by Simon Barrett

Paul and I have completely different interests, but we share that common goal of writing. This made me start to think about other people that might like the Neo. I talked to the very courteous and very helpful people that make the Neo and they told me that one of their markets is the classroom. And a great fit it is.

One of the best examples comes from Lancaster, California. Every November a very loose competition is run nationwide, write a book in a month, the official name is ‘National Novel Writing Month’, or by the acronym NaNoWriMo. Although aimed at adults there is also a junior version under the Young Writers Program. With the young writers the rules are pretty loose, 6000 words, and to hell with spelling and grammar. The object is to write, and to learn to love writing. In 2006 over 15,000 young writers participated in the program.

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by Simon Barrett

I will admit it, I am a bit of a Ludite, and I am proud of it. My Telephone makes phone calls, it does not take photos, play videos, or even MP3’s, it just makes phone calls. My watch tells me the time, and it does it in easy clear to read numbers, it does not have GPS, a pedometer, or an altimeter in it. My printer prints, it does not fax, copy, scan, or make coffee. I am a firm believer in keeping things simple, with simple there is less to go wrong.

The Neo is a great example of what I like to call sophisticated simplicity. The Neo does typing! You type it, and it stores it. OK, it does a few more things, but it is essentially a portable and simplistic word processor. Better still, it runs for 700 hours on 3 AA batteries, that is approximately 698 hours longer than the average Laptop.

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by Simon Barrett

Ok, lets deal with what the Neo is not, it doesn’t internet, it doesn’t email, it doesn’t MP3, and it doesn’t make cell phone calls or take pictures, it doesn’t even Wi-Fi at Starbucks! So what use is this device, I hear you ask?

Well believe it or not, some of us just like to write, and the Neo is a writers dream, it comes with a full size keyboard, yet is entirely portable and packable. For first drafts this the the king of the hill, with a built in spellchecker and thesaurus what more could you ask for?

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Work/life balance: Valley Moms Share Their Best High-Tech Tools
by Karina Bland

Daphne Atkeson of Paradise Valley carries her NEO, a portable keyboard by AlphaSmart, just about everywhere she goes. "It's perfect for brainstorming, catching odd thoughts and draft writing," she says. Atkeson is the author of 20 romantic comedies (she uses the pen name Dawn Atkins), including her most recent, Swept Away.

She can write on it anywhere - from a beach chair on vacation, at her son Alex's soccer practices or while waiting for the doctor.

She recommends the protective case because, if you're a mom, it's bound to get caked with whatever snacks are in the bottom of your purse.

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A new smart phone has changed
my travelling life
by Brian Byrne

As part of my work as a journalist I travel a lot. And to make best use of my time, I need to be able to communicate back to the office fairly easily, often sending back stuff I've worked on while in an airport or on a plane.

For the last several years I've been using a little-known keyboard machine called an AlphaSmart Dana, which is half the weight of my laptop, gives very long battery life - up to 30 hours on a charge. Along with my old Nokia 63101 and a useful direct-dial number to my internet service provider back in Ireland it made sending back articles a doddle and relatively inexpensive.

So let's do a little weight tally here. AlphaSmart Dana and Nokia 63101 around a kilo combined; Canon A610 camera about a quarter of a kilo; on the longer trips the Apple laptop and charger etc about 2.5 kilos. Total, say, four kilos if you take the bag space carrying them into account.

Enter the Nokia N95, the latest from the brand. Having acquired one, I jumped about four generations of phone overnight. With it came internet connectivity via WiFi or GPRS and an email sending capability. It also incorporates a 5.5 megapixel camera with an excellent lens. Even if it doesn't have an optical zoom, that's not a big issue most of the time. This phone has changed my travel communications in a very big way.

But it also means that I can use an even simpler AlphaSmart device, the Neo, which does nothing else but accept writing into text files. Its three AA batteries last for a year, and the files can be transferred by infrared to the N95 from where they can be emailed to editors, or to my GoogleDocs account for safe backup. One of my first such transmissions was from the Andes, of an article about a Land Rover trip to 5,000 metres.

The weight tally for Neo, N95 and charger is a little less than a kilo. The combination does all which my more complex setup for longer trips used to do, and more.

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Tough Times in Lebanon
by Robert W. Easton

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The NEO goes to war
I have moved to an energy conservation mode for these posts. That means that my writing will be on an Alphasmart NEO, and downloaded to my laptop, as power allows. Energy efficient, portable, sturdy, they are terriffic. Is this a commercial for Alphasmart? Well, I have used them in classrooms on three continents, and I think they are the greatest piece of technology to come into the classroom since Apples first invaded, but no, I am not advertising, just advocating. Link to blog

Monday, July 24, 2006
As evacuations go, it probably wasn't bad, but by any any other scale, it was hellish. No danger, just delays, discomfort, and disinformation. I will tell all in a longer post tomorrow. Me and my NEO were busy. Carol sends love to everyone, I'm goin' to take a shower! Link to blog

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Evacuation Saga
In yesterday's post, I forgot to mention that we have ended up at Injarlik Air Force Base in Turkey. What follows is the saga of how we got here. As evacuations go, it probably wasn't too bad, but compared to any other sort of trip, it was hellish. It ends with our arrival here.
[...] It's 7:15 and we are underway! 10 hours to Mersin, Turkey. So now I'm typing in the dark. Keyboarding skills pay off. Although I do wish this wonderful NEO had a backlit screen. Link to blog

Have Neo, will travel far
by Brian Byrne

After five weeks in often very difficult conditions when NEO was my constant writing tool, it is time to record just how it performed. To recap, I was travelling with the Land Rover G4 Challenge, one of only four journalists who covered the whole four weeks of the event from among some 250 of my colleagues who otherwise did a week of the gig apiece.

