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New Zaurus Prototype, Sony Palm OS 5 Devices, Yopy 3500
dnomla writes "There is an article on PC WORLD giving a few details on the next revision of the Sharp Zaurus PDA. Sounds like the display is wider now than the current longer display and folds up. Not a whole lot of information, but at least we know there's a new model on the way. I really like the current Zaurus, can't wait to find out all the details." Also in handheld news, Lee writes "Sony just announced the first Palm OS 5 devices, available later this month. These are the first Palm OS devices to include an ARM processor! Get the scoop at Palm Infocenter or see them at Sony Style." Reader Big Mike also points out the new model of Yopy (3500) being previewed at www.yopy.at.
Holding my Palm m505 next to my co-workers Zaurus, I feel like I have the short end of the stick. Sure, we both have 16 bit color, but he's got a 240x320 screen, and all I got is 160x160. He's got 802.11b networking, and enough processor to play mp3 files and movies. I got no networking (bluetooth just came out, though) and a weak ass processor.
His is way bigger though (that's actually bad in this case, haha), and he get under 2 hours battery life with the network card in. I get 8 hours.
For what I do with my PDA (mostly play World War, a Risk clone, when I'm on the can) the Palm is fine.
-geekd
One advantage to a larger size would be increased battery life (unless Sharp decides to use all the space for 'new' features). The battery in the current Zaurus (actually SL-5000D and SL-5500) is a Li-Ion 2.7V 950mAh battery. Changing that to Lithium -Polymer and making it bigger would result in a huge improvement in battery life (one of the biggest complaints I have heard. (I personally find the battery life just fine))
Processor-wise and hardware-wise, yes. Any of the StrongARMs should be able to handle one (admittedly not as complex as ViaVoice)
There are people working on getting CMU Sphinx (speech recognizer) to run on Zaurus and do neat things. CMU flite (CMU festival lite, speech sythesis) is working on Zaurus and Ipaq (running linux) and sounds pretty good.
I have heard there is a program to have WinPPC 2002 do it, but it is $40 at a minimum.
Calligrapher is in fact the technology that was used in the Newton. Though the Newton died, the handwriting recognition lives on.
.@.
2) Open memory? Nope... only their lovely Magic Gate DRM sticks.
Well... at least your network and your audio will be "protected" Sony style. Makes me sick. I stay away from Sony at all costs.
I think MagicGate sucks ass too. I have a 128 meg and 64 meg memory stick that I use with my camera, but I can't use either of them with my Network Walkman. But surely these things take normal memory sticks.
If only Sony stuff wasn't so freekin cool! If I was starting again I wouldn't buy a Sony digital camera. And then I wouldn't have bought a Vaio for a laptop. And then I wouldn't have bought a Network Walkman.
So my advice if you haven't already bought Sony is to keep it that way.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Here is what it looks like. More pics and info can be found here (warning - page is in japanese).
I'll get one for sure when they hit the States!
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
IDG Singapore has the same article as PC World but with a photo of the new Zaurus. Very slick. Keys on the keyboard are much larger than the current Z, but probably still too small for anything but thumb-typing.
You want to console into boxes in the data centre with your PDA, so that you avoid waiting for a laptop (that you had to carry) to boot before you can fix something. I do this with the Zaurus, it's add-on serial cable, a couple of converters and Minicom.
The serial cable doesn't need to be attached to the docking station - on one end is the Sharp proprietary USB/Serial/Whatever connector thingy that plugs in to the bottom of the unit and the other is standard 9 pin which you can convert to whatver console port you're connecting to.
Agreed. It's hard to tell, but from the picture on IDG Singapore's site, it looks like the screen may be designed to flip around and face outward, like the high-end Sonys.
Probably, since the other recent Sharp Linux PDA, the SL-A300, runs on an Xscale, albeit only a 200mhz one. Hopefully this new model will be running at 400mhz. Weren't there reports, though, that some of the PocketPC devices weren't seeing much of a performance jump with the Xscale?
In the picture, there's a black bar on the right side of the case that looks like it's a CF slot. Hopefully they've kept the SD slot too so that you can work with both extra memory and a wireless card at the same time, like in the SL-5x00.
