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The prices at Dynamism are a bit on the high side in my opinion. I purchased my SL-C700 in Japan at Yodobashi Camera for about 55000 JPY which at the current spot rate is about 460.00 USD.

Presumably part of that is to recoup shipping and some of the translation costs but a lot of what you are paying is for the after-purchase Fedex replacement service should you ever break the unit.

Short of hopping on the next plane to Tokyo, one alternative is to order one from Conics for 569USD. You may then switch to SL-C700 (mostly) to English yourself by adding the line:

Language = en

to /home/root/Settings/locale.conf.

according to dynamism.com: (http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/index.shtml)

Backward compatibility:
Most of the Zaurus SL-5500 programs that have been tested on the SL-C700 work. The SL-C700 will step down to 240x320 for older programs. However, no software has been thoroughly vetted and no guarantees can be made.

Synchronization:
The SL-C700 uses Samba connection via USB, so the machine will show up as a network device under Windows XP.

Looks like it runs Linux then!
Artaxerxes

One word: WANT.

Here's the press release and spec sheet.

It's coming to the US... ... but Dynamism have done their own English port already. (Any stories/opinions of Dynamism?)

Keyboard doesn't look great (but at least it's better than the original tiny Zaurus one)

I've always wanted something tiny I could carry around that would give me decent QWERTY with a landscape screen capable of displaying VT100 readably (or, better, actual graphics) that could also connect to the net when I'm out and about. This looks like it (though expansion is limited to SD & CF - that's enough for WiFi and BlueTooth, though.)

-- Yoz

One word: WANT.

Here's the press release and spec sheet.

It's coming to the US... ... but Dynamism have done their own English port already. (Any stories/opinions of Dynamism?)

Keyboard doesn't look great (but at least it's better than the original tiny Zaurus one)

I've always wanted something tiny I could carry around that would give me decent QWERTY with a landscape screen capable of displaying VT100 readably (or, better, actual graphics) that could also connect to the net when I'm out and about. This looks like it (though expansion is limited to SD & CF - that's enough for WiFi and BlueTooth, though.)

-- Yoz

If you want something today, get a mini laptop from Fujitsu, Sony, or Dynamism.

I want all that (802.11, Inkwell, iSync (to pc, linux, or mac), MPEG-4) in this form factor: http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/index.shtml

Hi there,

Just so you know, Apple Computers Inc has applied for a patent that covers your mouse: Unless you want to be paying Apple a fair few bucks, I suggest that you send information on your device to the Patent Examiners office for Prior Art

Apple's pending patent: DN/20020190975
I put a link to the patent here

The particular product that I would use as prior art if I were you:
http://www.dynamism.com/grast/index.shtml

Cheers!
Travis Smith

See it here

I just recently bought a Toshiba Libretto L5

and to my suprise, when i opened it, it contained a 1.8" hdd.
Before i bought it i had plans on upgrading the hdd, as i thought it used a standard 2.5" hdd but alas it did not!

this information warms my heart, as i now know i will be able to upgrade later when the bigger drive will be released.


/Tournesol a happy Libretto owner.

is here.

This article seems to disagree with the one linked to on ram, but this article calls it "flash ram" which probably means swap. I use OZ with 64mb of ram and 0 of ramdisk on my SL-5500.

I saw one of these at Sharp Space Town in Japan while looking for the new Zaurus C700, which incidentaly wasn't at that location. The monitor was very hard to look at, the different layers were very distinct and it was like looking at two images superimposed at different height. Was neat when you got just the right viewing angle, but pretty hard to maintain... you'd probably have to get a neck brace and not move your head at all =)

So can someone tell me, why is Japan always the last place on earth to get these movies (by over a month in the case of LOTR TTT; better than 6 months I suppose...)?


It's revenge. Revenge for Japan getting all the cool toys years before we do.

I still can buy a Toshiba Libretto without spending an arm and a leg.

I think that's an IR reciever on the left side of that picture. That's integrated into the current models (under the display) - so you only have to deal with three plugs out of the box - USB mouse, main power, and Ethernet (it has a modem too, though)

Dynamism sells these things to foriegn customers and has an english description - I don't know anything about that company though.

Also, on Sony's page here they have a little widget which'll give you a 360 degree view around it (click the action button when you see it). (note: I have no problem with this page on Mozilla 1.2.1 under linux.)

