Cutting Edge Software, Inc. (at http://www.cesinc.com) was also in attendance at the National Educational Computing Conference where they announced Quickoffice for Dana. The Quickoffice suite supports both Dana's full-size, integrated keyboard and the wider touch screen. With the wide screen support and screen rotation capabilities, you can view documents and spreadsheets in "full screen," similar in width to a standard PC. In rotated view, the document or spreadsheet looks similar to a newspaper column.

Quickoffice includes Quicksheet and Quickword applications, providing students with the ability to create, view, and edit spreadsheets and documents. The suite also includes Quickchart, Quicksheet's graphing module, and the Quickoffice Desktop application for the PC that provides access to files and synchronization management between a desktop computer and one or multiple devices. According to Cutting Edge, in the classroom, an entire set of Dana companions can synchronize with one computer providing simple maintenance of spreadsheets, documents, and ebooks on the devices.

Finally, here's a chance to win your own AlphaSmart Dana. Hands High Software (at http://www.handshigh.com) announced the ThoughtManager Outline Contest. When you enter, you get a chance to win a new Dana, a Palm m505, prizes from PalmGear, Lifestylus, Handango, and more. To enter, you have to use ThoughtManager to make a field guide, quick reference, event planner, picture album, or other useful document and email it to Hands High Software. Contest details are available at http://www.handshigh.com/html/contest.html.

For more than 20 years, David Gewirtz, the author of Where Have All The Emails Gone? and The Flexible Enterprise, has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com.