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Sharp made a very nice clamshell Zaurus PDA with VGA resolution that runs Linux. (I have a somewhat earlier model). The used QT for the UI and supported both WiFi and Bluetooth. There apparently wasn't a big enough market for the product so it's been discontinued.

The Sharp Zarus SLC line is still available in Japan. The clamshell form factor is very common here for electronic dictionaries, in fact during my stay in Osaka a few people have mistaken my Z for one.

Doesn't do Bluetooth or WiFi without you adding a CF card; still, way cool. There are a few companies that import them and do the English conversion.

I have a SLC-3000, I use it mostly for writing - often I write my blog entries on it, sitting in a bar or on the train, and upload when I get home.

Since when is the Zaurus discontinued? It`s still on Sharp`s website.
Or was it ever on sale in the USA and you mean they discontinued it there?

I also use the Zaurus for variuos things (mainly a Japanese dictionary), but I have to say, that having an x86 compatible mini PC has advantages.
Even under Linux there are some things that run only/better under x86, such as for example having google earth running on my Sony UX50.

Can anybody translate the Japanese here; http://ezaurus.com/ and here ; http://ezaurus.com/lineup/sl/index.html#slc3000
to provide more details ?

There are other pages linked off these.

Can anybody translate the Japanese here; http://ezaurus.com/ and here ; http://ezaurus.com/lineup/sl/index.html#slc3000
to provide more details ?

There are other pages linked off these.

Having been to Japan several times and researching the mobile internet market I agree with Bushcat. The device is designed for the Japanese market. If you go to the official Zaurus web site and read a little Japanese you will find the Mail and Internet section which describes which providers (7) provide PHS-based cards for the device. And the price is right, it works out to about $16/mth for unlimited net access with a 1 year contract.

it's good to see major Japanese corporations interested in Linux.

Or, if that's not enough of a computer, try the Sony U101 Yes, it does fit in a pocket.

C760

CPU: PXA255 400MHz
FLASH: 128MB, 65MB free
SDRAM: 64MB
SD/MMC, CF slot

C860

CPU: PXA255 400MHz
FLASH: 128MB, 65MB free
SDRAM: 64MB
SD/MMC, CF slot

Additionally it looks like power consumption, size, weight - basically everything I looked at is the same. WTF? A new whole new revision for what amounts to software only?

The new Zaurii are OpenPDA.

I've got a stunning Zaurus SL-C750 which uses OpenPDA (see the official spec and check out this quote from this article:

"Sharp Electronics, the first OpenPDA licensee, had originally included Lineo's Embedix PDA software stack in the Zaurus. But when Embedix was subsequently acquired by Metrowerks last December, Sharp migrated to OpenPDA, which is similar in many respects to Embedix, especially in its inclusion of the Qtopia GUI framework and PDA app-suite, Opera web browser, and Jeode JVM. Additional OpenPDA licensees will be announced soon, Metrowerks said."

While they obviously lack the English conversion, you can also see the SL-C750 and SL-C760 at the Japenese eZaurus.com site.

with its 640x480 super crisp display and its morphing ability. I hope they will sell it outside of Japan. Sharp had a lot of them at CeBIT, not a single SL-5600. They know it's much nicer.
Here are some links:
My Zaurus Info page
Conics Shop for ordering outside of Japan
Sharp's Japanese Zaurus Page

On this flashy japanese page you can look at the C700 from different angles in both the input and viewing modes, as well as see the english specs.

OS: Linux Embedix

CPU: Intel XScaleTM(PXA250 400MHz)

RAM: Flash 64MB (user area about 30MB) and SDRAM 32MB (workarea)

Screen: 640x480 ("dots") 64K colors

Cardslots: SD, CF type II.

?: 4 hours, 50 minutes

Dimensions: 120mm W x 83 mm D x 18.6 mm H

Mass: 225g

The front page to get to this was from http://sl.ezaurus.com/ , from http://www.sharp.co.jp/

On this flashy japanese page you can look at the C700 from different angles in both the input and viewing modes, as well as see the english specs.

OS: Linux Embedix

CPU: Intel XScaleTM(PXA250 400MHz)

RAM: Flash 64MB (user area about 30MB) and SDRAM 32MB (workarea)

Screen: 640x480 ("dots") 64K colors

Cardslots: SD, CF type II.

?: 4 hours, 50 minutes

Dimensions: 120mm W x 83 mm D x 18.6 mm H

Mass: 225g

The front page to get to this was from http://sl.ezaurus.com/ , from http://www.sharp.co.jp/

I think this is exciting news for those of us interested in the linux pda market. I have zaurus sl5500 and loving it. The zaurus is by far the pda with the most geek potential out there. Try finding another pda with an SD slot, CF slot and a qwerty keyboard built in, all in a reasonable size and price( contrary to the article, the zaurus is not big at all ).

If you don't want to wait for the US model, "kenwinning" is selling them on ebay (now that I can read!).

I've successully played video clips (I showed everyone at my way-too-long-running project South Park's Orientation to Hell. 'That would be "The Mormons." The correct answer is "The Mormons".) but battery life is horrendous. (You could hack some together an external battery pack out of a Walmart flashlight, a USB extension cable, and a USB power adapter like I did, I suppose.)

Well, I guess the encoder really is a TiVo-like black box, but the media is portable and encoded into a form that would work on a Linux laptop or desktop just as well as a Z. That's the cool part, me thinks.

If any of you buy one, let me know how it works out ;)

Sharp released a brand new zaurus in Japan today ( or it was at least scheduled for today ). The main site is in Japenese and is here http://sl.ezaurus.com Linux devices is also carrying the story at http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3610510159.html

This just breaks my heart. I submit a story on the hot new linux powered Xscale pda hitting the shelves and my story gets rejected. Later that same day I see a story on "feather-powered circuits". I kid you not :)

My guess is it's either a disguised Zaurus running a full-screen video mockup, or it's just an LCD screen wrapped in some slick plastics, with a dummy "FireWire" cable piping the video in. That mysterious middle connector on the top edge of the unit is the Zaurus' CF slot.

Someone's gone to a lot of effort to pull off this hoax. SpyMac.com's original "iWalk" mockup from just before the iPod launch was really lame. This one is more convincing, but it's still a hoax.

The Japanese version has everything and the kitchen sink. Let's hope they have at least half the functionality in the US Linux version.

Check out the main page (Japanese)
Here's a page with the wireless modem and camera
And mpeg4 video playback (with add-on encoder is very cool too)!

Well iPaq or Palm may be nice PDAs, but if I were you, I would wait for the release of the Sharp Zaurus in Europe and the US, at this time the OS will be Linux (more here).
The current models run a proprietary one, but thanks to some hackers, you can already run Linux on them (read ./ story on the subject).
The latest Japanese models can run Java applications too, which is damn cool too.
I know a guy owning a MI-E1 and it really kicks ass, I love the keyboard which, in spite of its small size, proves much more convenient than any character recognition I've tried before (and I believe I've tried them all!).