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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.
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...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.
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.
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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 :-)
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...