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More pictures at http://www.dynamism.com/u70/gallery.shtml

probably the cheapest item dynamism carries...

Nope, I think that honor goes to the iDuck.

these have been available for a while now from Dynamism. they're cheaper than i would have thought at $219. probably the cheapest item dynamism carries...

The real question is out of the newer specification PDA's which ones can be re-flashed with Linux and work as well as the sharp offering ?

With the exception of the cool screen (4" VGA!), all kinds, there are lists out there for those who want to look. But if you want that cool screen, there's the Zaurus SL-6000 and the Zaurus SL-C7xx/SL-C8xx lines. And the price for this is in line for those. I suspect that screen alone is a significant cost element.

When will I be able to watch a movie on my sleeve?!

You mean like this? ;)
Check out some of these pictures! Awesome!
Theres also a mobile phone with support for receiving tv, here, cool huh?

VAIO U101 would be even better, IMO. Even smaller than the TR: 1.04 x 1.34 x 5.49, 7.1" screen. 600 MHz celeron, 256-512, mobility radeon. Up to 13 hours with additional battery. Some pics here

They already make those.

Too bad they only sell 'em in Japan.

Looks like a detachable pseudo-tablet unit about double the size of a Clie' with a docking station & keyboard. While there is a "fin shaped" stylus, it looks like the tablet unit is more designed for viewing than for interactivity. In other words, moving from "read only" to "read-write" on this thing probably is a lot easier if you have a desktop handy to put all the pieces on.

Not quite the useability of a laptop or a desktop.

The price is a little off-putting for a 900 MHz Celeron (U50), especially if one is basically after entertainment on the bullet train...

I think I spent about $700 when I imported my Zaurus SL-C750 and about $1000 by the time I bought memory cards, a case, a wireless card and a VGA-out card.

Sure I could have bought a cheap laptop for the same money with all these features and a better screen and keyboard, but I wanted a good PDA, not a bad laptop. I also have a laptop for other tasks.

You cannot really write code on a PDA, but you can carry it with you everywhere and use wireless and ssh to do an urgent bug fix. I only take my laptop somewhere if I am planning to do work.

Of course, six months after buying it, I got a telecommuting job and now rarely leave the house so don't really need a PDA let alone a $1000 PDA.

I don't think any of the Zaurus series are trying to compete with Palm Zires. They do not claim to be a low end "bargain" PDA. They are a very flexible, high end PDA.

if you only want calendar, address book and PIM functions and don't intend to take advantage of the opportunity to run Linux software on them, they are not even that good a PDA. Palms have better built in software, but you will not be able to impress your nerd buddies by running a complete LAMP stack on one.

PS. I still prefer the clamshell form factor of the Japanese models. I cannot see why they are not sold elsewhere, but at least the english speaking world finally gets a 640x480 model. YOu can get the Japanese ones at Conics and Dynamism.

They're nearly there. You can get a television wristwatch. All they need to do is add a wireless transmitter.

It's strange the neither the Toshiba Gigabeat nor any of the MPMan-players are included in this review. Some of the MPMan-players got a battery life of 50 and even 100 hours.

Didnt all the 5x00 series have the same type of keyboard?

This is true---the keyboard has been one of the defining features of the Zaurus for most---however, the SL-A300, which is one of the newer models, did not feature a keyboard.

Also, the keyboard on the SL-6000 appears to use the style of keys that are closer to the CL-7xx/8xx series. This is probably good, but I haven't personally used them to know.

IMO, i would prefer something more like the CL series, with a larger screen, slimmer profile, and flip-out keyboard. However, I'm very happy with my SL-5500, and builtin wireless sounds very cool.

I recently purchased a Zaurus SL-C860 from Dynamism, and it is truely a device I can't live without. Sure, it was pretty expensive at around $850, but no other pda I've ever used can touch it in terms of speed, style, and overall "coolness." Hell, I'm running an X11-based ROM on it now, and nearly all X apps can be recompiled to run on it.

I think I like the clamshell layout better than the traditional vertical PDA layout of this and the 5X00 series. Being able to quickly convert between mini-laptop mode and PDA mode is more useful than I'd ever imagined it would be. If I were to suggest a PDA to anyone, I'd say the SL-C760 is the better bet, as it costs the same as the 6000 and is nearly identical to the 860 (the 860 has a slightly larger screen, all-silver case and better default software, which is only helpful if you are japanese!).

Sure, the 7XX and 8XX series do not have the built-in wireless, but the coolness factor of the design, and the fact that almost nobody in the US has one, make it the better choice (IMHO).

