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Review: The New Casio Pocket PC E-200
msolnik writes: "PocketNow has done an in-depth review of the new Casio Pocket PC E-200. It has a built in compact flash and SD slot. It has a 206mhz strong arm, reflective screen and a replacable rechargeable battery. In my opionion it looks very cool and seems like it could do some damage to the IPAQ's sales. On a side note it should run linux no problem."
Has anyone gotten NetBSD up and running on it yet?
Err, and really, who needs that much speed on a PDA? It's not like you're playing Quake on it (though, actually, that could be fun... playing Quake on a handheld computer in public could have interesting affects).
This thing will be perfect for Embedded XP! The only question left is where can I buy one?
For less than the $600 price the article mentions, you can get a Sharp Zaurus with the same specs. (CF slot, SD slot, 206MHz... the works.) Plus you get a keyboard(!) and there's no ugly windows logo emblazoned on it.
Sorry, I think that Casio's a day late and $100 to expensive.
- fader
It seems that, for the most part, all palms and variants are mainly the same. I am still chugging along with my Palm IIIxe and putting aside the desire for a rechargable cradel instead of using AAA power.. I have found no great reason to compel me to purchase a newer model. It appears that everything after the originals are simply bell and whistles with no "I've got to have it" functionality. What about Palms that come equipped with built in radar detectors.. so while on the road you can mount it to your dash board and plug it into your cigarette lighter! Or built in scanning capabilities that are able to detect Radio frequencies so I can scan my house for wire taps and bugs. Or a montion detector that I can point around the corner of my cubicle.. and will sound off when my boss is coming.
I mean really!! Even M$ comes with tons of useful things already in it.. even if the system itself sucks.
Oh.. one last thing.. what about a built in unique encryption key.. with a retractable USB cord. This can be plugged into any USB equipped machine and you can use the key for file encryption or even for identity purposes simalair to a keyspan.
Maybe it's just me and my tight wallet.. but I don't see the hype lately!
Never try to beat a professional at his own game!
I'll consider lugging one around every day when the pocket PC becomes half the thickness it currenly is and is half the weight.
Yes, size does matter.
Meanwhile I'll stick with my old but smaller Handspring.
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Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
These things are becoming freaks because they are too big to lug around in a pocket everyday but have more power than a decent laptop from 4 years ago. More memory and processor power are a waste in a package that will really do little more than some point-click lookups (eg address book) and play games.
How much memory and processing power does an address book need?
If it is more than an address book then give me a da*n keyboard and bigger screen. Wait, I already have one of those. I call it a laptop and it is about as small as I can stand a real computer being.
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Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
If only it had the PalmOS on it. Palm's new StrongARM units, if done well, should solidly defeat the PocketPCs once and for all. That would be a nice blow to M$ to have them lose in a market they've invested billions in. Maybe Linux will be next :).
I saw a post the other day about having /. consider running a mirror for each story. I couldn't load the review at 5 comments. What's the point of posting a story when you can't look at it? Just have a mirror up for a couple of hours until the /. effect wears off. No big deal to do that.
...is someone -really- working on porting Linux to it? "Should" really means nothing here...the effort needed to play the "flash game" to get Linux on there is NOT fun. The iPaq people have inside help from Compaq on this one...is the same true for this device?
As an aside, the GCC-ARM code is terrible. GCC -still- has a vexing bug with optimization on the ARM platform. If you compile something with optimizations, it will blow up when you run it. This really needs to be fixed, or else Wince will have the speed advantage.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'd rather put 2x or 3x the price of that and get a laptop that will do 10 times more stuff.
The good news is, for people that actually want a pda, and think that the Palm II is a bit obsolete, can not get a E115 for way cheaper than it was just 2 years ago. You get the extra features without the heavy price tag, besides for 1/3 the price of that E200 unit you won't be paranoid about breaking it or losing it...
Still, the high-end segment is really cool, must be nice running a gameboy emulator on that little beast.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
If there aren't too many people who buy the Casio and later say "Doh!", having the Casio to compare too will make the Zaurus 5500 look really good.
Cheaper, runs Linux already, sold!
