Guess Who's Back?

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://world.casio.com/asia/news/2004/it_10.html' target='_blank'>http://world.casio.com/asia/news/2004/it_10.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Casio through its years of PDA development experience has designed the new IT-10 model with the portability, functionality, durability and superior hardware that the business market demands. Casio strongly believes this new model will energize and expand the Enterprise PDA market."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041120-CasioIT10.jpg" /><br /><br />Be prepared to wipe the dust off the Cassiopeia archives. Casio's back to leave another impression in the Pocket PC market with the IT-10.<br /><br />The IT-10 is shock-resistant, dust-resistant, and splash-resistant. Under the hood, it features the Intel PXA270 processor running at 416MHz, with 64MB of RAM, and 64MB of ROM. The IT-10 comes in two flavours: the M20 and M20BR. Both feature IrDA 1.3, but the M20 lacks any additional wireless functionality. The M20BR, on the other hand, includes Bluetooth 1.2 and 802.11b WLAN. Both devices have a 3.7" VGA 640x480 LCD screen and a 2,300 mAh battery as standard. The battery life is touted at 27 hours of continuous non-wireless use. Both devices also include an SDIO and CF slot, so you can stock it up with extra features. They run Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, and its dimensions are 140 (H) x 80 (W) x 25 (D) mm. The units will be available for purchase in December.

[ppcsurfr]

Well I don't think they even left the PDA market at all...

There have been PPCs after the E-200 but they were sold in Japan only.

Carlo

[CESkins]

I am wiping the sleep away from my tired eyes just to be sure I am not hallucinating...Casio back in the US market. Wonder just how much they are going to charge for this brick? It is 10 mm thicker than a Loox or Axim but maybe that's to accomodate the large battery. May be worth a look given the battery life.

[Typhoon]

lol...everything about it seems too tall and too thick. I won't be buying it. I will have to wait for the perfect VGA device...
I'm still waiting for a CLIE UX50 like clamshell Pocket PC with lots of RAM, fast CPU, great swivel VGA screen, Wi-Fi & BT, CF slot, USB port, good battery life, camera, CIR, etc. The LOOX 720 is a great example...except it isn't a clamshell PDA.

[IpaqMan2]

Wow.. So that's what the iPod would look like if ever it became a PDA :D

Still I miss some of Casio's older deisgns like the E-115 and the Em-500.

Either way it's nice to see another OEM selling Pocket PCs in North America.

[theoak]

Any news if it will have a graphics accelerator?

[socrates63]

It is 10 mm thicker than a Loox or Axim but maybe that's to accomodate the large battery.
Or the extra thickness (10 mm is a lot) is for the shock- and splash-resistance features. That really is a brick. It looks as big and thick as the E100/105.

I have my Casio E100 (anyone know where I can get a replacement battery cheap?) in my desk drawer, and I love the E100's gamep.. I mean directional pad. It's better than the iPaq 3670 and 2215's d-pad. The E100 was Doom heaven... ran Doom as well as my 386/33. Truly a "pocket PC."

It's good to see Casio return to North America. I'd love to see what Casio has in store for the non-IT market.

[surur]

Just to give some perspective. This is an industrial PDA, like the Symbol jobbies, hence the size, shock resistance, large battery, feature sets, and Im sure heavy price.

From the article:
The IT-10’s wide range of functions makes it the perfect tool for a variety of tasks such as retail store management, sales force automation, equipment/facilities maintenance management and market research applications.
I guess this is at least a good example of "Industrial Design" :)

Surur

[Typhoon]

How many of you ever drop your PDA? I don't... the only PDA I have ever dropped was the HP h1910 awhile back (several times)...only because it was so slippery...

[Kowalski]

I'm still waiting for a CLIE UX50 like clamshell Pocket PC with lots of RAM, fast CPU, great swivel VGA screen, Wi-Fi & BT, CF slot, USB port, good battery life, camera, CIR, etc.
same here! when will the clamshell models hit the market???

[Andy Whiteford]

How many of you ever drop your PDA? I don't... the only PDA I have ever dropped was the HP h1910 awhile back (several times)...only because it was so slippery...

So you do drop youur PDA! :oops:

[thomas1973]

Shave off a few mm here and there (especially off the thickness!!), to lose the 'industrial' water/dust/shock proof thing, and this will be the perfect VGA PPC! :D


Thomas.

