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Handhelds Hardware

New Zaurus Prototype, Sony Palm OS 5 Devices, Yopy 3500 213

Posted by timothy from the yummy-handhelds dept.
dnomla writes "There is an article on PC WORLD giving a few details on the next revision of the Sharp Zaurus PDA. Sounds like the display is wider now than the current longer display and folds up. Not a whole lot of information, but at least we know there's a new model on the way. I really like the current Zaurus, can't wait to find out all the details." Also in handheld news, Lee writes "Sony just announced the first Palm OS 5 devices, available later this month. These are the first Palm OS devices to include an ARM processor! Get the scoop at Palm Infocenter or see them at Sony Style." Reader Big Mike also points out the new model of Yopy (3500) being previewed at www.yopy.at.
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New Zaurus Prototype, Sony Palm OS 5 Devices, Yopy 3500 More

New Zaurus Prototype, Sony Palm OS 5 Devices, Yopy 3500

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  • coooool! new platform for opie :) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Cybersonic ( 7113 ) <ralph@ralph.cx> on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @10:49PM (#4378750) Homepage
    Wanted to mention Opie [handhelds.org], which is an open environment for handhelds (notably the Zaurus and the iPAQ)

    Check out the screenshots [131.152.105.154] of opie in action... I was hooked at first sight :)

  • This is great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by levik ( 52444 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @10:49PM (#4378753) Homepage
    Another bunch of great steps toward out ultimate goal of driving the average battery life of these devices down to under one hour.

    Remember when a Visor could work for a month on a set of AAA's without having to restrict your use to 10 minutes a day?

    • Re:This is great! (Score:4, Informative)

      by geekd ( 14774 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @11:00PM (#4378787) Homepage
      Holding my Palm m505 next to my co-workers Zaurus, I feel like I have the short end of the stick. Sure, we both have 16 bit color, but he's got a 240x320 screen, and all I got is 160x160. He's got 802.11b networking, and enough processor to play mp3 files and movies. I got no networking (bluetooth just came out, though) and a weak ass processor.

      His is way bigger though (that's actually bad in this case, haha), and he get under 2 hours battery life with the network card in. I get 8 hours.

      For what I do with my PDA (mostly play World War, a Risk clone, when I'm on the can) the Palm is fine.

      -geekd
    • i still got one of dem dare ol' visors yep, it goes for a good while on a couple of dem AAA's darn tootin but dem new fangled zauruses are so dang flashy mah! i want one of dem! die visor die! or... at least hold a residual value worth a damn! f'ecking, dot-bomb bullplop, mofo, etc... ! :-0 the concerned bystander
    • My pencil and pad of paper has infinite battery life... so by your standards, the Visor sux.

  • I don't understand... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Herpes ( 611516 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @10:53PM (#4378767)
    ...why a lot of the new PDA's keep getting bigger, having keyboards, etc. I've always considered two of the benefits of a PDA to be a small size and an easy to use interface. With keyboards and flip-style screens and such, they get bigger and more complicated to use. Improved functionality is one thing, but it seems like these things get closer to being laptop computers every time a new model comes out.
    • Well, sony lets you flip the keyboard under the screen, and use their clie as a traditional PDA. Which is good. Now if only you could swivel it so that both the keyboard and the screen are horisontal, you could have a very decent portable SSH device, an administrator's wet dream.
      • Unfortunately, the new clie is still nearly an inch thick, regardless of whether you want the keyboard or not. Carrying something that big in your pocket is probably enough to cut off circulation, ending any chance an admin might ever have at a wet anything.

        • Re:I don't understand... (Score:3, Informative)

          by Dj ( 224 )
          It's eleven sixteenths of an inch thick. If you think thats an inch, then you may be overestimating many things in your life.

          It's no thicker than the current Clie NR70V and that's a sleek pocketable beastie

        • Why would something an inch think cut-off circulation? My wallet is more than an inch think, and plenty of people manage to carry those around.

    • Re:I don't understand... (Score:4, Informative)

      by pantherace ( 165052 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @11:01PM (#4378792)
      One advantage to a larger size would be increased battery life (unless Sharp decides to use all the space for 'new' features). The battery in the current Zaurus (actually SL-5000D and SL-5500) is a Li-Ion 2.7V 950mAh battery. Changing that to Lithium -Polymer and making it bigger would result in a huge improvement in battery life (one of the biggest complaints I have heard. (I personally find the battery life just fine))
    • Natural evolution... laptop computers have gone this way too, although there are some targeted at people who want small and light. We'll probably end up with another generation of "sub-PDA" devices.
    • Uh, thats probably why 3com and the like are still making pda's that don't have all the wizbang features. A lot of their newer entry level models are small, have monochrome screens and last forever on the battery.
    • Whatever happened to making PDA's smaller?

