Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Zaurus Sharp SL-C3000 Tested, Converted to English

Posted by timothy on from the too-bad-about-the-availability dept.

conics writes "Sharp Japan released a new Zaurus October 15th. There were some on display at WPC2004 Tokyo. Pictures of the Sharp SL-C3000 tested in English; specs of the SL-C3000."

61 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Looks cool by rshimizu12 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The Zaurus SLC-3000 looks very cool where can I get one.....??? Too bad Sharp decided to quit distributing the Zaurus in the US

    1. Re:Looks cool by Trejkaz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Inflated prices... but at least it's available. ;-)

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    2. Re:Looks cool by chewy_2000 · · Score: 1, Interesting
      Not surprisingly, the submitter seems to sell them on his web site, hence the submission.

      Free (?) advertising to a massive target market must be a grand thing.

    3. Re:Looks cool by xf · · Score: 1

      Conics/Brett (the guy who posted) sells them; I think this Slashdot post is partially a plug, too :-) Ordered stuff off him myself, incredibly helpful, arrived promptly, so strongly recommended.

    4. Re:Looks cool by conics · · Score: 1
      >> where can I get one.....???

      I hear Conics will have them :)
      http://conics.net/shp/pda/zaurus-sl-c700/index.htm l

    5. Re:Looks cool by Psycho77 · · Score: 1

      Just from the same web site :) I bought my C-700 from conics.net, great guys, good service.

  2. A few questions. by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 2

    And now when is this coming out over here in the US?

    Can we swap OSes on it to something else (I know, it's Linux, why would you want to, et cetera).

    What'll it run, and can educators get discounts on it somehow?

    And it's got a PHS in it - can we expect to see some sort of VoIP software for it when it gets ported over here?

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
    1. Re:A few questions. by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 1

      And how will this connect to a standard LAN? I'm presuming it'll be using a USB network adapter with various adapters for the cord as needed.

      Lastly, will there be room for upgrades? Yes, 64MB of SDRAM is nice for a PDA, but more never really hurt, especially if you want to use XMMS on it (you can; it comes with headphones).

      --

      Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
    2. Re:A few questions. by stuffman64 · · Score: 5, Informative

      First off, no USA on this device. Like the SL-CXXX series (I own an 860 myself), they will not be brought to America, though if you want one, you can import them from companies like Dynamism. Since it is essentially the same as the other Zaurus' hardware, I'm sure any of the kernels/ROMS currently available for it, but they are all Linux and all pretty good.

      As for educational discounts, only in your dreams... or if you lived in Japan. Dynamism wants a cool $899 for it (I paid $850 for my SL-C860, and I think it's worth it).

      Lastly, there are current VoIP for the Zaurus (KPhone comes to mind), so it should work with this model. The 4GB drive will come most in handy for the numerous emulators available (there are emulators for just about every pre-playstation console, and even a SCUMM emulator to play those classic LucasArts games [and rumors of a PS1 emulator abound]).

      But you have to ask yourself if $900 is worth it for a PDA with very little support over here in the US. For most, it will be a "no," but for the true Linux-loving uber-geek, there is nothing better. Alternately, you can try the Zaurus SL-6000L (with full support here in the US). It's only $499 now at Amazon. Sure, it doesn't have the 4GB drive, but it works pretty much the same, except it lacks the cool clamshell design.

      --
      --- At my sig, unleash hell.
  3. Nice, but... by Gothmolly · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Caveat: I owned a Zaurus 5500, the review of which was even posted to the front page of Slashdot.
    USB host, HD and big color screen will suck battery. Keyboard will be useful, but its not a real keyboard. Is Sharp trying to shrink a laptop to unusability (sucky KB), or is it expanding a PDA to unportability (no battery life). Is the market for this type of laptop/PDA hybrid big enough to support this?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Nice, but... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      *Is the market for this type of laptop/PDA hybrid big enough to support this?*

      in japan it seems to be, doesn't seem worth their time to be exporting them though..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Nice, but... by PepsiProgrammer · · Score: 1

      I still like my SL-6000, its in a similar form factor of the 5x00 Models, is still buyable in the US in English, built in wifi, great screen (better than the clamshells I hear) and awesome battery life.

      I have never been happier with a pda.

