Over a year ago Casio broke fresh ground with their Cassiopeia E-100 Palm-size PC, the first Palm-size PC with a stereo headphone jack, and optional audio and video player. The Casio booth at the Spring 1999 COMDEX was swamped, and even PalmPilot users were breaking ranks and sneaking over to have a peek. Well, just when the rest of the Windows CE world is starting to catch up with Casio, they do it again by introducing their new Compact Digital Camera Card. To be fair, it's not the first digital camera card. Sharp introduced one in early 1998 (see review, May/June 98; also on www.hpcmag.com). But Casio's Digital Camera Card slips into a Compact slot, not a PC Card slot. And the Casio camera one-ups the Sharp product by capturing still images and videos!
We've already done a review of the Cassiopeia E-100 (see ,May/June 99). I won't repeat that here, but I have included a Spec Sheet on the E-100 for your reference. Casio has since released the E-105, which comes with 32 Mb RAM instead of 16, and includes the Casio Multimedia Pack as a standard feature (it's an option with the E-100).
It's so small you hardly notice it
The Casio Digital Camera Card slips into the E-100/105's Compact slot, adding a little cylinder to the top of Cassiopeia (see photo). The Camera Card adds about one inch to the length of the Cassiopeia Palm-size PC, and only 1.6 ounces of additional weight.
You have to install the Casio Mobile Camera and Video Player software before you can use the Camera Card. This software already ships with the Cassiopeia E-105, but it's also included with the Camera Card so E-100 users don't have anything else to purchase. The Mobile Camera and Video Player software only works with the Cassiopeia E-100/105 other PC Companion users will have to look elsewhere for a digital camera.
Taking a photo is easy
After you install the software (the evaluation unit came with it pre-installed), slip the Casio Digital Camera Card into the Compact slot and turn on the Cassiopeia, and select and run the Mobile Camera application from the Start/Programs menu. Tap OK to get past the intro screen and to the camera screen (see Screen 1). At the top left of the screen you have three icons that let you take still images, videos, and display either. Tap on the left-most icon to capture still images.
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