      One of the best form factors I have ever seen for a PDA was found in the Rex [rex6000.org].
    • ...why a lot of the new PDA's keep getting bigger, having keyboards, etc.

      Demand Perhaps.

      AIH I own a Zaurus, which I can highly recommend, it is the best PDA I have every owned (or played with). However I would happly trade a size increase, even doubled, for additional battery life and a pair of SD & CF ports. It is easy to fill the singles povided, for example mine has a SD memory card and CF 802.11 Wireless card. I have no room for more memory or GPRS card.

      I've always considered two of the benefits of a PDA to be a small size and an easy to use interface.

      The current Zaurus can hardly be called large; and I suggest that your two criteria are inversely related. ... it seems like these things get closer to being laptop computers every time a new model comes out.

      There is an order of magnitude difference between PDA and small Laptop/Notebook.

      The current Zaurus is about 74mm (W) x 138mm (D) x 18mm (H) mm Weight - 208g. - http://www.sharp.co.uk/zaurus/spec/spec.htm

      A Sharp MURAMASA notebook 282x232x16.6(min)/19.6(max)mm & 1.31Kg

      • It's funny- when myself or others talk about why we still use the Newton as our PDA platform of choice, people cry "but it's too large! the People have spoken and the People want something the size of a Palm V!" But now I'm told the People want something big with a keyboard. :P
    • They're getting bigger because the market is getting big enough to support that kind of diversity. There are still small, utilitarian devices out there -- I'd argue that this is where Palm began and, for the most part, has remained ever since. They've done a good job in that niche and that's fine -- I still use my Pam V every day and love it.

      But there's also a place for more capable devices, as the PocketPC market illustrates, and in order to differentiate themselves from Palm & Handspring, it makes sense for Sony to offer this kind of device in addition to their simpler models. If all Sony did was offer a faithful replica of the Palm -- including Palm's software -- then why would anyone bother buying it? They have no choice but to try to stand out from the pack.

      Personally, I think it's great. You're right -- I don't see the high end Clie's as [uber-] PDAs, I see them as mini laptops that you can fit in your pocket. I see these devices as being replacements for all the little gizmos I've been thinking about buying -- digital camera, portable mp3 player, voice recorder, and yes an updated pda. It's all of these, and that's great to me. You can accuse it of the old "jack of all trades, master of none" line of thought, and to an extent that's true -- there are better "pure" devices in each area where these machines offer functionality. But hell I'm willing to take a slightly less fancy version in order to get all that functionality into one sleek little machine. Hell yeah.

      I know what I want for Christmas... :-)

    • I agree. I'm very pleased with my Zaurus SL-5500, and one of its best features is its form factor -- I can put it in a suit-jacket pocket, quickly pull it out when needed, and often I can use it with one hand. If I have to deal with a bigger device, and use two hands just to open it up to get at my data, I may as well use my laptop.

      Then again, if a sufficiently powerful device with the new Zaurus form factor had been available, I might have been willing to spilt the difference and buy one of those instead of a laptop + PDA.

  • ARGH! Hardware people, HARDWARE (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pantherace ( 165052 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @10:57PM (#4378780)
    Ok, 640x480 screen great.

    No mention of processor (My guess is Xscale), because if they don't no one will be able to play back full screen video (mplayer has to frame drop on the 206MHz SA-1100 in the SL-5500 (current model)) either that or a real video device instead of the memory mapped framebuffer it has.

    How much RAM? and if they are putting it in a notebook like design, PCMCIA, CF, SD, internal microdrive?

    I personally don't like the idea of a fold out, but it might work.

    Don't get me wrong: I love my zaurus, (shameless ego building: I even ported mplayer to it (mostly due to the wonderful other people working on mplayer), but I did it first :) ) This article on the other hand is not really worth actually reading the article (cept to find out where it will be previewed.)

    • 640x480 screen great.


      Agreed. It's hard to tell, but from the picture [idg.com.sg] on IDG Singapore's site, it looks like the screen may be designed to flip around and face outward, like the high-end Sonys.