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
Not everyone needs a 206MHz Strong Arm. Some of us simple organizer folk are content with a 4.3MHz 8-bit Z80.
I agree that linux is a good secure Server system, but for the life of me I can't understand what you would want it on a PDA for. Use the best tool for the job - This exludes Win XP as well.
As a premise for this post, I had owned a Casio model E-100 for roughly 2 years until last week when I traded with a friend for his Palm III.
Quite simply, I decided that the E-100 lacked true portability. This new device, and all others from non Palm or Handspring vendors, tend to simply be very large and cumbersome.
What I love about the Palm is the ability for me to put it in my shirt pocket and not have it way that down. Though this may seem trivial, it is very important to me as I generally would rather not have a large device in my pants pocket (Aside from the obvious "device" already there).
Anyway, I what I think needs to happen is that designers should take a look at a device like the Rex (remember that? It was a PCMCIA card that had a screen and PIM apps on it) and attempt to improve on that. A simple color screen shouldn't increase size overall too much, but would increase definition and clarity quite a bit. There seems to be a fairly large market for people who want simple, cheap PIM and PDA devices without hundreds of MB of storage, wireless networking, a Pentium IV processor and other crazy stuff that simply doesn't belong. Anyone out there with investment capital and some friends with engineering degrees listening?
I realize that the 16 MHz DragonBall chips are still pretty sufficient for coping with storing addresses, notes, and the likes; it's just irritating that it's stayed at the same speed for so long.
That's probably enough to start moving towards doing some "real" work, although if you want more than 15 minutes worth of MP3s, you'll still have to wait for the 256MB model.
I don't think these get to be truly better "mousetraps" until they have a pretty serious amount of storage space.
A year ago, it made sense that the iPAQ was expensive as an 'early-adopter" product; the continuing-to-be-hefty price is not particularly attractive.
I think it's pretty cool and all that IBM has built a wrist-watch that runs Linux; that doesn't forcibly grip me as being fundamentally important.
PalmOS is old enough that it may be getting "old in the tooth;" it's still pretty much useful enough. (Except for playing MP3s, but it's cheaper to get a recent Diamond Rio for that...)
A new model from another maker may be News for Nerds, but I have to wonder if it's really Stuff that matters.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Wow. I like it. Xircom certainly had the right form factor. But evidently they lacked the right marketing. I did not even know this awesome product existed. Shame on me.
/ 631059-000.html
Looks like Citizen is also on the right track. I cannot read Japanese, but evidently they are showing a full function PDA that is about half the size of a Palm V (little bigger than Rexx). I want it!
http://ascii24.com/news/i/topi/article/2001/11/07
They also demo a PDA watch but that will catch on as much as calculator watches and pocket protectors. We all have those right?
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Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
I'd argue that while the machine (and its near competitors) are "overpowered" for doing the things a Palm does, they're underpowered with regard to the new sorts of applications such as music playing and wireless.
How much will it cost to get it "up to scratch?"
It would be unsurprising if making the unit "useful" pushes the price up well over $1K. That is rather pricey...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
You don't even need the ipod particularly. There are many ways to expand storage in Pocket PC's from SD card up to PC cards. OK, you won't get a whole season of shows on one, but you'll get enough that power becomes your worry.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
It should perhaps be pointed out to those not watching this market closely (just went thru a pda upgrade cycle meself) that after the sucess of the ipaq 36xx every single Pocket PC manufacturer is going for an ipaq clone as the PockerPC 2002. This is not anything spcial or surprising that they are doing.
;-) And failing to get the sound to work on my thinkpad 600 under Linux meets my cursing needs.
So they all have memory slots, tft screens, expansion capabilities of some sort, 206MHz processors. People are even throwing away their USPs to get on the ipaq bandwagon - the older casios were famed for high quality of their reflective screens. Now they're TFT too.
There are differences of course, but it's thinkgs like size, form factor, how much in the way of accessories are ut there, battery life.
Oh, and what did I pick? Palm M500. Does everything I need in a box that is so tiny I can barely tell if its in my pocket or not and that costs £200 instead of £500.
OK, doesn't run Linux and it doesn't really do multimedia. Mind you, that £300 difference will buy me rather a lot of MP3 player
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?