By Gene Wilburn
Like many writers, I've spent years in search of the perfect writing machine. I've tried desktops, laptops, PDA's -- I've even tried returning to writing on a yellow legal pad with a fountain pen. My quest has resulted in a checklist of features I've narrowed down as essential attributes in any electronic device I use principally for writing: portability, simplicity, weight, battery life, and above all, keyboard quality.
Not long ago -- I can't recall exactly how it happened -- I stumbled across a discussion group for AlphaSmart writing machines on Flickr (www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart). A support group dedicated to the AlphaSmart Dana and Neo portable writing devices on a photo hosting site seems a bit incongruous but Flickr abounds with incongruities such as the excellent Your Books discussion group (www.flickr.com/groups/your_books/) where members regularly discuss what they're currently reading, ranging from Harry Potter to James Joyce's Ulysses. It was fortuitous for me to encounter the Dana at a time when I was looking for something to replace my Dell Axim and folding keyboard. The Dana's name was known to me.
I first heard about the Dana from Peter Storck, an Ontario archaeologist I once worked with at the Royal Ontario Museum. He wanted my opinion of it and I, a former IT guy who prided myself on his technology savvy, had to admit I'd never heard of it. Dana? What an odd name. He sent me a link to the AlphaSmart website (www.alphasmart.com) that showed a Tandy 100-looking device, powered by PalmOS and sporting a full-size keyboard. The more I read of the specs, the better it sounded. When I queried Peter a little further it seemed he wanted absolute simplicity in a writing machine he could take with him everywhere, synchronizing with his desktop computer at intervals. At the time I was doing the same thing with a Palm IIIc device with folding Palm keyboard so I sympathized with his need for portability. He purchased a Dana and, last I heard from him, took it to Paris for a stay in France.
At that point the Dana dropped off my tech radar. I continued in my own quest for the perfect writing companion by moving on to a Dell Axim with wireless keyboard that I used for writing articles and essays, and a small Moleskine notebook and fountain pen I used for journalling. I have always enjoyed writing longhand with a fountain pen so the Moleskine and pen part of the equation was a success for the short, leisurely entries I wrote in my journals. The Axim, like the Palm IIIc before it, was less satisfactory. Despite their delightfully small sizes, foldout keyboards tend to be unstable. They require a solid surface and care must be taken not to bump off the PDA sitting on top. Due to the precarious bird-on-a-post nature of these combos, they're not at all suited to resting on your lap. I used these PDA's unenthusiastically, longing for the keyboard ergonomics of my fondly remembered Tandy 100.
So, re-enter the Dana. Some online searching showed that new Danas, with wireless, were available in Canada but at a steep markup over the US price. I could buy a new laptop for less. Not that I wanted a big, bulky laptop with all its attendant weight and distractions, but to justify experimenting with a Dana I needed a better price, so I searched on eBay for used ones. One reseller had a few Danas for sale. I calculated how much I was willing to spend and successfully bid on one. By the time I had paid shipping, brokerage fees, provincial sales tax and Canadian GST, the cost was about $200. Not bad considering a new one purchased in Canada would have cost me close to $600 after taxes.
I've been using the Dana less than a week and, so far, it's proving to be quite decent. Its Achilles' heel is its LCD display: the display is relatively contrasty but has to be seen in just the right light to be usable. There's a permanent tilt in the contour of the unit -- if one could tilt it more forward or back as needed, the display would be easier to adjust to lighting conditions. The Dana has a backlit screen, but the backlighting is anemic. I've yet to find it useful. From what I can gather, the less expensive Neo, with no screen backlighting, has a contrastier screen and far greater battery life. But the Dana is no slouch. Twenty-five hours on a charge makes the machine highly portable without worrying about running out of power. The built-in word processor called AlphaWord is also quite decent, though I almost immediately upgraded to its bigger sibling WordSmith (www.bluenomad.com) in order to gain support for the unit's built-in SD slots. Best of all is the keyboard -- it's even better than the keyboard on my old Tandy 100, the standard against which I judge all keyboards on portable devices.
If you've never been attracted by writing machines such as the Dana or Neo, you may wonder what all the fuss is about when $500 can buy you a brand new, albeit low end, laptop. To make some sense of this, let's return to my original checklist.