      No mention of processor (My guess is Xscale)


      Probably, since the other recent Sharp Linux PDA, the SL-A300, runs on an Xscale, albeit only a 200mhz one. Hopefully this new model will be running at 400mhz. Weren't there reports, though, that some of the PocketPC devices weren't seeing much of a performance jump with the Xscale?

      PCMCIA, CF, SD, internal microdrive?


      In the picture, there's a black bar on the right side of the case that looks like it's a CF slot. Hopefully they've kept the SD slot too so that you can work with both extra memory and a wireless card at the same time, like in the SL-5x00.

    • ...will look immediatly familiar to us, former Psion aficionados.

      Well, I guess there are two schools of thought concerning PDAs: the one that favors a light, slim, pocketable device and the other which prefers the commodity of a real QWERTY (or AZERTY or Dvorak or whatever else) keyboard. Good to see that there are offers for both tastes out there!

    • Re:ARGH! Hardware people, HARDWARE (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @06:20AM (#4379622) Journal
      ... PCMCIA, CF, SD, internal microdrive?

      This pic clearly shows a SD slot at the back.
      http://www.mobilenews.ne.jp/news/2002/10/01 /ceatec /02.jpg

      This looks like it could be CF slot.
      http://www.mobilenews.ne.jp/news/2002/10/01 /ceatec /06.jpg

      More Close Up Pics
      http://www.mobilenews.ne.jp/news/2002/10/01/ ceatec /

      Close examination of the back of the keyboard section suggests a very similar layout to the original Zaurus. In the placement of SD,CF,IR etc.

  • Do any of these new devices license Apple's handwriting recognition, from the Newton? In fact, the Newton is so old, I wonder if anyone has taken that code and improved it even further? I loved not having to learn Graffiti. I want to buy a new handheld, but I want it to be hyper-intuitive. What about voice commands? Can any of them handle that out-of-the-box yet?

    • What about voice commands? Can any of them handle that out-of-the-box yet?

      Processor-wise and hardware-wise, yes. Any of the StrongARMs should be able to handle one (admittedly not as complex as ViaVoice)
      There are people working on getting CMU Sphinx (speech recognizer) to run on Zaurus and do neat things. CMU flite (CMU festival lite, speech sythesis) is working on Zaurus and Ipaq (running linux) and sounds pretty good.

      I have heard there is a program to have WinPPC 2002 do it, but it is $40 at a minimum.

    • Do any of these new devices license Apple's handwriting recognition, from the Newton? In fact, the Newton is so old, I wonder if anyone has taken that code and improved it even further? I loved not having to learn Graffiti. I want to buy a new handheld, but I want it to be hyper-intuitive. What about voice commands? Can any of them handle that out-of-the-box yet?

      Sorry to post objective information about a Microsoft product on Slashdot (ducks moderators that are Linux and Ellen Feiss followers or have an unhealthy obsession with the latter), but Pocket PCs have the closest to natural handwriting recognition (formerly known as Calligrapher). Several Pocket PCs also come with voice recognition for a limited selection of choices (like Contacts/Address Book). Pocket PC dosn't get much benefit from the X-Scale processor, though, so performance/capability has hit a ceiling for now. ActiveSync has some issues, and PPCs only officially work with Windows, so it's your call. I don't know of the capabilities of the newest Palms, but they might offer something similar.

      • Calligrapher is in fact the technology that was used in the Newton. Though the Newton died, the handwriting recognition lives on.
      • I couldn't agree with you more. I've been really disappointed that many of the linux and palm offerings haven't applied the ever-increasing number of cpu cycles and MB of RAM to using more complex HWR algorithms to provide more accurate and forgiving hand-writing recognition. It's kind of messed up when we now have PDA's running webservers, playing MP3's, and logging into networks using ssh but the state of HWR on many PDA's is not better than it was five years ago running on machines that were 20 times less powerful. Given the linux community's lack of attention to usability issues and incredulous attitudes towards HCI experts, I'm not terribly surpised that most linux PDA's have sucky HWR. But Palm has been saavy about interface design in the past, so they should really know better than to keep grafitti from receiving important and long overdue improvements.

    • Don't forget why Graffiti was created. It began as an alternative software package to the flawed handwriting package on the Newton. I remember paying for Graffiti on the original Newton, because I could enter text in twice as fast as with the native recognition.

      Of course, Graffiti became Palm, and the rest is history.
    • Martin: How innovative. I like it!

