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Bad Review for the Zaurus
higginsx writes "Sharp's new Linux PDA, the Zaurus SL-5500, gets pretty bad marks from The Wall Street Journal's tech columist Walter Mossberg. He doesn't get much into the OS (other than complaining it wouldn't synch up with his laptop), but concludes that "it failed to do the simple things well. It has a high price, a complicated user interface, and hefty dimensions and weight. Even the cool-looking keyboard turns out to be clumsy to use."" I still really want
to try one out since I don't expect I'll ever sync a Zaurus to Outlook.
I just got one of these at JavaOne last week. I agree that for a Windows business user (suit) it is probably not the best choice. But for a techie that wants to hack a little, they are awesome.
I don't expect I'll ever sync a anchovie and bacon pizza to Outlook; doesn't mean it's a good reason to want one though.
0xB
Does it really matter that it runs linux if it sucks as a PDA? It might have a Gee-Wiz cool factor, but if it sucks it sucks.
Heh!
I'd take an anchovie and bacon pizza over Outlook any time. (Though I'd prefer shrimp and capers.)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Its amazing what some people do with things that they are not designed for. Its also begs the question why manufacturers do not think through possible use and/or misuse of their products.
Return the bells of Balangiga.
This PDA is Linux and Java based. This makes it very easy to tailor it to your needs if you know what you're doing.
Take VB or Java/JFC. Not often do you see widely used commercial apps written in either of these. But the amount of "inside"or one-off specialty software written like this is huge. I think this PDA could find a niche in that sort of market. Dont think of it as a product so much a s a PDA "kit" that you have to might have to tweak a little.
-... ---
So what is, or is expected to be, the best Linux PDA?
Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
Although it is sad to see the Zaurus getting a bad review, this was more or less to be expected. After all the modified version of RTLinux that is included with the Zaurus may offer small footprint, but most people will concur that it's not quite ready for production use yet. I believe Sharp rushed it to market. With development cost on the Zaurus approaching $100 million though, who can blame them.
Pushin' 'n dealin', shovin' 'n stealin'
BEAUTIFUL ascii art :-D
--
I don't understand the need to put Linux in EVERYTHING. Linux is a great operating system. We use for networking and for even in some 3D sim environments. But honestly... do i have to walk around with a watch that runs Linux, and talk on a Cell phone that uses Linux, while cooking dinner in a Microwave that's running Linux?
Who came up with the idea that Linux was the one size fits all solution for every operating system need? There are much better OSes for embedded systems and PDAs.... PalmOS and VMware come to mind...
And in some techie circles, it has caused great excitement because it runs on Linux, the renegade operating system that many techies worship.
The giant penguin image that stares right at me wants me to vindicate Linux by hacking into Walter Mossberg's email...
I picked up a Zaurus on monday and have had zero problems with it. As a matter of fact, kick ass is the best way to describe it. I got mine to sync with Outlook without any problems at all. And if the reviewer can't figure out the interface, he shouldn't own electronics, after all a microwave is far more difficult, not to mention a stove or refridgerator or DVD player. And after installing the terminal and file manager, I got Perl running on it, as well as Nethack...dreamville!
GeneralKael -- Slacker Extraordinaire
Come on, no one is going to buy this thing because they think there is a gee-whiz factor associated with the development tools. If they just wanted to tinker, a Palm device would be a far better buy - there is way more documentation and existing code out there for that platform.
This guys sounds like he has some sort of chip on his shoulder. Just say that
you had problems synchronizing, don't go on bashing the company with
comments like "they obviously don't care about syncing". It's because of
idiots like this guy that a lot of the smaller companies have problems getting
market share..
If this was a Microsoft product, he would have been ALL OVER IT,
touting 101 advantages and ignoring any bugs, saying "Well I'm sure Microsoft
will have these fixed for the next version..."
*SIGH*
people don't want to have to think to use a pda. if they wanted to think, they'd try to remember all of their phone numbers and appointments rather than using a gadget to record it all. if your average wall street suit can't make it do what he wants, you've just cut off 90% of your market.
do not read this line twice.
Sharp has not been good in the past at releasing new technology items that get wide acceptance. I think you hit it on the head about their rush to market. As their product gets used and they identify bad features, problematic options, etc., they will mature their product like all their others. It takes Sharp time to do this, and their development costs are too huge for their budgets.
Click here or here.
I have a Zaurus and have owned WinCE devices in the past as well. For a first commercial release I think the Zaurus is well done. WinCE and PocketPC sucked pretty bad early in their lifetimes, so I think the Qt/Embedded will improve with age. It will probably also improve rather rapidly with the gaggle of open source developers that will add apps and enhancements on their own schedule compared to the 2-3 years that it took Microsoft to make PocketPC usable.
Regardless of if he is dumb or not (Im betting not), the average business user who needs a PDA will not want to waste their time thinking with this product, they want it to work pure and simple with the applications that they use daily (lets face it, its going to be Windows that their using in almost all cases)... And it does make Linux look bad if it doesnt work with these programs, I know my boss would rather daily blue screens than having problems simply keeping his mail in order.
Laptop Reviews
There are some valid criticisms there. I'm still using my Clie as a PDA, but the Zaurus is great and will only get better. The US Robotics Pilot sucked when it first came out, but it evolved into an essestial tool over time. I hope the Zaurus evolves that way too. I'd like to see a smaller form factor, better s reen res, metal cases, and a way to place the display on hold while playing music. The battery life needs to improve dramatically, especially when using a wireless card.
That said, not many PDAs give you both CF and SD slots. Embedix/Qt is a great OS for the PDA, and I hope it grows and rivals Palm OS and Pocket PC.
"You done taken a wrong turn."
-Bill McKinney, in Deliverance
Mossberg has a point. I like Linux, just like the next techie, but if the product won't do what it is designed to do, then no amount of implementations of the hot buzzword technologies will help a product survive.
It may simply be immature at this point as a product, and can probably be revised, but as they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
I don't want my pda to make me think. I just want it to be there & work !
The Sharp Zaurus ist definitely the best PDA ever built. The OS is great, it is easy to program, you get the Qtopia SDK for free, you have a keyboard that is usable (I tried it on the CeBIT), you have support for WLAN cards, support for other CompactFlash cards, etc. You can play mp3s (with a big one of these memory cards it can replace your mp3 player), you can play videos (although that doesn't perform perfectly), and, of course, you can do all the stuff you're used to from other PDAs. As soon as the Zaurus is out in Austria, I will get one. Definitely!
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
I still really want to try one out since I don't expect I'll ever sync a Zaurus to Outlook.
Welcome to the minority. Just because we may not want to, some people will. So, one has to decide between marketing for a (possibly unprofitable) niche market or just making something that will work with any Windows laptop so people can carry their outlook address books around.
I applaud Sharp for their work but if this thing is big and clunky, then they should go back to the drawing board.
--
Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
It's really too bad that they couldn't have presented a better product. I think some of this guy's gripes aren't too serious. He's probably wrong with Outlook, and he says the keyboard is clumsy without getting specific, then later describes it in his plusses ("well-spaced keys"), and it doesn't sound to me like it's THAT unusably big (so long as I can clip it on my belt, I'd be fine). Since it's running linux, the software issue should not be a problem for long.
The battery life issue seems like a real problem for those who use it frequently. Also, the usability is the most important feature for mainstream acceptance. The fact that it is cluttered and difficult to use only serves to further justify the popular idea that Linux is hard to use and for geeks only (an opinion that is not without merit). The cost of the Zaurus also works against the idea that Linux is cheaper.
It's really a shame that Sharp couldn't have put forward a better, more usable product. As it is, it looks like it will be another black-eye to the public's view of Linux. Could it be that Linux, in its current state is simply too beefy for a lightweight application like a PDA?
... "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the w
I bought a 5500 the other day, and love it. I haven't picked up a wireless card for it yet (although I plan to ASAP), but have been using it via USB networking to my linux desktop. I've installed ssh on it, ssh in and then NFS mount some volumes from my other linux boxes, making it easy to download and screw with sw on it from my desktop. :-(
..of course I'm not a typical user (as a unix admin, and security weenie).
I've also got X installed, but you have to kill the QT desktop before you can launch X
You can also install xcopilot on it (Palm emulator) and run lots of Palm sw. I installed a gnuboy port on it and have tried out a couple of gameboy games. The ones I tried were too slow, I thought. Maybe xmess playing colecovision games will work out, or xmame/zmame with some older arcade units will perform better.
The fact that it runs linux makes it the ideal toy, as it's easy to modify and hack to do whatever you want.
-- I speak only for myself.
I'd wouldn't bet against this guy not actually having used the thing.
The review is dangerously long on adverbs and opinoins and short on facts. Seems the only thing he actually _did_ is install the software, put thing in a cradle and click 2 buttons. This not having worked. He chunked it. Went back to his palm based thingy,.. and grafittied out this review.
This kind of journalism - isnt.
Its a very longwinded "product vote" - they could save lots of space just by asking "did you like it?" - check yes or no.
A review would cover actual features, with examples and details. It would talk about how things actually function.
The review smacks of that 11th grade paper on the "Illiad" where I didn't quite "read" the book.
Being able to sync with Outlook is still very important. While I don't choose to use it, that is what I use are work. And where are most of my appointments? At work.
I would still like to see a review from a technical magazine/journal/website that I trust. Somewhere that I am comfortable with the clue-level of the reviewer. I'm not saying that he doesn't know what he's talking about, but I usually don't see the most knowledgeable computer/electronics info in the newspaper. The WSJ may be different, but I don't read it, so I must paint with a wide brush.
room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
(they always break you eventually)
i'm replying from it now.
it syncs w/my outlook.
it works with my linksys cf very well.
kbd is very cool.
opera isn't bad.
the reviewr is on crack.
Mind the gap...
Got one. Like it. I'm not sure why the reviewer has the troubles he does. I didnt have any troubles with syncing to outlook. Course I'm running 2000 for my gaming partition. On the size issue, I have large hands. Very large hands. I don't mind having a larger palm device, because it simply makes it easier to use. On the keyboard, 1) I like having the thumb board and find the position is more natuaral for thumboarding. Of course I'm of the gaming generatin with mutant thumbs :).
The interface is KDE riffic. I suppose for a dedicated windows user, it might take a few hours of use to get used to where everything is, but again I'm not sure thats such hurdle.
Finally battery life.. COuld be longer, but hey its a battery on a device with a fair amount of power, thats life. I don't expect to use a pda as a walkman with visualization anyway.
Finally on applications, I'm guessing the review never saw the host of applications for a newton just after release :) or Wince when it was released. These things take time, and the Zaurus provides, IMHO a better platform for coding applications to begin with. In a few months stuff will be out there.
It sounds like the review just had a product that wasn't suitable for him. Letsface it the guy went to a manual to figure out hius synchronization problems, perhaps he'd be better off with simpler products that will fit in his shirt pocket or wherever he keeps his PDA. Thats fine, I just feel that this review had alot more to do with the reviewers personal bias/ignorance rather than an objective evaluation of the product.
On the other hand, why the hell was I reading the WSJ for a technology product review... talk about mismatch between product and end user.
