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Handhelds Hardware

Zaurus SL-6000 Review 230

Posted by timothy from the bit-pricey-though dept.
Bill Kendrick writes "BargainPDA has done a full review of Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000L Linux-based PDA, which was recently released to consumers in the US. There are six pages of review, lots of pretty photos, and comparisons with previous Zaurus models."
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Zaurus SL-6000 Review More

Zaurus SL-6000 Review

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  • Could someone review the review (Score:4, Funny)

    by Neil Blender ( 555885 ) <neilblender@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:19PM (#9067123)
    It's pretty long. Please rate on the Slashdot scale where 8 = teh suck, 9 = OK and 10 = good. Thanks.

  • The screen! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:19PM (#9067124)
    640x480 (480x640) LCD.

    That is ALL that I needed to see. This is finally a PDA I want!

    • Re:The screen! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:22PM (#9067142)
      640x480 (480x640) LCD. That is ALL that I needed to see. This is finally a PDA I want!
      I mean seriously -- that it's running Linux is an excellent plus. But for a pocketable display like that, I'd still have bought it if it ran Tandy Deskmate [toastytech.com]!

      I'd run this damned thing with Lindows^H^H^H^Hspire!!!

    • Re:The screen! (Score:3, Informative)

      by wHartHog(69) ( 256066 )
      So does the Toshiba 800/805. But of course, the Toshiba runs Windows Mobile 2003, and I suspect you won't be able to find one at your local retail outlet.
      • Actually, you can [futureshop.ca]. But you have to hold it sideways, there's no keyboard, and I've heard that getting it to work well in landscape mode is a pain.
        • Getting it to work with anything other than 320x240 is apparently a pain. Why? Almost all the Pocket PCs are 320x240, so people code for that size, and windows doesn't scale up well. and according to more than one review, because of this 640x480 on a Windows Pocket PC is just a novelty, and kind of like putting a louder muffler on a car. (Better than the muffler, but still something they aren't marketing the hell out of for a reason: if they do, the backlash will hurt.)
    • If only they added a camera to this it would be a "clie-killer" whatever that means. Other than that, according to the review it's very impressive. The 64-bit encryption and a VPN client on a PDA is a nice-to-have to connect to your office network from anywhere (although it's a shame VPN wasn't tested), and Qtopia looks cool, IMO. One thing I'm wondering - does it support multiple virtual desktops? Can you run an X client on it at reasonable speeds?

      I read somewhere that someone put a VNC server on Zaurus a
    • Wait till you hear the bad news: it runs an operating system developed by a bunch of unpaid volunteers that's a clone of a mainframe OS from the 70s.

  • Only two posts and it's already slashdotted.

  • "Bargain"PDA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jargoone ( 166102 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:20PM (#9067131)
    I know running Linux is cool and all, but does anyone really spend $650-700 on a PDA? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really curious.

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:3, Interesting)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 )
      Sure, people who want a PDA and for whom 650 bucks doesnt mean anything.

      Dont you know that to status seekers, ultra-consumerists, whatever you want to call them, more expensive = higher quality = you are a better person for owning it.

      • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:4, Insightful)

        by metlin ( 258108 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:44PM (#9067348) Journal
        Very true.

        This guy [flashenabled.com] is a perfect example of that. Ofcourse, he does it because he's a geek and because he has the means. But more than that, its a status symbol for such folks to be carrying the latest coolest gadget around.
      • people who want a PDA and for whom 650 bucks doesnt mean anything.

        If you are a person that wants a PDA and for whom 650 bucks doesnt mean anything, please send me $1300 and I'll test a PDA for you, and keep an, um, backup handy for when yours is down we could have a replacement ready.

        Just send me the money and see what I could do for you.

      • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:5, Insightful)

        by stuffman64 ( 208233 ) <stuffman@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @05:16PM (#9067614)
        Hrm. I dropped about $850 on my SL-C860. And is sure isn't because I have the money (as I am currently paying my way through school with a part time job and many many loans). The functionality of this device approaches that of a laptop, but its form factor is what most strongly influenced my purchase. Not to mention laptops are still too expensive for ones that don't fall apart after a month's use.

