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Linux PDA Part Deux
PolarCow writes: "Everyone's favorite Linux powered PDA retailer is back. Empower Technologies/LinuxDA are releasing a new variant of Linux-powered PDA. The new one is called the PowerPlay V. Its hardware is comparable to that of the Palm Vx. Thin, rechargable and with an enhanced display. I'm salivating already."
..From the product info page:
DataSync Program Only Available in MS Windows Platform
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air and light and time and space
why does the Slashdot crowd get so excited when some random gadget runs Linux? do people think it has the same features as the i386 version?
an i386 OS (like Windows or Linux) needs to be crippled all over the place before it will run on a PDA or some similarly tiny device. why do people assume that the best OS for the server/desktop is the best OS for the PDA?
i'd rather have a ground-up PDA OS, myself. it's not like you can usefully share code between PDA Linux and regular Linux anyway.
I think PDAs are a great idea, and that everyone should have one. But PDAs have a number of flaws.
1) If everyone is meant to have one, surely it should act as some sort of communications device too? Manufacturers are starting to pick up on this with phone/PDA devices such as the Nokia Communicator or Cybiko, but more effort should be put into this area of the market rather than just the OS.
2) Bring prices down! I really can't understand the prices of PDAs, and that's why I don't have one. For a tiny thing with a color screen and 16MB of RAM they expect me to pay $300? Nuts.
Perhaps Linux will help slash the prices, but do the OS and applications really suck up most of the $300? I doubt it. In fact, I'd imagine most of the costs of the typical PDA are thanks to giant R&D budgets and weird non standard components. Not to mention those expensive screens..
Using Linux in an embedded setting is a start. But until we have a reasonably well functioned PDA for under $99, the majority of the population will not own one. And nor will I.
mogorific carpentry experiments
From simply running Linux/DA on a Palm V or Vx?
This page has good pix and stats for the PowerPlay V, though they're all CG. So does this thing really exist, and if so, why? Why not simply load Linux DA O/S for Palm onto a Palm Vx and get all the benefits of a Linux palmtop, including Windows-only desktop synchronization?
Don't get me wrong—this all looks interesting, but if it's going to be based on cloned last-generation-Palm hardware, and it won't work with a Linux desktop, why is it important or appealing to anyone?
Every PDA I've seen until now, comes with connectivity to MS Outlook on MS Windows, but none (including the Linux-based ones) come with connectivity to KArm and Kab.
Although I welcome Linux on PDAs, I think it's not really the major issue at hand. What we need is connectivity to KDE.
Is the one I have now, the Psion Revo - Of course it's not linux, nor WinCE - It's EPOC - an OS made for small devices - The revo is the best I've EVER tried - I've had three palmtops, and I've tried the HP jornada handheld (too big) - the Revo is just right. The fact that it has a keyboard makes the difference (I know the HP has too, but the device is too bulky).
It's about 200 US$
If I need to do linux stuff on it, I just use VNC for EPOC (get it here (downloads - bottom).
Ok, the sync could be better, but you can't have it all.
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
Still doesn't impress me; I'm not going to buy a linux PDA just because it is a linux PDA - until it does more, or at least untill it will sync with my Mac and my Linux box, it has no advantages over Palm OS.
The reason I have a linux box is because it is the best for what I need it for; this same doctorine applies to PDAs; untill Linux PDAs DO SOMETHING better, I can't see them existing as anything other than a niche item
I ordered their Power Play III. They said it would take six to eight weeks to ship.
They charged my credit card within one day.
Eight weeks later, I still had not heard anything, after emailing them twice.
Finally, they responded to my email, and told me that my PDA would ship on the 19th of November, and that it would take an additional week to arrive.
They would not give me a tracking number, no matter how many times I emailed.
After the week was up, the PDA had still not arrived. I waited another three days, and still nothing.
In the meantime, I had ordered the Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D, and I got it in eight days.
I therefore wrote to the sales and info people at Empower Technologies, and I told them that I no longer wanted the PowerPlay III. They said they would issue me a refund, and since FedEx *still* had not delivered the PowerPlay III, that they would have FedEx return it directly to them and then issue me a refund.
A day later, and two days after I got my SL-5000D, FedEx delivered it. I checked the Tracking Number to see that FedEx had delivered it somewhere else first, but apparently Empower didn't see fit to check that.
So now I had a PowerPlay III that I no longer wanted, after being assured that Empower would have it directed back to them.
I wrote them again, and they said *I* was responsible for shipping it back to them. Furthermore, I was to insure it, and then give them a tracking number!! Needless to say, I was rather upset (since they wouldn't give me one), and wrote them a nice but firm email. They changed their tune, and then told me that I would get "reimbursed" for the shipping.
The next day, a FedEx guy showed up at my house (I was at work) to pick up the PowerPlay. Empower had called FedEx for a pick up order, but they did not tell me first!! Since I was at work, the package wasn't ready.
