news | articles | reviews | software | modules | accessories | discussion | faq | mobile | store
VisorCentral.com >> Discussion >> Visor Related >> Springboard Modules
Memplug vs. CF Adapter vs. Palm SD/MMC

Post a New Thread | Post A Reply

Pages (2): [1] 2 »   Last Thread   Next Thread
Author
Topic: Memplug vs. CF Adapter vs. Palm SD/MMC    Pages (2): [1] 2 »
ezdreamz
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location: DC
Posts: 3

OK, I wanted to get some feedback on this one. I've got a Prism and am debating whether or not to go for the m505. I know about the screen differences.. I'm just wondering about the memory expansion differences.

1. Palm SD/MMC - from the reviews that I've read, it sounds like you can run applications right off the memory card. Apparently, there's a slight delay when doing that.. maybe 5 seconds or so.

2. Memplug - can't run directly from the memory card (aside from CSpotRun); needs less juice than CF Adapter, but runs slower.

3. CF Adapter - can't directly run apps either; needs more juice, but is faster than Memplug.

Am I missing anything here?

__________________
Danny

ezdreamz is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 02:36 AM
Click Here to See the Profile for ezdreamz Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dvIceT
Member

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 152

Post

If you've got no compelling interest in Springboard technology, the m505 might be right for you. The one thing that would keep me from jumping ship is that I love the way my eye2 module fits with the visor. It's the most integrated pda/camera combo around.

I have the MemPlug, and it's well designed and highly functional, but I think it's too slow to ever really have satisfactory auto-copy-and-run capability, like TRG's AutoCF, or MSMount, or even the hinted-at VFS support for CF adapters.

Keep an eye on CF adapter development though. Flash adapter drivers are improving by leaps and bounds, and they've got a working CF adapter-enabled CSpotRun from what I've read. As I've posted before, their lack of a true Springboard CF adapter is still their greatest impediment to becoming the leading Springboard memory solution.

dvIceT is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 03:51 AM
Click Here to See the Profile for dvIceT Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

quote:
Originally posted by dvIceT

Keep an eye on CF adapter development though. Flash adapter drivers are improving by leaps and bounds, and they've got a working CF adapter-enabled CSpotRun from what I've read. As I've posted before, their lack of a true Springboard CF adapter is still their greatest impediment to becoming the leading Springboard memory solution.




Word I'm getting from the manufacturer is that a "plug-and-play" CF adapter could start shipping in less than two weeks. It will include the standard FAFileMover suite of apps which now includes a version of CSpotRun that reads doc files directly off the CF card. (Current FlashAdapter owners can get a "development" snapshot of this software now from Kopsis' website).



As for the m50X ability to run apps off the SD card, what it really does is incorporates an "auto mover" into the app launcher. Apps on the SD card show up in the launcher and tapping thier icon makes the launcher copy them to RAM and then execute them (and delete them when they exit). Keep in mind that this only works in the standard app launcher.



Kopsis is working hard to give FlashAdapter users similar capabilities and we hope to be able to officially announce some exciting new developments early next month.

__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>

dkessler is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 03:14 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for dkessler Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Azdeadwood
Member

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA
Posts: 50

What you have missed!

quote:
Am I missing anything here?


Yes - the 16MB (or 8) Hagiwara Flash Module!
You can run all your programs (except the ones that written into ROM at the factory) directly from the module. X-Master supports running hacks on the Flash Module Applications and Quickbits works as well. I find no difference running games and large files like Avantgo and WordSmith.

A little more money, but worth it.

__________________
Richard Grogan
Email: <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]?subject=VisorCentral">[email protected]</A>
Homepage: <A HREF="http://www.azstarnet.com/~rgrogan/official.htm">http://www.azstarnet.com/~rgrogan/official.htm</A>

Azdeadwood is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 03:32 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for Azdeadwood Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Anomaly
Member

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 175

quote:
Originally posted by dkessler




Word I'm getting from the manufacturer is that a "plug-and-play" CF adapter could start shipping in less than two weeks. It will include the standard FAFileMover suite of apps which now includes a version of CSpotRun that reads doc files directly off the CF card. (Current FlashAdapter owners can get a "development" snapshot of this software now from Kopsis' website).