        With the Zaurus, I can easily carry it in my pocket, use the campus' WiFi, and take notes in class (granted, a full keyboard would be optimal, but I can easily sketch notes on this thing). With a laptop you have to lug around a big bag that screams "steal me." Laptops also do not fit on univerity "desks." The battery life of a laptop would not last me through a day of class without recharging. I can go on, but I think my point is clear: laptops are bulky, especially if you are always on the move.

        Not to mention that I can easily pull it out of my pocket and play a few minutes of Final Fantasy III on the bus ride back to my apartment.

        • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:3, Interesting)

          by LilMikey ( 615759 )
          I'm looking into an 860 as a replacement for my aging laptop. The one the the SL-6000 has over the 860 that's swaying my decision is a built in USB-host.

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:5, Interesting)

      by foidulus ( 743482 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:32PM (#9067250)
      Well, I am not so sure there will be a huge market in the US, but in Japan(Where the zaurus debuted), where people(even people with a lot of money) spend a lot of time on trains, and where there is a reasonably reliable wirerless data network, a lot of people like these. You can get a lot of the functionality(but maybe not the horsepower) of a laptop so you can do you work on the train(Japanese trains are notoriously crowded). I guess it all depends on what you want to do with the PDA and to a lesser extent, where you want to do it(versus having a laptop)
      • I thought they spent their time groping female passengers. Usually their so crowded that you're literally pushed together, making working your iPod tough, let alone doing anything vaguely resembling productive.

        • You would be suprised what people can manage to do in those conditions, I have seen several people use this same pda(the Japanese version obviously) with their little AirH wireless modem(well, not exactly a MODulater/DEModulator but) I honestly could never use my iPod, but I'm just not as adept as most Japanese though.
    • but this is what I use:

      go-peach.com/mak02/keihin/m/DSC04271.JPG

      it provides a very stable recording media for written data, never crashes and you never have to worry about running out of power!

      it's also within a price range that anyone can afford.
      • The only problem is that it isn't capable of being upgraded, takes twice as long to copy data, and newer versions aren't backwards compatible with the last one unless you spend days porting your data to function on the new one. Oh, and the standard monochrome "flip-book" display only runs at 0.5 FPS.

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:5, Interesting)

      by notyou2 ( 202944 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:34PM (#9067264) Homepage
      Would you ever spend $650-700 on a laptop? Why?

      I'll answer that myself: you'll spend that money if it increases your productivity enough to justify the investment.

      The same goes for an expensive PDA like that. For some, they really make use of it, and they really will/do get $650-700 of value out of it.
      • Why? Because there is no laptop that is cheaper.

        Sure, the $600 PDA may increase my productivity $600+, but there may be a $200 PDA that could do the same thing.

        This is one reason people are afraid to buy a lot of electronics. They could buy one, then in a couple days the company will do a price drop or an upgrade.

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sargon ( 14799 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:35PM (#9067274)
      Actually, yes, they do. I refuse to carry a laptop with me 24 hours a day when on call. But a Zaurus C-860, with a CF WiFi card and CF 10/100 Ethernet card, is another matter. I can carry this equipment in a small camera bag and actually have a life on the weekends instead of sitting at home waiting for the pager to scream. When I get paged, I find a hotspot, ssh into the access server, then connect to the troublesome router, switch, or firewall. Problem (usually) fixed in a few minutes. Wife is happy (we can actually go out during "on-call" weekends), which makes me happy.

      Yes, they are worth every penny.

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:2, Informative)

      by i621148 ( 728860 )
      i just bought one from amazon last week and i am already really impressed.
      just having the internal wi-fi, mic and speaker were enough for me to upgrade
      also now that the cf slot is free you can insert a sprint connection card which is supported with an ipk dialer
      if anyone wants my old sl-5500, software and accessories: i am selling it on ebay
      sl-5500 @ ebay [ebay.com]

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:2, Informative)

      by k4rm4_p0l7c3 ( 583281 )
      I just got a brand-new SL-5500 for 180$ US off of eBay. I'd call that a bargain..

    • Re:"Bargain"PDA (Score:3, Informative)

      by tangledweb ( 134818 )
      I think I spent about $700 when I imported my Zaurus SL-C750 and about $1000 by the time I bought memory cards, a case, a wireless card and a VGA-out card.

      Sure I could have bought a cheap laptop for the same money with all these features and a better screen and keyboard, but I wanted a good PDA, not a bad laptop. I also have a laptop for other tasks.

