iPaq Expansion: Confusion and Decision

[AyrItOut]

[Moose or Chuck]

[999]

[randall]

There are already CF modems, ethernet and wireless solutions available. One of the better wireless CF modems looks like the PocketSpider by Nextcell (Enfora?). It is kind of bulky... but much smaller than some other solutions I have seen.<br><br>Wireless service areas area always a concern, so if you don't live in midst of a big city you may be out of luck. The service areas are expanding daily, though.<br><br>Last modification: randall - 06/02/01 at 13:15:11

[Mat]

Get the PCCard expansion. The extra battery is indispensable and as it was previously mentioned, a CF reader will run you less than $15. The TypeIII is REALLY big, you unless you really need to use 2 cards at once, get the TypeII. I am not sure the Stowaway Keyboard would work so well with the TypeIII one anyway. Oh, and if you pay $300 for the PCCard reader, you are paying twice as much as Compaq is selling them for. PCMCIA Cars are easier and usually less expensive to get your hands on.

[randall]

Also if you have a laptop, PCMCIA may be a better option since you can (sometimes) use those cards interchangelably between your laptop and PocketPC.

[AyrItOut]

Hmmm, the extra battery certainly sounds appealing, but if I need to add an extra CF-converter, are there going to be bizarre things coming off at odd angles from my iPaq?  I mean, I do want to keep this thing reasonable.  Also, CF modems run quite expensive and are proprietary (I assume).  But I guess an important question that is a major deciding factor, because I may or may not use the PC Card modem and it seems pointless to spend the extra 200 dollars otherwise, is whether or not there are cheap, form-fitting storage solutions for the PC Card.  Because if there are, then the battery is worth the extra money.  Oh, also, the exchange rate for Australia is twice that of the US, hence prices are naturally "higher" in AUS$.

[999]

You can get a 1gb microdrive, which is in the CF format. It comes with a PMCIA  adaptor as well, incase you plan on using it in a PC sleeve. At least with that storage medium, you're not locked into using just one specific sleeve format.<br><br>

[AyrItOut]

Hmm, that sounds interesting, but those 64 meg things are so expensive anyway, admittedly, I'm only willing to spend $100-$150 american on storage, as I can easily compress any trailer to about 30 megs.  BTW, is the 4k color conspicuously posterized or is it barely noticeable.  I appreciate your responses, everyone, there's just so much out there to decide on!

[Matt Keys]

I have not heard to many complaints about  the 4k color in movies, because movies are always switching frames you dont really get the time to notice the banding in the individual frames. Granted movies would look better in 64k color, you probably wouldnt notice anything until you compared the two. As for PCMCIA storage that is easy on the batterys, I have a 448mb pc card that I found on ebay. And you can easily find 128mb and 250mb cards as well, its all about how much you want to spend. For 100-125 you can get a 128mb card new, and maybe a 250mb card used.

[Moose or Chuck]

they have cheaper PC card storage mediums, and as i've heard from brighthand, someone is in the processor of adapting up to 40 gig hardrives to run through the ipaq...

[randall]

That would be cool to connect a laptop hardrive to a PPC. Especially since you can find the smaller 6 gig drives pretty cheap.

[999]

You can get a 40gig HD for chump change these days.<br><br>I remember when I paid up the wazoo for a measly 40meg HD back when Wolfenstien was the shit.<br><br>I had monkey island, indy, wolf, and a couple more games on that HD. Sad now that I think about it. <br><br>

[Moose or Chuck]

Kommander Keen was the best game ever. Screw all this new 'techno' mumbo jumbo.

[randall]

Commander Keen was the badass. Did you know the original members of id Software created that?<br><br>40 gig HDs are cheap... but the smaller laptop IDE hardrives aren't. I'm not about to lug around a fullsize HD.