TANDY INTRODUCES ENHANCED DISK DRIVE Tandy Corp./Radio Shack announced on February 2 that it would bring to market the Tandy Portable Disk Drive 2, which the company calls ``an enhanced version of the previous portable disk drive.'' The $199.95 TDD2 stores 200K of data per 3.5-inch diskette, compared to the TDD's 100K per disk. Otherwise, the 1.875-pound drive seems pretty much identical to the original, according to users who have seen it. The unit operates on four AA batteries or an optional AC adapter. Tandy claims the drive will run continuously for 1.5 hours on a fresh set of alkaline batteries. Like Tandy's original drive, the TDD2 connects to the Model 100, Tandy 102 or Tandy 200 via the RS-232 serial interface via a supplied cable. So sophisticated features offered by other drives, including random access to data, will not ordinarily be supported. Data is transferred to and from the drive at 19,200 bits per second. The new drive comes with its own version of FLOPPY.CO, an operating system that allows it to function much like a high-speed cassette tape data storage device. Beta testers report that the new drive is able to read 100K disks created with the original TDD. However, the TDD does not read or write TDD2 disks. Among the first third-party products to work with the new drive are TS-DOS and Sardine from Traveling Software in Bothell, Washington. According to Traveling Software president Mark Eppley, the company ``was involved in the beta testing of this drive and has been working on disk software to support the new Tandy product since last summer.'' According to Eppley, TS-DOS is able to determine which drive is being used without user intervention, and to read and write data in the correct format automatically. The original 100K TDD is available from Radio Shack and other sources at close-out prices as low as $99. Purple Computing, a Camarillo, California seller of TDD-compatible drives made by Brother International Corp., is temporarily sold out. Further information on the new disk drive (cat. no. 26-3814) is available from Tandy Corp./Radio Shack, One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX 76102, (817) 390-3000. BAR CODE ON A ROM Optical Data Systems of Escondido, California has introduced BAR+, an add-on ROM that converts the Model 100/102 into a versatile bar code system. With BAR+ and a bar code wand -- available from Tandy or from Optical Data Systems -- the Model 100 is able to read LOGMARS, HIBC, AIAG, UPC, Code 2 of 5, Code 3 of 9 and other industry-standard bar codes. According to Optical Data Systems, the $195 ROM also lets the Model 100 print bar codes on Radio Shack DMP printers, including the DMP-130, DMP-200, DMP-430 and DMP-2100. BAR+ also includes six applications programs. One records transactions for inventory, point-of-sale or order-entry applications. Another lets the user work with ``pick lists.'' A third is for quality-control applications. One allows the Model 100 to be used in time and attendance, assembly time, or time-and-motion studies. An information look-up program is provided. And another program works with retail publications such as paperback books and magazines. A built-in calculator program helps in totaling inventory and dollar values while scanning, and is also usable separately. A file manager stores, organizes and retrieves information. And a barcoded keypad lets users type numbers into the computer by drawing the wand across a bar code -- much faster than hunting and pecking. In addition to its ROM product, which fits into the auxiliary ROM socket located under the hatch on the bottom of the Model 100/102, Optical Data Systems markets three laptop-compatible bar code scanners, with prices starting at $99. Contact Optical Data Systems, P.O. Box 1987, Escondido, CA 92025, (619) 745-6563. TRAVELING LANDS A SPELL CHECKER Traveling Software, in concert with Random House Inc. and Wang Laboratories, has introduced Sardine, a pocket dictionary for laptop computers. According to Traveling Software, the program is able to check the spelling of words in a document without exiting from the text editor. The program allows users to add new words to the dictionary, and alerts the user to the precence of accidentally repeated words even if they are spelled correctly. The program is available in two versions. The $99.95 disk version, which contains the Random House American pocket dictionary of 33,000 words, requires the use of Traveling Software's multifunction Ultimate ROM II. It works with the Tandy Portable Disk Drive as well as the new TDD2. Sardine requires a special version of Ultimate ROM II, which is included with the spelling checker at no additional cost to current Ultimate ROM II users. The second version of Sardine squeezes a ROM into the can. The ROM chip includes Traveling Software's T-Word word processor plus a list of 7,000 commonly misspelled words compiled by Wang Laboratories in a two-year study of business correspondence. The $169.95 ROM version also includes the 33,000-word Random House pocket dictionary on a 3.5-inch diskette. Traveling Software has also begun shipping TS-RANDOM, a random-access operating system for the TDD, TDD2 and Purple Computing portable disk drives. Like Sardine, TS-RANDOM is available on either disk ($89.95) or ROM chip ($119). The program adds extensions to the BASIC programming language built into the Model 100, Tandy 102, Tandy 200 and NEC PC-8201. The operating system also works with Traveling Software's Ultimate ROM II. According to Traveling Software, TS-RANDOM allows random access to multiple files stored on a single disk. Supported disk formats allow the user to store information in 400 to 1,600 records per disk, and to access information from any record without scanning through the entire disk to find it, as is required with other operating systems. Contact Traveling Software, 19310 North Creek Parkway, Bothell, WA 98011, (800) 343-8080, or (206) 483-8088 in Washington.