About Secrest Secrest Resources has distributed a select line of learning and assistive technology products since 1994. We specialize in innovative hardware and software products, including Alphasmart keyboards, Wizcom scanning pens, and Earobics and textHELP software, for use in the classroom and in particular for students with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, or written output challenges. These tools can also offer an ideal solution for students, writers, researchers and teachers who wish to ease the burden of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. At Secrest, we take great care in the selection process to ensure that our products are effective, reliable and cost-competitive. Our website, Secrest.ca, has been online for over 10 years, providing detailed descriptions of all our products. Feel free to contact us for further information.
I've written about before, but David Kadavy: the creative focus of a typewriter, and you get a text file. The things that are crappy about this piece of “technology” are the things that make it great for writing. Productivity is all about mind management, not time management, and this pile of plastic helps me keep my mind in the right brain state for writing – and writing only. 1) It doesn’t connect to the Internet. 2) It has a tiny, nearly useless, screen. 3) Editing on it is a pain in the ass.
4) It doesn’t connect to the cloud. (It hardly connects to your computer.) There's still not much like it. The (formerly the Hemingwrite) is a new gadget which is functionally similar, but it's $350, significantly larger, and looks very silly indeed. There are various other instant-on writing gadgets like the Alphasmart, lurking in the vintage no-mans-land between 'focused' and 'maintenance hell'—the has a cult following, and folks out there are still obsessed with their Portable Tandys. The appears to the best current answer to all these devices, but I haven't had a chance to give it a whirl. The, an instant-on Windows CE device similar to these but with a more traditional display, was my favorite writing gadget until it died. It has a cut-down Microsoft Word.
Alphasmart Online
The email and web browser are 15 years old and so useless at this point they should not distract from writing. But maybe they will. It's got plenty on it to let you noodle around not writing. Kadavy even praises the Alphasmart's crummy operating system, which makes editing so difficult you won't bother. More focus on creative dumping! He's got a point, but there's a place for something more refined.
No more features—just well-designed. Here's what I would like: a compact bluetooth keyboard with a full-width e-ink display and an open-source OS. Turn off the BT and it goes into word processor mode. No fuss: just bluetooth, USB and at least one actually nice typeface. It would look an awful lot like this Logitech keyboard. Imagine a nice high-dpi e-ink display instead of the solar panel.
It would also come in green. Read the rules you agree to by using this website in our. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Boing Boing uses cookies and analytics trackers, and is supported by advertising, merchandise sales and affiliate links.
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