Sorry -- just a peeve: Begging the question does not mean that something is begging to be asked. It is a debate term. It means to use your conclusion as a premise for your argument. From The Skeptic's Dictionary:
"If one's premises entail one's conclusion, and one's premises are questionable, one is said to beg the question.
The following argument begs the question:
We know God exists because we can see the perfect order of His Creation, an order which demonstrates supernatural intelligence in its design.
The conclusion of this argument is that God exists. The premise assumes a Creator and Designer of the universe exists, i.e., that God exists. In this argument, the arguer should not be granted the assumption that the universe exhibits intelligent design, but should be made to provide support for that claim.
That XP enables personal firewall by default that blocks ftp ports....
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
I know Windows is still the most popular OS out there, but why didn't he try syncing a Linux-based address book? If you're using a Linux handheld, is it not likely you'll be using a Linux desktop?
I bet the CE handhelds aren't marked down for failing to sync with Linux or Mac address books - but then you get into the popularity argument again.
Listen I supported sales reps who used pen based Sharp Zaurus pdas nearly 5 years ago now. They sucked then and I did not get excited when I heard they were using linux because I had this bad sneaking suspicion they would screw up again.
_ __
The interface was daunting and the signature capture was clumsy at best. Oddly enough syncing up with the laptop was never the problem before.
Honestly, I was hoping the folks building this thing would grab themselves a clue before fumbling this. Sad. Perhaps with enough people tinkering out there on it (Someone posted earlier that it was good for geek tinkerers) that a better interface can be achieved with a few good hacks.
One can hope.
_______________________________________________
ACK
To dumb
Yes, you are.
First, it's "Too dumb"
Second, syncing with their email clients is what people DO with their PDAs. This PDA was unable to do a very basic function. Therefore, the reviewer correctly concluded that the PDA sucks.
He is not used to using something that makes you think.
As if you are used to DOING something that makes you think. Like posting intelligently rather than bleating like a sheep.
HE doesnt know how to do a review. He writes as if Zaurus is the only PDA he has. He hasnt seen an IPAQ with a SNAPNTYPE keyboard or the COMPAQ keyboard, and a CF or PCMCIA adapter. People who dont know about PDAs and their accessories shouldnt be writing reviews.
As a long time WSJ subscriber (both online and in print), I can tell you that Walt Mossberg's reviews are always thorough and fair. As a technology consultant I'm lucky enough to get the oportunity to test many of the same products he reviews.
This is another review where I think Walt is right on. The Zaurus SL-5500 is making the same mistake made by M$ with their PDA, mainly that the user interface is too complicated. The Palm OS is still the standard for simplicity as far as the GUI is concerned.
I can't speak for the issue of Outlook sync. However, if it's advertised on the box and in the company press release, there should at least be some documentation on how to get it to work.
I hope the word LINUX doesn't scare the average user away from using the product. I'm afraid that poor documentation will only make people fear it more.
If the Linux community wants a broader acceptance of the platform then we have to stop with the attitude that something is good enough because a nerd can figure it out.
Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
"...and generally behaved in a manner one can only describe as despicable." - February 27 2001, Michael Sims
Linux can definitely work on handhelds - in fact it would seem more suited to the task as it is much more customisable than Windows CE but doesn't have the software support behind it. I can't see M$ providing any support when a Linux handheld fails to synchronise with Outlook. Currently, as the article says, it's designed for geeks. The advantages of Linux will only be seen if it has the sort of software that can rival M$ in ease of use and compatibility. Until then it'll just be /.ers enjoying the novelty.
...if it flops, they'll start showing up at the discount mail order sites and eBay, and might turn out to be a nice little platform for hacking.
/* rico */
Even if shaving it is cool, putting sharp objects near it in order to shave it is _not_ cool.
-Ben
IMHO, the article reads like the guy re-wrote his review to be negative once he couldn't get it to sync with Outlook.
I'm a 2000 man.
I purchased a dev model some months ago and other then the lack of a | on the keyboard (which any *nix shell user will find really annoying) I reall enjoy the device. I explected that the "mainstream" WINCE market wouldn't appreaciate the unit, but who cares, cause there is now a linux hackable StrongARM PDA for all the techheads.
Mmmmm.... Bacon....
Actually, I'd have to agree. I haven't done it in a long time, but an ex-girlfriend of mine LOVED it. Less hair, you see... well, I'll let you figure it out...
Interestingly enough, it seems a great number of people percieve these to be the problems with linux. Its just too complicated for them, and requires too much of a shift in their method of computing. And of course, it also requires them to change almost all of their programs, and download obscure, hard-to-install drivers for their peripherals.
I hope soon linux can overcome these problems, and become the windows-killing operating system it deserves to be. Mac OS X pretty much suceeds now, except for its extremely high inital cost (proprietary hardware. grrrrr.)
But linux has a bunch of potential. I am sure someone will get it right, and soon.
I was wondering if Microsoft has any interest in the wall street journal. It would be a great way to slyly discredit a competitive product. Microsoft often takes out huge ads in magazines, and those magazines have a tendency not to mention linux, and have a tendency to try to discredit it.
I just got the Zaurus 5000D from JavaOne this year and I have had very few problems. It syncs with Outlook without any problems. I was also able to setup internet connection sharing through the USB connection so that I could use the Zaurus to browse while it was in the cradle.
In addition to that, for the geeks out there, I have installed sshd, boa (webserver), and a samba server. I also saw Perl and Python for the Zaurus, but I am waiting on my SD memory card before I install too much more. There are many programs out there already that make this a PDA I might actually use, and most of them are Open Source.
There are several good development sites out there: ZaurusZone and sharp's own Developer Site. You can download the kernel for it from Sharp's site and recompile it yourself because they have detailed instructures and supply a link to a gcc cross-compiler for the ARM processor.
In the Zaurus development guide they explain that the easiest way to do development for it is to NFS mount a shared drive onto the Zaurus. That is just cool.
I would totally agree that it is not for suits, but for the geek in me it has been one of the coolest things I have played with in a while.
~Giliath
A review like that in the WSJ is almost a death sentance for a PDA.
I know all you Linux users are geeked out by the fact that it runs Linux, but PDAs are about simplicity of use, and compatability. If this unit from Sharp (who, in my opinion has always been a third rate electronics manufacturer) is as big and as clumsy as the reviewer says it is, it has almost zero chance of adoption.
This is a PalmOS and (God help us) WindowsCE market.
Think about the corporate buyer. These guys are conservative. They don't want something not mainstream, and a PDA not running PalmOS or WINCE is NOT mainstream. Nobody wants to get crap from his CEO about the PDA choice. Guess what else, the CEO doesn't give a crap that it runs Linux. All he knows is that his other CEO buddies have WINCE and PalmOS PDAs and wants to know why his company isn't doing what everybody else is.
This market simply doesn't and shouldn't care all that much about what OS the PDA is running. Its a big geek factor to run Linux, but was it really a good choice? Probably not.
I guess you intimated that with your second statement, I'm just saying that it was never a misuse by the user, just a lacking feature from the manufacturer. If users want to sync to Outlook, then 'but it's Linux!' should be met by the valid argument 'Then don't use Linux!'
I realise that Linux as an OS does not prevent the syncing, and that a bridge could be written, but you get my point.
To say nothing of design has anyone noticed the price?
I realize that Sharp has to recoup their costs for creating the thing, but how many people are honestly going to buy a $500 PDA to sync to their $700 computer?
That's one thing I never understood about WinCE boxes and their kin -- for a few dollars more, you can just buy an actual laptop.
Can you actually program on the PDA? I am just wondering because i think that would be really cool; as a cs major i tend to have a lot of programming work -- it would be nice to be able to do it outside, for a change.
I recently acquired a Zaurus and I think it is a great PDA, with all the bells and whistles. I bought one for a non-technical friend of mine, and he likes it even more than I do. He can't stop talking about it. I was actually surprised at how easy it is to use for basic PIM functions, but there are a couple of little software design issues I would like to see fixed. I loaded the Star Wars episode 2 trailer on my Zaurus last night and it works, although just a little bit choppy. It might work better if the original scale of the video was set to the size of the Zaurus display. I'll play with it some more. MP3 files work with no problems. I popped in my 256Mb Compact Flash card, so now I have lots of space for my file system. Bash is available (and VI is on there too, yeh!, but there is no escape key on the keyboard!) along with a bunch of basic commands. But no Linux knowledge is needed to put this thing to good use. It is a great toy, and a useful PDA!
I think that the zaurus will mainly be a sucess amongst geeks. Its amazing feature set, power, and coolness factor all point to this. However, just the fact that it is different (read incompatible) from "regular" PDAs will keep most people from getting it. Complicated UI and high price don't help, either.
And I think Sharp knew, or at least suspected this. So maybe the wall street journal people aren't the intended consumers for the Zaurus.
Which would be a bad business decision on Sharp's part, especially if they made it knowingly (i.e. saying "lets make this suck for non-geeks" instead of just "lets make this appeal to geeks") but is an interesting thought to keep in mind.
Yes we are still not connected 24/7 yet, but other than that, the pda market is fairly mature. Ie most people who want one already have one. Then along comes sharp trying to use linux as a hook, which was just plain stupid. Linux aside if it can't do the same things(outlook sync etc) as simply, and as well as my palm IIIx what chance does it have against a clie or ipaq? Even if it was "better" all things aside do you think the general public is really going to buy a Palm or a Sharp??
Geez, I have been using the Zaurus for a little while now and it has been nothing but flawless. There is nothing the PocketPC can do that this can't. The Zaurus gives me a shell that now supports ssh.
But for the "consumer" wall street crowd.
I have the Wireless LAN Compact Flash card - sweet. the MAME port - yes Frogger and MsPacMan. the keyboard is actually better than the RIM Blackberry version. I can view/edit MS Word and Excel and even view Powerpoint slides. make sure you upgrade the memory though for this. I can play mp3, watch movies and do voice recordings. I have synched with my Palm and Outlook books w/o a problem. The TFT screen is the best I have seen on a PDA to date.
I guess we just want to make sure Walter files his 1099. hehe....
seriously Walter - what are you smoking???
Speaking as someone who used to do tech support for "suits" I have to say most of them are lucky they can work thier microwaves much less a PDA, most just carry them to look important and use them for nothing more then a rolodex, if that, most have the numbers written or printed in a notebook.
The author probably has a conflict of interest.
(shares in MS/Palm, anyone?)
Just because some keyboard monkey can't use it
doesn't mean its bad.
Mossberg's right on with most of his points. There is an accepted feature set that PDAs must provide or they just aren't useful to the average user. And one of those features is syncing to Outlook.
His second point is that by using a completely new operating system, they lock out users from the thousands of existing Palm and Windows CE programs. Once again, we have the "no apps for it, so nobody buys it, so nobody programs apps for it" circle.
Palm managed to overcome that by providing most of the useful features (like syncing with Outlook) out of the box...and with the sheer coolness factor of owning a PDA.
Microsoft overcame that simply by taking the loss necessary to keep their handhelds on the market until their market share got bigger. And by adding features to Windows CE devices that Palm didn't want to, like media players.
Sharp didn't serve its customers well by putting Linux on this device.
Is there a PDA that ships with a HD that runs the OS? Maybe something like IBM's microdrives? Or is power consumption too much of a problem yet?