Terrific, but when it costs $3200 for even the cheapest version count me out. Count me in when someone build it for less than $1K.

That's pretty funny. You'll have to search pretty hard to find a Pentium M system that runs at 1GHz. But thanks for trying...if a Pentium M system was to run at only 1GHz instead of 1.8GHz, then your comparison would be highly valid!

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?

Specs are here:

Celery 600, $2,000.00 price tag.

Didin't say it was cheap, but then I don't expect this thing to be less than $1000.00

Jon Acheson

No thanks, I already have a Sharp Zaurus SL-C750, why do I need a vapor product that's a bit faster (and with a HDD), but doesn't fit in my pocket? It's still going to be too small to do any serious typing, and this thing looks like it's going to be too big and overpowered (heavy, crummy battery life) to be a good PDA (actually, the Zaurus isn't a great PDA either, but that's a software issue).

How about a sub-notebook? Nice 'n' lite, they usually boast better battery life than regular notebooks and are typically powerful enough to run any modern OS. A sub-notebook would be much more convenient for carrying from class to class. Some of them even fit in large coat pockets.

Get a cheap external CRT monitor for your dorm room for gaming or movies if you don't think the screen's big enough...

They are a bit pricey for a college student, but so is a tablet pc...

I particularly like the JVC Interlink

http://www.dynamism.com/7310/gallery.shtml

Sharp's marketing seems to be broken in that despite the thriving user community and demand for a zaurus model with that form factor in us/europe they seem reluctant to actually release it over here. Companies such as dynamismor shirtpocket import them or better still get someone visiting japan to bring you one back. They can be easily re-flashed to remove the japanese software and instead start speaking english which I for one find a whole lot easier to deal with ;-) There is an iminent (nobody knows quite when due to the brokenness of sharp's marketing dept.) launch of a model in the states called the Sl-6000 which is a similar (well slightly improved) set of innards and screen to the sl-c860 but in a more conventional pda form factor, very like the sl-5600 as released in the US.

I hate that whoever stole my Zaurus 2 years ago has a free way to put an OS back on the device!
Argh!

But, I will probably install OPIE when I save up enough cash to but the next Zaurus.

-Jackson support the cause

Typical every geek in the UK will now be ordering one and VAT man will be getting his share, once the volumes of direct imports go up.

The page seems to be dead, Jim, but here's another source of info on the X505.

Sure you can get smaller than 1.8 pounds and retain keyboard and screen -- like this. And for the /. crowd, it even runs Linux :-).

You mean like this? I can't see PCs getting any smaller without ditching a screen or a keyboard. Then they wouldn't really be a "PC" as we know it. That's the realm of "PDAs" (god, I hate that term).

I welcome a new generation of Transmeta CPU's, to hopefully bring sub-notebook power forward a leap.

with i-ducks this year. i wish i could raid the rest of the dynamism gift guide. linux pdas, oh my!

with i-ducks this year. i wish i could raid the rest of the dynamism gift guide. linux pdas, oh my!

It works just fine, and I find that the scrollwheel as button causes me no distress whatsoever.

I'm using USB Overdrive as the driver for the mouse.

This lets me program each button for a specific function for whatever application I happen to be using at the time. For example, clicked wheel up & down controls the volume in SoundJam MP, my MP3 player of choice. The same function also lets me scroll through the playlist one song at a time. Yet, when in a browser window, a clicked up or down scrolls up or down a page at a time/scroll left right.

Mac OS and a multi button/scrollwheel mouse. It doesn't get much better than that.

The woman in your life would really like one of these.

Reading the specs, nothing jumped out at me as being new when you compare it to the excellent C760. Am I missing something?

Product Specs

Review #1

Review #2

Sharp Zaurus C7xx series has most of those features: http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus7xx/index.shtml

OK you need to visit Dynamism.com.

The Sony U101. 1.9 lbs, 7.1" TFT, 7.04 x 1.34 x 5.49 inches. Integrated WiFi. Celeron 600A processor, firewire, USB 2.0, tons of battery life...

http://www.icube.us/panasonic_w2/product_spec.htm

It says upgradeable to 512MB. Dynamism sells a DIFFERENT version with a 1GHz CPU, this W2 has a 900MHz CPU.

iCube model: CF-W2AW1AXP

Dynamism model: CF-W2BW3AXP
http://www.dynamism.com/w2/specs.shtml

Do you see the difference?

