Casio Computer employee Haruna Yoshioka displays the Cassiopeia E-2000 at the Japanese company's headquarters in Tokyo.
The electronics developer's latest handheld organiser runs on Intel's StrongArm processor at 206 megahertz, and carries 64 megabytes of random-access memory and 32MB of flash memory to house the operating system and other system software. It comes bundled with Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system, several Casio utilities, translators and dictionaries.
The display is a 240x320 dot thin-film transistor screen with 65,536 colours. Other multimedia features include a built-in microphone and speaker. Casio claims the lithium-ion batteries can run continuously for 12 hours if used economically, or up to 24 hours if used with an optional external battery pack.
A key difference between the new model and Casio's previous E-200 is the addition of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port alongside the infrared, Compact Flash and Secure Digital/MMC slots. More ports can be added by connecting optional expansion sleeves to the device.
The Cassiopeia E-2000 will be released in Japan on February 22, at an estimated price of 60,000 yen (about HK$3,526). Other expansion devices will be released in the coming months, including a CDMA (code division multiple access) phone adapter for 12,000 yen, modem adapters and battery charger.
