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You guys are looking at the wrong model. The 6000 is ok if you are American but the model to look at is the SLC3000.

Try http://www.conics.net/ or http://www.dynamism.com/.

These are the two most popular sites for getting the latest models. Both provide warranty.

All these models are extrememly well supported through forums and the like. You can easily get an English ROM for these Japanese models.

They are infinitely hackable.

The folding clamshell zauruses, while somewhat awkward as a pda/pim have much better keyboards, and are much more usable as mini-pc. Only problem is: they're Japanese- so change the locale, or buy from a US reseller that will change it for you.

Your best bets are:

• Price Japan
  Cheapest prices for new Zaurus. Based in Japan. Minimal service.
• Streamline CPUs
  Decent prices, based in US.
• Trisoft
  Major importer/reseller in Deutscheland/EU
• Dynamism
  Most established US importer/retailer. Not cheap, but excellent service.
• Conics
  Excellent prices, new and used, but hasn't been responsive recently. Japan based.

???????????????? http://www.dynamism.com/sl-c3000 http://www.pricejapan.com/stock/spec.php?product_i d=313 keep up with the times!

Tiny 300-gram Qtopia Linux-based PDAs with 4GB HDD, 416MHz CPU, 65K-colour 640x480 screen, mini QWERTY keyboard, CF/SD/USB/IrDA and what-else are commonplace in Japan but you can buy them for 800 Euro in North America and Europe if you click here or here or here, and their interface is even translated in English. If you feel like installing your own Linux distribution on this PDA, click here. But you can also install OpenBSD on it, as you can see if you click here.

Alot of Ultra-portables, particularly the japanese imports, have the nipple exclusively.
http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildse riesbean.do?series=P1
http://www.dynamism.com/xp741/gallery.shtml
http://reviews.cnet.com/JVC_MP_XV841/4505-3121_7-3 0981361.html?tag=pdtl-list

And as an added bonus, they're so cute! *drools*

Sony's tiny VAIO laptops (the Picturebook series, the X505) have generally been made without a trackpad, simply because the laptops are so small. They all have trackpoints to handle pointing. I much prefer this design because the trackpad + "wrist rest' design of most laptops is horribly un-ergonomic for me.

I agree. That thing looks really ugly.

What I don't get is why Sony doesn't get more press on Slashdot, except for their robots and PS2. Among the PC manufacturers, they are the most stylish, and are probobly the most innovative in terms of design. They also are closer to achieving the "digital hub" than Apple, to boot. Too bad their best stuff is relased only in Japan.

Check out some of their kickass designs:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGX-X90P/ - The Type X models, a PC media server with P4/3.6 Ghz, 1920x1080 TV display, 6 simultanious channel TV tuner, 1TB storage (127 hours of high-quality Mpegs), remote control, DVD recorder, network video server, and remote control.

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGC-M50B/ - Type M model, a PC that can be used as a TV or a standalone stereo with its keyboard folded.

Couple of nice notebook designs:
http://www.dynamism.com/x505/main.shtml
http://www.dynamism.com/u101/main.shtml

I agree. That thing looks really ugly.

What I don't get is why Sony doesn't get more press on Slashdot, except for their robots and PS2. Among the PC manufacturers, they are the most stylish, and are probobly the most innovative in terms of design. They also are closer to achieving the "digital hub" than Apple, to boot. Too bad their best stuff is relased only in Japan.

Check out some of their kickass designs:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGX-X90P/ - The Type X models, a PC media server with P4/3.6 Ghz, 1920x1080 TV display, 6 simultanious channel TV tuner, 1TB storage (127 hours of high-quality Mpegs), remote control, DVD recorder, network video server, and remote control.

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGC-M50B/ - Type M model, a PC that can be used as a TV or a standalone stereo with its keyboard folded.

Couple of nice notebook designs:
http://www.dynamism.com/x505/main.shtml
http://www.dynamism.com/u101/main.shtml

That Masamune Shirow mouse is nifty too, but not ninety bucks' worth.

It looks delicious (and this by the same company).

It looks delicious (and this by the same company).