      Kearney: Hey Dolph, take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin. [Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" which the Newton translates as "Eat up Martha"] Bah! [throws Newton]

      Martin: [being bonked on the head] Ow!
    • Actually - even though this is entirely politically incorrect when it comes to slashdot or mac/apple fanatics,

      WinCE 3.0 does a really good job if your right handed. I'm left handed (doesn't work so well for me - neither did the newton for that matter). I handed my old ipaq to my friend and just scribbling his name on it (in notes mode) - recognized it perfectly. It does use some licensed technology, but its name escapes me right now.
  • I guess the rumors of Lineo's demise were exaggerated.
  • I promised myself I would avoid the first model of the cool Sharp Zaurus. I've been burned by jumping on first generation devices too many times (like WinCE 1.0, first gen mp3 CD player, etc). Even if the first generation was good (like the reviews seem to be saying), the second generation is usually worth waiting for.

    Here I thought it would take several more months before we heard the first bits about the new model...now I'm going to have to (well, not really have to..but want to) figure out how to buy one.

    I don't know if I really like the whole subnotebook thing. I just picked up a $200 Thinkpad off Ebay that's all of 4 lbs at 233 Mhz...it works great. I'm rather sold on the whole PDA idea (happy Visor owner), so perhaps I will be able to put off more spending a little longer until they come out with a next-gen handheld.

    • the new Z isn't a sub notebook. It's really just about 1/2" wider than the SL-5500 or so the picture of the top looks that way. Since the screen rotates and flips, it can be used just like the current model but without the slide-out keyboard. To use the keyboard on this model requires you view in landscape mode.

      With 32MB of flash, it looks like Sharp is planning on loading this baby up. Now if only the turds at the retail counters will learn that Linux is not a detriment. Most times I'm at a PDA retail counter, they are telling people the Z is for geeks because it runs Linux and then shows them HP devices.... dumb ass!

      This new Z is gonna rock. IMHO.

      LoB

  • Why Sony sucks... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @11:38PM (#4378905)
    1) CF slot? Nope... only works with their wireless card.

    2) Open memory? Nope... only their lovely Magic Gate DRM sticks.

    Well... at least your network and your audio will be "protected" Sony style. Makes me sick. I stay away from Sony at all costs.

    • I think MagicGate sucks ass too. I have a 128 meg and 64 meg memory stick that I use with my camera, but I can't use either of them with my Network Walkman. But surely these things take normal memory sticks.

      If only Sony stuff wasn't so freekin cool! If I was starting again I wouldn't buy a Sony digital camera. And then I wouldn't have bought a Vaio for a laptop. And then I wouldn't have bought a Network Walkman.

      So my advice if you haven't already bought Sony is to keep it that way.

    • Re:Why Sony sucks... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Keith Russell ( 4440 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @10:01AM (#4380534) Journal
      CF slot? Nope... only works with their wireless card.

      Mechanically, it is a CF Type II slot. They are only providing drivers for their 802.11b card, so far. Hopefully somebody, anybody, will start providing drivers for other devices.

      Open memory? Nope... only their lovely Magic Gate DRM sticks.

      WRONG! Every time /. posts a story on Memory Stick equipped Sony kit, I have to clue-stick somebody on this point, and I'm getting sick of it. The only Sony Memory Stick devices that ever force you to use Magic Gate are their slow-selling Network Walkman products. (Gee, wonder why they're slow-selling?) Clies are compatible with Magic Gate, but only for playing audio in ATRAC3 format. All other memory card functions, including MP3 playback, use standard issue, non-DRM Memory Sticks.

      • Mechanically, it is a CF Type II slot.

        Sure, and "mechanically" their iLink is IEEE1394 FireWire. But it's not. Remove a few prongs and change the voltage and PROHIBIT anyone fron using it without paying a license. Real niiiice and open, eh? Want to BYPASS their protected CF slot? Wait and see what will happen. Kieth, let me introduce you to someone, DMCA. DMCA, meet Kieth.

        Oh, about that memmory stick, so your telling me that I can take my 128mb SD card which I can use in a Kyocera phone, or a Palm 515, or a NomadII player, or any other large number of devices, and plop it into a sony device? Nope. Sorry. Have to fork over another bucket of $$$ for the same thing - memory - but in a different plastic case so I can use my little Sony device. Forget it.

        • Sorry. Brought the wrong weapon to the fight. I had a clue-stick when I really needed an anti-troll ICBM.

          Sure, and "mechanically" their iLink is IEEE1394 FireWire. But it's not. Remove a few prongs and change the voltage and PROHIBIT anyone fron using it without paying a license. Real niiiice and open, eh?