The journey took me across Thailand from Bangkok, to and up through Laos, and then flying to Rio for an urban event on Copacabana Beach. After that there was a 10-day stint driving through Bolivia, to heights as far as 4,600 metres.

But this is about NEO, which I only bought a few weeks before travelling. And which in the event proved itself as an indispensable and very practical writer's companion.

I'm writing this piece on my Dana, in my favourite local pub in my home town of Kilcullen. And I'm glad to be back to the Dana, because it has so many of the day to day usefulnesses which its Palm architecture provides. But my NEO has proved itself to be a superb, and probably the best writing tool for a journalist in the wild.

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Neo Review
by Sam Cox

Sam Cox of Education Today has been reviewing the Neo for the past two months within the office environment.

"The Neo has been fantastic, it is quick, simple and fun to use. I have taken it away on various business trips because it is so lightweight. When I have been interviewing clients, it's been so handy to use as it saves me having to keep opening and saving files!

"My mum, dad and fiancée are all teachers and they have each in turn taken the Neo into school with them. They have received positive feedback from their students and believe that it is definitely great value for money."

Battle for hearts and minds
by Pete Henshaw

English teachers will be well aware of the amount of government pressure and media attention towards attitudes to reading and writing. Developers of classroom technology are taking advantage of schools’ battles to get their students writing with enthusiasm. One such piece of kit is AlphaSmart’s futuristically named Neo – a lightweight computer companion that can be handed out to children in the classroom for them to work on.

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Laptops are dead – long live Alphasmart
by Jack Barker

I used a Neo on a recent trip to Jordan and found it a fabulously versatile travel tool. I type about as fast as I write and used to take notes on the road, to record interviews as I chatted to people, and to use idle moments to fill type in impressions. Usually I read books during dead travel time: with the Alphasmart you can use the same time to write one.

At about the weight of an SLR camera the Alphasmart Neo has already become an essential part of my travel luggage. There’s no need to waste so much travel time: if your business is writing get an Alphasmart.

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Neo by AlphaSmart
by Charles Doe

I think every elementary school should have at least one classroom set of these excellent devices. The Neo by AlphaSmart also has some home and/or homeschooling applications. Some users may even like to use it instead of a laptop or handheld device for note-taking, as it is smaller and more portable than a laptop and has a nicer keyboard than most handhelds. Highly recommended.

Multimedia & Internet@Schools magazine gives Neo a 5-star "highly recommended" rating.

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A Neo experience
by Brian Asbury

Like its predecessor, the Neo combines affordability with robustness and practicality to provide wordprocessing functionality just about anyway.

AlphaSmart have come up with a real winner in this new addition to its range, and this is a worthy successor to the AlphaSmart 3000. The larger display is a real plus point, and its lightness and the legendary robustness of the AlphaSmart product, coupled with its ease of use, make it perfect for any classroom but doubly so for special needs use, while its portability and long battery life make it a valuable tool to take along on field trips.

I predict that we'll be seing a lot of these in schools before very long.

Tomorrow's world, today
by John Davitt

Alphasmart (W60, www.alphasmart.com), which makes rugged, portable word processors, has produced a new version and offers a trade-in-for-cash scheme for early models. The new Neoword processor is a significantly improved device with a full-sized keyboard and all-day battery. It also features a 50% larger display area and double the memory of earlier models. Screen display is excellent and the font is suitable for younger learners. At just over £200 each, the idea of a set of word processors for the primary classroom suddenly looks more affordable.

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The Neo wordprocessor from Alphasmart
by John Galloway

The Neo is the latest addition to the range of portable word-processors from Alphasmart.
Like its forerunners, it is small and light, with tremendous staying power - 700 hours on 3 AA batteries.

The Neo is a tool that pupils of all ages and abilities could benefit from, not just those with a range of special needs.

Neo AlphaSmart
by Pam Turnbull

The Neo is very portable: it is light, with robust keys and solid feel. The typeface is clear and child-friendly, whichever size you choose. A spellchecker and thesaurus are inlcuded. A nice touch is that you can add to the spellchecker, and it's in British English, not American English.

Test Drive--AlphaSmart Neo
by Jeffrey Hastings

If Henry David Thoreau were alive today and planning a little pondside self-reflection, what writing tool might he choose to tuck into his Spartan rucksack? Obviously, a desktop or laptop wouldn't do; both have an appetite for power and a level of complexity that would exceed his basic needs and thus offend his personal philosophy. How about pencil and paper? Nah. The man was a pragmatist, not a Luddite. My guess is that he'd tote an AlphaSmart Neo.

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Neo Creates New Possibilities
by Catherine Roseberry

The Neo from AlphaSmart provides mobile professionals with an alternative to using a laptop or PDA when collecting information or creating data driven documents. Companies that rely on data input from their mobile workers but don't need Internet access will find the Neo is up to the task. Take a closer look at what the Neo offers and how it can benefit your mobile work-style.

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