Sharp Zaurus C-7x0 Reviewed

jwr writes "The fine folks at BargainPDA have a full-length review of the latest Sharp Zaurus C-7x0 handhelds. " We've covered this PDA in the past but this is a much more in depth review on this solid looking device.

Comments

Looks like...

[jpetts]

they are^Wwere running their site on the Sharp Zaurus C-7x0

Re:Looks like...

[Grimlock88]

should've used a beowulf cluster of them

Re:Looks like...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with you 99%.

Uh Oh

[Eberlin]

Bargain PDA better stop running their webserver on that Zaurus 'cause here comes an old fashioned slashdotting!!!

I was excited about Zaurus

[stratjakt]

Until I played with one at Office Depot.

I found navigating it was awkward and non-intuitive. It just reeked of "desktop computer" crammed into the PDA.

PalmOS is just so much easier to deal with on such a small device.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Blasphemy]

If all you want is a date and address book, you should stick with a palm. I love being able to ssh/vnc/rdp from anywhere and compile my own kernel to include some features the manufacturer left out.

If you want a "Personal Mobile Tool", nothing out there beats a Zaurus. Keep in mind that you played with a 5x00 series model. the 7x0 models are currently only available in Japan (and are far superior).

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget about the NES and SNES emulators!

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[stratjakt]

I have run ssh from my palm, do some minor data-type functions, but its mostly just a date/address book. I have a laptop for everything else.

I wouldnt want to have to go through a kernel compile or editting sendmail.cf armed with only a stylus and a magnifying glass. I dont want a full featured PC that small.

And having to recompile the kernel for any reason whatsoever is pure idiocy and one of my main beefs with linux. Jebus. A monolithic kernel in a "modern" OS. It's like putting a steam engine in a 2004 model car.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[jav1231]

What PalmOS lacks is intuitiveness. Playing video on it is awkward and retrieving files more OS-like is not possible. I want something more like an OS but Linux PDA's are expensive, which is just so damn odd to me. JAV .

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Anonymous Coward]

I plug my Z into the cradle and telnet into it, allowing me to use a full-sized monitor and keyboard when needed. Since I don't have a laptop(and dont yet need something that full-featured), the Z is a perfect solution for me.

Plus, it has a thumboard built in(sl-5500), though its difficult to use in the dark....

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Blasphemy]

Hey, steam engines are far more efficient than internal-combustion engines, don't knock them.

It's obvious you haven't read the article, or you would know that the Zaurus has a keyboard. The screen swivels to hide it when in portrait mode, but it is far more useful in landscape mode.

Compiling the kernel is never necessary, but it can be fun to unlock hidden potential in your new toy. e.g. the Zaurus' touch screen is actuall pressure sensitive. A new kernel with the correct patch will allow you to make some pretty sweet drawrings (it that's your thing).

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[stratjakt]

It has a keyboard, but a remarkably useless one, for anything other than poking in someones last name with one finger.

I cant stand using a laptop keyboard let alone one of those things.

It's like I said, if I want a full-featured PC I'd get a new laptop, or look into those tablet PCs (which I'm doing right now). I dont want a PC crammed into a gameboy. The only reason I'd consider one would be for the "toy" factor, and I dont have that kind of cash to pay for a toy.

(Oh, and a touchscreen thats pressure sensitve? Wow, what will they think of next? Waterproof rubber duckies?)

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[GoofyBoy]

Check out PocketPCs. Lots of software and stuff that really does impressive things.

Linux PDAs have alot to catch up to a PocketPC.

For example MS provides a input method call Transcriber. Its based on this;

http://www.paragraph.com/calligrapher/index.html

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[stratjakt]

Use a different media player or software. PalmOS has nothing to do with what you just said.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[JanneM]

Yep. I played with one a while ago as well, and well, Qtopia is really not a good fit for the PDA form factor.

On a PDA, I interact with one application at a time. I _really_ don't need a WM taking up space. I don't need a title bar. And I don't want a really big row of sundry buttons taking up the bottom - or a gigantic scrollbar taking up space on the right for that matter.

A PDA is not a small laptop. It is not used as a small laptop. Please make allowances for this.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[ubikkibu]

Awkward and non-intuitive?

What?

The default Zaurus desktop is nearly identical to the Palm OS launcher. If "single-click on the big icon" or "push the Mail button on the unit" are awkward, then have your personal assistant do it for you. And while there could be a bit more consistency among the Sharp apps (hint: install OpenZaurus and opie-1.0 instead), it's pretty damn obvious how to use them. If you think the Zaurus reeks of "desktop computer," you've clearly not used Windows CE.

I've owned:
Palm 500
Palm 1000
Palm III
Palm V
Sony Clie 750

The Zaurus is as simple and useful for the basic PDA apps as any Palm device I've had. And it has the added bonus of running Linux, so I end up tinkering with it, writing PyQt apps, playing *real* NetHack, etc.

Don't take Mr. Office Depot's word for it--go try one out yourself.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I found navigating it was awkward and non-intuitive. It just reeked of "desktop computer" crammed into the PDA."

I had similar problems with the first Linux based Zaurus. So many things broken with it. I will say, though, that the idea of doing some scripting etc with it was pretty interesting. That's one thing that drove me nuts about my PocketPC. I want to write little apps for it but the dev environment kept crashing.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[ubikkibu]

If you think Palm OS is unintuitive, I weep for you. I think the Zaurus desktop is well done, but Palm OS couldn't be simpler and more obvious. What do you mean "retrieving files more OS-like"? Files basically don't exist in Palm OS, only application databases, so if you get your jollies from copying files and navigating directories...get a Zaurus.

Expensive? I got a used Zaurus 5500 for $160 from EBay, a Beylkin 802.11 CF card for $29, and a 256 MB SD card for $70. This little bugger is nearly as useful as a real laptop now, and for just around $250.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[B'Trey]

You've already made up your mind, which is fine. It would be a boring world if everyone liked or was interested in the same thing. However, for those out there who might like a toy or tool like the Zaurus, you can run VNC on your computer and access the Zaurus. This allows you to use your regular keyboard for doing complicated stuff that involves a lot of keying.

If you're a hacker and like to tinker, there isn't a better machine out there. If you just want a PDA, there might be better options although the Zaurus is perfectly functional at that as well. This is especially true if you pick up a few of the apps from the Kompany. I use mine for not only a PDA but an Ogg player, game machine and etc.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Anonymous Coward]

Your sig bites my shiny metal ass.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[ubikkibu]

The keyboard is not useless. It looks extremely awkward, but I've found you can actually type quite quickly on it thanks to the standard QWERTY layout. Use both thumbs, not one finger. It works.

Surprisingly, the built-in recognizer works well, so I find myself rarely opening the keyboard unless I'm composing a long email or something. I've used Palm OS & Graffiti for six years, and I was quite happy with the Zaurus' handwriting recognition. There is also a Graffiti recognizer available, but I haven't tried it yet.

If you want a laptop, get one. Typing is always easier on a real keyboard (of course there are third-party solutions for attaching real keyboards to a Zaurus.) But what's wrong with making a powerful PDA? Palm's going in the same direction, if you hadn't noticed.

What's your beef with a pressure-sensitive touchscreen? How else would it be done? Have you ever actually used a PDA? How could you possibly be excited about a Tablet PC and yet have made any of these comments?

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[another_mr_lizard]

Pocket PC 2002 is very nice indeed, but when you get bored with it you can go to www.handhelds.org and move on to better things

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

There are actually a lot more options as far as scripting and writing apps on the PDA itself for PocketPC and vanilla Windows CE than there are for the Zaurus. I must admit, I was a bit disapointed, having used a Windows CE machine pretty much as my main computer for about a year, when I switched to a Zaurus C760.

What "dev environment" do you mean? There are a lot of developent options for WinCE/PPC.

On the Zaurus, there are a lot of options for scripting languages yes, but almost none as far as a scripting language (or any other development environment for that matter) that integrates with the Zaurus's GUI environment,Qtopia. There is Python and PyQt, but to my knowledge, that's the only language on ZSI for which you can get Qt bindings.

Whereas on Windows CE, I had a number of options for creating full-fledged WinCE apps GUI and all- including Python, Perl (w/ Perl/Tk), Ruby, Dialect (a very-nice WinCE and Windows scripting language), OpenLisp (an impl of ISLISP), Scheme, VisualBasic (you can dev for VB for WinCE using NSBasic), and a handful of others. I've done a fair amount of programming for WinCE and I don't own a Windows desktop. I never needed to use a Windows box in the process.

Heck, I had more options on the Newton!

Don't get me wrong, the C760 is great hardware- probably the best out there right now, even considering Sharp's semi-retarded non-inclusion of buit-in wifi or bluetooth, which is a disapointment on such a highend device. However, great hardware only gets you so far when your software is so limited and downright gimpy.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

Ah, it's that time of the month again where I point this out... :)

You can do pretty much all of that "Personal Mobile Tool" stuff on WinCE, and these days most of it on PalmOS. I've been telnetting and sshing in from my Newton and WinCE boxes since before the Linux-based Zaurus existed. On WinCE, I never had a problem: having a Unixish CLI environent, running apps remotely with VNC, running apps remotely- and a few locally via X11 (yes, there is a XFreeCE), going wardriving, admining via ssh and telnet, admining my work Windows PC via rdesktop.

