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A critical review of the Alphasmart Dana

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Dana
Copyright © 2005,2009 by Zack Smith. all rights reserved.
Version 1.6

Introduction

Upon first seeing the Dana, which is Alphasmart's PalmOS-based pseudo-laptop computer, it is easy to be impressed with its design. The case is very stylish, the keyboard is very good quality, it weighs only two pounds, it is durable and can be dropped without problems, and the battery lasts a long time. This all sounds wonderful, doesn't it? But then one day, you actually try using the Dana. Then you realize its benefits are greatly outweighed by its problems.

Remember, this nicely shaped device is not a piece of furniture. It is a computer and it must serve as a computer or else it will end up as an expensive doorstop.

When you have the Dana in your hands, even a cursory analysis of it reveals that it has profound problems. As a product it's a profound failure. Yet irritatingly it has "coulda been a contenda" written all over it.

Problems upon first use

When I received my Dana, the following problems came to light immediately after I started using it.
  1. It is slow: the processor is a variation on ten year old 68000-based technology. Oh, and speaking of speed, the company dodges questions about processor speed: it could be 66 MHz, they say, no wait, maybe 33. But it runs more like 16.
  2. The screen lacks contrast and the glass is overly reflective. These problems conspire to make the screen hard to read in daylight. For evening use, the green backlight is very underpowered.
  3. The PalmOS operating system is severely limiting compared to Windows CE or Linux. For instance, it has no concept of directories of files, which means that you can't separate word processing files for two projects: they get jumbled together.
  4. The bundled software is quite frankly second-rate, often leaving even elementary software behaviors out. These apps are so bad, one might suspect it was no accident that Alphasmart decided to bundle two word processors: it's their way of apologizing.
  5. The Dana costs US $390, at a time when a full-fledged 1.5 GHz Toshiba or HP laptop with 15 inch display, hard drive and DVD/CDRW drive can be bought new (on sale) for $500 at stores such as Best Buy.

In this light, the Dana is simply unacceptable.

And it's not just me complaining. In Alphasmart's online forums, users lament that although they like the Dana in this or that respect, there are still numerous flaws in other basic features, including spotty wireless functionality and the very limited email and web browsing support. Over and over, users complain of features sold as working but found to be broken. Alphasmart's marketing people are good at producing brochures, but as with all marketing people, they stretch the truth about their products.

The sad truth about Dana is that although it looks beautiful and has the rare good keyboard, the actual computer inside and its software are piss poor.

Software

Let us consider software, in particular the primary word processor, Alphaword. In the brochure it looks quite adequate. But when you run it and select the Open feature, the list of available documents that comes up is not even sorted. I'm a programmer and I know how easy it is to implement sorting. I can tell you that the lack of a sorted file listing means the so-called "word processor" is little more than someone's hobby project, and not even one that they care about.

It gets worse: Alphaword does not let you store files in different directories or projects. They cite this as a problem with PalmOS, but the fact is that any decent programmer can find a clever workaround. Several spring to mind.

Have you seen software with such fundamental flaws or limitations in the last 15 years? Most of us have not. Even the TRS-80 wasn't this bad.

A mismanaged company

Despite its hardware and software issues, it stands to reason that if talented, inspired programmers were to attack functionality problems, potentially the Dana could flourish nevertheless. Programmers, given a nice sleek piece of hardware, are known for working wonders. Programmers go wild over cool hardware.

The unfortunate fact however, and I can say this after having observed Alphasmart for a few years, is that the likelihood of Alphasmart forming the willpower to hire any programmers to make improvements is zero. There is hardly any evidence that they have any on staff. At most they have one person who writes drivers. But the Dana's problems begin with its underpowered processor and junky screen.

Here are the problems with Alphasmart's mishandling of the Dana.

  1. They do not make the software that runs on the Dana. The operating system, the word processors, the font library, virtually everything is third-party. In the case of Alphaword, it is actually just a rebranded toy program you can download from the web.

  2. Frankly, I would not be surprised if they don't even produce the computer and case. If they do, what is their explanation for the poor choice of processor and screen? As usual they respond with pat denials.

  3. It is not clear that they have any will to take the situation under control themselves. I have seen in Alphasmart a profound stubbornness and lack of vision of a kind that Silicon Valley technology companies are famous for, but worse. They are convinced they know what's best. If you don't agree, suddenly you were never their target consumer.

Horrible customer service

One way they respond to any user's concerns about their products is, if they know the complaining user is not in the niche education market, they point out repeatedly if possible that they are focused solely on the niche education market.

Never mind the ad they placed in a writer's magazine for the Dana, touting it as a writing tool. Never mind the verbiage on their website, offering Dana for general use as a "laptop replacement". When a problem crops up: you're not their core user anymore. Pre-sale you are, but not post-sale.

This has caused them a minor nuisance: Their online forum is full of non-education users complaining that they paid good money and XYZ feature doesn't work or offering suggestions about improvements that they reject out of hand or ignore. Your Dana doesn't work? Oh, "we're an education company".

If you complain too much in their forum, they will censor you.

Just a pity

All of this is just too bad, because if the Dana were properly developed it could have a potential for much wider use. If only another company were developing it!

Too bad also, because increasingly in the education arena, teachers are realizing that even elementary school children are capable of taking laptops out of the library and home for personal use, with very little damage occurring in the process. Even peasant kids in Asia are being given laptops, because as with kids the world over, they prize these machines and take care of them. If it plays games, they won't break it.

In light of decreasing laptop prices and increasing laptop use in education however, you might think Alphasmart is scrambling to adapt lest they become the next technology dodo. Instead they have continued to show an unwillingness to adapt to new education requirements such as color screens or properly functioning software.

Ironically, the amount of effort needed to bring their Dana to fruition as a dominant portable computer is pretty minor: upgrade the processor, put a better OS on it, maybe add a color screen. In other words, do what numerous other companies have done in different product categories.

But don't tell them that. Like a landlord who never fixes a leak, they've found a mantra to justify their inaction: they're an education company. And they are one which ironically never learns.

Conclusion

Alphasmart sells the Dana as a laptop replacement and some professional reviewers like to entertain the fantasy that the Dana is a Palm+keyboard replacement as well. It is really neither. Laptops cost $500 and are a great value. Palm PDAs have all moved on to faster processors.

When you put the company people on the spot about their dishonest marketing and their failure to improve the product in almost any way despite the passing of years, they astonishingly simply deny that the product is for non-education consumers, despite their marketing it to writers and adult laptop users.

A dodgy product from a dodgy company. If only a different company had the same product to develop, it could become something special. As it is, it's just silicon snake oil.

How to Fix the Dana

Let us imagine that Alphasmart got bought out by a company that wanted to improve the Dana. As it happens, the company was bought by Renaissance Learning in 2005, but after several years they have done little to improve the device.

At any rate, what would be my suggestions?

  1. Upgrade the processor to an ARM chip, which is very low-power, cheap, and fast, and is capable of supporting a modern operating system.
  2. Upgrade the screen to something that has a brighter backlight and better contrast. Black-and-white is OK, but a better quality display is vital.
  3. Remove PalmOS and replace it with Linux. Employ actual programmers to port open-source programs to the device for simple word processing, web browsing, instant messaging, email, drawing, voice recorder, MP3 playback, and printing.

If they were to do these things, they could have themselves a product that would kick butt not just in schools and be something to complete with the OLPC (one laptop per child) laptop, but also among technically saavy people who like buying "cool" tech gear it could become very popular.

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