With the passing of the Clie brand, my 5 year long love affair with PDAs was over. Without Sony lighting a fire under Palm's @$$, I think the glory and shine from Palm scene is pretty much gone. Something told be that I shouldn't expect any excitement from Palm from here on out. Incremental improvements is all I can see from them. I'm even willing to bet that VGA screens won't hit Palms until next year. I was bummed.
But I'm still a techno whore through and through, so I need something else to jump on to and get excited about again. I thought Pocket PC could be that (such as Dell Axim X50V), but that's just another PDA with limited space for carrying movies, pictures, and music around. What I really wanted was a good media player that could double as a portable external hard drive. So I started looking around for a cool media player.
iPod was a first obvious option, but even with the now cheaper Photo versions, the tiny low res screen and no movie playback made me limp. Next.
Next obvious option is the portable Windows media devices. Unlike some folks here (wink), I have no qualms with MS, so I was down with the idea. But when I looked closer, I just couldn't justify spending so much ($500) on something with such low res screens. I've been using 320x480 Clies for the last 3 years. Going down to 320x240 screens to show pics on just didn't seem right. Also, although I like the easy and simple integration with Windows Media Player in my computer, to really benefit from such integration called for having the Windows XP Media Center Edition OS. I just got done intalling a perfect XP Pro install for my new mobo, so funk that plan. Call me in 9 months, maybe.
Another option was to get a palm top computer like the Sony U70 or OQO, but the thought of spending $2000 for just a media station woke me up quickly. Besides, my next laptop money without a doubt goes towards a Tablet PC. next.
So I was bummed out again. Couldn't think of any worthy devices. Every portable multimedia hard drive device had a crappy low res screens. I was about to give up when a B and H Photo and Video catalog came in the mail (I bought my just sold Wacom Cintiq 18SX from them 7months ago, and I already line up the 21UX from those guys as well fror next month). Looking through the portable media player section, I came across something I was not aware of.
Epson P-2000 multimedia storage viewer!
This thing was exactly what I was looking for! Just check these features out!
- 40GB hard drive!
- 3.8" 640x480 18bit color LCD!
- Jpeg and RAW image playback!
- MOV, AVI, and MPEG 4 movie playback!
- MP3, and AAC music playback!
- functions as an external USB 2.0 hard drive! (Windows assigns it a drive letter)
- AV cable out for direct TV connection!
- Compact Flash and SD card slots built in!
- "Excellent" battery life through it's 2300mAh Li-ion rechargable!
WOW! I got so excited that I looked for it on the web for retailer. Surprisingly, CompUSA came up. So I went ahead an ordered it for $606, including tax and accidental coverage plan for 2 years. Should be in my grubby little hands by tuesday.
I'm telling you guys, I'm getting that same excited feeling when I got my NX70 over 2 years ago. The gadget whore in me is back. Long live the gadget whore!
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