[pr0vider]

I like the look of it; it's not too "busy" looking like the Ipaq 4700 is. SD and CF slots, buillt like a tank; works for me but what's with the dual speakers?

[omikron.sk]

Great. Nice to see new (old) player back with something that no one brought yet.

[HTK]

Of all my pocket pcs ( toshiba e805. ipaq 3955, 1910, 1945 etc ) the cassiopeia em-500 was the only one I could totally trust to do the job. The alarm never failed and the few lockups I experienced with it was only due to 3rd party software bugs. That was a true pda, today they're only toys that you cant trust or depend, my e805 running 2k3se is slow and buggy, but I cant read my htmls and chms without vga anymore! :wink:

[Oregon Trail]

what's with the dual speakers?
The left one is actually a microphone.

[silver99]

Shave off a few mm here and there (especially off the thickness!!), to lose the 'industrial' water/dust/shock proof thing, and this will be the perfect VGA PPC! :D


Thomas.

Except for the RAM and Processor - In other words it's not the perfect PDA. Not by far...!

[Paragon]

How many of you ever drop your PDA?

Many people do, especially in enterprise situations. They get tossed on truck seats to slide off and hit the floor, left on bumpers, crates, knocked off counters, and so on......consider this scenario for a moment. Your boss tells you that he wants you to choose a Pocket PC to outfit all your warehouse, sales, and route drivers with, and you choose the 1910 because it is smaller and cheaper. The first week they are deployed your boss calls you into his office and tells you that he has had calls from salesmen who dropped their Pocket PCs and lost the thousands of dollars in orders they had on them. They then had to stop productive work, comeback to the office get another one of your cheap Pocket PCs and head back out and see all those accounts who's orders they lost....good luck with your new job....when you find one. ;)

That is the market Casio is after with a device like this. Not the average consumer.

Dave

[eugarps]

lol...everything about it seems too tall and too thick. I won't be buying it. I will have to wait for the perfect VGA device...
I'm still waiting for a CLIE UX50 like clamshell Pocket PC with lots of RAM, fast CPU, great swivel VGA screen, Wi-Fi & BT, CF slot, USB port, good battery life, camera, CIR, etc. The LOOX 720 is a great example...except it isn't a clamshell PDA.

:?: When the heck will the manufacturers wake up and realize there's a huge market for clamshells? I still have and use daily, a Jornada 728 and a 720 for backup! Sit in a doctor's office sometime and look at the sales people coming in. Most carry a Psion, Jornada, or NEC HPC 2000 device of some sort. The somewhat larger clamshells are fully as functional as and somewhat more durable than a PocketPC. They're just not as svelt. Besides, most have pretty good battery life. My Jornada 728 is good for about 12 hours. Heck, my old HP 200LX Palmtop PC was good for a week!

[WyattEarp]

It's good to see Casio selling PPCs in the US market again. We need more competion. Hope they continue selling PPCs here.

Shock-resistant, dust-resistant, and splash-resistant is something most people could use; even those "I never drop my PDA" people out there. Accidents do happen. IMHO Casio deserves a hand for bringing a PPC to market that does all that and does not have an "industial" price tag attached.

[dh]

Obviously this is intended to compete in the same space as the new Symbol MC50. http://www.symbol.com/products/mobile_computers/mc50.html

The big thing missing from the Casio seems to be the scanner. Without this, it's not really an option for many field service, sales automation, hospital, etc etc applications.

Like everyone else, I would have liked a clamshell PPC. My C860 is great. I wouldn't go with a clamshell for enterprise jobs though. My company is a Symbol partner and you should see the state of the mobile computers sent in for service. Big difference between people like us who use them 'cos we want to and people in warehouses and trucks who have to.

Quite apart from being dropped and knocked around, as Dave mentioned, I swear half the users use a screwdriver or chisle instead of a stylus. Is it also a coincidence that there is always a fork truck coming by at the exact moment they are dropped??

[Paragon]

I swear half the users use a screwdriver or chisle instead of a stylus. ?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I don't feel so bad now. I have a bad habit of using my car keys as long as the device I'm using has a protector on it.

Dave

[CTSLICK]

I'm still waiting for a CLIE UX50 like clamshell Pocket PC with lots of RAM, fast CPU, great swivel VGA screen, Wi-Fi & BT, CF slot, USB port, good battery life, camera, CIR, etc.
same here! when will the clamshell models hit the market???

