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Linux Yopy Handheld Preview
Isamu Noguchi writes: "The Samsung Linux-powered Yopy is coming back with a fliptop screen and an odd keyboard. A developer unit is previewed at infosync." After a series of design flip-flops, changing release dates, and nice-looking prototypes, could the Yopy actually be released?
If people does not have to care whether it's got Linux, PalmOS or symbian, that is, if it works well enough that people take it for whatever it is, disregarding the OS it's running.
It's just a BloJJ
That's one slick looking unit. Much better than the I-paq. Has anyone had any experience porting KDE apps to a portable like this (one that uses QT-embedded I assume)? The article didn't mention a JVM (at least not that I saw), but that could be a big way to drive application development for PDA's in general. If you could write one simple little app in java, and have it run on PocketPC 2002 (Via the Geode JVM), on the Yopy, and on the new unit from sharp. That's really the only stumbling block I see to Linux PDA's doing great things is applications. Nice pretty user-friendly applications, and lots of them.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
Simple idea: make me a PDA that includes the following:
-A BIOS that handles power management and screen taps, as well as a fairly safe routine for handling flash functions
-Easily swapped OS
-Versatility of an iPaq, batteries of a Palm (rechargeable is best
-USB cradle
Put that out as an OEM device. You can even ship it with WinCE if you like (PalmOS 5/ARM would probably be a better choice of course), but make sure the world knows you can hack it.
/Brian
especially if you have toothpicks for fingers. Maybe it's just me...
Yopy had shipped many Developer versions already... Back in Jan. 2001 they sold the developer version, it was expensive (~$700 or $800) but it was available(sold-out now). I seen quote a bit of discussions from people that had purchased them. They just seem REALLY late in getting the final consumer version out.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
Some technical specs and more pictures are here.
Does that *really* say 206MHz ? Gah.
thats a dealbreaker right there. why go with a "calculator-style ABCDEFG" layout? odds are, anyone using a PDA is going to be familiar with normal sized computers, and normal sized computers usually have qwerty keyboards. i know personally that anything non-qwerty slows me down. sure, i could get used to it, but i am already used to qwerty, so why up the learning curve of the thing with something like that? just doesn't make sense
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
yeah it could but w/an ABCDEF keyboard I could not understand why anyone would want it.
;)
I live and die by my Landware keyboard for my Cassiopeia. I do all my note taking for research. I could NOT imagine using my TI85 for note taking
-- cheating on tests is another story
It is a great idea and I most certainly like the serial port but the keyboard was not a good idea.
yopy.com
gmate.com
And the announced that it's shipping end of November on the 'gmate' site.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
From the InforSync:
Part of the surprise is also that the keyboard isn't in the QWERTY layout, but instead an ABCDEF "calculator-like" layout.
This sucks. We all know why. Bleah.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
If things haven't changed, there is a booth at the Las Vegas Comdex 2001 according to a pop-up spawned by this page. You can read the details here.
And also according to this announcement, the Yopy WILL be released, allegedly at the end of November!
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
The Yopy would not only have been the first GNU/Linux-PDA, but also the coolest. Today, the Yopy still isn't there. Agenda VR3 and Compaq iPAQ have taken its place. The very reason for this is G.Mate not having focused on getting an external community around it.
About a year ago when the Yopy was hyped, I really wanted to get one, or at least look at the distribution. The hardware has been delayed forever, and the distribution was still "under development" accessible (AFAIR) only with some sort of click-through NDA. That is, the distribution was non-free, though they promised to GPL it once it's ready.
I ended up with a Compaq iPAQ H3660 which is basically the same hardware (16 MB flash and 64 MB RAM instead of 32/32 on the Yopy). The distribution ist entirely free-as-in-speech and quite easy to install. Compaq provides some infrastructure (the site "handhelds.org", the Skiff cluster, even some pieces of software like the bootloader or some kernel adjustments), and the rest is getting glued together by an independent developer community the same way Debian is being made (Familiar is widely derived from Debian and works quite similarly).
The hardware - i. e. the case, the LCD, the cradle etc. have matured away their worst child diseases. Meanwhile the Yopy (as in hardware) is still under development...
People frequently say: "Why would I want Linux on a handheld?" "Why bother with X11?" "Why bother with bash?" I think it's pretty clear that if you designed a handheld OS from scratch, it wouldn't quite look like Linux with X11 and a bunch of command line apps sitting around.
However, even something like the AgendaVR (66MHz MIPS) is powerful enough to run Linux 2.4 with XFree86 4.0 quite comfortably. And the benefits of having standard Linux running on it are significant. You may not want to actually use normal desktop linux applications or command line programs while tapping away on your machine. However, having a standard environment makes a lot of libraries and tools port very easily. And because you can log into your little handheld and even run X11 apps in both directions, debugging gets really eas.
For the AgendaVR, it took me maybe an hour to set up the cross-compilation environment, get PPP up and running, and read the documentation. After that, porting applications and tools to the AgendaVR was a snap: it took maybe 10 minutes to get a web browser and a scripting engine cross-compiled for the AgendaVR.
In that regard, I'm wondering whether the Yopy is doing the right thing by going with a different window system. If the AgendaVR can run XFree86 4.0 without problems, it should fly on the Yopy with its faster processor and bigger memory. I think the Yopy would be better off going with XFree86 4.0 as well. (And calling its window system the "W Window System" is nothing short of confusing, since X11's predecessor was called "W".)
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If they want linux people to adopt it fully, then open it fully. Tell me how to access the hardware from my software. tell me everything.
Dont want full disclosure? ok then make it a super stable, easy to use, and powerful PDA.
mpeg video playback? only good for "geee, that's neat" comments.
and make it 100% open for people to write apps.
Palm destroyed and continues to destroy windows CE (or whatever they label it today) is anyone can write apps for it, and the dev tools are 100% free to everyone.
dont make development tools free or the info to write apps free? it's doomed for failure.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How long do you think it will take someone to remap the keyboard driver to produce QWERTY?
Even if you can't swap the physical keys, you can more than likely reassign them in software - especially if its Linux based.
I really don't see a problem here.
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If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
MMC's nice if you're looking for just storage in a palmtop, but if you're looking to do things like GPS tied to a database for GIS in a handheld unit, then you need PCMCIA or CF (because USB won't work as well in this case and makes it a LOT more clumsy...)
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Sounds like the screen on the IBM ThinkPad 360P. Those hinges were really cool... Until you used them for about six months...
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
What I've seen earlier on Linux PDAs is often something like 'Look, I can run xclock on this!'. People tend to forget that a PDA's interface is something entirely different than on a desktop.
Refreshing then, to see the well thought-out Qt/Embedded GUI on this one. And one of the images even shows an Opera icon! I've used Opera a long time on my Psion 5mx, and it blindingly fast (this nice PDA only has a 36 MHz processor). The recent announcement of Opera on Sharp's Linux PDA Zaurus is another plus point for Opera. Way to go!
I'm not arguing against Linux-based PDAs. Obviously we need something like this -- nobody wants to code for Windows CE, and PalmOS is starting to show its limitations.
But you just don't need special hardware to run Linux. That's precisely why Linux is so big. Nobody's out there developing "Linux PCs". Why are they developing "Linux PDAs"?