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Sharp To Ship New HD-equipped Zaurus In Japan
ctid writes "On 10th November, Sharp will release its new Zaurus PDA. The SL-C3000 includes a 4GB hard drive, a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU and 64MB of RAM. All of that in a package weighing 298g! There is no news as to whether Sharp will release this ludicrously desirable toy in the West, but I'm not hopeful personally. Maybe we can rely on suppliers like dynamism.com (in the USA) or shirtpocket.co.uk (in the UK) to help us out?"
Anyway, despite my quibbles this sounds like a pretty solid device. Why are they only releasing in Japan?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Simple question: why don't they use a CF or SD card type of flash memory instead of a HD (at least CF cards with 4 GB are already available)?
Eh? Wi-Fi is plenty outbuilt. Many train stations even have wireless networks, so you can just check your email when the train stops. You can also find insecure networks if you need that. I did this with my iBook riding the Shinkansen from Tokyo to some small town you've never heard of. No Apple laptops now come with IR either, though all PBs have BT built-in and iBooks can have it factory-installed cheaply. I agree with the OT; this PDA has some issues.
Lalala
Not *everyone* wants wifi.
Most people do. But there are some people who work in enviornments where they are prohibited from bringing wifi devices. So, there is a tradeoff there. Also, some people want a lower cost, and would like Wifi, but also want a lower cost device as well, and would be willing to buy the device now, and add wifi later.
From a manufacturer's perspective, it is better to have that customer buy your product, and then purchase Wifi later, then it is to lose that customer to some other manufacturer based on them having a lower cost device. If people really want Wifi, then, simply create a bundle that lets people purchase your PDA along with the CF card that gives them WIFI, and then the problem is solved. That way, you can market your product to both sets of people and straddle the two segments of customers.
It's a little kludgy. But, I don't think it's such a horrible strategy.
Randy
Randy.Flood@RHCE2B.COM
In Japan, many devices have both SD and CF slots. The CF slot can take memory, but its main purpose is to add connectivity. Wi-Fi limits one to sitting around in a hotspot. Japan has better solutions: all three major carriers have 3G cards with thoughputs of up to 2Mbps. DDI and bMobile offer PHS-based cellular solutions up to 384kbps at flat rates. Connected users expect far more in the way of ubiquitous connectivity than Wi-Fi allows. The majority of the population, for example, sends and receives most of its email via cellphone rather than computer.
So PCs have Wi-Fi, PDA users tend to go with one of the cellular solutions.
If I want a laptop, I'll buy a laptop.
OTOH, if you do not contact them, you may have to use WinCE and its siblings for the rest of your days. Well, the choice is yours, just don't say you never had one...
Sharp Japan is doing the American market a disservice by not including WiFi, and also by not selling the device in the USA AT ALL.
Sharp Japan is doing the Japanese market a big service by not including WiFi, allowing Japanese users to buy their own cellular data cards (AirH, PHS, etc, with data rates at something like $20/month for 128 kbit) which are already subscribed to a cellular service.
Sharp USA will probably make different decisions. Sharp Japan has the Japanese market to think about. Please respect them for that.
What I wanted however, was decidedly different than what they seem to have provided. Here's a short but simple list that would turn the SL-C760 into a must-have device.
the strength of the 760 is undoubtedly the beautiful screen. At 640x480 and with a pixel density you have to see to believe, it's almost *too* good -- and by that I mean it's almost 800 pixels wide, which would mean you could really surf the web without having to scroll horizontally. There's clearly space in the bezel and the unit is practically screaming for an additional 160 pixels of width to fill out the top portion of the flip.
this is the industry standard and it's hard to not see it as a major issue that it's not included. Yes you can get CF cards (and I've tried them all!) but having a separate card is bulky (they all stick out of the unit ruining the beautiful form factor), it's one more thing to buy and carry around, and it's one more thing to suck the battery since it's not integrated into the MoBo and power management system.
the unit is tantilizingly close to being able to run a full version of Linux (Mozilla, X, gnome/KDE, whatever) but isn't quite fast enough. Having to suffer through a "pocket browser" and a "pocket editor" is frustrating when the real things aren't that far away. Hobbyists have created special stripped-down versions of popular software (minimo is a pocket-mozilla) but I shouldn't have to hack the ROM to get the full potential out of the unit.
See? I told you it was a short list. The C760 is nearly perfect. Nearly. But this latest model is no better.