      You cannot really write code on a PDA, but you can carry it with you everywhere and use wireless and ssh to do an urgent bug fix. I only take my laptop some

  • My favorite thing about my Zaurus... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MarkWPiper ( 604760 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:22PM (#9067141) Homepage
    ...is that it isn't instantly obselete. The open-source nature of the software gaurantees that people will always be tinkering, improving, and interested in any genuinely useful piece of hardware (which, with a WiFi card and a spacious sD card, it certainly is).

    I love being able to know that many of the advances people make for the new SL-6000 will be equally applicable to my SL-5500, because the source is open!

    In contrast, my roommate's older WinCE PDA, even though it has some nice hardware, is stuck with old software. There will never be anything new that he can do with it, because there is no upgrade path.

    • I do not agree. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DAldredge ( 2353 )
      As I type this I am looking at the useless Agenda, one of the first Linux based PDA's.

      It is next to useless because no one supports it.

      • Re:I do not agree. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by MarkWPiper ( 604760 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:37PM (#9067296) Homepage
        The Zaurus both has superior hardware to the Agenda, and a superior community has been built around it (partly due to the fact that they keep evolving by putting out improved models). In some sense, the Agenda fails the 'useful hardware' test that I stated above.

        Agenda, IIRC, was released in 2001, and the company making it soon after went out of business. The fact is, if it weren't for open-source, there wouldn't be anything new you'd be doing with your PDA. The fact that you can still find software for it after 4 years says something.

        • Re:I do not agree. (Score:3, Informative)

          by pantherace ( 165052 )
          I thought about an Agenda: But even worse than the palms of the day was the expandability or rather the lack of it. No extra space could be made other than the 10MB cramfs partition (more like 30MB in 6MB for most images) Not enough space to store things on.

          Hardware wise, it was between the palms and the CE devices, and was priced at $250 with a 66MHz MIPS processor when the lowest prices on CE devices was around $400. Not to mention, the battery life kicked ass. A week (honestly) on 2 AA batteries, and it

    • I'm writing this on an old-as-dirt HP Jornada 680, also a WinCE 2.11/3.0 machine. Popped a compactflash 802.11b card into it, connect to my Windows 2003 Server EE via TermServer and I have a 640x240 screen version Win2003 at my fingertips, latest version of all the apps running full speed. If it runs in Windows and fits in 640x240, this thing runs it quite nicely (as long as I am within wifi range of my office.)

      If his WinCE rig can run wifi and termserver client, there is still plenty of life left in it.
    • I've got a Zaurus sl-5500 now and I wish I could say the same thing about the Empeg. I've got one, love it to death, but because of the closed nature of it's code (the GUI, music player and other parts i think) the community is fading out as the product does.. (it was EOL'd maybe 2 yrs ago)

      Sharp has been pretty crappy about their Zaurus support. THe 6000 is out here stateside, but you have to get the cool wide-aspect units from overseas. And those are expensive. my 5500 was dirt cheap, but the thing wo

  • what really matters (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kiro ( 220724 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:25PM (#9067173)
    no Zaurus is complete without Zaurus Freeciv [robfisher.net] on it!

  • Google Cache (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:26PM (#9067182)
    Click Here [216.239.41.104]
  • Who in the world is the demographic for one of these?

  • Free Zaurus (Score:5, Interesting)

    by amitofu ( 705703 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:27PM (#9067190) Homepage

    I hope that OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org]/OpenEmbedded [openembedded.org] get their act together soon and release a new version that supports the SL-5600/SL-6000. The current version of OpenZaurus is unstable on my SL-5600 and the Sharp ROM is crap. I am thinking about trying Gentoo for Zaurus [opensistemas.com].

    Are there any other free Zaurus distros out there?

  • it ain't no pda (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:29PM (#9067215)
    i use my sl-6000l in ways i could never use a pda: actually computing while standing, in some cases while walking; no bothering with pda-friendly websites

    the transflective screen alone makes it useful in many situations where my laptop will fail: outdoors in different lighting; the ruggedness (survives much droppage) is another reason i can take it outdoors ... i just hang it around my neck like a japanese tourist with a camera (and the japanese usually bow in deference to my techno-bob aura)

    just local.google.com makes it worthwhile at my new home at carnegie mellon, where there is wifi everywhere and i can find all essential services on a map quite easily

  • $699? (Score:4, Funny)

    by goldspider ( 445116 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:30PM (#9067228) Homepage
    So if we order it with Linux pre-installed, we get the hardware for free?

