Rating: 
Summary: Excelent Performance At Low Cost!!
Review: I buy this because i needed an organiser (addresses/phone book, notes, etc) and need advance features like Word Excel Money, and this little jewel do it and much more.
Very Good PDA, stable and fast.
Only problem is the low factory memory but
the solution is my 64mb of MMC memory i
buy with it :)
Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: I compared my EM-500 to a Palm and there was no comparison. Next I compared it to the Jornada and the Ipaq. With the Jornada, there was again no comparison. The Ipaq beat it out in one area only - speed - but barely. In a side by side test the Ipaq only opened programs a fraction of a second faster with the single exception of MS Reader where the Ipaq was much faster. Size? The Ipaq and EM-500 are comparible. Screen? The EM 500 wins hands down. I compared them side by side at Best Buy and everyone around me chose the EM 500. THe Ipaq just looked a little washed out. Memory? The EM 500 at Christmas was [$] with a free 28 meg card. That gives it 44 megs of total memory compared to Ipaq's 32 megs at [$100 more]. If I have to choose between the Ipaq or EM 500 at the same price, The EM 500 wins especially with its free memory card. In this case, the EM 500 is actually cheaper!
Rating:
Summary: compare to other ppcs
Review: I got this ppc spring of 2001, it played (...) audio books just fine, when the price of mmc card dropped, the extra 64 mg of memory made it a superb music player. the ppc comes with 16 mg of memory, but ROM and RAM split it. so there's not a 16 mg storage afterall. but the mmc fix it. I have a 28 mg mmc for storage of programs, and a 64 for media. i keep the ppc itself free of junk, and give it more mem for RAM so i can run more applications. The voice recorder is the easiest to use and very useful. It records at 1 kb/sec rate, not hungry on memory but big in sound. it picks up little sounds quite wonderfully. and the build in speaker is louder and clearer than my solo 9300 laptop. (the build in speaker is vital when you want to share the movie clips with your friends). this has been called THE media ppc. it has a 65000 screen (be careful, the new compaq has 4000, and it stillc cost 500+). the MMC card is half the size of a smarmedia, very very chic. the front bottons are vitually useless because i can't get around without the stylus pen. but this not a problem for me. infrared works within 10 inches, speed is slower than usb, but there's the option, it's helpful when you forgot the cable. speed is amazing for this em 500, 150 mhz is enough. great battery life.
the word and excel are useful and "note", "task", and "appointment" programs are very useful, especially pleasing with the brilliant color screen.
one down side is that microsoft won't upgrade these "old" ppc to pocketpc 2002 platform. But after some research and looked at my friend's 2002, the only difference is wireless internet access. (and cooler wall paper). I thought about upgrading to a new one, but i am not willing to pay (too much) for a 4000 color compaq and spending (more) for the pc card expansion pak (for wireless). in all, it does more than you can ask for. if you have the right cell phone, go buy a connector (...), and you can dial up and go wireless. metallion game (...) works great and the sound adds more spice to the game. i would prefer the red to the slate blue color though. (...) i've heard that this is more durable than HP.
SO far on the customer support side, i think Compaq and Casio has an edge over HP.
Rating:
Summary: the best PDA
Review: I had done a lots of research and finally I bought the Cassiopeia EM-500. I love this unit and highly recommend the Cassiopeia EM-500 and Cassiopeia E-125.There are so many reviews comparing palms and pocket PCs. Many of the reviews have missed, or are lack of two important factors: the color display ability and the screen display size. They are the major reason for me to pick EM -500. The pocket PCs have color display ( Cassiopeia e-125 and em-500 have 65,000 colors, the ipaq has 4,096 colors). While all the palms are either black and white or grey scale, except the new visor color model. So if you want to see your photos taken by a digital camera, or movies, colorfull 2d or 3D games, then you would defiantly go for a Pocket PC. For the EM-500, the pictures are sharp, the colors are very rich, and the CPU speed is very fast Pocket PCs have much bigger screen display and better screen resolution. The Palms use a hardware pat for letter input. This pat chops off almost 1/3 of the screen display. And the Pocket PCs have full screen display. It uses software for letter input so that you can turn the keyboard on and off. So with the Pocket PCs, they display bigger pictures, hold more lines for words, excel and books you're going to read. Among the Pocket PCs, I tested the Cassiopeia EM-500, ipaq, and HP Jornada. The ipaq has 4,096 colors only. The more color, the better picture quality you can get.. So the ipaq is out of my choice. The Jornada seams running application slower. And the Cassiopeia runs much faster. And I personally like the look of EM-500. It looks sleek and sexy. I pick EM-500 over E-125 because my digital camera uses MMC. I can just take out the MMC from my digital camera and put it to the EM-500 then watch the slide show. Otherwise I would recommend the E-125 which has more memory and uses CF card for storage, modem and network.
