Slashdot Mirror
Sharp's Upcoming Linux PDA
Bill Kendrick writes: "ZDNet reports that Sharp is getting ready to make its
Linux-based PDA available to developers in the next few weeks. They'll include a 206MHz StrongARM, 32MB (in the cheaper, developer edition), a JVM, the Opera web browser, and a slide-out keyboard. A profile of the device is available at LinuxDevices.com." We've mentioned this before, but it looks like it'll be here soon.
The problem with these types of keyboards is that the keys are smaller than most fingers (in particular thumbs). The stylo can type on them if there's an indentation but then it isn't that much better than the "keyboard" displayed on the screen. I think a more inventive system (as was discussed re:cellphones recently) is needed.
Can't decide which one will this be good for:
Linux....PDA market
The product doesn't look extra-ordinary, but looks like once Sharp goes on to promote it, it'd do better than the existing trends in the market. Good for all.
I would love to get ahold of this little box - I currently have a Visor Prisim and the best thing they have for it is the VisorPhone. Does anyone know of a CF variant of a GSM "visorphone" device? If anyone has anymore details on this device I would love to hear about it.
I just returned from Java One and Sharp had a booth there. They showed off this PDA that looked very cool. I think it takes Palm attachments. The bottom slides down to reveal a tiny keyboard. But the cool thing is that the PDA is a Java app thing that runs under Linux. It was running a 2.4 kernel and it just looked friggin' cool. I don't know what kind of development environment they've got (does gcc have a StrongARM backend?), but I got the feeling that they were looking for people to develop apps for it. I suppose that's because no one will buy it without apps. I signed up to get an early development release, but I don't really know what that means. Does anyone have any more information on this? All the web pages I find are in Japanese.
what kind of 'punch' does a strongarm processor provide in comparison to a desktop with a pentium of about the same speed? My desktop is a PII 266, yeah I've got more ram than the PDA, but will my apps I use on my desk run at similar speed on this PDA?
I'm starting to think it's either time to upgrade my desktop, or consider using an embeded OS to speed things up.
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
if the ad campaign here is as funny as the japanese one .
Sharp looks like it is actually trying to be a bit innovative with a PDA, unlike many manufacturers. First of all, the reflective TFT color display is good choice - consumers and business users seem to have this desire for color (I personally own a Visor Platinum with a grayscale screen, I love the battery life).
I don't really see what Java and Linux bring to a handheld device. Development isn't that difficult for the Palm OS, even Pocket PC, which have each picked a niche in the handheld market (the Palm OS for basic PIM functions with lots of little add-on software, Pocket PC for built-in support of Office documents and multimedia). I have spent some time thinking about it, and the advantages of Linux (multitasking, different processor support, open source) don't seem as important in the handheld market. At least not yet. If Palm OS and the Pocket PC platforms weren't mature, I would definately think that using Linux would be a much better choice. Unfortunately, it is still quite immature, as one can quickly tell from reading through the Linux development mailing lists of the Agenda. Not to say it isn't useful, but on the same hardware it seems to be slower than the Palm equivalents, from the reports I have read.
Moving on, the choice of compact flash and lithium ion battery was very wise. Better than a proprietary expansion slot, in my opinion, but somewhat more limited. Handspring's sprinboards are capable of doing so much more than memory expansion and modem/ethernet devices - like a remote module, GPS, cell phone, wireless internet, etc. I am not sure how many of these things the compact flash design on this palmtop could support - with something sticking out the top. Seeing as this has a 206 Mhz processor and a color screen, the good rechargable battery will be quite needed. It would be nice if these are easily removable, so that those who don't get a chance to charge for quite some time will be able to pop in a second battery.
The sliding keyboard seems nice, but obviously useful mostly for "thumb-typing". Handspring just announced a clip-on sort of keyboard for their devices that does a similar thing - SnapNType. One thing that I wonder about this Sharp device - will it support handwriting recognition? The site claims the color screen has "touch panel support". Handwriting recognition is fairly difficult to code, as the Agenda creators have found. Grafiti is nice, especially for those that have learned it, but there is some sort of licensing with it.
All in all, this looks like a promising Linux handheld. They learned from the Agenda's mistakes, by including USB connectivity, a rechargable battery, and compact flash slot. With all these features it will definately be in the price range of the already-mature color Compaq's, which means a limited consumer base. I look forward to hearing how well the developer models work.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Mozilla zealots would have had us believe that mozilla would be an ideal candidate for a browser on this platform. Interesting then that Sharp has instead gone with Opera.