Check out Dynamism for import gear with US warranties and support. Compact Impact has some cool gear to show off, and also has a showroom in the East Village (this store was previously named TKNY). If you are a New Yorker, the showroom is worth a visit, because the owner is a wacky guy who makes custom computers without moving parts.

But does he have sushi usb drives?

Since the site is slashdotted, you'll have to see the SL-C3000 at Dynamism who will make it available to US customers in November.

First off, no USA on this device. Like the SL-CXXX series (I own an 860 myself), they will not be brought to America, though if you want one, you can import them from companies like Dynamism. Since it is essentially the same as the other Zaurus' hardware, I'm sure any of the kernels/ROMS currently available for it, but they are all Linux and all pretty good.

As for educational discounts, only in your dreams... or if you lived in Japan. Dynamism wants a cool $899 for it (I paid $850 for my SL-C860, and I think it's worth it).

Lastly, there are current VoIP for the Zaurus (KPhone comes to mind), so it should work with this model. The 4GB drive will come most in handy for the numerous emulators available (there are emulators for just about every pre-playstation console, and even a SCUMM emulator to play those classic LucasArts games [and rumors of a PS1 emulator abound]).

But you have to ask yourself if $900 is worth it for a PDA with very little support over here in the US. For most, it will be a "no," but for the true Linux-loving uber-geek, there is nothing better. Alternately, you can try the Zaurus SL-6000L (with full support here in the US). It's only $499 now at Amazon. Sure, it doesn't have the 4GB drive, but it works pretty much the same, except it lacks the cool clamshell design.

Inflated prices... but at least it's available. ;-)

you can get the SL-C860 from brando.com.hk in Hong Kong, but it comes set up for Japanese. There are sites to help you convert it to English. Or, order it from dynamism.com and while there check out the new SL-C3000. Of course, eBay is your friend...

Personally, I haven't bought a Zaurus in the U.S. because I've been waiting for the good ones to come here.

I had the opportunity to use the clam shell design while I was in Japan and found it a lot more capable and versatile than the goofy "tack a keyboard on the bottom of your PDA" models we get here in the states.

i don't blame them for pulling those units out of the us market. what has always been shocking to me is that they haven't released their good models here. the clamshell models that they make for the japanese market are so much better. I've got a c760 with 512mb sd and a cf wifi card. i use pdaxrom for the os which provides a true x11 enviornment. it's basically a laptop, but pda sized. if sharp were to get behind the pdaxrom guys and make that the basis for the pda's os i think they'd be able to sell a ton of them. philo

This isn't a new trend. It's been going on for years. Japan is way ahead of the US in terms of the latest gadgets. However, if you want one, some companies will sell it to you.

People interested in small computers might like a vaio that seems to be interested in the same market.

http://www.dynamism.com/u70/index.shtml

Check out the sony viao X505, it has a bigger area but it it INSANELY THIN!!

Pictures of X505 ultraportable!

Also look at the minidisk sized "PENTIUM M!!!!" motherboard on the main page.

Check out this custom motherboard by SONY, on their ultraslim VAIO X505 laptop.

Its a 512MB 1GHz Pentium M system too!!!!

This is a small mobo!

The idea is that I can be anyplace and have access to information I want. I drop by a store to get something, and see a product on sale, but I don't remember what the reviews said. Maybe I'm going to be out longer than expected, and I ssh back and set my PVR to record a show. Perhaps I need to get someplace, and grab them from mapquest. Or I want to see if someone is around, so I log into irc or fire off an email.

There are plenty of uses. Just make sure you have a PDA with an OS that has the software you need. :-)

(Note I haven't yet connected via bluetooth. I've got a symbol bluetooth card, but am still looking for an acceptable phone. 802.11b is wonderful however.)

This would be great for a subnotebook PC, like the Toshiba Libretto.

It's good progress, but still not what I ideally want: a device that is completely a standard PC, but in the form factor of a Gameboy Advance SP! The GBA SP is an ideal design: it is small, and has a flip-up screen that is sturdy and locks into a convenient position. If small buttons were used to form a fully-functional keyboard, as on the BlackBerry, and a small touchpad nearby for the mouse, this would be wonderful to have! The PC would have decent 3D graphics for games compatibility, a micro hard drive similar to the iPod, and of course Wi-Fi and GPRS wireless data support.

