The Amstrad Plc PDA600 PenPad portable digital assistant – which has a $500 price tag that makes that on the Newton look a bit embarrassing – is to cross the Atlantic. Amstrad, Brentwood, Essex has signed Scottsdale Technologies Inc, Scottsdale, Arizona to market the thing in the US under an exclusive agreement. It will also offer it in Canada and Mexico. It is the first Amstrad product picked up by Scottsdale, but if all goes well, it won’t be the last. The PenPad includes handwriting recognition algorithms in a 14 oz package and runs 40 hours on three AA batteries. It supports a pocket facsimile modem and has a PCMCIA card slot, but several organiser and utility applications come as standard.