And you'll get a big ME TOO on this one. Love the UX-50 or the even the Sharp CL-850. Awesome form factors! I've managed to hold off on the current crop of VGA devices but if a PPC came out with a UX-50ish form factor I'd be hard pressed to keep my credit card in my pocket

[disconnected]

Considering its intended use, I think it's actually very good-looking. Maybe if it does well here, Casio might think about re-entering the consumer market with something a little flashier.

[portnoy]

How many of you ever drop your PDA? I don't... the only PDA I have ever dropped was the HP h1910 awhile back (several times)...only because it was so slippery...

I wish I could say never. But my e335 did slip out of my shirt pocket one day at work and hit the concrete shop floor. Left a little ding in the cornet but otherwise survived. Now when at work I keep it in its Belkin leather case, which is a little larger and clunkier than the Krusell case I had it in that day.

[gmontielh]

Stick to the 47xx. It's worth every penny to have HP behind this product. Asked for the Dell and I'am cancelling my order after finding out they have to build it for me and wait 2 weeks after I paid for overnight delivery. To add to aggravation it took 20 minutes waiting on the phone to get a customer service rep. Very different to the fast response I got from HP when I had problems with my old 3835. For me is bye bye to Dell and the rest.

[jasondearyou]

Man, i had a BE300 from 2001 and the software was rock solid, like everything was thought out, not like some of the hap hazard put together devices of today.

If there's a brand that can be relied on today it's the Casio brand. 0X

[CTSLICK]

You know, I had an EM500 which was a good device and never gave me a problem. In fact its still in service, I sold it to a friend to help finance my X5 a couple years back :)

I kinda wish Casio would get back in the consumer game. I loved the layout of the EM500 and E1xx series. I thought it was a shame when the E200 came out, seemed like a "me too" device to compete with the iPaqs of the day and was not up to their standards.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

You know, I had an EM500 which was a good device and never gave me a problem. In fact its still in service, I sold it to a friend to help finance my X5 a couple years back :)

I kinda wish Casio would get back in the consumer game. I loved the layout of the EM500 and E1xx series. I thought it was a shame when the E200 came out, seemed like a "me too" device to compete with the iPaqs of the day and was not up to their standards.

Yep. I know what you mean. I too was an EM-500 owner. That was the 1st of my 4 PPCs and it was the unit that I used for the shortest amount of time (only 10 months). I moved on because it was limited in many ways (16MB RAM, no CF, and non-standard MIPS processor), but looking back, it was also the most solid PDA I've owned. It may have been limited, but it was rock-solid in everything that it was able to do. And that E125 was even better with the 32MB and CF slot (though not as cool looking).

While I am quite happy now with my hx4705, I'd certainly welcome Casio back with open arms.

[brianlee]

Wow, this is interesting!

Just when Pocket PC manufacturers were getting out of the handheld scape, Casio and Sony are slowly trickling back. This is really good news. The demand for a small device has gone back up especially because of WiFi and Bluetooth. Just yesterday, some girls were asking about my PPC at my university and which one to get.

I guess I just have to wait until Christmas to see if this new buzz will continue on.

Brian

[RenesisX]

It's gorgeous!

And it has all the features I want, even if it is a little bulky.

I have 2 WiFi Pocket PCs already - I really shouldn't think about buying another already.. :cry:

[NLS]

Stick to the 47xx. It's worth every penny to have HP behind this product.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

sorry couldn't help it

[NLS]

Seems the little guy ALREADY made an impression.
The thread is already four pages long.

I would not buy this device, but I do see it's market (in fact most people can see it except if they love HP).

Anyway, Casio will rule in PDA market if they want to. They have done it before.

0X

[CESkins]

Anyway, Casio will rule in PDA market if they want to. They have done it before.
Don't know if lightning will strike twice for Casio. In the end, I suspect that the only two major players that will remain in the US market will be HP and Dell...it will an uphill climb for any competitors. HP has PDA quality and customer support on its side. Dell has low cost per feature set on its side. Casio had its chance back when I 1st got my E-100 to be a force to be reckoned with. They dropped the ball and let Compaq walk in and clean up. Good to see that they are back with a PDA that at least will appeal to a certain sector of the market though. :)

[Gremmie]

The only problem with Casio is that their quality decreased. The E-200 had a lot of problems, massive amount of blacklights went out, they froze, they were not high quality. The plastic was very cheap. If this product is of better quality, then it might be worth it.

