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Handhelds Hardware

Zaurus SL-5600/SL-5500 Comparison Whitepaper 117

Posted by CmdrTaco from the handhelds-to-desire dept.
Bill Kendrick writes "A cool as the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux-based PDA is, there are definitely some quibbles about battery life, software and syncing. Fortunately, it seems the folks at Sharp and TrollTech have been working on it for the new 5600 model. Sharp just posted a whitepaper (PDF) comparing the two models. (Newer kernel, no more root-privs-for-everything, JFFS2, dropping slow XML for PIM stuff, and USB-IO syncing, to name a few.)"
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Zaurus SL-5600/SL-5500 Comparison Whitepaper More

Zaurus SL-5600/SL-5500 Comparison Whitepaper

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  • Battery comparison (Score:5, Interesting)

    by giminy ( 94188 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:21AM (#5573754) Homepage Journal
    Gee, that's a terrific battery comparison chart. They're "comparing" both units under completely different operating conditions. At least they come right out and say it, but this gives absolutely no indication that they've fixed the 5500's weak battery life. Bummer.

    • Re:Battery comparison (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes they fixed the battery life. Including a battery that's a little over 2 times the size of the old one.

    • Re:Battery comparison (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @02:39PM (#5574769) Homepage Journal
      speculation would be that the xscale processor supports operational modes that the strongArm processor does not (shutting down parts of the processor that are not in use, idle sleep, etc) and the fact that the two processors run at very different speeds, which affects anything else running on the processor buffers.

      -Rusty

    • Geez guys, learn how to use your pda already.
      Zaurus battery life is based on TYPE OF USE people! [trowcom.co.uk]
      I only have to charge once or twice a week.
      And yes, theKompany and OpenZaurus kicks palm booty.
    • Batteries should be standardised? Or something agreed upon thier use. The thing is that all it takes is one company to patent a method and then no one wants to use it.

      Or something because if we could buy our batteries from a seporate supplier we might buy the original product.

      Where as at the moment companies integrate everything into one highly controllable product. While this gives them power over the final experience that the product gives it ultimately leads to a bad results.

      An example of compani

  • I can't wait! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WestieDog ( 592175 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:24AM (#5573759) Homepage
    I ordered one of the $170 dollar 5500's off of HSN. I don't care how bad it is compared to the 5600, $170 for a pda with 2 expantion slots that also happens to run linux! I can't wait too boot and get to a shell! :)
    • I'm curious what might be upgradable from the 5500 to 5600. Any ideas?

    • Re:I can't wait! (Score:4, Funny)

      by kotj.mf ( 645325 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:02AM (#5573842)
      Exactly. Slap a CF 802.11b card in there, and surf the web on the crapper. The Information Superhighway is truly upon us.

      And if I drain the battery doing that, I've got more problems than I thought...

      • Re:I can't wait! (Score:5, Informative)

        by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:12AM (#5573873) Homepage Journal
        Just a recomendation on what cf 802.11b card to look at...

        I have used both the SMC 802.11b cf card and the Socket Low Power 802.11b cards. The Socket definately draws less power, and my experience is that it has an equal range.

        The down side of the Socket is that none of the built in wireless apps, nor any of the wireless apps (other than the text mode wireless tools) know how to communicate with the card, nor do they recognize it as a wireless network card.

        The driver for the card is on the http://www.zaurus.com/feed server as spectrum24drivers (link is untested, set up your ipkg installer to get the drivers via your usb connection, or pull them down, get them on a cf or sd card and install from there.)

        One of the local Office Depot stores is where I got my Socket card this week, There is a $30 mail in rebate, bringing the price down from 149 to 119 after the rebate.

        My experience with the SMC card was I would get about half an hour of live time with the card installed. With the Socket card I am getting much closer to 2 hours, if not 3. Considering that I only get about 4 hours of live time without any network interface, I am fairly impressed.

        If you drain the battery with this card, while sitting on the crapper, you really do have more problems than you thought.

        -Rusty

        • Re:I can't wait! (Score:3, Informative)

          by druske ( 550305 )
          I wrote a review [pocketanywhere.com] of three wireless cards with the Zaurus last year: Linksys, SMC, and Socket. The Socket did look to be the most promising in terms of battery life, though the range seemed a bit shorter. Of course, at the time the drivers were in pretty bad shape. The SMC was my choice at the time.

          The antenna housing on older Linksys cards is something to watch out for --- it completely blocks the stylus silo. (I had a pic up showing that, but the review site seems to have screwed up the links to the photo
          • Anybody have any idea how much the CF 56k modems draw? Despite my comment above, I'll be trailing a 24' phone cord to the can for awhile. DSL and wireless are gonna have to wait till I'm smoke-free for three months...

        • Re:I can't wait! (Score:2, Informative)

          by rangerx ( 131113 )
          The Socket low power wifi card works out of the box in the new SL5600 and C700 units :)

          I am still waiting for the C700 to use the PXA255 chipset though.
        • I've been using the Dlink 660w with my zaurus, works pretty well, good range, though I occasionally have to reboot the pda to reset the wireless network device when switching from different wireless networks(i.e. home and school)
    • They are nice, I have one. Very nifty toy, although I really haven't used mine to its full potential yet. Certainly blows away most other PDA's. I routinely use the spreadsheet, text editor, calendar, and address book. The stealth kb is great! For me battery life is ok. I don't run it continously, just whip it out, type something in, and pocket it.

