the price.
Agree with 9! I still love my old Newton and have been considering getting an eMate myself…
Journalists used Kyocera-manufactured “electronic rolodexes + word processors + payphone-connectable modems” for 20+ years after their EOL (trs-80s, nec, olivetti)
Simple tools yes, but ideal! 20 hours of use on 4 AAs is insane, right? But they did it!
Alphasmarts and their kin are ridiculously popular among writers, and they’re $220-$430 new and nowhere near as portable as this thing.
(Though the low-end Alphasmart boasts something like seven hundred hours of use on 3 AAs, and the $430 touchscreen model runs Palm OS and does Wi-Fi, office apps and e-mail.)
There’s certainly a market for this, so long as the keyboard holds up.
I can certainly vouch for that poor bastard child of an eMate. The only reason Apple isn’t still cranking them out is because they’d finally be universally affordable now.
I will not be satisfied until I have the mythical, ideal device you describe above – and it runs vim.
John, I think I would actually pay a lot for the perfect device.
How about a Palm with a folding keyboard?
But if you want an antique PC in your pocket, try the fabulous Sharp Wizard OZ-9600 with PC-Link! Way ahead of its time – you can make notes and drawings with the stylus and save them. Infrared communication with other 9600s, optional infrared printer and PC links (we don’t need no stinkin’ Bluetooth!)
Why oh why isn’t it Windows-compatible? : (
Guys, seriously, your wonder machine exists. It’s called a pad and pencil. Time to boot up: 0 sec. Battery life: unlimited. Fits in your pocket. No system crashes. Sure, if you drop it in a bucket of water the writing may fade, but at least you won’t be set on fire by flying sparks.
All these links, and not one that has a Dvorak keyboard!
Oh, and to all you device luddites… my wpm using a pencil is far, far below my typing capabilities. Throw in the fact that correcting sentences is more difficult, and a lack of simple synchronization with my home PC, and it’s clear why so many would love to have a small, simple, portable, long-life alternative.
My poor dead TRS-80 Model 100 was all that. In 1983. I’m sure that the current screen technology could provide more characters.
I don’t miss the acoustic coupler modem tho.