Alpha Smart Neo: A great piece of equipment (when it works)

After 3 years in Bali blogging away like a little benchong, I have started to figure out what equipment works the best. Here in Bali I need to be mobile and have a scooter, a cell phone, a cheap Canon camera and an iRiver for audio interviews. One of my favourite pieces of equipment is the Alpha Smart Neo. The Neo has a soft touch keyboard allowing fast typing. It weighs 2lbs and is battery powered. The power requirements are small and a set of 3 AA batteries will last 6 months.

Pressing the on/off button gets you straight into the last article you were working on, in one of the 8 memories. There are a ton of keyboard stokes you can use. For example, hold down the Shift key, use the arrow keys and that highlights text. You can then use Ctrl X (cut) Ctrl C (copy) Ctrl V (paste) and a host of others to manipulate your article.

Transferring data to a PC is easy. I use a USB cable, open a World doc, or email page, and press ‘Send’. The data immediately being sent over. Neo also has an infra-red function for data transfer. The really great thing about the Neo, is that it allows me to whip up articles on the fly. I can sit at a hotel, on the side of a mountain or in someones office and knock out 500 words.

Its a great tool, and if you are a travel-blogger, get yourself on of these babies.