Rating: 
Summary: Would score it much higher except for a couple concerns
Review: I had the unique opportunity to use and evaluate the Casio EM500 for a week to determine if I was interested in purchasing it. At the end of that week, I really wanted to buy this PDA, but I had some lingering concerns that kept me from doing so. Here are some of my thoughts after using it: -First off, I really loved the display on this unit. It was extremely bright and easy to read even in daylight. I would not have thought it, but a color screen made a HUGE difference. I had a Palm Pilot before, so I know what I'm talking about here. This Casio has one of the best displays of any of the color units. -I really liked the PocketPC OS with just a few exceptions. As I mentioned earlier, I have had a Palm Pilot in the past. Of the two operating systems, I prefer the PocketPC. This is largely due to the fact that I use a lot of Microsoft products (Outlook, Word, Excel, Money) and it was extremely easy to synch with data with these applications. Some people prefer the Palm OS's simplicity, but for what I needed to do, I found greater functionality in the PocketPC. The only reservations I had was that the PocketPC makes in annoyingly difficult to close applications and its navigation could be simplified. -The actual hardware design of this unit is fair. It's a little on the bulky side, but I never expected to be able to fit it in my pocket to begin with. While I liked the semi-scroll wheel on the side, I never used the multi-directional D-pad on the front. In fact, I rarely used any of the buttons on the front. I was also very disappointed that there was no cradle included. The USB cable was kind of awkward to have lying across my desk, and I would have appreciated a cradle to set the unit in when not in use. -Battery life was impressive. While I never did an official test, I was often able to go through two days of normal use before needing to recharge. The unit uses a Lithium Ion battery. -Don't underestimate the benefit of having Internet Explorer and Microsoft Reader as included applications. Using Avantgo (which is included), it is very easy to read news, weather, and stocks from sources like MSN and Yahoo. The problem is that it is not a live connection to the Internet, and you must wait until you synch with a PC again to get the information updated. It was also fairly easy to find e-books for Microsoft Reader. -This unit only comes with 16mb memory. While that is more than enough to run most of the bundled applications, don't expect to play many MP3's on the Media Player unless you buy additional memory. That brings me to the biggest single drawback of this PDA and the reason I did not end up buying it. This Casio EM500 has a MMC (Multi-Media Card) expansion slot. Most of the PDA's today use Compact Flash memory slots. This means that while I could find MMC memory to buy for my Casio, I could not find very many other expansion options. There are no modems available, or cameras, or any other type of expansion pack available other that just a memory card. Being that MMC is not really catching on, at least in the USA, I worry even about the availability of MMC memory packs in the future. While this may not be important to many people, it was to me. If I am going to spend this much money on a PDA, I want it to last for a while. I want to be able to be able to expand or upgrade the unit as new technologies and products occur. Even Casio seems to realize they made a mistake by using MMC in this unit rather than Compact Flash. Newer Casio models now use Compact Flash. NOTE: Casio announced recently that EM500 will be capable of supporting SD (secure digital) memory cards. This will require a downloadable update from the Casio web site. Even with this announcement I still am concerned about upgradability options. I have yet to see anyone selling SD memory cards. If you are not interested in expansions such modems and such, then this is an excellent PDA for you and a great value. I give it four stars (****) in that case. For those of you that are like me and crave expansion, I would suggest looking at the Casio E-125, or better yet, the Compaq iPaq line of handhelds.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent PDA
Review: I love PDA's (and computers in general, for that matter) and this is an excellent device. There was a time when I swore by Palm's pda's, but while Windows CE (now known as Pocket PC) has evolved to near-desktop power, the Palm has remained virtually unchanged. Of the Pocket PC's available, this unit is the best compromise of size and power. It packs a 150mhz cpu (more powerful than the HP Jornada, less than the Ipaq), 16mb of ram, and an amazing screen capable of displaying 16bit color. The Ipaq and HP Jornada can both only do 12-bit color at best. All of that is packed in a comfortable, small device that feels extremely solid in the hand. While I do believe the EM-500 is probably the best unit available, it does have a few draw-backs. The miserly 16mb of ram is hardly enough... if you buy this make sure to get a 32mb or 64mb memory card to go with it. My other complaints are minimal: lack of hardware volume control, location of IRDA port... but none of these minor issues really impact the usefulness of the unit. Definitely a great PDA, and well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Too Cool
Review: I purchased it 2 years ago. I used it just a little. Now I sell real estate, and I think it just great. I am learning how many wonderful features it has. The screen is a little hard to read in the sun, but what are sun-glasses for??? I wish that they had not stop making it. Most of my friends use the palm, and they are always saying how hard it is to use, this em-500 is a breeze.
