5. 1.3 Megapixel Camera

The eye of the camera is located on the back of the unit (red ellipse). Beneath it is a white, continuous LED that can also double as a flash (green ellipse).

At this point, more than just a few people will be asking themselves why a PDA with a digicam is only first hitting the market now. After all, digital cameras are pretty much standard with other mobile devices such as cellphones, etc.

Here again, the answer lies in the new-generation PXA27X series PDA processors, which namely feature an interface that makes it a heck of a lot easier to connect image sensors, including CMOS or CCD sensors. The marketing heads call it "Quick Capture Interface".

Block diagram: this is a schematic representation of the connection of an image sensor to the Quick-Capture interface of a PXA27X processor.

In combination with the video- and image-editing functions, provided by the Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP), and MMX commands, the result is a powerful multimedia tool. The marketing folks at Intel have dubbed these tools "Quick-Capture technology".

For those still unfamiliar with the term: IPPs are software libraries designed to make it easier for programmers to develop high-performance software for Xscale PDAs.

But getting back to the Mypal A730's camera function....

The eye of the camera is located on the back of the unit. A small, continuous LED is supposed to brighten the scene in difficult lighting conditions. If needed, it can be activated with camera software and is meant to be a sort of substitute for the flash. But don't expect any miracles from this tiny speck of light: in our practical test it proved less than spectacular.

Spot-on: the flash (substitute) in action