Does any company want to merge this pocketful of present-day devices into a future dream machine that could do it all?

Guess I could hang my iDuck around my neck, not sure it'd make me look cool though...

Plus, the rubberduck tends to detach itself from the memory stick too easily.

Centrino guts, 10.4' 1024x768 screen all under 2 pounds! Its made of carbon fibre too! too bad it costs between 3-4 grand depending on options.

I dont want a big disk and screen in my laptop. 10.4 is fine, 12 is the biggest id want. I want battery life and light weight. So i ask you slashdotters, what good slim laptops do you like? kg

The product is okay. I'm using it at the moment because it works under XP SP2 and my Margi PCMCIA adapter does not. Screen updates are quite slow at 1024x768x16bit (the highest res/colours it does). When I say slow, I mean that you can see it drawing down the screen, at least on my laptop with the hookup described above. (There may be a driver problem, because areas of flat colour I would expect to be filled in hardware are visibly filled line by line.) However, there are no artifacts, no corruption and if you're willing to drop to 640x480x8bit you get a much better response rate. If you just want to do basic stuff, no games and no video, it's enough. Just.

I don't think there are any Linux drivers, but if you're running Windows the initial install process is: Install software, reboot, plug-in, reboot, works. After that, it's pretty much plug and play.

What major advantages does this have over the 18-month-old Panasonic W2 other than a slightly better video card and smaller footprint? The W2 weighs 2.8 pounds, has a DVD-RW, 12.1" screen, big keyboard, 1.1 GHz CPU, and its battery lasts over 7 hours.

In the USA, we get the older version of the W2, but it's still some-tasty.

On a side note, some tips for running Linux on the W2:
- Red Hat
- Debian
- leog forum

- A Keyboard. I want to enter data in to that thing. A keyboard is a must. No, I don't want to carry some external keyboard and using a on-screen keyboard / Character recognition is a pain in the ass

- A good screen. Something like 640 x 480

- I don't have WLAN yet, but it's a good think to have in the future.

Am I asking for too much? No I'm not. This thing Has just about everything I want, minus the built-in WLAN.

No really. If you need a PDA, and you're a Linux geek like me, get one of these.

Yes, the default half-translated rom sucks. It'll at least let you boot the system and see the beautiful 640x480 screen though. An amazing sight to behold at over 200dpi. After you're done drooling, go get pdaXrom, follow the instructions, and get yourself a real desktop. Here's what mine looks like, using ROX as the desktop manager (with a nice .hack//SIGN wallpaper I found someplace). You have a number of choices, but I use (prepackaged) gvim as my editor, and sylpheed for mail (pretty much the same as my actual desktop!). You can use FireFox and Thunderbird for web/email if you really want (check the screenshots for more drooling material). I use the little Dillo browser personally, because it's ultra fast, but the choice is yours.

No, it doesn't have builtin wifi. It does have a CF slot so you can stick your own card in there, and doing so hasn't annoyed me yet. The biggest benefit (besides the amazing screen, keyboard, ability to use X, and general design) is the battery lasts quite awhile. I charged it last Friday (before PAX... where were you?), and it's only just down to 50% with "regular use". (On my old 5500, I'd have to charge it every day or so with the same use, and that's without wifi.)

This makes a killer PDA. It does most things a small Linux laptop would, and it fits in your pocket. If that's what you need, this delivers.

None of the sub-notebooks introduced since Sony released the C1 series has given us a reason to upgrade. My C1XS (PII 400Mhz, 128Mb RAM, 30gig HD) is 5 years old and is still thinner and smaller (9.81"x5.99"x1.14", 2.21lb) than its later lookalikes.

Only one model is even up for consideration, in my mind (no, not even the Sony U50/70 - you -gotta- have a real keyboard attached). The Flybook is gonna have _everything_, including GPRS, and it's a tablet, too. Exactly what I've been waiting for. Would the rest of you Far East-whipped toy companies wake up and get us computers like these?

