ALPHASMART INTRODUCES PALM OS-BASED LAPTOP ALTERNATIVE.

AlphaSmart, Inc., a provider of technology solutions for education, has introduced Dana by AlphaSmart, a portable computing solution that is an affordable alternative to a laptop. Powered by Palm OS, Dana features a full-size, integrated keyboard and a touch screen that is approximately 7-1/2 inches wide and 2-1/4 inches high. The rugged, lightweight device, with long battery life, was initially designed for students, but has been generating interest from a wide variety of mobile professionals.

"Dana by AlphaSmart demonstrates how the Palm OS provides an excellent platform for a low-cost writing and data-collection tool," said Manish Kothari, AlphaSmart's president. "Because it is lightweight, rugged and consumes relatively little battery power, Dana is a hot new tool for professionals whose work takes them out into the field and away from their desks -- such as insurance adjusters, healthcare and social-services professionals and energy workers."

"Dana by AlphaSmart shows the potential for innovation with Palm OS and further establishes the platform as an industry-leading standard," said David Nagel, chief executive officer of PalmSource, Inc. "The versatility of Palm OS, combined with AlphaSmart's design expertise, has enabled a breakthrough product that brings new and affordable solutions to mobile users."

Designed for Flexibility

Dana is designed with a high degree of flexibility. Either input method -- keyboard or stylus -- can be used interchangeably. Settings can be changed easily to accommodate individuals' needs, such as whether they are left-handed or right-handed, how hard they press the keys, whether they prefer a QWERTY or DVORAK keyboard layout, or which fonts and font sizes they wish to use for applications. In addition, the screen image can be rotated ninety degrees in either direction, allowing applications and content to be viewed vertically or horizontally.

Dana's design for flexibility includes accommodations for disabilities. These accommodations include the option for left-hand only or right-hand only keyboard usage, the ability to use large fonts on the screen, and support for sticky-keys (enables typing of combination keystrokes without having to press the keys simultaneously) and slow-keys (a mechanism for filtering unintended keystrokes that is helpful for individuals with unsteady hands).

Dana's flexibility also allows users to print directly to a USB or an IrDA-enabled printer, synchronize information with a PC or Macintosh computer with just a standard USB cable, transfer text to any PC or Macintosh application by pressing a single key, or beam information to and from other IR-enabled devices. Finally, Dana can be used with a rechargeable battery, AA batteries or with an AC power adapter.

Software Included with Retail Version of Dana by AlphaSmart

-- AlphaWord writing software, a full-featured word processor with font support, formatting, spell-checker and thesaurus.

-- Quickoffice from Cutting Edge Software, which enables viewing and editing of Microsoft Excel and Word compatible files on Dana.

-- Aileron Mail, email messaging solution for mobile computing.

-- Palm Reader, with wide-screen support for reading eBooks.

-- PrintBoy from Bachmann Software, which supports printing to IrDA and USB printers.

-- FontBucket font management software, from Hands High Software.

Education Software Available for Dana by AlphaSmart

-- Dana Admin, software that lets a teacher control the functions of a student's Dana device.

Software Tailored for Dana's Wide Screen

The thousands of commercially available Palm OS applications will run on Dana and many support Dana's wide screen, including:

-- powerOne Graph, graphing calculator from Infinity Softworks.

-- ThoughtManager for Education, outlining and organizational software.

-- ImagiMath and ImagiProbe from ImagiWorks, which work with scientific probes for data collection, graphing and analysis.

Specifications

Dana weighs two pounds. It is twelve inches wide, nine inches deep and one inch high. Dana comes with eight megabytes of memory.

The Dana screen is an Advanced LCD screen with backlighting, 560 by 160 pixels in horizontal viewing mode and 160 by 560 in vertical viewing mode.

Dana comes with a rechargeable battery that provides more than 25 hours of extended use between charges. In addition, the product includes an AC adapter.

Dana has two expansion slots for adding memory or Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard peripherals.

Availability and Pricing

Dana by AlphaSmart can be purchased directly from the company by calling AlphaSmart's toll-free number, 1-888-274-0680 (for customers inside the United States), or by calling AlphaSmart at 408-355-1000. Dana by AlphaSmart is also available online at http://www.flydana.com. The retail price of Dana is U.S. $399, and it includes Quickoffice spreadsheet, word processing and charting software in addition to one year of Aileron Mail service for Dana. A version of Dana is also available to school districts, and is sold at an educational discount -- in single-unit volume, the price is U.S. $369.

About AlphaSmart

AlphaSmart, Inc. is a provider of technology solutions for education, focused on reducing the cost of computing for educators and students. AlphaSmart's portable computer-companion products are used by millions of students to enhance writing, keyboarding and comprehension -- in seven thousand U.S. school districts and in more than fifteen countries. Based in Los Gatos, Calif., the privately held company was founded in 1993 by former Apple engineers.

AlphaSmart can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.alphasmart.com/ .

For more information, call 415/409-7701.