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
I don't understand this guy. He claims the keyboard is clumsy to use... That may be true when comparing it to a regular keyboard. However, if you compare it to using a stylus for input, the built-in keyboard is a millions times better and faster.
This entire post was written on a Zaurus SL-5500 using a wireless CF card in Opera while listening to mp3s.
-Riskable
"Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
I would still like to see a review from a technical magazine/journal/website that I trust.
:-) On the other hand, when she visited a couple of weeks ago she had no trouble using Galeon to do her normal web-based tasks.
A valid point, but don't forget that reviews from the "clueless" have value. When you're too close to the technology, it can be very easy to underestimate how difficult something to use can be. I find the command "ps auxw|grep galeon" to be very intuitive now, but I doubt that my mother-in-law would agree
To get a good sense of the success of Sharp at designing and implementing the Taurus, I think you really need to get feedback from both technical and non-technical folks.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
You guys are idiots, this thing synch's fine with Outlook. I synch mine with Outlook every day and don't have any problems at all. I imagine if you have the intelligence to understand why you would want a Zaurus, you won't have any problems synching Outlook
The "skeptic's dictionary" has got to be the most biased POS I have ever read. It has some good stuff, but you can't trust much of it, IMHO.
There are better, more balanced lexicons of terms (logical or otherwise) to be found on the web.
This guys sounds like he has some sort of chip on his shoulder.
You sound like you don't even know who he is. So what's your basis for saying he would be all over it if it were from Microsoft? I mean, anything other than sour grapes and your petty jealousy over Microsoft? If you don't think he's slammed MS products in his column before, you're an idiot.
Just face the fact that yet again, just like with the Indrema, Linux kiddies have been hyping up an upcoming Linux-based device that turns out to be a steaming pile of shit. It's kinda cute in a pathetic sort of way. ;)
The zaurus syncs over IP networking.
Windows XP has a personal firewall that is built in and enabled by default without the users knowledge.
Put two and two together....
This poor guy just needed to turn off his firewall, becouse if it is turned on the Zaurus can not sync.
And, yes, I own a Zaurus.
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
He says "But the user interface is dense and complex, like on a PC, with a bewildering array of menus and icons."
How is this guy qualified to write any tech article if he is bewildered by a PC interface?br>It sounds to me like this guy is lost on anything more complicated than an etch-a-sketch.
He also says "All in all, my advice is to stay away from the Zaurus SL-5500, unless you're a hard-core Linux fan."
Well, means it will be perfect for all of us!
I signed up to be a developer for the Zaurus several weeks ago. I placed my order and had it in my hands within two days. The first thing I did was update the ROM to the latest image. I also updated the drivers for my PC. I hooked up the cradle to my Windows 2k workstation, that does in fact use Outlook. It worked perfect the first time. And with the developer edition no less. Everything synched perfectly.
I seriously have loved this thing since I got my hands on it. That is saying a lot since I have hated every single PDA I have ever had before this. I think the keyboard is great, but it is definitely not for the fat fingered user. One thing that you can not tell from the pictures is that the keys are a hard plastic, not soft rubber. At first I made the mistake of trying to punch them with the stylus. It slipped off for the most part. So I went with the double thumbs technique that is popular with the text messaging via cell phone crowd. Now I can rip right through the keys, oh and they have a very nice tactile click when pressed. I could seriously go on all day about this product. But here are some cool links to an open source version of the Rom image that removes the Jeode JVM and Opera (which has now been replaced with Konqueror). I just have to assume the guy from the WSJ is a fat fingered dolt.
Sharp Developers Program
The OpenZaurus Program
Program Overview
OpenZuarus Downloads
I went to sharp's web site and was told I needed to download Internet Explorer. Couldn't get to any useful information whatsoever.
Great job, guys. Make a PDA for techies and don't even let the techies on your web site to read about it.
--- witty signature
This guy probably owns stock in palm or handspring. That would explain why he didn't call tech help.
I got a SL-5000 in November and it's an amazing little box. I can't speak to the Outlook thing since I don't use it, but the device *does* know about Imap mail servers, which is very important to me.
They keyboard took some getting used to, but honestly I can't think of a better solution for the size this has to be. Thumbing is fine and fast.
And it has a real browser that understands real HTML and CSS. The (adjustable) scaling is amazing - I can read two columns of NY Times w/ no trouble.
Being a Linux box makes a huge difference. Screw PDA-sync - this thing does *rsync*!
Plus it was amazingly easy to install the ftpfs kernel module and have instant ftp-in-file-browser. Try that on your PocketPC!
Ok, over the last week I've read on slashdot alone of more than 28 apps running on this thing. Just because Sharp doesn't list more than 28 doesn't mean they don't exist. Palms site doesn't list all the thousands of available Palm apps either. The mere fact that it has a JVM built into it means there's a whole world of apps available to it. In addition serveral people have reported recompilation of Linux programs to be easy to do and successful. Hey, Nethack works on it, time to go get one.
Furthermore, from all accounts I've read, it is very easy to develop apps for the Zaurus and this should lead to an explosion of new programs (that is if enough linux geeks are still employed and can afford this thing). His gripes about the lack of apps is just nonsensical given how long this thing has been out.
As for syncing with his Laptop, I'm more inclined to blame the new laptop than the Zaurus. Many other people have reported successful syncing with Outlook. Did this reporter try a different machine? Did he ever think to?
Really it just looks like this guy is a Palm bigot. He wants a lightweight address book which I will admit, the Palm does excel at. His reference about the iPaq's size is also derogatory (or even Compaq's jumbo $499 iPAQ 3700 ). Really, I don't think he wants or cares about any kind of full functioned portable computing device. And that's what the Zaurus is trying to provide. He wants an organiser and was probably right in saying the Palm is a better one. The Zaurus though, is definitely a better handheld computer.
He's given honest, reliable, reviews in the past so I see no reason to consider this to be a hyped up Ziff-style garbage piece. After seeing so many articles that just aren't well researched, I'll take one that is -- even if the review is not positive.
On the other hand, this is a first release for a fairly complex device, so I'd expect a few changes in the hardware and quite a few software changes. If they come gratis to the current Zaurus owners (and those soon to be), that would be good thing. That said, there are trade offs in any design so I don't expect all the gripes WM had to be addressed at all.
My main concern with Sharp is thier web page rejecting perfectly valid browsers. That alone has cooled me to considering a Zaurus myself.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Even better, let's not allow all those people "who dont know about PDAs" to use PDAs at all. This way we are guaranteed to only have reviews praising things just because they have an L*word associated with them. Forget about the fact that the average shipping volume on all those Zauri and Yopis will be approx. two dozens.
Given that some of the responces here say that people have synced with outlook with no problem, could his problem be with the fact that it is outlook on XP?
Anybody got one that can try?
I'd not use it, but it would be fun to show how picky (it dosen't work for MY setup) a journalist could be.
Well, we should all keep in mind there's a lot of Linux distribution around. The Zaurus linux might not be the cup of tea for everyone, but it doesn't equate to what Linux is all about. Certainly, saying linux is not for PDA is a bit of an over-generalisation.
This post gets a score of 1 while mine was modded down to -1. Great!
Oh well i'd better shut up or i'll get another -1.
Return the bells of Balangiga.
After purchasing a Palm V three years ago which has since been gathering dust in a drawer, I convinced myself that I'd never use a PDA. Yet, I couldn't resist the geek-factor of the Zaurus, and picked one up last week at JavaOne.
I'm loving it. The color is vibrant and web sites render exactly as they would on my PC (just need to scroll a bit to see the whole thing). The keyboard was a little clumsy at first, but I'm getting used to it and find it MUCH faster and more reliable than Palm's graffiti. (I have hope that eventually I'll be able to touch-type on it.)
The built-in apps are great for my needs. My only complaint is that the mail client doesn't have an option to authenticate to an outgoing SMTP server (haven't checked yet to see whether there's an update or another client available). Even the games are pretty entertaining when I'm stuck somewhere with time to kill.
The beautiful part, however, is that you don't NEED the cradle to sync. Just slide in the wireless card and ftp your files to it. (This is great for development, letting me deploy to it through a build script instead of a custom app). Plus, it runs PersonalJava -- a much more featureful version than the KVM on my Palm V. Basically, I just write against Java 1.1.8, ftp the class files over, and run them normally.
The battery life can be as short as an hour if you're banging on it with full brightness, but it's easy to plug it in without a cradle, and extra batteries are only $25, so there are ways around that if you're unwilling to dim the screen.
Of course, now I'm dreaming of widespread, open 802.11 networks so I can be fully connected everywhere....
I've owned a Zaurus for about a week and have been trying to sync it with the Qtopia desktop that comes with the Zaurus. I have't been able to sync either. I've tried re-installing the software, synching on and off the network, rebooting and nothing seems to help. I can't upload documents from the desktop either. I used Handspring PDAs since they came out and never had any problem establishing a sync. I'm getting this bad feeling that I've just learned an expensive lesson about the risks of supporting new technology.
Obviously not.
I found the article to be very light on details. Nothing about the programs installed, how well it played music...etc. Instead it seems like this guy could not get it synched, just gave up, and was pissed, so he wrote an article telling how bad it was. He does not even say what version of Office he was using, or if he tried it on someone else's computer just to see if it was his computer's fault. For all we know, he may have just not had the cable plugged in all the way or something else stupid. As a reviewer of something, he needed to try a few more things, just in case there was a problem elsewhere. Another thing that bothered me was him complaining about how large the unit was with the keypad exposed. Well duh, show me a fully featured PDA with a large keypad that is not large itself. Being larger when pulled out, should not be an issue at all... after all it can be pushed back together! I would rather thumb in info anyday then use those damn little pens. I think I will avoid reading this guys New Column due to this one badly made review.
the YOPY gmate.com is way cooler and it offers a developers toolkit. You can compile you favorite Linux apps on it :), and it plays doom!!
Need help finding the flow? http://www.myspace.com/naturalismandbalance
- The keyboard is more clumsy than a foldout one, true. But it's comparable to a Blackberry (I have both). I think it's more a case that it's more difficult to hold the thing while typing than it is to hold a Blackberry.
- 64Meg will allow it to serve as a fair MP3 player. Maybe it's just that a WSJ guy doesn't want one of those.
- It's got both SD AND CF meaning that you can bump the storage with SD while leaving CF open for some cool peripherals (like modem, wireless, or net connection). Personally I'm drooling over the idea of having a small toolbox of CF cards that will get me net connected in whatever the most convenient way is (particularly that net socket where I can sit in a meeting and plug myself into the T1 at work).
- True, most regular users will never care about Linux. BUT, if you were to track the number of apps for Palm, versus Wince, versus this thing, I bet you'll find that the number for this thing will grow much faster because of the easy porting. Hancom already has a full office suite for it in evaluation stages (something that Palm still is barely succeeding at). And does anyone other that MS themselves succeed at porting their stuff to Wince? Which version of Wince
:)?
- The average Palm still does not have the screen resolution that this thing does, which leads to a much better interface as well as cool browsing with Opera.
- Yes, it is bigger and heavier than a Palm. Personally I don't care, given that it is still drastically smaller than a laptop (and the comparison is becoming more valid because this thing is powerful enough to run Emacs and a Java compiler, so I really can do work on it). I remember when the PalmV first came out, at the same time as teh III, and everybody was like "What's cool about the V?" and the answer was "Lighter." That's it. And then everybody went and wrapped theirs in that big metal case to protect it.
