The last thing I need is another place to write by hand. Handwriting is an incredibly inefficient way to transmit information from brain to computer, especially for me (I'm dysgraphic).
I just want a very long-life note-taking tablet with a decent keyboard. There's a reason the old Tandy 100 is still in use by a handful of journalists. Nothing has really taken the place of it, as far as I know.
The Kindle keyboard isn't comfortable enough to write a book or an article on; phone keyboards are too small and editing too much of a chore (I'd use vim on my Nexus One if it weren't such a damned hassle to hit Esc and some of the other special keys). I currently use a netbook for this purpose, but the battery life is too short at only a couple of hours. I can't go to the park and knock out a chapter in two hours, and rebooting to change batteries every two hours would be a productivity killer, even if I wanted to spend a bunch of money on spares and go to the trouble to keep them charged.
I guess I'm just not the niche for this device, as I can't imagine ever using it for anything.
yes! Scribbling a small mock-up screen or a mind-map or an algo on an e-ink pad would be just so simple && awesome! (I can't even imagine doing that with a keyb/mouse)
>I'd use vim on my Nexus One if it weren't such a damned hassle to hit Esc and some of the other special keys
I run emacs on my N810 (Nokia tablet). I haven't yet seen another device with a good enough keyboard, though. The N810 has Esc and Control, and has () and <> on the keys, and I've configured the terminal for one-touch {}, [], and |.
I can handwrite math lecture notes much more quickly than I can type the same notation in LaTeX, etc. For me, this makes a tablet better for coursework than a keyboard.
It's got a full-sized keyboard with a built-in 6 line LCD screen. It runs on 3 AA batteries or a rechargeable pack and it honestly runs forever. I got one originally 5 years ago when I did Nanowrimo for the first time. I use it all the time when I'm in the mood to just write, because there's no distraction. The only real downside is the need to hook it up to USB to transfer files off of it.
That looks close to ideal. Maybe a little big, but 700 hours from 3 AA batteries is perfect. Better than the GameBoy I use as a musical scratchpad in the same kinds of situations.
QWERTY keyboard with proper keys in a decent shape and that aren't much smaller than netbook keys. But it'll fit into a pocket and run for plenty of time on AA batteries. I could and did touch type on it fast enough to take very usable notes in meetings. And for those that want to draw diagrams, it's got a touchscreen too.
Honestly, I've never found anything quite as good and think it's a major shame they're not still available. A smartphone with the keyboard from one of these things would be brilliant; I just can't understand why companies play about with these silly modified calculator keyboards when there was something so much better available in 1997. If I were HTC I'd be making it, if I were a VC I'd be funding whoever could make it.
In my experience, the Psion 5's are starting to break down now. I went through 4 in a year!
My solution was to buy a Psion 5MX, not because it's better built, but because it came out 2-3 years after the 5 and thus will last on average 2 years longer - which means they'll break in 2012. Also stockpiling the 5MX's so when mine breaks in 2012, I'll have 3 or 4 more to last me a few more years.
I've got a 5mx here that's not been used in a while, should have plenty of life left in it..... :-)
(Disclaimer - I stopped using it because I changed jobs and no longer needed its functionality, then eventually went for a netbook as I no longer so needed its portability and valued being able to run Visual Studio! I'd still recommend them to anyone who really wants a portable machine rather than just a toy though; in some ways I genuinely prefer it to my Android phone.)
I ought to add for those looking for a Revo: The inbuilt rechargeable AAA batteries are very hard to replace, and so Revo's (and Revo Plus's) on Ebay, so many years after being initially sold, are likely to have a poor recharge cycle. Stick with a 5MX as you can replace the batteries easily.
My NC-10 is getting long in the tooth on its original 6-cell battery, but it still gets 4.5-6 hours, depending upon what I'm doing, and I seldom (read "almost never") remember to turn off wifi, which is a major power suck.
Quite a few netbooks come (or came: the average spec may have increased since I bought mine two years ago) with a little 3-cell battery: some Acer models like my AA1 and some Dells like a friends Mini9, to name two.
Nice and light, but you only get about 2-to-2-ana-half hours (three if you are careful with screen brightness and turn wireless off). I have a chunky after-market battery that lives in the Acer giving ~7 hours active use with everything turned on, but sometimes chuck the little one back in for the size/weight convenience.
I just want a very long-life note-taking tablet with a decent keyboard. There's a reason the old Tandy 100 is still in use by a handful of journalists. Nothing has really taken the place of it, as far as I know.
The Kindle keyboard isn't comfortable enough to write a book or an article on; phone keyboards are too small and editing too much of a chore (I'd use vim on my Nexus One if it weren't such a damned hassle to hit Esc and some of the other special keys). I currently use a netbook for this purpose, but the battery life is too short at only a couple of hours. I can't go to the park and knock out a chapter in two hours, and rebooting to change batteries every two hours would be a productivity killer, even if I wanted to spend a bunch of money on spares and go to the trouble to keep them charged.
I guess I'm just not the niche for this device, as I can't imagine ever using it for anything.
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