As a longtime user of Newton, WindowsCE, PalmOS and Linux PDAs, I really believe the whole "PMT" thing is just a bad excuse for not being a good PDA. There is no reason Sharp and Trolltech couldn't provide a software environment that is a good PDA and a good PMT. Running Linux and being able to use ssh and VNC is no excuse for poor software in just about every mobile area.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

Yes, the C760 has a keyboard. However, the keyboard is of a limited usefulness. As a thumboard, it is a ton better than the pretty crappy thumboard on the 5x00, but it is still just a thumboard. But then again, my primary computer and PDA before the C760 I now own was a Jornada J720, which had an actually touch-typable keyboard build-in.

I am writing this (and all posts in this thread) on my C760- but on an external keyboard, the Pocketop. Doing it on the built-in thumboar would take way too long.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

Actually, the Newton really should be considered the best hacker's PDA. The Zaurus is a OK for a Unix-biased hacker, but for the hacker who actually wants to have a complete view on what is going on with the system- and have the power to play with and modify it- the Newton was really killer. You could open up an object browser and inspect all of the variables and code (code!) of all of your running apps and the system itself. A lot more fun for an old school hacker. I used to inspect my way into the spreadsheet app I would use, and add functions to it. And not just in spreadsheet macro language, but in a real-live, full-blown OO language. Yeah, one could add a scripting language to HancomSheet, but that wouldn't give you that functionality throughout, which you did get with the Newton OS and NewtonScript.

Just one old school hacker's POV... These days though, when you say "hacker" it means you managed to install Linux and look around in /proc. Meh, big deal. heh. :)

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

I use a Zaurus C760 now myself, and the biggest thing I miss from the Newton and Windows CE is some method of real handwriting recognition like Transcriber or CalliGrapher. If I had that, I wouldn't need this built-in keyboard- I could do 40-50 WPM on my Newton, and no way I get even close to that on the Zaurus' built in thumboard.

Better be careful, Goof- you reccomended PocketPC, damn near suicide on slashdot. :) But really, you can do all of that "LUG show off stuff" people do with their Zaurus on WinCE, with a couple minor exceptions...

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[fliplap]

They're totally different beasts. Let me translate for you:

I was excited about Oranges
Until I played with one at Safeway

I found peeling it was awkward and non-intuitive. If just reaked of giant kumquat.

Apples are so much easier to deal with, you can eat the skin.

Anyway, the Zaurus _is_ a desktop computer crammed into a very small form factor. If you're seriously getting a PDA, sure, get a Palm. If you want a very small linux computer that can also do PDA functions half-assed, get a Zaurus.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[WinterSolstice]

Sorry, I have to agree.

The zaurus was an awesome idea, but a piss-poor implementation. The device is uncomfortable for me to hold, has no side toggle (ala HP 54x), and the micro-keyboard is some kind of ridiculus joke.

As for the actual performance, it's ok, I guess. I found that it had a total lack of support for Mac, and as of when I purchased my current handheld (the 4th I've owned), it had no bluetooth support for my phone. The apps were sub-par at best, and who cares about telnet and SSH? All the PDAs can do that now.

I bought a Tungsten T. Small, light, durable, built-in bluetooth (which integrated perfectly with iSync and my T68i on the first try), and it cost less. The layout made total sense, and it is tiny compared to the Zaurus. Yes, file management is not "computer like" if you mean a file tree, but I find it pretty darn handy that if I add files an app should have (like when I copy MP3s on to it via an SD card, or ebooks onto an SD card) the related app picks them up without my having to look around.

Summary:
Linux Gooooood. Zaurus Baaaaad.
Maybe a linux handheld with Mac support? Linux support? Sheesh.

-WS

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[jhoffoss]

I agree totally. I would strongly consider buying one of these if they were really usable as a PDA. (e.g. do everything my palm does, simply) Until then, I would need a palm for the datebook and the zaurus for the remote admin stuff. (no 802.11/cell/etc on my palm)

Until then, I'll consider a laptop any day over this. Especially for the cost. Granted, I don't know what the cost is, as I can't get at the article, but in the last review I saw, the cheapest I could find was about $700, or enough for a halfway decent used laptop.

Anyone have money to burn on a poor college student so I can just have one to play with?

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[jhoffoss]

A small toolbar, I can handle. But it needs to be paired with a simple and intuitive UI and be able to replace a palm's PDA simplicity for it to gain market outside of the gaggle of geeks out there. Of course, if Sharp is happy with a very finite market, have at it.

If they could make this a good PDA, get a cleaner UI, and pair with a phone, I would be willing to spend this kind of cash on a PDA/"palmtop computer." I'm still thinking a truly "all-in-one" device is still a pipe-dream though.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

I too am a poor college student. However, I'm a poor college student with a cool self-run research project that happened to get the attention of a one of the coolest people in CS today... As a result, I was donated a C760 as encourageent that my project continue. The website is crappy and out of date, but a new release will be coming very soon The C760 is an awesome platform for Dynapad, my project- a new PDA operating environment/system largely in the design spirit of the NewtonOS.

The C760 is $800, at least from Dynamism. That is an assload of dough and more than my iBook is worth. The C760, though, has become my primary computer when at home. I use it for prorgamming, IRC, telnet/ssh/email, and web browsing. I wish the screen was physically larger, but I'm working on a solution to that. But even though I use it so much, it's still a ton of money...

Also, you can buy a C700 in good condition on eBay for $400, and a new C700 for $500 or less. You can get a C750 for around $630 if you order from the right place and get in on a group buy. Still a lot of money, especially considering what Sharp left out.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[JanneM]

I agree.

The hardware is absolutely top-notch. I was drooling after about five minutes of trying it out. I absolutely worship the screen-orientation function. And, of course, having access to a shell (a _real_ shell) with ssh and so on is a huge, huge benefit.

Unfortunately, Qtopia lets the device down. it is slow, clumsy and - obviously - memory innefficient. It also precludes any hope of porting any gtk apps to the device (and well over 95% of all apps I'm interested in are such).

Far better would be using a more lightweight toolkit - gtk, perhaps - or fltk, if nothing else to deflect the unnessecary acrimony between toolkit proponents.

I am also disappointed in the Linux-compatible syncing options available. I run Evolution, like most Linux users, but there is no simple way of syncing to it. Frunstrating. I almost bought a unit, but the drawbacks for a Linux user is just too large.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Carter Butts]

Until I played with one at Office Depot.
I found navigating it was awkward and non-intuitive. It just reeked of "desktop computer" crammed into the PDA.
PalmOS is just so much easier to deal with on such a small device.

Actually, FWIW, I've not had major complaints vis a vis the software. My two greatest annoyances with the SL-5500 have been 1) the case design (the cover is too flimsy to protect the exposed screen, and the whole thing is too big to easily carry in a pocket), and 2) the lack of a backslash character on the pull-out keyboard. Believe it or not, this last has been a real irritant....I do a lot of writing/editing while traveling, mostly in LaTeX, and a backslash key would be quite handy. (As it is, I usually use some other symbol and search/replace later...not fatal, but annoying.)

I have also had a surprising amount of trouble with the Linux sync issue, but this has more to do with USB issues on the (Linux) desktop than with the Zaurus. One hopes that these will fade as Linux USB support matures.

Overall, I really do like the Zaurus, but I would tend to agree with those who see the SL-5500 as being a bit rough around the edges. It looks like Sharp is continuing to improve the product, I'd certainly consider another Zaurus for my next PDA.

(YMMV, of course.)

-Carter

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[camusflage]

I want to write little apps for it but the dev environment kept crashing.

Which environment was that? I have yet to have a problem with the latest iteration of Pocket PC with the mobile framework. Admittedly, I haven't exercised it terribly much, but being able to code in the same environment I do most of my other coding in is quite nice, down to even using the same language set, C#, VB.NET, or any other language that complies to IL.

I've done other mobile development before, including The Symbol Palm scanners and another Symbol device that essentially was a 386 running a stripped down version of DOS, and even some WML site development. By far, the easiest platform to develop for has been the Pocket PC with the compact framework.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Anonymous Coward]

Office Depot does *not* carry the C-7XX. You can get them from Dynamism, and now from The Kompany.

You were probably looking at an SL-5500 (and those aren't shipping anymore). But as an SL-5500 owner I have to disagree with you about it being awkward or non-intuitive.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Beltway Prophet]

I still have my Zaurus 5000 with Wi-Fi card, but I've just switched to a Treo 300. Unless I'm at home or going someplace where I know Wi-Fi will be available (LUG meeting), it's just not likely I'll be able to find useful access casually. On the Treo, I'm able to run Mochasoft's SSH (very low resolution, but usable) from almost anywhere outdoors, and the battery life is much better on the Treo than the Zaurus + Wi-Fi. Web pages render horribly in Blazer, but if you stick to mobile sites or make your own portal with readymade deep links to the information you need most, it's quite useful. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Treo 600's release much more so than the US release of the 700-series Zaurii. Of course, if the first US 700 has a phone built-in (not half a phone hanging down the back of the unit, please!) then I'll switch back, because the Zaurus software, including the Opera browser, is just so much more complete.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[jav1231]

I know PalmOS is simple. That's not what I was getting at. It's very odd, depending on the app, to retrieve pictures for example. Also some standard formats are hard to find support for. Documents to Go will not just pull a .doc file, you have to insert it into the app with a client. These are inconveniences with PalmOS.

