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The manufacturer is Sharp, and they no longer distribute them in the US.

However, there are distributors that import them and do the English language conversion, such as conics.net.

The SL-C3xxx clamshell models with built-in harddrives rock. It's like having a laptop that was exposed to a shrink ray.

I installed KO/Pi on mine as an scheduler/organizer, and use the provided "Hancom Word" word processor to maintain my journal and do other writing. I got a WiFi card for it, and I can even hook up my cell phone via it's USB port and do a SSH session from anywhere I can get a signal.

I think their success in Japan versus the U.S. is due to the fact that in Japan, the clamshell form factor seems to be very common for electronic dictonaries, while Americans are still looking for something that looks like a Palm Pilot. It's a shame and a crime that such a wonderful piece of technology, which draws admiring stares whereever I go, isn't more widely available in the U.S.

Pi-sync (Ko/Pi, Ka/Pi, etc.) for your Zaurus to fix the PIM deficiencies. Best PIM software I've ever used. And it runs on multiple platforms, so synchronisation is no problem.

Well, surprisingly enough, KDE is not required. There is a project call korganizer-pi (pi=platform independant) that runs without KDE. Indeed, it runs on Windows. The UI is a little less slick than the latest Korganizer, but it does e.g., allow me to sync my laptop and my zaurus to a server via ssh.

I'm quite happy with mine. I'm pecking out this post in Opera at 480x640 while listening to MP3s streamed from my server via an SMB share from a different floor in my house.

Got it in Oct 2004 when Amazon had them on deep-discount. I'm still happy with my purchase.

Still, a few gripes:

* no decent RSS reader
* included media player only supports MP3/WAV/AVI/MPG2; no OGG or MOD/S3M/XM/IT or DivX support. It also only reads from hardcoded dir paths (on the CF, SD, and int. flash) -- it won't read from USB drives (with the Z's USB host), mounted SMB shares, etc. I use a Python + ncurses app called "cplay" for this...
* 802.11b radio could be stronger (the Z only draws 5W though, so you expect a tradeoff)
* use these PIM apps instead of Sharp's; they're *MUCH* better
* IIRC, the 2D hardware accel is disabled by default, meaning redraws can be slow (somebody is working on this though); this means video is usually choppy and emulated games - even the NES emu (fceu) - are intolerable
* it's relatively-large for a PDA
* pkg management could be better

Positives include:
* decent Word/Excel apps
* wi-fi works stably and fast overall
* stable OS
* Kismet works very well
* displays PDFs faster than my 2.4GHz laptop
* Opera is awesome on this thing...

Overall, it's great for traveling with as a laptop replacement. Good for light surfing, wardriving, reading books, listening to MP3s, etc.. It's true that if you think of it as "a Linux box in your hands", rather than a mere PDA, you'll understand the 6000L'z usefulness much easier. Despite the above annoyances, I love mine and really do use it every day... I replaced my Handspring Visor because of its very limited functionality and haven't missed it since...

Well you could get a PDA with a VOIP app running on it. For example, the Zaurus can have either KPhone/Pi or tkcPhone(demo version on their website). Both of those apps are SIP compatible.

So you get a PDA and a WiFi conectivity and there you go.

Probably not the best or most ideal solution, but it is something that does exist.

Check out Ko/PI too.
Derived from Korganizer, runs on Windoze as well.

Yeah, the Sharp stock PIM apps really suck. However, there are other applications available.
Check out KO/PI (platform independent Korganizer) from here. That is available to Windows as well, so you can sync with it easily.