Specs from Panasonics website: http://www.panasonic.com/computer/notebook/pdf/TBw 2.pdf

I have never seen any sites to by this in the U.S.A, but Dynamism has them. The original author mentioned that the W2 was hard to get. I thought this would be helpful for those who wished to purchase or find pricing on.

For some reason, the Japanese-spec model lists 768 max RAM and the US-spec model lists 512 max, but they both actually can take 768 (the notebook has a utility called DMI viewer, which states that it takes 512MB modules).

Also, the US-spec model is rated as having a much lower battery life than the Japanese one for some reason (4 hours vs 7 hours if I remember correctly). However, I easily get 5 hours on a single charge.

I've used the small Sonys and Fujitsu Lifebooks... this one dusts them. The screen is big and bright (25% less pixels then the P series, but 42% more screen-area). It runs as quiet and cool as my wife's P-2000 (Crusoe-based).

Check out leog.net.
There is also a yahoo group.
Lastly, check out dynamism for other neato notebooks.

...3 times better. Rather sad. I still have a working Psion II, streets ahead in its day. But Psion lost their way long ago. I didn't even make fun of my friend who bought a Netbook. There was no challenge in ridiculing such an easy target.

Maybe a Zaurus 760? When are they released outside of Japan?

You can get one imported from Dynamism.

A long long time ago, PDA's didn't have built-in cameras, or tiny keyboards, and wireless computing was holding the infrared port of your PDA an inch close to that of your cellphone, not Wi-Fi.

Can you remember? It was back when the hi-tech Palm to have was the Palm V but Palm IIIs were really the more affordable ones, it was also the height of the war between Palm and Psion. I decided I needed a PDA (I later found out I'm not rich and don't have the need, so I still don't have a PDA), and sampled each of the two big flavas (ooh), i.e. fold-out with keyboard and palm-likes, and found the fold-out kind to be vastly superior to the other, simply because input was made easier by the keyboard.

Even if you know Graffiti, it's a long way to input things. You have to make a movement with your pen. So you can use the virtual keyboard, which eats up half of your screen, but you can only touch one key then move to the other. But then when I used the fold-out PDAs (my preference wasn't towards a Psion but a clone by Ericsson), holding it with both hands in front of me walking on the street, I could type with both thumbs. All things considered, since a keyboard layout is extremely familiar, and since I had two input sticks (my thumbs) instead of only one on the palm, I quickly achieved a much faster input speed, with a bigger screen... I loved it.

Of course it depends on what you use it for. My use for PDA's was to jolt down ideas, so my emphasis was on what I could use to type in a lot of words. If you use it for scheduling, the palm-type might be better. Either way, Psion went out of business shortly thereafter and I always regretted their smart little devices. I know there have been others since then that have used the same basic layout (actually if I had to pick a device I'd probably pick a Hiptop), but my point is that I've always been nostalgic about Psion and it's good to see them back, even with Win installed.

I'm sure we'll see a NetBSD port before the week-end is over anyway, right? ;-)

You beat me to the Dynamism post.

When I saw this article, my first thought was this, which I noticed a while ago. As the website says, it falls into the "if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it" category.

Looks damn cool.

..if you speak japanese. ;)

The Sharp Zaurus C760, currently available in just a few places.

I could easily spend a year's salary here.

1. I watch almost no TV. Perhaps 1 hr/week, 2 hr/week if there is something special.
2. I read a lot.
3. I'm a fatty.

I kind of think as myself as having some funky form of OCD, some sort of slightly humorous and completely benign form. My obsessions are efficiency (but in my own backward way) and reading, kind of related.

I read all the time when I'm not engaged in activity with someone else. I read when I go take a dump. I read when I'm eating alone at the table. I read on the bus, and when I'm watiting for it. When I'm driving, I sometimes pick up my PDA at the stop light, only to read a half a sentence. I used to read when I was walking between classes, although I've stopped that for the most part. (I also usually beatbox when walking around, and I don't like getting spittle on my PDA screen!) Hell, I even read when I'm standing up going pee, although I often only get in .5-1 pages.

I do all this to a lesser extent when I'm reading a paper book or magazine, but I can take it quite far when I'm reading electronically stored books on my PDA. Reading on a PDA is great- I love not having to flip pages. I can set JustReader+ to do auto-scroll, and while I'm standing there doing something manual and repetitive (like cutting up vegetables for dinner), I can read. With the PDA, I don't have to worry about flipping pages when my hands are dirty, keping a bookmark, or similar things. I don't have to worry about what I'll read next when I'm done- I typically have a few books in waiting on my PDA for when I do finish.

