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.'"

Comments

For $499, it's hard not to consider the Zaurus...

[bc90021]

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.

So, it appears that...

[Xeth]

...They've finally ported Linux to the GBA:SP. 'Bout damn time, too...

Sync with Windows only?

[FosterSJC]

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.

Is that a Yopy3700 in your pocket?

[GillBates0]

With the 128 megs of RAM, the Yopy really hums.

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".

You see

[Mr_Silver]

... the majority of people (ie. non Slashdot crowd) who will buy a PDA don't give a flying toss about what the underlying operating system is.

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.

Re:Linux?

[RevAaron]

Linux has become the way to go embedded on the cheap. If you don't need an RTOS, what in QNX are you paying for?

Performance. A neat GUI layer. Much smaller memory use.

On my brand new Zaurus SL-C760, there is 64 MB of *RAM* built-in. Why? This isn't "RAM" in the sense as it is on WinCE/PocketPC, where it's split between "program RAM" and stoarage space. It has a hopping 64 MB of dedicated to this, with 128 MB of Flash for storage. I just rebooted my C760 to find out the amount of RAM Linux+QPE takes out of the box: 18 MB! Compare that to 2-3 MB for WinCE, something similar for QNX, and something even smaller for PalmOS. (Granted, PalmOS leaves a lot lacking...) ...and you PalmOS folks thought WinCE was bad! :)