Nice - but the progress (when compared with hardware improvements is minimal)

How much better aree they than a libretto (2.5 lbs)
+ a watcom input device?

tablet pc
* Weighs more
* Has a bigger screen
* Worse Battery life
* Doesn't allow me to run linux
* Hard to compile software

Stripping off the "Wow" aspect - does it
really allow me to do that much more?

Anthony

Can't you guys perform hader mods?

Mod your mouse to do this .

Have fun.

I ran across this . Its a really cool mouse that has 24(!) user selectable LED colors. You change the color by hitting a switch on the mouse. Now that's cool. Next is to have a red, green and blue LED with variabe instensities...

My wife has a Crusoe-powered Fujitsu P-2000 which is infatuating because it's so small and light (3.4 pounds with internal CDRW/DVD), runs silently, runs cool, and is reasonably priced.

However, the Crusoe is just too slow for power users... people say it's equivalent to a P3 at roughly 1/2 the clock speed, but I've compared the P-2040 to a 4-year-old Inspiron 3500 (p2/300) and the Inspiron was noticebly faster at starting and switching between apps. At the leog forums, most topics involve improving performance. Windows XP and 2k run some apps OK if you don't multitask, but even then you need to tweak the OSs for speed. You can forget about XP's eye-candy. Hope you like browsing with Opera because you can forget Mozilla... even Phoenix is too sluggish on the Crusoe! (yet Phoenix runs fine on the above-mentioned P2/300!) Also, don't bother installing the newest versions of Mandrake or Redhat... either use an older release or stick with Desbian and Gentoo.

For anyone in the USA who needs speed in a small laptop, check out dynamism, which imports many cool Japanese laptops (at a premium, unfortunately).

There is also the Sony Vaio SRX99. Unfortunately, it's missing Fujitsu P-2000's slick hi-res 5:3 ratio widescreen, but it's the same size, is lighter (2.7 pounds vs 2.8 pounds for the Fujitsu-without-CDRW/DVD), has a faster CPU (P3/850), larger screen (area-wise), has a touchpad, and even gets better battery life. It does not have an internal CD bay, but Sony's external CDRW/DVD drive is small, light, and bus-powered.

So, I don't see TabletPC saving Crusoe. Any Tablets that weigh 3+ pounds can use Pentiums and there isn't enough of a market for slow 2 pound devices (tablets or notebooks) outside of Japan.

There are a number of Japanese laptop makers that have been producing very nice high-end Windows laptops with brushed metal cases for some time now.

See http://www.dynamism.com for what I mean. Particularly the Panasonic models, which have been objects of lust for me ever since I saw a Japanese executive with one back in 2000.

So no, Apple didn't invent that look, thanks for playing.

Jon Acheson

I've always longed for those super-ultra-tiny notebooks like you find on Dynamism, but the coolest ones don't have built-in CD or DVD drives. I hate carrying around a drive just because I might need to read a cd-rom, but this little gizmo would be the perfect companion. I could use it to watch movies on the road in hotels, plus listen to music, and still play cd-roms with the computer.

The drawback of the bundled add-on CD drives that come with the notebooks is that they don't function separately - you're just lugging around a mostly useless cd-rom reader, not a CD/DVD Walkman. This thing is going to sell like hotcakes to business travelers!

I have a sony PCG-U1 which i bought from here

it works well, execpet the battery life is kinda short, but if you run it on max power save you can get about 2 hours on it.

THe best use ive found for it so far is concealed war walking, get netstumbler on it, plug in some earphones and place it in your bag. it even fits in my fanny-pack. You can walk anywhere with it no-one would even think you have a computer in your fanny-pack.
plus, it's a lady killer ;-)

I'm a big fan of small computers, and am glad to see some manufacturers resisting the touchpad, which is a huge space hog on small units. I do wish the new U1 went with a trackpoint, or a libretto-like mouse on the screen. Having it where they located it on the U1, almost makes it necessary to pick up the unit to use the mouse, which is unacceptable.

To get them now, in the US: dynamism

Japan has such the coolest shit. :P Personally, I want the Panasonic they've (dynamism) got, as it has the cook hira/katakana keys. :)

Yes go to Dynamism.com

There was a similar question a while ago about sunlight-viewable screens. The information there may be of use.

