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Zaurus SL-6000 Review
Bill Kendrick writes "BargainPDA has done a full review of Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000L Linux-based PDA, which was recently released to consumers in the US. There are six pages of review, lots of pretty photos, and comparisons with previous Zaurus models."
It's pretty long. Please rate on the Slashdot scale where 8 = teh suck, 9 = OK and 10 = good. Thanks.
That is ALL that I needed to see. This is finally a PDA I want!
So I guess there'll be a first post of "First post!" and a first post of "Can I ssh into my server with this?"
There's never enough when you have too little
Only two posts and it's already slashdotted.
I know running Linux is cool and all, but does anyone really spend $650-700 on a PDA? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really curious.
Do we need another Linux PDA? Isn't the Apple iNewton good enough?
I love being able to know that many of the advances people make for the new SL-6000 will be equally applicable to my SL-5500, because the source is open!
In contrast, my roommate's older WinCE PDA, even though it has some nice hardware, is stuck with old software. There will never be anything new that he can do with it, because there is no upgrade path.
su - root pass # sh airsnort.sh fun
Sig removed by order of FBI Patriot ACT
Did the full review include testing the device as a web server? I really wanted to see this too I'm in the market for a new PDA :-(
But does it run li..oh wait...
no Zaurus is complete without Zaurus Freeciv on it!
Click Here
Who in the world is the demographic for one of these?
I hope that OpenZaurus/OpenEmbedded get their act together soon and release a new version that supports the SL-5600/SL-6000. The current version of OpenZaurus is unstable on my SL-5600 and the Sharp ROM is crap. I am thinking about trying Gentoo for Zaurus.
Are there any other free Zaurus distros out there?
i use my sl-6000l in ways i could never use a pda: actually computing while standing, in some cases while walking; no bothering with pda-friendly websites
... i just hang it around my neck like a japanese tourist with a camera (and the japanese usually bow in deference to my techno-bob aura)
the transflective screen alone makes it useful in many situations where my laptop will fail: outdoors in different lighting; the ruggedness (survives much droppage) is another reason i can take it outdoors
just local.google.com makes it worthwhile at my new home at carnegie mellon, where there is wifi everywhere and i can find all essential services on a map quite easily
for all you people who are saying "hooray! slashdotted with 2 posts! slashdot is cool!"... just wait about 20 seconds for it to load... it loads just fine for me (just takes a while)
So if we order it with Linux pre-installed, we get the hardware for free?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
But does it run Windows CE?
As I type this I am looking at the useless Agenda, one of the first Linux based PDA's.
It is next to useless because no one supports it.
I'll probably get some flak for this but what the hell.
I own both a Palm PDA and a Zaurus (Treo 90 and SL-5000), the former is a perfect organiser whereas I hardly consider the latter to be. My Zaurus is let down by many things, firstly the fact that there exists relatively little up to date organiser software for it that even comes anything close to many of the free Palm apps out there.
Secondly, installing some of the more interesting applications on the Zaurus requires you to jump through herculian hoops to get things working.
Lastly, people'll probably point to webpages chocked full of Zaurus applications (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/ being one) but one closer inspection you'll find that many of the more useful applications are either in a half finished state or haven't been maintained in several years and lack features needed to work with newer desktop versions.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Zaurus. There's nothing like pulling it out of your pocket, firing up the WiFi, ssh'ing into your box and synching your local MySQL server. Just don't buy it if you're looking for an organiser, you'll be bitterly disappointed.
- Sadiq
SysWear - Geek T-shirts (UK/Europe)
but this is what I use:
go-peach.com/mak02/keihin/m/DSC04271.JPG
it provides a very stable recording media for written data, never crashes and you never have to worry about running out of power!
it's also within a price range that anyone can afford.
Ahhh, that's nice, but the only thing that keeps me away from being really interested is the lack of a truly integrated cell phone. I know that one business called "TheKompany" has a VoIP solution for it, another place has a bluetooth connection to your cell When you spend that much money anyway, it'd seem fairly easy to add cell capabilities ... what's a litle more weight?
Still ... nice phone, nice review!
lots of pretty photos /.ing...oh wait..
They are just asking for a
Jisho - A Japanese English German Russian French Dictionary for the rest of us.
When the headline says "Check out the article, it provides a great read" the site stays up. When it says anything about "screenshots" or "pretty pictures", the site disappears.