[NLS]

Indeed. Although:

1) this is a rugged device so I expect it to be erm... a rugged device

2) we don't know if they did better AFTER E-200 when they just went on the Jap market

3) MY E-200 had no backlight issues (yes I remember about them), DID have most features than anything else back then (iPAQs still had... non-removable battery) AND finally... died TWO MONTHS ago to the guy I sold it, with good years on its back (and it's how old? 4-5 years?)... btw the guy is a building broker and had it with him for the last two years in all construction sites you can think of (and yes the SD port door did break).

4) HP is just HP - they sell their name (and sorry to be just a bit haughty - Americans are NOT SO hard to be convinced for a product). I don't consider HP PDA something with quality (it's what HTC give them anyway - like most other vendors) compared to their other products (which are usually good and THAT is why people think PDA also are), on the other hand Dell DOES give quality PDA devices IN CONTRAST to their desktop brothers.

[Gremmie]

You haven't said anything different than what I just said, there were problems with the E-200 and the product will be popular iff they are able to control these things. HP hasn't had a problem that affected their product in mass in recent memory. So why is HP quality insignificant in comparison to the massive problems the E200? :roll:

[NLS]

Ok I'll put it simply.

Casio did not scr*w their customers. HP has done that many times.

Yes, I demand that a courier WILL come and take my defective device and get it to me back fixed, given the premium you pay on ALL HP PDA.
They even do this HALF right (yes they get it but it's at least 15 days without the device at least in my countery).
Now... if the device has REAL bugs, you HOPE they solve them BEFORE a new model comes out. Because when it does, YOU KNOW your model is dead.
Ah, and you expect that the next OS release (always talking if you have HP PDA), will either be a paid upgrade or a no-upgrade (irrelevant if the device CAN support the upgrade).
Let's also say that you need support quickly or an answer to a "sensitive" question (like "why this doesn't work as advertised"). You go to their forum and expect some valid answer. HAHAHA nice joke. If you are lucky some other HP client (or should I say HP lover since they spend their day in a company forum, just to get some HP forum ranking like it means something), will give you SOME answer (most probably something you already know). If you are not lucky, the thread goes ignored since their support never bothers reading. Oups wrong. They do read (you see, more sensitive questions do get erased quickly), they just ignore (esp. if they don't plan to fix your issue).

This is what happens with HP. I won't elaborate more, if I don't convince you, then I don't - no problem. I've seen the Light and it wrote "Goodbye HP" in the skies (my next PDA won't necesserily be a LOOX 720 as I plan currently, but it would necesserily be a "non-HP Deluxe" for sure). No sheep no more (well I was just once - don't hold it against me - I pitty those who have done the same mistake 2-3-4-5 times!).

People who DO like HP (for some unknown reason that you feel it's good enough for you), please ignore me, don't flame me (it's boring and I am ill).

[Gremmie]

So, it's all about not having an OS upgrade, or is there more? How did HP screw their customers? There still isn't any specifics.

If the hypothesis is that people will buy Casio over HP, because HP has been disingenuous to their customers, there needs to be specific examples of what HP has done. If it is just because of the OS, then it's not HP that should be criticized, it needs to expand to all of the companies who have done this in the past.

My stance is that the only way Casio has a chance to compete, they need to improve their quality.

[Gerard]

I have my Casio E100 (anyone know where I can get a replacement battery cheap?) in my desk drawer, and I love the E100's gamep.. I mean directional pad.

Might have missed it, but I didn't see anyone reply on the Casio battery question. Someone pointed me to this site a few months ago, and they're apparently still doing business today. An E-100 battery, which replaces the internal Li-Ion battery in every E-1xx model after that as well, costs USD$35. Don't know if that's considered 'cheap', but it's not that bad as batteries go, at least compared to notebooks.

http://www.cassiopeiabattery.com/

And yeah, I'll definitely be keeping an ear open for when/if Casio get's a consumer PPC out again with an English language ROM. I was very happy with my Casios, even though the EG-800 proved buggy enough that I had to get 4 warranty replacements sent from New Jersey, and the fifth and last unit is still a mess. The CF slot dies regularly, screen alignment is 'drifting' these past few months, and sometimes the touchscreen won't respond unless I whack it on the face a few times - but I put a Lexan flip lid on it long ago so that's not too painful. The D-pad, as you say, is awesome compared to any other PPC. The screen saturation and contrast control are incredible, better than any QVGA screen, and coming close to the VGA Toshibas in beauty. If they release a slightly thinner model with a slightly bigger screen, and with both SD and CF slots, I'd go for it.

