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

Posted By: Ed Saturday, December 15, 2001 3:51:22 PM

Palm announced early this week that it would be buying ThinAirApps to bolster its enterprise software offerings. Also from Palm, there was some info on the forthcoming OS 5.

In new product news, there was a sign that the Palm i705 will be out soon and the first Handspring Treo is part of a charity auction. The price has reached an incredible $2,383.

There was some interesting software news this week. A new version of WordSmith was released and also McFile 2.0, BlueSync, and HandZipper.

There wasn't much new hardware announced this week, just a couple of keyboards for the m500 series.

Don't miss the second part of the T415 review and the already mentioned WordSmith 2.1 review, too.

Permalink |

Article Comments

(11 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.

Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/16/2001 2:06:59 PM #

This thing looks sweet! fyi-

http://pencomputing.com/frames/sharp_zaurus.html

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/16/2001 4:00:25 PM #

The Gageteer has a review of it.

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

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/16/2001 5:25:23 PM #

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

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/16/2001 5:48:57 PM #

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.

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 2:47:17 AM #

> 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.

The Sharp Zaurus marks the end of Palm?

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 10:04:26 AM #

>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...

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 10:24:11 AM #

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.

The Return of the Yopi

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 10:36:59 AM #

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

Yopi battery life

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 10:52:38 AM #

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.

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/17/2001 10:59:33 AM #

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.

RE: Return of the Sharp Zaurus

Coyote67 @ 12/17/2001 11:15:53 AM #

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.