Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sharp Readies SL-5000D

Posted by Hemos on from the released-to-the-world dept.

Anders writes "infoSync has a story and pictures of Sharps new Linux-device SL-5000D, which runs on Embedix Linux 2.4 with Jeode's PersonalJava, using Qt/Embedded and the Qt Palmtop Environment, and will be capable of running applications coded either in Linux or in Java."

12 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. NOT-released-to-the-world by Knunov · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check your dept.

    From the article:

    "Sharp's efforts to put a Linux handheld on the market has been known for quite a while, and now they're readying actual devices - but they're only for developers yet."

    You can register to become a developer on their website, but it's still a PitA.

    And there was no mention of how much these things will cost. Anyone know?

    Knunov

    --
    Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
    1. Re:NOT-released-to-the-world by oob · · Score: 2, Informative

      Developer Kits including the PDA are $US 200

    2. Re:NOT-released-to-the-world by waerloga01 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just looked on their website (and registered as a developer) and the price is $399US for the developers edition (Tuesday, Nov 6, 06:45 EST)
      Please point me to where you found the $200US price!

    3. Re:NOT-released-to-the-world by alexjohns · · Score: 3, Informative

      The development version is $399. The regular version is supposed to be in the $500+ range. Sorry, Linux or no Linux, that's too much for a PDA. I can buy a used laptop for that price. I'll stick with my Handspring Visor. PalmOS is still not an MS OS, so either way I'm supporting variety in the marketplace.
      Go to www.linuxdevices.com - they've got pictures. Try this: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2134869242. html

  2. PersonalJava is old... by MosesJones · · Score: 4, Informative


    PersonalJava is old hat and is a variant of the old 1.1 version of the language. The new J2ME platform has various profiles aimed at amoung other things PDAs and Mobiles, which is where the market will be at.

    From a Java perspective this isn't very interesting and isn't very cool. Hopefully they will be able to upgrade the libraries to support J2ME when the PDA profile is released. Then it will be an interesting device.

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
    1. Re:PersonalJava is old... by rbeattie · · Score: 4, Informative
      Not totally true.

      It says on the Sharp developer news page that it uses PersonalJava version 1.2 and from that spec you can see that:

      • PJAE 1.2 uses JDK 1.1.8 as its base.
      • PJAE 1.2 adds security as specified in Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, v 1.2.2 (referred to as "JDKTM 1.2.2" in this specification). Therefore, this specification contains some APIs based on JDK 1.2.2 APIs. These are identified in the appropriate sections.
      Below in the spec it says the createImage apis use Java 1.2 too.

      I found this stuff while trying to figure out if you were right:

      Even still, it uses Java 1.18 for most of it's functionality, but this isn't totally useless! I was doing some decent development a few years ago using that spec...

      -Russ

      --
      Me
  3. nice hardware, but the software... by mj6798 · · Score: 5, Informative
    The hardware is nice, although starting to show its age (faster ARMs are around the corner). I think the choice of Qt/Embedded for the GUI is a big mistake, however.

    Linux PDAs won't take over the consumer market from Palm, but they are good platforms for vertical and custom software (medical, scientific, legal, etc.). But people who write that kind of software already have languages, environments, and toolkits for their domains, and those languages and toolkits are usually not Java, C++, or Qt. X11 would allow applications created in different environments to co-exist, but Qt/Embedded forces everybody to use Qt.

    I hope Sharp will put X11 on the device. They can keep their Qt applications by switching to Qt/X11 for their applications. If they don't base the UI on X11, I think they are going to miss their target market.

    (In case you want to bring up the "performance" argument for using an "embedded toolkit", a 200MHz ARM is the equivalent of a desktop machine from a few years ago, machines that ran X11 with no problems. X11 was actually developed on and for machines less powerful than today's low-end Palms.)

  4. I'm not very happy with qt-embeded by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have it installed in my iPaq for more than a month now. It has several bugs...

    One of them in the multimedia player: after playing anything (mp3, mpeg, etc.) it hangs, and you have to fire a terminal to kill the player if you want the audio device free.

    In the calendar you can't enter a repeating event with a fixed end date. it will be included in the database but wont show on the display,

    At least once a week I have to reset the unit because Qt hangs

    and last bu not least, the power saving doesnt work. it doesnt shut off the back light or the LCD after some inactive time.

    Gotta check if these things were corrected...

    --
    What ? Me, worry ?
  5. Played with it at Systems 2001 by Alan+Cox · · Score: 5, Informative

    It feels nice. Its a thinner and lighter than the ipaq with CF jacket which is a good thing. The display quality was nice. They input methods were interesting (eg full unicode popups) but I found I hated all of them. CF and a memory card slot are built in to the base thin unit. There is no PCMCIA provision at all.

    It had no full screen handwriting mode like familiar on the iPAQ. The pop out thumbpad is cute but almost unusable - even for me an ex sinclair computer user and PC110 owner.

    The apps were good, but appear to be proprietary, The guy present wasnt sure how many binary only driver modules it used and I've not seen much sign of hardware docs.

    It seemed very much "nice PDA that happened to have Linux hiding at the bottom" than "Linux on a PDA".

  6. More Information on the SL-5000D by Hellvetica · · Score: 2, Informative

    Device specs, more pictures, etc.

    http://more.sbc.co.jp/slj/index.asp

  7. Re:GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Embedix itself is more than a single application (an embedded distribution), and as such the label "gpl'd" doesn't quite fit. Parts of it ARE, but it contains code that causes it to become royalty bearing and not entirely open source.

  8. Re Do with it.. whatever you can by d.valued · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. Yes, it is eminently hackable.. but on Sharp's site, they say that it won't be possible to make it into a microserver. (However, a CF II slot means that you CAN connect a pricey 802.11b card to it... ultra-small, ultra-portable Web surfing and hacking). 2. Unless you've a wallet large enough to deserve a combination lock, it's not gonna be that good an MP3 player at first. Granted, they're working on Microdrive support, but the RAM is only 32 MB and the only other media slot is SD (or SmartMedia..? I've never messed with SD before.). 3. If you register with their site, you can pre-order a Developer's Version for $400. Delivery by end of month. (ps: Those site refs are very incomplete; just click the hyperlinks.)

    --
    I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
    Real life is underrated.