I hope it takes off, I really do. I'm not holding my breath. But I'll support it where I can. If it can survive for 6months or so I think that the number of solid apps for it will take hold and it will become a very viable choice for people.www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Don't like the Skeptic? Well, then try this, or this, or maybe even that.
"I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them." -Isaac Asimov
Seriously....an emulator for Palm could do this well. I know if i was getting a PDA again....i most likely would buy this for the strangeness factor of it. However, most of my friends wouldnt. In fact, i was talking to one...and his first concern was software. Not everyone is a programmer or wishes to learn. Until Sharp and the whole community starts doing stuff and writing programs for those people, this is going to remain a product targeted for a specail group of people.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&o
The problem with the Zaurus, a consumer-level PDA, is the same problem we see when trying to use Linux as a consumer-level OS. The Zaurus does a lot of things poorly. Sure, it is capable of so much more than a Palm because of the underlying OS that powers it. But, the things it currently does aren't done well.
The interface is poor. The handwriting recognition is relatively good, however. The applications aren't nearly full-featured enough, and aren't geared towards consumers.
Plus, there are standardization issues to take into account. The majority of PDAs in the market are PalmOS-based. Wouldn't it make sense if I could transfer data to and from a Palm with my Zaraus? Why isn't data stored and transmitted in industry-standard formats for cross-platform compatibility?
If the Zaurus, and Linux-based PDAs in general, are to succeed then issues related to consumers need to be addressed. Yes, I'm a geek and like having a command prompt available to me from my PDA. What normal consumer would ever want that? What about security issues? As more and more users begin connecting wirelessly with their PDAs security needs to move to the forefront. Access on the Zaurus is done as root, with no password. Nice and secure, huh?
The Zaurus is good as an alpha-quality Linux PDA, but it is certainly not ready for primetime. There are technical and usability issues that need to be addressed, and Sharp (and Trolltech, developers of the Qtopia interface that is used on the Zaurus) seems to be ignoring these issues or not doing enough to correct them.
Walter Mossberg says he has nothing against Linux. He calls it a renegade OS. If UNIX is renegade to a person, then I guess they don't care if a PDA is made with Linux, in which case they should not be writing the review in the first place.
One ring to rule them all...O in OpenBSD
I'm somehow disappointed in the Wall Street journal for making this man a Tech columnist. I understand that most people aren't tech savy and that news usually is for the masses. However for a tech writer to talk about Linux by calling it, "the renegade operating system that many techies worship.", is beyone my comprehension. In this day and age Linux is no more renegade than any other OS. Linux is increasingly becoming the OS behind big businesses, and especially the web. With companies like IBM, and Sun backing it, and with companies like Amazon and Merrill Lynch using it, to call it renegade only illustrates how ignorant he is. If you don't like Sharp's PDA fine, but don't knock an OS because you didn't like one experience with it.
There is a Palm OS emulator available for the Zaurus... Check it out! http://www.climov.com/zaurus/qpose/
Oh, and the reason why he couldn't sync it with XP is because of XP's built-in firewall blocking the port the Zaurus uses. So his problem wasn't the Zaurus, it was XP.
-Riskable
"Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
One observation I made the other day while looking for this PDA on ebay is that they are going for a little over $300 dollars new. This is not a good sign for the product, considering that usually when a hot niche product is released they go for around the retail price or over in some circumstances (Ipod, Imac, PS2, Xbox, etc).
I have a 5000D zaurus and I've had no problems with it. The keyboard is fine (no pipe on it though) and the software does it's job fine.
http://www.funwithpenguins.com
Please note that nowhere in my post did I declare it as the first. I had no intention of being first, and was, in truth, oblivious to the possibility.
The fact that my post was first, is entirely circumstantial, and as such, I cannot be blamed, commended or otherwise held responsible for my post's "firstness".
Since you don't directly address me, I'll just assume you're using my pripe posting real-estate to get your message across to others.
Firstly, POSE and XPilot require a Palm ROM to operate. Because Palm would be none too eager to provide the competition with their ROMs, Sharp or its users would have to do it illegally.
Secondly, it doesn't allow the user to run their conduits, so many of these applications would be crippled at best.
Thirdly, the emulators are not perfect from an emulation point of view and also generally have problems from an interface stand point.
From the User Guide PDF:
"For details on synchronization with a PC, etc., see the on-line operation manuals (on the CD-ROM) for the PC link software."
Also Intellisync Manual PDF
It seems that logicians have used this phrase in the way you describe for hundreds of years, and I say it's about time they examine their usage and realize that it's nonsensical and a poor translation of "petitio principii". "Assumes the proposition" or even "circular argument" would describe the problem better and would release "beg the question" for such times as a discussion in fact "cries out for" a question to be raised.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Why hasn't this been developed yet as a toolkit? Not specifically for outlook, but for MS Office in general. I'd think that it would make perfect sense to make a toolkit that has all the interface handlers necessary to interface and import MS-related data. I can't think of a single work-related software item in linux that would not benefit (or that wouldn't be able to benefit) from such an implimentation. That way, the effort wouldn't be fractured. I mean, really! It makes perfect sense. I don't know of any PIMs or email clients that import Outlook databases, and I don't know of any word processors taht properly import Word documents - two of the most frequently used things in the business world. When it comes down to it, the GUI doesn't mean jack shit to most people - at least, not compared to having working applications. Nowadays, what with Windows' stability being fairly good (to the point where it doesn't bother me, at least - no crashes for several days at a time), nobody has any real desire to switch to linux.
Seems to me that linux is dead on the corporate desktop, and stuck as a geek desktop/server OS, when it comes to x86 PCs. (In general here, don't take this out of context)
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
"And in some techie circles, it has caused great excitement because it runs on Linux, the renegade operating system that many techies worship."
If that doesn't sum it up then I don't know what does. The author had a slight bias.
pi=sigma{n:0-infinity}[(1/16)^n][(4/(8n+1))-(2/(8n +4))-(1/ (8n+5))-(1/(8n+6))]
I owned an iPaq 3765, up until the time I tried expanding it.
I wanted to 'go mobile' this year. So, with the iPaq (which I bought at $500), I bought a PCMCIA adaptor (which greatly thickens the handheld) for $100 used (Retails for $149) so I could use my PCMCIA Ethernet card. Well, when I got it, I found out that it doesn't support ALL PCMCIA ethernet cards. So I would have had to buy another one. The supported cards cost in excess of $100. That would have totaled $700, just to attempt to surf the net from my easy chair. Add an additional amount for a wireless card and access point for true mobility.
I sold it all to someone at work and got 100% back on my investment ($600).
Took the money, bought a developer's version of the Zaurus @ $399, a CF Ethernet card for $100, AND a 64MB MMC memory card for $75 and I was 'going mobile' so to speak from my easy chair. I even had plenty of room to DL files off of MP3.com or IUMA. The remaining $25 went to a good meal at a local restaurant.
The apps sync fine on my Win98 setup at work. The Sync button even works as it should IF USING THE Intellisync Software. I haven't tested the other sync software that came with it.
As for the amount of apps, give it time. The first Palm apps were few and far between when it appeared on the market. The Zaurus has a Java VM and you can write/compile Java apps right on the Zaurus. There's plenty of Java stuff to tinker with.
Second, I'd like to know if Mossberg has ever tried Linux. Seeing as he's a "tech" columnist, maybe he should try something outside the norm. Then again, the majority of WSJ readers are windoze users and probably aren't interested in whether or not something runs Linux anyway. But that's a totally different discussion.
Third, I love this excerpt from the article " I used a new Dell laptop running Windows XP. I installed the Sharp software successfully, following the company's instructions to the letter, and set it all up to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook. But, when I pressed the synchronize button on the unit's cradle, or clicked on the synchronize command in the synchronization software, nothing happened." Did you remember to reboot?
Forth (Disclaimer and Apology for flaming Mossberg), Mossberg and my options probably differ significantly seeing as I'm biased towards linux. I'm glad Mossberg threw this at the end, it actually makes me consider getting one, "All in all, my advice is to stay away from the Zaurus SL-5500, unless you're a hard-core Linux fan."
He missed the boat with this one. I purchased one at JavaOne last week. I love it.
It runs Personal Java so tons of software is available for it. As for the Calculator NeoCal (a free d/l) it has tons of functions including Financial functions. You'd think that a guy writes for the WSJ would be interested in those functions.
Under Windows2000 I've had no problems Syncing with Outlook. Granted the button doesn't seem to work, so you have to do it from the software. I've got the Developers version (5000d) so perhaps it works for the Consumer version (5500).
The keyboard is highly usable, and lots of fun to use with BASH.
NeoCal is a cool little calculator it Supports Algebraic and RPN. Functions are broken up into Standard, Financial, Scientific, Statistical, Programmer and Conversion.
The software that the Zaurus uses is still way too clunky to be ready for consumption by the general public. I've been playing around with Qtopia for several weeks now and it really isn't nearly as functional as CE or palmOS from a regular user standpoint. I've loved hacking around on the thing, but here is a small list of problems/annoyances that I've noticed so far:
* There are "Mystery Meat" buttons in nearly every application. Doing something like adding or editing a contact in the address book is made frustrating because you have to tap on a tiny graphical button that you *think* might be what you want rather than a textual pulldown menu that makes sense. (This one of the biggest annoyances. Software should be functional and easy to understand before it's made to look pretty)
* Even doing something that should be simple like changing your timezone is done with an overcomplicated application with no help of any kind (You see a screen with a world map, and you have to *guess* where your city is located by tapping on the worldmap to set the timezone correctly).
* The rotation app doesn't change the orientation of qtopia itself, only the applications running under qtopia.
* You have to basically reboot whenever you install a new program for it to show up on the desktop.
* Bootup time from a reset takes almost 1 min compared to just seconds on CE or PalmOS. (I wouldn't have cared about bootup time if I didn't need to restart the damn thing every time I install a program)
* The device seems to forget its backlight settings from time to time. (backlight turns off then won't turn on again unless you go into the light and power app to set it).
* Clicking on an icon with the stylus then moving it just a tiny amount while your trying to open an app brings up an annoying window (this comes up accidentily all the time for me).
* Seems to be very dependent on having network/internet access to install software. (This is a BAD thing on a handheld)
* Sure, it has productivity software, but it's far too limited in functionality to really be useful. Or maybe it is functional, but I just don't understand it. (have I mentioned the "Mystery Meat" factor?)
* Updating the rom is time consuming and requires extra hardware to do. (example: Updating the operating system on the Zaurus requires a blank compact flash card and a bit of work (not that I mind hacking around, but we're talking about a non-techie user standpoint here). Installing an OS update on an ipaq or similar device requires no special hardware and is fairly effortless. I've found that even installing linux and qtopia on an ipaq and making an update is easier than making the same update on the Zaurus)
Basically, the Zaurus is probably good for the tech croud/linux geek, but definately needs a lot more work before it's ready for consumption by the general public or to compete with other handhelds IMHO.