Rating:
Summary: Palm-sized computing devices
Review: I rate this product with 4 stars. Nothing receives 5 stars, that would imply perfection, and no room for improvement. It's hard to compare this with a Palm Pilot, because they're so fundementally different, but that is exactly what the target is. I have a Palm IIIxe, which may not be the top-of-the-line Palm, but is functional, and use this as a comparison to the Cassiopeia EM-500. Cost: the Palm IIIxe is half the price of the Cassiopeia, but if you compare the Palm IIIc, then the price range narrows where it's no longer an arguement. Size: the size is similar enough that any arguement of which is smaller/bigger is a lot of hot-air. The Cassiopeia is substationally heavier than the Palm. Processor: people make a big fuss over processor speed. The Cassiopeia has a 150MHz MIPS processor. The Palm has an unknown speed 68k-based processor. Screen: The screen is bigger than a Palm, and needless to say, it's color. It's very sharp and easy to read. Sound: The Palm has no functional sound to speak of. It's capable of emitting beeps reminiscint of the Apple II. Battery: The Palm here wins flatout. Lifetime on the Palm far exceeds the Cassiopeia. The Palm uses AAA batteries, and the Cassiopeia uses rechargable batteries. Memory: The Palm again wins here. The IIIxe has 8mb of RAM, and the operating system is extremely efficent with memory allocation. The Cassiopeia has 16mb, and I've already started to run out of memory. I have a full KJV Bible installed on my Palm, as well as several other apps, and still have over 5mb of free memory. I installed a single 7mb MP3 on the Cassiopeia, and have no room left. Memory management for the Cassiopeia is bizzare - you select, via a slider, how much memory to allocate to storages vs. programs. I Expansion: The only Palm-type product to offer reasonable expansion is the Handspring Visor. The Cassiopeia EM-500 does not use Compact Flash cards, but rather something called "MMC". The CF-style handhelds offer a wider range of expansion - such as modems, network cards, physical drives, and so forth. The MMC seems to limit me to multimedia storage expansion only. Syncronization: Microsoft's ActiveSync is much better than HotSync. When you plug the Cassiopeia into the sync cable, the machine stays synced during the entire process. Also, the interface is nicer. If you want to install files/programs, you use an already familiar Explorer-like window to drag items into and out of the Cassiopeia. Updates occur async, so you can continue to use the Cassiopeia while syncs are happening. Operating System: The Palm wins here. PocketPC Windows is very confusing, and the screen is incredibly cluttered. I would like if there were alternative OS's available for PocketPC, such as NetBSD. Handwriting: this is hard to compare. Both products offer handwriting recognition systems, and also offer on-screen "soft" keyboards. The Cassiopeia was sometimes too fast to recognize my characters before I was done with them. I like the ability to see the on-screen results of my handwriting on the Cassiopeia. You can add several hacks to the Palm to do simiar, but it's not a base feature. Third-party software: forget about it. The Palm has an enormous base of software applications. Applications: The apps are similar across platforms, but I find the Palm versions of the apps easier to use. Everything is readily available at the touch of a single button. You may need to wrangle a few menus on the Cassiopeia to find what you really want. Bottom line: this is a fine computer product. If you're interested in a personal organizer, I would stay towards the Palm Pilot. If you're interested in an alternative to laptops, with all the bells and whistles, the Cassiopeia is a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect For Anyone
Review: I received this from my brother for $230 and was a littl iffy on what it would be useful for. I then noticed all of theavalible software and IT COULD PLAY MP3's!! This excited me because I was looking into purchasing a handspring visor (a peice of clay compared to this thing!!!)Sure it only comes with 16 mb but mmc are cheap and small and no cf support. More mmc support is coming (already phones and modems)! If you think this isnt worth it wait till you see the BEAUTIFUL COLOR display(more colors than the ipaq and jornada) and so many programs are avalible. The MIPS processer is so fast and has so many games compatible with it. It may not be as good as the IPAQ you may be looking at but it is the 2nd best. Dont settle for a palm device GET THIS 5 STAR DEVICE!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointed
Review: I wanted a good TFT color screen. I prefered the Cassioppiea over Palm because of a better screen resolution and larger usable screen size. I prefered it over Compaq because of better pricing and better score in a PC Magazine review. WHAT I LIKE: The TFT screen is perfect. Great colors, great contrast, great visibility, no compromise. The handwriting recognition software is reasonnably easy to use and accurate. The casing is sturdy, it fits well in your hand with non slip finishing. WHAT I DON'T LIKE: audio recording with the built-in mike is bad to the point of being useless. The user interface is somewhat inflexible and not as intuitive or confortable as with the Palm OS . The battery needs frequent charging even when not in use. The docking cradle is not included as standard equipment. BUT WORST OF ALL: accessories seem impossible to find. The local computer stores in my area do not hold any, even tough they do have plenty of choice for other brands (Palm, Compaq, Handspring etc.) I am completely unable to find a docking cradle, a spare stylus, a spare charger or a spare battery unit! I tried on line shopping with no more success (for example, try the amazon web site ...) EVEN THE CASIO site have been out of spare cradle for many weeks! In conclusion: honestly built and designed, gorgeous TFT screen but I should have paid a closer look to other brands (I have heard great comments about Compaq).
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