      --
      "The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
  4. Zaurus is dead by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Basically, Sharp has decided that the PDA market is not expanding fast enough to allow room for more than three fundamentally different platforms in the handheld space. Microsoft pushes the PocketPC. Palm has their little OS. And Sharp was the Linux holdout. I guess there were others like the BlackBerry, but in terms of market size they are non-starters.

    But with the market reaching saturation, the only thing Sharp can do, really, is get the hell out and cut their losses. This C3000 is the last in their series.

    BUT!! Look for more feature-filled Sharp phones in the future. The cellular phone market is still expanding and the 3G Smartphone/Featurephone market is largely untapped so far. It doesn't take a genius to see how moving the PDA OS to a smaller form factor which EVERYONE wants is good business sense.

    The thing you want to ask yourself now is whether getting a pretty nice PDA now is worth it considering you won't have any support for it after a year.

    1. Re:Zaurus is dead by Michael+Spencer+Jr. · · Score: 2, Informative

      no support? What are you smoking?

      I don't suppose people who buy Sharp laptops have to get all their software from Sharp too, do they? Do all Dell laptop owners buy all their software and games from Dell?

      Sharp will honor their warranty. That's all they need to do. You can get all kinds of software for this device from other sources, as long as you have the hardware.

      --Michael Spencer (An SL-C700 owner, considering buying this SL-C300)

    2. Re:Zaurus is dead by hklingon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The HP 100LX / 200LX was essentially abandoned by HP with similar reasoning. HP came out with the 320LX, a WinCE device. Yet, the 200LX persists to this very day. (A decade+later)

      I think Sharp dumping the USA market makes perfect business sense. The average american consumer is just too ignorant for the C7xx/C860/C3000 line of PDAs. Most folks want something that 'just works.' They are ignorant of cross-compiling, and probably find the lack of a unified (stable) software set annoying at best.

      The nicest thing about the 200LX was the software suite was extremely well designed and put together. For me, the 200lx 'just worked' right of of the box for everything I needed it for, and it was completely painless to make it do more. The Zaurus pales in comparison, but with a little diligence I think I can get it where I want it. It isn't much fun trying to port or fix botched ports of the software you want.

      You may be right that this will be the last good PDA model Sharp makes.. but after carrying my 200LX for just over a decade, I've found my successor.

      Just as before, the average consumer did not want a DOS palmatop in a sea of (then extremely crappy) WinCE devices. They want something that just works.

      Me? I'm having a very good time cross-compiling things for the Arm, porting scripts and utilities and really turning this PDA into an ultra-portable laptop. I almost have a dos emulator running at a nice speed. I doubt that most folks want to do this stuff. Most of the techies I work with want a PDA that 'just works'. I can't say that I blame them, but I want another 10-year PDA.

      I suspect this device will have the same cult following as the 200LX does, even though the software is a bit rocky with all the variations in the Zaurus famuly. I can only hope it persists for a decade.

    3. Re:Zaurus is dead by sakusha · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You obviously don't know how Japanese corporations work. Sharp has deep pockets, and is fully committed to keeping prestige products on sale, even if they're not making money, even if it's only limited markets (i.e. Japan only) in order to keep their name established as a market leader. And then someday the market will ripen, and they'll still be poised to make a big splash. That's how they look at it.

  5. Features by allden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a) Doesn't talk about bluetooth b) No inbuilt wireless c) I bet the price won't be less than $600 Why should a non-geek buy Zaurus and not a Sony?

    1. Re:Features by Zugot · · Score: 1

      The lack of bluetooth and wireless are a buzz kill. Other than that, this device seems hot.

      --
      -- Bryan
    2. Re:Features by Koutarou · · Score: 1

      Bluetooth is a non-issue in Japan. No one uses it.

      Au and DoCoMo came out with like 1 phone each that had it 2 years ago, and nothing since. Don't think Vodaphone even bothered.

    3. Re:Features by Guylhem · · Score: 1

      Maybe to get a real computer, where he can flash the OS he want, run apache, perl, code on the go etc.