"Begs the question" refers to how, if you use part of your conclusion to form part of your premises, and say that these premises prove your conclusion, then other rational listeners will point out that the question of whether the conclusion is justified is still open. Essentially, you have stated a circular argument, but in such bald terms that your listeners cannot help but ask if you have really accomplished anything. You have practically begged them to question your conclusions.
Or at least that's how it makes sense to me. It is a confusing term, which maybe shouldn't be used as much as it is. But we will be even more confused if we use the term to start meaning something else at this point.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Although most people who bought a Zaurus love it, including fellow poster TechnoLust(read his journal), the ones that don't complain about the Linux OS - saying they prefer Windows or Palm. Hey, some people like a little handholding with their handheld.
The people who bought it because it runs Linux all seem to love it. Personally, the idea of a wireless handheld that runs bash and can ssh into my network is irresistible. I'm buying one, soon!
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Took me about 10 minutes to install the intellisync software and be able to read my email & calendar appointments on the Zaurus. So YES, it DOES sync with Outlook!
As for market & software, well, how about thousands of linux apps that only require a recompile to work and thousands more that would take less than a day to port. Then there are a handful of Java programmers out there.
Very few people using a PDA care what OS it is running and there is plenty of room for more than 2. Putting Linux & Java on a PDA means that the device is wide open for thousands of people to create some REALLY INTERESTING apps.
At $200 at JavaOne, it really was hard to pass up. Another $200 for 32 Mb RAM is perhaps a little steep. I think you can expect the 5500 to settle somewhere near $300-$350.
Only complaint is that the wireless card sucks the battery dry in no time. But if disable the wireless card when you are not using it, you can get a full day's use out of it.
"I have been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding" -- Harvey Danger
It also seems that there is mention of Outlook in quite a few places in the same manual... I picked this up after skimming the downloadable PDF for about 2 minutes.
It would seem the problem here is not the product, but instead a dumbass reviewer that
What's a shame is the number of people that will never look at the Zaurus because if this column.
.technomancer
I've written a one off application for the Palm and while I agree the API is justifiably limited you can't say it's easy. For a large application you can come up with your own memory allocation strategies and you want to write your own hash tables and search trees.
For a one off which you might spend a total off 8 hours developing you want something like Java or at least STL or just the basic C libraries (strings,math,stdio). I spent half my time on this app implementing data structures that I take for granted or writing wrappers around their API to make it more standard C like. Now this may have been just a few hours but I just wanted to make a simple lists application with a small database. (It was to keep track of who showed up at a weekly party.)
My company does some "pervasive computing" research. In many situations it's convenient to use an iPAQ because they're quite powerful, even though the UI sucks. (Occasionally we've even done prototypes by hiding an iPAQ running Linux *inside* another piece of plastic.)
We've found that the Zaurus actually runs Java better than the iPAQ (the widgets come out nicer and it seems to suffer fewer drawing bugs). I also think the UI is marginally nicer than Pocket PC.
But these are all just in situations where we need a lot of horsepower and a really nice screen. For day to day use a Palm gets the job done best.
P.S. If you're curious, here are some pages about two projects that we've used iPAQs for:
Personal Information Portal (very out of date)
Personal Universal Controller (with CMU) We've tried the Zaurus on the latter and it works much better.
If anyone remembers the Agenda VR3 from Agenda computing, I own one. I bought the developer model for about $170. It was only decent because the price was cheap. Recently AgendaComputing seems to have pulled out of the US, and now I'm left only with community support and rare updates from AgendaComputing DE.
While this doesn't bother me a whole lot and I still use the device on occasion, if I were a road warior type who depends on a PDA for realistic business purposes I'd be rather unsatisfied. Windows support for syncing the device has never seemed to work quite right, and that's a key factor for the business world. The business world doesn't care what us geeks run as our desktop, if it doesn't sync with popular office products then it's simply useless.
To me it was interesting that the VR3 was based on Linux 2.4.x, but noone really cares otherwise. They simply notice that the device that they spent $300 or so on doesn't perform and assist them in their daily work, therefore its a dud. If his claims are true then he's correct in his opinions that it failed. I enjoy having the whole source tree for my pda on my machine and being able to modify it as much as possible, but we're a slim minority, don't forget that.
scott
I was at JavaOne this past week where they were selling the Zaurus and the Linksys 802.11 card at a pretty steep discount. They had access points all around the Moscone center so you could access the 'net and participate in a programming contest they held.
One of the very first things I noticed about the Zaurus was the the battery life is pitiful. The freshly, fully, properly charged removable battery lasted about 20-30 minutes when using the wireless card for internet access. Battery life without the wireless card installed wasn't much better. What am I supposed to do with a PDA that lasts 30 minutes?
There are Ethernet CF cards already on the market.
Although, that loses you the CF slot.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
A friend of mine just came back with a Sharp Zarus 5000 from Java One. Being a PDA fan (I have a Sony Clie), I was curious to investigate.
At first glance, it was impressive. Opera browser, terminal, slide-out keyboard, etc. However, I ultimately got turned off.
1. The keyboatd is very difficult to use because it is so tiny (and I have big hands). This is just a personal turn-off, though.
2. The apps arenot very responsive. They have to be "launched". Some can be cached, but not all of them can be at once. This is because the Embedix (the embedded Linux) does the same thing a PocketPC does. It parititons the RAM into storage and runtime RAM.
3. Its just a miniaturized computer, not a PDA. (This is another Personal turn-off, though, because I believe a PDA should be more of a PDA, not necessarily a computer)
This is sure to start another flame war, but I was really hoping Linux-based PDAs could do more to breaktha paradigm that a PDA should be a small computer. So far, only the Sharp Wizards and PalmOS devices have managed to do this, though (i.e. no partitioned RAM, etc.)
Yeah, but you do realize that this the problem of any non-MS operating system. Unless the goal is to become windows clones, then yes it will require a new method of computing. So the solution is users to get out of their comfort zone a little and learn something new and hopefully become enriched by the experience.
Dunno...PDA customers aren't the type of people willing to learn how to use apt-get :)
Seriously, the fact that there isn't a large software library of easy-to-install titles _is_ a strike against this device. So is the fact that most Linux apps aren't very user-friendly, which is going to run quite counter to customer expectations.
On the other hand, writing apps for this little device might be a good way to learn GUI programming and good interface design.
Where can I buy one RIGHT NOW? How much is it??? Can it run Falcon's Eye too?
Aaaarrrrgggghhh! Save me from the PalmOS interface!
:-)
I had a Palm III as my first PDA. It was OK, small, light, ran on batteries forever.
But that interface! Basic, and forcibly so. OK, so it's quick and easy to learn. But when you want more power, it rapidly falls into the rubbish category IMO. Just look at the month view option in the calendar for an illustration. Yes, the screen is small, but it can be better on a small screen and the screen res can be higher without giving you an unacceptable PDA. The interface assumes that you're never doing anything serious, and that got irritating.
Palms make cool toys. As a simple replacement for a paper diary, I liked it. Graffiti I found slow and experimenting with Giraffe showed some basic errors in their topography software, but it's not terrible. But as soon as I wanted more than my address book, diary, calculator and a simple notepad (student then so expenses was irrelevant and e-mail, well, didn't have an IR phone then and wasn't away long enough to make it all worthwhile) it fell down. No formatted text, pretty basic databases only, no spreadsheets (seriously, I've regularly used spreadsheets on the move on my Psion). Big text documents needed a different app altogether, as did any serious power in handling them.
I'm now a very happy Psion 5mx user. Experience shows that 99% of the time I can carry that if I could carry the Palm. The screen resoltion is massive in comparison, I can still hold it in one hand and enter data in the other. I have applications I couldn't dream of on the Palm. Heck, I've written essays on it before, without problems, and just dumped them straight back on the PC when I was done, and I regularly take live notes in meetings on it. I'm not much slower typing than on my normal PC. I _do_ miss the Palm's selection of games, so tend to have a hard time walking past GBA displays
Essentially, what it boils down to is that the Palm didn't do enough for me to justify £100, but a Psion does do enough for me to justify £250. Palms were just too basic.
Please, now Psion don't make them, can someone make a sensible, keyboarded palmtop that assumes you're actually going to use it and not just have a flashy toy?
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
Hmm, perhaps it should be named Dino-zaurus...
This man is just whining, nobody ever said using a PC was easy (without lieing). PDA's are getting more complex to. Don't expect everything to be perfect.
Uhhhh...except it's running Linux so there is a lot of easily ported software...
Since Sharp used Linux and Java, there is a ton of available programming talent ready to go. Don't sell it short.
I expect some of the most interesting and creative PDA software will be released for this device. It will also be great for custom vertical apps like FedEx tracking and so on.
It isn't polished yet, but it will do fine in the long run (or at least PDAs running Linux will).
It is just aimed at a little different market segment, for now...
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
Sounds like this thing would be a good platform for custom apps used throughout an organization - not just the checking Outlook/to do list crowd.
Even Apple's old PDA was marketed as such, so I'm sure this is being pushed to hospitals, factories, etc.
The inventor of the Palm, Jeff Hawkins, didn't design the hardware and then the system software and then say "now that I'm done with everything else, I'll come up with a way the user should interact with the device". He started the palm project by fashioning a block of wood in a rough Palm-shape and carrying it around with him and thinking about how the user would interact with it in the real world. Only after he came up with the interaction model did they really proceed to design the Palm hardware and the Palm UI.
Any real UI designer is going to tell you that you must always design the interface and work out the user interaction before a single line of code is ever written. The same goes with a PDA, and then you have to add "before you ever design the hardware" to that provision.
One must also consider that PDA's and desktops PC's have an entirely different set of design constraints for their interfaces. One constraint is size: A type of widget that is perfectly clickable with a mouse at its 40x40 pixel desktop PC size is a target that is nearly impossible to hit at a 5x5 with a stylus and should not be used on a handheld just because it is familiar to someone who has used a desktop pc. Another PDA design constraint is time: people using PC's accept badly designed interfaces because they plan half a day around kludging their way through their task. People accept that computers are awkward and slow to use, and are able to plan they way around it. People using PDA's often don't have the luxury to plan when they're going to use their technology. They might have 20 seconds and not any more to get down an important phone number. My point is that the laws of physics for desktop machines and for PDA's are entirely different. Anyone who is too much of a clueless newbie (like many of the failed linux PDA developers) to understand this is really nothing more than marketplace cannon-fodder.
I will admit I haven't used a Sharp Zaurus, but from just looking at the layout of the buttons and looking at how the TrollTech embedded interface is designed (i.e. mirroring a full-size desktop interface) I can pretty much say that Sharp/Trolltech is guilty of the same thing that killed the Agenda Vr3: "We'll design the hardware and the basic user interface first and worry about creating the interface later." What Sharp and Trolltech really need to make the Zaurus succeed is a good block of wood.
People call the reviewer clueless. They say "he doesn't take the time to learn thing x or adapt himself to thing y". The real clueless newbies who don't want to learn are linux programmers who refuse to learn how to design usable interfaces for PDA's. Any attempt to deny the truth of this point will only further prove the truth of this post.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Someone from my LUG posted a much more detailed review to our mailing list and a similar one to NewsForge. Read it there for a detailed review from a Linux user's point of view.
Bottom line, it's nice, but still has some snags. We in the Linux community need to accept that it has some flaws and even try to help fix them. Hopefully Sharp will see it through another revision to work out all the kinks. With some of the problems it sees to have, the market may not be kind to it.
randy
I mod down all the "free iPod"-sig losers.
