Sharp C700 PDA by Jeffrey Friedman

[Exposed_Bone]

As a longtime user of the HP200 and its predecessors the HP100 and HP95 (since the late ‘80s), I have been looking for a replacement for these seriously obsolete machines. A PDA which would keep the advantages of a useable keyboard, a real operating system (like the HP's DOS) with wide software choices, while giving me some of the new PDA plusses of a color backlit screen, smaller size, faster chips, and better link to my desktop PC.

 

The HP had an active user community up to about the mid-‘90s, and my machine was double-clocked, had a 32MB internal memory upgrade, and a 160MB PCMCIA card. But not much is being written for DOS these days and software to connect to newer Windows PCs was slow. So when I saw the report from Judie and Julie late last year of their sighting of the Linux-based Sharp Zaurus C700 at Comdex, I called Dynamism and got on the list for their English language port of this maybe Japan-only machine. Mine came about a week and a half ago, and despite some limitations and remaining Japanese language issues I am delighted with it.

 

First of all, it looks like a laptop designed as an accessory for a Barbie doll. It’s SMALL, but the keyboard is useable. The keys are actually bigger than the HP200’s, although closer together. The device works like the Transformer toys my son had in the ‘80s, which converted from a truck to a robot. The C700 goes from a micro-mini laptop with keyboard to a PDA - with a twist of the screen

 

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-1.jpg http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-9.jpg

 

I am sorry I don’t have a PDA to compare it to (it is a bit bigger and heavier than the smallest of these), but here it is with my old HP200:

 

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-4.jpg

 

It is about 4 5/8” x 3 1/8” x ¾”, weighs 8 oz with battery and SD card (I will also get a compact flash card). So you can have 1.5 Gig storage using a 1 Gig compact flash and 512 Meg SD (I am using a 256 meg SD now). Available internal storage is 32 Meg (my machine now shows about 9 Meg of this used by my software, some of which will run from the SD card, and the Sharp and Dynamism stuff); operating memory is 30 Meg, about half of which is occupied by the Japanese system rolling out of ROM. I can run many programs simultaneously without any obvious problems, and have not yet hit the wall on this.

 

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-3.jpg

 

The battery life is only estimated to be 3 ½ hours, but I have not had any problem with this. The charger is as Lilliputian as the C700, about the size of a pack of tic-tacs, the plug folds into it, and it weighs 2 3/8 oz. I bought an extra battery and external charger, but have not yet used it.

 

 

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-5.jpg

 

The major problem I have had is the lack of an English manual (one is promised by Dynamism, once the English porting is finalized). The CD-ROM of PC software it came with is in Japanese, the instructions from Dynamism’s Tech support were not exactly accurate and the install on my desktop computer is clearly a kludge: if the C700 is turned off or disconnected from the USB port, it will not be found again without rebooting the desktop, and if I don’t shut down the Zaurus Shot and Zaurus Manager buttons on now appear on my PC’s menu bar the PC will not shut down and has to be unplugged! Sometimes the drop-and-drag of files from the PC to the C700 fails (the explanation is in gibberish, an ASCII port of the Kanji text). It has been easier to load files onto an SD card directly from my USB port (using a Sandisk Cruizer) and plug the card into the C700.

 

The software that comes with the English C700 is okay. The Hancom Sheet program handles Excel files pretty well (though not Lotus 123 files from my HP200, those had to be converted to Excel on my desktop to run on the C700). Hancom Word seems to handle Word documents, NetFront browser reads html, though not bigger text files (cuts off after a few hundred k). The date book works fine. I replaced the contacts program, which kept trying to write Japanese unless manually forced back into English characters at each entry, and did not alphabetize properly, for a contacts program from tkc, which only orients in the PDA view (it was written for the Zaurus 5500) and locks up if I try to edit entries too fast. I also got a video viewer program from tkc, since the included media viewer could not handle DiVX, mpeg4 or other files. I was very pleased to find that this tkc video program can play movies filmed on my Archos Jukebox Multimedia Recorder, as well as movies I have downloaded from the net. You need a headset or external speakers for sound (other than beeps or alarms), and the action is a bit jerky (this seems a problem on the Zaurus 5500 too, judging from the tkc forum groups- the tech people there are amazed it runs on the C700 at all, as they

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-6.jpg

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-8.jpg

The media player software that comes with the C700 does play mp3 files, and they sound very good over headphones or external speakers (as I mentioned above, the internal speaker is limited to system sounds). There is also a voice recorder program, but so far as I can tell without an English manual it needs a microphone plugged into the headphone socket to function. There is note taker and txt file editing software that comes with it as well, I have not used these yet. Also unused yet are the various communication programs (email, Terminal, and "Embedded Konsole") which await the English manual and some instructions from a net guru on how to use wi-fi, LAN, etc. with this machine.

 

I sort-of replaced my DOS symbolic math program with three very nice 5500 programs which run on the C700: Formulae1 for algebra and calculus, Calculon for graphing, and a very nice programmable scientific calculator RDCalc which comes with an internal library (e.g. for prime factoring, etc.).