Wow, touch screen support for future implementations of graffiti or handwriting recognition software and a dropout keyboard. That is just plain polite. As opposed to say... this.
My taken of English do not have to gush so as to I must send that fact in the first place. The PDA in issue is undeniably excellent in the relative use of OS technology underlying since I have an unit of demo that I have obtained through my brother-in-law that works in the zone of search and development of Sharp. Thanks.
I'm a total sucker for shiny sliding things with buttons (I own both of these: 8860 and 8890), and this certainly fits the bill - I want one - but I really have no clue - I mean I have a handspring Visor and I rarely use it - the screen is just too damn small to do much with aside from keep numbers and stuff...
but as long as they keep making shiny things, I'll keep buying them.
now off to get some tin foil.... oooooo
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I've read the article and I didn't see it touch on this. With the sharp unit will I be able to compile my favorite text editor or compiler or interpreter to work with on the unit... I don't know about anybody else but there are tons of times where it would be nice to sit back in a cafe and play with a ruby interpreter on a pda. For now I guess I'm stuck with scheme on my palm
1) No, because it runs at 206MHz does not mean it comsumes a lot of power. It draws 0.7W. ./configure --target=arm-linux when compiling GCC.
;-)
2) It is RISC rather than CISC, and having used a 200MHz StrongARM desktop I can tell you it FLIES. Much faster than a P2-266
3) You use gcc to compile on StrongARM because Linux runs on StrongARM (well obviously). ARMLinux has been around for years running on Acorn machines. You can also cross-compile to StrongARM using a x86 box - just
4) You can even use them for Beowolf
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Is this what I think it is, namely for the "secure digital music initiative"?
I see a slot for headphones, but I don't see a claim for "plays MP3s".
WWW
The main opertating system on the Zaurus PDA is based on technologies developed by the Tao Group. The Japanese version of the Zaurus PDA doesn`t have a Linux kernel at all. The common application layer is provided by the Tao Group. The OS is very good but this is not a fully open source solution by any means. It is all simple hype to create support for such products. For many other products which are so called "Linux Powered" counts that they are unfoundedly hyped as Linux devices. Think of it is Linux with X a viable solution in lowly powered low memory environments? NO WAY
Using Linux pieces does make sense though as you can use them freely and even gives you more news coverage. These devices are extremely cool, but NO way are they true Linux devices.
Amiga have been signed by Sharp as a content provider for its new Zuarus platform. The Zaurus ships with Amiga's "AmigaDE", a platform agnostic digital environment which is hosted by the Linux OS.
Sharp demonstrated the Zaurus running AmigaDE applications a while back. Here's the link.
Amiga have also been signed by Psion to provide its AmigaDE system for their NetBook products.
--
Ben.
Infomedia`s multimedia conference set-top box the TVision uses the same OS as well. Many Japanese mobile phones use or will use a Tao layer on top of the iTRON kernel as well.
