iBiz Announces SDIO FM Radio and Card Readers
iBIZ Technology Corp. has announced the PDA industry's first Secure Digital Expansion Card (SD), FM radio for PDAs. The Pocket Radio enables a standard PDA with an SD expansion slot to tune into FM radio stations. iBiz has also debuted new memory cards readers for handhelds and a new SD VGA camera.
SD Pocket Radio
Ken Schilling, iBIZ President and CEO commented, "The processing power in PDAs today make it possible to port a variety of technology into a handheld computer. The SD Pocket Radio is multitasking so users can perform other PDA functions while the music plays on."
The software provides up to eighteen different preset stations, search and seek functions allow the user to tune to a desired frequency/station and then hold down one of the preset buttons to set a station into one of the presets. It also has the ability to output the signal to either headphones or external speakers.
Memory Card Readers
The new 7 in 1 card reader will read SD, SM, MMC, CF type 1 and 2, MD and MS cards. This is the first card reader that is plug compatible with handheld computers as well as desktop computers. The reader had a Y-cable that will connect to a USB port or a Palm handheld with a universal connector.
The 4-in-1 Card Reader combines a 4 in 1 memory card readcer, a leather case, memory card holders and a hotsync cable all in one package. It will read SD, SM, MMC, and MS cards as well as sync and charge Palm without removing the device from the case. The case is designed to work with the m-500 series, I-705, and Tungsten series handhelds. The reader is embedded within the leather case, and can be accessed directly from the Palm or a PC via an integrated USB cable.
In addition, IBiz has also introduced a 2-in-1 Portable Card Reader. It is designed to work with the Palm V, m-500 series, I-705, and Tungsten series. The reader allows access to 2 additional cards at once in the SD and MMC formats. It allows Palm V users to add expansion memory capabilities to their handheld.
Finally, the Pocket Shot SD is a new digital camera option for SDIO equipped handhelds. it can take pictures in 640x480 resolution and stores them in internal memory as jpegs. It is powered by the handheld, iBiz is also working on a rechargable model.
Pricing or final availability for the above items has not been announced. The products were shown at CES and can only be expected "soon". More info is aviable at iBiz.
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RE: SDIO FM Radio
It's much like the MP3 springboard (which works as well in, or out of the Visor), only much less remarkable. Why tie up an SD slot with that? A large interface I suppose is good to have, but it's not like you could set an alarm to record an FM program at a certain time or anything like that, like you could if it was a true SDIO audio device.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
RE: SDIO FM Radio
For that matter, if anyone wanted to write the app, the CF version would run on a TrgPro or HandEra 330. Heck I bet you could get it running in the NX70 CF slot (a serial connection would be vastly easier to do than flash memory drivers).
RE: SDIO FM Radio
RE: SDIO FM Radio
RE: SDIO FM Radio
It's much like the MP3 springboard (which works as well in, or out of the Visor), only much less remarkable. Why tie up an SD slot with that? A large interface I suppose is good to have, but it's not like you could set an alarm to record an FM program at a certain time or anything like that, like you could if it was a true SDIO audio device.[/quote]
I agree that this is much cooler that MP3 springboard. But this is a nice setup for a [hint, hint] SD mP3/WMA player. I would think that this would be a good deal and the form factor of this FM player is jsut right for an SD player. Maybe with FM tuner & 64mb built in for the intro model and then models after that have an extra slot for a high capicity SD card.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
_____
Fammy
RE: SDIO FM Radio
On an MP3 player, I see the value of a PDA for an interface.
On a digital FM radio (and all the textual data that can be provider over those links like, song and station info, traffic, etc) a PDA interface may well make sense.
Otherwise not so much for a plain analog FM radio. Still, I'm sure there's a market... But it's probably more the Clie/MemoryStick market. =8-o whoops, did I say that out loud?
RE: SDIO FM Radio
What? No AM?? Listening to traffic report on my TT was the only thing missing from my life, guess I'll just have to keep waiting.
Seriously though, the only thing that would even remotely justify this thing is if it could record to MP3 or something. Asside from that, pick up a free FM radio at one of the many trade show boothes giving them away.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
There are actually some nice pocket-size portable radios on the market that are more than just FM tuners--many offer AM,FM,TV sound, and weatherbands, among other things. Sony's Sports line has a few nice models, and Aiwa and Sangean are also fairly reknown for their nice pocket units--powered by a single AA or AAA battery. I got an Aiwa a few years back that goes with me on every trip-has a worldband digital tuner on it.
The other gadgets mentioned in the article, such as the multi format card readers, do look interesting.
But Ryan, is that a typo I see? Shouldn't it read "xD" format for the 7-in-1 reader instead of MD(Minidisc)? I am pretty sure you meant to say the new, smaller than SD format released by Fuji and Olympus (like we needed another flash memory format!) to reaplace Smartmedia.
