AlphaSmart has extended the terms of its licensing agreement with PalmSource. As a result, the maker of Dana, a laptop alternative for the education market, will continue to use the Palm operating system in its products through the end of 2008.

According to AlphaSmart, students in 7,500 U.S. school districts use its products. The company plans to continue to use the Palm OS to create Dana-like solutions as well as look into ways to expand beyond education to other professions.

"AlphaSmart is reaffirming its commitment to the Dana platform," said CEO Ketan D. Kothari. "In education, Dana adoption is accelerating, and we remain committed to investing in the solutions necessary to make it a preferred choice among educators. In addition, we're exploring ways to address the growing needs of other professional users who appreciate the simplicity, affordability and wireless capabilities of the Dana platform."

With the introduction of Dana Wireless last Fall, AlphaSmart extended the capabilities of the Dana product line to include Wi-Fi (802.11b) connectivity and software applications for accessing the Internet. The device weighs two pounds and includes an integrated full-size keyboard.

The $429 laptop alternative also incorporates DataViz's Documents To Go Professional, letting users work with Microsoft Office documents on a wide display that is about 3.5 times larger than that of a standard Web-enabled Palm device. Dana Wireless also has AlphaSmart's Internet Solutions Pack, which includes the wide screen DanaWeb browser, Mark/Space Mail e-mail client, and a three-month trial subscription to VeriChat, a wide screen instant messaging client. For more on Dana Wireless, see our review.