Lets hope he doesn't get sued
Sharp (who, in my opinion has always been a third rate electronics manufacturer)
What? They've been doing excellent PDAs and calculators for over 15 years. They certainly know what they're doing. Have you ever held a Zaurus 5500 in your hand? It gives you a very good quality impression.
Dude, it figures that someone who would go by the name "krog" would think that "Taurus" is a good name for a car.
Perhaps you and your family are into the old "Fix Or Repair Daily" routine, but I wouldn't be caught dead driving a Ford.
The "you don't deserve our product" attitude is one of the quickest ways to oblivion for a company. Regardless of product quality. Look at NeXT -- best product around, expensive (problem A) and their "stealth marketing" strategy (problem B) with the philosophy that the customers would find them resulted in corporate disaster.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Pocket PC is awful to develop applications to; it feels like MS treats independent developers like unwanted scum. With each new version, important APIs are being swapped behind your feet (don't EVER try to use system email APIs in WinCE, lest you be sorry); the documentation delicately avoids some tricky details and describes things that won't work; known bugs are let exist for years. Hey, you don't pay for support, how could you deserve decent documentation?
Compared to this, Zaurus is a campers' paradise. I hope the mindshare among developers will prove me right in coming years. The Microsoft development culture, comprised of paranoidal information concealment and schizophrenical self-inconsistence, should be turned down.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
The Zaurus is really cool. My boss has one and I really got a kick out of playing with it. The biggest problem with the thing is its size. There's no way it would fit in your pocket, even if you're wearing geek pants. A requirement for all modern PDAs should be a form factor smaller than the Palm III.
It'll be a really cool toy once it fails and ends up in the bargin bin though.
In English. From dictionary.com (taken from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition):
beg 3.b) To take for granted without proof: beg the point in a dispute.
-matt
All in all, my advice is to stay away from the Zaurus SL-5500, unless you're a hard-core Linux fan.
/. readers to go out and pick one up, but advised the folks who don't get off on an apache-capable palmtop to steer clear.
Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. He just told
--the verb
A Linux that needs to be rebooted.
So this guy should just shut up and say "Everythings all right" even though people are producing more and more crap? And why the hell does he have to know or use Linux to be able to understand the damn thing? Isn't that the complete opposite of what should happen?
You shouldn't know or care what the OS is. That it totally irrelevant to an end user. Things like "Does it work?" and "How well?" are the only concerns of a device like that.
Unfortunately the people that made it obviously didn't realise that. They wanted to make a LINUX PDA and they did. It's just as hard to use and useless as Linux itself to an actual user. I guess your right, they should be congradulated for bringing the uselessness and complexity of Linux to the PDA.
CONGRATS!
I've had one for a couple of days. It's fantastic. It syncs with Outlook flawlessly (even better than my Palm, which requires me to be logged in to the client before I can sync). I read /. and consider myself technical, but for the most part I operate as a "suit".
So far no less than 5 co-workers who have tried the device (all VP level or higher) have been able to immediately use it and appreciate how cool it is. They are the same suits we're talking about being crucial to the device's future.
There's a *drool* factor that just isn't there with the Palm devices. Corporate users will buy them. It will just take time for folks like Mossberg to realize that handheld applications need to grow beyond what's available on Palm platform devices.
For example, our IT group could migrate our existing bizdev databases to linux and then port them to SL5500s. This will allow our sales team to carry the exact same application with them on the road as they use in the office. The DB and code to support it will fit on a single 128MB SD card.
When they get back to the office (or log on to their home network) a simple script with a GUI launcher will synch their DB changes back to the main server. This is going to save us loads of time versus the export+import+multiapplication process that we have now. It's also going to increase sales productivity on the road by giving the sales folks all the info they'd have at the office in a handheld format. Lastly, since it's all linux from the client handheld back to the server our development and support costs will be lower.
So as a PDA, it's not necessarily as polished as a Palm tricked out with QuickOffice and lots of mature shareware, but as a mobile application platform and corporate information device, the thing is a killer.
I just want to know who thought up the idea of a UN*X based PDA with a hardware keyboard WITHOUT a pipe character. Gotta use the virtual keyboard for that.
Admittedly, nobody SHOULD need to use the command line on a PDA, but if it can't sync with popular Windows apps, then Linux users must be your target market. If Linux is the selling feature of your product, don't piss those Linux users off!
Drinking will help us plan!
If you've ever seen the stuff Sharp sells in Japan/AP/Europe you will never call Sharp third rate. Just because all you see Sharp here is TVs from Wal-Mart, that does not make it thrid rate.
Back in 1992 I had the Sharpvision, which was a 6" Portable TFT LCD TV, small, light and can run on batteries (It still works perfectly now). They also came up with the Viewcam which was the first (IIRC) camcorder with a large LCD screen as the viewfinder. (It's not a surprise since Sharp is one of the largest manufacturers of LCDs in the world)
Sharp has always been a innovative force in consumer electronics. You just don't see the good stuff here in the Americas. The Zaurus hardware has been out for a while in Japan. What they are doing new over here is to load Linux on it.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
Any news on the add on camera piece on Zaurus?
...then only idiots will use it. unfortunately for Mr. Wall Street though, the converse is also true, and the majority of the world's population is cattle. *sigh*
anyway. don't believe this review... the zarus is pricy, but awesome. if you're a linux user, you will truly be able to appreciate the beauty of this little bad-boy. it runs BASH! it runs VI! it runs OPERA! it plays MP3's! it supports wireless ethernet cards! it supports compact flash cards. it supports java for christ sakes and it's got more horsepower than any palm-pilot ever made.
anyway. </rant>
Even at that, it comes in third. Try dropping any of the synonyms listed into the phrase and see whether it makes any sense, or whether any of the synonyms take on this meaning in any other context, or include it in their definitions:
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Allow me to be opinionated for a minute. It appears that this device suffers from the same problem that a lot of distros suffer from...poor or even NO user interface design. I can't quite figure out why people that are working on linux continue to ignore the fact that real people might actually try to use some of their creations...not just gear-head alpha geeks.
Don't get me wrong, linux is great, the whole community behind open source and the religion that is open source is just dandy. But people! get on the clue wagon, will ya? Somebody start an open source design group or something...these poor geeks doing all the work need help!!!
Say it with me "consistency" "ease of use"...there, that wasn't so bad...I read your review of the Sharp Zaurus. You mentioned that you clicked the synchronise button and nothing happened... did you disable the Windows XP firewall? If I remember correctly, XP has a "personal firewall" built-in, and since the Zaurus synchs over IP, XP might be "protecting" you from your own device. I've had the SL-5000D (the developer's version) for months now, and have had no problems synching with Windows (granted, it's 98SE, not XP) or Linux.
While I do tend to be an evangelist over Linux, I will admit that this review will prejudice people against a really cool device. The real problem (as is usually the case, unfortunately) is that Microsoft once again has screwed something up, and it is other products and companies that are suffering.
As for the size, I also notice that you didn't compare it to any of the other prominent WinCE handhelds out there. When was the last time you touched a Casio E-xyz? Compared to those things, the Zaurus is a small device. It's easily 80% of the size of the Casio E-115 I have, and I don't think the E-125 is any smaller. I do agree about the battery, though, and that is an area where the Zaurus could use significant improvement. However, since you're a technology reviewer, you must know that it's rather redundant to talk about battery technology at this point, since very few devices have batteries that actually last any useful amount of time.
As for the number of programs, the beauty of it running Linux (which I think you missed), is that it will be able to run all Linux programs. And, if I recall correctly, someone is working on a Palm compatibility layer, which would allow the Zaurus to run Palm Apps. (That may have just been developer list chatter, but if it actually happens, that eliminates that big problem right there.) Furthermore, if you had checked any of the other sites (www.zauruszone.com is a good example) there are at least a hundred applications for the Zaurus already. That's not too bad for a device that's only been on the market a few days, and shows a good example of just how devoted the developer community for the SL-5000D has been. Furthermore, since it has Java, it opens the market to Java developers to write programs as well. (This fact is completely absent from your review.)
Thank you in advance for the time you took to read this, I hope you'll reconsider your review.
libertarianswag.com
i just watched this review in my office on cnbc and i felt this was very shortsighted. this guy came at this thing as though he were an average consumer. granted there are idiots out there that are going to buy the most high end pda with out a use for it. but with 500$ price tag one should realize that this was not designed for general calander use. this is a piece of equipment that can be utilized to do very specific tasks. the guy who reviewed it didn't even bother to call tech support. i think its obvious that it wasn't meant to be used simply as a calander, and due to the high price i dont think it was meant to be used by the general pda user.
I combed the four manuals that came with the product and couldn't find a single chapter or section devoted to synchronizing the unit with a PC and Microsoft Outlook, though that feature is touted in press releases and on the box.
I just got mine yesterday and am still playing around with the basic stuff, so I haven't tried syncing it yet.
At the bottom of page 23 in the Start-up Guide, there's a fine print note saying that details of the syncing operation can be found in the on-line manuals, included on the CD-ROM.
Since there are 802.11 cards available for this, it seems that for about $600 (Zaurus + 802.11 card), you could have most of an access point, with a pretty powerful CPU attached on the side :)
...
However, is there any way to have both an ethernet jack and an 802.11 card active? (Are there sleeves like for the iPaq to add PCMCIA cards, perhaps, or is it only the one handspring-like slot, with an only-one-at-a-time rule?) It would be cool to have a tiny device which would be stuck onto any network (a friend's cable modem while traveling, say) which provides at least a small wireless network, just like that
Maybe pipedream; I didn't spend much time looking at these last LWCE after I discovered how clumsy my fingers were on that tiny keyboard.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Being a Linux geek, I have issues with his review. But I also have to agree that the product needs work, then again show me a 1.0 product that doesn't? Windows 3.11? DOS 1.0? PalmOS? WinCE?
His complaints are largely subjective, and hence controversial. I pre-ordered my developer's Zaurus before they went on sale, and hence was in the first batch of users. The unit has matured tremendously since then, and I have no doubts that it will only get better as the software matures.
Of his quantitative comments I can only say that I disagree totally. How does having the keyboard open make the unit too bulky? Does the keyboard stay open while stored in my shirt pocket, organizer, or laptop bag? Is the unit (w/802.11 card) bulkier than an IPAQ w/expansion sleeve?
The Christian Science Monitor , for instance, was taken to task on this point, and examined their usage of the term over the course of 20 years. Sixty-three out of 63 times, they used it in the sense of "calling for the question", and these are not ignorant fools for whom English is a second language.
I'm willing to bow to history enough to concede that "begs the question" has a technical meaning in a niche field, but I resent being corrected on this point in much the same way that I would resent a sailor telling me that the thing that sits on my shoulders isn't my "head", because a "head" is the bathroom. For the tail to wag the dog in this way is simply foolish.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Zarius will get accepted by the suits when it runs a killer app not available on WinCE and Palm devices. Let's face it that won't happen for a long time (for suits) - the average suits is happy with a very boring life and needs a calendar/appointment scheduler, stock alerts and not much more.
