On your desktop, AlphaSmart Pro functions as a full-size keyboard for a PC or Macintosh.
Unplug it, and you've got a piece of electronic notepaper with 128K of RAM - enough for 64 pages of typed prose. Take it to a lecture, a meeting, or the beach - you can read the keyboard's four-line screen in direct sunlight. Back home, plug it in and hit the Send button - everything you typed converts into a wordprocessing document.
Editing on this 2-pound keyboard is limited, to say the least; the only tools are cursor arrows and a global search feature. I wish I could move and delete multiple words at a time. Oh, well. On the other hand, the unit's memory is divided into eight separate banks, so you can take notes in one bank and write a letter in another.
AlphaSmart Pro runs for 200 hours on a pair of AA batteries. A lithium battery keeps the unit's memory intact for about five years.
Although this keyboard is being marketed primarily to elementary schools, it's ideal for journalists and writers. A US$19 add-on package lets you download from the PC back into the keyboard.
##### AlphaSmart Pro: US$249. Intelligent Peripheral Devices: +1 (408) 252 9400, email info@alphasmart.com, on the Web at www.alphasmart.com/.
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