          The 4-pin non-powered connector has been part of IEEE 1394 from Day One. The "missing prongs and changed voltage" are to spec. There is absolutely nothing to prevent anyone from connecting an IEEE 1394-compliant device to a Sony. The only thing Sony charges for is the "iLink" trademark. Just as Apple used to charge for the "Firewire" trademark and Creative charges for "SB 1394".

          Want to BYPASS their protected CF slot?

          Who said anything about it being "protected"? The 802.11b card is the only CF device with drivers at the moment.

          Oh, about that memmory stick, so your telling me that I can take my 128mb SD card which I can use in a Kyocera phone, or a Palm 515, or a NomadII player, or any other large number of devices, and plop it into a sony device? Nope. Sorry. Have to fork over another bucket of $$$ for the same thing - memory - but in a different plastic case so I can use my little Sony device.

          That's odd. None of the devices you mention support SmartMedia. Oh, wait. The Nomad II uses SmartMedia. But the Palm m515 doesn't. It uses MMC/SD. Oh, no! I have to fork over another bucket of $$$ for the same thing - memory - but in a different plastic case so I can use my little Palm device!

          Kieth (sic), let me introduce you to someone, DMCA. DMCA, meet Kieth (sic).

          I refer you to my previous rant on MP3/ATRAC3 support, with this addendum. The MSImport app exposes the memory stick slot of a docked Clie to the operating system as a removable drive. From there, copyrighted material can be freely moved between handheld and PC with no restrictions whatsoever, and it will still be playable on the Clie when you're done. iPod, OTOH, can only sync playable MP3s one way: Mac to iPod. If you want to move MP3s from Mac to Mac, you have to use iPod's hard drive mode, which renders the MP3s unplayable on the iPod itself. What were you saying again about DMCA?

      • He problably was less hung up on the Magic Gate and more on the Memory Stick thing. Personally I consider the Sonys the nicest Palm implementations at the moment, save for the damn Memory Stick. Yet another instance of Sony's obsession with knocking down a wall with their head until it bleeds and cracks open (the head, not the wall). Five or ten years down the road of nobody else adopting the MS and everyone else standardizing on CF or SD, and they'll finally quietly drop it from their products and pretend that it never existed. Why not do that now and spare a lot of buyers the nagging feeling of having purchased a great device with one fatal flaw?

  • PDA Audio needs line-in. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by angst7 ( 62954 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @12:02AM (#4378958) Homepage
    The NX handhelds have a built-in microphone which turns the NX series in a digital ATRAC3/MP3/ADPCM format voice recorder to store your memos.

    Am I the only one who thinks that one of these PDA makers needs to include a line-in jack? It doesn't seem like much to ask, and given this simple feature and some accompanying software, I can effectively do away with my mini-disk recorder for most tasks...

    ---
    Jedimom.com [jedimom.com], Ph Balanced for Women.
    • The Zaurus has some kind of line-in using the speaker jack. Not sure how it works, but you can supposedly plug a headset into the audo jack. If you have one of those cd-to-cassette adapters you can just stick it in the audio-out plug and use the Zaurus as an auto mp3 or ogg player!

      Maybe it switches modes from input to output? Experts are welcome to comment. I've not screwed with Zaurus audio much yet.
  • I use serial ports on lots of my machines I administer. That includes Cisco's, HP routers, Linux, FreeBSD, and a few other misc stuffs. What I really would like is a serial port with a terminal program. It's either a handheld 'puter has it or I haul around a small laptop.

    I'd prefer to get rid of the laptop (heh, not permanently). ANy suggestions?
    • Only on the docking station. It has a USB and a serial port. Still considerably smaller than a laptop, but I'd think something like an IBM Z50 running NetBSD might be cooler for your app. The Zaurus is kind of shackled to its docking station if you want to do much I/O with it. It works well with Windoze->Zaurus via ftp or telnet, and Linux kernel support is in the works but is still buggy: it will auto-ifconfig the Zaurus using hotplug, but seems to lose its connection after a bit. I run 2.4.17 so maybe a more recent kernel would work smoother. I'm trying to update my kernel but I have a lot of exotic hardware like pure aha3940 UW scsi system, dual processors, sblive! audio, bt848 video card, GeForce2MX OpenGL, and the awesome Tyan Thunder motherboard, so I have to wait a bit sometimes and can't aways run a bleeding-edge kernel. Yes, it plays all those Loki games like a mofo! I get way over 100fps with QuakeForge, can play Unreal1 easy with the new patch at iccuclus, all this with only dual PII-450's. Heh heh, and I got a beta BIOS which I can easily run dual 1G PIII's! Thats my upcoming winter upgrade!