Does anyone else do this, or am I that weird? :P

I am not sure the purpose of this message- I know that reading with a PDA instead of a book isn't responsible for my fat-ness, so do not misinterpret it that way.

Although yes, reading a book is a little less sedentary, if only because your brain is being engaged. Flipping pages isn't all that much more work than flipping channels, though. However, depending on your position, sometimes holding the reading material up in some place can be a titch more exercise. And, I swear, fighting with the damned news paper has gotta be something as well. :)

While I watch no TV now, I used to watch more. TV is like a drug, and so many people throughout the US, Canada and elsewhere are addicted. I do not mean this as convenient metaphor. I have felt the changes that come about in my brain when parking my ass somewhere comfortable and watching TV for hours.

I stopped watching TV for a number of reasons, a big one being that I don't like dealing with its schedule. My code, the book I'm reading, a nearby park- all things that don't require me to show up or pick up at a specific hour of the day. Having to remember to watch some certain channel at some certain time to see some show it way too much hassle. Not surprisingly, I also hate the drugged feeling of being a "couch potato."

I think that drugged feeling should be investigated more by science- I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was some connection between that, eating more, and the commercials or television content.

I wonder if most people notice this as well, or if they're simply too used to it to put a finger on it?

Too bad Sharp decided not to sell these devices here in the US. The only way to get them now is from Dynamism or The Kompany.

But I saw one my local Sharp rep had and they are nice!

I already have replaced my "personal computer" with a PDA.

Over the years, I've slowly been moving more and more of what I do to a PDA. The first PDA I had which I used like a small personal computer was a Newton 2100u. On it I could do many things- develop NewtonOS applications, browse the web, SSH/telnet, write and compiled papers with a TeX subset, word process in NewtWorks, admin via VNC, email, Usenet, print my documents via the network or IrDA and play some games. And I could do it all via ethernet or an 802.11b connection without having to ever sync or dock with a Mac/PC. I still turned to my Mac or PC for some tasks- more complex web browsing and coding in Squeak Smalltalk. Since Squeak is pretty much my desktop, I didn't use the MP2100 at home- where my regular computer is- as much as I did when out of the house.

Since the MP2100, I've had a few other PDAs. For the last year, I owned a Jornada 720 that became even more my main machine. On it, I could do all of the stuff I listed above that I did on the Newton, and more. I no longer had to turn to the iBook for some web browsing- IE for WinCE [1] handled the vast majority of webpages without any problems. I could even run Java applets. I could also do all the Unixey stuff I wanted as well- write and run Perl/Tk apps, as well as write non-gui apps in python, ruby, REBOL, and others. And, with the switch to Windows CE, I was also able to develop, compile, test and run code in Squeak Smalltalk- all on the device. The J720 has a nice keyboard, something on which you can touch type. After a couple days of first getting it, I was able to type just about as fast as I could on my desktop.

And just recently, I've obtained a Sharp Zaurus SL-C760. For one, it has a 640x480 screen- incredible. Awesome for web browsing. I have Opera and NetFront on it, and both (via wifi or usbnet) load pages about as fast as I'm used to on a desktop on IE or Safari. And luckily, I can still do Squeak on this machine. And thanks to the wide memory bus and fast CPU, Squeak is damned fast- thanks to Dynapad, a Squeak-based PDA environment is available now. Like the SL-5x00, software is pretty spotty for the Zaurus, but I don't need anything from the Qtopia environment other than a web browser. It's kind of funny- I had more well adapted Unix ports running under Windows CE than I can find for the Zaurus under Qtopia. Sure, it's easy to just do a recompile and run the app under X11 or the console, but the interface is entirely ill-suited for the device.

Yes, the Zaurus C760 is very expensive. But since I've had it, I've pretty much given my girlfriend the iBook. Unlike the J720, which had a really good keyboard (Psion quality), the C760 has a thumboard. OK for entering names and dates, but not for much more. So I bought a PockeTop keyboard and am now back in business using this PDA as my main computer. What more can I ask for? It runs Squeak pretty damned well and has the most full-featured and fast web browsers you can get on any PDA, and one of the best browsing experiences I've had on *any* computer.

This school year will tell whether or not the Zaurus cuts it, but I have high expectations. With the new version of qpdf, I can finally read the articles I get from professors, which was a *huge* barrier when I owned a SL-5500.

