Week in Review: Dec. 9 -- Dec. 15

The Gageteer has a review of it.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/

I was skeptical about the possibility of Linux-based PDA's, but now I'm thinking they have a chance!

From the review:

> Zaurus is bigger and heavier than the iPAQ

> When you press the On/Off button, there is a slight pause and then the Zaurus will power on
> with the front light turned off. After 1 or 2 seconds, the front light will then come on. This only takes 2-3
> seconds total, but it just doesn't feel right

> Just playing MP3's yielded me approximately 3hrs of use.

Too big, too slow, poor battery life.

> Zaurus is bigger and heavier than the iPAQ

I think The Gadgeteer blew this out of proportion. She lists the Sharp's dimensions as
5.40 x 2.90 x 0.80 in (LxWxD). The Palm III/HandEra 330 dimensions are 4.7 x 3.2 x 0.7 in.
The iPAQ is much larger than the Palm III footprint. From her pictures, the only way the Sharp is
larger is length, which is of course due to having both a large screen and a slide-out keyboard
(and 2 card slots, and loads of memory, etc). Considering all they packed into the device, it could
easily have been much larger.

>Just playing MP3's yielded me approximately 3hrs of >use.

>>Too big, too slow poor battery life.

In contrary to all of the blind ones here, quoting and guessing other people’s more or less accurate comments: I have a Zaurus.

The Zaurus is extremely fast, quite small and when the applications will be on the market as expected begin 2002, Palm will have run for the money.
In fact – they cannot ever beat a Linux system – not by the books, not by the technique. Neither by the stability of the OS, the elegance nor ever by the price.

Linux is basically royalty free and does not have to carry first class airline travelling so-so managers happy...

Will other handhelds be able to run the same apps? Or will developers be writing applications for just the Sharp Zaurus? One good handheld doesn't make a good platform. You run into the chicken and egg problem. Why should developers write applications for a handheld that has a very small installed base and why should people buy a handheld with no applications? The best way to get around this is make applications as cross compatible as possible. There are other Linux handhelds out there, like the Yopi. Can both of these run the exact same apps, without them having to be recompiled?

I also hope it can overcome the fact that it runs Linux. I know you'll find this amazing but outside a very small developer community, Linux has a terrible reputation as being very hard to use and user unfriendly. I'm not going to argue whether that's true or not, the perception is there.

Sorry - i forgot the link to the Linux run Yopi PDA:

http://www.gmate.com/english/overview.htm

So everybody can make up hin own opinion how where Palm will be in 2002

from the webpage of the maker:
...It measures 4.0 by 2.7 by 0.6 inches (10.2 by 6.9 by 1.5 cm) and weighs 5 ounces (140 grams). Battery life is better than 12 hours, according to Lee, and about 8 hours when the CDMA module is in use. To prolong battery life, the modem module has its own supplemental battery pack....

About or better as the battery life the Palm has today.

Yeah, if its ever available. The Yopi has been "coming soon" for at least a year.

And let's not forget the wild success of the Agenda VR3, a Linux-based handheld that's been available for months. I think they've sold literally /dozens/ of them.

I don't think they even sold that much. Shame, really a shame. It did give sony the idea of the consumer quality ir though. So I guess you sony people can thank them for that.

---------------------------------------
When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.