AlphaSmart Dana (gadget review)

(Ron, I realize that this post may be posted to the wrong thread, or possibly even be irrelevant. But it is a review of a terrific writing tool, so I figure it's at least borderline relevant. Feel free to move or delete it as you see fit. A slightly altered version will eventually appear on rpg.net. )

The laptop alternative
The AlphaSmart Dana is essentially a Palm PDA fitted with a keyboard and a larger screen. Conceived and marketed as an writing tool for students, the Dana can easily be utilized for tasks such as roleplaying games. For purposes of this review I will focus more on the actual use of the Dana -- whether playing, gamesmastering, or just preparing for a game -- than on the physical unit itself.

Out of the box
The Dana is an A4-sized Palm PDA with a full-sized keyboard and a monochrome LCD screen three times as wide as a regular Palm screen. It is attractively and robustly molded of indigo plastic, and generally speaking looks and feels like a classy little space-age typewriter. It is lightweight, slim, and easily portable. It also has plenty of slots on the back for hooking it up to other computers or gadgets. For hard technical data I refer you to the links below.

(Edit: I forgot to clearly state that the Dana retails for $399)

What does it do?
The Dana is first and foremost a very well thought out man-portable text editing tool. Although the Palm OS is a penbased user interface, the Dana's keyboard almost completely obviates the need for a pen. Dana is instantly switched on or off, can run for at least 20 hours on a full charge, and is small and lightweight enough to lug around in a regular bag or briefcase.

Although the main word processor app, AlphaWord, won't let you do desktop publishing, it is a very effective writing tool. It does all the the things a text editor can reasonably be expected to do, the only notable omission being tables. Many standard keyboard shortcuts from the worlds of Windows and Mac will also work with. AlphaWord. It will let you assign file access to the function keys, giving you fingertip access to up to 8 documents. An additional word processor, QuickWord, also supplied with the Dana, offers MS Word compatibility with approximately the same features as AlphaWord, minus the programmable function keys.

Secondly, the Dana is a fully operational Palm PDA, allowing you to beam, print, and transfer your work back and forth between your various PCs, Macs, PDAs, printers, and whatnot via the ports on the back. Besides the standard address book, calendar, notebook, and to-do list apps supplied with all Palm OS PDAs, AlphaSmart throws in Quickword, Quicksheet, Quickchart, and various printing and file management tools. And of course, thousands of Palm applications are freely available on the net. However, very few of these apps support the wider Dana screen yet. At this point in time, the only widescreen programs that come to my mind are the ones the Dana comes boxed with. As I understand it, the actual coding neded to enable widescreen support is fairly trivial, so this will presumably be less of an issue with time.

The Dana at the gaming table
As the Dana is an outstanding writing tool, it excels at all forms of blue-booking, notetaking, playtesting, and campaign event logging. I find it extremely useful for preparing my notes for gaming sessions; when I find an idle moment I whip out my Dana, turn it on, and start writing. Of course you can also do that with a laptop, but a laptop is heavy and expensive, always runs out of power at the least opportune moment, and takes forever to boot. Not so with the Dana: The sheer convenience factor of the Dana is hard to convey in a review, but it is considerable. That noted, I will list and grade some of the game-related ways the Dana has proven useful -- or useless -- to me.

� General writing (A+)
Word processing is what the Dana does best. Best of all, it will let you write anywhere.

� Information sharing (A)
The Dana can easily beam files to other PDAs via the build-in IR port. This works fine with my old Palm V, as well as with a Psion Revo owned by another player. If you share graphics, you will need to use a commonly supported format, but text has proven problem-free, even cross-platform. Mind you, I have yet to try this with a Microsoft-based PDA.

� Rolling dice (A)
If you are comfortable with letting a stream of electrons handle your probabilities, there are plenty of dice rollers available, for just about any game you can think of. Screen size is not really an issue with these types of apps.

� Character and inventory management (B-)
Several dedicated D&D utilities are available, but I have yet to find one for a game other that D&D. As our group mostly play rules-light games these days, I can get by with just having simple AlphaWord files for my characters. Additionally, you can always use Quicksheet to design your own character records and inventory lists. If you need more than that, Quicksheet has basic Excel compatibility, so you may be able to find some spreadsheet-based utilities for your particular game somewhere on the net. For more demanding tasks the Dana sadly lacks a database program, although several third-party solutions are available. Please note that lack of widescreen support will possibly limit their usefulness.

� Mapping (C)
There are really no mapping utilities available for the Palm platform, but there are plenty of graphic viewers out there. One could easily scan a relevant map, convert it to a common file format, and pop it into the Dana for reference or distribution. The option is there, though a widescreen-enabled file viewer would make it more attractive.

� PDF games (F)
Dana does not handle .pdf use well, mainly because there are no widescreen-enabled .pdf viewers available yet. Trying to read a file (most commonly) laid out for an A4-sized sheet on a three-inch screen is an excercise in frustration. When Adobe updates Palm Acrobat to support the larger screen, .pdf use could be acceptable, but presently it is just annoying. Also, .pdf files tend to take up a lot of room, so if if the screen mode issue is adressed, some extra storage will probably prove useful

The bottom line
The Dana is intended to be a super-typewriter, and it successfully achieves that goal. It is a stylish, well constructed, and useful gadget, and I recommend it to all writers and wanna-be writers. However, no game aid is worth $400. If all you do is game, that kind of money is better spent elsewhere. If you already use a PDA, the Dana could be a worthwhile upgrade, depending on your writing needs. If you already use a PDA with an external keyboard, or if you are a student or a writer (or a game designer) who games, the AlphaSmart Dana is well worth the asking price.

Pros
� Eminently portable
� Excellent word processing software
� Silent
� Solidly built
� No time-consuming boot sequence
� Keyboard handles well
� 20+ hours of battery life
� Thousands of applications available for Palm OS

Cons
� Not as portable as a standard PDA
� PDF handling sucks, because...
� third-party software lacks widescreen support. For now, anyway.
� No database software supplied with unit
� No tables in text editors

References

http://www.alphasmart.com/products/dana_overview.html">AlphaSmart Dana -- technical data

http://www.palm.com/products/what.html">Palm basics -- classic functions of Palm handhelds

http://www.pencomputing.com/palm/Pen47/dana.html">Pen Computing Mag -- a positive, non-game-related review of the Dana. Nice Pics.