On a final note, I'd have been all over the 2-in-1 reader two years or so ago, when I still had a Vx. I'm actually surprised no one tried to develop a product like this earlier when the installed base of Palm Vs was at its highest. Aside from that little...what was it called--"Flashplug"? backup thingie for III/V/m100 series, I've never seen anything of the sort. Interesting.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
RE: SDIO FM Radio
What's so hard to believe about that? Palm OS 5 allows 16 channels of streaming sound to play in the background. When an application exits the OS allows the sound to continue.
If it doesn't allow sound export to a device speaker, than this is a poor buy to me. A good buy would perhaps allow a real speaker for applications that have real sound, such as Bejeweled.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
Indeed. Another, "If you can't join them, beat them (or not)".
If one want's something smaller than MMC/SD I guess you could go with RS-MMC and at least stay compatible (yes RS-MMC is usable in any SD slotted device).
RE: SDIO FM Radio
Preaching to the converted (you'll find my posts along the same lines in other threads here). I have no issue with sound or multi-tasking abilities on PalmOS devices. They say that the *card* is multi-tasking. "SD Pocket Radio is multitasking so users can perform other PDA functions while the music plays on."
Again, I point to the fact that the headphone is plugging into the *Card* not the PDA. So Multi-tasking is marketing mumbo-jumbo. The *card* is single tasking. It plays FM or it doesn't. What PDA's it's put in, and the multi-tasking abilities of that PDA are irrelavant. It's NOT sending digital audio to the PDA, it's NOT using the ARM or Dragonball CPU in the PDA at all to reproduce the sound. And it's NOT using the OS5 sound manager, or any of it's 16 channels of sound. It's *exactly* like the small near interfaceless radios you can buy for next to nothing, except that it has a serial connector in SDIO packaging that let's you control the radio functions via PDA software (like PalmAmp lets you control your PC MP3 player via your serial connected Palm). That may or may not be of value to some.
"If it doesn't allow sound export to a device speaker, than this is a poor buy to me."
That's what I'm saying. I'm simply distilling the apparent facts to suggest.
RE: SDIO FM Radio
>
>What's so hard to believe about that? Palm OS 5 allows >16 channels of streaming sound to play in the background.
The point is that there is no multitasking involved. It uses none of the OS's audio support. You set the channel and that's it. The analog FM radio does the rest on it's own drawing power from the slot. Perhaps they should call it multiprocessing? :)
RE: SDIO FM Radio
I have a Sangean radio (mentioned above) that is about half the size of a PDA and receives AM/FM/TV/Weather. Costs around $65.00, runs about 20 hours on 2 AAA's.
Basically this is just
RE: Basically this is just
RE: Basically this is just
>>radio in size at toys r us when i was shopping for
>>xmas and it was only $9.
SONY made TV tuners. Check out this article:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=4434
Im not sure if they are in cards though. Can they fit? what are the dimensions of an SD card? If they do fit I hope there is space for a bettery, because they seem like battery guzzlers.
RE: Basically this is just
> palm and the way it clips is using the SD slot. period
No, it draws power from the SD slot, and you use your PDA to tell it which station to tune to. period
RE: Basically this is just
RE: Basically this is just
Agreed. Seems odd that some months ago we were complaining 'where are all the SD accessories?', now that they are rolling we slam the ones that don't fit our preference. Yeah, you could replace this radio with a thousand others, but the UI is much better than some microscopic knobs. A lot of people will ignore this SD radio, but I'm betting that there will be a market for someone like my wife. She does not want to bother carrying a radio or changing batteries, but this is small enough where she could tuck it in her purse or gymn bag. Wonder if you can turn off the Palm and let it play...
Did you see?
RE: Did you see?
RE: Did you see?
1. Card readers normally only work for memory cards.
2. Even if you could use devices (say in the CF slot), you'd still need drivers for them.
3. The thing is huge.
4. All the cards will be limited to the throughput of the UC, the novelty will wear off real fast.
Again I make the case for more PalmOS devices to use a CF slot (preferrably in addition to a second slot of another type).
Besides all the reasons I've ranted on before, if people are excited about this device because of the ability to use multiple card types, then consider:
With a TrgPro or HandEra 330 you can use: CF, SD, MMC, RS-MMC, MemoryStick, and SmartMedia. How? Because their are CF adaptors for all of them.
Pretecs SmartMedia -> CF adaptor:
http://www.pretec.com/index2/product/Mobile_peripherals/CompactSSFDC.htm
Pretecs SD/MMC/MemoryStick -> CF adaptor:
http://www.pretec.com/index2/product/Accessory/CompactTRIO.htm
The latter is also of use to those who use SD or MemoryStick in their PDA but CF in their Digital camera. It lets you put your PDA's media in the CF slot of your digital camera.
