FileTransfer Filter: AlphaSmart Neo to iPhone?

July 6, 2008 6:32 PM

My AlphaSmart Neo has USB and Infrared ports. iPhone has Bluetooth and the Apple 30 pin connector. Is it possible, and if so, how difficult would be it to hack something to allow sending a plain text file from the Neo to the iPhone?

Why? Because the Neo is an awesome writing machine. No internet, no email, no nothing but just plain old writing to district me. Unmatchable battery life (700+ hours) on AA batteries. Tough as nails, too, so great to travel with. Instant on/off and auto-save files.

The biggest downside for me is its limited file size capacity and that it requires a PC/Mac to transfer files. If there was some cobbled-together/Rube Goldberg file transfer process I could use with the iPhone, I would have the luxury of writing on a regular, tactile keyboard, transfer it from the Neo to the iPhone, and then be able to email the file out. This would eliminate the need to carry that darn laptop when traveling.

Neo has both Type A and Type B USB ports; Type A is used for connecting to a PC/Mac for file transfer; Type B is used for direct connection to a printer.

Pipe dream or possible?

posted by webhund to computers & internet (5 comments total)

For starters, the Bluetooth on the iPhone is right out as it only supports headsets, not any kind of file transfer.

The current iPhone SDK does not give access to IOKit, so no talking to the dock connector. It's possible that a jailbroken iPhone could be programmed to talk through the dock connector, but I don't see anyone who has done that yet.

It looks like the AlphaSmart acts as a USB keyboard when it is transmitting to a PC (the contents of the text file are just 'typed' very quickly). If someone works out a way to connect a USB keyboard to the iPhone, then you should be able to use the AlphaSmart in that way. It doesn't look like anyone has done that yet. I would recommend waiting and seeing if anything along those lines is available after the App Store opens.
posted by jedicus at 8:24 PM on July 6, 2008

I think it's a bit of a pipe dream. I did find a FAQ of someone who tried to do some hacking on it.... I'd suggest contacting the author...

Instead of trying to get it to the iphone...getting it to a USB drive might be easier.
posted by filmgeek at 10:08 PM on July 6, 2008

In a USB connection, you need one of the devices to be a USB host. Now, assuming that the 'Type B' in your Neo makes it act like a USB host device, you could theoretically make it push the files into the iphone. But that puts the job in the hands of the Neo, not the iPhone. I'm not at all familiar with the Neo, and looking at its wikipedia page, I don't think it allows you to run third-party applications on it, so you're probably out of luck.
posted by cyanide at 11:02 PM on July 6, 2008

Do Iphones have infrared ports? I can beam files from my Neo to my Nokia N95 quite happily.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:42 AM on July 7, 2008

iPhones do not have infrared ports, so no luck there.
posted by jedicus at 6:09 AM on July 7, 2008