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[qed123]

Actually you can generally get by simply by going into make menuconfig and choosing the stuff you want to add as modules, then recompile and installing the modules. Some things have to be in the kernel but most are available as modules. Besides if your using Red Hat or Mandrake or something like that they generally make everything and the kitchen sink available at least as a module so recompiling isn't neccessary. It is nice you can compile the kernel, I mean it's up to you if you want to go and buy the latest "modern" Microsoft "OS" for $400 and not even have the option of recompiling the kernel, feel free :)

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[Sunda666]

I second that.

Having used M$ PocketPC 2002 for a while, I decided to try familiar linux on my Ipaq 3850, and I'm glad I did.

Installing the bootloader is a bit risky, but I had no problem. Whith that installed you can load virtually anything you want in the ipaq's flash. I'm currently using OPIE, for its nice PIM apps, but will be probably switching to GPE when they get decent PIM support (e.g. beaming cards trough Irda/OBEX).

The main advantage of linux over PocketPC is its ability to read/write anything in the flash (32Mb) like it is a hard disk, thanks to the JFFS2 filesystem. This way, you have all the 64Mb of RAM for your apps usage. PocketPC cannot write to flash, so all your data (and extra applications, sadly) are stored in a RAMDISK, which leaves less memory for the apps to run, and have the nasty feature of losing all your data/apps if you let the batteries run down. With linux it does not happen since it stores all data in non-volatile flash.

If you have a 3850 sitting around, I highly reccomend that you try familiar linux on it. OPIE is much better-looking than PocketPC, especially with an aqua-ish theme. All the hardware in the 3850 is supported now, including the dreaded SD cards (but you will have to upgrade to the "unstable" kernel to get SD cards working.

In brief, the hardware I use is the ipaq itself, one 128Mb MMC card and one 128Mb SD card. It sums up to: PDA, email, mp3 player, game boy (heh, im stretching here, but I can play nethack and chess on it, so its cool), and linked trough IRDA with my GSM phone, I can ssh to my servers from virtually anywhere. Much more useful than old PocketPC.

cheers;

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[jhoffoss]

I saw your project, and actually emailed you but had it rejected. Basically, I was asking a: what your project did specifically, and b: aside from the project, how were the PDAs used by UMDers. For example, did they just track assignments on them, or did many of the students actually hack on them, as you do with your Zaurus? I was just curious because this seems like a great suggestion to the UMTC CSci folks (my current home.)

Re:I was excited about Zaurus

[RevAaron]

The email was rejected? Curious- which account? Sorry for the long response, but anyway-

First, my project does many things. It is not done, so it's not a matter of what it 'did,' but what it is doing and will do. Dynapad is a PDA operating environment written in Squeak Smalltalk. It runs on Linux and WinCE/PocketPC PDAs, no PalmOS support until PalmOS itself is more like a real OS. Some features:

• Fully written in Smalltalk, extensions in C if needed
• The entire environment is object oriented, from arithmatic, to the windowing system, to high-level APIs
• Central object database for data storage
• End-user programmability with low temporal, resource, and emotional overhead- no additional hardware required
• Integrated scripting system which applies to all applications without investing a lot of time in explicit support (as is the case with PalmOS, WinCE and Linux PDAs)
• A really cool GUI toolkit well suited to writing flexible PDA applications; widgets and GUI objects are directly manipulatable
• Easy and simple data manipulation and inter-application data exchange facilities

Second, I wasn't a part per se of the "iPAQ initiative" at UMD. I was a sophmore the year they started required incoming freshment in the CS, IS&T and ECE programs to lease one. That went on for three years; they "initiative" was dismantled and dumped this summer.

However, being a pretty vocal opponent of the initiative and generally interested in (mis)use of technology in education and in PDAs in general, I talked to a lot of people, students and professors, about how they were being used, how effective they were, etc.

From my research, the iPAQs were used mostly for:

1. Scheduling, etc. I've not met a single person that got a PDA as a part of this program that actually took class notes on it. I did take my class notes on an iPAQ 3150 for a while though, before going back to my Newton. (and, again, I may be switching back to the Newton for notes- the C760 sucks for taking notes).

2. An app in embedded Visual Basic was written by a couple students hired by the CS department for use by students and their advisors to tell them what classes they had left to take to finish their major. Handy I imagine, but never got used all that much, and there have been web tools which do this for a while.

3. Aside this, the iPAQs didn't go very used. I know of no classes to which they added something that really made the iPAQs worth it.

4. A handful of students actually used their iPAQs, although mostly for games and web browsing sites like Slashdot during class.

5. I've not met one other person in real life who actually hacks on their PDA. I know a handful of people on IRC which do, and about a dozen who hack Smalltalk on their PDAs. Part of the problem is what language people use; doing real C/C++ on a PDA is pretty much impossible for now, unless you've got swap/tmp space on a 2 GB PCMCIA hard drive or via NFS. Languages like Squeak Smalltalk, Perl/Tk, or Pocket Scheme make good environments for PDA hacking, whereas C/C++ or Java are limited by their resource use.

6. In addition to students, a lot of faculty and staff got an iPAQ when this initiative started. I'm not sure if they had to pay for it themselves out of pocket, or if it came as a gift from the dept, encouragement to get them to use them in their classes. Anyway, besides two exceptions (but there are more I imagine), the iPAQs simply sit on a lot of staff and faculty desks now. I could name a dozen UMD employees who got an iPAQ with this program and just have it sitting on their computer, charging, but never used; or in a box, opened and played with but that's it. Really annoyed me for a while, especially before I had a bigger/better/faster PDA than the iPAQ 3650.

It may sound like I'm being overly negative, but I interviewed via email and face-to-face a lot

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though I am not a handheld type of guy (no pun intended :)) that still looks pretty sweet.

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

>no pun intended

interpretation: hey look at me, I made a funny!

/.ed

[lilricky]

Not bad, 3 minutes and their server is already filled to capacity. Way to go slashdotters! :)

Article text anyone?

[mao che minh]

That was the fastest Slashdotting ever. Seriously. I clicked the link right after the article became available to non-sunscribers. It just goes to show, even though you can get complex applications like Apache to run on a PDA, it isn't always the brightest idea.

Re:Article text anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

see that asterisk?

OOOOO - It looks so GOOD

[greymond]

I totally love my SL-5500, I use it mostly for phone/address stuff and quick notes from meetings and calls, but even as an mp3 player with a 64mb SD in the side and a good headset it's great even at the gym . Looking on the Ezaurus.com page looks like there is a higher end version called the C760 (the article reviews the C750) - I'm sure by the time they actually start selling in America (what maybe 2 years from now) my 5500 will just start "feeling" old.

Re:OOOOO - It looks so GOOD

[Gerdia]

All that you say is true... However, the battery life is not the greatest in my experience.

Re:OOOOO - It looks so GOOD

[Blasphemy]

I have a C760. It is basically the same unit as the C750, but with double the flash storage (128Mb vs 64Mb) and a bigger battery (1700mAh vs 950mAh). I spent the long-weekend with the in-laws and didn't have to recharge, despite showing it off quite a bit.

The drawback of the C760 is that it is slightly thicker to allow for the battery.

Re:OOOOO - It looks so GOOD

[RevAaron]

Battery life- worst I've seen on any PDA. I mean, if I thought 1.5 hours of battery life with the screen brightness on only 50% and using wifi was acceptable, I'd buy a old PowerBook or p133.

Not to mention the 5x00's screen- easily the worse screen I've ever seen on a PDA, greyscale or color. At it's brightest, it is still fuzzier and dimmer than the Dell Axim at the lowest setting.

Not to mention the sad excuse for PDA software. Etc, etc.

Although, the C7x0 models have a much better screen, largely because of the 640x480 resolution. It is mostly readable outside, but it was a bit disapointing to find out that it had a non-reflective screen when I got it.

The C700 and C750's battery life is almost as bad, which is really unacceptable in such high end devices. The C760 (which I own) is better- 4 hours doing wireless web browsing, but still a bit of a disapointment after the Jornada 720 I had before this. I got 8 hours while doing wifi browsing and IRCage, 10 or 12 when not doing wifi.

