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Handhelds Hardware

Sharp C-700 English Conversion Pictures 100

Posted by CmdrTaco from the me-likee-the-handhelds dept.
BoogerBoy writes "When Sharp announced their clamshell designed C-700 only in Japan I cried. Not anymore. It seems that only a week after its Japan release, the C-700 has been converted to English and for sale. Check out the pictures and brief English review."
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Sharp C-700 English Conversion Pictures More

Sharp C-700 English Conversion Pictures

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  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:03PM (#4940920)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Agreed. I'm still using a 5000, and with OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org] and /home configured to reside on a 256M SD card I could not bring myself to shell out $699 for this.

      Maybe when there's a 64M RAM and OpenZaurus is proven on it, but not as it is now.

  • I can't believe that they link to a review quote by playboy on their main page.

    Actually it's not the link as such, its the fact that people actually DO read playboy articles :)
    • they recently ran a little article praising Mozilla, as noted on mozillazine.org

      I understand that they have added slightly less coy naked people, too, but Playboy has always been a relatively well-rounded magazine, in fact considerably less horn-dog oriented than things like "Maxim," it's just that the women in Playboy aren't wearing clothing.

      timothy
      • for men who are too embaressed to buy Playboy. I'm not making this up. It's their overt raison d'etre. The whole magazine reeks of it too.

        Stand up and be a man, and what's more, a *geek.*

        Playboy really is the geek's magazine for nudity *and* content.

        Asimov, Bradbury ( the space elevator appeared in Playboy before anywhere else. If you weren't reading Playboy you were behind the tech curve), Ellison and many other geek favorites were in the habit of publishing first in Playboy. Gahan Wilson and Shel Silverstien also called Playboy home. The "Playboy lifestyle" was always heavily geek oriented with the latest and greatest of tech, both mechanical and electronic.

        A good review in Playboy has always been a highly desirable commodity in the electronics world. The idea that Sharp would link to one is hardly surprising or amusing.

        And it doesn't hurt that they present naked women as objects of art and beauty without treating you, or *them*, as being some sort of perv. We were all born naked, and frankly, it's this neurotic focus on clothing and the denial of sexuality that's the perversion.

        Magazines like Maxim are obsence they way they actually pander to this neurosis.

        KFG

  • If it only had more memory ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by timothy ( 36799 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:21PM (#4940940) Journal
    (Both RAM and hard drive space, that is.)

    This would be great on airplanes / in the car / anywhere a full-size laptop is overkill or just awkward.

    However, as the review here points out, it doesn't have much storage space of either variety. I guess the ideal I'm hankering for would be something like this Zaurus (small, protected screen, built-in QWERTY keyboard) and the yet-unreleased OQO.

    *Even* if it was only used as a small gaming / music / movie machine (a tiny all-media device), it would be very nice, if only there was more room on there. That it's also a nice computer for other things, even better -- if there was more room :)

    (And Yes, microdrives can carry a fair amount, but a) they're quote expensive and b) maybe the bad apples get more news, but there seem to be a lot of complaints re: reliability. An ipod-size 10 or 20GB drive, that would be something, could carry several movies, days worth of audio, important files you don't want lost when the burglars invade your unoccupied home, etc.)

    timothy

    • Get a Toshiba Libretto! (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You want small? You want hard drive space? You want portability? You want linux?

      Get a toshiba libretto! [silverace.com]

      7.1" TFT screen, laptop hard drive (have a 40 giger in mine) and fits in your pocket...

      http://www.silverace.com/libretto/librettocontent. html
      --
      This baby is THE BEST tool I have for my in the field digital photography... 3x the display size of the camera LCD, and portable. Way better than any XDrive or other poirtable camera image storage devices.. and itll play mp3s, so its cheaper than an ipod ;)

      Used, about 100$ for a Libretto 110! It'll be your favorite pda sized PC!

      • I looked at getting a Libretto, but just wouldn't cut it. No touch screen nor a reflective screen. Worthless outside or when I'm not at a desk or some other similar surface. The Jornada 720 can be used when not on a lap or anything, thanks to the touch screen. Nice machine, and faster than an old Liberetto...
      • and fits in your pocket...

