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Retail Sharp Zaurus Released
Arminius writes "It looks like Sharp has finally released the Linux based Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 for retail sale. This thing is so awesome! Other than only being able to listen to mp3's thru my headphones only, this thing blows away
my iPaq 3835! It even has Opera as the web browser. "
"To fully experience the Sharp USA site, you need to have Version 4 or above of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator Version 4.x."
Great way to make the customer feel good about buying their product.
I picked up one of these at Fry's a couple days ago and am very impressed with it so far. The form factor is very nice, and the Linux OS powering the PDA is very peppy (running on a 206 Mhz StrongARM, a very fast chip compared to the competition).
What I love most about this PDA though is its openness. Need to get a file onto the PDA? Use NFS, scp, ftp, http, etc.. Want to develop an application for the PDA? Use Java, Qt, or C, all with open API's and no NDA nonsense.
Some good places for more information:
Zaurus Zone has some nice (but often too busy) forums. And of course the Sourceforge project for Zaurus.
In short, I love this PDA. I will try to answer any questions people may have here about it.
Have you changed your browser agent string into making it think you have IE?
Not that I'm saying for sure that you have (I'm not) but as a general message for the folks who read this post, DON'T CHANGE YOUR USER AGENT STRING! It only makes IE look more common than it already is. If all of the users of Mozilla, Opera and Konqueror pretend that they're IE, webmasters will have no idea that anyone other than IE users come to their site and be more inclined to write IE-only content.
Can't see their site without changing the user agent string? This is where your principles come into play. Do you actually care about and support the "alternative" browsers or do you not really care at all. There is very little middle ground here. The choice is of course yours, but principles are not important while they are convenient. They are only important when you stick by them when they are significantly incovenient.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
here is the little piece of code on Sharp's that is preventing Moz from entering. Why they would even do this is beyond me.
//BROWSER DETECTION for 3
var threeNum = navigator.appVersion.substring(0,1)
if (parseInt(threeNum) location.pathname = "/browser.html";
}
If you really want to see the Sharp site, turn off Javascript in Moz for Navigator, and you're in.
Z = $499
iPAQ = $499, $600, $650
Z = Linux kernel 2.4.6 plus Qtopia GUI
iPAQ = Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
Z = 16 bit color - 65536 colors
iPAQ = 12 bit color - 4096 colors ($499 model)
Z = 64MB ram, 206Mhz StrongArm
iPAQ = 64MB ram, 206Mhz StrongArm
Z = SD and CF
iPAQ = SD only
- Requires expansion pack for CF ($40)
- Need to use "sleave" with CF cards
- Other expansion packs are > $100
Z = Trainable handwriting recognition (Use Palm gestures if you want)
iPAQ = Not trainable
Z = Linux based, with SWEET gui (QTopia)
- Many applications already available
- Very active user community, mailing lists, wikki
- bash
iPAQ = MS Pocket PC
- You can install Linux, procedure is hard
- Your purchase still counts as MS sale ups market share
Z = Very cool and useable built-in keyboard
iPAQ = 3rd party external keyboard $100
Z = No built-in speaker, must use headphone and/or mic
iPAQ = built-in crappy speaker
Z = Builtin integrated Java
iPAQ = No Java
Z = Desktop software for Windows, Mac, Linux
iPAQ = Desktop software for Windows
Z = Included browser is Opera, Konqueror available
iPAQ = Pocket IE
Hi, here is what I wrote, just in case anybody finds it
r g/show_bug.cgi?id=63915
useful, BTW, I thought that the Zaurus was pretty cool,
and was thinking of maybe buying one, you can be sure that
now I will think it twice before doing so... I'm really
pissed of...
And for some one who said that it was the fault of the web
designer and not the company itself, a company should take
care that *his* web site follows the web standards and
support all platforms and browsers, of course they are
free to don't do it, but then they will piss off people
like me that instead of promote their cool products will
spread as much bad press for them as possible...
- -
To: webmaster@sharpelectronics.com
Subject: Can't access sharpelectronics.com with Mozilla, Netscape 6 or Opera
Hi
I was interested in the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5500,
but my access was denied to sharpelectronics.com
using any of the following browsers available for
my platform(FreeBSD): Mozilla, Netscape 6 and Opera.
Internet Explorer and Netscape 4.x don't exist for my
platform, so I'm completely unable to access the your
site.
Please, fix your site so it's accessible by any
browser that follows the web standards(http://w3.org)
Thanks
\\Uriel
- -
And don't forget to report this kind of problems at
http:\\bugzilla.mozilla.org as "Evangelism" bugs,
visit http://mozilla-evangelism.bclary.com/ for more
info...
And here is the bug for "http://www.sharp-usa.com/"
(that seems like it's the same as sharpelectronics.com):
http://bugzilla.mozilla.o
Best wishes
\\Uriel
P.S.: And I know that seems that Konkeror is supported, and
that I can change the user agent, but I shouldn't need to do
that! If a web site follows the w3c standards it should work
on all browsers that also follows the standards, and
there is no excuse to not follow the standard, period
"When in doubt, use brute force." Ken Thompson
Check out www.myzaurus.com and www.thekompany.com/embedded for the most available stuff.