Published by deborah.woehr on 28 Jun 2007 at 06:31 pm
Preliminary Review of the AlphaSmart Neo
First off, I was very impressed with the customer service. Worried that I wasn’t going to get this in time before I left, I called their office. The lady was very friendly and helpful, which is a rare thing with customer service departments.
The Neo arrived yesterday afternoon. Measuring 1.8″x12.4″x9.8″, it’s smaller than the standard keyboard, yet not too small. Several years ago, I had looked into buying a keyboard for my PDA, but they were way too small and (possibly) too expensive. My PDA has been stored away since then. This won’t happen to the Neo. I’m enjoying it very much.
I’ve written several articles for my blogs, which I successfully exported to my Mac, edited and preposted. Today, I imported the chapter that I’m working on and faced the first downside to this machine, which I’ll discuss below.
Things I Like About the Neo
1. It’s simple to use. Think of it as an electric typewriter without the bulk or the cord.
2. It’s light, yet sturdy. If you order through the link I gave you, you’ll get it with a carrying case, which has plenty of room for notepads, pens, and a small book.
3. Since I don’t have the Internet to distract me, I’m finding myself more focused on what I’m writing.
4. It comes with an instruction manual that is actually useful! I haven’t tried everything yet, like printing directly from the Neo or using the infrared capability that allows you to “beam” your article directly to your computer or printer. When I’m ready, I know I’ll be able to read the directions without wanting to put the manual through my shredder.
5. Thanks to the “File System”, I can organize my work in different sections inside the Neo. The top of the keyboard is lined with buttons for file sections. I’ve decided to use the File 1 section for articles. File 2 through 7 may contain my novel chapters. File 8 will be for notes and research.
6. Memory and battery life. The Neo is built with 2MB of memory. After checking the size of two of my chapters, I realize that I’ll have plenty of memory to go around. You can use the Neo for up to 700 hours before you change the battery. It comes with 3 AAs, which was a great convenience.
7. You don’t have to worry about saving your work every time you have to walk away. The Neo saves your work as you type.
8. The Neo has a built-in spell-checker and thesaurus.
9. The software CD that comes with the Neo does not have a serial number. That means that I can install it on my Mac as well as any of my family’s PCs. It installed just fine on Tiger, but I haven’t tried it with Vista.
Things I Don’t Like
1. The lack for formatting. While that’s not a big issue with article writing, it can be tedious trying to format a chapter in progress. Since the Neo will export your file in text format, you will have to format your text in your word processor. The upside to that is I can go through and polish what I’ve written and possibly catch some typos in the process.
2. No LCD backlighting. I see this as a negative and a positive. You have to have adequate lighting in order to see the screen. The positive side of this involves eyestrain. I have a stygmatism where my eyes are constantly adjusting from the light of the computer screen and any other light source at the same time. The result is that I get headaches often, especially when I work long hours.
3. The size of the LCD screen. I don’t remember the last time I used a screen this small. You can adjust the font display size, but the default works fine. It’s going to take some getting used to. I won’t be using this for heavy editing.
Is the AlphaSmart Neo worth the investment? I would say definitely. It’s cheaper than a basic laptop. It won’t heat up on you, like a laptop. And, you can type with the Neo sitting in your lap.
Vance on 28 Jun 2007 at 10:51 pm #
Regarding the formatting, you can “cheat” a little if you use Word on the desktop. Just tag your text on Neo with _italics_ and *bold* When you upload to Word, you can use the autocorrect function to correctly change all those tags to formatted text.
Of course, if you’re blogging or using Google docs, you could use HTML tags which would offer a lot more formatting options.
Vance
Vance on 28 Jun 2007 at 10:54 pm #
One more thing: You can also beam text to your PDA that you mentioned, whether it’s Palm or PPC. You can check the AlphaSmart Flickr group for the details.
deborah.woehr on 29 Jun 2007 at 4:17 am #
Thanks for the tips, Vance.
I’ll be checking out that Flickr group more closely when I return from my trip.
Steve on 29 Jun 2007 at 7:09 am #
Deborah,
Here is a link to Mark’s fonts:
http://alquanto.com/download.html
Mark’s Bold 6-line font is very easy on the eyes. It might look a bit fat at first, but it has become my default Neo font. There is even an 11-line font included in his font set, although it isn’t the prettiest font, it is legible. I think Mark made excellent font design choices given the limitations of the screen.
Steve
Steve on 29 Jun 2007 at 8:12 am #
Also, you might want to pick up some rubber grip shelf liner to place under the Neo. It comes in twelve-inch-wide rolls. Get the thicker stuff, which is less prone to bunching. This helps keep the Neo in place if you use a lap pillow, lap desk, slant desk, etc.
Steve
deborah.woehr on 29 Jun 2007 at 2:17 pm #
Thanks for the tips, Steve! I was thinking about getting a lap desk, so the shelf liner would be a great help. Oh, and thanks for the link to Mark’s fonts. I’ve downloaded the first set and will give them a try.
Steve on 29 Jun 2007 at 2:46 pm #
Deborah,
By “downloading,” do you mean “installed on the Neo?”
Mark’s most recent font-set update was v. 1.4. You do not need a previous version to install them. I think I installed the fonts using an Intel IMac.
The gripper-tip was second-hand from “Austruck” on the flickr group. A firm pillow usually wins out over my laplander (Levenger).
- Steve
deborah.woehr on 29 Jun 2007 at 6:41 pm #
Hi, Steve,
I installed them onto my Intel Mac, although I haven’t gotten around to installing them on the Neo yet.
fred charles on 09 Jul 2007 at 7:56 am #
Thanks for the review. I’m surprised that a writing device does not include formatting. The screen might be a problem for me though. Still, the pros seem to outweigh the cons. Maybe I will get on for Xmas!
minihan on 10 Jul 2007 at 2:29 pm #
how did mark install fonts on a NEO, please? i thought the machine was output only, presumably via a USB to USB cable?
how do you add to the internal programming???
nice article, deborah. there’s very little on the ‘net thus far, except for promotional stuff from ALPHASMART. with the exception of the 4-part series written by MARK ZEEDER on MacOPINION a couple of months ago, which is what has gotten me interested.
i’m thinking … in light of the talk now going around about APPLE coming out with a super-thin, super-light laptop (i still think of them in those terms) later this year.
mm
deborah.woehr on 11 Jul 2007 at 2:30 pm #
Fred: This is an awesome little machine. I’ve used it on the plane, in the car, etc.
Minihan: I don’t know how to answer your question right now. But I’ll look into it when I return from vacation this weekend. Thanks for visiting!