World travel and PDA storage

Why can't you use a USB harddrive with a PDA?

[rabidcarrot]

I'm planning a round the world trip and I'm looking at buying a PDA to take with. To organise my itinery, write email, play with on long road trips and do some simple computing tasks (maybe even GPS....)

The other major thing I would like to use it for is to store pics taken with my 5 megapixel camera. I'm pretty snap happy plus I will probably want to take a couple of movies, so this could take up a lot of space (I would think 5-10 gig).

So a couple of questions -
Is it possible to use an external USB hard drive (like the cutie drive)with any PDA?
If not, why not? If so which PDA/s?

If it isn't possible to attach an external hardrive, any ideas as to the best way to handle storage of around 5-10 gigs of info on a PDA?

Thanks,

Mark

[figment88]

hard drives spin - suck too much battery juice.

most people upload at internet cafe on a regular basis.

my experience is about 6 months old, so you might want to check the techo board over at the lonely planet forums.

[ogletree]

With the IPAQ you can get the PCMCIA sleeve and use a PCMCIA hard drive. There are some micro drives that are 2GB. I not too sure if you can go much higher than that. If you do find what you are looking for I am sure it will be very expensive.

[rabidcarrot]

Thanks for the reply, I'll go check lonely planet :).

True about hardrives sucking too much juice, but how about a usb harddrive with external power? Or for that matter any other USB device.

Can you even use a usb flash drive? They have no moving parts, so power shouldn't be a prob.

I'm not sure about uploading lots of 2-3M pics at internet cafes, some of the places I'm going are not going to have broadband connections. Sure I could decrease the size/quality of the pics but then what's the point in having a 5M camera?

Thanks for the input,

Mark

[ogletree]

Try this

h ttp://www.jenneth.info/archives/003427.html

[rabidcarrot]

Cool, a USB adapter for PocketPCs.

That looks like a possible/viable solution.

That might be the way to go :)

Thanks,

Mark

Edit -
Is there anything like this for PDAs other than PocketPCs?

[SEOMike]

Wow... That's really cool! Any idea if someone makes that in an SDIO version?

[LadyLinuX]

I have an iPAQ 5450 with the PCMCIA Expansion Pack Plus (comes with an external battery) ... I use it with the Kingston 5 GB PCMCIA hard drive to exchange info with my other PC's - costs about $200 at Mobile Planet.

[SEOMike]

Hmm... Interesting. I wonder if a Wireless PCMCIA card from Sprint would work in one of those. Sure would be nice to be wireless on the go without having a PDA cellphone!

[SEOMike]

The question in my earlier post answered:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[LadyLinuX]

Sorry - just saw your question SEOMike.

AFAIK Sprint uses the Sierra AirCard, same as Verizon. I use my Verizon PCMCIA AirCard *all* the time for wireless access on their Express network.

So the answer more likely than not would be Yes.

[SEOMike]

WELCOME TO WEBMASTERWORLD LADYLINUX!

And thanks for the note. How is the PCMCIA Air card on batteries? I could see that eating up my PDA's battery fast. That's also a concern for a PCMCIA USB addapter.

[DoppyNL]

Recently seen in a computer magazine:

a external cd-burning device.
You can insert a memory card (wich is used in digital camera's) and with a press on the button it will burn the contents to cd; then also check the cd.
Works on batteries.
Batteries can be charged via a normal electric cable.

Haven't got a clue on the brand or what it's name was.
But you should be able to figure that out I think.

At least you now know it's available.

[LadyLinuX]

WELCOME TO WEBMASTERWORLD LADYLINUX!
And thanks for the note. How is the PCMCIA Air card on batteries? I could see that eating up my PDA's battery fast. That's also a concern for a PCMCIA USB addapter.

Thanks SEOMike. Actually, I'd say it's not too bad on batteries - not much worse than the wifi, if that, but then the iPAQ PCMCIA Expansion Pack Plus has an external battery that snaps into the back of the pack that powers the card - ie it draws little if any power from the PDA's battery. There are also extended batteries for the pack. I carry a couple spares - they're lightweight and thin, they just snap onto the back and it's usually enough until I can get to a power source. They also make a travel battery charger that will charge both the Expansion pack batteries and the iPaq standard batteries.

I've also got a Sundog Sport - which is a small folding solar panel - about the size of a journal - that you can use with your car cord - does a nice job of charging things up and has a built-in reserve power pack. Very light weight. I seldom need it tho.