Does that state something of our mentality (ooooh, prettty!!!) or do we just not RTFA..
Inquiring minds want to know..
(and dammit, I wanted to see the pictures, too!)
= Grow a brain...
I want a 640x480 screen too! This might actually get me to use a THIRD PDA operating system (in addition to PalmOS and PocketPC, my WinCE2.1 laptop got stolen out of my car) on my network. I can certainly see that having a Linux-based palmtop would be highly usefull in security audits.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-6000
Reviewed for bargainPDA by Ian Giblin.
Thanks to offroadgeek from The Zaurus User Group for input and discussion.
Overview and Introduction
The new Zaurus SL-6000 from Sharp is a versatile, linux-based PDA incorporating an Intel XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz. In some respects it is a hybrid of the Zaurus SL-5600, which became available in the U.S. in April of 2003, and the SL-C750/760/860 which is only available as a special import and was reviewed here in September of 2003. The main enhancements to the SL-6000 are a better screen, some ruggedisation, built-in Wi-Fi and/or bluetooth, and a degree of expandability. There's also a USB host built into it using a Mini A connector on the bottom of the device. Oh, and a longer stylus.
The device I'm reviewing here is the SL-6000L, which has only Wi-Fi. We spoke to Sharp's representative about the other models - specifically the SL-6000N (Bluetooth only) and the SL-6000W, which was billed as the combo product with both 802.11b Wireless and Bluetooth. The representative told us that the only version which will be made available to the general consumer is the 6000L Wi-Fi variant.
If you put it into Google you can find the SL-6000W but you can't actually buy one yet (May 2004).
The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 and You
You might wonder - what's the target market for this device? It is large, expensive and ruggedised. If you haven't already guessed, the answer is "Enterprise". Sharp collaborated with IBM on this project, but the only evidence on the consumer device is the link to IBM's page when you open the Opera web browser. A little nosing about on IBM's site yields some other interesting pages like this one on cross-developement. But I digress...
An ongoing aspect of the Enterprise factor is RailDocs, a system "designed to enable users to efficiently design, build, and maintain the fixed transportation infrastructure of a railroad". Not for the average user, obviously, but it speaks volumes for the stability and versatility of the Zaurus product.
It is something of a surprise that Sharp have made the SL-6000 available to the consumer market, particularly after a Sharp marketing representative originally told bargainPDA "Please keep in mind that this product is designed exclusively for the corporate market and will not be sold through the direct to consumer channel. It will be used by businesses for business applications.".
Whether the Sharp Zaurus is right for you depends upon the type of role you see for it. The Zaurus is probably the best linux-based handheld computer available, and the software is almost the same across models. It may not be the best PDA, in fact most Zaurus users wouldn't even call it a PDA. Sharp themselves call the Zaurus a Personal Mobile Tool. If you decide to buy a Zaurus you can find one to fit your budget. The table below summarises the features of key members of the Sharp Zaurus range, plus a very rough indication of their current prices. Links will open the bargainPDA reviews where available.
The C760 and C860 differ only in that the 860 has a Japanese/English dictionary on it, and it has a silver case rather than the white one on the 760. The C750 is like the C760, but has a smaller battery and less memory; reading the SL-C750 review will give you a very good idea of those three Zaurus "clamshell" devices. Some of the software section of this review is just an updated and edited version of the C750 software review.
Anyone looking at the SL-6000 should consider the alternative of buying an imported SL-C860 or C760 plus an 802.11b wireless card. This would give you the same functionality as the SL-6000L model reviewed here (plus an extra 64MB of internal flash memory), but you may have to risk some major inconvenience if the C model Zaurus breaks down - even when you buy through high-end channels such as Dynamism where the C860 costs $849, or ShirtPocket where it is 565. As well as the currency conversion you're doing in your hea
I've owned several Zaurus machines (although only one of them ran Linux) and I've been quite pleased with all of them. They are well built and last a long time.
The Linux based one was a solid machine PLUS it had the ability to satisfy my compulsive need to change things all the time. I also liked the fact that I could use it to SSH into my web server to make changes. Very cool in my opinion.
OS and Basic Screen Navigation
.vcf files. I was hoping that I'd be able to hold the Zaurus near a telephone and have it tone-dial a number for me, but it can't do that.
