Basically I'm trying to figure out how to refine this from 'hazy concept some random internet guy has' to 'thing that might actually be build-able if enough money and talent got thrown at it.'
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vrf/442151928/
I give to you the concept design for The Gutenberg.
Yes this is very 'alphasmart' inspired. I think part of what caused the alphasmart to fail outside of the majority of people not knowing what the things were, was 'ipads are cool. chromebooks are in. let's do those.' That and the fact for $180 or even $120 that was what they were selling the Alphasmart at to just get rid of the units in the warehouse you can get OKish tablets, especially at bulk rates schools are likely able to achieve.
I realize there is no market for this. Most will see it as a neutered tablet or a poor attempt at netbook. Those that might see value in it would just go get a $20 alphasmart off ebay. this is just a device I want and wish existed. Something between 'word processor', 'dedicated e-reader' and 'tablet.'
I want it to do the following things:
* Proper full travel keys. Not chiclet keys. I don't care if they're membrane or not since right now I'm on a twelve dollar logitech keyboard and it feels a lot nicer than chiclet.
* Word Processing. Preferably would like it to spit out some form of formatted text (be it markdown, HTML, or RTF.) If HTML It would only allow basic formatting (heading size, bold, Underline, Italic.) Adding the ability to create links is tempting but probably not a very good idea, though being able to make it link to different files on unit would be kinda neat... my worry though is 'oh hey let's add one more feature, just one more. Aww come on it can do This so why not That.' However straight up plain text is going to always be recognized so long as ASCII is used.
* Plug into the usb on something else either to transfer files out, hit a button so it 'types' out whatever's open into the device it's plugged into (that sees it as a keyboard and storage device.) I want the device it's plugged into to see both a 'keyboard' and 'storage device.' This is because I want there to always be some way of getting information OUT of this thing.
* Being able to run off AC power, preferably off a cellphone charger and microusb. Would be nice if this is the same USB port you plug in to get data in/out.
* Able to read epub docs since 'why not'. Plus that would allow it to also act as an e-reader. That would actually be pretty useful for the sake of reference documents. Wikipedia allows binding up bunches of articles together as epub. Open Office/libre writer can save to epub. Give it just that little bit more functionality than the Alphasmarts had and you unlock a lot of possibility for a low power device to reference material, then alt+tab back to your document to edit.
* An SD card slot (full sized SD card mind you.) While I want the unit to be able to save files on device to ram (to keep chances of any internal storage getting corrupted from constant overwrites. Yes that means the thing forgets everything not in a rom update when the power goes, but still I consider that acceptable) I also want a more permanent on device option and SD cards are kinda everywhere. Would be nice if it supported 64gig cards, but if it could only support 32 and down that's OKish too.
* Some kind of settings menu so you can adjust things like how long the display stays on/auto shutdown. How often you want it to autosave your work, easy way to check your current battery charge level. Things like that.
* User turns the machine on. If no files are on the attached SD Card or a card does not exist then it opens a blank document. If readable documents exist on SD card (either in root or in a special directory like /documents/ or something) it will attempt to open the last opened file.
* A way to browse files on attached SD card from just the device itself. The whole point here is to be able to do some sort of bare productivity without having to have a compute, preferably with battery life that is long enough to not need to change more than once a month. The Alphasmart Neo had 700 hours. I don't think I can get that kind of power off of this thing, but I'd be willing to settle for fifty or a hundred hours of use between swaps.
* Allow users to assign different files to function keys for quick access (depending on how many the attached keyboard has.) User presses a Function key while document is open and it will ask if user wants to bind file to that key. Bonus points if it warns user if a file is already bound to key. If the file for a key cannot be detected then key is going to be treated as if it is free to re-bind.
* Keyboard navigation such as shortcuts for current file's word count, easy way to check current battery level....
* Black and white screen so there's less need for power. After all it's only going to do word processing, ebooks, file management, and optionally music.
* User Replaceable Battery of a common enough type that when it goes bad a new can be relatively easily be gotten.
Optionally/Would Be Nice:
* A headphone jack so you can listen to music while you work. Note I do NOT want in-unit speakers. Just a headphone jack with MP3/OGG support as well as the ability to handle playlists.
* You plug unit into computer and the computer sees two things.
1. The keyboard that it's connected to.
2. The SD Card's file system.
I would like the user to still be able to hit a button and have the unit auto-type out whatever file is currently open so no matter what, if 'oh this thing is a keyboard' signal remains the same then you have a way of getting your work off the SD Card. However I'd settle for it being a pass through so you can just plug in, select what you want from the card, copy over or to, and then unplug without having to deal with pulling the card, slotting it in, maybe losing the card.
Debating heavily on if it's needed or not.
* Wifi so you can sync to a central server (include Windows, OSX, and Linux solutions so you can set up using whatever computer you own, or have the 'server' be a networked drive) for document syncing not to a 'cloud' but to a local machine that would either be the teacher's personal box, or for those at home a dedicated backup device so you have your copy on device, copy on SD card, and off site copy. I cannot count how often I have lost work and wished a backup existed, or finding backups I'd forgotten about years later. The problem is WiFi just sucks down power and drives cost up. That and 'oh it wifi's. Why not give it a bare minimum lynx browser?' well then you're screwed for being task oriented. I just like the idea of being able to remotely grab things sent from the local server for tests, work. being able to sync material, and so on.
The other thing is I want it user serviceable. Something I could go in and replace the battery on, pop the screen out if need be, pop keys off to clean the keyboard. I'm tired of sealed black boxes. The problem is sealed black boxes are easier to make, easier to sell people on sex appeal of, and easier to convince people to trade up in two years when the battery that can't be replaced gives out for the new shinier model.