      But you're right on the price. Far too expansive. Get a 6000L for $399 at amazon, and buy a big CF. You'll enjoy the local warranty (no fedex to Japan!) and a better screen. And you'll have to use wikipedia instead of the japaneese encyclopaedia anyway (I don't speak japanese you insensitive clod)

  6. A little wider, please. by tji · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's not a bad looking device. The small LCD display does a nice job with the ebay page they showed in the pictures. But, I still think that to make it a really usable device for WWW browsing, they need to make the screen a bit bigger.

    There is plenty of space availble with all that plastic on both sides of the display.

  7. Enough of the US by enginuitor · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's it, I'm moving to Japan!

  8. PDAs and the market by British · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am still dumbfounded why new PDAs are released it seems every week. I bought my Handspring Visor 2 years ago(still use it), only to find support for it was pulled rather shortly after I bought it. I was hoping to just walk into any brick & mortar store and buy a keyboard or module for it. But alas, no.

    1. Re:PDAs and the market by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      you can't find a compatible keyboard?

      shouldn't be that hard(online).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:PDAs and the market by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      The Visor was also the first Handspring PDA. Look it up: Visor, Visor Deluxe, Visor Prism, Visor Edge, Visor Platinum, Visor Pro, Visor Neo. All the Handspring PDAs (as distinguished from the Handspring smart phones) were called "Visor." For some reason, new management at Handspring decided to abandon the Springboard platform early and move entirely to Treo. Handspring was bought in its entirety by Palm - mostly to get the Treo line - and eventually disappeared into PalmOne after the BeOS NeXT-style Trojan takeover and the split of PalmOne and PalmSource.

    3. Re:PDAs and the market by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      Correction: there were one or two late Treo-branded non-phone PDAs - they are distinguishable from the Visor by their shape and the absence of the Springboard connector. The Visor Deluxe I have is still running, beautifully; I don't use it, but rather use a more featureful but less rugged Tungsten C. It makes me wish the Visor line had survived.

    4. Re:PDAs and the market by T0mWil5on · · Score: 1

      Handspring's abandoning of the Springboard module and the Visor line is a sore point for me.

      I still have two Visor Neos, a Visor Pro and one of the early 2MB units and still use one of the Neos daily. I played with the new Palm units but still prefer the Neo. The new stuff eats batteries too much for my liking and are not nearly as rugged.

      A Visor Pro, in conjunction with a Symbol CSM-150 scanner module, made for a cost effective solution for software we develop. That combination runs rings around Symbol's own Palm offering performance and price-wise. We were quite happy with them.

      Of course, they have to up and make some doodad too large to be a cellphone and too cumbersome to be a PDA, get into financial difficulties then get bought out by Palm.

      Now, we are stuck using Symbol SPT 1550 units that run like a VIC-20 on Quualudes, cost twice as much and are hard to find reliable sources for.

    5. Re:PDAs and the market by Cwaig · · Score: 1

      See, if you'd bought a Zaurus that'd not be a problem...you can walk into any brick & mortar and buy a keyboard - my IRK driver for the Zaurus supports Targus, Palm, Pocketop and Belkin PDA keyboards on all Zaurus models from the old SL5000-D right up to the latest clamshell models...). Praise be to the gods of open source....(folks in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan have contributed code just to this one tiny little project).

      --
      +++ BASELINE REALITY FAILURE+++ +++ PLEASE REBOOT UNIVERSE +++
    6. Re:PDAs and the market by jseng · · Score: 1

      Have slashdot lost its geekiness?

      Doesn't anyone realize this is the coolest geek device that runs Linux, with a build-in WiFi, 4Gb harddisk, which makes is almost a functional computer at handheld size, and totally hackable to boot!

      (Sure, it is not as powerful as a full-fledge notebook but that could be said the same when notebook first arrive...learn a bit more about disruptive technology history)

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. State of the PDA market by echocharlie · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Now that Sharp and Sony are no longer devloping PDA products for the US market, I find the major innovators are now gone. Now PalmOne and all the PocketPC vendors have no incentive to push the envelope. It's a shame really...

    --
    AnimeNEXT anime convention
    1. Re:State of the PDA market by nerk88 · · Score: 1

      Of course there will be an incentive to "push the envelope". The US is not the only market, and WinCE and Palm devices compete all over the world.

      If Japan has such a huge market for these things, it would be madness for other developers NOT to compete there, and they are not going to have a production line for lower powered dumbed down devices just for US consumption.

