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Review Of Yopy 3700 Linux PDA
SecondToughest writes "Gizmodo has a recent post referring to a review of the new Yopy 3700 Linux-based PDA. The reviewer seems to like it: 'Overall, this is beautiful hardware. The design is compact when not in use, but when opened the Yopy is quite user friendly. The really great thing about this PDA is the presence of both MC and CF card slots. To me, this is almost the perfect PDA design.'"
Isn't a PDA OS better suited to be a low-footprint gem like QNX?
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Short but, well, short.
Here's the full text, 'cause ya never know.
Apart from Sharp's Zaurus line, you don't hear too much about Linux-based PDAs - Pocket PCs and Palms tend to receive the bulk of the attention. We'd never heard of the company before, but G.Mate has a new Linux-powered PDA out, the Yopy 3700, which has a 206MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, a CompactFlash expansion slot, a 65,000 color screen, and a built-in keyboard. William Hungerford gives it high marks:
The Yopy is based on an eye-pleasing clamshell design. With the screen down the Yopy is about the same depth as a paperback book, making it about twice as thick as the normal PDA. Most of the depth comes from the well designed, built-in keyboard. In fact, this keyboard is much more agreeable to my fat fingers than other keyboards I've used. When you flip open the cover you're presented with a good looking TFT LCD screen. Overall, this is beautiful hardware. The design is compact when not in use, but when opened the Yopy is quite user friendly. The really great thing about this PDA is the presence of both MC and CF card slots. To me, this is almost the perfect PDA design.
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The reviewer does like the Yopy, but for an expected retail price of $499, you could get a Zaurus SL-5600 that has essentially all the same functionality, with a better processor (400MHz XScale as opposed to the older 206MHz). Granted, the 5600 only has 96MB RAM, but since they both have expansion slots, that's not really an issue.
Also, the Zaurus already has a large developer community, and has drivers for things like wireless cards, and has plenty of software.
I certainly don't want to see Yopy fail (competition is generally good, and having more Linux PDAs is good), but IMHO they should be offering a little more if they want to be competitive.
libertarianswag.com
...They've finally ported Linux to the GBA:SP. 'Bout damn time, too...
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
MMC and CF not MC and CF iirc
It packs more RAM and more battery life than the Z-5500, but the Z still has equivalent features - MMC/SD slot (that does NOT honor the DRM of SD cards, btw), a CF slot, plus IR. The Zaurus is under very active development at OpenZaurus.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Is this a joke:
"At this point the Yopy is only designed to sync with the Windows Operating System."
So I am supposed to dual-boot, first developing my own software in Linux, then boot into windows just to load it onto the device. NO THANK YOU. Zaurus it is.
does it run Windows CE?
That's all we needed now....PDA's that hum. Just build in a fan and heat sink, and we'll have people saying: "Hey, is that a Yopy 3700 in your pocket or are you really really really really happy to see me".
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
With the screen down the Yopy is about the same depth as a paperback book
I'm sorry, but 69 × 103 × 24.7mm means that this pda is about 14.7mm too thick for me. IMHO a pda should easily fit in a pocket.
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
For your information, the Yopy machines are distributed in Europe by "TuXMedia" which I can really recommend, smart and efficient people. They also do Linux development/hack for the Yopy. Here is the URL: http://www.tuxmedia.com/ .
sounds like a bad design for a PDA. Memory cards are cheap and people would rather buy whatever kind than have bigger, fatter device. CompactFlash port, in particular is very bulky. As for plugins like a camera, USB would be a better interface. Doesn't it already have a USB port for the desktop?
IRDA is also not really good for anything. People have to wiggle their devices for minutes just to send a business card. Forget about trying to HotSync with a laptop. Save that space for bluetooth or 802.11.
So I turn to my buddies while we were watching the game, and say "Ok, stop me if you've heard this one."
"At this point the Yopy..." I paused and look at them, setting myself up the funny bomb... "is only designed to sync with the Windows Operating System."
Well sir, I have never seen a group of grown men reduced to laugh spasms so quickly. We were all only half-drunk too, yet our but gusting chortling resonated across the suburbs.
Yes sir, someone set you up for a funny night of PDA sync jokes and we are all invited.
For them:
- It must do all the general PIM stuff well
- It must be stable
- It must be feature rich
- It must support whatever media they currently use (MMC, SD etc.etc)
- It must sync with their computer (note they say "computer" when they generally mean "windows").
The fact that it's Linux based is not going to be a major selling point. When your data is on MC and CF cards, thats a major selling point.A story: One of my co-workers asked me what I thought about the up and coming Linux based Motorola phone. My comment was that the fact it was running Linux makes absolutely no difference. If Motorola implement the same horribly awkward , difficult to use and ugly interface that they have then nothing will have really changed.
The underlying OS is largely irrelevant, it's what runs on top that makes all the difference.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
This thing has been in development a looooong time, here's a mention of it in an April 2000 Slashdot article: (No release date announced indeed)
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Until someone can give me some really compelling reasons to upgrade from my old Handspring, I will continue to use my money to purchase more reasonable hardware upgrades: that is to say, more RAM for the laptop, bigger drives for the desktop, etc.
We touch them... hold them, caress them. We play tragically old video games... we listen to mp3s. We coddle them in our open hands. We surf and use them as replacement short-term memories because we can forget a lot of things like what we say. We surf and use them as replacement short-term memories because we can forget about a lot of things like what we say. We use them to create whole new reasons for illicit software download sites ($5.00 and I'll send you the url). We use them as gravity test units and to support the "small lcd screen" industry by purchasing many repair screens. Shoot! If I had a degree in "folklore mythology" I would even use it to help me search for a job :-)
Get a Zaurus.
not only can you run SSH on a konsole, but you can also run sshd and control your handheld using your desktop. They even have X11 and an Xserver for the Zaurus. You can even use VNC and take control of your windows GUI with a Zaurus.