At the top level, this looks like any PDA OS. The underlying Operating System is OpenPDA from Metrowerks (a company owned by Motorola). The GUI is Qtopia from Trolltech. This is a very well established system and has a good user and developer base. It also benefits from a certain amount of cross-platform portability, meaning that software can easily be translated from other systems to this one.
The main functionality is organised into four Home Pages or "Tabs": Applications, Java, Settings and Files. The Java Tab seems completely pointless, and I was glad to find that it disappears if you reset the flash memory as I have done several times while testing the device (if you want it back, you can reinstall from a package on the CD). I won't bore you with describing the three Java "applications " on the SL-6000. Their only worthy feature is that Java apps run in resizable and movable windows, which is a big deal when you have this much screen real estate. One day all windows will be movable and resizable (imagine that!).
You can add your own Home tabs, including a custom icon from a choice of what looks like hundreds. You cannot edit the system tabs. The pictures below show the four default Home Tabs; clicking on each one will open a new window in your browser showing the actual screenshot. All these screen shots are in portrait mode, but I only did this so they'd fit the review page better. They work just as well with the screen rotated 90 degrees.
You can change the theme of the interface easily using the Appearance tool in the Settings Home Page; the differences are significant but not Earth-shattering. You can also set a graphical backdrop to the Home Tabs (other than the File Manager). This doesn't seem to slow the interface down, and it has the potential to look great on this display.
Zoom Zoom
One feature of the SL-6000 which affects many applications is the "zoom" capability. Using the Qtopia menu items (ZoomIn and ZoomOut you can zoom in and out in most application displays. What this really means is scaling the font and usually some other window furniture (e.g. column markers in a spreadsheet). It is very effective, and only limited by the font you are using. I made an animation of this when I reviewed the C750 last year - click here to see it.
Help System
The Qtopia GUI includes a customised help system which offers help on just about anything with an icon. It looks like a basic web browser and would be very useful to someone just starting out with the PDA. Once you've skimmed the manual I doubt it would be much help, but it does provide a good introduction.
(back to contents)
Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools
PIM Applications: Address Book, Calendar, ToDo List.
The Address book is pretty standard - adding, deleting and editing entries is easy. You can choose which fields appear on the list and their order, as well as the overall sort order. The display uses colour very well.
Contacts can be beamed back and forth between the Zaurus and any other IR-capable PDA easily, although only one at a time from what I could tell, using
The Calendar allows a day, week, month and year view and you can set up reminders, repeating events, and so on. In the month view you can have a text format (which soon gets crowded) or graphical, which uses colour coded stripes to show events. This works well. Having used the application for some time on my 5600, I have found a few things which are annoying. For example, setting an appointment to repeat daily results in an entry in the calendar for every day forever. It would be so much nicer if it just updated each day to indicate the next scheduled event.
The ToDo list, like the Calendar and Adress book, is adequate. It syncs with Outlook or Qtopia Desktop and is fairly useful f
you can now sync zaurus' with ical and mail, etc. I am extremely happy about this. http://www.dsitri.de/wiki.php?page=Projects
Choosing the lesser of two evils is a choice for evil.
Well, you could buy a license from litigious bastards.
Anyone here know if/when this will be avaliable in the UK? Sharp UK seems a bit reluctant to sell the Zaurus range here, with the 5500 being the only one I ever seen on sale here - and only for a short while. I managed to get one just before they discontinued it.
I've been looking forward to getting this new one ever since I read the review of the beta model! 640x480 on a PDA? Nice!
It's been a year now, guys. The completely unrelated SCO comments are old. The "wow, only 699 dollars" comments were funny for like a week. First post, GNAA, and other completely random stuff gets modded down quickly, so why doesn't this? There was a SCO story today. Make all the stupid comments there. They don't belong in every story.
as the site went dead within minutes of this story showing up on slashdot. I think the Slashdot folks should consult with people and package web serving or something since SLashdot never manages to slashdot itself.
Let's not all go blind ogling, shall we?
...tizzyd
A standard pizza operates at 2.4 GHz
The SL-600 changes that. In theory, you should now be able to connect any USB device that Linux supports to the SL-6000 and use it. So far, unfortunately, I've heard no sucess doing this yet...though the hardware is there.
Anyone have sucess using random devices with the Zaurus?