 

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images/sharp-c700-10.jpg

 

A free astronomy program Solun’ for the Zaurus 5500 runs on the C700, as do English and German-English dictionaries from Beiks and a free text reader called JustReader. Only the last of these works in landscape mode, the others show in PDA portrait mode only so far as I can see. Software availability would be more of an issue if the 5500 were not around; I am hoping that things explicitly for the C700 will emerge soon, or that I get as comfortable porting Linux stuff to this machine as I was with DOS for the HP200, though it is clearly a much more complex effort.

 

I am pretty far along in switching to the Zaurus C700 as my main PDA, leaving the HP200 on my desk for emergency use only. I miss only the reverse-Polish input on the HP200 calculator (yet another commercial math program could give me this as well, but I have so far resisted). It is a bit slower in switching apps than the HP, as well (why???). The C700 goes with me everywhere in my jacket or shirt pocket. Pulling it out and running that hour-long John Wayne movie (see picture above), jerky as the video sometimes is, gets me lots of geek points from colleagues.

 

 

 

Price: $700 from Dynamism for English version)

 

Pros:

Super-cool look and feel; perfect laptop for your favorite stuffed animal

Useable keyboard

Bright clear screen (amazing, actually)

Fits easily in shirt or jacket pocket

 

Cons:

Expensive ($700 from Dynamism for English version)

Limited software availability

Shortish battery life

No manual yet, PC setup a mystic adventure

[Exposed_Bone]

Εγώ προσωπικά όχι επειδή είναι Linux και επειδή δεν έχω τόσα money

[oxin_rain]

ine megalitero apo to ux50 kani ta idia lefta kai den exei bluetooth, wifi kai kamera ensomatomena! :'( alla exei 100 mhz parapano kai linux!

[Exposed_Bone]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον oxin_rain

 

ine megalitero apo to ux50 kani ta idia lefta kai den exei bluetooth, wifi kai kamera ensomatomena! :'( alla exei 100 mhz parapano kai linux!

 

 

Ότι έχει Linux είναι πλεονέκτημα η μειονέκτημα ?

[Alexkass]

τσκ...τσκ...τσκ... φυσικά και θα το αγόραζα. linux= power. επίσης δεν είναι ipaq κάτι που έχω βαρεθεί τόσο πολύ...

[oxin_rain]

afou prota anafero mionektimata , logika akolouthoun ta pleonektimata!

fisika kai to oti exei linux ine pleonektima! opos leei kai o filtatos aleksis linux = power kai prosthto oti linux = power kai statherotita!

[Alexkass]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον oxin_rain

 

afou prota anafero mionektimata , logika akolouthoun ta pleonektimata!

fisika kai to oti exei linux ine pleonektima! opos leei kai o filtatos aleksis linux = power kai prosthto oti linux = power kai statherotita!

 

 

thnx φιλατε oxin_rain.

 

στο κάτω κάτω για τη δουλειά του πρέπει να είναι κορυφή

[Exposed_Bone]

Wirelessly posted (SIE-S55/16 UP.Browser/6.1.0.5.c.4 (GUI) MMP/1.0)

 

Αρχικό μήνυμα από τον/την Alexkass

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον oxin_rain

 

afou prota anafero mionektimata , logika akolouthoun ta pleonektimata!

fisika kai to oti exei linux ine pleonektima! opos leei kai o filtatos aleksis linux = power kai prosthto oti linux = power kai statherotita!

 

 

thnx φιλατε oxin_rain.

 

στο κάτω κάτω για τη δουλειά του πρέπει να είναι κορυφή

 

apo pikilia software ti lene ta linux?

[Alexkass]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον Exposed_Bone

 

Wirelessly posted (SIE-S55/16 UP.Browser/6.1.0.5.c.4 (GUI) MMP/1.0)

 

 

 

thnx φιλατε oxin_rain.

 

στο κάτω κάτω για τη δουλειά του πρέπει να είναι κορυφή[/b]

 

apo pikilia software ti lene ta linux?

 

 

λογικά παίζουν ότι και τα linux στο πισί :)

[Exposed_Bone]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον Alexkass

 

apo pikilia software ti lene ta linux?

 

 

λογικά παίζουν ότι και τα linux στο πισί :)

 

tote mporei na ajizoun to kopo ;)

[Alexkass]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον Exposed_Bone

 

λογικά παίζουν ότι και τα linux στο πισί :)

 

tote mporei na ajizoun to kopo ;)

 

 

έχει όπερα, άρα θα το πάρω... so simple :cool:

[oxin_rain]

to ti efarmoges exei mpori na to anaferi stin selida tis sharp!

pantos sto pc mou protimo na xrisimopoio linux para windows! an exei kai xmms player tote to sigkekrimeno handheld tha ine korifi!

[Alexkass]

Αρχικό Μήνυμα από τον oxin_rain

 

to ti efarmoges exei mpori na to anaferi stin selida tis sharp!

pantos sto pc mou protimo na xrisimopoio linux para windows! an exei kai xmms player tote to sigkekrimeno handheld tha ine korifi!

 

 

χμμμ δεν ξέρω και πολλά από linux. για πες πιο λιανά αυτό που είπες. :)

[oxin_rain]

xmms player me liga logia ine o "winamp" (siras 2) ton linux!

[Alexkass]

thnx a lot :)