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/computinghistory/maclab.html Ketan Kothari photo: https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/ketan-kothari Joe Barrus photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardspics/14799355 Apple Infinte Loop campus photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Headquarters_in_Cupertino.jpg AlphaSmart Pro owner's manual: https://archive.org/details/AlphaSmart_Pro_Owners_Manual_alt "AlphaSmart: A History of One of Ed-Tech's Favorite (Drop-Kickable) Writing Tools": http://hackeducation.com/2015/07/25/alphasmart PC computer lab photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Students_working_on_class_assignment_in_computer_lab.jpg "AlphaSmart Pro 2.1," Macworld, March 1997. "Smart Keyboard for the Classroom," Computerworld, July 6, 1998. AlphaSmart 2000 photo: https://www.journaldulapin.com/2018/03/07/alphasmart-adb/ 3rd-party SmartApplets: https://www.spectronics.com.au/catalogue/smartapplets-for-alphasmart-3000 "Lightweight Note-Taker," PC World, March 2003. AlphaSmart Neo photo and ad: https://hackaday.com/2020/11/05/alphasmart-neo-teardown-this-is-the-way-to-write-without-distractions/ "AlphaSmart files $58 million IPO," MarketWatch: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alphasmart-files-ipo-as-latest-tech-player Renaissance Learning acquires AlphaSmart press release: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1264388/000119312505129967/dex991.htm AlphaSmart Neo 2 photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlphaSmart_Neo_2.jpg Laptop charging cart photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Classmate_PC_charging_trolley.jpg AlphaSmart Neo discontinued: https://web.archive.org/web/20131114042404/http://www.neo-direct.com/ AlphaSmart 3000 with modded keyboard photo: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlphaSmart/comments/kn84w4/finished_my_3000_mechanical_keyboard_mod/ LazyDog's AlphaSmart keyboard mod kit (no longer being sold): http://tilde.club/%7Ejy4m/alphasmart/index.html and https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=91504.0 Freewrite devices: https://getfreewrite.com/ ---------------------------------------­------------------------------------ Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisdoesnotcompute Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp ---------------------------------------­------------------------------------ Music by Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com/). Intro music by BoxCat Games (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/BoxCat_Games).