        Are you kidding? I will definitely agree that the libretto (I owned an s1100 for a while) is a nice smaller alternative to a laptop, but (IMHO) there is no way you can comfortably carry one in your pocket on a regular basis. But then again, you never claimed "comfort". :)

        I think the size of the sl-c700 is close to perfect. It appears to be the same form factor as the older zaurus zr5000 which I could carry around in my pants pocket comfortably. Even if they COULD make it smaller, the keyboard size would become too small for comfortable "3 finger typing". What they need is a tiny butterfly keyboard like one of the old IBM thinkpads. :)

    • The IBM Workpads were great little systems for travel. 2 pounds, thin, instant-on, long battery life, decent screen, a 95% keyboard, the ability to use card memory, and WinCE apps - word, excel, email, etc. The only problem was only being able to sync to Windows boxes. Wasn't a problem at the time, I was working in a Windows shop.

      I used mine with a notepad app to work on the ferry to work and on 9 hour flights, and the battery lasted most of the flight.

      I've thought about checking Ebay to see what the prices are like now. It's too bad Microsoft and its' hardware thralls have abandoned that mini-laptop form factor.

      If I needed
    • ...is never overkill.

      Okay, okay, I'm sure a lot of people will disagree, but with today's laptops being relatively lightweight and inexpensive, I don't see the point of these little doohickeys.

      Give me my *real* computer, with 256mb of DDR SDRAM, 40gig hard drive, and DVD/CDRW. I can play The Sims while I'm waiting for classes to start, take notes on a keyboard large enough for serious typing, listen to as many MP3s as I can rip onto my hard drive... and keep my schedule and appointments and everything else close at hand, too.

      Give me that over a $700 PDA any day.
      • I think there are competing ideas / ideals here between portabilty and functionality.

        given certain circumstances, I'd much rather have a real laptop for the same reasons you name -- screen, storage, battery, drives ...

        However, I'd also like a way to have a computer with me at all times, for the same reasons that people go wild about wearable computers -- I'd like to have it as a (and these are just for instances ...)

        - walkman
        - notebook
        - address list
        - to-do-list
        - camera (even if that takes a little camera dongle)
        - calculator
        - book (lots of gutenberg texts loaded on),
        - micro-TiVo (a few episodes of A&E's occasional Nero Wolf movies in DivX;), say)
        - voice recorder
        - GPS and map holder

        And I want this magic device to be hand-sized, not cost to much, and use readily replaceable rechargeable batteries, AA for instance.

        Sure, that might make it a jack of all trades / master of none, but being able to fit in a pocket would go a long way toward earning forgiveness.

        A lot of these things are taken care even by current Palm OS devices or those little pocket PCs, but not all, and certainly not perfectly.

        timothy

    • Buy a 1GB microdrive (~200$ in states?) or one of those new 3GB CF's. Should be enough for pocket size computer, eh?
      I admit that it's a bit pricey, but hey, the geekness factor is hard to beat!
    • I'm waiting for the OQO as a replacement for my current combination of
      * Newton 2100: my PDA. all my college lecture notes and field data collection in a spreadsheet;
      * Jornada 720: Handheld/PC- great keyboard a nice 640x240 screen. Main drawback is that the screen isn't reflective and is impossible to read in the out of doors. Great for coding, writing in LaTeX, sshin around without having a full laptop. And yes, all of this is under WinCE.
      * iBook: nice computer, but I really wish I could run all of my machines on solar. Silly dream perhaps, but we all have them.

      I have a 2 GB Toshiba PCMCIA drive that I swap between the Jornada 720 and the Newton with music and data. Cost me a wee $80. It's the same kind you find in the iPod, but smaller. You can buy the 5, 10 and 20 GB versions, but at least in the 20 GB case, it'd be cheaper to buy an iPod and yank out the drive.

      I was looking at the new Zaurus as something that could possibly do the same thing that I'm using my Newton and Jornada for, but it doesn't look like it. Without a reflective screen, there's no way it could replace them. But it would be nice to have a PCMCIA slot like my Jornada (it has both that and CF!)

      I can't wait til the OQO. I almost did an advance order deposit (they're shipping in April), but I wanted to make sure it was what I wanted.
    • (And Yes, microdrives can carry a fair amount, but a) they're quote expensive and b) maybe the bad apples get more news, but there seem to be a lot of complaints re: reliability. An ipod-size 10 or 20GB drive, that would be something, could carry several movies, days worth of audio, important files you don't want lost when the burglars invade your unoccupied home, etc.)

      You do realize that solid-state 1 GB CF cards have been on the market for some time now right?

      There have also been announcements for 3 GB Type II CF cards from Pretec.