[Prevost]

Looks too bricky. Probably they should have made it more svelte; in this form I think its market will be small.

[Typhoon]

How many of you ever drop your PDA? I don't... the only PDA I have ever dropped was the HP h1910 awhile back (several times)...only because it was so slippery...

So you do drop youur PDA! :oops:

Welllll.... I'm talking about the PDAs I have now: H1945 and a730... I should be getting the DELL X50V soon...

[Typhoon]

How many of you ever drop your PDA?

Many people do, especially in enterprise situations. They get tossed on truck seats to slide off and hit the floor, left on bumpers, crates, knocked off counters, and so on......consider this scenario for a moment. Your boss tells you that he wants you to choose a Pocket PC to outfit all your warehouse, sales, and route drivers with, and you choose the 1910 because it is smaller and cheaper. The first week they are deployed your boss calls you into his office and tells you that he has had calls from salesmen who dropped their Pocket PCs and lost the thousands of dollars in orders they had on them. They then had to stop productive work, comeback to the office get another one of your cheap Pocket PCs and head back out and see all those accounts who's orders they lost....good luck with your new job....when you find one. ;)

That is the market Casio is after with a device like this. Not the average consumer.

Dave

LOL CLUMSY! ...what you say is probably true...

[kzemach]

Ever since the iPaq went from the 3900 series with a LOUD speaker to all the other series they have which have sucky speakers, we've switched to the ASUS models which are somewhat loud. This being for a military application, durability counts. All the "rugged" PPCs sold to the military are a MINIMUM of $2k, and upward of $3k sometimes. I kid you not.

We just bought 200 ASUS 620s, and have, in the past bought several hundred iPaq 3955s. If we could get rugged added for an extra few hundred bucks (not a few thousand extra) we'd be in. Assuming that the speaker is loud...

[Darius Wey]

Well I don't think they even left the PDA market at all...

There have been PPCs after the E-200 but they were sold in Japan only.

You're right. I was making reference to Casio and the general worldwide market. They were fairly prominent worldwide with the Cassiopeias until it was cut down to a select few countries. It will be interesting to see where this new one will take them - even though it is only an Enterprise model.

[Darius Wey]

Looks too bricky. Probably they should have made it more svelte; in this form I think its market will be small.

Well the "bricky" design may be well suited for the enterprise/industrial market.

It's interesting to read everyone's comments on the model. I personally feel that while some of the specs may be of interest to some (battery and VGA screen, plus wireless functionality on the M20BR), some of the other features may be a little lacklustre (such as the processor clock speed and the amount of memory in the unit).

For the hard-core consumer, this unit may not totally appeal, but I do feel it has its place in the enterprise/industrial market, since that is where it is meant to be targeted at anyway. Perhaps if this unit goes well in sales, Casio may be considering targeting the general consumer market again? Time will tell. ;)

[Darius Wey]

Just to give some perspective. This is an industrial PDA, like the Symbol jobbies, hence the size, shock resistance, large battery, feature sets, and Im sure heavy price.

Well said - at 290g, it sure is intended to be that way anyway. :)

[szamot]

It was not that long ago that people were calling X5 a brick, look at Dell now, not a brick, quite affordable and very popular. Give it a chance.

[Typhoon]

It kind of bugs me that the PDA industry hasn't come up w/that ultimate clamshell PDA. Heck if it was $650 I would buy it. Are they not hearing us or something?? Maybe that is it...they are not hearing us? How could we get this message out to a maker that would consider making it? I think this type of PDA would be great and complaining about how the industry hasn't come up w/it is the right thing to do. Because all the ideas of this type of PDA are the best ideas of PDAs summed up into one...

[Barak]

I was a loyal Casio owner until the E-200. I had nothing but problems with that thing! I remember all too well the promises they made about the USB capability, but they never really followed through.

The customer services was an oxymoron and they'll never see another penny from me :bad-words:

[JvanEkris]

Ever since the iPaq went from the 3900 series with a LOUD speaker to all the other series they have which have sucky speakers, we've switched to the ASUS models which are somewhat loud. This being for a military application, durability counts. .....

