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New Zaurus Linux PDA Available In the U.S.
pdawerks writes "The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000L handheld, which runs Linux in the Trolltech's Qtopia environment, has finally made it to the U.S. at a pricepoint of $699, according to a PDALive.com article. It has a 4-inch 480 x 640 CG Silicon reflective screen that is much larger than the one in the 5x00 models, and the screen supports rotation on the fly (portrait and landscape modes). Sharp has also incorporated a sliding thumb keyboard into this model."
That is a price of a cheap laptop.
It seems lots of companies are jumping on the Linxu PDA wagon these days (Powerplay V, Softfield VR3, Zaurus, etc). This is great for those of use that use Linux, but the the main problem I see with all of these devices is that they only Sync with Windows out of the box.
Empower Tech, Softfield, Sharp, and now Royal should all be providing software to Sync with Linux (as well as Windows for the Other 95% of the population).
Why is this this so important? Well what has annoyed me the most about linux PDAs is that all the dev tools are in Linux, then you have to transfer your apps over to a Windows Partition to use there Windows transfer software load it (or use Wine).
No Linux PDA will be successful until it Syncs (and Syncs well) with Linux. Heck, some Palm PDAs are easily to sync to with Linux then the current Linux PDA offerings.
The market already has successful PDA platforms that Sync with Windows (Palm, Pocket PC, Psion). Why not finally make one that Syncs with Linux out of the box?
Somehow I doubt Royal will step up to the plate in this regard.
main(0)
to see 802.11g and USB 2.0 standard jack. Or do those suck too much power?
I'm surprised that the Sharp web site doesn't list this product yet. But this page spells out a few more specs.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Well, let's see, 400 mhz, xscale processor. Not sure off hand how that measures in bogomips, but I am reasonably sure someone will chime in with it's rating, and someone else will chime in with how useless it is as a measure of a processor.
Touch screen. Not absolutely sure, but don't recall any laptops with that, much less at a $700 price. Tablets seem to still be running in the $1600 range, so I suppose you could pay double this for a larger screen, etc.
Instant on, no waiting for the hard drive to power up, spin up, then transfer a memory image to memory, calculate adjustments to date and time, etc.
Fits in your pocket, pretty much any text mode program is a re-compile away, if it was compiled to begin with. You may need to install a python library or two, but you would probably have to do that for your laptop as well.
Acceptable battery life. The only thing that comes close laptop wise to either of my 5500s is my iBook, and even that I generally leave plugged in. Your milage may vary.
Works well as simply a PDA. I like mine as an alternate MP3 player (256Meg of a 512Meg cf card filled with music is a reasonable amount of music.) And it still fits in your pocket.
I happen to think IQNotes is one of the better quick jot applications for keeping track of things. Sketch, write, grab an e-mail address, whatever. Great for those shopping lists that you want to re-use, or those lists of books to consider picking up next time you are at the library. So far as I know it's only available on the Zauraus so far. (pretty sure it will be ported, or copied to other platforms in time.)
But then I'm probably biased. I can't claim it is worth all of $699, in that I only own earlier models, and haven't played with this one.
-Rusty
You never know...
My Zaurus is not a PDA but a PDT (Person Digital Tool), and anyone who says otherwise is getting a foot in their arse.
A PDA is a glorified address book that plays music and sells for 300$. My Zaurus (SL-5500) costs less than 200, runs a mobile X-11 server, allows for quick coding (802.11b CF card + ssh) when I am off campus and can't log into something heavy, plays movies, serves webpages, and runs Linux. The Zaurus is very hackable and has a high fun value attached to it. $699 is alot to spend for it, but in 6 months you can ebay one for about 300 which would be more inline.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
I dunno, what's more useful? A PDA/micro-notebook you can use to manage your entire business/life,play games, surf the web, use email, run X apps, listen to music etc for $699 or an Ipod that you listen to music on but can cost $500? Somehow everyone here seems to think its worth it for a pleasure item like an Ipod why isn't it useful for something you can do so much more with?
Like Apple users are always telling me, if you have to question the value of something based on price you weren't part of the target market to begin with.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch