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

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

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.

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