  11. Don't buy Sony either! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    h++p://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2082

    Sony is leaving the US PDA market too.

  12. Re:Won't be seen stateside by c-tink · · Score: 1

    importers in the US are having a hey day it seems.
    googling the unit brings up some of them. definitely lotsa pennies needed -_-;;

  13. Re:Fristy by michaeldot · · Score: 3, Funny

    done in Apple Garamond (Apple's serif font which they use for branding)?

    You're out of date: Apple haven't used Garamond for quite a while, probably since Microsoft started using it for product packaging.

    I *think* Apple's current font is Lucida Grande, a sans-serif font that has a modern, 21st century feel. (Guess what Microsoft will be using in 5 years!)

  14. VGA out by mbaudis · · Score: 1

    does anybody know about the vga out? ideally, i would like to present PDFs done in XGA resolution, or at least in SVGA. probably i have to wait 1-2 ipod generations to get this properly done...

    1. Re:VGA out by RevAaron · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is a CF card you can buy for the Zaurus that lets you do presentations over VGA. However, there is only one program that supports it and it doesn't show PDFs. The program is Hancom Mobile Presenter. You cannot use the VGA out for any Zaurus app, unfortunately.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  15. Zaurus Community by dangerz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We've been hearing rumors about this for a while over at the ZUG. I dont know how much I like it though.

    The screen is the same size as my c860 and so is the battery. The only difference are the weird colors (white/silver/chrome???) and the fact that it is bigger. As well, it also has a hard drive that is going to eat the battery.

    Sharps biggest selling point is that the device includes some multimedia Japanese dictionary. Rather useless for those of us that dont need it. I think the entire dictionary takes up about 600 megs?

    For now I'm very happy with my c860 and the new 2 gig sd cards are keeping me more than ok in the space area.

    Anyways, on a different note, I'll take this opportunity to plug http://www.zaurususergroup.com/forums/ for those Zaurus owners that don't know about us :) We're currently building a Zaurus Software Index to help make it easier for people to download the software they need.

    Some other good sites for the Zaurus:

    http://www.openzaurus.com
    http://www.pdaxrom.com

    --
    The greatest experience we can have is the mysterious.
    - Albert Einstein
    1. Re:Zaurus Community by gullevek · · Score: 5, Informative
      The right URL is www.openzaurus.org not .com .

      and same for the second. They are all org not .com

      corrected URLs:
      http://www.openzaurus.org
      http://www.pdaxrom.org

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    2. Re:Zaurus Community by dangerz · · Score: 1

      Eee, sorry about that. Thanks for the fix :)

      --
      The greatest experience we can have is the mysterious.
      - Albert Einstein
    3. Re:Zaurus Community by Guylhem · · Score: 1

      The battery won't be eaten by the CF hard drive - they are nearly as power efficient as "flash" CF

      And anyway, I wouldn't trade my beloved 6000 (bluetooth AND wifi) for a C3000 ... or a C860 :-)

      The 6000 has a far better screen, $399 on amazon with integrated wifi - and you can buy a big SD or CF mini hard drive if you need. $850 for a C3000? No way.

    4. Re:Zaurus Community by sl70 · · Score: 1

      I've been waiting for the price of the 6000 to drop, and reading this I got my hopes way up, only to have them dashed to smithereens when I found the price on Amazon to be $499, not $399.

      Dang!

      --
      Thank God I'm an atheist!
    5. Re:Zaurus Community by Guylhem · · Score: 1

      They raised it. It was 399 a week ago on a stock clearance sale. Sorry.

    6. Re:Zaurus Community by sepluv · · Score: 1

      I am probably going to buy a Zaurus, so could someone tell me what the pros and cons (both in usage & spec differences) of the C3000 v. 6000 are.

      Also, how similar are they--can software compiled for one run on the other?

      The reason I ask is that I am in the UK and I cannot find anywhere on WWW that sells the 6000 to the UK (maybe 'cause of the WiFi but there is a non-WiFi model) but some places will do the 3000.

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
  16. push the envelope!!! by bstadil · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Now PalmOne and all the PocketPC vendors have no incentive to push the envelope

    I understand your comment but in reality it is dead wrong. The competition is not the High-end Linux PDA etc the mortal blow to PDA's are coming from cell phones. This goes for MP3 players as well. One million MP3 enabled smart phones were sold in S. Korea las 12 month.