  • Cool! (Score:2, Funny)

    by falzer ( 224563 )
    But does it run Windows CE?

  • Lack of decent up to date software. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sadiq ( 103621 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:33PM (#9067251) Homepage
    I'll probably get some flak for this but what the hell.

    I own both a Palm PDA and a Zaurus (Treo 90 and SL-5000), the former is a perfect organiser whereas I hardly consider the latter to be. My Zaurus is let down by many things, firstly the fact that there exists relatively little up to date organiser software for it that even comes anything close to many of the free Palm apps out there.

    Secondly, installing some of the more interesting applications on the Zaurus requires you to jump through herculian hoops to get things working.

    Lastly, people'll probably point to webpages chocked full of Zaurus applications (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/ being one) but one closer inspection you'll find that many of the more useful applications are either in a half finished state or haven't been maintained in several years and lack features needed to work with newer desktop versions.

    Don't get me wrong, I love my Zaurus. There's nothing like pulling it out of your pocket, firing up the WiFi, ssh'ing into your box and synching your local MySQL server. Just don't buy it if you're looking for an organiser, you'll be bitterly disappointed.

    - Sadiq
    • I agree the PIM apps are not good on my SL-5600. None of the stock ROM apps are very good. But the other apps are indeed very useful -- walking around the house with Gaim running in your shirt pocket is pretty cool. VNC, ssh, X, Opera (via wireless card). VideoLAN and esd, mplayer. Kismet+nmap. Just a handful of apps you can run...
    • The fact that you can mount your zaurus as a disk and transfer files back and forth alone ought to push above your palm.

    • Re:Lack of decent up to date software. (Score:5, Informative)

      by proxima ( 165692 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @06:37PM (#9068335)
      Just don't buy it if you're looking for an organiser, you'll be bitterly disappointed.

      As the proud owner of a now obsolete Handspring Visor and having just purchased a "new" Zaurus 5500 on Ebay, I basically agree.

      Everything on a Palm is instant. It may not have every feature you want, and until recently, the screens had pretty poor resolution (Sony is the exception). However, the applications worked well, and had reasonable interfaces so they could be used quickly.

      I quickly abandoned the Sharp ROM for the Zaurus in favor of OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org], but I've certainly had my frustrations with bugs and missing features. Some small things, like the ability for the application buttons to turn on the device (like a Palm), and some larger things, like having it not reboot properly the second time if you haven't suspended in between (though there is an unofficial fix).

      Why am I rebooting in the first place? Because of the Zaurus' greatest aspect - it's basically a fully-functional Linux system. As such, one can tweak, test, and otherwise poke around (sometimes needing a reboot if something got messed up or you're testing something). Some Zaurus applications I've found I've had no good free Palm equivalent. Zee Cookbook is a great, if somewhat slow (when editing), way to keep a database of recipes on hand. QTJournal is a great way to take notes that are categorized by date and subject. The ability to run just about any console-based Linux software (even the statistical software R [r-project.org]) makes it very useful as a sysadmin tool. With a small, cheap wireless card from Ebay, it is often more convenient than lugging around a laptop.

      Some of the things I've wanted to use my Zaurus for before I bought it work, and some don't (yet). I got xmms running and it plays OGG files well (but the included mediaplayer with openzaurus doesn't, and the Sharp ROM's media player has a horrendous interface). I can control the Zaurus remotely via ssh (VERY handy for exploring with a real keyboard) and VNC (with the framebuffer vnc package). However, the latter doesn't offer even basic security (and I haven't gotten iptables to work), so I'm reluctant to use it often, mostly out of principle.

      I got the xvnc server running, but the vncviewer client to view it simply will not connect to it, or any other vnc server. I've seen a few other reports of this behavior but no fix, and most people seem to have no problem. This combo is supposed to allow the use of any X11 application on the Zaurus itself, and more importantly for me, remote X applications (so I can control xmms on my music server with a wireless connection - the ultimate remote). If anyone has a suggestion about this, I'd be happy to hear it.

