dkessler
Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385 |
quote:
Originally posted by lpas304
...but now I'm seeing all this stuff about MemPlugs and Innopaks/pockets and CF something-or-other and I get the feeling this is all much more complicated than I originally thought. What the heck IS all this stuff?? 
In layman's terms, the MemPlug and all of the CF adapter modules give you a "solid state" (no moving parts) hard disk drive for your Visor. To use anything on this "disk", it has to be copied from the "disk" into RAM, just as it does on a PC. If the data is changed and you want to "save" those changes to the "disk", the changed data has to be written back to the "disk".
Now, the problem is that prior to version 4.0, PalmOS knows nothing about all this "disk" stuff. Moving data between RAM and "disk" currently has to be done manually via a "File Mover" application. New developments are in the works to automate and streamline this process of copying stuff between RAM and "disk", but the fact remains that SmartMedia, CF (and SD on the Palm m50X) are best thought of as disk drives and not memory.
The Handspring (and Haiga-whatever-they're-called) flash modules, on the other hand, are real live expansion memory. However, they expand your Visor's ROM (read-only memory), not its RAM. Applications and data on the module are automatically available to your Visor (just like the apps in it's built-in ROM), but the databases cannot be modified by an application. The module comes with its own "file mover" application that you can use to "program" whatever apps and databases you want onto the module.
Which solution is right for you naturally depends on your needs. The 8MB/16MB flash modules are the simplest to use and currently provide the most "seamless" operation. However your cost per megabyte is pretty steep, and the module really only performs one function (ROM expansion). If you have a lot of applications that you want to be able to run or large reference databases that don't ever changed, then these modules make an excellent solution.
The memory card modules (MemPlug and CF) give you more MB for your buck, but you have to deal with the need to move the stuff on the module back and forth when you want to use it. Memory card modules can also fill multiple roles. They can take the place of a backup module and they also give you a way to get files on your Visor without hotsyncing (put the memory card into a PC card reader, copy the files to it, then pop it in your Visor and you can move the to RAM at will). CF users will soon have a way that they can pop the CF card into a digital camera, take some pictures, then put it back in the Visor and email the photos without ever touching a PC. And we're just beginning to scratch the surface of what's possible with this technology.
And, with the advent of SD cards in the Palm m50X, we'll start seing Palm apps that can read and write their data directly to the memory card (instead of using RAM databases). I can't speak for MemPlug, but we hope to be able to give CF adapter users the ability to use those same applications in the near future.
So, if you're looking for a quick easy way to expand your Visor a little, the flash modules are probably the way to go. But if you're looking to really enhance the Visor's capabilities (not just storage) long-term, then a CF adapter or MemPlug module is definitely the way to go.
__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>
|
05-14-2001 06:20 PM
Email This Page to Someone! |
Receive updates to this thread
]