Good Things (Sometimes) Come in Small Packages (4/4)
Casio's Cassiopeia Pocket Manager BE-300
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HELP
SUPPORT
Casio does not typically worry about manufacturing
bugs and defects like some of the other vendors, and
I would expect that to apply to the BE-300. A useful
page of Casio support information can be found here.
You can contact Casio via telephone or e-mail. I always
recommend pocketnow readers to visit one of our forums,
here the Casio
Pocket PC forum, before contacting technical support
because there is usually someone who visits the forums
that has a solution to their problem.
ACCESSORIES
Along with the promise
of great services from myCasio.com, you can get the
PC Card "unit" for $159.95, an external
battery pack for $69.95, the CF digital camera for
$199.99, and most of the other accessories you can
buy from a third-party retailer. Prices for the myCasio
services have yet to be announced.
BUGS
AND WISHES
All of my issues with
the BE-300 fit neatly into two categories: that which
you can change, and that which you can't change but
must deal with when buying a $300 Windows CE device.
Pocket Manager has some real usability issues as it
stands now, and I can't recommend that people buy
the BE-300 and use the operating system as is--it's
about two generations behind what a Pocket PC can
do. If you complained about the Palm-sized PC, you'll
probably complain about Pocket Manager. Remember:
people didn't always love Windows CE! In fact, being
that I have been a CE nut since CE 1.0, hearing that
people like Windows CE is new to me! Mind you:
the potential is all there, but it's not being utilized
through Pocket Manager. However, I noted that these
are problems that can be changed.
Remember folks: this is a totally flashable ROM. You need not hold yourself back with Pocket Manager! I am expecting that the folk at Handhelds.org or other Mobile Linux nuts will begin experimenting with Linux of some flavor on the BE-300. It makes perfect sense, too. The hardware is so cheap that if you somehow damage the device by overclocking it or what have you, just buy another one! I am very curious as to how the geek community will modify the BE-300. It's just like the Honda Civic phenomenon. The car is so cheap that people are willing to spend gobs of money, more money than the car is worth, to make it faster and cooler. More conservatively, ISV's have the SDK's to create new platforms atop the BE-300, thus replacing Pocket Manager. Currently, very few software products exist for the BE-300, and since no other Windows CE applications run properly on it, you won't have the satisfaction of being able to choose from hundreds of applications to load your new device up with. This also means that peripheral drivers must be ported to the BE-300, so a lot of your devices (aside from generic storage and network cards) won't operate with the BE-300.
The other group of problems can be blamed on the purchase price. The screen, lack of infrared, omission of internal speaker, all-plastic body, small amount of usable memory, 5 cent cradle, and others are all the result of needing to somehow trim the fat. Since Microsoft can't impose rules on Windows CE Embedded Platform developers, Casio had complete freedom to produce the PDA that they wanted.
PURCHASING
Yipee! A very positive
point of the review! You can nab the Casio BE-300
at Amazon.com
for the low-low price of $299.99. Visit the BE-300
homepage
for future updates.
PROS
- Very low price
Integrated CF T
ype II Slot
Good indoors screen
- Lots of available accessories
- Casio build quality
- Totally flashable ROM
CONS
Overuse of plastic
- CSTN LCD difficult to read outdoors
- Pocket Manager interface and applications
- Synchronization options are crude
- The crux of the BE-300, myCasio.com, is still unreleased
Only delivers on a portion of marketed feature promises
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
Even after finding several major
problems with Pocket Manager, I'm still not ready
to give up on the BE-300. What's preventing Casio
from working a few more months on Pocket Manager then
sending out a huge ROM refresh of the interface for
those who don't want a custom shell? There are many
events and happenings that could push the BE-300 into
PDA stardom, but only time will tell if it will become
a hit or a miss. I am finding that too many Pocket
PC enthusiasts are dismissing the BE-300 because it's
not as sexy or functional as a Pocket PC. That's being
foolish. What I saw in the BE-300 was $300 worth of
building blocks that can be used to make a really
fantastic mobile computing tool, especially useful
for the enterprise where whole fleets of these will
be unleashed.
By itself, the BE-300 is by no means an advanced PDA in terms of its technology. Its premise, though, is! To become a service-powered PDA that generates major revenue after the device is purchased is surely innovative in the handheld world. Additionally, to invite developers to more or less finish off Pocket Manager alongside Casio is a new way of thinking. It has a great deal of "big name" developer and hardware vendor support, so apparently the industry sees a lot of potential beneath the thick skin. As long as myCasio.com delivers services that aren't available anywhere else for PDAs, more software developers adopt the platform and begin filling in the gaps (Jimmy Software games and Developer One utilities are already being ported), the BE-300 will eventually become a success. I think the estimates of 1,000,000 devices in a year are a bit exaggerated, but I hope for Casio's sake I will be proven wrong.