<snip>

Kopsis is working hard to give FlashAdapter users similar capabilities and we hope to be able to officially announce some exciting new developments early next month.



Ooooh, Dave, you're such a tease

Two weeks?! We don't know who the manufacturer is and we can't order one, but it could be ready in two weeks?!

As usual, thanks for the hard work and the up-to-date scoop.

Anomaly . . . Impatiently waiting, so he can buy a CF Adapter already

Anomaly is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 05:10 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for Anomaly Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
septimus
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

quote:
Originally posted by dkessler
It will include the standard FAFileMover suite of apps which now includes a version of CSpotRun that reads doc files directly off the CF card. (Current FlashAdapter owners can get a "development" snapshot of this software now from Kopsis' website).


More details on this? This is killer! Couldn't find it on your website, still waiting on registration, can hardly remember to keep breathing I want this so bad....

AAAHHH

__________________
Don't like somebody? Click "Profile" on a post and then click "Ignore "so and so's" posts". Voila!

septimus is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 05:52 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for septimus Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

quote:
Originally posted by dietrichbohn

More details on this? This is killer! Couldn't find it on your website, still waiting on registration, can hardly remember to keep breathing I want this so bad....



You can download the latest development release of FAFileMover from http://kopsisengineering.com/dl_beta.html

Although the beta warnings are "scary", this is the third round of beta testing for this version and it's actually just about ready to become a stable release.

__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>

dkessler is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 07:39 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for dkessler Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

quote:
Originally posted by Anomaly


Ooooh, Dave, you're such a tease



Trust me, not being able to disclose the details is driving me crazy too

__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>

dkessler is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 07:42 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for dkessler Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
septimus
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

Just dl'ed the beta with the CSpotRun plug in: AWESOME.

I'm looking forward to the time when we won't have to open FAFileMover to access the CF card docs (i.e. find a way for CSpot to access the FaLib directly...???)..

All Hail Kopsis!

__________________
Don't like somebody? Click "Profile" on a post and then click "Ignore "so and so's" posts". Voila!

septimus is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 07:53 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for septimus Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

quote:
Originally posted by dietrichbohn
I'm looking forward to the time when we won't have to open FAFileMover to access the CF card docs (i.e. find a way for CSpot to access the FaLib directly...???).


Actually, CSR does access FALib directly. But it takes a lot of code to be able to browse through subdirectories and let users select a file. MemPlug initally got around this by requiring that all docs be kept in the same directory. I didn't like that answer and since all the code to browse the CF card is already in FAFileMover, it seems logical to just use it. That means less code added to CSpotRun and less RAM wasted on something that another app already does. And since saving RAM is the whole purpose of a CF adapter, leveraging FAFileMover is really a good solution

__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>

dkessler is offline Old Post 05-11-2001 09:58 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for dkessler Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
josher75
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 12

Thumbs up curiousity about release of VFS compatability

Dave,

Just curious have you gotten ahold of the VFS system extensions yet. Is it really possible to add those to the Handspring system 3.5? Will they run as a hackmaster extension or will they just be incorporated into FAFilemover? I can't WAIT to try this out.......if you need any assistance please let me know. Thanks for your work on this & enjoy your time in Sweden.

Josh

josher75 is offline Old Post 05-12-2001 05:00 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for josher75 Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

Re: curiousity about release of VFS compatability

quote:
Originally posted by josher75
Just curious have you gotten ahold of the VFS system extensions yet. Is it really possible to add those to the Handspring system 3.5?


Well, it's not so much a matter of "getting ahold" of the VFS extensions, it's a matter of writing them from scratch based on the PalmOS API spec (not a small task by any means). I won't disclose any technical details since until we have something in beta, the technical specifics could change considerably. However adding a FlashAdapter VFS extension to OS 3.5 is definitely possible and we hope to make it a reality soon. OS 3.1 on the VDX presents a few more challenges, but I think we can work around those too. Stay tuned!

