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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.
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.
-... ---
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'
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
That XP enables personal firewall by default that blocks ftp ports....
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
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=
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.
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!
Well, who buys most handhelds? Sales guys..managers...VPs...etc. If they can't put it in a cradle, click two buttons, and then have it sync with Outlook they think it SUCKS. So, for this device I think he is right on with his audience. Let Linux Journal tear it apart for the technical features, but PDAs should be easy to use and easy to set up.
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???
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
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?
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
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.
very good point, that is why the Gnome usability reports are so important. Developers need this type of insight. As a consumer, however, I would rather listen to someone that is more in-line with my abilities--I don't want to base my buying descisions on someone that can't program his VCR, telling me that something is too complex.
Also, posting a review of a product from a clueless user on a techie site like this one may be misguided. That is why I like "review roundup" type of articles, shows a more well-rounded view.
room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
(they always break you eventually)
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....
Nope. Sorry. I don't buy it.
/. can't get away from the techie mindset. Almost all of the PDAs sold these days are tools--business tools in fact. (this even holds true for techies) A cute techie toy that's useless as a tool DESERVES a poor review when evaluated as a tool.
He is 100% right: If the thing doesn't simply plug in, install, and sync flawlessly, then it's a screwed up product. If the company couldn't insure that it would do this on any random PC platform, then they don't care enough!
Way too many people on
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
- 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
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.
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).
He is 100% right: If the thing doesn't simply plug in, install, and sync flawlessly, then it's a screwed up product.
Two things:
A) It didn't work for this one guy. Most companies have an IT department, or at least bring in consultants, to deploy new technology.
B) You apparantly don't work in an IT-related field. Things almost never work flawlessly, unless you just took the computer, the OS and the PDA out of the box. This guy has done reviews for dozens of PDA's (he boo'd most)...maybe (scenerio ahead) he uses the same laptop for all of them, and has a dozen conflicting drivers/bugs laying around? Maybe XP is the cause of the problem (since I've seen breand new modems and printers fail with it on the first try). Or, maybe the PDA does suck. You can't say it automatically sucks because one person's computer wouldn't sync. The symptom he's described fits perfectly with Palm V's and Palm M100's, and Blackberry's (RIM 957) I've installed and had to fix.
My only issue with the review is that it didn't really say much. I know now the battery sucks, and that some guy with a PalmOS fetish didn't like it. It has about as much cred as a Slashdot post.
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
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.
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?
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
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.
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.)
A device like this, if its going to get market share in the PDA world needs to function out of the box like your wrist watch, DVD player, VCR etc.
Actually, my watch sucks. I plugged it into my laptop, and nothing happened. Ok, it tells time perfectly and as it turns out my previous watch had changed settings that made the transition flawed, but I still blame it on the watch.
In other words, it does. It functions out of the box perfectly, the same way my watch, DVD player and VCR do: by not interacting with every broken computer in the world. Should a PDA work perfectly, and sync with Outlook on the first try? Absolutely. Should we blame the PDA that some guy who beats up his computer and uses Outlook couldn't sync them? I don't have the answer, nor does anyone but the individuals troubleshooting his problem. If it turns out his computer wasn't broken in some way, his review is accurate...but I've dealt with way too many users trying to email a 50MB attachment over dialup then complaining "outlook is broken" to automatically assume the new hardware is bad.
Didn't anyone else stop to wonder why we know it will sync with outlook, but just magically not for this guy? Maybe his computer is broken? Maybe the PDA he got is defective? I've seen non-techies set them up, so it isn't that it takes kernel hacking or anything...
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.
I'm not saying there's absolutely no buyers for a product like this, but I sincerely doubt that the niche is sufficiently larger than the development costs.
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!
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
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!
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.
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
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!
Hell, Nethack runs on PocketPC devices like the iPaq as well, with graphical tileset to boot. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Palm port.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Your concerns are simply ABSURD.
Unix was developed on machines that are small in comparison to things like the Zaurus. Infact, many of us have used Unix or even Linux on machines with less memory and a slower CPU than comes in many of these Pocket PCs.
Putting Linux in a Zaurus is hardly exploring new territory.
Even Palms and Visors are nothing more than really old desktop machines repackaged. Unix ran on such machines in the day. So there really isn't any good reason that Unix can't run on such machines again.
Linux on a 16M Atari Falcon
versus
Linux on a 16M Zaurus
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
...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...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
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
>I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Palm port.
I would, and I'd own a Palm device if it did.
http://nethack-palm.sourceforge.net/
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
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
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
Reboot Windows XP, not the PDA.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
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))"
OK, let me go back then.
1) IT departments don't generally have much to do with PDAs. Our company just (forcibly) rebuild our laptops with Win2k, and gave us permission to install PDA software on them if we wanted. No help or support for it at all, which is fairly typical in the industry.
2) I do in fact work in IT. In the defense of both of us, I was thinking of syncing to the PDA's desktop software, not Outlook. When you first install the software and first sync your PDA to it, then it definitely should work. I will concede, though, that a failed sync to Outlook isn't necessarily the fault of the PDA manufacturer.
Still, if he's done many reviews, and this is the first (only?) one that didn't sync, it's suspicious to say the least.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
to the article. After he's done with a bad review, he sends out an advertisment proclaiming that he will now sell positive reviews.
Asks the question
(from dictionary.com) The rest of the definition:
Linux on a 16M Atari Falcon
versus
Linux on a 16M Zaurus
Actually, the SL-5500 has 64MB (16MB is read-only flash when running). ~32 is used for RAM, the other ~32 for storage (not counting any SD or CF cards you stick in the thing)
-bill!
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!
what if you want a fourth "special" number -- its a trivial change.
See? (Page 167)
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
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.
What's more, the fact is that they do exist on Palm. This is because even though those applications are relatively trivial by corporate standards (to be distinguished from the typical hacker 1 off project), they are not terribly bothered by the additional "10 minutes", so to speak, or they are willing to pay for these higher level frameworks or runtime environments that are available on Palm.
In short, what's left over for platforms like the Zaurus is almost infinitesimal. As I see it, it is comprised of people (hackers) that want Linux's particular flavor of ease of development (that is to say that it is easy because the limitations are few and their familiarity with Linux), but that aren't able to justify any special accommodation from the PDA or development houses and are willing to shell out 500 some dollars for such a platform.
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.
People hardly ever drop bad habits. That's what habit means.