To parrot my own previous comment, NEC sells a laptop called the Versa DayLite (aka the LaVie MX in Japan) with a special "reflective LCD" screen that makes it usable outdoors. It also allows it (along with a second internal battery behind the screen) to run up to 8 hours.

On the downside, the screen isn't very good indoors - NEC says it's "suitable for occasional indoor use". The user reviews I've read agree with this (but for your application this doesn't seem too important). PCWorld also has a review.

Panasonic still makes a laptop with trackball, the Panasonic A3.
I quote: "The Pansonic A3 has been introduced to replace the Panasonic B5. Its appeal is to people who have always remained partial to a trackball pointing device. (To that end, a set of five different colored trackballs is included with the package.) Although there is nothing wildly exciting about the A3, it is a product of Panasonic Japan. And like all notebooks from Panasonic Japan, quality is impeccable."

Uh, your $2,000 "high-end" peecee seems to be lacking a 17" digital TFT display and mouting arm. The only other machine with a widescreen TFT display is the Fujitsu C815-T, which lists for $3299. A 4:3 display of like kind and quality, like the Samsung 170T, will run you $700, and a mouting arm from Ergotron will run $300.

The heart of the iPod is its small form-factor Toshiba hard drive which is also available in the GigaBeat MP3 player from Toshiba itself.

Check it out here

I'm looking for an MP3 player which is small, light, can be taken running and has several gigs capacity.

Maybe no such thing exists, but if it does, then importing from Japan would seem to be the most obvious choice.

I have one (baought my from dynamism and i can get up to 4 hours of battery life. This little machine has actually proven to be quite useful. the battery being the black thing under it, is, i admit, a bit small, but its a compormise between size and sexiness. and it is definitly sexy.

The built in network card has support for PXE booting so you could probably get your own linux distro on it.
Its small size makes is optimal for war driving ;-)

What about the sony u1 that slashdot already had an article about?

It weighs less (820grams) has smaller dimensions (184.5 x 139 x 30.6) and has virtually the same specs (but with an 867MHz Crusoe instead and only a 20GB drive).

It also costs way less! 149,800 yen.

This one is even smaller, in the same price range ($139).
Or, something just slightly larger for 1 megapixel resolution.

This one is even smaller, in the same price range ($139).
Or, something just slightly larger for 1 megapixel resolution.

Dynamism has some cool little cameras by way of Japan.

Not sure if the follow-up to "... I want one of those Sony PCG-U1 in a way I'm not entirely comfortable with feeling about a computer." is 'but I can't buy one because they are too expensive' or 'but it's too much of a pain to get one from Japan' or something else, but (ugly sentence) if it's the middle option, there's a company that looks like it will sell you one: http://www.dynamism.com/u1/pricing.shtml (I know nothing at all about them.)

Dynamism clearly states it's a prototype. Which is at odds with the post that "Sony has now brought out" this very cool little box".

Microsoft will face defeat at the hands of Sony and Nintendo, just like the American Automobile industry, you cannot fight Japanese production engineering and quality.

By the way, you should all check out the new sony VAIO over at Dynamism Kick ASS!

If you are looking for a high end laptop, I would definitely check out Dynamism. They have great service, and offer some very cool machines. There comparisons are purely spec based.

This includes the Libretto L3, a 10" LCD, 600mhz-Crusue version of your own notebook. It's slightly bigger, but I think there are some other subnotes on this site that approach the size of the original Toshibas.

NEC sells a laptop called the Versa DayLite (aka the LaVie MX in Japan) with a special "reflective LCD" screen that makes it usable outdoors. It also allows it (along with a second internal battery behind the screen) to run up to 8 hours.

On the downside, the screen isn't very good indoors - NEC says it's "suitable for occasional indoor use". The users reviews I've read agree with this. PCWorld also has a review.

Maybe most are, but you can't get much more portable than this. It has integrated firewire, in addition to all the other goodies.

DIY is okay I guess if aesthetics are not an issue. But I gotta say, I haven't seen a decent looking case yet that's not part of a manufacturer's system.

Trust me, I've looked at probably every case vendor's web site. They all look "cool" if you're a high school kid. I mean c'mon, you gotta be kidding! What do they do, have the president of the company's nephew do the industrial design?