TEXT

[r84x]

Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 from Dynamism reviewed for bargainPDA by Ian Giblin with help from Vince Torti Overview The new Zaurus SL-C750 from Sharp is a versatile, linux-based PDA incorporating an XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz. In terms of software it is similar to the Zaurus SL-5600 which became available in the U.S. in April of 2003. The hardware, though, is significantly enhanced. Contents The content sections of this review are listed below. It makes sense to separate hardware and software discussion in any PDA; in this case it is more important because of the customisation which Dynamism have done. Hardware: * The Sharp SL-C750 and How To Get One * Packaging and First Impressions * Features Summary and Overall Design * The Display * Portrait Mode and the Tap-Buttons * The Stylus * Memory * The Keyboard * Input options other than the keyboard * Battery life Software: * The Operating System and Basic Navigation * Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools * Syncing and file transfer * Office Tools (Hancom Word, Hancom Sheet, Presentation) * Games * Multimedia * Networking * The Email Client * The NetFront3 WWW Browser * Other Software * Software Availability and Compatibility * Linux comments * Conclusion (back to contents) The Sharp SL-C750 and How To Get One At the present time this device is not available from Sharp USA. It can be bought from specialist suppliers Dynamism, who provided our review unit and have been described as the technology equivalent of an exclusive jewelery store. As well as modifying the Operating System to speak English and shipping the unit direct to you in three days (from Japan), Dynamism add lifetime free technical support, warranty coverage (they pay all shipping costs), and a wealth of experience in using these devices. Along with the C750, another similar model called the C760 is also available; that device has a larger battery, more memory and, obviously, ten more "cool points". (back to contents) Packaging The SL-C750 comes in a simple cardboard box with no clear plastic window. Just a few colour pictures of the device and some Japanese writing. The packaging is simple, light and easily recyclable. Inside the box is the PDA securely positioned with cardboard spacers, along wih the USB connector (not a cradle), power supply, CD-ROM, incomprehensible (unless you can read Japanese) 224-page manual, another shorter booklet which looks like the quick-start guide, and a registration card with a very Japanese-looking address on it. Somehow I don't think it would make it to Japan from Queens. Just about the only English text on this documentation was the Zaurus name and numerous references to ezaurus.com, the Japanese support site which does have some cool animations. First Impressions "Not as clumsy or random as an iPaq, this is an elegant PDA from an altogether more civilised age..." OK, I admit that the other PDA designs have come a long way, but as for first impressions, this device blows the competition out of the water. The device feels solid, yet high tech. The way the screen swivels to transition from landscape mode (where it looks like a tiny laptop) to portrait mode (where it looks more like a "normal" PDA) is not entirely new but it is so beautifully implemented that it really gives you the best of both worlds. Even though my hands are turning it, I imagine the sound of well-oiled machinery each time I re-orient the screen. After calming down enough to turn the device on, the next shock is the quality of the 640x480 display. It's stunning. The OS and applications respond quickly and smoothly. The device does not crash or freeze. My co-workers stand and stare in awed silence. As the effect propagates out from midtown Manhattan, taxi drivers become strangely calm, and dogs stop barking across the city. (back to contents) Features * XScale PXA255 CPU at 400MHz * 640x480 transreflective touch screen, 3.7" diagonal, backlit * 64 MB SDRAM (for running app

Re:TEXT

[cK-Gunslinger]

"Plain text" is your frined...

Re:TEXT

[Anonymous Coward]

ehh, i guess spellcheck is my friend. =)

Question....

[JoeLinux]

Does Palm show any interest in Linux hand-held interoperability? It seems to me it would be in their best interest...They are still manufacturing hardware after all...decent stuff at that.

Re:Question....

[Anonymous Coward]

Palm shows no more interest in linux-palm interoperability than Sharp does with the Zaurus. All the synching software is Windows based.

They used linux as a cost-cutting measure, they fully know that 99.999% of their customers will be running Windows, so they rightly focus 99.999% of their effort on Windows.

Re:Question....

[Aliencow]

Getting my brand new Tungsten 2 working on Linux with Kernel 2.4.21 and pilot-link was MUCH easier than getting my Zaurus working on linux.. The thing is the zaurus does TCP/IP over USB...and the desktop app for Zaurus just plain sucks, so I basically FTPed to my PC from the Z and uploaded/downloaded instead of doing a sync.. I guess setting up rsync would be the best on the zaurus, desktop app sucks way too much..

Zaurus web server

[Anonymous Coward]

lol looks like they're being served on a zaurus webserver too! slashdotted already!

lol I think maybe they need to setup a sister sight "bargain webserver dot com"

thank you Ill be here all week!

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[offroadgeek]

Yes it does, had you read the review you would have noticed that. Unfortunately even though this handheld runs Linux, it only syncs with M$ Windows OS', not Linux - bummer...

the rest

[r84x]

I found that the OS was very familiar to me after using my SL-5600 since April (it's bash 2.05 on both systems). Unfortunately the C750 keyboard was tough for me to use in some situations. The FN and Shift keys are a fair distance apart, making it difficult to get them both with one thumb. So, pressing Fn-Shift to get control characters Ctrl-a or Ctrl-e is very difficult at first. I'm not sure that's a real gripe though because over all I think the keyboard is at least as usable as the 5600's. (back to contents) Conclusion This is a beautifully designed and built device with a solid, versatile OS. The translation from Japanese is not 100%, but the main things missing are help files and some address book functionality. Compatibility with Windows was excellent and transfer of files is easy once you download the right software. The lack of built-in Wi-Fi or BlueTooth may be an issue for some users, but if you're prepared to add your own CF Wi-Fi card the networking is silky smooth and the outstanding 640x480 screen turns this into the ultimate couch (or street) surfing accessory. Above and beyond what many people expect from a PDA, if you need to edit Word or Excel documents, this device will put laptop power in your hand, literally. Everyone has their own idea of the perfect PDA. From a personal perspective, this is a step up from the SL-5600 which I am already very keen on. It comes closer to realising the potential of true handheld computing, even if it has a few rough edges. This device does not have the strongest PIM suite on the market, but it is very usable and compatible with the Windows desktop. If Office and OpenOffice compatibility, networking (including browsing the web), programming or any kind of image viewing are high on your priority list, this is an excellent choice and possibly the best PDA for the job right now... if you can afford it. Pros * Excellent screen, very high defnition * Rugged build does not compromise on style * Full QWERTY keyboard of a nice size * Fast, responsive OS and applications * Nice USB connection, doesn't need a cradle * High level of office compatibility out of the box * Network setup is a breeze * Excellent PC sync. software available from Sharp * Hot switchable landscape/portrait works nicely * Good battery life * It's a babe magnet. Or a dude magnet, if you prefer Cons (General) * Lacks BlueTooth, Wi-Fi, microphone and SDIO * Screen is hard to read in direct sunlight * Some ambiguity over what Zaurus software will run on it * A few gaps in the linux software stable * Not well suited for left-handed use * No games in the retail build * Not exactly a bargain PDA Cons (Translation-related) * Incomplete OS translation from Japanese to English * The bundled PC software is pretty scary to use The Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 and C760 can be purchased from Dynamism, currently priced at $699 and $799 respectively.

Yearning for info

[Faust7]

We've covered this PDA in the past

Yes, and I can't access that review, either! :-) Moreover, a Google search for "Zaurus C-7x0" yielded only three results, only one of which was in English! I'm starving here!

Re:Yearning for info

[Blasphemy]

Here are some links for you:
http://www.zaurus.com/dev/board/ (sharp developer message board)
http://www.externe.net/zaurus/forum/

tonnes of info there

Re:Yearning for info

[Anonymous Coward]

The "x" is the article poster's idea of a wild card. You need to search for C750 or C760 (there are two models). Not sure if the hyphen is supposed to be there but I think Google ignores hyphens.

Carriage return is a virtue :-)

[Faust7]

Dude, did you, like, convert the article into a telegram before you posted it or something?

MODULATE PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

lol mod parent up!

Re:MODULATE PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

YOU PHAIL IT....eet eez MODERAIT not MUDIULATE modiulate meens somthin' dipherant

Easy to read version, sorry

[r84x]

Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 from Dynamism
reviewed for bargainPDA by Ian Giblin with help from Vince Torti

Overview

The new Zaurus SL-C750 from Sharp is a versatile, linux-based PDA incorporating an XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz. In terms of software it is similar to the Zaurus SL-5600 which became available in the U.S. in April of 2003. The hardware, though, is significantly enhanced.

Contents

The content sections of this review are listed below. It makes sense to separate hardware and software discussion in any PDA; in this case it is more important because of the customisation which Dynamism have done.

Hardware:

* The Sharp SL-C750 and How To Get One
* Packaging and First Impressions
* Features Summary and Overall Design
* The Display
* Portrait Mode and the Tap-Buttons
* The Stylus
* Memory
* The Keyboard
* Input options other than the keyboard
* Battery life

Software:

* The Operating System and Basic Navigation
* Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools
* Syncing and file transfer
* Office Tools (Hancom Word, Hancom Sheet, Presentation)
* Games
* Multimedia
* Networking
* The Email Client
* The NetFront3 WWW Browser
* Other Software
* Software Availability and Compatibility
* Linux comments
* Conclusion

(back to contents)

The Sharp SL-C750 and How To Get One

At the present time this device is not available from Sharp USA. It can be bought from specialist suppliers Dynamism, who provided our review unit and have been described as the technology equivalent of an exclusive jewelery store. As well as modifying the Operating System to speak English and shipping the unit direct to you in three days (from Japan), Dynamism add lifetime free technical support, warranty coverage (they pay all shipping costs), and a wealth of experience in using these devices.

Along with the C750, another similar model called the C760 is also available; that device has a larger battery, more memory and, obviously, ten more "cool points".

(back to contents)

Packaging

The SL-C750 comes in a simple cardboard box with no clear plastic window. Just a few colour pictures of the device and some Japanese writing. The packaging is simple, light and easily recyclable.

Inside the box is the PDA securely positioned with cardboard spacers, along wih the USB connector (not a cradle), power supply, CD-ROM, incomprehensible (unless you can read Japanese) 224-page manual, another shorter booklet which looks like the quick-start guide, and a registration card with a very Japanese-looking address on it. Somehow I don't think it would make it to Japan from Queens. Just about the only English text on this documentation was the Zaurus name and numerous references to ezaurus.com, the Japanese support site which does have some cool animations.

