You can only see a few words at a time, very hard to read what you have typed out. The interface and software to get them to work was a pain in the ass. The file system they had was less than stellar, my shit kept getting overwritten or would not save correctly. Total junk.
It used volatile memory, which was standard for the time, and required a battery backup to keep your data preserved in case the 3 AA cells (which lasted about 700 hours of use) completely drained. No, 700 is not a typo.
The later editions (the Neo and Neo 2) are still compatible with modern technology, since when the Alphasmart is plugged into a computer (or smartphone) via USB, it shows up as a keyboard. Sending your text file to the computer basically just sends all the keystrokes over to your text editor of choice as though you’re typing it really fast.
You can only see a few words at a time, very hard to read what you have typed out. The interface and software to get them to work was a pain in the ass. The file system they had was less than stellar, my shit kept getting overwritten or would not save correctly. Total junk.
It used volatile memory, which was standard for the time, and required a battery backup to keep your data preserved in case the 3 AA cells (which lasted about 700 hours of use) completely drained. No, 700 is not a typo.
The later editions (the Neo and Neo 2) are still compatible with modern technology, since when the Alphasmart is plugged into a computer (or smartphone) via USB, it shows up as a keyboard. Sending your text file to the computer basically just sends all the keystrokes over to your text editor of choice as though you’re typing it really fast.