      My other problem is mail - mailit (included with OpenZaurus) is simplistic, but more importantly doesn't work for one of my domains (not sure why this is). I can telnet manually to port 110 and execute pop commands fine, but this mail client barks about an unknown response from the server. QTmail doesn't work either - it gives host not found or something like that.

      For the price I paid, I get far more functionality than I ever did from a Visor, but the Zaurus definitely has its frustrations. The PIM apps are nothing much to speak of, they function, but are slower than their Palm equivalents (this, again is on OpenZaurus). My greatest desire - the ability to have tree-view tasks, is not implemented on either my Handspring or any version of "todo" on the Zaurus that I've used.

      So it's not perfect, but you can still pry it from my cold, dead hands.

      • tree-view to-do software (Score:3, Informative)

        by xeno ( 2667 )
        Yeah, gotta agree with your appraisal -- the advanced functions and networkability is great, but the basic pim features are weak. The basic address book is crap, and after a couple of months of fiddling I still can't get TKCAddress to import anything at all. But I've got the to-do list problem licked. Until 6 months ago, I stuck with my palm-based Handera 330 for one main reason: Brainforest, an excellent hierarchical tree manager that you could configure for use as a multilevel to-do list (1/x complete

  • Why is it.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by robpoe ( 578975 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:35PM (#9067275)
    When the headline says "Check out the article, it provides a great read" the site stays up. When it says anything about "screenshots" or "pretty pictures", the site disappears.

    Does that state something of our mentality (ooooh, prettty!!!) or do we just not RTFA..

    Inquiring minds want to know..

    (and dammit, I wanted to see the pictures, too!)

  • Pretty big review - heres the text of pages 1-4 (Score:5, Informative)

    by rpdillon ( 715137 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:36PM (#9067287) Homepage
    Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-6000

    Reviewed for bargainPDA by Ian Giblin.
    Thanks to offroadgeek from The Zaurus User Group for input and discussion.

    Overview and Introduction

    The new Zaurus SL-6000 from Sharp is a versatile, linux-based PDA incorporating an Intel XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz. In some respects it is a hybrid of the Zaurus SL-5600, which became available in the U.S. in April of 2003, and the SL-C750/760/860 which is only available as a special import and was reviewed here in September of 2003. The main enhancements to the SL-6000 are a better screen, some ruggedisation, built-in Wi-Fi and/or bluetooth, and a degree of expandability. There's also a USB host built into it using a Mini A connector on the bottom of the device. Oh, and a longer stylus.

    The device I'm reviewing here is the SL-6000L, which has only Wi-Fi. We spoke to Sharp's representative about the other models - specifically the SL-6000N (Bluetooth only) and the SL-6000W, which was billed as the combo product with both 802.11b Wireless and Bluetooth. The representative told us that the only version which will be made available to the general consumer is the 6000L Wi-Fi variant.

    If you put it into Google you can find the SL-6000W but you can't actually buy one yet (May 2004).

    The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 and You

    You might wonder - what's the target market for this device? It is large, expensive and ruggedised. If you haven't already guessed, the answer is "Enterprise". Sharp collaborated with IBM on this project, but the only evidence on the consumer device is the link to IBM's page when you open the Opera web browser. A little nosing about on IBM's site yields some other interesting pages like this one on cross-developement. But I digress...

    An ongoing aspect of the Enterprise factor is RailDocs, a system "designed to enable users to efficiently design, build, and maintain the fixed transportation infrastructure of a railroad". Not for the average user, obviously, but it speaks volumes for the stability and versatility of the Zaurus product.

    It is something of a surprise that Sharp have made the SL-6000 available to the consumer market, particularly after a Sharp marketing representative originally told bargainPDA "Please keep in mind that this product is designed exclusively for the corporate market and will not be sold through the direct to consumer channel. It will be used by businesses for business applications.".

    Whether the Sharp Zaurus is right for you depends upon the type of role you see for it. The Zaurus is probably the best linux-based handheld computer available, and the software is almost the same across models. It may not be the best PDA, in fact most Zaurus users wouldn't even call it a PDA. Sharp themselves call the Zaurus a Personal Mobile Tool. If you decide to buy a Zaurus you can find one to fit your budget. The table below summarises the features of key members of the Sharp Zaurus range, plus a very rough indication of their current prices. Links will open the bargainPDA reviews where available.