First Impressions

"Not as clumsy or random as an iPaq, this is an elegant PDA from an altogether more civilised age..."

OK, I admit that the other PDA designs have come a long way, but as for first impressions, this device blows the competition out of the water. The device feels solid, yet high tech. The way the screen swivels to transition from landscape mode (where it looks like a tiny laptop) to portrait mode (where it looks more like a "normal" PDA) is not entirely new but it is so beautifully implemented that it really gives you the best of both worlds. Even though my hands are turning it, I imagine the sound of well-oiled machinery each time I re-orient the screen.

After calming down enough to turn the device on, the next shock is the quality of the 640x480 display. It's stunning. The OS and applications respond quickly and smoothly. The device does not crash or freeze. My co-workers stand and stare in awed silence. As the effect propagates out from midtown Manhattan, taxi drivers

Anyone read Dragon Lance?

[mao che minh]

Remember the gnomes that spoke in long run-on sentences and couldn't stop themselves unless someone interupted them? That's what this article text reminds me of.

i cant help but think

[fuckfuck101]

that PDA's are no longer needed, with mobiles which can do alot of a PDA's job (and in the next 5yrs certainly all) and a laptop doing the rest. laptops can be as small as you like now, the price is going down, performance is getting better, compatibility is ofcourse, great with all other types of input devices. i don't see a PDA niche anymore.

Re:i cant help but think

[winkydink]

I have found that the combo PDA/phone units do one thing really well.

Depending on the model, they are either a great phone or a great PDA, but never (IMHO) both.

Re:i cant help but think

[Anonymous Coward]

You won't get a mobile phone that can do a PDA's job, until we have working fold-out screens. A mobile phone needs to be small, and a PDA needs a screen of a certain size, which is bigger than the entire phone.

Of course there are the something-in-betweens, like the Nokia 91x0 phones - too big for a phone, and the screen is too small for a PDA. No thanks. (and yes, I actually had a 9110 once, so I know what I'm talking about).

the sexiest PDA out there

[bodrell]

Don't forget this is the PDA of choice for sexy geek Catherine Bell (of JAG fame, as well as at least one men's magazine--the name escapes me now).

Maybe all you /.ers out there could increase your sex appeal by getting one, too.

Yeah . . . cats like milk, I like milk, therefore I am a cat.

Re:the sexiest PDA out there

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget this is the PDA of choice for sexy geek Catherine Bell

She looks like a man dude.

Re:the sexiest PDA out there

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, the magazine's name is in the first sentence below the picture... did you not get past the picture? ;)

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[Blasphemy]

This is not entirely accurate...

Windows in the only _suported_ sync platform, but scripts (perl) exist to sync with evolution (and others). The format is open, so anyone who wants to write an app for Linux syncing is free to do so.

KOrganizer also runs on the Zaurus, so a sync app for it's data should be trivial.

MOD UP PARENT

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent is better than telegram style, mod it up!

this guy is funny

[psylent]

After calming down enough to turn the device on, the next shock is the quality of the 640x480 display. It's stunning. The OS and applications respond quickly and smoothly. The device does not crash or freeze. My co-workers stand and stare in awed silence. As the effect propagates out from midtown Manhattan, taxi drivers become strangely calm, and dogs stop barking across the city.

... he will happily compete with Terry Pratchett :-D

Hard to get in the US

[dagnabit]

Too bad Sharp decided not to sell these devices here in the US. The only way to get them now is from Dynamism or The Kompany.

But I saw one my local Sharp rep had and they are nice!

Re:Hard to get in the US

[Anonymous Coward]

FWIW, theKompany.com has them for about $50 cheaper. And they have kick-ass software to run on them. Not sure if they're bundling their apps with the units though.

Re:Hard to get in the US

[Anonymous Coward]

They're not bundling their apps, but they are developing a version of their ROM (which is free of charge) for it. There are some internal architecture differences between the C-7XX units and the older models.

For those who already have invested in tkc apps, the Kompany is offering to transfer those licenses to the newer units for any users who buy the hardware from them.

You can get these in the US now.....

[Anonymous Coward]

theKompany.com now carries these in the US. They're importing them. Here they are

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[LamerX]

Thats really odd, because my SL-5600 syncs up with Linux. It syncs with Evolution, or the Qtopia desktop. I don't see why this one would be any different...

MODULATE PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

lol mod parent up lol

Re:MODULATE PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

FM or AM?

The real need for PDAs

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have thought that, for the vast majority, it is nil. I don't use one myself, and have yet to feel the need for one. Interestingly, many of my colleagues, who have pretty much the same type of prefessional requirements as myself, seem to be tinkering with their PDAs very often. I can't imagine what they do with them, other than playing.

My feeling is that most people whose lives are so busy that they really need something like a PDA probably have access to a human secretary already. This person, possibly with a PC, can do a far better job than a PDA ever could: people are so far much more intelligent than PDAs.

What is hilarious and pathetic, really) is the legions of college students with a PDA. If there is a gadget a college student has no need for, this is it. Well, I guess many have the need to feel important, and now that even the yahoo next door has a cellular phone, maybe PDAs, with their somewhat more elitist focus, are the current shallowness yardstick.

How to get one

[Blasphemy]

Dynamism sounds like a good company, but if anybody wants to save $100 (and forgo the free shipping if something goes bad) you can get your Zaurus from conics.net. Check the forums for recommendations and localization instructions.

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're too late buddy. "Does it run Linux" is so 2002. The current buzz-question is "does it support Ogg Vorbis?".

Then what you really want-

[Mu*puppy]

-IS a PDA.

The Zaurus is for handheld computing, not just 'store my schedule, store my addresses.' For some people, the original capabilities of a PDA are enough. Personally, I've out-grown the 'Palm mentality,' organizer PDAs, hence why I picked up an SL-5500 and sold my Palm IIIxe.

If all you need is provided by a lower-end Palm, great, roll with it and save the money you didn't spend for something else. But for me, the wealth of software available through the Zaurus community, the storage capacity via SD, the flexibility of having a CF slot, and the keyboard (you heard me right, dual-thumbing the keyboard works just fine, and at a decent speed) make the Zaurus worth the cost.

I hafta admit though, I find it ironic how some of my friends' first reactions were, "Woah, you can play Doom on that??" They'll shit a brick when I fire up Quake... ;)

Re:Then what you really want-

[RevAaron]

Too true- for some of us, including myself, the original capabilities of a PDA are not enough. However, having the ability to do more than just do my schedule and addressbook doesn't mean that the Zaurus has to fall so painfully short in so many of the traditional PDA areas of experise.

I want/need the functionality of a PDA with a real OS, like WinCE and Linux PDAs provide. However, I do not want to give up the things I want a PDA for. Should I start carrying around three PDAs? A PalmOS device for addressbook and calendar, a Newton for taking notes, and a Zaurus for ... well, not sure what the Zaurus does above and beyond. It beats NewtonOS and PalmOS on some things, but not really WinCE. I guess I could carry aroudn a WinCE device, but because Microsoft is a big fat moron, the only real WinCE options these days (without spending an assload on a Nexio S160) are PocketPC devices, which aren't as nice as a vanilla WinCE machine. Even though I don't like windows on my desktop, I would've stuck with WinCE if I only I could get a WinCE PDA with a higher resolution and faster CPU, but the nasty limitations of PocketPC has pushed me to the Zaurus, but not likely for more than the life of my C760.

You can play Doom and Quake on WinCE and have been able to for a long time. I guess that impresses people as well.

What impresses me about PalmOS is that I can open and read a bus schedue in PDF format at least twice as fast on a Palm device than I can on my Zaurus. Mind you, this isn't a new, fast Pallm, but an m130 with its wee 33MHz CPU and 8 MB of RAM, faster than this 400 MHZ XScale and 64 MB of RAM. You can't tell me you honestly think that the Zaurus is good at everything but advanced PIMing and expect the world to believe it.

Re:Then what you really want-

[Blasphemy]

If you want to speedup your PDF viewing, set the "QuickLaunch" option on the viewer, then it will always be resident in ram, just like your Palm PDF app.

Re:Then what you really want-

[RevAaron]

However, that doesn't actually speed up PDF viewing, simply speeds up launching of the app. It is a matter of rendering speed, not how fast the app launches. Once the app has been loaded on the Zaurus and is running, it makes no difference whether it was launched via QuickLaunch or the regular way.

As far as launching goes, the Zaurus is also mighty slow. QPDF2 takes around 6 secs to launch, not counting all the time it takes to open a PDF.

Keeping the app *always* running is the shittiest excuse for a fix I have seen. Imagine if Microsoft tried a trick like that- people would spot it as a kame hack and point it out, rightfully so.

Deep Psigh

[G4from128k]

Another nice clamshell, too bad its worse than the 3-year-old Psion 5mx. How come nobody can make a PDA with:
- A decent keyboard
- A screen you can see in full sunlight
- Battery life of at least 20 hours (my 5mx regularly gets 30+ hrs)
- A light set of applications for basic office work?

I'm not saying the Psion 5mx is perfect, but you would think that with all the miracles of modern technology that someone could have made a device at least as good. Maybe Moore's Law is being bested by Gate's Law -- new products must have every feature imaginable, even if that makes no feature actually usable.

Re:Deep Psigh

[bandy]

Um, it's called an emate.