      Granted, they will be pretty expensive at first, but they shouldn't have the reliability issues. I wouldn't be surprised if a 10 GB CF card came out in a couple years.
      • Yes, I've heard about these, but I think they're even further out of my price range than the microdrives are ...

        hmmm, checking pricewatch, I find a lowball offer of $142 for brand-unspecified 512MB CF card, which is really much better than I thought they were right now. Of course, prices tend to get non-linear toward the edges, and there are no listings for 1GB CF cards as of right now on pricewatch.

        a 10GB CF card would be nice; I hope that SD and MM cards don't displace CD cards before that can happen ...

        timothy

  • Ultra, cool?? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SuperDuG ( 134989 )
    $699.00 is what the base model clocks in at. This is insane, you can get three computers from walmart with linux on them, and freekin cluster them together for cheaper than one handheld PDA??

    Lets face it people, what is it a PDA can do, that a watch/planner/and calculator can't (and lets just say a highend TI calc for all of you who want to say "play games") besides "RUN LINUX" there isn't anything. Go get a cheap used laptop, it will run at 640x480, run linux, and have all the features a zarus has, well except fit in your pocket.

    I think these things clock in high on the "neat-o" scale, but that's about it, how do you justify 7 bones on a PDA?

    • I run Pocket Streets on my Pocket PC. I can map anywhere in my metroplex by clicking on a name, anywhere, without any Internet connection. I also download my e-mail and the latest news every morning.

    • Re:Ultra, cool?? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Kunta Kinte ( 323399 )
      Lets face it people, what is it a PDA can do, that a watch/planner/and calculator can't (and lets just say a highend TI calc for all of you who want to say "play games") besides "RUN LINUX" there isn't anything.

      I can't afford the C-700, I paid about $400 for my 5500 and I think it was worth the money. "Runs Linux" is nothing to sneeze at. It means that there are lots of free applications that I'm familiar with that works on the zaurus.

      For me the biggest ones are emulators and network testing tools. A PDA that does all that plus fits in your pocket is worth the money.

      I think these things clock in high on the "neat-o" scale, but that's about it, how do you justify 7 bones on a PDA?

      Some people have the money and/or the need.

    • $699.00 is what the base model clocks in at. This is insane, you can get three computers from walmart with linux on them, and freekin cluster them together for cheaper than one handheld PDA??

      But for equivalent functionality don't forget to budget for a monitor, an AC generator and a really huge (and well-ventilated) pair of trousers.

    • PDAs are useful. However, $700 PDAs aren't worth it, IMHO, except to show everyone around you that you can afford a $700 PDA.

      You can get pretty much the same thing by buying a Palm m105 and a folding keyboard to go with it. Minus a few features of dubious value, like a colour screen. It'll cost about 1/3 as much however.

      The thing that a watch/planner/calculator/notepad/gameboy/e-book reader combination can't do that a PDA can is be all in the same device. That's one of the reasons they're so wonderful. You pick up the one device and you're set. It's also worth noting that there still aren't any watches that can function like the alarm clock feature of Palm's datebook, and no paper notepads that can rearrange themselves and be sorted alphabetically like Palm's to-do list.

  • Deja vu (Score:2, Informative)

    by kweiske ( 106117 )
    Looks like an HP Omnigo from several years back.
  • The GUI looks terrible! I hope it can be skinned or something because that sucks! Yuck!
    • Actually, the GUI is fairly nice...but it can be skinned if thats what you want, since it runs the same OS as the Zaurus 5x00 if would assume all the screenshots of GUIs you can find on a GIS would apply. Liquid on the Zaurus is VERY cool.
  • are nice but not necessarily innovative. I've got one of these [sonystyle.com], and if the sharp works this well it's a dream to use.
  • I'd rather have one of the tiny Sony's. They may cost more and be a bit larger, but at least you get a full featured notebook that can run linux OR windows. Hell if you can afford a $700 PDA, you can save up a little more for this.

    http://www.qart.com.pl/opisy2/Sony-Vaio-PCG-U1.h tm l
    http://www.japanrush.com/pcg-u1.asp
    • and it doesn't work on most 'compliant' system.

      My younger brother's box (900mhz w/ winshit XP) can't run Quake 3 and gets a "Calender Error" whenever ANYTHING tries to open a socket! Who the hell calls that "easy"!?
  • is here [dynamism.com].