    If the PDA makers do not push the envelope they will disappear.

    The phone is the key feature you can not do without so there is a natural gravitation toward that end of the market. Include Phones in PDAs are possible but so far not been succesful.

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  17. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  18. Linux holdout - not quite by vlad_petric · · Score: 1
    With the second official Sharp ROM, it became impossible to synchronize Linux with Zaurus ... (I'm not talking about home-grown scripts, I'm talking about the full thing). It became in fact easier to synchronize WinCE devices than Zaurus.

    My impression was that they thought the open source community would take care of everything for them as far as software is concerned, and they wouldn't have to lift a finger ...

    In the end the only player left in the market was theKompany.

    --

    The Raven

  19. yeah, if I had money ;) by gullevek · · Score: 1

    Although I own a 860, and I am very happy with it. This one looks neat with its internal HD. I would love to have a second one to do some Tests with various Linux Distris :)

    And nothing is more wonderful than to play Monkey Island in 640x480 in the morning :)

    --
    "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    1. Re:yeah, if I had money ;) by xf · · Score: 1

      How the hell do you use ScummVM in 640x480? I've got a SL-C860, and ScummVM only runs in the older Zaurus res.

    2. Re:yeah, if I had money ;) by gullevek · · Score: 1

      with the right libs:

      http://zports.sourceforge.net/

      I was extremly luckt to stumble over that, because before I also could only play it in the old Zaurus resolution.

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    3. Re:yeah, if I had money ;) by xf · · Score: 1

      Mind pointing out which libs exactly - I'm assuming SDL-related? Somebody really needs to maintain a feed purely for Cacko/Sharp ROMS, for the 640x480 series Z's. Having packages for every damn ROM in the same feed results in a horrible mess of dependencies.

    4. Re:yeah, if I had money ;) by gullevek · · Score: 1

      these libs are all for the original qtopia enviroment.

      okay, for basic scumm you only need the libSDL (if you go the scummvm link you find links on the bottom).
      For sound you might also need the libSDL mixer and perhas libMAD.

      As I most of the time play in train and listen to some other music I haven't tried out sound yet.

      HTH

      [and yes a better software search with the possibilty to search for "work 100% in C-8/7x0 series would be great. perhaps time to mail killefiz.de people?]

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    5. Re:yeah, if I had money ;) by xf · · Score: 1

      Cheers for this, runs nicely now in 640x480. BASS works!

  20. Re:Fristy by CyberDave · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple's main font is currently Myriad. When I worked in the campus bookstore, I would occasionally use it in the signage I created as an homage to my favorite computer company.

  21. You can see it at Dynamism by BrianWCarver · · Score: 1

    Since the site is slashdotted, you'll have to see the SL-C3000 at Dynamism who will make it available to US customers in November.

    --
    Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
  22. Re:self-/.-ing by conics · · Score: 1

    agree with you there.... sorry for any inconvinience.

    after 7GB in 1 hour, I bumped the conics site up to 40GB and will monitor this to see if it needs more.

    I would have hosted the images on our office server, but the fiber optic won't be reconnected until November 2nd, and current 700kbps DLS wouldn't satisfy this kind of bandwidth.

  23. Re:Bandwidth Limit Exceeded by conics · · Score: 2, Informative

    sorry for any inconvinience.

    bandwidth has been increased to the conics site now.

  24. Zaurus Software Index by egghat · · Score: 1

    Zaurus Software Index.

    Duplication of efforts?

    Bye egghat.

    --
    -- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
    1. Re:Zaurus Software Index by Psycho77 · · Score: 1

      ZSI is not stable, outdated and lack some features. the new ZSI2 will be way better, and easier to get better programs.

  25. Who cares? by paranerd · · Score: 1

    Based on the number of responses to this article, no one.

    Perhaps Sharp should have cared more about us.

  26. Conics.net or Dynamism.com ??? by MMHere · · Score: 1

    $900 at Dynamism (U.S. based), $750 at Conics.net

    Three questions:

    (1) Is Conics.net based in Australia?

    (2) Why the big price difference?

    (3) Does Conics ship to U.S.?