I can speak for the Outlook issue. I plugged my Zaurus into an XP machine, pressed the synch button, and voila.... I had sync. One small problem I *did* identify was that it was easy for the dialogs that the synch program pops up to be "hidden" by other windows that I clicked on after pressing sync.
For the most part, I hate it when reviews focus on problems setting something up on one particular machine. If you try 10 different machines with 10 different configurations, you can maybe make a reasonable estimate of the "plug-and-play" nature of a device, but if you give me ANY device out there, I can setup a machine for you which will not be able to easily use said device. Having a problem with one configuration doesn't really give you enough information to provide useful feedback for review.
That being said, I think most of his review is pretty decent. My main criticism is that he's writing it from a Palm user's perspective. While admittedly, more of his readers are likely to be Palm users than PocketPC users, I think it's important to recognize that the Zaurus doesn't really compete in the same market space as Palm. Sharp calls it a "Personal Mobile Tool" as opposed to PDA, and while that's partially just marketing spin, I think it's actually a valid point. As a PDA, the Zaurus sucks for basically all the reasons that he identified. As a competitor to PocketPC, I think it's much more interesting.
I wish when he described the "complexity" of the user interface, he specifically compared it to the Palm interface. I think it'd be hard to argue that the Zaurus interface is more complex than a PocketPC interface. He is right that the keyboard is a tad awkward because it's recessed, but frankly I have yet to see a better scheme. He also fails to mention that while the unit is bulky, if you actually want to use a CF card (say for a wireless interface), then it's much more compact than an iPAQ with sleeve. He probably has never used an iPAQ, or if he has, never wanted anything more than the basic functionality that comes with it, and for that reason, never discovered this issue with iPAQ sleeves.
His criticism about the lack of software is also quite valid, although he perhaps isn't aware of the large Linux and Qt code bases that can be leveraged to port software to the Zaurus, and the fact that Sharp has done a pretty good job of seeding the developer community to move things along. Certainly, when the first WinCE device came out (or for that matter the first Palm device), there wasn't exactly a ton of software out there. So, if you're thinking of buying one today and having a bevy of software out there, then this is certainly a problem, but if you are either waiting to buy until later, or willing to be optimistic, then there is good reason to believe that the software problem won't last for long.
sigs are a waste of space
This guy, respectable as he might be, seems to like Palm OS quite a bit and the Zaurus is directly competing against the "bulky" PocketPC PDA's - not Palm.
And the statement that there aren't many apps available just isn't right - most QT applications can be run on the Zaurus, even Konqueror.
Ciryon
A guy from my LUG has one, it kicks ass. I haven't heard about syncing it tho. It's more of a geek toy then a PDA, but I'm sure sharp will update the software so syncing will work better.
Apple tends to be like this; it's why the Mac has been so marginal (and I say this typing on an iMac). In the beginning they actually discouraged game development on the Macintosh because they wanted it to be taken "seriously"... probably scared away a good many users. I don't think it's a coincidence that this was back in the early Steve days; I think it still goes on today to some extent.
/Brian
* woosh *
That is the sound of this going over your head. The very fact that you need to, never mind can, make the active decision to read an individual part of a 3 line explanation implies that you are not terribly literate. We, more literate people, read whole paragraphs at a time. Can you say "Would you like fries with that..."?
Friends don't let friends be marginally literate.
100% Literate for over 20 years
Had Sharp gone with the AmigaDE system, he wouldn't be able to complain about lack of software. Maybe in version 2.
Call that a review ?
Ok he couldn't get it to sync - maybe he could have called tech support and worked through that one.
As for the lack of software - well it's a new device what do you expect ? I'm sure it won't take long for all kinds of linux software to be ported.
Apart from the complaint about the syncing and the keyboard this review seems to lack any substance whatsoever - no real information as to the quality of the built in applications.
The battery life doesn't seem to bad compared to other colour PDA's - the handspring prism only manages 6 hour without the backlight so 10 hours is almost 70% better.
The entire article could probably be summed up as "I don't like it".
I recently bought one at JavaOne, where they were selling the development models (32mb instead of 64mb memory).
I agree with a lot of the review (especially the screen being really nice) but have two other additional gripes:
1) The palm-like handwriting recognition doesn't seem to work well, and also seems to "lag" while I am drawing out the strokes. It's a good idea to trace the strokes to see what I wrote, but it doesn't fee responsive. Some of the bad recognition could be me just being used to the Palm interface.
2) (Big problem) I'm not sure I should blame Zaurus for this really but... the wireless 802.11b CF card they sold with the Zaurus at the show has a serious issue. When in place, you cannot remove the stylus!! Good thing I always carry a Palm so I had easy access to a stylus. I guess in a way I can blame them for not moving the CF card a little over to the side anticipating things like the wireless CF card (which it does have drivers for already).
My other thoughts are that with the CF card it seemed to drain power rather quickly (possibly even while the device was off?), and that I found using the keyboard awkward while holding the device - also slower than grafitti.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Absolutely. I think they're doing a better job, though, nowadays. But it's still there.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
If there is a problem, (Like with firewalls) then it needs a popup to tell you what to do It looks like you are using Windows XP - either bin it and get a real OS, or turn off the firewall fucktion.
With a bit of luck, a good many users will get a Zuarus before they ever even see XP, and then they will think its XP that is naff.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Jesus christ you're an idiot...besides forgetting the 'o' on "too," your logic is....welll...nonexistant.
How can you think there is a benefit in being "hard to use?"
If he wanted to do something challengeing with no real benefit, he would do math problems for christs sake.
It's a PDA it's supposed to be not only functional but efficient and easy to use
HMC? What is that?
it runs BASH! it runs VI! it runs OPERA! it plays MP3's!
Two of which have no business on a PDA. Why would I use a tiny keyboard to type in stuff into bash or vim?
Those things are cool for techies, but this reviewer is a normal guy, and normal guys need to, guess what, sync with outlook. It doesn't do that. His other complaints about it's size and depressed keyboard (it should see a shrink!) are completely valid complaints.
if you're a linux user, you will truly be able to appreciate the beauty of this little bad-boy.
Guess what, the reviewer agrees with you! "All in all, my advice is to stay away from the Zaurus SL-5500, unless you're a hard-core Linux fan."
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
To put it in your sentence, "Humbly submit the question [as to why such and such...]"
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
Ever heard of a Brit band called Coldplay?
Their excellent album "Parachutes" in 2000 got great reviews from critics from NME to Q to others. But still, dotmusic.com gave it 3 out of 5.
What I wanna say is that: sometimes, some people would like to critize something just because such kind of comments would make them "different" from others, and to show that they *seem to be* superior.
Try Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary".
Very much ahead of his time, and not as dated as you might think, given it's publishing date.
My fortune app spews quotes from it rather frequently and is good for a malicious smirk whenever it does.
If the guy who did the review made a bad one then it might be because there were no clumsy nagging M$-like startup screens (after hard reset to calibrate or presenting your todays todos which you will never see again, if you leave your apps open) like there is on the Windows CE devices like the IPAQ (which btw totally sucks !). And he was probably trying to find the start menu on the very top of the screen -- which wasn't there, for good reasons.
We were able to do things that you are not able to do on a Windows CE device, e.g. the rotation of the screen as provided by Trolltech's Qtopia (great software !).
I had the chance to chat with the man from Trolltech and we were talking about cool features that might be implemented on this device.
In direct comaprison to the IPAQ e.g. the Zaurus wins in the points:
- exchangeable battery (sorry IPAQ users >:-) )
- two expansion slots vs. zero on the IPAQ (I know you can add the add on pack)
- keyboard -- try to use it with both thumbs for approx. 5 minutes and you'll stop using the on screen keyboard (except for the keys you simple cannot find
...)
- 4 or 5 different on screen input methods(M$ will never be able to do this, they simply cannot count further that two >:-D )
- slighty smaller
- much smaller and lighter than the ipaq with the extension pack
- much less buggy operating system -- M$ is constantly producing bugs: no close (X) button on some apps in Windows CE 3.x, IE display bugs in Windows CE 3.x that were gone in Windows CE 2002 but new ones (bad ones) appeared
...
- Opera is fast
- Comes withJava
It looses here:The software that can be used in conjunction with the Zaurus can very well sync to Microsoft Outlook - via the Qtopia Desktop (or what that name was). It has wide variety of functions for the Outlook-less Windows user.
There is an alternate application alled Intellisync, that is a lot smaller and only does basic syncing.
Trolltech is probably going to release the specs for their syncing protocol, so expect to see apps for Linux when that happened (KDE/GNOME desktop integration).
We had a IPAQ user starting to play the asteriods clone, we had a hard time getting that device back from him
But the two most important things are
What a fucked up review.
Can we see how much MS paid for that one?
Juln
Dude, with that UID, if you've not hit the Karma cap yet (or getting really close), then you're not making a substantial contribution out here.
to the article. After he's done with a bad review, he sends out an advertisment proclaiming that he will now sell positive reviews.
n the beginning they actually discouraged game development on the Macintosh
They certainly miscalculated when they decided the best way to get kids to use their gear was by giving/discounting Macs for schools.
cat
Asks the question
(from dictionary.com) The rest of the definition:
Should I resist temptation by yielding to it? Should I go ahead and get myself a Zaurus and be a part of the early adapters, or should I wait till it matures and not be a part of the geekdom?
Oh and check out the OPIE Project.
Okay, if I gave my grandmother a laptop, she'd not know what to do with it. After all, she's not tech savvy. So, this tech reviewer couldn't figure out how to sync Outlook with the new hand-held? How long did he try before he gave up?
I guess it's a question of where you draw the line - where does the misuse of a term become the new official use? When is the instant when people stop sounding uninformed for misusing a term, and instead start sounding completely normal?
I wasn't aware that the knowledge of the proper use of this term wasn't widespread, so it's always sounded to me like people are just ignorant when they misuse it. Not ignorant meaning bad or stupid, but just ill-informed. So I think that I'm still on the one side of the line, and it sounds like you're on the other - the original use of the term now seems weird and archaic to you, whereas to me it's just how normal people speak.
I wonder if we'll look back in 50 or 100 years and decide that the Internet was the worst thing to ever happen to human language - in many ways we're ending up with the lowest common denominator of language, because we're just in too much of a hurry to use things the (to me, anyway) right way. YMMV though.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
For problem #1, click on the pencil icon in the handwriting tray and increase the character timeout. That also increases the stroke shadow speed and makes it more responsive if you write quickly. Handwriting drove me nuts until I figured it out. Now I'm 50/50 keyboard/handwriting.
BTW, for those who care, I'm working on a rather nice, comprehensive, "for the end-user" FAQ for the Zaurus:
http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/zaurus-faq/
-bill!
it would be great if a couple of years down the road there were multiple linux based PDA's on the market, that were of good quality, to the point that Joe User says, "...my PDA runs linux, and that thing is great! You are telling me I could use it on my computer too?! I will give it a go..." that would be a very nice way of spreading the word.
One person in my office got his a couple of days ago, mine is on back order though. I like the OS, although I plan on using mine for perl aps and as a terminal instead of lugging around my thinkpad(which isn't all that heavy any way).
What I really want from it is a USB port so I can plug my MP3 Jukebox into and use it as a disk drive. Then I can download my daily reading material into it and read it on the train in while still listening to music. And the Zaurus is significantly smaller/light than any of the journals I carry around.