public class SlashdotBitchfest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s = "Code monkeys are what make Java performance suck. ";
s += "You can spot a code monkey because they write stuff like this. ";
s += "Java handles String concatenation really badly ";
s += "and each += involves an array copy ";
s += "and the creation of a new immutable String object ";
s += "because a+=b is really syntactic sugar for ";
s += "\nStringBuffer temp = new StringBuffer(a);";
s += "\ntemp.append(b);";
s += "\na = temp.toString();";
s += "\nso you waste resources quadratically ";
s += "and kick the garbage collector into overdrive. ";
s += "You're supposed to allocate memory for a single StringBuffer instead ";
s += "and append() stuff to it in succession. ";
s += "But this isn't obvious. ";
s += "And the fact that += works at all means that ";
s += "the code monkeys will always use it. ";
s += "\"It saves me typing!\" they whine. \"And it WORKS, doesn't it?\" ";
s += "Stopping them is hopeless. ";
s += "\nJava's automatic Unicode support is a bitch too. ";
s += "Half the time you don't need it but you get it anyway \"for free\", ";
s += "but all those Unicode conversions take time! ";
s += "\nEven something like String.toUpperCase() is expensive. ";
s += "(You would think that Sun would be doing this in a loop: ";
s += "\nif (\'a\'=myChar&&myChar=\'z\') myChar-=(\'a\'-\'A\'); ";
s += "\nbut they don't do that. It's more complicated! ";
s += "String.toUpperCase() is actually testing for the German \"ß\" ";
s += "so it can convert it to a pair of letters \"SS\"! ";
s += "It also worries about Chinese characters, Arabic, all that stuff. ";
s += "For Strings that only need to be machine-readable, ";
s += "this is an unnecessary performance hit ";
s += "because you aren't going to have Kanji and Swedish characters ";
s += "in things like database identifiers. ";
s += "\nBut Sun has deprecated all non-Unicode stuff from its API. ";
s += "So often you have to use byte[] arrays ";
s += "or write your own non-politically correct ";
s += "ASCII-only String conversion routines. ";
s += "\nIt IS possible to write very efficient Java code ";
s += "but to do so requires some expertise ";
s += "and you have to pay very close attention to the code you're writing. ";
s += "Code monkeys don't do this. ";
s += "They have no idea what they're doing. ";
s += "Inefficient Java programs are really easy to write ";
s += "because the API hides many details from you ";
s += "and so you often don't realize the performance impact of your decisions. ";
s += "In fact the JVM gets blamed a lot for the lousy performance of ";
s += "many Java programs, but the real culprit is the API which in many ";
s += "places makes too many decisions on its own. It caters to ";
s += "lazy people who don't like to learn how to do things the right way.";
s += "\nWe found a long String concatenation series like this ";
s += "in one of our most frequently called routines, in its innermost loop. ";
s += "Thousands and thousands of += appends were being used to build up a ";
s += "huge String that kept getting copied, replaced, and garbage collected ";
s += "with each +=. Once we fixed it, we got something like a 5000% ";
s += "performance increase. \nGo figure!";
System.out.println(s);
}
}
  <b>Linux Rules   <br>   </b>
On http://developer.sharpsec.com/ one of the listed features is "Headset Port", and the subtext is "Stereo headset port for listening to MP3 audio files or MPEG4 movies". Anyone know what that means in this case?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Anyway, this is not the time, economy wise, to be trying to introduce a completely new product in a genre of questionable usefulness. My TRGpro spends only about one in five days out of its drawer, and I really like it, I just can't find a use for it that justifies lugging it around. (Particularly now summer is on it's way.)
I think this thing needs either a serial port or a second CF slot.
The USB is a nice touch, but it looks like it might get in the way of the CF slot.
I see the real possibilities in a Linux powered device like this is in integration into larger system and field based data collection. There's no way anybody is going to break into the PalmOS/WinCE dominated world.
The problem is when you start assembling systems to do things like field surveying systems, the features you get don't add up (e.g. you need a huge CF card to hold your maps files, but then yo have no way to connect your GPS). I do a lot of (simple) stuff with GPS hand PDAs -- I think every PDA should have a serial port!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
As one who is stuck with the Samsung Yopy, I was wondering if I could use Lineo's Linux.... The Yopy has the same processor but I'm not sure about the board architecture..... It does have a nice screen though and I have X and 2.4 working... so far...
Captain of the USS Red October Starfleet Command
Even if you write lousy code like that, a good compiler notices the many +=s with no side effects and creates one large String from it at compile time. The StringBuffer approach you mention is just needed if you create a large String dynamically.
Sharp just invested a couple extra millions into the Tao Group. :)
The Japanese version still comes with Tao`s intent as so will the European and US versions. LOL
I haven't played with it myself, but 'miniRuby' is available for the AgendaVR3 PDA (which also runs Linux).
;)
Then again, NetHack and Apache are available on the Agenda, too.
Think of it is Linux with X a viable solution in lowly powered low memory environments? NO WAY
Actually, my 66Mhz, 8MB RAM Agenda PDA running Linux 2.4.10 and XFree86 works QUITE well, considering.
Well seriously, tell us, what you can do or what you have done for this historical moment then.
If you care about your war, stop reading slashdot and go out and help.
I tried to register as a Sharp "developer" and on submitting the form (http://developer.sharpsec.com/join.cfm) I got an Microsoft/msSQL/Cold Fusion error message.
Looks like Sharp have not embraced the Open Source movement beyond PDAs yet...
