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Author Topic: Thoughts about laptops wanted.  (Read 24583 times)

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Charles King

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #30 on: November 13, 2006, 11:46:10 AM »

My thinking was to create a writing laptop, which to my mind means few bells or whistles, no internet, no games, etc. Going out and buying an old used laptop for 500 bucks would serve this purpose-- hence the A drive (my main files are on CD as well, though I still have hundreds of floppy disks around). Just put a program like Word on it and go from there. I've been out of the market for about three years now as I'm happy with what I've got, so battery info and the like might be outdated as the tech keeps improving. ... Oh, one other place to buy these things-- and I shudder to admit that I've used it once or twice-- Home Shopping Network. They really have great deals on Desktops and laptops-- huge bells and whistles and complete packages come with them and you do save money with their deals. With the PCs you can always change the specs once they arrive, adding memory, etc..

Charles  8)


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A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.

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Joyce S

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #31 on: November 13, 2006, 04:40:20 PM »

An alternative to a laptop comes from Alphasmart. I only know this through NaNoWriMo, with which the Alphasmart company teamed up to offer loaner laptops to NaNo'ers.

They sound interesting, but I have no experience with the brand. Here's the URL:

http://www.alphasmart.com/individual/index.html

Joyce S
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Dave Freas

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #32 on: November 13, 2006, 05:14:22 PM »

An alternative to a laptop comes from Alphasmart. I only know this through NaNoWriMo, with which the Alphasmart company teamed up to offer loaner laptops to NaNo'ers.

They sound interesting, but I have no experience with the brand. Here's the URL:

http://www.alphasmart.com/individual/index.html

Joyce S

I have an AlphaSmart (the 3000--an older model) and, even with the laptop, still use it fairly often.  It's basically a laptop word processor and nothing more, but it's great for quickly jotting down ideas or hammering out rough drafts.

Pros:  It's light (about 3 Lbs).  It goes about 700 hours on 3 AAA batteries (I've had mine 3 years and am only on my 4th set of batteries).  It's durable (I've lost count of the number of times I've dropped it).  It's easy to use (turn it on and you're ready to go.  No waiting to boot up.).  Transfer of data from it to your computer is just a matter of connecting the two with a cable and hitting the send key on the AlphaSmart.  It's not expensive (Mine was under $200.  Newer models are more expensive.).

Cons:  A fixed spellchecker (you can't add words to it.  Proper names drive it nuts.).  No special fonts such as italics and underlined.  A display that shows only 4 lines at a time.  A limit of around 12.5 pages in each of its 8 files.  I understand newer models have corrected some of these minor shortcomings, and that's all they are--minor shortcomings.

If all you're looking for is a basic word processor, you can't go wrong with an AlphaSmart.

JMHO

Dave
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Kathy Wendorff

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #33 on: November 13, 2006, 10:39:21 PM »

I love my Alphie. The spellchecker and lack of formatting aren't  problems for me, because I don't bother with that stuff til the text has been downloaded to a Word file. The 4-line screen is a boon when writing a first draft -- keeps me from compulsively rewriting the first half of the page.

It's not much good for editing, but it's a handy thing to throw in a big purse and type first drafts, letters, lists, whatever in spare moments, because it powers up and shuts down so quickly.

Kathy W.
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linda

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #34 on: November 14, 2006, 01:55:01 PM »

I have an older Alphasmart also and I love it.  Because it's not as expensive as a laptop, I don't feel bad about taking it with me where ever I go.  I've taken it on camping trips, to the park, to the mall and restaurants, to my daughter's softball games, and so on.  It's hard to break, it goes forever on a charge (I have the rechargeable batteries) and it's not going to break your piggy bank.

I'm on my second keyboard for the thing.  I asked the company about repairing a sticking "b" key and they sent me a completely new keyboard to replace the one I had. 

Obviously, I like the Alphasmart and the company.

Linda
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Jonathon

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #35 on: September 11, 2011, 01:09:25 PM »

I just bought a new HP Pavilion laptop and I love it.  The great thing about this touch pad-- which I tend to brush with my left palm and scroll down--is that it turns off.  What a good feature.

It is a 15.5" so the screen is big enough to work on, when I set Word to Zoom, Text size, and the keyboard has everything where I'm used to.  The left shift key is smaller that the right, but most sentences begin with words on the left side of the keyboard, so that doesn't matter so much.

This is a business machine, not a gaming machine, so it doesn't have a super duper video card, but at the same time it's great for watching videos or DVDs.

The hard drive is way bigger than what I had on my old machine, it's smarter, faster, and I can take it into the living room when it gets so hot I can't live without the AC.  During the last heat wave, by the time I booted up my old computer, I was too hot to use it.

Wireless internet.  Wow, I love it.  You can go into the library or a cafe and (with the proper code) go online and check your mail.  Sweet.

If you have a person who knows computers around, take them.  Even though Will and I checked online to know the best deals and the best computer for me, I still took him along to the store.  Good thing, too, because the computer I chose was sold out. The salesman wanted me to buy it's big brother beside it.  My son said, "At the same sale price, sure thing."  And it worked!  Even though this machine was listed for $100 more.

So, yeah, take a computer savvy person with you.

Jon



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tholepin

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Re: Thoughts about laptops wanted.
« Reply #36 on: December 26, 2016, 06:39:04 AM »

(I read the warning, but I'm a clinical list ethnologist deep down.) I find the Macbook air laptop coupled with the Scrivener writing program a comfortable platform. Lots of battery time as well.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all who stumble into the room. Leave no clues . . .
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