Zaurus

Can anyone tell me where I can get one of those Zaurus' with the hard drive built in? The clamshell one. Does this thing have wifi? thanks

This is a good place to buy from, they offer 1 year warranties, they also have the newer Zaurii that have the built-in hard drives.

They also have the Sig3 with warranty as well

Any places to buy them in English format?

Would you guys recommend this? I am looking for a clamshell device with internet and ms office compatible programs.

BTW: The J720 is way too behind the times at this point for me

Edited by jjaff90 2006-03-10 8:10 PM

english format? i got mine completely in japanese. reflashed it to english rom within 5 mins.

its a C760 so it has no hdd but procedure is the exact same with the hdd versions.

internet: what does this mean for you? browsing? and with what? wlan? it will be perfect out of the box (with the newly flashed english rom), if you need speed, and not perfect rendering java, flash, solvable to the same extent as on the J720.
if you need as good rendering as on ce.net HPC's, well, then go for the harder rom and get firefox with it, it will be slower though.
oh i almost forgot to mention how easy the wlan handling is (at least with cacko). you never get a false ip with dchp, woo hoo. everything works out of the box. you can have WPA too (didn't try it). btw if you want the fastest browsing experience (with a not so perfect rendering ...) go for pdaxrom (dillo). but the default cacko browsers (netfront and opera) are very fast too. oh and firefox won't be better with the java & flash, but not perfectly sure about this..

oh wait. you need a CF wlan card to do wlan. it isn't built in. but you have two slots, the SD slot can still take sd memory cards (no SDIO, only in the default jap rom AFAIK)

as for office, default office looks the same in functionality as pocketword on hpc2000. but with the harder rom, you can get abiword. or even openoffice but that's overkill - in speed!! not the best. forget it. abiword is OK (well, better) in this respect. there's textmaker too, but that just does pixel doubling as far as i could see, instead of playing nice in vga (i DID install the hi-res fix and that helped to some extent but.. i won't buy textmaker probably )

will you mind the small display? 3,7" VGA. tolerable but i wouldn't work with it all day keyboard is also much smaller than a j720. usable if you hold it in your hands. the hdd versions have usb host so maybe (? 99% sure) you can attach a usb keyboard to them.. (not that i personally see any sense in doing that)

if you never used linux go with the easier rom (cacko) then if you want firefox & abiword you can try the harder one (pdaxrom)... if you have been using linux then go with pdaxrom right away - if you don't need PIM (oh btw both roms have difficulties with PIM syncing.)

and finally my choice is cacko, it better suits the pda user, more userfriendly and is without bloated apps (firefox etc), even though the apps may know less. i just like it better... but pdaxrom surely is much closer to a PC in functionality (firefox, abiword, xpdf, xchat whatnot...)


Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 8:35 PM

lol I am sorry to say but could you simplify what you just said? I have been surfing and I think the Zaurus is good for me. I want firefox and openoffice so I think this would be the best handheld for me. I have grown a strong distaste for the J720. I think I'll get the Zaurus without the HD and I'll just get a microdrive.

ok i'll simplify it (ive edited it... well, organized it better -- look at it again )

so, if you're patient, you'll be happy with firefox and openoffice. otherwise not.

i think the builtin hd isn't a good idea, yeah

but if you want a microdrive, you will not be able to use the cf wlan card at the same time.

btw what was your problem with the J720?

another idea.. get the C1000 and you can use some usb wifi... so the CF slot will be free for the microdrive. (not sure how well this works but i know its usb host can be used for some wifi and bt adapters)

did you ever use linux?

Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 8:38 PM

I have never used linux. I am currently looking for a linux tutorial online. And with that PDAXROM thing (don't exactly know what it is) will allow me to use firefox and openoffice on the Zaurus?

BTW: The J720 was too big, too slow, and not compatible with anything! And the wifi was a pain in the ass

if you've never used linux, forget firefox for a while, definitely start with the cacko (1.23 & full version) rom. pdaxrom is another rom and much harder for a newbie!! trust me

j720.. well if you really want to use openoffice, then you will not find the zaurus any faster than the j720 lol. maybe settle with abiword or maybe textmaker... firefox isn't bad! + the wifi is great on the zaurus as i said! probably you'll like the size of the zaurus... it's so much smaller yet comfortable enough.

or maybe just cacko with netfront and/or opera and hancom office & textmaker.



Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 8:50 PM

could you just quickly explain what cacko and pdaxrom are?

by the way can you get emus on the zaurus like prject64?

Also, AIM and FireFox are available for Linux so couldn't I just install both of those without modifying the Zaurus?

Edited by jjaff90 2006-03-10 8:59 PM

linux has many versions on the PC, same is true of the zaurus - there are like 5 or more of them!

the most usable version (rom) is cacko.

pdaxrom is alittle harder, don't recommend it as a start. maybe later if you got to like cacko

firefox and oo will run natively on pdaxrom. they will not on cacko, the interface is different. but you can "emulate" the right environment (x, actually), and then you can run firefox etc on cacko too, but it will be very slow for the larger apps (the ones you want). not worth it

there are a few emulators for the zaurus.. never tried them. maybe you can ask about them on oesf.org forums.

edit: to answer your new question , no you need to recompile the apps because the CPU isn't the same! but others have already done this for AIM (actually gaim) and firefox

Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 9:01 PM

OK so I'll get cacko and transfer it to the Zaurus and when I am ready I will put on pdaxrom!

Quick question: Where can I get the recompiled versions of AIM and FF?

yeah exactly! if you get the zaurus i'll send you a few useful links.

as for the installation, gaim works with AIM (gaim is a multiprotocol IM client) - you just get the wifi card in the zaurus (configure WEP etc, if you need it), set the preconfigured server in the add/remove setting, then download the software catalog, find gaim in it, select and install it thats about it usually.

firefox is another matter on cacko, you can run it only in an "emulated" x environment, so you need to install that first if you want to try FF out on cacko.

otherwise the FF install on pdaxrom shouldn't be too hard.

Edited by cmonex 2006-03-10 9:12 PM