I'd expect that the following should work without much trouble;
USB splitter
Keyboard
disk drives (including flash)
Some may require software tweaks or added support as the Zaurus is intentionally a minimalist device.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Here's my wish list - anyone know of a device that can do all this: * Built-in Cell Phone * Internet access anywhere in the roaming area (too hard to find wifi spots where I live) * SSH for remote logins to our servers * Standard PDA stuff - calendar, tasks, etc. * Sync with MS Outlook (go ahead, flame me)
Huh? Why are you so obsessed about breaking a PDA? I develop for PDA's and therefore I have many of them and carry them around in my pocket or bag. I have never broken one, ever.
One friend of mine used telnet to connect to the SMTP port of his web server in order to send another of my friends.
:)
This second friend uses mutt to read his email, so when he got the message, all the typos kept showing up and getting erased, until the message finished displaying.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
WOW you can't possible be serious?!
.03 seconds...uh so would your laptop if you left it on a bench inthe middle of nowhere...in fact if you took your home desktop and left it by itself in some random place it'd get stolen just as quickly...so uh yeah whats the point? Don't leave your shit lieing around.
Note: I have owned a Zaurus 5500 since 2002 and paid $400 for it new.
1) - Are you like a lead hand when pressing on touch screens? You must be, because I've never had a problem with my screen breaking. But i've also never broken my laptop screen either.
2) - I've never owned a Palm but my friend has one and he's a pretty big guy, and has never broken his screen.
PDA's = PDA's...um yeah Personal Data Assistant, sounds right to me.
As far as it getting pocketed in
Dropping it would definately break it I agree...but so would your laptop unless you got some extra "ruggid" type. As for an mp3 player - uh yeah most of them if you drop them they will break, and if you bust the LCD on an iPod your kinda screwed. Also if you reak it, why replace it? These types of items are NOT meant to be repaired like that, it's usually cheeper and more efficient to just replace the item.
I have a feeling you must be really clumsy and break a LOT of items. No one I know that has owned a PDA has broken anything on it...but we also have never dropped them, never left them on a park bench, and never flushed them down the toilet...apparently some people do it looks like....
Ave Molech Setting
Yep, I did see it in the theater. I saw Star Wars and the cartoon version of Lord of the Rings in the theater as well :) I'll be 33 next week.
Oh, and I started my first BBS on and Apple II+ about 20 years ago. Can't believe how long it's been.
to avoid buying other peoples ...
[I can't do it]...
[name of the pda]
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Had you bothered to read the article you would have seen this: Also noteworthy: Can be dropped 1m onto concrete!
The survey from BargainPDA about shops, which offer SHARP Linux PDAs seems not to be fully complete. Here is an international distributor survey for PDAs pre-equipped with Linux. BTW: If you are looking for a pre-installed Linux laptop or notebook you may find distributors there, too.
While I find the capabilities of this "linux-based PDA incorporating an Intel XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz" to be outstanding, my question has to do with a topic not mentioned in the article.
I genuinely believe that more can and should be done with both currently in development and especially in future PDAs with a different form factor, perhaps the "old" PSION style horizontal-type design? The keyboard layout alone was worth it IMHO but also it seems that the screen potentials as to sizes and resolutions would be another good reason.
I am certainly not proposing an "Ask Slashdot" as to "What would be your dream PDA" as most of the answers at least in the forum of
Thoughts??
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. -- Hunter S. Thompson
How dare you insinuate that I am easily...distract....ed......hmm...LEDs....
I have 3656.9 Bogomips. How many Bogomips do you have?
DamnExpensivePDA.com ?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I just bought a SL-5600 about a month ago, and the processor is reporting itself as a PXA-255. Apparently the older versions had the 250, which had a bug in the processor that kept it from running at full speed. Mine now runs my very own custom compiled kernel which runs a full 100 Dhrystones faster than it did when I bought it. I can even use it to watch full-speed movies with MPlayer now. :)
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
Believe or not, from the article:
A standard pizza operates at 2.4 GHz
I remember in college a few guys had "special" pizza, but I don't think it had anything to do with radio frequencies.
That has to be one of the funniest typos I have seen in a while.
There's a living review at Mobile Tech News.
And don't forget Sharp's site.
dude... Learn HTML.
Or at least use the preview button, this is what it's there for.
I think that has more to do with the bandwidth required to load all of the pictures. If a site only needs to upload 1KB per hit it will likely survive a /.ing unless it is running on junk hardware or on a narrow pipe. If it needs to upload 100MB per hit, it has got to have one hellofa fat pipe and damn decent hardware to avoid being turned to molten slag.
