AlphaSmart Keyboards

The different types of AlphaSmart Keyboards

AlphaSmart Dana: This product was introduced in 2002. Similar to Apple Computer's Newton eMate 300 (a laptop running the Newton's PDA operating system), the Dana is actually a fully fledged Palm OS device complete with a touch-screen, allowing a user to write directly on the screen via Graffiti in addition to typing on the built-in, full-size keyboard. The Dana's screen has a backlight and is capable of displaying complex graphics (though only in 16-bit grayscale), unlike the original AlphaSmart line. It has 16 Megabytes of storage and two expansion slots for cards in Secure Digital (SD) or Multimedia Card formats. It is compatible with nearly every Palm OS application, and some Palm apps can take advantage of the Dana's extra-wide screen, which is 3.5 times the norm (560 x 160 pixels). The screen is taller than that of the original AlphaSmart products, and the Dana's casing is made from opaque dark-blue plastic — a change from the iMac-esque clear blue of the AlphaSmart 3000. The Dana optionally comes with Wi-Fi connectivity for internet use and interaction between other Danas, and it runs off a Ni-MH rechargeable battery or 3 AA batteries for up to 25 hours of usage.

AlphaSmart Neo: The Neo model, introduced in August 2004, can hold more than 200 pages of text. Its LCD display is 50% larger than the AlphaSmart 3000's display. It doesn't use fixed blocks for each character and therefore can display different font/point sizes, along with simple graphics. The Neo also runs a newer operating system that allows modular control of SmartApplets and a new version of AlphaWord (the word processing SmartApplet), which allows dynamic file resizing. The Neo's chassis is a dark opaque shade of green with its form factor based on the Dana. The Neo also uses the same class of CPU as the Dana. It uses the same optional NiMH battery pack as the AlphaSmart 3000 (now discontinued). The Neo had several software bugs, such as a hard-to-see cursor and file corruption problems, but the most serious of these issues have been fixed in AlphawordPlusNeo 3.0B and C. The remaining problems (the-hard-to-see cursor and a text-stacking bug) were corrected in an update to the operating system, System 3.2