    The C760 and C860 differ only in that the 860 has a Japanese/English dictionary on it, and it has a silver case rather than the white one on the 760. The C750 is like the C760, but has a smaller battery and less memory; reading the SL-C750 review will give you a very good idea of those three Zaurus "clamshell" devices. Some of the software section of this review is just an updated and edited version of the C750 software review.

    Anyone looking at the SL-6000 should consider the alternative of buying an imported SL-C860 or C760 plus an 802.11b wireless card. This would give you the same functionality as the SL-6000L model reviewed here (plus an extra 64MB of internal flash memory), but you may have to risk some major inconvenience if the C model Zaurus breaks down - even when you buy through high-end channels such as Dynamism where the C860 costs $849, or ShirtPocket where it is 565. As well as the currency conversion you're doing in your hea

  • I'll buy one (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Daimaou ( 97573 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:40PM (#9067321)
    I've owned several Zaurus machines (although only one of them ran Linux) and I've been quite pleased with all of them. They are well built and last a long time.

    The Linux based one was a solid machine PLUS it had the ability to satisfy my compulsive need to change things all the time. I also liked the fact that I could use it to SSH into my web server to make changes. Very cool in my opinion.

  • The rest - parts 5 and 6 text (Score:5, Informative)

    by rpdillon ( 715137 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:41PM (#9067325) Homepage
    OS and Basic Screen Navigation

    At the top level, this looks like any PDA OS. The underlying Operating System is OpenPDA from Metrowerks (a company owned by Motorola). The GUI is Qtopia from Trolltech. This is a very well established system and has a good user and developer base. It also benefits from a certain amount of cross-platform portability, meaning that software can easily be translated from other systems to this one.

    The main functionality is organised into four Home Pages or "Tabs": Applications, Java, Settings and Files. The Java Tab seems completely pointless, and I was glad to find that it disappears if you reset the flash memory as I have done several times while testing the device (if you want it back, you can reinstall from a package on the CD). I won't bore you with describing the three Java "applications " on the SL-6000. Their only worthy feature is that Java apps run in resizable and movable windows, which is a big deal when you have this much screen real estate. One day all windows will be movable and resizable (imagine that!).

    You can add your own Home tabs, including a custom icon from a choice of what looks like hundreds. You cannot edit the system tabs. The pictures below show the four default Home Tabs; clicking on each one will open a new window in your browser showing the actual screenshot. All these screen shots are in portrait mode, but I only did this so they'd fit the review page better. They work just as well with the screen rotated 90 degrees.

    You can change the theme of the interface easily using the Appearance tool in the Settings Home Page; the differences are significant but not Earth-shattering. You can also set a graphical backdrop to the Home Tabs (other than the File Manager). This doesn't seem to slow the interface down, and it has the potential to look great on this display.

    Zoom Zoom

    One feature of the SL-6000 which affects many applications is the "zoom" capability. Using the Qtopia menu items (ZoomIn and ZoomOut you can zoom in and out in most application displays. What this really means is scaling the font and usually some other window furniture (e.g. column markers in a spreadsheet). It is very effective, and only limited by the font you are using. I made an animation of this when I reviewed the C750 last year - click here to see it.

    Help System

    The Qtopia GUI includes a customised help system which offers help on just about anything with an icon. It looks like a basic web browser and would be very useful to someone just starting out with the PDA. Once you've skimmed the manual I doubt it would be much help, but it does provide a good introduction.

    (back to contents)

    Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools

    PIM Applications: Address Book, Calendar, ToDo List.

    The Address book is pretty standard - adding, deleting and editing entries is easy. You can choose which fields appear on the list and their order, as well as the overall sort order. The display uses colour very well.

    Contacts can be beamed back and forth between the Zaurus and any other IR-capable PDA easily, although only one at a time from what I could tell, using .vcf files. I was hoping that I'd be able to hold the Zaurus near a telephone and have it tone-dial a number for me, but it can't do that.

    The Calendar allows a day, week, month and year view and you can set up reminders, repeating events, and so on. In the month view you can have a text format (which soon gets crowded) or graphical, which uses colour coded stripes to show events. This works well. Having used the application for some time on my 5600, I have found a few things which are annoying. For example, setting an appointment to repeat daily results in an entry in the calendar for every day forever. It would be so much nicer if it just updated each day to indicate the next scheduled event.