=0)
Fuzzy
I run the apache version without php for months on my SL5500 and it works quite nicely. No RAM problem (configured it to 48MB RAM/12MB Ramdisk). Just don't try anything fancy with the webserver. But for always having wikipedia with me its great.
So use the resolution to make text at the same size clearer. There's nothing inherently bad about a higher resolution, and many things inherently good.
People at Zaurus User Group have claimed some success at hooking up select hard drives and flash readers.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
This is a post from a few days ago, not the real article. Move along please.
Does Windows CE (or whatever it's called these days) share any code with VMS? I guess not as the CE kernel is surely completely independent of the NT one.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Been there- done that.... It is a great OS for price/performance on a PC- but it does not need to run on everything. Sure it beats windowsCE- but can it stand up to the QNX's of the world.
I'm certain that he had a really incisive reply to your post, but he probably dropped his monitor and is out buying a replacement.
Agreed...and Seconded on " WOW you can't possible be serious?!"
:-) as long as it is backed up or synchronized at another home or work machine, you can just buy a $149 (or less) PDA and quickly have it running again.
Additionally, this is the perfect time to buy PDAs as so many that would live in the category of entry level are available for so cheap. I was at Target a couple of nights ago and actually saw two different Zires (the Zire 21 and Zire 31) for less than $150! Friggin' Target!
What this means to those of us who use and love their PDAs is that if you do unfortunately break one or *gasp* lose one (I hate when I am playing "Dope Wars" and almost drop it in the toilet
Another relevant reason as to buying PDAs now is that reverse engineering is "potentially" achieved on these boxes. How else can PalmOS or PocketPC applications be ported to Linux running PDAs such as the Zaurus SL-6000 or others?
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. -- Hunter S. Thompson
1) It's too big.
2) Did you see the keyboard? Typing on the 5500 was a chore and it's obvious that Sharp didn't learn anything from the BlackBerry or the Treo 600.
3) Did I mention it's too big?
There's no way this is going to fly in the enterprise.
Can anyone share their experience developing Java apps on Zaurus? Do all the Zauri have the same level of Java support? Can you recommend a URL to get me started? I did a Google search for Zaurus Java and most of the websites seem to be way out of date.
Test 1 2 3 4
It comes out of the box with a Java tic-tac-toe program.
In fact the SL-6000 is fairly rugged. It has been designed to survive a 1 meter drop onto concrete. Thats pretty good for not really being a ruggedized machine. I personally however don't use is as PDA rather as a tool in the laboratory with a CF barcode scanner attached.
Sharp's marketing staff needs to pull
their collective "heads out of the dark".
The clam-shell CL-860, with the addition
of a serial port (for those times you
really, really need a VT100 terminal)
would have been a better decision.
What I would want for the $700:
Intel Xscale 400 cpu
CL-860 clamshell design
128 MB of flash rom
256 MB of CMOS static memory
640x480 screen resolution
real QUERTY keyboard
WiFi 802.11b built-in
Bluetooth built-in
RS-232 serial port built-in
2 open CF sockets
1 SDM socket
Considering the potential size of the market,
Sharp could sell a design like this world-wide
for $700, and still make gobs of money.
Instead, they have pulled out of certain
markets, and fractured others with very
different (half-assed) models. Too bad.
When (if) they ever come up with a robust,
full-featured PDA like the above description,
then they can have my $700. Not before.
I would *love* to own a Zaurus (I'd kill for a 6000 especially) as a powerful, portable complement to a powerful, sit-on-the-floor desktop box, but having owned an 8MB Handspring Visor Deluxe for the last few years and given that I write a lot (both code and regular text messages), I compromised between a PDA's portability and my desktop's power and got a laptop recently for primarily the following 2 reasons:
:)
1) Can't really develop on a PDA. Got *full* compilers for Java, C++, C#, etc.? Nope. [1]
2) Keyboard. Do I really want to write code on the Zaurus' small keyboard - or worse, via handwriting recognition or the on-screen software keyboard? No way. Emails, short (less than 1000 words) messages, sure, but code? No. That said, the Zaurus 6000's USB host capability means I could plug in a USB keyboard and use that instead. That would help alleviate the problem quite a bit IMO.