      Oh, er, uh, yeah.. (drinks beer)... no it doesn't have a serial port except if you plug it into the docking station or get some kind of CompactFlash->Serial Port gizmo.
    • Yup, I believe most Palm's will work (at least the older ones). You just need the cable. I'm betting similar solutions exist for any of the linux based handhelds also.
      Several PalmOS terminal programs [palmpilotarchives.com]
      Free one [em.com.br]
      linux specific article [itworld.com]
      More non-free [plushworks.com] software [markspace.com]

    • Re:Any serial port? (Score:2, Informative)

      by oob ( 131174 )
      You want to console into boxes in the data centre with your PDA, so that you avoid waiting for a laptop (that you had to carry) to boot before you can fix something. I do this with the Zaurus, it's add-on serial cable, a couple of converters and Minicom.

      The serial cable doesn't need to be attached to the docking station - on one end is the Sharp proprietary USB/Serial/Whatever connector thingy that plugs in to the bottom of the unit and the other is standard 9 pin which you can convert to whatver console port you're connecting to.

      • so that you avoid waiting for a laptop (that you had to carry) to boot before you can fix something.

        This doesn't answer your other (good) arguments, but as for booting your laptop, I keep my iBook booted but sleeping 24 hours a day, and only have to plug it in for a couple of hours every week (not including the time charging to support actual use).

    • Unfortunately, someone at Sharp had his head up his butt while desigining it.

      If you connect the serial cable to the Zaurus, it covers the pull-out keyboard, so you can't type while it's connected.
      There is a way to modify [pellicosystems.com] it so it works, but Sharp still really missed the boat.

      I also have some test devices which I use a serial port to communicate with, and I really loved my HP 200LX for that.
      I could keep the 200LX and it's serial cable in my pocket, and I didn't have to lug around a laptop.

      I bought the Zaurus to replace the 200LX, and so far it's done a great job.

      I only have two complaints so far:

      I wish it had come with a working serial cable

      I wish the address book was easier to port from the 200LX.

      Fortunately, the good points - touchscreen, color, CF & SD ports, wireless support, faster processor, linux, etc. far outweigh the negatives.
      I definitely recommend trying one out.

  • Ok, how about some pics? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Arminius ( 84868 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @12:19AM (#4378977) Homepage
    Here [sharp.co.jp] is what it looks like. More pics and info can be found here [sharp.co.jp] (warning - page is in japanese).
    I'll get one for sure when they hit the States!

  • photo of new zaurus (Score:5, Informative)

    by ahaile ( 147873 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @12:30AM (#4378998)
    IDG Singapore has the same article as PC World but with a photo [idg.com.sg] of the new Zaurus. Very slick. Keys on the keyboard are much larger than the current Z, but probably still too small for anything but thumb-typing.
    • Wow is that awesome looking. My wife would love that thing. For me the tiny kb on the SL-5500 is actually quite effective but the new one looks to be more of a HandHeld PC than a Pocket PC. Nice link to the photo, cool!

    • Is is just me or does the screen look like it flips 180 degrees for a clie-style screen only tablet mode? It would explain the application button placement

      • Could be, but you still wouldn't reach the application buttons if you turned the screen.

        There are an up down button arrangement on the outside of the upper right corner (probably volume).
        This could be good for onehanded use, but it still seems like Sharp forgot that part. A single jog-dial would have boosted usability a lot.
        • I didn't mean physical switch buttons, but the little application icons along the right hand side of the screen. They would end up on the bottom of the unit in a traditional palm-held tablet mode with the screen flipped around.

  • Psion Revo All Over Again? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by saihung ( 19097 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @02:03AM (#4379205)
    I bought the Zaurus because it shared the single feature that I loved the most about my dear, departed Revo - a keyboard. Now that I've seen the new design, I'm salivating all over again. I LOVE this format, but history would indicate that I'm in the minority. Notice that there's no Revo MKII.
    • I agree. The Psion handheld keyboard design was perfect. I really don't like the current handhelds with no keyboard. But as with a lot of things I think handheld buyers (mostly gadget freaks) really fall for the cool factor instead of looking at the usability of a device. How many people do you know how own a handheld but hardly use it? If I look around here in my office I can see at least 3 docking stations with handhelds in them which haven't left there cradles for weeks or even months. Psion users on the other hand really use there devices intensively.
      • Psion users on the other hand really use there devices intensively.

