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Sharp Zaurus SL-C860 Announced For Japan
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com reports that Sharp will introduce a new member in its Linux-based Zaurus PDA family in the Japanese market on Nov. 27, 2003. The SL-C860 appears to be a more powerful and feature-rich version of the much-reviewed SL-C750/760. The device boasts a 400MHz Intel PXA255 processor equipped with 128MB of Flash memory (65MB available for user programs) along with 64MB of SDRAM memory, has a 640x480 resolution full-VGA color display, and runs an embedded Linux operating system based on Metrowerks's OpenPDA handheld device software stack."
It's nice, but it needs to be less than 1cm thick, and needs to cost less than $500. An iBook is $1100, and is about four times the computer. An iBook is obviously much bigger, but there's no way I'd carry around a laptop and a Zaurus, so the Zaurus needs to be able to replace the basic laptop functions, and be much cheaper to be worth buying.
I have the older version, the SL-5000D. Great little machine, once you dump the original Sharp supplied rom image anyway. I have both CF and SD cards for it and a wireless card for the CF slot. But unless they are using a top notch chipset for the SD/MMC cards that they can provide a Linux driver for, CF cards will be much faster for IO. Transfering data to CF over network or USB link to my Zaurus has almost no delay, whereas writing to the SD card can't keep up with the transfer speed. Makes putting music on it for plane trips a bit of a pain. The SD card is great for storing programs and personal data on though, since the write speed won't come into play very often, and it alleviates the small built-in RAM size on the 5000D model.
Well, yes and no. A laptop is too large and unwieldy for some applications; you would not have travel directions and times on a laptop and run around in an airport or trainstation with it in your hands, for instance. Nor would you likely use a laptop in a semicrowded commuter train.
I am lusting for this thing, not the least due to the included dictionaries. I can't help but wonder, however, if what I would really find useful was a machine with a similar screen and memory size, but simpler software, slower (and thus more energy efficient) processor, and without all that connectivity. It would be useful as a satellite to the laptop which is now my main machine.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I was really hoping for builtin wireless access like in the SL-6000.
Qtopia is a finely engeneered environment, and I have nothing but praise for what I see in screenshots and technical documents about it. However I see the same problems with Qtopia being accepted as the de-facto standard for linux PDAs and I have with those who would make QT the de-facto standard in desktop linux GUIs.
Qtopia like its parent QT is written in C++, a farily controversial language amongst linux developers, it also uses Meta Objects which are an even more controversial addition to the language. This threatens to isolate many developers who would not use such a tool because of personal preference, with no fallback into an ISO standard complient c++ environment or a c environment.
Qtopia is also licenced under the same licence scheme as QT, dual licenced under the GPL and QPL. This sceme allows development of open source applications using the GPL and proprietary applications using the QPL after per-developer fees have been payed. This is however sub-optimal in comparison to a simple LGPL or BSD licences in which similar libarys of this type have been licenced for numerous reasons. First and least importantly it seems silly that to develop a graphical progam under Palm OS is free, yet for a linux PDA (the so called free OS) eqivalent one must pay a licence fee. Secondly, the QPL also misses out on multiple consumer protection clauses regarding binary distributed software noted in the LGPL. Thirdly in order to port the application to another platform, an activity in-keeping with the Free Software spirit, licence fees must be payed even for an open application. I am sure Trolltech would be happy to arrange an exemption for a bona fide OSS project, however this type of special arrangement is not in keeping with the principles of Free Software.
This post is not intended to insite a flamewar, I have made no value judgments about the actual performance or technical elements of either Qtopia or QT, I havn't commented on the legitimacy of KDE, which I belive is a fine project, probably exceding gnome in power and usability. However I urge people to consider these aspects when they choose which projects to support. Remember, in the future it will be possible to unify the desktop by making QT dependant on GNUStep, GTK+ or whatever comes out in front in a similar way to what Trolltech has done with MacOS and Windows interfaces, but the reverse is impossible due to both licence and structual incompatibilites.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Where's
Bluetooth ?
802.11x ?
Mac and Linux sync ?
IrDa, bah...
Ciryon
It looks like the hardware is exactly the same, although they seem to be showing photos of the small battery (a la SL-C750) but quoting battery life equivalent to the large battery that comes with the SL-C760.
Feeding the press release to babelfish it looks like they are just pushing new software features. Easier USB connection to a PC, JP->EN->JP transation and some different software included (Eg Mah Jong and a PDF viewer).
I love my SL-C750 and wish they would start releasing them outside Japan. The release says they will make 20000 per month, so it seems that official international sales are not planned.