Re:Deep Psigh

[timeOday]

Poor battery life and poor outside visibility are simply explained: people want color. Personally, I'm not at all convinced. I preferred the screen on my palm V to the one on my m515 - it was sharper, thinner, and the battery lasted forever. But people want color screens for whatever reason.

If Slashdotonians would RTFA

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

Dynaism would be overflown with orders...

The so-called "clamshell" design means that the PDA opens like a tiny laptop. If cigarettes weren't so unfashionable, I'd prefer to call this a "cigarette case" design, in the style of the multi-functional gadgets used by James Bond. I showed the C750 to a number of people, geek and non-geek, and everybody liked it. It was unusally [for a computer] popular with the ladies.

Finally Sony has developed a chick magnet for geeks.

Re:If Slashdotonians would RTFA

[jx100]

Funny, I thought Sharp made the Zaurus, not Sony..

Re:If Slashdotonians would RTFA

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

Freudian slip I guess...

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[ubikkibu]

I have a 5500, and all that was necessary was for me to download the GPL QTopia Desktop from Trolltech, rpm -> deb, dpkg install, then click Sync All. Worked on Linux and Windows.

I also found a driver for Mac OS X that did the ethernet-over-usb thing well enough to let me ssh into it and scp all my Documents to the Mac. Then I put in an 802.11 card--now any of my computers can backup the Zaurus via scp, and the Linux and Windows boxes can also sync via QTopia Desktop.

So...unless Sharp broke something, this should really say "Sharp supports only their Windows sync software," but several solutions are available for Linux, none of which should scare the ./ crowd at all.

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's odd, because I drive an SL-500 and you probably drive a Ford Pinto.

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[ubikkibu]

> "does it support Ogg Vorbis?"

And the answer is...yes. I'm listening to my public radio station icecast2 stream via ogg123 right now, and I see three other apps and a plugin for the default MediaPlayer app listed in the Zaurus Software Index when I search for "ogg".

google cache version

[DOsinga]

The site already seems to be cracking. google has a cached version.

Read my thoughts on this topic:

[lpret]

Here's my journal entry where I discussed this very situation and why I think all will stay around. It has to do with which devices people use together.

Also theKompany

[vlad_petric]

Their deal is particularly appealing to those who purchased tkc software for 5500 devices (and since theKompany is the most significant Zaurus software vendor, there are quite a few) - they'll give you C7x0 versions of the apps that you bought from them for free.

http://www.thekompany.com/embedded/devices/

No Bluetooth

[Tet]

I love being able to [...] compile my own kernel to include some features the manufacturer left out.

If only it were that simple. The critical feature that they've omitted here is builtin Bluetooth. I have two Zauruses, and it's the one feature they're missing. Not including it on these new models is little short of criminal, and it's not something that can be fixed with a kernel compile :-(

Re:No Bluetooth

[swillden]

Don't they have a compact flash slot? You can buy a CF Bluetooth adapter.

Re:No Bluetooth

[Tet]

You can buy a CF Bluetooth adapter.

Yep, that's what I do currently. But I'd much rather it was integrated like the iPAQ, so that I could use the CF slot for other things, like extra storage, for example.

And palms can actually sync to linux...

[SuperBanana]

PalmOS is just so much easier to deal with on such a small device.

I love the non-laptop-lookalive Zauruses- except I refused to buy one because it's basically impossible to sync them with Linux. That's pretty damn weak from a company which touts non-stop that the thing runs Linux.

What exactly is the point of a PDA that can't sync with OS X or Linux?

Re:And palms can actually sync to linux...

[ubikkibu]

Palm OS is definitely well suited for small devices, but also limiting.

> it's basically impossible to sync them with Linux

Using Sharp-supported software, yes. Using other free solutions, no. It's not going to void your warranty, but if downloading and installing a perl script or an application from Trolltech scares you off, then definitely stay away.

Re:And palms can actually sync to linux...

[lspd]

>> it's basically impossible to sync them with Linux

>Using Sharp-supported software, yes. Using other free solutions, no.

This isn't entirely true. With the SL-5500 you can sync it using QtopiaDesktop as long as you're running one of the old ROMs. If you've upgraded your SL-5500 to version 3.1 you're screwed. If you bought a SL-5600 you're screwed. I assume that you're also screwed with these newer models. You'd do much better syncing Linux with a run of the mill Palm. This thread is informative on the subject.

It doesn't help to pretend the Zaurus works properly with Linux when it's only true under a very limited set of circumstances. It just ends up pissing people off when they discover they've been misled on a high dollar purchase like this. I find it almost insulting that Sharp leaves us in the position where the protocols have to be reverse engineered.

Re:And palms can actually sync to linux...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget theKompany.com's Aethera which was recently released at version 1.0. No syncing to the Zaurus yet but that is supposed to be possible with the next release.

Nice that somebody out there is looking out for the Linux user, if Sharp isn't.

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[Smegoid]

Here's one very good need for a PDA
PDFs.
Anyone doing research in any sort of scientific domain should get one of these puppies. I download all my articles from the journal websites as PDFs. When it comes time for a lit search I can either print out hundreds of pages, or pop them on my Dell Axim (64mb w/48mb flash rom, 26 of which are available to the user. Beats Zaurus and it's a year old) with a 256mb sd card let me tell you that's hundreds of articles.
And as most of my raw data is in excell spreadsheets, with pocket excell I can go through my studies on my pda... Damn I sound like an advert now...

you're right

[bodrell]

Um, the magazine's name is in the first sentence below the picture... did you not get past the picture? ;)

To use a horrible colloquialism, my bad.

I read the article when it was originally posted on /. and didn't bother reading it again; just posted it for those unfortunate enough to miss it the first time. Occasionally fark.com posts links to FHM nymphettes, and that's how I knew she was a covergirl--I just didn't put two and two together.

OpenZaurus

[SHEENmaster]

OpenZaurus is a much better distribution than the default Sharp one.

If you can't stand the small screen and keyboard, just attach a dumb terminal and away you go.

I don't have enough storage on it to recompile the kernel locally, but I am using GCC on it to do a bit of work on a project of mine during class. The keyboard is nothing to ogle over, but it's a hell of a lot better than a virtual one.

If you want an organizer, pick an old palm up on eBay for a few dollars. If you want a handheld computer, check a zaurus out.

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[Anonymous Coward]

And what is it that you can do with that, that you can't do with a PC or a laptop? Better, if I may add, for the teeny weeny screens that come with PDAs, and their lousy resolution, implies that reading anything more than a couple of paragraphs long in them is a pain in the neck.

It seems to me that you just think that a PDA is cool.

Re: emate

[G4from128k]

Yes, the emate is a very nice machine and makes my point again. The emate is another example of "obsolete" hardware besting newer products. But the emate is not pocket-sized like the Psion or Zaurus

I can only hope that some future PDA will be both truely portable and truely usable. I fear the current penchant for full compatibility with MS Bloatware means that PDA makers will continue to shoehorn hot, power hungry processors into their machines. Why does a PDA need a 400 MHz processor??? So it can display some crappy, useless Flash animation???

Bad Apples

[IceFox]

An essay I wrote after leaving Sharp that I thought you all might like: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~benjamin/articles/bad_appl es.php.

Bad Apples and how commercial companies should utilize Open Source with in-house development.

Open Source software is for most a new and unknown idea whose time has finally come. Many managers who have never even heard of Linux are finding themselves attempting to integrate it into their in-house development. They hear all of the wonderful benefits of utilizing Open Source software and want to be part of that. Unfortunately too often the projects fail for what seems unknown reasons. The majority of the time the problem stems from the false idea that Free Software means no cost across the board. Projects are done on a shoestring budget and the idea of interacting with the community is forgotten. The community is a large asset at the companies disposal that should not be ignored. A successful Open Source project within a company must incorporate developers within the community into the project.

John Macintosh owned an apple tree farm. The vast majority of his apples were shipped out by the ton to a company that made apple cider. After seeing a local farm open its fields to those who wanted to hand pick their own apples with fantastic success he decided to do it also. The margin for selling hand picked apples is much better then selling apples by the ton so why not give it a shot he thought. Come the next spring he put out a sign by the road stating that anyone could hand pick apples. As the summer wore on he found a few customers stopping by, but due to the infrequency he mostly found them to be an annoyance and considered stopping the program all together. Near the end of the August he had a friend over whom also ran an apple farm. The topic turned to John's field and the his lack of customers. His friend quickly pointed out a number of problems that John had overlooked:

• Customers were given little help when picking the apples. Basics such as ladders, apple grabbers, and bags or crates were not provided.
• There was no one officially hired at the farm to deal with customers. John who was often busy with other things made the customers feel as though they were not his top priority (it doesn't matter if they really were or not).
• Getting customers to know about his farm was nothing more then a sign down near his driveway. Because of the success of other farms he incorrectly assumed that this is all he would have to do.

Each one of these were a problem that in the end hurt John's apple farm.

Of course John Macintosh and his farm doesn't exist, but if you replace him with a manager and apples with Open Source you suddenly have an interesting situation. Most all business managers when presented with the apple story know the list of problems even before it was listed, but when talking about Open Source they go tripping all over themselves asking why didn't it work? The problem is mostly a lack of knowledge about how Open Source works. They hear about Open Source and Free Software and think that is exactly what it is, something that they can take for free and with very minimal effort get Open Source developers to help. Half of the reason for using Open Source software is to utilize the community, letting them help in improving and developing the software. Managers hear about the army of programmer just working away on code in their free time. They then incorrectly assume that this army of free programmers are just waiting for them to start their project. Managers often times think that very little to no effort will be needed to utilize the community.