The above two options are not only smaller and less clunky, but would seem to have to be cheaper. I can't imagine either the 7in1 or the 4in1 readers above would come in under $46us.
It makes no sense to me that some people will argue for smaller PDA's to the point where the only slot you can cram in is a single SD/MMC slot, and then get excided when you can plug in a bulky adaptor like this to get a second card slot for a larger format after all.
*Somebody* pick up where HandEra left off, and get some dual slot (CF and SD/SDIO) PalmOS devices out there to compete with the PocketPC's. Our hardware is catching up now with the ARM devices, now lets catch-up on price and peripherals.
RE: Did you see?
I am honestly rather surprised Sony mever did an NR/NX series unit with 2 MS slots on it--the best around the "old" MS limit of 128 would be to double up the cards in the unit!
RE: Did you see?
RE: Did you see?
RE: Did you see?
From SanDisk flash memory specs:
SD
Voltage: 3.3V
Read: <33mA
Write: <35mA
Standby: 100microamps
CF
Voltage: 3.3V
Read: 21mA
Write: 21mA
Standby: 200microamps
Sounds like you have yet to make your case.
RE: Did you see?
---------------------------------------
It's an issue of whatever you care to make it.
RE: Did you see?
?? Notice that was *micro* amps for standby, not milliamps as in the read/write values. The standby voltage on both SD and CF is pretty much inconsequential. In the context of battery life for a PDA it's virtually nothing. It's like saying one fly weighs more than the next because he's got one extra leg. Fly legs don't make up much of his total body weight. So essentially they weigh the same. Similarly 100 micro amps on the standby life isn't going to make a wit of difference to battery life. If it did, we'd all be pulling our cards out when we turned our PDAs off. Back/sidelights, CPU, RAM refresh, and accessories are where the battery consumption comes from. Percentage-wise it's normally the back-light or sidelight that uses the greatest portion of battery life, often more than all the rest of the components put together. The exception can be a few power hungry components, like some of the less expensive wired or wireless Ethernet cards, and the like. But it's a bit disingenuous to say that CF is a power hog because of those, since there *aren't* yet any SD or MemoryStick versions of all those CF accessories (except for a couple exceptions like, bluetooth, camers, and Margi's PTG). If you did have all those options in SD, they'd be just as power consuming for the most part. Reference again the Palm/SD Bluetooth SD card.
It still comes down to the fact that we don't have more affordable expansion options on the PalmOS platform because, save for one licensee, we've ignored CF slots, unlike most other major PDA platforms. I can only assume it's for two reasons. The typical PalmOS consumer has failed to recognize the value and thus failed to demand it (or buy PDA's from the brands that did have it). Those that did recognize the value when with HandEra, or with PocketPC, Symbian, Zaurus, or elsewhere. And second, that manufacturers are more than happy to keep selling you expensive less capable versions of these accessories in the form of sleds and clip-ons with the various proprietary connectors and cables. Forcing you to buy them again for your next PalmOS model. Isn't it time people got fed up with the option of a CF version of whatever you want for the PocketPC platform, or a sled version at a higher cost from a single brand name (aka TDK, or Xircom) for one or two handheld lines (typically PalmV or M5xx).
Anyone who compared the accessory displays in the PocketPC areas and the PalmOS areas at Comdex would have to agree. You should be able to buy a device once, and be able to use it on much of the devices on your platform, as well as your desktop/laptop, and much of the devices in the competitions line. Thus far CF is pretty much the only accessory form factor that you can accomplish that with. I have to grudgingly give the nod to Sony and MemoryStick for a very distant second. But the fact that MS line has devolved into the mess of MS, MS pro, and the in-between version, the fact that there still aren't many non-memory memory sticks, and the fact that MS is still pretty much only useful to you on Sony devices adds one or two more "very's" to "very distant".
Their CF card and even this SD card look much like another
http://www.prolink.com.tw/new_web/products/network/FM201.htm
SD/MMC for the PalmV!! :)
-- SeaPUG: http://www.seapug.com --
RE: SD/MMC for the PalmV!! :)
Visit us at www.tdscomputer.com
RE: SD/MMC for the PalmV!! :)
I never had the pleasure of owning a V, but if something like this had been available a year ago I would not have moved from the IIIc to the 505 so quickly.
PS: Greetings fellow Snapperhead!
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SDIO FM Radio
Also, the link for the web site should be:
http://www.ibizcorp.com/pocketradio.html
That page only shows compatibility with PPC devices, although, interestingly enough, it mentions it is not compatible with the new Dell PPC's.