The above ignores the problem of PDAs having a necessarily-small screen size. My Visor can only display about 10 lines of text at a time, though maybe the Zaurus is better here... But my laptop, at 1024x768 res. can display about 35 lines (the more code on screen without needing to squint, the better of course).
PDAs are great for what they're designed for - storing and displaying contact info, notes, books, etc., but for serious computing (i.e. that which requires lots of user input, CPU-usage, storage space, etc.), unfortunately we're not quite up to laptop levels yet, even if something like the Zaurus' USB host feature allows connecting to external HDDs...
I have to admit though, the USB host capability theoretically offers a *lot* of potential for expansion, and I think that's probably a slightly-underplayed advantage of the Zaurus 6000...
[1] I know GCC has been ported to the Zaurus, and if you have a CF or SD card to run it off of, you can actually do your compiles on the Zaurus. Admittedly, that's pretty close to what I'd like to do. And Perl is available for the Zaurus too, albeit, at a hefty 34MB (again, need a CF or SD card). But again, what about Java? I think the best one could do is to use gcj, which AFAIK is not really a serious alternative to the Sun or Blackdown javac's...
And then there's the mere 400MHz CPU speed vs. my laptop's 2.4GHz, although, running distcc (if you have network access to distcc-running systems) would help immensely...
My $0.02.
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 still has the same lame Graphiti style handwriting recongnition. They did not take the opportunity of a new, more powerful device to improve handwriting recognition.
Palm really did the world a huge disserivce by making everyone believe that handwriting recognition was basically unusable for any serious data input. Most people who were never exposed to the Apple Newton (post MP-110) treat PDA's as read-only devices with some limited input capabilities. That's really too bad because PDA's have the potential to provide a truely superior user input experience.
Unfortunately, Sharp followed Palm's lead in this and provided only Graphiti style handwriting recongition and didn't really bother to design a user interface that could take advantage of pen gestures at all. The SL-6000 continues this pathetic tradition.
I could understand this oversight with the first generation of a PDA that has to deal with a lot of time to market pressure, but this is the fifth or sixth of the new series of Zaurus PDA's. Why can't they put decent handwriting recognition on the damned thing?
Thumb typing is not sufficient for any serious data input. At least with my Newton, I could sit in a meeting or a lecture (ok, not math or physics) and take notes as fast as I could on paper. People at a meeting often consider someone typing away on a laptop rude, but have no problem with people scribbling notes on paper or a PDA, but you need good recognition to do that. Thumb typing and Graphiti style handwriting recognition are really holding back the potential of this device!
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
One place that you can see the IBM influence is that the SL-6000 dropped the Insignia Jeode Java Virtual Machine that was used in the 5000 series and used the IBM J9 VM.
:(
Unfortunately, both are J2ME Personal Profile VM's, so most java programs have to be ported to work on them. It's too bad that SUN laid down the law and told SavaJe and others that handheld devices are only allowed to run J2ME and not J2SE, even if SavaJe did manage to port it and make it work. So, no applets in your web browser
Another Java issue is that you can't simply tap on a jar file and expect it to run. Instead, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to create a special installation package just for the Zaurus. This makes it difficult to use PersonalJava applications that were designed to work on any platform without doing some re-packaging. Although I understand the impetus to use the linux-ish packaging system they use for linux based applictions, it's disappointing that they didn't use something like JNLP for PersonalJava applications.
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
I'm not saying that the handwriting recognition doesn't work. What I'm saying is that the recognition isn't practical for serious data input.
For example, with the Apple Newton MP-2100, I was able to sit through a two hour, non-technical lecture and write down virtually every word the speaker said, just like I could on a piece of paper. I haven't seen any modern PDA that can even come close to doing that. Some of the newer WinCE^H^H^H^H^HPocketPC devices do have some fairly good free-form recognition, but it's a far cry from what the Newton could do and doesn't have the accompanying gesture support that made on-the-fly corrections viable. Those devices would have trouble keeping up with even a G.W. Bush speech for five minutes.
Since a PDA can go pretty much anywhere the user can, it's an ideal data input device for shop floor, warehouse, medical and other users who can't find a terminal or big keyboard device difficult. Consider a Doctor who needs to write down free-form patient input as the patient describes it. Thumb typing isn't going to do it. Most of them use paper and have someone transcirbe it. For those sorts of applications, the industry has gone for limited input devices that have specific forms and menu pickers, which really limits the range of input that the user can enter.