    The ToDo list, like the Calendar and Adress book, is adequate. It syncs with Outlook or Qtopia Desktop and is fairly useful f

  • If you have a mac... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by madsenj37 ( 612413 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @04:42PM (#9067333)
    you can now sync zaurus' with ical and mail, etc. I am extremely happy about this. http://www.dsitri.de/wiki.php?page=Projects
  • Anyone here know if/when this will be avaliable in the UK? Sharp UK seems a bit reluctant to sell the Zaurus range here, with the 5500 being the only one I ever seen on sale here - and only for a short while. I managed to get one just before they discontinued it.

    I've been looking forward to getting this new one ever since I read the review of the beta model! 640x480 on a PDA? Nice!
  • as the site went dead within minutes of this story showing up on slashdot. I think the Slashdot folks should consult with people and package web serving or something since SLashdot never manages to slashdot itself.
  • Here's the problem. The more we look at tiny things, the more myopic we become. You can only laser your cornea down so much, and then there's just not enough to work with any more. I love the increased VGA resolution, but the screen needs to INCREASE; otherwise, we'll all go blind. I have a Treo 600, and there's goodness in that 160x120 screen. Not too tough on the eyes.

    Let's not all go blind ogling, shall we?

  • USB host mode - Add hard drives, other USB devices (Score:5, Informative)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @05:00PM (#9067475) Homepage
    Most PDAs -- including (all?) previous ones from Sharp -- were USB slave devices. You could connect the PDA to a computer, and that computer could use the PDA, but you could not connect the PDA to a USB device and have the PDA use that device.

    The SL-600 changes that. In theory, you should now be able to connect any USB device that Linux supports to the SL-6000 and use it. So far, unfortunately, I've heard no sucess doing this yet...though the hardware is there.

    Anyone have sucess using random devices with the Zaurus?

    I'd expect that the following should work without much trouble;

    USB splitter

    Keyboard

    disk drives (including flash)

    Some may require software tweaks or added support as the Zaurus is intentionally a minimalist device.

  • SHARP has used codenames for the SHARP Linux PDAs series [tuxmobil.org] (Poodle, Corgi, Collie, Boxer, Husky, Shepherd). Does anybody know the codenames of the SL-6000 series? The command
    cat /proc/cpuinfo
    should reveal the name.

  • Where to buy Linux PDAs? (Score:4, Informative)

    by wehe ( 135130 ) <<gro.libomxut> <ta> <ehew>> on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @05:10PM (#9067557) Homepage Journal
    The survey from BargainPDA about shops, which offer SHARP Linux PDAs [bargainpda.com] seems not to be fully complete. Here is an international distributor survey for PDAs pre-equipped with Linux [tuxmobil.org]. BTW: If you are looking for a pre-installed Linux laptop or notebook you may find distributors there, too.

  • Form Factor (Score:2, Insightful)

    by beatleadam ( 102396 )

    While I find the capabilities of this "linux-based PDA incorporating an Intel XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz" to be outstanding, my question has to do with a topic not mentioned in the article.

    I genuinely believe that more can and should be done with both currently in development and especially in future PDAs with a different form factor, perhaps the "old" PSION style horizontal-type design? The keyboard layout alone was worth it IMHO but also it seems that the screen potentials as to sizes and resolut
    • I genuinely believe that more can and should be done with both currently in development and especially in future PDAs with a different form factor, perhaps the "old" PSION style horizontal-type design? The keyboard layout alone was worth it IMHO but also it seems that the screen potentials as to sizes and resolutions would be another good reason.

      Hell yes! If my old psion series V hadnt died (changed the batteries 3 years ago and it refused to function ever again - locked up solid on startup. Even doing a "

  • Shouldn't this have been reviewed by... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Brad1138 ( 590148 ) <brad1138@yahoo.com> on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @05:14PM (#9067602)
    DamnExpensivePDA.com ?
  • I just bought a SL-5600 about a month ago, and the processor is reporting itself as a PXA-255. Apparently the older versions had the 250, which had a bug in the processor that kept it from running at full speed. Mine now runs my very own custom compiled kernel which runs a full 100 Dhrystones faster than it did when I bought it. I can even use it to watch full-speed movies with MPlayer now. :)
  • Believe or not, from the article:

    A standard pizza operates at 2.4 GHz

    I remember in college a few guys had "special" pizza, but I don't think it had anything to do with radio frequencies.