I think I'll stick with the big manufacturers for cool small computer design.

But then again, most people here are looking for horsepower and upgradablitly, not sleek lines.

I've been waiting for a US-available Transmeta-powered laptop for quite a while. Dynamism was one source, but way to expensive. eBay has several Japanese-market laptops for sale all the time (Toshiba L1/L2/L3's) from a guy in Korea (very good reputation though!). I've even seen some of the other Japanese-only Transmeta-powered laptops on eBay from time to time (like the Fujitsu Bibio Loox-T).

The problem is, at 600MHz, the TM5600 just can't quite do full motion DVDs without problems, which is what they promised it could do. There just isn't quite enough horsepower in it. And, the battery life is Good, but not Great. So, all the manufacturers have been waiting for the TM5800 (800MHz) cpus to come out.

In general, the Japanese market is very aggressive with tiny electronic devices like the Sony Picturebooks. But in the US, it's more the bigger screens and CD-RW/DVD drives that sell more units. For this reason, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Sony have several Transmeta-based laptops for sale only in Japan, but not here in the US (yet).

I've been drooling over the Fujitsu P-Series laptop ever since it was put up on their website a few months ago. 3.5lbs, 3+ hours runtime (up to 15 with optional batteries) with an integrated DVD/CD-RW drive. All for $1500 up. The "available by" date has kept creeping later and later though. It originally said in October, then November, then before 2002, and now it says "Will ship in January."

Transmeta is having a few manufacturing problems at the fab, and it's pushing everything back. This also hurts the manufacturers in trusting the company any further.

Also, Transmeta has had a high CEO rollover rate the last few months, causing worry about the internal health/vision of the company.

The other problem is Intel got all worried about it and developed their Ultra Low Voltage chips which are also coming out in laptops over the next few months. Dell is rumored to have an ultra-cool 3lb unit with this chip in it. 700MHz, with the same power usage as Transmeta, same run time, but with the Intel brand name behind it. I bet this will sell very well, especially to the corporate/college student market.

Overall, Transmeta was a good idea, but poorly executed for the laptop market. Intel will squash them in the next 6 months. But, Transmeta, with their code-morphing technology, has a lot of other markets to work with (low-power/small size servers, etc) and their TM6000 chip is supposed to be an all-in-one web-pad solution type chip. Small-footprint laptops is just one possible market for their technology, with a big gorilla hanging around the banana tree.

So, instead of hoping for a Transmeta-based laptop for Christmas, wait a few months and get the best one you can find from the soon-to-be-released chips (with either Transmeta or Intel inside).

I've been looking for a NEC LaVie MX for what seems like forever. I've seen one of these in action, and they're really cool. Underpowered by a power-user's standpoint, but it makes up for it in weight (1.39kg), battery life (11 hours claimed!!), and size (1.16 in thick).

The only place it seems I can order one from is dynamism, but they are SOOOO expensive there $2500!

So my point is, I'd love an answer to this "Ask Slashdot"!

I'm currently planning on replacing my six pound Gateway Solo 9300 laptop (P3/800, 160mb, 20gb, 15.1") with one of these two Transmeta Crusoe-based laptops. Mostly because they're uber-light, and with all-day staying power. I'll take offers on the laptop, btw. :)

The first is the Casio MPC-206E Cassiopeia FIVA. It runs the Crusoe TM5600 at 600MHz, which means it's probably comparable to a 400MHz P2/P3. 8.4" TFT LCD, 800x600. Max 192mb RAM, comes with a 20gb HD. Cool toys include onboard 56k softmodem, 10/100 ethernet, 1 Type II PCMCIA slot, sound, VGA out, video out, FireWire, CompactFlash, USB, and an included dual-boot Linux partition. However it's also A5 sized (8.7" x 7.7" x 0.83"), and some people have found it too small to type well on. Nine hours of battery life with the extended life (heavier) battery, and it only weighs 2.18 pounds without.

The other option is the NEC LaVie MX or MX2. Another Crusoe laptop, this one boasts a larger 10.4" 1024x768 reflective LCD (so it's daylight readable) with a backlight you can turn on indoors, and is larger overall. 10/100 is with a dongle, two USB, no FireWire, VGA out is with a dongle, and no video out. Battery life is 8-11 hours standard (no additional batteries to switch in), it's 10.4" x 8.3" x .83~1.16" (?), and weighs 3.27lbs. Battery life is reportedly around half that if the backlight is turned on the whole time.

