hello out there!

i got my E10G a week ago and i'm very content with it... but still one thing strikes me: e-mailing with the E10G isnt as easy as i

thought.

is anybody reading this and knowing how to use the e-mail function of the E10G?

i already got a IrAD mobile phone but something still lacks...probably my knowledge...

[email protected]

I received my E-10 since last wednesday. It is a beautiful machine. I agreed with you on the color. The battery lasted about ten hours with the total of less than twenty minutes of recording and backlight. I accepted the limitation. There are still many things I can do in the day time and on the sofa at night with AC power Halogen. The backlight is VERY bright. I am using rechargeable now.

The recorder is alot of fun. I save all my recording onto my 15M sandisk that I purchased for the HP200LX. Recording feature and Flash capability are the reasons I purchase the machine.

I purchased the Jot Pro for $24. It's a bargain.

It took me two days to install the window CE. I think part of the reason was that due to my aging 66MHz 486 already installed with Office 97. If the first CE installation is unsuccessful, use the un-install from window 95 instead of the un-install that's come with the CE.

At this moment, the two complains I have with this first-production-supposed-to-be-buggy machine is I wish there's way to move data betwen Main memory and Storage card (Flash). The documentations are horrible. Luckily, there's lots of online help.

Great way to spend my afternnoon during the company outing at 3Com park this thursday.

The program switching speed is fast with calendar, note, task, voice recorder, and Jot Pro. It hesitates less than one second with financial calculator and quicken installed. I reserved one Meg for storage memory and 3 Meg for program memory. With nine programs activated, there's still 50% memory available in each category.

Does anyone know that the CE can be used as a touch screen machine? It's fun to play with. I learned it from my brother-in-law who owns the $1000+ Newton.

Albert Wong

Julie,
     Here is a brief writeup that I did on the E-10. Hope this helps
someone.

Al Mucci

     I recently attended a Microsoft conference for the new Palm-Size PC.
The unit that we received for the conference was a Casio Cassiopeia E-10.
The unit is very much similar to an HPC, but put into portrait mode. There
are also apps missing such as Pocket Excel and Word. The reason, explains
MS, is that this unit is not intended so much for input, as much output.
They have a basic strategy for each CE machine, which I am not allowed to
disclose, but it's going in the right direction.
     I think for a first time effort, the unit is pretty good. There are
some bugs where a screen might disappear and I have already had to reset
the unit a couple of times. I'm sure there will be a Service pack out for
it soon enough. This unit is so new, even Casio's tech support do not have
the units yet. This unit was not yet available in the retail market.

Casio E10
4MB RAM
MIPS R4000 75Mhz

This is a comparison against some features against the Pilot 5000.

Pro's

Better screen quality
Visual message notification (small light blinks)
Voice Recorder
Microsoft Mobile Channels for offline content viewing
Active Sync (Auto sync's while in the cradle)
Rechargeable batteries, some units have a recharger built into the cradle
for auto-recharge
Scroll wheel for one handed operation
Pocket Outlook
Nicer views of calendars
UI is very customizable
Character recognition is customizable so you can either use Graffiti or
Natural writing
Customizable keyboard (Can adjust size and keys)
Do not need a paper clip to reset, the stylus works fine
Compact Flash slot for memory upgrades, Network cards, modems, pagers and
who knows what else
Earphone jack
Pocket Streets (maps of city's, very good, can look up addresses, and has
all streets, not just the major ones)
Infrared port
Dial Up Networking
Power on Password
Excellent World Clock
Comes with a slip-in screen protector, so you don't scratch the screen,
it's unnoticeable when put in place.
Has backup battery so it will keep your info for 2 weeks without replacing
the dead batteries.
Very customizable all and all.
DTMF Dialer
User Interface is basically Windows 95 so any user can pick it up and start
using it.

Con's

Batteries do not last long with backlighting on
If you change the timezone, all times in datebook gets changed!
Programs are always running unless you manually shut them down via the
System properties or the OS shuts down due to
needing more memory for other programs.
Slower than the Pilot, Opening an apps can take 5 seconds whereas the Pilot
is instantaneous.
Even if you add a Compact Flash memory card, your contacts and datebook
info stay in the main system memory. This
should only be a problem with people that have a Significant amount of
contacts (2,000+)
Voice recognition is not good, very slow and you have to launch the voice
commander manually by pressing a button, which kind of goes
against the purpose of voice recognition.
Setting up Active Sync is a pain. Default on the unit is 19200 and on my
computer it was 57600. Was not straight forward on changing the speeds.
They will not sync at different speeds. MS is aware of this problem and
will fix this problem in future version.

Overall, I give the product a thumbs up. It still needs some fixes, and
many batteries for backlighting, but I'm sure they'll refine this
down the road. Microsoft has promised to work with more developers to
ensure the success for this product.  They are definately
taking it in the right direction with expandablility etc.

I would recommend this first release for early adopters. I would not
suggest someone have this as a sole replacement for a desktop or laptop.

Also, I have had a problem where the button assignment for button 4 has
disappeared altogether. It used to be for the voice recorder in the buttons
settings, now it's totally gone! I can't even reprogram it since you have
to choose a button to program. I called Casio and they said someone would
contact me in a couple of days...that was 2 weeks ago!

Julie, thank you for the review.  I found it very interesting.  I purchased
the E-10 about 2 weeks and so far so good.  What I found interesting was
that you said the E-10 can dial numbers through its speaker.  How did you
accomplish this??**  Again, thanks for the review!!