Although I do agree that it is a bit expensive, but it costs 1/5 what my notebook did and is about 1/4 as fast. The batteries also last a lot longer too. And the keyboard is about as good as that on a Blackberry without having to haul around an extra gadget.
See? (Page 167)
I actually like the possibilities of this toy, and would definitely think of getting one.
But if it only it wasn't so big! I have a Visor now, and I think it is too thick.
What I would like to see, is a PDA size of the screen of the new Sony Clie (the 320x480 one), with the software options of zaurus. Then I wouldn't even mind the handwriting recognition...
Not sure how many people out there have ever touched the Zaurus. But it isn't all that bad. I'm still trying to figure out how it's difficult to use. It took me a couple weeks to learn to use Graphiti on a Palm OS. Took me 15 minutes to get the basics down of the Zaurus thumb board. My wife hates computers and never liked my Palm Pilot. She likes the Zaurus. The interface is very straight forward, too. Is it really that hard to figure out a start button or tab interface? My wife figured it out in 5 minutes.
My only complaint with my Zaurus is that the battery life is a little low. It needs to be charged every day. It could also have a better external speaker than the buzzer (The sound through the headphones beats any other color PDA out there). The interface is fine. As for size it's maybe a half inch longer than my palm pilot and about 2 oz heavier. Add another inch when the thumb board is opened. Personally I like a little heavier machine. It doesn't feel as flimsy.
As for syncing. Couldn't say. I enter all my appointments in my PDA anyway. For me it doesn't matter if it syncs with outlook or anything else. It wouln't be hard to build a Outlook conduit though. The Zaurus stores all it's PIM data as XML anyway. It also beams stuff to a palm os with only a few problems (i.e. zaurus -> palm appointment is off by you TZ offset, but palm to Zaurus works with no problem.)
All in all I love my Zaurus and it's a SL5000D. I got it because I could run Perl on it, but now my wife is thinking she wants one. Maybe if you have Palm blinders on then the Zaurus isn't for you. But it is an alternative for those that never liked Palm OS to begin with.
As I say, I'm perfectly happy to concede its correctness within its field, just as I will, in fact, pee in the head aboard ship. I just don't like Popeye telling me I'm wrong when I put my hat on my head ashore -- I'm using perfectly ordinary words in the dictionary fashion. I have yet to hear a logician tell me why "begs the question" means "circular argument", just flat statements that, "it just does, that's all!"
How about we view this as convergent evolution? There happens to be a technical phrase in use in a particular field that is a homonym for another phrase in common use. Neither is "right", except in their fields.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
...come Sharp Products.
*sigh* so much promise.. and such a piece of shit...
Yeah sure Z is cool, runs Linux and Java, has Vi and Bash, but don't they get it? If a product needs to be successful, it has to be usable by the average Joe. Use the best OS inside, but package it well outside.
Why do you think MS wins? They have the lousiest OS but, have to give it to them, the best packaging ever with their GUI. Now that sells. People do buy a book by its cover.
The keyboard takes a little getting used to, but I knew I'd love it, after using a Motorola Talkabout pager at work. Although I personally found the handwriting to be VERY good (after training it a little in the quirks I got used to while using Palm's Graffiti), I honestly NEVER use it any more. The keyboard, for me, is just so much more efficient.
In fact, thanks to the Qtopia interface and the directional pad button on the Zaurus, I actually rarely need to use the stylus for much of anything. I can navigate menus with the Menu button, the arrows, the OK button, and, occasionally, the Tab key.
Where Sharp could have been a winner is in vertical markets: special purpose apps for markets like finance, medicine, and research. But their choice of Qt/Embedded for the GUI killed that--many vertical apps have already been developed, either two existing X11 toolkits or to Win32 APIs. Both of those can be supported (and share the same screen) with X11. With Qt/Embedded, you have to develop everything again for that one toolkit (it doesn't even help if you get VNC or X11 running on the thing somehow because Qt/Embedded won't integrate with it). And, besides, what developer wants to spend a lot of time becoming proficient at yet another toolkit?
Overall, an iPaq running Linux is probably still your best bet for a handheld Linux machine. You can even dual-boot them with WinCE now (just like your desktop--isn't that fun).
What is so annoying about efforts like the Zaurus is that their poor business decisions and marketing give all of Linux a bad reputation.
I think that is an eminently reasonable way to look at it.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
There is a viable niche that the "one-off" software can fill: vertical markets. Right now, you can buy a Palm that has been mounted in a shock-case and fitted with a bar-code scanner. This is meant to be used for inventory control, and includes some generic software. If you could easily (for a programmer anyway) customize the software, a corporation would buy several hundred for their various inventory systems.
:-)
This is one example of a vertical market, but there are plenty of others. Think of the notepads doctors carry around, and let your mind go free.
Illegitimi non carborundum
and I haven't done much yet, but some early impressions are favorable. I'll check on the Win synch issue but I'll willing to bet the problems people had were OE or the PC config.
What 802.11B CD cards work with it? The myzaurus.com site listed LinkSys, but the linksys site didn't mention SL5500 support.
I have been using Palms since the original U.S Robotics Palm Pilot1000. Yes, PalmOS is simple and easy to use. But I was ready for more power and functionality. The 68K (Dragonball) processor is getting way too old and I wanted to do more and didn't want to wait until next year for the ARM-based PalmOS machine. (But when that OS ships, maybe Sharp will offer a PalmOS conversion?)
The keyboard takes time to adjust to. I tried to use the standard photo viewer, but it barfed because my jpegs were too big. I'll have to try another program. I also find some of the screen buttons (like the "x" close button) too small. I may buy a big fresnel lens for it (Brazil refernce, no extra charge).
Considering all the features, it looks like a powerful, flexible, expandable machine.
Don't sweat it, it's only ones and zeros...
I bought mine last Friday. I've been carrying it and using it everywhere. I think it is great in just about every way. I have not tried to synch to Outlook yet, but I'm a big boy so I'm sure I will work something out. Regardless, it is too late for me to go back now. I already love it too much. I'll be handing my beloved Visor down to my son soon. I'm getting an 802.11b CF card as soon as I can lay my hands on one.
I disagree with the reviewer's complaints. I don't find the Zaurus to be big or heavy. The keyboard is great. I just wish it had a pipe (|) and control key. You can enter the pipe with the stylus. I haven't had a battery life problem yet. There are not a lot of apps yet, but this is Linux. All of my favorite apps will soon be ported by legions of open source programmers. I don't want a WinCE PDA or its apps. I don't like them. Linux has been my primary desktop for years. Also, how can you call $499 expensive in comparison to WinCE PDAs? The Zaurus interface is more intelligent, easier, and better designed than the WinCe interface, which is actually the most awkward and difficult of all PDAs, and WinCE PDAs have attrocious battery life in comparison to my Visor.
Palm OS is the way to go, if you just want calendar and contacts. If you are a power user, Zaurus is the first and only good handheld workstation.
I would guess its Harvey Mudd College, the number two undergraduate only engineering college. Go Elephants!
It is nearly half the size of the compaq unit and folds up to protect the screen. It has an MMC slot for memory. It does not have a CF slot, but has the capability for addons later. The small size and battery life were the main reasons I purchased it and love it! This thing fits in your pocket easily.
I'll be tactful and say that Mr. Mossberg is entitled to his opinion, but that I differ with him on the Zaurus. I purchased one at JavaOne and have been extremely pleased with it. My colleagues are planning on buying them and losing their Palms because the Zaurus offers more functionality, and they like the idea of a QWERTY keyboard as an option to Graffiti.
My only negative comment might be that the handwriting recognition differs from Graffiti shorthand, but I haven't had time to sit down and learn a new shorthand (yet). It hasn't been an issue because even with my large fingers, the keyboard works like a charm. My colleagues were amazed to see me taking notes on the Zaurus during a meeting because they couldn't keep up on their Palms.
I concur that the battery life could be longer, but I'm impressed by how quickly the Zaurus recharges. One other item that might have been nice is a cover that prevents the Zaurus from being inadvertently turned on. However, overall I give the Zaurus 9 out of 10 stars.
(I should mention that I got the SL-5000D, not the 5500)
Now, I only have to figure out how to port Tcl/Tk over.......
I for one think this review is crap. Perhaps the niche of the people he is reviewing for (suits) would concur with his findings, but just because he (perhaps) did something wrong trying to use it does not mean everyone else will. As far as the interface? Easier than a microwave. I have used the SL-5500 and I own the Japanese version the MI-E1. The Japanese version doesn't run linux and has a Hitatchi SH-3 processor. It runs ZaurusOS and apparently the deal is probably that Sharp saw translating the Japanese version of ZaurusOS to English as being a more monumental task than using QPE. The Japanese version which has a similar form factor has a lot of features the american one doesn't. It syncs with outlook just fine, and in addition allows you to essentially turn off the PDA while playing mp3's (not just the backlight). Battery life is roughly 4+ hours I'd say. I use the thing for many hours per day taking notes and the likes, usually listening to music. The Japanese version is very similar to the american one in design, and I must say I love the design. As for as QPE, I don't have an SL-5500 but I have used QPE on my desktop and I'm sorry, it doesn't get much easier. One of my gripes with PalmOS is that it's too simple and reminds me of a TI Calculator versus an HP48. I want something that can be simple... SL-5500D... yet has the power and backend resources to be complex (install ssh, code, expand, etc).... SL-5500D. I think this reviewer didn't give any credit to this thing that he might have given to Palm and WinCE devices in their blooming days. This is a completely new release for god's sake. This is the same heresay that caused witches to be burned at the sake. We seriously don't need this kind of behavior. The fact is that for a new device, the SL-5500D has features making it suitable for ANYONE, making this reviewers review... crap.
Of course they have business on a PDA. But only if it does PDA stuff well to, as that's more of a proirity to most PDA users.
Unfortunanty is seems like this Sharp PDA doesn't have it's priotities straight....Unless it just aimed at harcore linux users as a tinker toy.
sync to lookout... you gotta be kidding
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Well, I'm an eminently reasonable guy. Everybody tells me so, and when they don't, I have them killed. :)
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
I think so. Or at least, that connotations attached to words shift. Petitio is a petition, perhaps also a prayer, an appeal, a begging. A petitio principii is a petition of the principium, which word appears in the genitive case to indicate possession. So we might say "principium's appeal" using the English possessive.
Principium means beginning. So the petitio principii emerges as the "beginning's appeal" or as we might say "an appeal to the beginning". I can see how principium was rendered as "question" - the question is the "beginning" of the logical argument.
Many logical fallacies are called argumentum ad X, where X is the thing being appealed to. Perhaps the petitio principii should have been called the argumentum ad principium (yes, principium is the same in nominative or accusative).
Maybe this adds some context to the peculiar phrase "begging the question". Begging should be seen as a synonym for "appealing" and question should be seen, not as a query, but as the issue being debated.
I noticed C|Net has posted their own lukewarm review of the Zaurus. They give it a 6 out of 10. Interesting that cnet readers give it around a 92% good. Maybe their readers are more technically inclined than they think.
i still have not seen on up close. i'd like to see one before i decide if i should get it.
you probably shouldn't have read this.
People hardly ever drop bad habits. That's what habit means.