Sharp produces a product that actually IS a PDA which runs linux quite well.

http://www.dynamism.com/cv50/specs.shtml/

I would hope that with Sharp's past support of Linux (Zaurus), that this would be able to run Linux with little trouble.

Have you looked at the Sharp Zaurus clamshell PDA's? They run a real OS (Linux). Unfortunately that rules out Outlook, but there are other options for email clients

The down side is you have to get them shipped from Japan, as they have not been released elswhere.
Try http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/ or http://conics.net/shp/pda/zaurus-sl-c700/index.htm l

According to http://www.dynamism.com/, the U50/70 comes with it's own folding keyboard.

I would suggest these. Way better than anything MS could offer. Although, at $89, they're probably nowhere near as good a deal.

I'm still pleased with my Toshiba Libretto L2 - even after 2 years of use, I'm regularly getting 8 hours life out of the extended battery.

It's not the fastest - a 600Mhz Crusoe processor, but the battery-life far outweighs anything else I've seen.

As for whether it's tough, it gets carried around in a backpack, and generally fairly beaten up, but hasn't yet had any failures at all.

I got mine from www.dynamism.com, if that helps at all.

Panasonic has a 10.5 inch laptop that they claim has 8.5 hours of battery life. Saw it at the panasonic museum in osaka, japan. It's a pretty sexy machine

Uhm!

http://www.dynamism.com/libretto/specs.shtml

Perhaps this is for the same people to whom Sony also markets a $5000 digital camera, a $2300 minidisk player, or $3000 headphones?

Perhaps this is for the same people to whom Sony also markets a $5000 digital camera, a $2300 minidisk player, or $3000 headphones?

Perhaps this is for the same people to whom Sony also markets a $5000 digital camera, a $2300 minidisk player, or $3000 headphones?

Storage is kind of like the Newton OODB, but Storage uses SQL, no? The Newton data store was an object database. I use something similar (an OODBMS called Magma) in Dynapad, my Newton replacement.

In addition, there is the Sony Vaio U series. See Dynamism, they import em. The OQO has been one helluva disapointment. If I get the job I'm waiting on, I may buy one of these Sony U-series to finally replace my Newton. I've had a lot of things I've tried to replace it with, but nothing has done an adequate job.

Are you talking about Dynamism?

Sony has a 5" display at 800x600 in their U50/U70 micro-notebook. And their slightly older U101 packs 1024x768 into a 7.1" display. (The U series used to have a 6.something" display at 1024x768, which was 200+ ppi.)

I agree. I think 200ppi is the next logical step. Then you just need to tell the OS to double all standard UI elements, and everything becomes readable, and crystal clear. (Windows already has this ability, which would be of great use in the story's ViewSonic/IBM monitor. The ViewSonic appears to be an OEM version of IBM's T220 display. Even the casing looks the same.)

Sony has a 5" display at 800x600 in their U50/U70 micro-notebook. And their slightly older U101 packs 1024x768 into a 7.1" display. (The U series used to have a 6.something" display at 1024x768, which was 200+ ppi.)

I agree. I think 200ppi is the next logical step. Then you just need to tell the OS to double all standard UI elements, and everything becomes readable, and crystal clear. (Windows already has this ability, which would be of great use in the story's ViewSonic/IBM monitor. The ViewSonic appears to be an OEM version of IBM's T220 display. Even the casing looks the same.)

You simply aren't going to find a laptop from Sharp, IBM or Dell that doesn't come with a Windows license.

define laptop

I want a handheld computer that is also quick with 3d.

I'd really like to see competent graphic chipsets worth a damn become a standard feature in these devices.

Do I have to get a PSP? But I'd like to play around creating 3d apps of my own - do I need to get a Sony SDK license (at what cost)? This one, at $2800, still sports the (for 3d) underpowered 855GM chipset. Shared memory, no 3d hardware (or does it have?)...

Ok, with a 3d gfx card, the battery life might fall through the roof - but still... I'd feel like Superman without the cape with a hi-res screen like that, a fast CPU, but with abysmal overall 3d performance.