Assuming that the speaker is loud...Standing less close to cannons when they are fired could help too:D

Jaap

PS: sorry, i could not help it. I had to do it.

[NLS]

And you bought an HP for being behind the customer more... hehehehe (sorry no offence - in fact I just wrote down just a little bit of my ACTUAL laughing)

see you next year when you'll talk about HP (but I hope you won't need them - ah and now that the new devices are out, I hope you understand that updates are over for you)

---

(btw not that I care, but it was the MANUFACTURERS of the USB devices that should supply a CE driver for them, in fact it is stupidly easy for them, just a different compilation - you expected the company that makes the PDA to do it? do what? implement every single driver for every single device? or maybe do a survey and see what the USB devices E-200 owners own?)

[Barak]

And you bought an HP for being behind the customer more... hehehehe (sorry no offence - in fact I just wrote down just a little bit of my ACTUAL laughing)

Hmmmm. You must not have ever owned and E-200. I went with HP because the 4350 had a good review and it met my needs. I have had no difficulty with HP customer service, but I know many people have.
At least their techs don't utilize the Casio mantra: " You'll have to do a hard reset". I am not as upset as others are about no updates for the 4350, as I plan to purchase a new PocketPC in about a year.

In regards to the E-200 and USB. Most E-200 owners were not upset with Casio for not Providing a driver. Most were upset with Casio for not being honest and not telling potential buyers that no drivers were available at the time the E-200 came out (and many months after).

Casio also did not have accessories (USB sleeve) ready for purchase at the time the E-200 was released and kept promising "they'll be available soon". This continued for some 3-6 months after the device hit the stores.

If you owned an E-200, I'll debate HP over Casio any day. If you didn't, your opinion on Casio/HP customer service is baseless.

[NLS]

I did have E-200 yes. See page four of this thread, my third post on the page.

I have had no difficulty with HP customer service

did you happen to use it?
if not then YOUR opinion on customer service is worthless

At least their techs don't utilize the Casio mantra: " You'll have to do a hard reset"

oh you are sooo wrong

I am not as upset as others are about no updates for the 4350, as I plan to purchase a new PocketPC in about a year.

you understand that there is no value in this sentence
you actualy almost tell me it's ok that they scr*w us

Most were upset with Casio for not being honest and not telling potential buyers that no drivers were available at the time the E-200 came out (and many months after).

Casio did not say ANYTHING on the issue (until someone asked them - like I did). I don't think it's not honest when they did provide the capability (and it was the 3rd parties' turn to do something with it).

In fact a keyboard worked from day one.
I mouse worked too, but invisible (no pointer).
All these are WinCE issues, not Casio.
Then a guy made a mass storage driver and a pointer for the mouse. Just a guy (not a company or anything).

Casio also did not have accessories (USB sleeve) ready for purchase at the time the E-200 was released and kept promising "they'll be available soon". This continued for some 3-6 months after the device hit the stores.

Yes I remember this. Took me two months after I got the device. It's soon enough, if you take into account that HP promised that their GSM/GPRS sleeve would work for 5450 "any time now" (then "we'll see", then "maybe", then "probably not")... then they made it work (here goes the joke) and hahahahaha IT STOPPED working if you wanted to upgrade to PocketPC2003 (I mean duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!).

BTW my 5450 was not charging yesterday (it dropped down to 3% without me knowing as it was SUPPOSEDLY charging). Cradle is dead for months now and even with the cable only method, you have to put it in a certain angle and not move it even a bit if you want to get lucky and get some juice. It's off warranty and I don't even DREAM of sending it back for repair (which would mean 15 days AT LEAST without the device PLUS paying almost half the device price to fix it... no thanks). The only thing I am worried, is who (and how) is gonna buy it. :-(
Oh I am many times punished (one reason for you not to flame me - I am already punished) for choosing a company I always hated (5450 is almost the only iPAQ I ever liked -ever). Now I now that even if a future "I do it all" iPAQ rx9900turbo comes up, I won't buy it.

Great company HP... just great. The Holly Grale of PDA. Yeah right.