I went through a few other PDAs in between- an iPAQ 3150, Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, and a Dell Axim X5 Basic. None of them could cut it. The SL-5500 was a huge disapointment in a number of areas- screen was total shite, battery life horrible, and there are few decent applications. The Axim was a good machine, but after having been used to bigger screens for my whole PDA career, I just couldn't downgrade to a wee 240x320 screen. (although the Dell has the brightest and sharpest 240x320 screen I've seen!)

M

Is it possible that the reason you haven't heard much from them is that you aren't in the right market? In the US, nobody has sub-notebook computers, and thus nobody (aside from HP) has Transmeta processors. In Japan, however, you'll find that Transmeta's Crusoe processors are all over the place. Their main competition is not the Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, but Intel's Centrino processor, which you also no doubt have never heard of, being on the wrong side of the Pacific.

Americans, as a whole, don't spend enough money on portable electronics to make really nifty sub-notebooks a worthwhile investment for a manufacturer. Hopefully, when the economy picks up, Transmeta will have its day, and other companies will be competing with their own low-power technologies.

Is it possible that the reason you haven't heard much from them is that you aren't in the right market? In the US, nobody has sub-notebook computers, and thus nobody (aside from HP) has Transmeta processors. In Japan, however, you'll find that Transmeta's Crusoe processors are all over the place. Their main competition is not the Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, but Intel's Centrino processor, which you also no doubt have never heard of, being on the wrong side of the Pacific.

Americans, as a whole, don't spend enough money on portable electronics to make really nifty sub-notebooks a worthwhile investment for a manufacturer. Hopefully, when the economy picks up, Transmeta will have its day, and other companies will be competing with their own low-power technologies.

Is it possible that the reason you haven't heard much from them is that you aren't in the right market? In the US, nobody has sub-notebook computers, and thus nobody (aside from HP) has Transmeta processors. In Japan, however, you'll find that Transmeta's Crusoe processors are all over the place. Their main competition is not the Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, but Intel's Centrino processor, which you also no doubt have never heard of, being on the wrong side of the Pacific.

Americans, as a whole, don't spend enough money on portable electronics to make really nifty sub-notebooks a worthwhile investment for a manufacturer. Hopefully, when the economy picks up, Transmeta will have its day, and other companies will be competing with their own low-power technologies.

You held it in your hands and failed to see anything special about it? You must have failed to notice that it has twice the resolution of any other PDA out there, including the recently announced devices from Sony. This means you can put a copy of the Tokyo subway map on it and be able to read it. You can also buy an electronic train schedule for about $10 (good for when you're out drinking near time for the last train). The high res display means the Zaurus is also good for keeping those little store maps that show you how to get to the shop from the nearest station. This device really can replace all those scraps of paper you bring with you and then loose.

You probably haven't noticed that the new DoCoMo and J-Phone releases by Sharp, with equally stunning displays. They all have "CG Silicon" somewhere near the display. These displays are very bright and crisp, with very high resolution. Btw, you can zap contact information from those phones to the Zaurus using the IR ports built into both devices.

About the keyboard: when I first saw it, I wondered what the point of it was; now I can tell you. The point isn't to compete with a full sized keyboard, it's to compete with grafiti or other handwriting recognition techniques, and I'm grateful to have it.

So the Zaurus doesn't have the Bluetooth (does anybody actually use this?) or wifi stuff built in (a touch unfortunate), nor a camera (but you already have one in your phone, don't you?). On the plus side, DoCoMo is coming out with a PHS/WiFi card so you can use WiFi at the office and get wireless PHS access from anywhere else (well, almost anywhere). It also doesn't have a built in mike (I think all the Pocket PC devices do have one), the speaker is not very good (but there's a headphone jack of course), the PIM software is not as good as the Palm PIM software is (IMHO).

Of course there are three models out there - the older SL-C700, the SL-C750, and the SL-C760. The SL-C760 is the one to buy - comes with everything, including a large enough battery to feed the power hungry display. I haven't had any trouble running out of power, but I plug it in every day, and only use it away from power for a few hours each day. The power adapter is very small and light (like mobile phone power adapters), so it's not a problem to throw it in a bag and take it with you.

About the price, yes, you can almost buy a cheap laptop or desktop, but for $500 neither one will be worth writing home about.

If you are into computers, then you really need three devices. The Sharp Zaurus SL-C760 for pocket computing, the Sony Vaio TR-1 for mobile computing (has bluetooth and wifi), and your desktop machine.

Try the 2.84 lb. Panasonic W-2, that is a real subnote... Or buy a Mac which is better, don't buy poorly built junk from Sony who also don't even know what customer service is.