Lektronic gadgets for writing

[pandigital]

now i know i wont be getting scrivener onto an iPhone, does anyone have any favourite gadgets for mobile writing - smaller than a laptop?

[AmberV]

[david_b]

A notebook (Moleskine pocket, are my favorites) and a simple gel pen (Stabilo Stylist). It fits in (almost) any pocket : great for mobile writing

BTW, the reward warning on the front page of the Moleskine does work ! I got back one notebook I lost a few days before, for a few bucks (and a coffee). I was *so* happy !
I am not sure loosing an iPhone in the street I may ever see it again

[druid]

Electronic: the Dana, by Alphasmart. Full keyboard, runs on Palm OS, reads and writes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, e-mail and IM via Wi-Fi, compatible with Mac and Windows: $319. http://www.alphasmart.com/Retail/

Manual: the Pocket Briefcase, by Levenger. Stores pen and 3 x 5 note cards, many sizes and styles, from shirt pocket up to notebook: $38 and up. http://www.levenger.com/

[pandigital]

Recently got one of my moleskines back too, what a relief it was

for the price of the dana you might consider this new asus
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol ... 842607.ece

runs on linux out the box

[druid]

for the price of the dana you might consider this new asus

Wow, exceptionally cool. I'd rather have one of these ultras than an iPhone. It has a full keyboard for writing, and possibly I could install Skype for free/cheap phone calls. Wish Apple would build one!

[fgrieser]

Wow, exceptionally cool. I'd rather have one of these ultras than an iPhone. It has a full keyboard for writing, and possibly I could install Skype for free/cheap phone calls. Wish Apple would build one!

The EEePC has Skype on board.

Franz

[Studio717]

Just came back from a writing retreat and my gadgets of choice (and ones that I used) were:

- Mac Powerbook G4 (15" Al)
- Canon i80 portable printer (w/ battery and bluetooth for wireless printing)
- iPhone - let me do both phoning and email - there was cell service but no wifi where I was at (and no regular phones or tvs) plus electricity to charge all my darlings up.
- iPod (80GB classic) - handier than I expected. Not only did I have music and audiobooks, I was also able to use it as a hard drive for backups and to keep extra research on.

I thought about taking my Sony eReader and my Alphasmart Neo but didn't. The first because I didn't want to get distracted reading stuff I can read at home, and the latter because I had my notebook with me and didn't want to take too much stuff. I think next time I may take the Neo along with the notebook. I would not, however, take just the Neo though I like it a lot. (I don't have my Dana anymore.)

[hallogallo]

Thinking of getting a psion revo. It's small, it got real keys, smaller than ordinary keyboard keys but they aren't small and rubbery at least...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Revo

[nadinbrzezinski]

fits in a pocket, has a fairly descent screen, and with a word processor developed for it, I can edit on the fly and not worry about a battery dying

Oh and how much writing I have done on it?

Well my RPG books that I publish... I'd say half of the writing has been done on it

[pink]

my laptop is an old G3 ibook which lasts about 3 minutes on battery, and I've not installed Scrivener on it yet (although I am sure I will), but I do have a trusty A5 notebook and my favourite pen.

[Juddbert]

I still use a Psion Series 7. Great for note taking as the keyboard is simply a joy to use (why don't Apple make one this good?). At nine years old, the battery still lasts for a full day. There's no software available to handle file transfers to a Mac (none that I know of that is), but I simply save my documents to a compact flash disk as plain text, then slot the disk into a card reader attached to the Mac's USB slot and, bingo! Instant notes to work with and format as I choose.

Proves the adage: - If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[RTJK]

I was an avid Psion user - I had a 5 and I made quite a few of my friends buy a Revo (although the Revo keyboard is a bit *too* small for serious typing IMHO). I wrote several of my early scripts using nothing but a Series 5. I didn't even own a computer, but I could get up to 60 wpm on that tiny keyboard and I worked out how to send emails from it etc. It was my personal computer. I'm still considering buying a second hand Series 7 for the days when my G4 12" iBook just feels too big

Some people might be interested to know about an incredible article theregister.co.uk did on the (largely self-inflicted) demise of Psion. The silly bastards - to this day there's still no subnotebook that can touch that line of machines. I averaged 30 days battery on the Series 5's two double A's.

That link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/psion_special/

[Dom]

I still regularly use my Psion 5. I've got a bit of software on it which converts the internal word processor format to rtf and vice versa - and it normally gets the formatting right - so a card reader is all I need for Psion / Mac goodness. Great little machine, although the screen can be hard to read at times.

Must admit, that little Asus looks pretty good though. Shame it's not in stock anywhere that I can find, despite the release date being (apparently) eight days ago. Sold out, or not yet released, I guess.

[RTJK]

I'll hold off until the new year to see what Apple are bringing out (the rumours are mounting there's a subnotebook on the way, although it is very unlikely to be as small as the toys we're talking about here).

But the Asus does look good. Shame their website thucks aaath: I can't find any mention of the aforementioned gadget. And I'd have to run Windows or Linux which is about as thrilling as...

... trails off