Apple ALMOST made this portable word processor!

The AlphaSmart text editing device was originally designed by Apple engineers. When they couldn't get their employer to build it, they decided to do so themselves -- and ended up being a rather clever, long-lived device.

Sources:
Computer lab photo: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computingh...
Ketan Kothari photo: https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/ketan-k...
Joe Barrus photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/richard...
Apple Infinte Loop campus photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
AlphaSmart Pro owner's manual: https://archive.org/details/AlphaSmar...
"AlphaSmart: A History of One of Ed-Tech's Favorite (Drop-Kickable) Writing Tools": http://hackeducation.com/2015/07/25/a...
PC computer lab photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
"AlphaSmart Pro 2.1," Macworld, March 1997.
"Smart Keyboard for the Classroom," Computerworld, July 6, 1998.
AlphaSmart 2000 photo: https://www.journaldulapin.com/2018/0...
3rd-party SmartApplets: https://www.spectronics.com.au/catalo...
"Lightweight Note-Taker," PC World, March 2003.
AlphaSmart Neo photo and ad: https://hackaday.com/2020/11/05/alpha...
"AlphaSmart files $58 million IPO," MarketWatch: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alp...
Renaissance Learning acquires AlphaSmart press release: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...
AlphaSmart Neo 2 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Laptop charging cart photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
AlphaSmart Neo discontinued: https://web.archive.org/web/201311140...
AlphaSmart 3000 with modded keyboard photo:   / finished_my_3000_mechanical_keyboard_mod  
LazyDog's AlphaSmart keyboard mod kit (no longer being sold): http://tilde.club/%7Ejy4m/alphasmart/... and https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=...
Freewrite devices: https://getfreewrite.com

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Music by Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Bo....