Newbie needs sales advice!!

[TechMage]

Get the Casio E-200!! It looks freaking awsome.  It has a removable battery and a small built in battery so you wont lose RAM data when switching batterys.  Also it has a USB port and I read that you can hook a external USB CD-Rom drive to it, thats 650mbs of data for about a buck considered to a flash card of that much for 300 to 400 bucks.  And you can get external CD-Rom drives for about $150.  You can also hook joypads, keyboards, mice, and just about anything else that uses a USB port into it.  Plus it has two storage card slots in it, one SD, and one CF. The only thing bad about it is that it is very ugly and it does not have a flip top cover like the Jornada 568.  But the game buttons on it look good and with a 200mh ARM processor and 32mb of flashible Rom, it should play games and other multimedia nicely.  

[Luciano U. Werner]

Untill I here about some serious flaw, I guess the E-200 is the best. But let's wait a little more.

[sloakicu]

Another newbie, looking to buy in to the new batch with the sweet processor speeds, PPC OS 2002, etc...<br><br>At first I was thinking E-200, but my thinking was moderated by experience with "first time" technology in the past... <br><br>It's the first time anybody's done USB extensions like the Casio is offering.  If it works, it'll be the bomb.  If it suks, well...<br><br>I mean, it's great that you can plug in all your standard desktop peripherals, but does the OS provide standard drivers?  Fat lotta good it does to have a green light on your joystick and still need a Targus keyboard for FlightSims... =)<br><br>If anybody gets their hands on these early pieces of hardware, post, darnit, post!

[sloakicu]

okay, DON'T go to 3800.com, I was just being stupid anyway...<br><br>So here goes, I'm wondering, what do I buy for accessories off the top?<br><br>What do I need to be happy (same end-user requirements as original post), at least for the first few months?<br><br>Thanks a bunch,<br>the Newbie

[Luciano U. Werner]

That depends on what you're going to use the PPC for. Generally speaking, you'll need storage space (CF or SD cards), a jacket (if you go for the iPAQ), maybe a keyboard and a second power unit.

[sloakicu]

OK.<br><br>Does anyone have any suggestions as to the relative sizes of storage media I will want to have for sure at first (i.e. should I get a 128MB SD, or a 256+MB CF, or a 1GB Microdrive)?<br><br>I know bigger is better, but I'm on a bit of a budget and just wondering what is acceptable, yet flexible for backup purposes, media, games, etc. (at least to start with).<br><br>I'm thinking I'll want I/O expansion in the future, like a CF wireless NIC/Modem, whatever.<br><br>Because there's only so much you can encode a 320x240 DivX before you have to get glasses... <br><br>P.S.  I just love elipses...<br><br>...

[Luciano U. Werner]

I have a 128MB CF card and it still has free space in it (no big films, though - just Bugs toons:)). I think 256MB would be more then enough, unless you want to collect movies in your PPC.

[TechMage]

Microdrives are way too expencive if your on a budget.  You can get a 256mb CF card for a little over a hundred dollars, so I would go with that.

[AzRaEl]

Also, look at the Toshiba HDs if you want large scale storage. Under $300, Low power consumption, and 2GB of space......mmmmmmmmm.<br>And why does everyone trash the IPAQ off the bat? They say that they have fixed most of their problems, and the sleeves add a lot of expansion capability, even if they make the thing huge. Though i understand that the USB on the Casio would be cool, what about POWER DRAIN! Anyone think about that? How much battery life are you going to get when reading CDs from that external drive, or powering a joystick?

[TechMage]

That is very true AzRaEl.  It probably would take a lot of power.  Hey you seem like a pretty well informed guy, why don't you become a member of Pocket Matrix?<br><br>-Azrael, isn't that a demon in hebrew mythology?-

[AzRaEl]

Thanks, I just know my tech gadgets. I'm just waiting to get my PPC before I join, which is why I watch all of these forums, cuz I dont know witch one is for me!

[AzRaEl]

Oh, and Azrael is a pretty common name, used for a lot of literary generals and such, but the most famous refrence is the biblical (maybe Hebrew, I dont know) one: Azrael, Archangel of Death.

[sloakicu]

Azrael was the Gargamel's cat on the Smurfs.  I suppose I can concede that maybe the Hebrew came first.<br><br>:)<br>

[Moose or Chuck]

Alright, one of us has to figure out how to make a program to use flash memory as storage memory so we can keep our main mem. free for program stuff and so we don't have to worry if the battery runs low.

[Matt Keys]

well, the HP can do it, maybe all the new PocketPC's will have that function.