A well designed pen interface has the potential to be more productive than a keyboard for things like writing long text documents. Unfortunately, the technology was killed as an infant.
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
I purchased a Palm M105 (B&W screen w/toggleable backlight, 160x160, 8MB, PalmOS 3.5.1 in ROM) from a nice guy on eBay with a new serial cradle, a new Palm folding keyboard, padded case, a trio of spare styluses, and four different colored faceplates for $49.95 + S&H. And that isn't an atypical price.
:-)
Is it the latest and greatest? No, far from it, but it'll work with a standard serial port via Pilot Link (available for OS/2 and Linux and maybe other OSes), it'll keep track of lots of things here at home thanks to the freeware "DB" database (and the various database templates I'm creating), it helps me keep track of the stars at night thanks to a nifty Palm program called Sky Chart, it plays a mean game of both Hearts and Fluxx, and it uses standard AAA batteries so I won't have to worry about its proprietary recharacable battery dying on me. It doesn't have one!
It's not for the type of user that likes all those whistles and bells, but believe me those older Palm models can be useful -- and used ones are CHEAP (as in inexpensive, not as in poorly made ).
Want a bargain? Buy an older PDA. It'll be a lot more useful than many of you might suspect, and if it gets stolen by the neighbor's kid, eaten by your dog, or falls overboard during that fishing trip, and you have a proper backup (not hard to do with the aforementioned software), it only takes a little bit of time and money to get a full replacement.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
* Sync with MS Outlook (go ahead, flame me)
WHY the fuck would you want to sync with a closed-source product from M$oft? Don't you know that Outlook is just a breeding-ground for viruses, you brain-dead jerk? There are dozens of perfectly-good replacements for Outlook, as you'd know if were capable of clicking a mouse button and reading.
If you're so stupid that you feel no software is worth using unless you have to pay for it, try this.
Get Mommy to read it to you.
The screen on the Treo 600 is a classic example of wasted screen real estate. The resolution is far too low. I've recently purchased a Zircon Z3 which is about half the size but thanks to a high resolution screen is IMHO much easier on the eye.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Just increase the font size then.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
http://s91215199.onlinehome.us/zaurus/ has several resources on developing on the Z, including a couple of compilers for Java. I've used kjc (Kopi Java Compiler) quite a bit with no issues.
Yeah, gotta agree with your appraisal -- the advanced functions and networkability is great, but the basic pim features are weak. The basic address book is crap, and after a couple of months of fiddling I still can't get TKCAddress to import anything at all. But I've got the to-do list problem licked. Until 6 months ago, I stuck with my palm-based Handera 330 for one main reason: Brainforest, an excellent hierarchical tree manager that you could configure for use as a multilevel to-do list (1/x complete), project manager (x% complete), etc etc.
After looking long and hard, I found StageOne on the Z to be everything that Brianforest was, and more. In addition to a really nice UI, it includes nice features for use as a contact manager (time/date marked items), html import/export -- great for brainstorming the outline of a document, then brining it into a word processor for actual writing, and the list goes on. Yeah, it's payware but I've gotten an order of magnitude more value from my $12. (Std disclaimer - I have nothing to do with the author of Stageone, blah blah...)
It seems much nicer than the few other options I've tried on the Z. Layout is great, screen resizing works, and it's quite stable. My only gripe is lack of keyboard shortcuts for new-item and grab&move-item functions. Gotta keep grabbing the stylus between each item. (If the author reads this, I suggest using similar hierarchy management keys as MSWord: shift+up/dnarrow to grab/move; shift+rt/lfarrow to pro/demote; return for new line, etc.)
Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
Damn right that's noteworthy, that's why I had to buy a 6000 after I dropped my 5500!!!!!!
The one thing that I found truely unplesant on my 5600, and which religates it to occasional poking instead of regular use, is the complete abscence of a keyboard-accessible way to pipe.
There just isnt a "|" on the dang keyboard. It is very annoying to have to pop up a graphical keyboard thing whenever you want to "|less" something...
Clearly the marketroids didn't ask the linux people before telling the engineers what to put on the thing.
Function Z is unassigned even, and there is clearly some multi-mapping possible (look at the euro and pound-sterling symbols ganged up with the 3 and 4 respectively) so something could be done.
But they are dumb about their linux-geek following.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Hey, that doesn't look too bad (better than nothing, at least!)... What about GUI apps though, considering the Z's 240x320 screen size?
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?