Guess they have to start somewhere
I got the following when I tried to register (gotta love M$ products coughMSSQLcough(yes, I'm on IE6. I'm at work)):
Error Occurred While Processing Request
Error Diagnostic Information
ODBC Error Code = 37000 (Syntax error or access violation)
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Can't allocate space for object 'Syslogs' in database 'Zaurus' because the 'logsegment' segment is full. If you ran out of space in Syslogs, dump the transaction log. Otherwise, use ALTER DATABASE or sp_extendsegment to increase the size of the segment.
The error occurred while processing an element with a general identifier of (CFQUERY), occupying document position (19:2) to (19:49).
Date/Time: 10/08/01 09:20:41
Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 4.0; Hotbar 3.0)
Remote Address: 168.236.254.1
HTTP Referer: http://developer.sharpsec.com/join.cfm?Blue=RE
Template: D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\developer\join_writerecord.cfm
Please inform the site administrator that this error has occurred (be sure to include the contents of this page in your message to the administrator).
--- Think of it as evolution in action ---
Such as those on the RIM (Blackberry) pagers and Motorolla P900 (though those are much more cramped) are actually quite cramped. In case you're unfamiliar with them, you don't type on them like you do with a traditional keyboard, you just use your thumbs, as in the edge of your thumb. I've got fairly big hands and I can comfortably type ~30wpm on the RIM pagers. Ignoring space issues, the thumb keyboards beat the pants off Palm and PocketPC's handwriting recognition and other common forms.
That said, I agree with you, there should be better solutions out there.... Who ever invents one that:
A) can be implimented without taking up a great deal of space (at least when compacted)
B) can be LEARNED relatively quickly
C) allow proficient users to type comfortably upwards of 40wpm [especially in PDA/road-type situations]
will be in a real position to dominate the PDA market....
When is someone going to offer a Linux PDA designed for engineers instead of the marketing department?
There is already a plethora of PDAs for accountants and salespeople, but the niche for engineers remains largely unfilled. What a perfect spot for Linux! Give us something that will do the math, do the analysis, hook up to networks, and crunch the data without costing us $5,000.
Our group is very interested in a PDA network analyzer that can compete with the Flukes. Yet every damn PDA comes out as a clone of Palm. Get a clue folks... even the Palms aren't selling!!
It seems to me that a Linux-based PDA with appropriate interfaces (10/100 ethernet would be perfect) would find several niche markets. Out of the several Linux PDAs (and our firm has a couple of them) this Sharp is the ONLY one which has any useable connetivity. I wonder if the OS (based on Lineo's) is up to the challenge.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
It seems to me that this is a prime opportunity to get away from the antiquated, and now senseless QWERTY design supposedly meant originally to prevent typing so fast that it could lock up mechanical typewriters -- we really should not continue to be bound by this constraint. If you are learning to use thumbs instead of the usual 8 fingers, then why not work with a more optimized layout such as Dvorak?
;-) will be difficult, but it seems to me that using thumbs in place of the fingers is an equivalent effort, so make the job easier with Dvorak layout (or if there's anything better optimized -- I would think other languages have different frequency patterns such as the Q in Spanish).
;-) and a keyboard about 85 percent of normal albeit missing a few useful keys such as separate PgUp/Dn/End/Home, 2nd Ctrl and Alt, and with a few odd key placements such as for the \, but I don't need that much unless I'm doing a lot of escape sequences in unix (or DOS paths ;-), and even then I could adjust after a few minutes of repeated use. I found that I could pack it along to a class fairly easily, set it up next to a full-sized UltraSPARC keyboard, and touchtype notes into a Windows Notepad window without having to do all my usual looking up and down to see if I was "on the line", and writing clearly enough to re-read later, which would, again, be a problem for me with handwriting recognition. My typos were easy enough to spot and edit later at leisure. I can only think this approach would be enhanced with a smaller package with a more optimal key layout.
I realize that un-learning years of QWERTY touch-typing (I've been doing it for 35 or so
I have considered devices with tiny keyboards such as Cybiko, or Sharp's current PDA's, and others in between, but didn't really think them suitable for QWERTY-based touch typing. Handwriting recognition has not appealed to me either since I don't write consistently, and it seems to be getting worse with age. So far, my best solution has been a Compaq Contura Aero -- it has a 7-inch screen which is tolerably viewable (even without my bifocals
FWIW from a "professional student"