Customers were given little help when picking the apples. Basics such as ladders, apple grabbers, and bags or crates were not provided.

Developers want to work on Open Source software, your Open Source software! There is no ex

It's nice but somethings missing

[Daath]

The price is horrendous! I just found a place selling it for 840 EUR - roughly the same as the dollar. That is INTENSE!
I mean, it's not even got WiFi or bluetooth or anything like that.
On the other hand, it looks to be one of the coolest PDAs around. Keyboardless PDAs don't do it for me. I have an old Psion Revo laying around, which is pretty cool but outdated, before that I had Cassiopeia and another, but without keyboard they're not as attactive.

Give me a Zaurus with wireless and a built in tri-band phone, and I am sold. No messing.

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[Blasphemy]

None of the specs you mentioned "beat" a Zaurus. The C750 mentioned in the article has 64MB ram and 64MB flash. My C760 has 128MB flash. They both have a PXA255 400MHz CPU (without the cache errata). I have a 256MB SD card, a 1GB microdrive and a 5GB PCMCIA drive (with CF->PCMCIA Adapter, for mp3s) for my Zaurus, so storage is not an issue. It also comes with a full web browser (Netfront) and can run Opera. Qpdf is a free pdf viewer for the QPE environment and can read any PDF I've seen.

Now the Zaurus is more expensive than the Axim, but then you get to do what _you_ want with it, not what _they_ want you to do with it.

Re: emate

[bandy]

Pocket-sized means a crummy keyboard for anyone with normal-sized fingers. Now, graduated keyboards for kids might make sense for a few years until they hit adult size. You might be able to get away with a 12-key interface, especially with the "younger" generation, and go for a combination of literal [2-2-2 gets you to 'c'] and ITU-spec guestimation [4-3-5-5-6 gets you to "hello"] with alternates.

Lose the keyboard and go for speech-recognition [chyeah] for a small device that's all display, it's going to eat processing power and will be a general flop due to poor recognition, much like the early Newton's handwriting recognition engine.

Re: emate

[RevAaron]

You ask why a PDA needs a 400 MHz CPU?

In the case of the Zaurus, it is an attempt to make up for the incredible slowness of the Qtopia/Linux combination. Even with the nice and fast 400 MHz XScale in my C760, Qtopia is still quite sluggish.

Read this post, it has some app launching benchmarks. comparing my C760 to a 206 MHz iPAQ 3650, whose CPU is about half as fast.

Actually, the Zaurus can't show Flash animations. Well, I can play some in Squeak Smalltalk, which has a limited player which plays up to about Flash 3, but there isn't a single Flash player for Qtopia out there.

However, the XScale PXA255 isn't hot or powerhungry. While it is a pretty fast CPU, it runs on very little power and does not get warm. i've used my C760 and various StrongARM devices for hours upon hours and they've never gnoe above room temperature. Well, when I'm using the wireless card that can get a little warm, but the PDA and it's CPU itself? Never.

The 400 MHz XScale PXA255 in this Zaurus probably uses about the same amount of power as the older, and a lot slower ARM you can get in a Psion 5mx or eMate. Heck, it uses *less* power than the StrongARMs in the Newton 2x00, Psion netPad, or Psion netBook.

Wanted to get a Zaurus C760 very much . . .

[Yeechang Lee]

. . . and even placed an order with an overseas vendor. What stopped me?

• The horrible PIM software. I've used three Palm devices since early 1997, and have been able to easily move my calendar and addressbook data from one device to another. In effect, I have a comprehensive record of my life over the past six years in electronic form. I know I could quite easily beam or otherwise transfer the data to the Zaurus, but what good would it do if the PIM software is too clunky to do anything useful? [1]
  
• Lack of Sharp support outside Japan. I don't mean in terms of warranty per se. I mean in terms of things like the non-release of the C700/C750/C760 outside Japan, the recent discontinuation of all Zaurus sales in Europe, rumors that "only three" Sharp US employees are now working on the Zaurus, etc.
  
• Size. I know the C760 is just a little larger than my Sony Clie N610C, but even a little bit makes a big difference when you're talking about your pants pockets.
  

Thus, I've 95% decided on getting the forthcoming Sony Clie UX50. Smaller than my current Clie and with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, while the Zaurus comes with no wireless built in and even the Socket model, generally agreed the best and smallest Wi-Fi CF card, would stick out a little bit from the case. Why only 95%? Because of the two big flaws in my mind with the UX50 (the tiny physical size of the screen, and the lack of portrait mode), and because the C760's manifold virtues may yet suck me into its embraces.

[1] One thing I've thought about is using Jpilot, which I happily use to sync my Clie to my Linux box, on the C760. Anyone else do this?

Re:Wanted to get a Zaurus C760 very much . . .

[pocopoco]

I can't figure out why people whine about no wireless. Wireless sucks battery like no tomorrow and most people keep it off most of the time anyway. Also there are so many competeting standards like bluetooth (probably best for cell phone interop) and the 802.11 (what my college uses for wireless internet) ones and improvements coming down the road that having your wireless on a swappable card is better anyway.

Of course since I don't need wireless I prefer that chunk of the price go towards more SDRAM or better screen or whatever anyway, heh. ^^ The 750/60 has as much SDRAM as most PDAs have total memory.

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[RevAaron]

I too am a scientist and have used a PDA for various science-related things for a while.

I also must concur- the Zaurus kind of sucks for viewing PDFs. Midway through last year, I bought a SL-5500, having come from the Newton and more recently a Jornada uwp. No PDF viewer on the Newton at all, but I had a script which converted them to HTML+PNGs.

Anywho, I had two grad-level biology classes, both of which had no text book- it was all about reading journal articles. My school's library puts up articles for classes like this on electronic reserve in PDF format. Which is great for me, a PDF fiend. While I had no proble reading these PDFs on WinCE, PocketPC or PalmOS, they were entirely unreadable with qpdf on the Zaurus. It would open the PDF, but each page was just a blank, white postage stamp, no text or image on it. It wasn't anything goofy they reserve department was doing- I know the woman who does the PDFing and scanning, and checked her settings, it should have worked fine.

Yeah, I sold that hunk o junk after owning it for only three weeks.

I now have a C760 (for other reasons), and am using a newer version of qpdf that was just released a few weeks back. It can finally read the eletronic reserve articles, although like most PDFs in qpdf2, they look crappy. I should take some screenshots... QPDF has a lot of issues with rendering text backwards or upside down, although I have no idea why.

It's kind of sad- a 33 MHz Palm m130 can open, page through and search PDFs quite a bit faster than my big and beefy 400 MHz Zaurus C760.

Why I love/hate the Zaurus

[Namahage]

I replaced by Palm IIIc with a Z C-700 (and was annoyed to no end when the company convieniently decided to learn from its mistakes and correct a few of the problems with it and release the 750/760). Why I love the thing: Great Japanese handwriting recognition (did a load of research work with it). It can use almost any CF card around (not that I use anything besides an ethernet card...) The keyboard is not cheesy (at least when compared to the Sony wannabes). Why I hate the thing: Serious problems with hardware/software prevent the thing from going beyond a certain performance threshold (your choice is slow or not fast). Too much idiot-proofing on the base system level(strange thigns happening during a terminal screen start being a good example... are those guys on drugs?). A lack of willingness by Sharp to actually fix the inherent problems with the system to make the thing more efficient. If I wouldn't be sacrificing the Japanese interface I wouldn't have a problem with OPIE.

some inaccuracies in the review

[pocopoco]

Contrary to the review, you don't lose your flash/storage memory if the "battery falls out". SDRAM obviously, though.

Also the video player doesn't play MPEG1/2 (or Divx/Xvid either), but this is Linux and mplayer works anyway.

Btw, I love my Zaurus SL-C760 and watch anime and read ebooks/saved html constantly on the thing, hehehe.

Re:some inaccuracies in the review

[Anonymous Coward]

He might be referring to the fact that the RAM filesystem has symlinks to any apps that are installed to flash, and these symlinks will get lost if the RAM storage is lost.

Re:some inaccuracies in the review

[pocopoco]

There is no file system on the SDRAM, it's completely used for system memory. The unit has built in flash (NAND, I believe) for all the file storage stuff. I've had the battery out quite a few times, it's the same as turning your computer off and starting it up again.

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[lspd]

So...unless Sharp broke something, this should really say "Sharp supports only their Windows sync software," but several solutions are available for Linux, none of which should scare the ./ crowd at all.

Sharp did break something. They changed the way Syncing works and the way data for the PIM apps is stored. The SL-5500/5000 with any of the 2.x ROMs syncs fine with QtopiaDesktop. Everything beyond that is broken when it comes to syncing with Linux.

Zaurus--Trolltech--Canopy Group--SCO

[Anonymous Coward]

I may be ignorant of some facts so I need your help.

Zaurus uses Trolltech software that is owned by Canpy Group which owns SCO.

Can someone explain why this is seen as acceptable?

My head hurts.