        Amen to that!

        I am absolutely dependent on my Psion 5mx. It is my:

        • Calendar. No, I don't synchronize it with anything.
        • Contacts database. No synch here either.
        • Internet client when I'm away from home. Works best when I have GPRS access, though.
        • Time tracker. I work as a freelancer so I have to keep track of billable hours. This app alone pays for the PDA within two months.
        • Database. I am the "archivist" for the choir, I sing in. The database listing our collection of music is kept on the 5mx. So is the spreadsheet logging member attendance.
        • Navigator. This is more for fun as it is not terribly reliable. Also, the GPS receiver runs on external power only so it is only useful in the car.
        So far I haven't found anything that matches the 5mx in usefulness, BTW, two AA alkalines last well over a month.
        • I'm a Newton user and I've found pretty much the same thing. Syncing is for the weak! Why would one need sync, other than to make sure your data isn't gone when your PDA flakes out? Or, if your PDA isn't good enough to handle email and such directly from. Luckily, we Newton and Psion users don't have that problem.

  • Sony's major flaw (Score:2, Insightful)

    by M3wThr33 ( 310489 )
    Come on, 5 hours WITHOUT backlight and including the Wi-Fi card brings it to 2.5 WITHOUT backlight. So conservative estimates put it at 2 hours with NORMAL use... how is this seperating itself from the PocketPC handhelds?
  • A 400MHz XScale running on a 640x480 device is plenty for running X11 and regular X11 applications very well. It would make excellent sense to switch from Qt/Embedded to Qt/X11 now so that people can run regular software on the device without rewriting the complete GUI in Qt.

  • Great technology, for what use? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by chiark ( 36404 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @05:28AM (#4379543) Homepage Journal
    IMHO, you either want a PDA that goes anywhere with a limited feature set, or a fully blown PC that does everything you want it to, is extensible but also small enough to not worry about carrying most places.

    I have a Rex 6000 for the PDA side of things, and an old but good Libretto 100CT for the PC side of things. It's the size of a video casette (remember them? ;-) ) and does everything I need. It'd be cool if I could play movies, but hey you can't have everything, and besides, do I really need it? :-)

    The Sony U1 (see conics.net for an importer [conics.net]) looks far more use. It's a PC that's small enough to challenge the libretto but way more powerful. The new JVC mininotes look interesting too, or the Fujitsu P-series.

    I think this is technology looking for a niche that just plain isn't there.

  • Forget CPU speed, memory, apps. This one point on the Yopi specs has got me wanting more already...

    Visueller Alarm (a la Knight Rider (TM))

    I'll take two!

  • interesting pen UI research (w/ Java source code!) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WillAdams ( 45638 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @07:57AM (#4379898) Homepage
    http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/satin/

    They have some sharp sample apps, and interesting publications.

    William

  • Palm - PPC competition, finally (Score:5, Informative)

    by waytoomuchcoffee ( 263275 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @08:27AM (#4380021)
    This is going to be a great year for competition. Just a year ago Pocket PC's had huge advantages in both hardware and software. Palm OS 4 devices were stuck using 16-bit Motorola processors that for the most part ran at 33MHz, while on the PPC the norm was a 200Mhz 32-bit StrongARM processor with around 20 times the MIPS. The PPC OS was multithreaded, the Palm OS was not. The normal PPC could run 320x240 full screen resolution; the majority of Palm models were running 160x160 with a hard graffiti area. About the only advantage Palm units had was battery life, and even that was being challenged by lithium-powered PPC units such as the iPAQ. A lot can change in a year.

    Software is more equal now. OS 5 is a 32-bit, (from the 32-bit OS experience of 4 dozen former BeOS employees inherited by Palmsource), multithreaded, offers system-wide 128-bit encryption, SSL support, and has new multimedia video and audio APIs. It will run code on Intel, Motorola, and TI ARM-based processors, without recompiling thanks to translation layers. And it is lean; it can fit under 4 megs.

    OS 5 also has a large advantage over PPC 2002 -- native support of the ARM V5 instruction set. The PPC 2002 OS does not [pocketpcthoughts.com], eliminating what could have been large performance increases. While the next PPC OS will undoubtedly rectify this, some analysts are predicting this may not be released until 2004. This is partly why the new XScale PPCs are not showing the speed improvements everyone was expecting over the older StrongARM PPCs. For some tasks, new PPCs actually run [pocketnow.com]
    slower.