Tommy

** I used smARTcommander.

Enjoyed your review.  I've had my E-10 about a week.  I love it.  Went on
my first business trip without my portable computer or my paper calender
and address book.  I also experience the problem of getting messages
telling me to change batteries but seeing "good" battery readings in the
power display...
Also. I have a frightening problem which arose this morning: I turned off
the E-10 and put it aside--and it came back on.  I kept turning it off and it
kept coming back on.  Then, while holding it my hand and doing nothing, it
came on, went off, came on with the backlight on and went off again.
Later, I turned it back on and it has worked fine the rest of the day.  I
found you while desparately looking around for a newsgroup on the
Casio E-10...a support group that could reassure me that I don't have a
lemon.....Thanks  

Hi Julie,

I read your review on the E10.  I was struggling with the mobile Channel for MSNBC and never got it to work because of the java error.  However, I got it to work with the PenComputing Mobile Channel:

http://www.pencomputing.com/WinCE/PPCchannel/pcmppc.cdf

Other than that I love the E10.  I had the PalmIII and can't go back now...

Kinsley wong

Comments on...

Official Gadgeteer Hands On Review: Casio E-10 PSPC by Julie Strietelmeier

This was an excellent review.  Your reviews are great!

A few things to clear up though from my E-10 experiences:

1)  You mentioned that "I did have some unusual problems with the serial
communications and syncing. It seems that if I had Microsoft Frontpage
running and synced the E-10, it would do something freaky to the Frontpage
webserver so that I would have to shut it down and start it back up again.
It also seemed to disconnect my modem if I was online and synced. I had
the E-10 cradle on com1 and the modem was on com2.  I'm not sure what
caused these problems."

The problem is that the serial syncing is performed through a MS "dial-up
networking" connection (TCP/IP-PPP more specifically, I believe).  If you
are running Windows 95/98 or NT Workstation, those OSes are only capable
of one MS Dial-up Networking connection at a time, and the serial syncing
with the PPC apparently has priority.  If you are running NT Server, which
is capable of multiple dial-up networking connections, this shouldn't be a
problem.

I call this a bug and not a feature.  :) 

I don't know what those boneheads at MS were thinking when they came up
with this sync scheme, not being able to sync and connect to the Internet
at the same time is a bug or a gross oversight of the developers.  I'm
going to write to them.  There is something that Palm/Pilot is better at.

2)  You mention "The bottom of the case reveals the serial port that is
covered by a rubber boot. This boot has to be removed when you want to put
the Casio in the cradle. The problem is that the boot isn't attached to
the case in anyway.... so it will be VERY easy to loose.  The bottom of
the case also has 2 mounting holes that are used by plastic pegs in the
sync cradle."

At least you got a rubber boot. :)

The mounting holes are more than mentioned.  They seem to be able to hold
an add-on in place (notice the small tension wires).  Also notice that one
hole (left one with screen facing up) has an embedded gold nut for
something to be screwed in.  Maybe its for the add-on modem so that it
holds better?

3)  I've heard of colors other than grey coming out later.  Remeber that
promo units could be found in blue too.

On another note, I had the Everex Freestyle A-15 (got rid of it and got
the E-10 for the time being).  Great unit, I believe better than the E-10,
but a lousy display. 

The A-15 is...

- solid,
- has better side rocker keys than the E-10,
- has built-in rechargeables that recharge within the Everex unit when
connect to the AC adapter (with or without the cradle, you can power the
A-15 with the AC adapter),
- has a vibrating alarm (though a little weak),
- has a VERY LOUD speaker, but
- the display is very lousy, hard to read, way worse than my Pilot 1000 (a
reference I use for good screen quality).

For the same price at the E-10, the A-15 offers 8MB of ram too!

I wrote to Everex and told them that if they improve the display of the
A-15 that I will buy one again.  Everex claims that the Freestyle is the
flagship of their upcoming line of WinCE products; more like a sub though,
since you can't see it.  :)

Once the CompactFlash pagers and two-way wireless devices come out, the
Freestyles seem to be the best units to use when considering their loud
speakers and vibrating alarms.  The timeframe for CF pagers is at least
October and hopefully the Freestyles will be improved by then.

You can see what I had for a Freestyle site at
<http://www.mcs.net/~blue/fs>.

Take care...

Gene

Liked your review, and so thought I'd fill you in on two things to add to
clear up the two problems you encountered.

First, many users experience the synching problem you had. PalmPC's require
the use of the Windows Dial-Up Adapter on the desktop to sync.
Unfortunately, the standard Adapter is often being used by a modem for
Internet connectivity. Luckily, the Windows CE Services 2.1 disk contains in
its "Optional Software" section a new update for the Dial-Up Adapter which
allows for true multi-tasking. Once installed, the PalmPC's can sync even
while you are dialed-up to the Internet. This will completely fix this
problem.

Secondly, what isn't quite clear to most users is that the Mobile Channels
capability of the E-10 (and all PPC's, I suppose) can only be utilized if
IE4 is installed AFTER Windows CE Services, in order for certain IE4 setup
components to detect the Mobile Channel synching software. Yes, this is a
pain-in-the-ass for most folks, as for many it is a nightmare to reinstall
IE4. I had little trouble thought, and my E-10 updates my Mobile Channels
every morning at 7:00 AM sharp, with no problems! The only caveat is that as
of this moment, only two such channels exist: MSNBC and Pen Computing.
Hopefully, many more will be coming soon.

Take care!

Christopher Kobar

Thank you for a fair review.  It really helped me make a decision (both you
and Tom have been a great help).  I ordered a Pilot III and ordered a XL II
8MB memory module.  I can hardly wait.  With any luck I will have it by
this week end.

I did read a couple of reviews that said that in comparison the Pilot's
battery life was very good.  Compared to E-10.  Must be new math?

Thanks again.

Michael

AWESOME!!

Thanks a lot!

-jack macneil