|
Expansions
Before you buy your device, there is another part of the market to look at,
expansions. Some devices have few or no expandability options, while others have an
almost endless supply of different options. Think about what you might want to add
to your device. If you are looking at a device that can't play MP3's, make sure
there isn't an expansion module that would allow for you to play MP3's. Consider if
you will be wanting to go wireless in the future. If you are, you might check to see
if the device you are looking at has any wireless options on the market or coming in the
future.
The two primary expansion card types used in PDA's are Compact Flash and
Secure Digital. Compact Flash (CF) has been around the longest, though
actually is being less used in new devices. CF is larger than secure
digital (SD), though this helps to allow for it to come in expansion flavors
(networking, modems, cameras, etc) as well as memory. CF also is large
enough to allow for adaptation to other memory types like SD, Sony's Memory
Stick, and Smart Media. This may be extremely important to uses that
have other devices like cameras. CF is also generally cheaper and
generally more advanced. New memory and expansion technology usually
first appears in CF before media types like SD. Secure Digital is half
the size of CF and thinner. SD is primarily memory, though a new
standard called SDIO has been introduced for allowing SD cards to be
expansions as well. Be aware, not all devices with SD will support the
SDIO cards and may only support memory (meaning no wireless). SD has
had major price cuts and common memory sizes are consistent with CF.
If you are interested in a Sony device, you will find they use Memory
Sticks, which are similar to SD in size and functionality.
What else could there be...
|