Which arduino mega ?

never used a mega before, and so i notice there are two versions
I like to use the normal arduino IDE to program it in c++
As i understand it the adk version is for android devices (which seams cool too) however would it still be programmable by the normal IDE ?
AND this is important to me wont i loose pins because of its extra functionality, as i am planning to control 50 I/O ports with it

(if you've seen my prev post i'm thinking of using 3 of these resulting in 150 I/O pins)

however would it still be programmable by the normal IDE ?

Yes, both versions are.

Did you look at the Products page? Both Mega versions have 54 I/O pins. The ADK has an extra chip that handles the USB Host duties. That does not require the use of any digital pins.

"i'm thinking of using 3 of these resulting in 150 I/O pins"
Can't handle a few shift registers, so you're going to spend $210 on boards instead?

Good luck with the project.

Well actually i have been thinking seriously about the shift registers board too, and a lot of thanks for that !.

Though i think programmable boards might allow me to add some more fun, extra tricks
Also i know how to program them so it would speedup building and i might have good use for them after this is over.
I can use 1 smaller arduino board to drive 2 mega versions it would be under 130 euro total.
Excluded other electronics

If it where a permanent thing i would have gone for your version.

CrossRoads:
"i'm thinking of using 3 of these resulting in 150 I/O pins"
Can't handle a few shift registers, so you're going to spend $210 on boards instead?

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Arduino/A000069/?qs=%2Fha2pyFadujj3xA%2Fzo7HllO9RZ0StfazAnaxISN%2FW8vi4I1Htytw4Q%3D%3D

Good luck with the project.

For the uninitiated, what does that mean? The link seems to be simply to a board for sale, I don't get the 'handle a fiew shift registers' comment.

It goes with the other thread, where building up a few shift registers to control the 150 IO pins was discussed.
I was pointing out the cost of 3 boards. Building a simple design with 20 shift registers all daisy chained would be far less expensive.
Send out 20 bytes at a time via SPI commnands when an output needed changing.

Buying 3 cards for the IO, writing up a protocol to send messages for driving the IO, thats another way to go.