Portability. It's a personal thing but I hate being tied to a computer workstation. I know writers who are content to sit at their desks and pound away at their novels, short stories or magazine articles for hours at a time but I'm not one of them. Restless by nature, I need to move around and write where my feet take me -- a park bench, pub, coffee shop, library carrel, train station or airport. Or with my feet propped up in an easy chair listening to jazz on my Bose Wave as I write with my writing device in my lap. For me a writing tool needs to be nearly as portable as a pen and pad. I don't require, or even want, wireless connectivity.
'Wired generation' enthusiasts may have difficulty understanding why I don't want wireless. This may be hard to understand by a non-writer, but simplicity plays an enormous role in writing productivity. Email, IM and the Web are distractions to thinking and productivity. I get all of that I want, and far more than I need, on my desktop -- in fact I'm particularly susceptible to being sucked into online discussion forums. To do any kind of serious writing I need to get away from all that.
Simplicity. I also don't need much in the way of software. I like simplicity -- even on a desktop computer my preferred writing software is a good text editor -- vi, Emacs, or EditPlus. When on assignment for a magazine I eventually convert it into a Word document, but up to the last possible draft, it all happens in plain text. Think typewriter with a never-ending roll of paper in it. Come to think of it, Jack Kerouac liked writing this way too -- literally. The Dana has more than enough software to keep me happy. Furthermore, the PalmOS operating system of the Dana requires no startup or shutdown procedures. When you're done with it, you press the off button and the unit is off. Press the on button and it's right back in your document where you left off, instantly.
Simplicity in a device, one that is not connected in any way to the Internet, contributes to concentration on what's being written. As I've already indicated, I'm weak and easily succumb to distractions. In order to write, I have to cut myself off from distractions and temptations -- hence I appreciate the Spartan nature of the Dana.
Weight. After years of carrying around my four-pound Tandy 100, I concluded that even that was too heavy. The ideal writing machine should weigh no more than two pounds. There may be some two-pound portables on the market but I've not encountered any. Moreover, all the genuinely lightweight laptops I've seen are priced more as executive perks than practical purchases for writers and students. The Dana weighs two pounds and has a slim profile. It doesn't fold, so it can be stowed quickly in a bag or small backpack.
Battery life. My old Tandy 100 got 20 hours from fresh batteries. The Dana gives me 25 hours on its fully-charged internal battery, with the option to switch to 3 AA alkalines if needed for an additional 25 hours. This is the kind of battery life a mobile writer needs, and no laptop currently on the market comes even close. On a four-hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver my laptop batteries expired before the flight was finished. When battery life is of key importance, avoid laptops. The Dana display is not as bright as I'd like, but it's a compromise I can accept in order to reap the attendant battery life.
Keyboard quality. There are laptops with good keyboards. My friends who use MacBooks are quite happy with the keyboards on their units but most of the keyboards I've tried on laptops have felt flimsy. The Palm Folding Keyboard I used with a Palm IIIc was surprisingly decent, but was not Tandy 100 quality, and more than once I knocked the Palm device off the keyboard. The folding Bluetooth wireless keyboard I used with the Dell Axim was annoying. The general feel wasn't bad but to type numbers and even common symbols, such as an ampersand or percent, required special keystrokes. Worse, the Axim fell off its keyboard perch frequently.
The keyboard on the Dana (and presumably on the Neo) is wonderful and fairly quiet. I read somewhere that the keyboard is made by Samsung. I pound the keys when I type -- a legacy of my high-school typing class where we used manual, upright Underwood and Royal typewriters with blank keycaps. The Dana keyboard is full size and there are no unpleasant serious surprises in its layout. The only thing preventing it from getting an A+ rather than a solid A is that it has a bit of keyboard bounce. If I'm not careful I get doubled letters when I'm typing quickly.
Time will tell how long the Dana lasts as my favourite portable writing machine. The Palm Foleo will be released soon and it appears to have some of the attributes of the Dana, at least in terms of weight and size. It also will have a brighter, crisper, more modern colour screen. But it only gets a projected five hours of use on a battery charge and it's full of wireless connectivity. Until I've had a chance to test its keyboard and general ergonomics, it remains nothing more than interesting potential. Besides, I used my Tandy 100 throughout the 1980's and into the 90's. Once I establish a close rapport with a writing machine, I tend to stick with it for a long time. Perhaps the Dana, too, will accompany me down many a winding road and alleyway. It appears to have the 'write stuff'.
-30-
[Amended 26 Aug 2007 to correct some misleading wording about the Neo. My thanks to paleo_paul on the Flickr AlphaSmart group for catching that. Thanks too to Doug for catching my typo on AlphaWord]