    That has to be one of the funniest typos I have seen in a while.

  • MobileTechNews lives (Score:3, Informative)

    by donovangn ( 728687 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @05:26PM (#9067698)

    There's a living review at Mobile Tech News [mobiletechnews.com].

    And don't forget Sharp's [sharpusa.com] site.

  • What version of Java does it run? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Catamaran ( 106796 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @06:34PM (#9068314)
    Can anyone share their experience developing Java apps on Zaurus? Do all the Zauri have the same level of Java support? Can you recommend a URL to get me started? I did a Google search for Zaurus Java and most of the websites seem to be way out of date.

  • Desktop vs. laptop vs. Zaurus vs. PDA... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Money for Nothin' ( 754763 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @08:42PM (#9069390)
    I would *love* to own a Zaurus (I'd kill for a 6000 especially) as a powerful, portable complement to a powerful, sit-on-the-floor desktop box, but having owned an 8MB Handspring Visor Deluxe for the last few years and given that I write a lot (both code and regular text messages), I compromised between a PDA's portability and my desktop's power and got a laptop recently for primarily the following 2 reasons:

    1) Can't really develop on a PDA. Got *full* compilers for Java, C++, C#, etc.? Nope. [1]

    2) Keyboard. Do I really want to write code on the Zaurus' small keyboard - or worse, via handwriting recognition or the on-screen software keyboard? No way. Emails, short (less than 1000 words) messages, sure, but code? No. That said, the Zaurus 6000's USB host capability means I could plug in a USB keyboard and use that instead. That would help alleviate the problem quite a bit IMO.

    The above ignores the problem of PDAs having a necessarily-small screen size. My Visor can only display about 10 lines of text at a time, though maybe the Zaurus is better here... But my laptop, at 1024x768 res. can display about 35 lines (the more code on screen without needing to squint, the better of course).

    PDAs are great for what they're designed for - storing and displaying contact info, notes, books, etc., but for serious computing (i.e. that which requires lots of user input, CPU-usage, storage space, etc.), unfortunately we're not quite up to laptop levels yet, even if something like the Zaurus' USB host feature allows connecting to external HDDs...

    I have to admit though, the USB host capability theoretically offers a *lot* of potential for expansion, and I think that's probably a slightly-underplayed advantage of the Zaurus 6000...

    [1] I know GCC has been ported to the Zaurus, and if you have a CF or SD card to run it off of, you can actually do your compiles on the Zaurus. Admittedly, that's pretty close to what I'd like to do. And Perl is available for the Zaurus too, albeit, at a hefty 34MB [killefiz.de] (again, need a CF or SD card). But again, what about Java? I think the best one could do is to use gcj, which AFAIK is not really a serious alternative to the Sun or Blackdown javac's...

    And then there's the mere 400MHz CPU speed vs. my laptop's 2.4GHz, although, running distcc (if you have network access to distcc-running systems) would help immensely... :)

    My $0.02.

  • Drops Insignia Jeode Java VM in favor of IBM J9 VM (Score:4, Informative)

    by MCRocker ( 461060 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @09:37PM (#9069715) Homepage
    One place that you can see the IBM influence is that the SL-6000 dropped the Insignia Jeode Java Virtual Machine that was used in the 5000 series and used the IBM J9 VM.

    Unfortunately, both are J2ME [sun.com] Personal Profile [sun.com] VM's, so most java programs have to be ported to work on them. It's too bad that SUN laid down the law and told SavaJe [savaje.com] and others that handheld devices are only allowed to run J2ME and not J2SE [sun.com], even if SavaJe did manage to port it and make it work. So, no applets in your web browser :(

    Another Java issue is that you can't simply tap on a jar file and expect it to run. Instead, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to create a special installation package just for the Zaurus. This makes it difficult to use PersonalJava applications that were designed to work on any platform without doing some re-packaging. Although I understand the impetus to use the linux-ish packaging system they use for linux based applictions, it's disappointing that they didn't use something like JNLP [sun.com] for PersonalJava applications.

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