    This article seems to disagree with the one linked to on ram, but this article calls it "flash ram" which probably means swap. I use OZ with 64mb of ram and 0 of ramdisk on my SL-5500.
  • Yeah, I submitted this on the day it appeared, yada-yada, it got rejected, blah-blah, bitch, bitch, moan, moan...

  • Why don't they ever include SSH as a base package? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by digital photo ( 635872 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @02:36PM (#4941201) Homepage Journal

    Why is it that when companies make these devices, they never consider the posibility that someone might actually want to use these things as portable terminals?

    And that perhaps, just perhaps, that person will want to do it securely via SSH?

    I'm glad it runs linux. It means that it is only a hop/skip/jump away from recompiling ssh to run on the device.

    I just wish that SSH should be a defacto and not a "special" package you add on for a large sum of cash.

    • Um...I'm pretty sure you are wrong.
      Its been awhile since I used the Sharp rom for the Zaurus, but atleast on OZ ssh-server and client are preinstalled.
    • The reason is that we (hackers, geeks) aren't the intended market. The "Average Joe" is, and KISS is very important, and they have a limited storage space. (64MB (compressed)) Openssh on a SL-5500 Zaurus takes up 3MB (uncompressed)

      "special" package requiring cash, nope.

      PS. I own one, heck I was the person to first get mplayer ported to it. We also have the battle of the media players xmms-embedded/mplayer vs opieplayer2/xine (right now, x/m is much much better), but your average person DOESN'T care. They just use the lousy built-in player for the most part.

      • Out of curiosity, is this on the "stock" zaurus or is this on a OZ installed Zaurus?

        I realise that SSH/terminal isn't a functionality which the masses are interested in and that it puts a burden on the system. Still, it can be a deciding factor for the people who are actually buying it if it can communicate on more protocols.

        Btw, I've visited the OZ site and the package is really sweet. Unfortunately, given the change in economy, I can't justify buying a new piece of gear. :| Kinda stuck with my Psion 5. ^_^;

        • yep, "stock" 5500 with 2.38 ROM. (with 128MB SD which is in constantly)

          when I get the time and such I am going to OZ 3, as it seems more stable (than OZ 3), haven't had a stability problem with the standard rom, etc.

  • dynamism is selling some cool looking computer mice designed by anime greats... now only if it came wireless, i'd get them! http://www.dynamism.com/mapp/

    • Yeah, I've seen them.

      Designed by various anime artists. There are supposed to be three models. One is designed by the artist behind "Ghost in the shell". There are two more, but they don't immediately come to mind. It was covered on slashdot a few months back though, so it might be worthwhile to do a search. :)

  • The C-700 gives you a very restricted Linux environment with applications designed for a handheld running on a non-x86 processor and a keyboard that's probably murder to type on.

    Although I haven't used it myself, from the specs, the Fujitsu Lifebook P1000 [fujitsupc.com] looks like a much better alternative, and at $1200 it isn't all that much more expensive. With an extended battery, it runs for 9 hours. Sony's Picturebook series is another ultra-portable choice.

  • Awww.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by treegnome ( 324068 )
    ..it looks like a mutated baby iBook. Can we put OS X on it? Pleeease?
  • ...or does the icon for the pseudo-start menu look like a hammer-and-sickle?

  • it also works as a netowrk monitoring tool (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22, 2002 @02:52PM (#4941266)
    I see that most of you all thing of PDA as only a note taking, appointment scheduling and multimedia (mp3) stuff tool. Cant blame you what with the current crop of Sony clies, Palms, and PocketPC atht allow you only so much and nothing more.

    Well the Zaurus first of all is a Handheld - not a PDA - clear distinction there.

    And to talk of the tools, you can remotely SSH into it, use it as a network too, demo (note I said demo, not use, so dont flame me there) Apache with PHP pages (even MySQL databse) on it to client on the move, SAMBA to Linux/Windows machines for tuning/Administering etc, use for VoIP long distance from a decent internet conncetion location, of course check your emails and all that regular stuff, do a full fledged internet browsing using Opera/Netfront (not your palm web-clipped stuff here), tenet into your university unix box and fetch your emails etc or lab notes...

    I could tell you some more such PRACTICAL apps which the Zaurus provides and it IS a lot more carryable than lugging around the laptop - you got to agree to that.

  • My biggest complaint about the current Zaurus is that the screen is too narrow; emails and web pages don't format well to it. For better or worse, we live in an 80-column world, and I'd like to see some screenshots of the '700 doing some "real-world" web pages or some text files.