Re:Zaurus--Trolltech--Canopy Group--SCO

[XavierXeon]

KDE uses Trolltech software that is owned by Canpy Group which owns SCO. I use both and i will continue to do so. Also Trolltech is not completely owned by said group

I love this part:

[rune2]

There is a built-in help system but unfortunately it has not been translated from Japanese.

pffft...help files! Real Linux h4x0rs don't need help files !

Powerpc 405lp

[rshimizu12]

The Zarus is a good pda but the processor to much of a power hog. Hopefully Sharp will start using the IBM 405lp. Personally I think IBM will sign a agreement to implement the 405lp with Sharp. IBM is well positioned to do a OEM agreement with Sharp.

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[jabbo]

wow, you can't use Qpdf or anything on the Zaurus, no sir ... on a 760 you can actually READ your PDF's.

and (heh) let's say I wanted to read 'On Lisp' as a PDF while working through it in CLISP. Try that on your Axim. Works great on my 760.

Telegram- you mean like this?

[jensend]

REVIEW OF SHARP ZAURUS SL C750 FROM DYNAMISM REVIEWED FOR BARGAINPDA BY IAN GIBLIN WITH HELP FROM VINCE TORTI OVERVIEW THE NEW ZAURUS SL C750 FROM SHARP IS A VERSATILE LINUX BASED PDA INCORPORATING AN XSCALE PXA255 CPU AT 400 MHZ STOP. IN TERMS OF SOFTWARE IT IS SIMILAR TO THE ZAURUS SL 5600 WHICH BECAME AVAILABLE IN THE U.S. IN APRIL OF 2003 STOP. THE HARDWARE THOUGH IS SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCED STOP. CONTENTS THE CONTENT SECTIONS OF THIS REVIEW ARE LISTED BELOW STOP. IT MAKES SENSE TO SEPARATE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DISCUSSION IN ANY PDA IN THIS CASE IT IS MORE IMPORTANT BECAUSE OF THE CUSTOMISATION WHICH DYNAMISM HAVE DONE STOP. HARDWARE: STOP. THE SHARP SL C750 AND HOW TO GET ONE STOP. PACKAGING AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS STOP. FEATURES SUMMARY AND OVERALL DESIGN STOP. THE DISPLAY STOP. PORTRAIT MODE AND THE TAP BUTTONS STOP. THE STYLUS STOP. MEMORY STOP. THE KEYBOARD STOP. INPUT OPTIONS OTHER THAN THE KEYBOARD STOP. BATTERY LIFE SOFTWARE: STOP. THE OPERATING SYSTEM AND BASIC NAVIGATION STOP. PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PIM TOOLS STOP. SYNCING AND FILE TRANSFER STOP. OFFICE TOOLS HANCOM WORD HANCOM SHEET PRESENTATION STOP. GAMES STOP. MULTIMEDIA STOP. NETWORKING STOP. THE EMAIL CLIENT STOP. THE NETFRONT3 WWW BROWSER STOP. OTHER SOFTWARE STOP. SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY AND COMPATIBILITY STOP. LINUX COMMENTS STOP. CONCLUSION BACK TO CONTENTS THE SHARP SL C750 AND HOW TO GET ONE AT THE PRESENT TIME THIS DEVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE FROM SHARP USA STOP. IT CAN BE BOUGHT FROM SPECIALIST SUPPLIERS DYNAMISM WHO PROVIDED OUR REVIEW UNIT AND HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE TECHNOLOGY EQUIVALENT OF AN EXCLUSIVE JEWELERY STORE STOP. AS WELL AS MODIFYING THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND SHIPPING THE UNIT DIRECT TO YOU IN THREE DAYS FROM JAPAN DYNAMISM ADD LIFETIME FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT WARRANTY COVERAGE THEY PAY ALL SHIPPING COSTS AND A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE IN USING THESE DEVICES STOP. ALONG WITH THE C750 ANOTHER SIMILAR MODEL CALLED THE C760 IS ALSO AVAILABLE THAT DEVICE HAS A LARGER BATTERY MORE MEMORY AND OBVIOUSLY TEN MORE COOL POINTS STOP. BACK TO CONTENTS PACKAGING THE SL C750 COMES IN A SIMPLE CARDBOARD BOX WITH NO CLEAR PLASTIC WINDOW STOP. JUST A FEW COLOUR PICTURES OF THE DEVICE AND SOME JAPANESE WRITING STOP. THE PACKAGING IS SIMPLE LIGHT AND EASILY RECYCLABLE STOP. INSIDE THE BOX IS THE PDA SECURELY POSITIONED WITH CARDBOARD SPACERS ALONG WIH THE USB CONNECTOR NOT A CRADLE POWER SUPPLY CD ROM INCOMPREHENSIBLE UNLESS YOU CAN READ JAPANESE 224 PAGE MANUAL ANOTHER SHORTER BOOKLET WHICH LOOKS LIKE THE QUICK START GUIDE AND A REGISTRATION CARD WITH A VERY JAPANESE LOOKING ADDRESS ON IT STOP. SOMEHOW I DONT THINK IT WOULD MAKE IT TO JAPAN FROM QUEENS STOP. JUST ABOUT THE ONLY ENGLISH TEXT ON THIS DOCUMENTATION WAS THE ZAURUS NAME AND NUMEROUS REFERENCES TO EZAURUS.COM THE JAPANESE SUPPORT SITE WHICH DOES HAVE SOME COOL ANIMATIONS STOP. FIRST IMPRESSIONS NOT AS CLUMSY OR RANDOM AS AN IPAQ THIS IS AN ELEGANT PDA FROM AN ALTOGETHER MORE CIVILISED AGE... OK I ADMIT THAT THE OTHER PDA DESIGNS HAVE COME A LONG WAY BUT AS FOR FIRST IMPRESSIONS THIS DEVICE BLOWS THE COMPETITION OUT OF THE WATER STOP. THE DEVICE FEELS SOLID YET HIGH TECH STOP. THE WAY THE SCREEN SWIVELS TO TRANSITION FROM LANDSCAPE MODE WHERE IT LOOKS LIKE A TINY LAPTOP TO PORTRAIT MODE WHERE IT LOOKS MORE LIKE A NORMAL PDA IS NOT ENTIRELY NEW BUT IT IS SO BEAUTIFULLY IMPLEMENTED THAT IT REALLY GIVES YOU THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS STOP. EVEN THOUGH MY HANDS ARE TURNING IT I IMAGINE THE SOUND OF WELL OILED MACHINERY EACH TIME I RE ORIENT THE SCREEN STOP. AFTER CALMING DOWN ENOUGH TO TURN THE DEVICE ON THE NEXT SHOCK IS THE QUALITY OF THE 640X480 DISPLAY STOP. ITS STUNNING STOP. THE OS AND APPLICATIONS RESPOND QUICKLY AND SMOOTHLY STOP. THE DEVICE DOES NOT CRASH OR FREEZE STOP. MY CO WORKERS STAND AND STARE IN AWED SILENCE STOP. AS THE EFFECT PROPAGATES OUT FROM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN TAXI DRIVERS BECOME STRANGELY CALM AND DOGS STOP BARKING ACROSS THE CITY STOP. BACK TO CONTENTS FEATURES STOP. XSCALE PXA255 CPU AT 400MHZ STOP. 640X480 TRANSREFLECTIVE TOUCH SCREEN 3.7 DIAGONAL BACKLIT

Re:Telegram- you mean like this?

[frenetic3]

YOU ARE A HUGE NERD STOP.

(sorry, couldn't resist ;)

-fren

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, that question was answered in 2002 as well. TheKompany.com sells a player that handles mp3 and vorbis, and if you want a free solution, there is a plugin that works with either the Zaurus media player or XMMS.

The question for 2003 appears to be "does it support IMAP?". Get with the program!

Re:The real need for PDAs - a bit of science

[Smegoid]

True that and I have both. But sitting on the metro with a laptop is a pain. Notwithstanding that everyone reads over your back. Even if you're sporting a tiny wee mac lappy, you still need the infrastructure to carry it (read:bag). And battery life on a laptop is nothing like that on a pda.
As for the PC, the minute you slap a desktop on your back and have it suck power from your arse I'll jump ship and get rid of my pda. But it has to have lazers too alright?

This is what I want, TV reception

[Odinson]

Unfotunatly this link is just a mock up, but you get the idea.

Somtimes I wonder if Sony annonced the chipset development just to prevent anyone else from trying...

Think about the implications for wearable computing.

PDA+Linux+2_gig_cf_card+UHF_reciever_card+tiny_pin _UHF_transimit_camera

=real_life_video_log_for less_than_$2000

MODULUS PARENT UP

[theTerribleRobbo]

"Me too."

Linux sync with 5600

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I give up. Anyone succesfully synced the 5600 with Linux ? Makes me want to cry, not being able to sync my Linux-PDA with my Linux-desktop...

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[LamerX]

So?

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[westyvw]

You are a whiner. So you got a zaurus, you think you are king of the castle now. You look to the Big brother version, ya you like Ice Cream. Its your favorite. I show it to you and you like it. Everytime. Its like WOW you like it. Thats how you are. I take some Moderator points, and then you look at them and I say you like that? And you say PHUCK OFF. Jackass.

Re:Yes that's nice ...

[LamerX]

Yeah well I got a new Super 88 system at Junkys for 2 dollars. Yeah you like that, idiot! It's got a new game too! Its call Mario Twins, they look the same!