Dynamism has a neat comparison engine, linked to there showing the LaVie MX2 and the Fiva.

Also, NEC has the Versa DayLite, which is the US model of the LaVie MX, so you don't necessarily have to find an importer like Dynamism for it.

I'm currently planning on replacing my six pound Gateway Solo 9300 laptop (P3/800, 160mb, 20gb, 15.1") with one of these two Transmeta Crusoe-based laptops. Mostly because they're uber-light, and with all-day staying power. I'll take offers on the laptop, btw. :)

The first is the Casio MPC-206E Cassiopeia FIVA. It runs the Crusoe TM5600 at 600MHz, which means it's probably comparable to a 400MHz P2/P3. 8.4" TFT LCD, 800x600. Max 192mb RAM, comes with a 20gb HD. Cool toys include onboard 56k softmodem, 10/100 ethernet, 1 Type II PCMCIA slot, sound, VGA out, video out, FireWire, CompactFlash, USB, and an included dual-boot Linux partition. However it's also A5 sized (8.7" x 7.7" x 0.83"), and some people have found it too small to type well on. Nine hours of battery life with the extended life (heavier) battery, and it only weighs 2.18 pounds without.

The other option is the NEC LaVie MX or MX2. Another Crusoe laptop, this one boasts a larger 10.4" 1024x768 reflective LCD (so it's daylight readable) with a backlight you can turn on indoors, and is larger overall. 10/100 is with a dongle, two USB, no FireWire, VGA out is with a dongle, and no video out. Battery life is 8-11 hours standard (no additional batteries to switch in), it's 10.4" x 8.3" x .83~1.16" (?), and weighs 3.27lbs. Battery life is reportedly around half that if the backlight is turned on the whole time.

Dynamism has a neat comparison engine, linked to there showing the LaVie MX2 and the Fiva.

Also, NEC has the Versa DayLite, which is the US model of the LaVie MX, so you don't necessarily have to find an importer like Dynamism for it.

I've just sold off my old Toshiba PII@266 laptop but when I try to find a cheap, light-weight system with a decent screen, Bluetooth, 802b.11, Ethernet and modem built in I come up empty-handed. The models with the bells and whistles are also oversized with CPU so the price goes up and battery life goes down

Or, if you can forego bluetooth, you can do what I did and get an ibook. It's got a wonderful screen, builtin ethernet, modem, usb and firewire, and with the antenna apple thoughtfully built in to the case around the screen, my airport card gets wonderful range. And, with DVD, 20gb drive, and airport, it only cost me $1900 or so.

Plus, with the ibook's keyboard, I had no problems rearranging the keys. It would have sucked to have several keys wrong on a machine because of a pointing device between the H and G keys not allowing those to be moved (short of taking a dremel tool to I and D.)

Yes, I'm a dvorak slut. ;=)

. . .

Please don't flame me, as a helpful AC ( in this post ) has already mentioned this machine's existence.

I've been thinking hard about this one. Byte Reviewed the new Libretto L1 here and it sounds awesome. Not only Crusoe based, but has Bluetooth too. Which may not be to your liking, or cause grief on 2.4ghz, depending on your air interface preferences. But hey, I got a Bluetooth GPRS mobile and it's soooo tempting :)

The informed AC gave a very cool reference for Linux info : on Yahoo Groups to which I can only add this picture gallery froma company I found who sells the things properly localised, but, sadly, not with a distro.

Please forgive me if my post already redundant, but this little machine could rock.

Oooh - oo I just saw NEC have some MIPS based things that look like rebadged HP Jornada 720s, only nicer looking. Wonder if anyone can get Linux support on these???

Well, apparently there are people who think the Crusoe chip is adequate because a Fujitsu laptop with a Crusoe 533Mhz chip won "Best of Show" at PC Expo 2001.

The reason a lot of people haven't tried Transmeta powered machines, is because these computers aren't currently sold in the United States. However, you can check out a whole line of sleek, feature rich laptops at Dynamism. There are impressive laptops available that include built-in DVDs, bright screens and Transmeta chips that have extraordinary battery life. Don't count Transmeta out yet.

redking