    Not upgrading the PPC OS to use V5 was a rational decision on Microsoft's part, as it would have made "obsolete all SA1110 iPAQ devices" and "strand[ed] an installed base of over 2 million iPAQ users", according to MS (same link above [pocketpcthoughts.com].) Palm in is a much better position. OS 5 only has to emulate the old Motorola code to run programs written exclusively for OS 4. While emulation usually slows things down considerably, the Motorola was *so* slow that the ARM V5 processors are actually running many apps faster than before (if marketing can be believed).

    The Palm OS also has a huge advantage as it can already use the ARM V5's automatic clock and voltage throttling abilities. For example, if you run a CPU-intensive game the Xscale can run full-bore (200-400Mhz), while if you run your datebook it throttles back (say 50Mhz), conserving battery life. This function is so important the XScale was named after it (it "scales" itself). Current XScale PPC's don't seem able to do this little trick. (The ASUS MyPal PPC worked out a kludge [anandtech.com] for this -- a software control so you can throttle the processor manually -- and is promising a more elegant OS patch in future MyPal's to throttle automatically, "fixing" this part of the PPC 2002 OS.)

    What about hardware? Well, both Palms and PPCs can now use basically the same hardware (and even vendors). ASUS is making both current PPCs and upcoming (1Q 2003) Palms. Palm OS 5 units have an advantage as they can use a varied range of ARM processors, and already some Palm OS units (like this Sony) have a higher resolution . The Ipaq is rumored to be going up to 480x320 next year, but we will have to wait and see.

    Even though these particular Clieâ(TM)s are not my bag (too bulky), it wonâ(TM)t be long until the entire high-end Clie line is ported over to XScale, including the smaller form factor models.
    • About the only advantage Palm units had was battery life, and even that was being challenged by lithium-powered PPC units such as the iPAQ.

      What iPAQs were you thinking of? The only iPAQ model I've seen that gets decent battery life is the iPAQ 3100 series (which I own). It has a black and white screen (rather than color) which is the reason it gets any reasonable battery life. But all the other iPAQ models with color screens get a piddly 2-3 hours of batter life. At least the Jornada 720 gets around 8 hours with still a color screen, at the expense of something that most people is too big to fit in a pocket. For me, a J720-sized device fits fine in my pocket, but it's too fragile to trust to a pocket, so I carried it around in the leather case that came with it.

      Needless to say, I got sick of the small screen of the iPAQ and the fragile feel and unreadable screen in the out of doors of the Jornada 720 and will be going back to the Newton until a worth while PDA comes out. It looks like the OQO [oqo.com] will be my next PDA, my next dekstop, and my next laptop. If that's not good enough, I guess I'll have to keep living with my Newt or make my own.

      The problem with the XScale CPUs isn't that the OS doesn't support the instruction set, at least not entirely. You get less MIPS out of a 400 MHz XScale than you would out of a SA110 at 400 MHz. The XScale CPUs have a much higher MIPS-per-watt ratio than the StrongARM line, but a lower MIPS-per-megahertz. I think it's a worthy tradeoff, but regardless, the PalmOS won't get much more out of the XScale than PocketPC does. But I guess we'd have to actually have XScale PalmOS units available before we'll know, but hell, any decently clocked device running PalmOS 5 is still not available.

    • Can the Clie's finally sync with a Mac? If so, can they take advantage of iSync, the system address book, iTunes, iPhoto, iYadda iYadda iYadda? The Sony's are cool devices but if I can't plug them into my computer then it's not going to do me much good.
    • Can the Clie do Bluetooth, 802.11b, etc? Where can I find more about the "wireless networking"?
    • Where can I find more about PalmOS 5 in general and as Sony has used it? Does this version start to bring in BeOS technology yet? If so what?

    These things look cool but I want to see specs before I get my hopes up...

  • The new Zaurus looks really good, from the pictures I have seen from other links in the comments.

    But it would have been nice to have a widescreen display instead of a standard VGA display. There is certainly room in the case for this. Then with a Firewire/USB external DVD drive, you could have watched DVD movies on the move in full widescreen amongst other benefits. The resolution would have been around 800x450 instead of 640x480.

    Also the keyboard looks pretty dire - it doesn't look as nice as the keyboard on the old Psion 5s and Psion Revos.

    The screen clarity is excellent though - it must be around 200dpi though.

    It also looks a bit chunky, but with a full PCMCIA slot (it looks like it anyway), SD slots and other slots, plus keyboard and screen I suppose that is to be expected :D

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