It's eleven sixteenths of an inch thick. If you think thats an inch, then you may be overestimating many things in your life.
It's no thicker than the current Clie NR70V and that's a sleek pocketable beastie
"You know you want me baby!" - Crow T Robot
If you connect the serial cable to the Zaurus, it covers the pull-out keyboard, so you can't type while it's connected.
There is a way to modify it so it works, but Sharp still really missed the boat.
I also have some test devices which I use a serial port to communicate with, and I really loved my HP 200LX for that.
I could keep the 200LX and it's serial cable in my pocket, and I didn't have to lug around a laptop.
I bought the Zaurus to replace the 200LX, and so far it's done a great job.
I only have two complaints so far:
I wish it had come with a working serial cable
I wish the address book was easier to port from the 200LX.
Fortunately, the good points - touchscreen, color, CF & SD ports, wireless support, faster processor, linux, etc. far outweigh the negatives.
I definitely recommend trying one out.
Help find a cure for Gidget.
This is going to be a great year for competition. Just a year ago Pocket PC's had huge advantages in both hardware and software. Palm OS 4 devices were stuck using 16-bit Motorola processors that for the most part ran at 33MHz, while on the PPC the norm was a 200Mhz 32-bit StrongARM processor with around 20 times the MIPS. The PPC OS was multithreaded, the Palm OS was not. The normal PPC could run 320x240 full screen resolution; the majority of Palm models were running 160x160 with a hard graffiti area. About the only advantage Palm units had was battery life, and even that was being challenged by lithium-powered PPC units such as the iPAQ. A lot can change in a year.
Software is more equal now. OS 5 is a 32-bit, (from the 32-bit OS experience of 4 dozen former BeOS employees inherited by Palmsource), multithreaded, offers system-wide 128-bit encryption, SSL support, and has new multimedia video and audio APIs. It will run code on Intel, Motorola, and TI ARM-based processors, without recompiling thanks to translation layers. And it is lean; it can fit under 4 megs.
OS 5 also has a large advantage over PPC 2002 -- native support of the ARM V5 instruction set. The PPC 2002 OS does not, eliminating what could have been large performance increases. While the next PPC OS will undoubtedly rectify this, some analysts are predicting this may not be released until 2004. This is partly why the new XScale PPCs are not showing the speed improvements everyone was expecting over the older StrongARM PPCs. For some tasks, new PPCs actually run
slower.
Not upgrading the PPC OS to use V5 was a rational decision on Microsoft's part, as it would have made "obsolete all SA1110 iPAQ devices" and "strand[ed] an installed base of over 2 million iPAQ users", according to MS (same link above.) Palm in is a much better position. OS 5 only has to emulate the old Motorola code to run programs written exclusively for OS 4. While emulation usually slows things down considerably, the Motorola was *so* slow that the ARM V5 processors are actually running many apps faster than before (if marketing can be believed).
The Palm OS also has a huge advantage as it can already use the ARM V5's automatic clock and voltage throttling abilities. For example, if you run a CPU-intensive game the Xscale can run full-bore (200-400Mhz), while if you run your datebook it throttles back (say 50Mhz), conserving battery life. This function is so important the XScale was named after it (it "scales" itself). Current XScale PPC's don't seem able to do this little trick. (The ASUS MyPal PPC worked out a kludge for this -- a software control so you can throttle the processor manually -- and is promising a more elegant OS patch in future MyPal's to throttle automatically, "fixing" this part of the PPC 2002 OS.)
What about hardware? Well, both Palms and PPCs can now use basically the same hardware (and even vendors). ASUS is making both current PPCs and upcoming (1Q 2003) Palms. Palm OS 5 units have an advantage as they can use a varied range of ARM processors, and already some Palm OS units (like this Sony) have a higher resolution . The Ipaq is rumored to be going up to 480x320 next year, but we will have to wait and see.
Even though these particular Clieâ(TM)s are not my bag (too bulky), it wonâ(TM)t be long until the entire high-end Clie line is ported over to XScale, including the smaller form factor models.