Then they said they would have FedEx pick it up again. The package stayed between my doors waiting for FedEx to return for another week. They never did.
Finally, I dropped it in a FedEx box, and it was redelivered to me. I got very upset at that point, and wrote to Empower that they had better call for FedEx pick up, and have them meet me. They have finally done that, and as of this morning, the package is on its way back to Empower. I checked "Bill To Sender" on the FedEx form, and the FedEx guy took it even though there was no account number.
I have yet to see how long it will take to get my refund, but I am not holding my breath!!!
In short, while more expensive, the Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D was a much better product, from a much more reliable company.
libertarianswag.com
Runs an OS that looks like a clone of PalmOS but without the ability to run palm apps. Sure it's open source. But do you really need that in a PDA?
Only syncs with Win (even palm syncs with Mac and Win).
Why even bother? These people seem to be showing even less innovation than Palm.
I just cant see a resaon why anyone (except a small minorty) would want this. They could have atleast had a sceen like the Handera 330.
*sigh*
This looks very similar to the Vtech Helio in terms of memory (2MB flash, 8MB SDRAM) and display (160x160 greyscale). The Helio lacks IRDA, but makes up for it with a 75MHz RISC processor with proper MMU as opposed to the Powerplay's 16MHz DragonBall. The Helio can also run Linux, but comes preloaded with Vtechs own VT-OS.
The Helio is also keenly priced. Brits can pick them up for £49.99 from the Carphone Warehouse, whilst you chaps across the pond can get them from a number of sources (often for less than $50, apparently).
Basically it means, system requirements like memory, processor power, I/O channels being available, it can compile and run any application created for not only GNU/Linux but any reasonably compliant POSIX-compatible API -- that goes from z/OS (ex-OS/390, ex-MVS/ESA) Unix services to Cygwin under Microsoft Windows.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Okay. I've owned a palmpilot before.. I've used them.... and they work fine for what they were designed for.
HEre's what I want to know...
What sorts of cool things can anyone do with one of these power handhelds? ipaq, etc (I don't know many). What's the nerd incentive here? I mean, just running linux on a $500 device is pointless if it has no purpose.
So.. I ask you, linux based or not, what cool shit can you do with a PDA nowadays? Let's hear some real examples.. not 'theoretically you could do blah blah'.
Unlike WinCE and PalmOS, there is no single variant of GNU/Linux on PDAs, and the variety is more likely to increase than to consolidate. Some of them run X and a common widget library like Gtk+ or FLTK, some don't and run QT on the framebuffer. One distribution may use the large glibc 2.2, a different one uses a reduced micro-libc. Of course the PDAs run GNU/Linux on different architectures. Some might even choose BSD instead of Linux for the kernel, or not even a Unix-like OS.
It's simply impossible for an ISV to provide off-the-shelf software for GNU/Linux PDAs of any kind. The user won't install a different widget library or even an X server to run the software. He won't install a statically-linked binary of several megabytes in size. A Java engine is still too large at least for the less powerful PDAs.
No, he should only need to install the _content_ and use it with some kind of standardized application - an email client, a web browser, an addressbook, a PIM, a media player, even a geographical map viewer for GPS or navigation.
Today it's sheer incredible how proprietary data formats and protocols have established especially on PDAs, without anyone complaining about it. Exchange data with a desktop PIM? Read a book? Store news from a Web site for offline reading? In any case you'll need a special proprietary application on either the PDA or your desktop (Windoze) PC, or even on both. And all you care about is content, as much as you want to read Slashdot or some other web sites instead of just playing with Mozilla, Galeon, Konqueror, IE, Opera or whatever your favorite Web browser would be.
Fortunately since both PalmOS and WinCE have their market share and GNU/Linux PDAs beginning to appear, there is no single handheld platform with a market share large enough to ignore anything else. So hopefully content vendors will discover that they'll only reach a larger customer base by either providing proprietary data formats and closed-source applications for a dozen of systems, or by using free specifications for their data which can be used on independent applications.
Therefore it's especially the lowest-end GNU/Linux PDAs which contribute to the need of standards. An iPAQ, a Yopy or a Zaurus could easily have two or three different toolkits installed. A VR3 or a LinuxDA certainly can't.
I realize I would probably have had the same troubles as you.. but in hindsight.. would you not have been better off to simply refuse the fedex shipment? Or can you do that.
Uh, no.
Everything you need to customize WinCE for a portable device is available FREE OF CHARGE. This includes the source code for the entire OS and development tools. Only when a company is selling devices using the operating system must they pay anything.
Beyond that, I've owned and used several WinCE devices and have used tons of free apps for them. Again, it is quite easy to create apps for WinCE because the development tools are free. And developers aren't charged royalties of any kind of distributing WinCE applications.
I give your post a -1,Ignorant.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;