(I am not going to take this further off-topic - if you guys want to compare HP with everything that comes out, like HP is a "standard" or something everybody else has to compete - which is NOT the case, it's just what you think - then take it to another thread - this is my last post in this thread with the word HP in it)

[Typhoon]

Oh yea...OLED displays. Aren't they supposed to be super thin and save lots of power (because no extra backlight is need to brightly light up the display)? I know that Sony, this year, has come out with the CLIE PEG-NZ90 which has an OLED LCD screen. If Sony is out with them, will PDAs in the US come out w/them as well in the very near future? I hope so... all these PDAs that are coming out now couldn't really survive the hype of the ideal PDA... can anyone comment on these displays?

[NLS]

Isn't this pushing the thread even more off-topic?

Anyway OLED displays are nice to look but

a) last time I checked had really limited life
b) last time I checked had very small size (like cell-phone size) and/or were low resolution

I am interested in seeing how this tech matures.
Sony using it does NOT mean it's mature yet (I love Sony as a brand bad MANY times have they used non-proven technology that they then abandoned...).

[Darius Wey]

Oh yea...OLED displays. Aren't they supposed to be super thin and save lots of power (because no extra backlight is need to brightly light up the display)? I know that Sony, this year, has come out with the CLIE PEG-NZ90 which has an OLED LCD screen. If Sony is out with them, will PDAs in the US come out w/them as well in the very near future? I hope so... all these PDAs that are coming out now couldn't really survive the hype of the ideal PDA... can anyone comment on these displays?

OLED displays are great - but it will take a while for it to become a major implementation in consumer devices. The technology is new - and therefore, as always, the costs of the rollout of this new technology will be high, and so it will take the companies some time to do it.

It would be nice to have one on a PDA but you'd have to factor in battery life, etc. But instead of turning this into an OLED thread, can we please try to stay on-topic? ;) Thanks.

[Barak]

NLS:

I am not a fanboy of HP by any means. Before my 4350 purchase, I swore I would never buy an HP product due to bad experiences in the past (scanner and printer - both returned with 1 week of purchase due to crappy tech and customer support). My wife bought me an HP digital camera last year and I refused to accept it, making her take it back for an Olympus :D

Hell, my brother in-law works for them and I still won't purchase from them. When I compare my experiences with the 2 previously mentioned devices, my 4350 has been much more positive. When I broke a stylus (don't ask how) in the silo of my 4350, HP replaced it without a single question and I had my new 4350 in 24 hours. Casio would never have responded in this way.

Someone should do a poll. I would predict that most Casio owners would report being happy with the Casio devices, but angry/frustrated with their horrid customer service. My E-125 is still working and will always be considered the best PDA I ever had.

[uzetaab]

I don't think that local customer service should really be a topic for an international forum.

I'm sitting here reading the posts about HP service &amp; thinking, that yeah, HP service sux. I can claim this from a professional point of view as I work in a retail outlet that has sold HP for years.

They were the first computer company in Australia to drop on site service for consumer PCs. WTF? Not only that, but they only had 2 service centres in a major capital city. That meant that for most of the population, they had at least a 1/2 hour drive to get it fixed. No authorised service agents either.
God forbid that you upgrade any part of the PC. not even something as simple as a DVD burner. It voids your warranty. Even if the problem is clearly unrelated to the drive.

BTW, the only other company I know of to drop onsite service was Compaq. After they were bought out by HP.

I digress, Someone before wanted some examples of the lack of customer service. I have plenty more, but I make to bigger posts as it is.

Back to my original point. HP support might be fine in the US, but don't EVER buy a HP product in Australia. Arguing about which company offers better service is pointless unless you are in the same country.

Anyway On to the new Casio. I like it. splash/shock/dust resistance is a great feature. It's something that really should be a standard in ANY portable electronic device. PDA, mobile, notebook, camera etc. The bigest problem with this happening is 2 fold, extra size &amp; I imagine companies want you to break it &amp; buy a new one.

It is a little oversized, &amp; they could have made it smaller. Who really needs a CF &amp; SDIO slot? CF is really an oversized port for a modern PDA. They should start replacing PCMCIA slots in Notebooks with CF &amp; stick with SDIO on PDA. Better yet, just put SDIO into notebooks &amp; get rid of CF &amp; PCMCIA all togeather.

10 hrs would still be plenty for a PDA. I imagine that there must be some waisted space in there too.

The processor &amp; Ram should have been bigger, but then if it's aimed at that business sectre, they don't need to be running games or music/video, so the resources are ample.

Plus it looks pretty sleek. I like it lots. If I was to make the decision on wether to give them to a bunch of employees I probably would, but the price is still a question.