    (I'm running the Crow ROM on my Zaurus, which lets me put /home onto an SD card and get 64Mb as application RAM; can the '700 do something similar?)

  • no, no and no. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by small_dick ( 127697 )
    three reasons to say no:

    1) The ugly gui. [rr.com]
    2) the high price.
    3) the people who like it eat at McDonalds. [rr.com]
  • or does the original Zaurus have a much prettier UI than this thing? I've taken a look at the current Zaurus on sale here in the US and it looks slick whereas this new one has flat-looking widgets and a very unpolished look.
    • remember, those are 640x480 screenshots, and at least on my 15" screen, they are about 4x as large as the physical screen would be.

      the 320x240 is about the same size as my Zaurus, so screen shots for it look about right.

      scaling one of the images down, it doesn't look bad, but I agree the icons look flat, the widgets don't look bad. (of course IMO)

  • OK, there are a couple out there that are nice. But most are just rehashes of Windows or Motif or some awful window manager. Even when a Linux based GUI LOOKS nice, it acts and feels like crap. Why is it that only Apple has a GUI that not only looks good on a UNIX platform, but also ACTS and FEELS polished.
  • I see that the keyboard swivels so it can either be a mini-laptop or a regular PDA. So, when you swivel it, the screen has to adjust from landscape to portrait. Does anyone know how this works?

  • Thank you for the interest... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DavonZ ( 13344 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @07:48PM (#4942279) Homepage
    Thank you /.'ers for the interest in the project. We have spent many long nights converting this. For those that have questions on it, please feel free to reply to this or the nvmax.com posting and I will answer as best as I can.

    Please understand that my efforts have been in the conversion and I have not dedicated as much time into using the unit, but for the few things that I have used it for... it is remarkable.

    LD

    • How does the handwriting recognition of the Zaurus compare to that of the Palm and PocketPC in general?
      • I do not think it does compare. The PocketPC has transcribe and that is an excellent product. The Palm has graphiti (sp?) and that is also good. The Zaurus has a decent handwriting tool, but it fails to compete with the above two. Yet, the keyboard is much easier to use then any handwriting tool (IMHO).

        This is Linux and new applications are coming out every day for it.

        LD

  • According to this story [pcworld.com] in PC World, Sharp plans to show it at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and bring it to the U.S. for sale in Q1 of 2003.

    Here are some other useful SL-C700 links I've found in the last week or so:

    MobileNews article with LOTSA pix [mobilenews.ne.jp] (in Japanese, but the pix are easy to see).

    Here is a mobigeeks blurb (with several off-links to other interesting places, also a forum).

    About a quarter of the way down this page [digit-life.com], there are some good closeup pix.

    Here is an nvmax.com article [nvmax.com], describing Dynamism's efforts, and several other off-links.

    Here is Sharp's own page [sharp.co.jp], also in Japanese, but has a couple of decent pix.

    Here's a German article [golem.de], with a good description of the specs.

    • Sharp denied the rumor about the release in Q12003. It was started by a Japanese reporter who was collecting little tidbits and thought they all pointed to the release.

      I have spoken with Sharp USA about this. They are going to test the US market interest in January, but do not know if there will be a release. They did tell me that if there was a release, it would be after Q1.

      LD

  • I just got my SL-5500 - now they come out with this...hmmm it's so tempting, but I don't see a price tag - by my guess it's probably $499-$599 range since my zaurus was $399 now (499 when it came out last year) as cool as the new one looks i'm still really happy with the slide out keyboard, but i bet my zelda rom would play a lot easiers on that system with the screen turned sideways :)
  • a quote from the article: "Its innovative swiveling screen transforms the shape from PDA-style to laptop-style. "

    yep. it's just about as innovative as the toshiba portege 3500 I'm writing this on right now. Too bad it doesn't have the MS Tablet PC API, or an electromagnetic-resistive screen. what a tragedy. It occurs to me that it must be lame when MS does it, but innovative if it runs linux. And no, I'm not a troll. People here just tend not to like anything that microsoft puts out, but will call it the greatest thing since sliced bread the second someone ports linux to the damned thing.
  • ... Linux und seine Programme sind damit
    so etwas wie ein real existierender Sozialismus der besseren Art...
    -- Christian Seel in der Berliner Morgenpost v. 9.3.1997

    - this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...

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