__________________
<ul><li>Dave Kessler<br>President - Kopsis, Inc.</li></ul>

dkessler is offline Old Post 05-13-2001 12:22 AM
Click Here to See the Profile for dkessler Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
enhanceyourlife
Member

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Derry NH USA Earth
Posts: 154

My question would be about distribution. Will it be available from anyone besides PalmGear?

__________________
<div align="left"><font size="+2" color="#FF8000">Mike</font>
<hr width="200">
<font color="Red"><i>Programming is the struggle between programmers<br> building bigger and better idiot proof systems<br> and the universe building bigger and better idiots</i></font>
<hr width="200">
<b><a href="http://enhanceyourlife.com">http://enhanceyourlife.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.furrbrain.com">http://www.furrbrain.com</a></b></div>

enhanceyourlife is offline Old Post 05-13-2001 12:25 AM
Click Here to See the Profile for enhanceyourlife Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
philip
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 19

Cool MemPlug go retail!

I heard that MemPlug will soon be available in several major retail stores like COMPUSA, STAPLES ....

philip is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 03:58 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for philip Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
gbgood
Member

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: June 10, 2001 San Clemente Pier , CA
Posts: 211

Today is the 19th, which means tomorrow Palmgear ships the memplug...

gbgood is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 04:18 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for gbgood Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
miradu
TreoCentral Staff

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

Dave, would you consider sending a preview module to Visorcentral soon? So that when it is released, we have the review all ready? People would love it! contact marcus with detials.. not me.. I'm just a volunteer..

__________________
-miradu

miradu is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 04:48 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for miradu Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
philip
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 19

Cool MemPlug AutoCF

MemPlug is now beta testing its version of AutoCF. What is it? It allows direct run of applications stored on the memory card. It is like having a 128MB Handspring Springboard Flash module if you use MemPlug + 128MB SmartMedia Card on your Visor. It is not direct copy to the internal ram like Palm 500 or 505. The apps actually run on the memory card!
MemPlug is way ahead in the ballgame.

philip is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 05:01 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for philip Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Thunderbird291
Member

Registered: Feb 2001
Location:
Posts: 447

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dkessler






As for the m50X ability to run apps off the SD card, what it really does is incorporates an "auto mover" into the app launcher. Apps on the SD card show up in the launcher and tapping thier icon makes the launcher copy them to RAM and then execute them (and delete them when they exit). Keep in mind that this only works in the standard app launcher.


I just want to add to this, that this means you can only use apps/databases that are at a max 8MB, right? So if you have say a 64MB SD card, you can't have something like a 64MB "all in one" app, right?

Thunderbird291 is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 06:07 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for Thunderbird291 Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
philip
Member

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 19

The MemPlug 'AutoCF' (I don't know the offical name) is NOT LIKE Palm 500 and 505.
For example: You can actually have a 11MB TomeRaider Dictionary running on your Visor Solo (only 2MB internal memory). The TR app and the dictionary databases all resides on the memory card. However, you can see the TR icon at the launcher. Get the idea.

philip is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 06:15 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for philip Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
Anomaly
Member

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 175

quote:
Originally posted by philip
The MemPlug 'AutoCF' (I don't know the offical name) is NOT LIKE Palm 500 and 505.
For example: You can actually have a 11MB TomeRaider Dictionary running on your Visor Solo (only 2MB internal memory). The TR app and the dictionary databases all resides on the memory card. However, you can see the TR icon at the launcher. Get the idea.



Phillip, you've made a couple of "secret"-type statements about Memplug in the last few days - retail availability, new software, etc. Would you care to share your source with us, so we can know whether to rely on this information?

Note to Miradu: I believe Dave Kessler has said that the module is being manufactured by somebody else - not Kopsis.

Anomaly is offline Old Post 05-19-2001 09:15 PM
Click Here to See the Profile for Anomaly Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
All times are GMT. The time now is 08:25 PM. Post New Thread    Post A Reply
 Pages (2): [1] 2 » Last Thread   Next Thread
[ Show a Printable Version | Email This Page to Someone! | Receive updates to this thread ]

Forum Jump:

Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.3.4
Copyright ©2000, 2001, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.