The Zaurus rules.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
I would love to have a true Linux PDA that allows me to run my current Linux software. Unfortunately, the Zaurus does not satisfy my needs, because the Zaurus isn't really a Linux platform.
The Zaurus is a Qtopia platform.
Qtopia is a GUI front-end that runs on top of Linux.
Software written for the Zaurus is written for Qtopia. It will not run on a non-Qtopia distribution of Linux.
Qtopia is proprietary. It is owned and maintained by Trolltech. It cannot be forked, at least, not if you hope to be able to run any non-GPLed software on your Zaurus.
To say that the Zaurus is a Linux platform, is like saying that the Macintosh is a BSD platform. In both cases, it is technically correct, yet wrong in practise. In both cases, your software requires an additional front-end (Qtopia or OS/X) in order to run. In both cases, you are locked in to one company's platform, because your software will not run on other versions of Linux or BSD.
Now I don't care if people want to buy the Qtopia-based Zaurus, anymore than I care if they want to buy the OS/X-based Macintosh.
But people should be aware of what they are getting.
Okay, now let's talk about the areas for improvement. Once I mastered the built in software, I was pretty much stuck. There are a few games included but that's about it. Until Yopy gets some Linux developers to help them out, there is very little software available. I also wasn't able to use my wireless card because of the lack of drivers. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of software isn't strictly a Yopy issue. Linux Operating systems for PDAs will only be as strong as the development community behind it. That brings up the next issue: at this point the Yopy is only designed to sync with the Windows Operating System.
So to sum up:
Very little software available
Needs drivers
Only syncs with Windows
So what is the company hoping for?
- Linux geeks buy Yopy because it runs Linux
- Said geeks churn out software and drivers for it, because that's how it works in the open source world
- Sales increase because the Yopy is now attractive to the masses
- Profit!!!
Why would the average PDA user purchase this instead of a Palm or Windows PDA? What can the Yopy do that existing systems can't? I am interested to see how this turns out...I've unfortunately went over this a dozen times with plenty of other people.
I know it may be hard to come to terms with this, but WinCE is a real OS too. Not just an app launcher.
You can multitask. You can mount NFS and SMB shares. Play MP3s, MPEGs, DivXs, whatever. Unlike on the Zaurus, you can get *real* handwriting recognition- not just *character recognition,* to which you are confined with any Linux PDA (at least for now). You can code in a million languages on the device it self under CE- and unlike on Linux PDAs, it's a lot easier to find a well-adapted port rather than something barely shoehorned in. Apache, FTPd, SSH, telnet, X11 (remote and local), VNC, rdesktop- I've all done it from CE.
It's a failing of the current PDA Linuxes to make you create a swap file to get more RAM rather than an advantage. In WinCE, you just simply adjust the amount allocated to RAM vs Storage via a slider; on current PDA Linux, you have to install a hacked kernel (with hardcoded values) or create a swap space in your storage area.
WinCE is very, *very* far from perfect. But so is Linux, on the PDA and otherwise. Anyone who thinks that WinCE or Linux are perfect is delusional.
I've run bash on CE. Big deal. And, unlike with PDA Linux, I don't have to put up with substandard software. It may come as a shock, but a lot of folks want their PDAs to work well as PDAs and not just show-off toys at LUG meetings.
My current main PDA is a Zaurus SL-C760. I'm not some whacky MS zealot. It's a shame so many Zaurus users are just Linux cheerleaders. The Zaurus could be a great platform, but no amount of talking about will make the PDA software available for the Z any better.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Does anyone recall the facts about the XScale processor at 400Mhz vs the 200Mhz older model?
It's not that the clock speed is giving you double the performance. Anyone saying that 200Mhz is too slow for a PDA just isn't getting it.
The 400Mhz processor for PDAs from Intel gives you pretty much the same performance as the 200Mhz previous model (might even be slightly less performance, I don't remember that clearly), the difference being the *power usage* is much better on the 400Mhz chip, giving you better battery life in your PDA.
16-17 hours of normal usage life out of the Yopi is pretty good, and it might be that the Yopi is superior to the Zaurus on that score, and might widen the distance given the XScale processor, but that's just speculation on my part.
one two three four five ?!! That's the combination on my luggage!
Just about every PDA around today has the specs of a high-end UNIX workstation of a few years ago. Your average PDA today has a 200MHz RISC chip, 64Mbytes of RAM, hundreds of megabytes of Compact Flash storage, etc. Many UNIX workstation had 1/10th the compute power, memory, and disk storage.
Furthermore, Linux and X11 aren't "high-footprint" at all by modern standards. Sure, on your desktop machine, they use lots of memory; that's because they can: people configure every feature into them and then they go on using lots of cache. On a PDA, you can squeeze a Linux kernel (I don't know about 2.4, but certainly older kernels) into a few hundred kbytes, and the X11 server and toolkit into less than a Mbyte. That's less than Windows CE or Qt/Embedded. It probably is even less than PalmOS 5. In fact, if you really want a small footprint OS, ucLinux is another option; it can even run on old Palm hardware (no MMU).
Am I the only one who looks at this and thinks: "Captain, I am picking up dangerous levels of methane and carbon monoxide, but no signs of intelligent life."
Spec-wise, I'd still go for a Zaurus SL-5600 though.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife