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iPAQ Expansion Sleeves for the 3600/3700/3800/3900/and
5000 Series: Versatility and Power
-by Lisa
Gade, Editor in Chief
For power users, expansion sleeves are the heart
of the iPAQ experience, and they work with all 3000 and 5000 series
iPAQs. Drop your iPAQ into a sleeve, and you're ready for new horizons.
You can add extra battery life, CompactFlash cards, PC Cards, Digital
Cameras, GPS and more. I'll review a few popular
favorites that we've hands-on tested in this article.
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Compaq CF Card Expansion Pack
This sleeve has one CF type II card slot
and is one of the smaller sleeves for the iPAQ. The new Expansion
Pack Plus is a bit smaller. It doesn't have an internal battery.
This sleeve allows you to use CF memory cards, the IBM Microdrive,
CF network cards, modems and Bluetooth cards.
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Compaq CF Expansion Sleeve Plus
New in
Spring 2002, this is the "new
and improved" CF sleeve that adds a hinged smoked clear
plastic screen cover like that of the Cover Pack, and a removable
Lithium Ion polymer battery. The 920 mAh Slim battery is included,
and you can purchase an Extended life 1840mAh battery.
The sleeve is recharged when you recharge your iPAQ. A separate
battery charger is available for the Plus sleeves. Your iPAQ
will draw power from both the expansion sleeve battery and
its main battery, and the expansion battery can trickle charge
your main battery.
This sleeve has one CF type II card slot and is one of
the smaller sleeves for the iPAQ. The new Expansion Pack
Plus is a bit smaller. This sleeve allows you to use CF memory
cards, the IBM Microdrive, CF network cards, modems and Bluetooth
cards. A very cool and useful accessory!
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Compaq PC Card Expansion Sleeve
and Dual PC Card Expansion Sleeve
This sleeve has one PC Card type II card
slot and is thicker than the CF sleeve since PC Cards are
larger and there's an internal battery to power the card
(PC Cards are power hungry and most Pocket PCs can't supply
enough power without an additional battery. These sleeves
are recharged when you charge your iPAQ, or you can plug
your iPAQ charger directly into the sleeve to charge the
sleeve by itself. This model has been replaced by the PC
Card Expansion Sleeve Plus, covered further down the page.
The Dual Slot can accomodate two type
II or one type III PC Card. It has a larger battery to
power both cards. It comes with an adapter than allows
you to use CF type I and II cards (you must purchase this
adapter (available in various brands at retail stores)
separately if you get the single slot PC card expansion
sleeve).
This sleeve allows you to use network
cards, modems, Sierra Wireless
AirCards, and the Toshiba
1.8" PC Card hard drive among other things. It
allows you to save money by using the same PC cards in
both your laptop and iPAQ (assuming an iPAQ driver is available
for your PC card). You can also use CompactFlash cards
with these sleeves if you get a PC to CF adapter.
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Compaq PC Card Expansion Sleeve
Plus
This is
the "new and improved" PC
Card sleeve. Like the PC Card Expansion sleeve, it has one
PC Card type II card slot and is thicker than the CF sleeve
since PC Cards are larger. The Plus adds a hinged clear smoked
plastic screen cover and a removable battery. The 920 mAh Slim
battery is included, and you can purchase an Extended life
1840mAh battery.
The sleeve is recharged when you recharge your iPAQ. A separate
battery charger is available for the Plus sleeves. Your iPAQ
will draw power from both the expansion sleeve battery and
its main battery, and the expansion battery can trickle charge
your main battery.
This sleeve allows you to use network cards, modems, Sierra
Wireless AirCards, and the Toshiba
1.8" PC Card hard drive among other things. It
allows you to save money by using the same PC cards in
both your laptop and iPAQ (assuming an iPAQ driver is available
for your PC card). You can also use CompactFlash cards
with these sleeves if you get a PC to CF adapter.
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Compaq Bluetooth + CF Type II
Card Expansion Sleeve
This sleeve has a built-in Bluetooth
Radio and one CF type II card slot. It doesn't have an internal
battery. This sleeve allows you to use CF memory cards, the
IBM Microdrive, CF network cards, modems and network wirelessly
with Bluetooth. The Bluetooth software is the same as that
which ships with the iPAQs that have built-in Bluetooth. Be
sure to download the updated Bluetooth 1.1 drivers from Compaq's
website if your sleeve has version 1.0.
List price $159 US (Discontinued)
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Compaq Cover Pack (Style Pack)
This is a pretty cool cover for
your iPAQ. It's included with the 3800 series models. It slips
on like an expansion sleeve, but adds little bulk to the PDA.
It's hard plastic, rigid and protective. The top and bottom
of the PDA remains exposed for access to the sync port, stylus,
power and record buttons.
The clear smoked plastic cover is hinged, and you can change
the hinge so that it opens from either the right or left
(as a lefty, I appreciate this!).
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Nexian NexiPak: Dual CF + Batterywww.nexian.com
Compaq thought to make a
dual PC Card sleeve, but not a dual CF sleeve. Nexian came
to the rescue with the NexiPak. It has two type II CompactFlash
slots and a powerful removable 1550mAH Lithium Ion battery.
For 3600 and 3700 series owners, having
2 CF cards is very useful: it means you can use a CF memory
card and a network, modem or other CF card simultaneously.
The NexiPak provides power to both the
iPAQ and your CF cards. You can recharge it with Nexian's
optional charger or it will charge when the iPAQ itself
is in the cradle or attached to a charger.
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Nexian NexiCam
Digital Camera Sleeve
Turning your PDA into
a digital camera seems to be all the rage these days. So
why should the ever-expanable iPAQ been any different? Nexian
came up with this nifty sleeve that slips on and makes your
iPAQ look like a point-and-shoot camera— pretty wild!
Resolution and image
size aren't strong points of digicams for PDAs, but as
they go, the NexiCam is one of the better ones. It takes
800 x 600 SVGA resolution pictures, an f2.8 aperture (good
for low-light situations), can focus from 2" (now
that's close!) to infinity and has a 2x digital (software)
zoom (you won't get hardware zoom lens in a PDA digicam).
There is no flash, but the f2.8 aperture lens combined
with the inherant low-light capabilites of digicams should
help compensate unless you're into night outdoor night
photography.
The NexiCam has a CF type II slot, so you can
save images directly to a CompactFlash memory card if you
wish (an album setting allows you to specify where your images
will be saved. Interestingly, the CF card slot can also accomodate
wireless modems, so you can wirelessly transmit your images
while the camera is in place.
The camera uses the iPAQ's LCD in landscape
mode as the viewfinder. The lens can swing 180 degrees which
can be handy when taking video (the camera can take up to
45 seconds of video).
Once you've installed the NexiCam software
onto your iPAQ, you can slip on the sleeve, launch the camera
app from the Start Menu and get ready to take pictures. The
camera app provides a viewfinder, along with setting selections
such as image resolution (5 choices), zoom, motion video
and a shutter button (there is no physical shutter button
on the camera, you must use the on-screen button).
The sleeve feels durable and high quality.
The actual lens and lens cover is plastic-y, but hasn't broken
yet.
All in all, a pretty cool device that's user-friendly
and takes decent pictures.
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MemPlug Dual CF Sleeve: two
CF slots, one type I and one Type II.
MemPlug CF + Memory Stick Combo
sleeve: one type II CF slot and a Memory Stick slot.
Affordable sleeves with no battery.
Read our full review here. |
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Navman GPS Sleeve: for
iPAQ 3600 thru 5400 series.
Read our full review here. |
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