Pocket Viewer - Description

Description

Pocket Viewer was a model range of PDAs from Casio. Early models used Intel x86 based processors (manufactured by NEC). Later models used Hitachi processors from the SuperH family. Both models ran Casio's proprietary OS 'CASIO PVOS'. The functionality of the pocket viewers extended beyond the digital diary segment and targeted consumers who needed more compute power in their personal organizers. The pocket viewers competed directly with the then market leader in the segment the Palm-pilots. They were priced under $200 at first release.

The pocket viewers, weighing under 5 ounces, were light and portable. The face of the device was almost entirely covered by a monochrome liquid crystal display. Towards the bottom of the LCD there were a few navigation keys. The lower most part of the LCD had quick short cuts to the standard applications permanently indicated. The short-cuts include off, back-light, Scheduler, Contacts, Quick Memo, Sync Start, Escape, Menubar. The standard applications available on the pocket viewer include Expense, PVsheet, Quickmemo, Contacts, Scheduler, ToDo list, Reminder/Calendar and Alarm. The starting interface consisted of a scrollable two column list of icons. Clicking on the icon starts the application. Text was entered via an on-screen keyboard. The pocket viewer did not have in-built hand writing recognition support. A third party GPL addin PVMerlin may have attempted to provide hand writing recognition.

Pocket viewers used conventional 2 x AAA batteries and under normal use a completely charged battery lasted around 2 months. When not actively being used the pocket viewer switches off the display and goes into power saving mode. The specifications stated that it could function for 50 hours on alkaline batteries without use of back-light. Except for PV-S1600 which used Universal Serial Bus (USB) 1.0, all the other pocket viewers used a COM (RS-232) port to communication between a personal computer and the pocket viewer.

Casio made the pocket viewer SDK available. Using the SDK users could create their own applications called add-ins, which could be downloaded to the pocket viewer using the synchronization software. In time, a small user base who created and made their add-in applications available on-line for free or for profit emerged. User forums such as pocketviewer.de, pocketviewer.com, pocket-viewer.ru and pocketviewer webrings flourished in their time and have since closed. During 2005-2010, the second hand market was on the vane. OWBasic, a third party add-in, provided the easy to learn and use BASIC interpreted programming language on the hand-helds, expanding their functionality to also being programmable hand-held calculators/computers. The device had the computer power and functionality as the home computers of the 80s.

The pocket viewers ability to access the internet was limited. PC software could synchronize email with the device which was not convenient. The device had a specialized serial port, and could theoretically communicate with other devices using the Serial Line Internet Protocol and execute modem AT commands.

Casio also provided some additional applications. Enterprise Harmony, which enabled Outlook 2003 synchronization of Outlook contacts, calendar On windows. PVsheet, a spread sheet application, which could upload/download comma separated spread-sheets. Travel phrase guide, which could translate preset text between English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese.

The Casio pocket viewer series was sandwiched between digital dairies and the pocket PC series Casio Cassiopeia. Casio discontinued the pocket viewers as the pocket PCs became popular and their price came down.