      BTW... these ought to make real spiffy auto mp3/ogg players with the right cabling. One of my future projects!

  • Memory Area (Score:5, Funny)

    by 10Ghz ( 453478 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:26AM (#5573763)
    Program Memory (Work area)

    SL-5500: 28.1MB
    SL-5600: 29.1KB

    Huh??

  • why are there differences in s/w? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:27AM (#5573765)
    Shouldn't the 5600 software just install on the 5500? I mean, the 5500 has more RAM, and it's trivial to put in lots of flash. Does that mean Sharp is not going to provide an upgrade?

    • Re:why are there differences in s/w? (Score:5, Informative)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:47AM (#5574009) Homepage Journal
      Shouldn't the 5600 software just install on the 5500? I mean, the 5500 has more RAM, and it's trivial to put in lots of flash. Does that mean Sharp is not going to provide an upgrade?

      There might be differences between ARM and Xscale [intel.com]. I wish I knew.

      In anycase, the white paper looks like it's simply describing the difference between the software out of the box. There's a wealth of "upgrades" out there to use, even whole distros for the ambitious:

      • OpenZaurus
      • Debian Zaurus

      Ordinary software packages availiable include useful things like a terminal.

      I've seen the Open Zaurus working and it's very neat with working GUI, productivity suit and CF wifi. It is essentially a full replacement for the sotware that comes with the 5500, but you can keep and reinstall that software too.

      The Debian project looks less developed but is working on cool stuff like an X interface. They have a kernel and root system set up, and a working X. It would be fun to work on.

      Ironically, my Zaurus has a better processor than my much bigger laptop. It would be borg the two together, X to export aps to the laptop and disk storage in return. I expect to be able to do this latter than sooner.

      • The XScale is an ARM; thus, logically there can't be any differences between an ARM and an XScale.

        Perhaps you meant the differences between the XScale and StrongARM. Buse the same ARM instruction set with the XScale having a few added instructions (which are usually totally useless, and thus irrelevant). Thus, they're perfectly compatible.
  • The whitepaper shows that the 5500 can only record at 22khz using the mic input. Is this a device limitation, or software? Because I really want to use this [core-sound.com] when it becomes available (which will use the CF slot for input and a mic jack on the add-on itself), but it's not going to be worth it if the highest sampling rate available is 22khz :( Does anyone know anything?

    Chris
    • THe mic input on the 5500 is monaural (not stereo). It is a hardware limitation of the input connector only. 22khz is enough for voice recording for which it was intended.

      This shouldn't affect you however since you'll be using the input on the CF card itself.

  • Strange (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:44AM (#5573795)
    Anybody notice that the entire god damned front page is only stories from Taco? Did his wife kick him out of bed or what?

  • Great advantage (Score:3, Funny)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:44AM (#5573798) Homepage Journal
    now it have 4 new themes! Finally something that I can say clearly that is better in the new model!
  • me want me want - really i wouldnt mind a PDA, any type that works and runs something better then WindowsCE.. :S

  • Non-root privileges? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by foo fighter ( 151863 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:51AM (#5573812) Homepage
    What issue exists with running as root on a PDA? It seems like a non-issue to me.

    I mean it's a PDA: personal digital assistant. It's not like it's a multi-user workstation or an network server. Why wouldn't I just run as root?

    • Re:Non-root privileges? (Score:5, Informative)

      by FauxPasIII ( 75900 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:04AM (#5573848)
      > Why wouldn't I just run as root?

      Why would you ?

      Seriously though, if you're logged in as root, you can do an end-run around lots of the mechanisms that make Linux as stable as it is. If you're a nonprivileged user, AND provided the kernel is doing it's job properly, it shouldn't be possible to make the thing crash.
      • Its a PDA. It just needs to do very simple tasks. If you are asking it to do more, you really should get a serious computer/laptop.

    • Re:Non-root privileges? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:17AM (#5573894) Homepage Journal
      There are several servers available for the Z, including but not limited to ftp, apache, and samba. With both ftp and samba, since you are effectively root, there is noting preventing joe random hacker from downloading, editing and uploading your /etc/ files and making the device do lots of things you would otherwise not be planning on.

      Who needs a root-kit if the device does everything as root?

      -Rusty

  • Linux syncing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ciryon ( 218518 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:53AM (#5573822) Journal
    What ever happened to the KDE sync program that would sync QPE/Opie based Linux handhelds?

    One thing I'd like to see is some company selling OS upgrades that lets people throw away Microsoft Pocket PC/Windows CE and replace with Linux. But then there must be a good syncing solution for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

    Ciryon

    • Re:Linux syncing (Score:4, Informative)

      by mtnharo ( 523610 ) <greengeek AT earthlink DOT net> on Saturday March 22, 2003 @12:27PM (#5574178) Homepage
      It does exist. It is called KitchenSync. Currently, it is part of the CVS tree for kdepim, and is scheduled to appear in KDE 3.2 You can have a look [handhelds.org] at the latest available tarball here. It works well enough. Currently it syncs to Agenda V3 or Qtopia/Opie based handhelds, and supports syncing addressbook, todolist and calendar to KAddressbook and KOrganizer. Works as expected, but it is still pretty much alpha quality. With enough time, this program should be able to sync just about anything to your desktop. A big thank you to the KDE and Handhelds.org people working on this.

  • The C700 is much nicer (Score:5, Informative)

    by mocm ( 141920 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @10:56AM (#5573827)
    with its 640x480 super crisp display and its morphing ability. I hope they will sell it outside of Japan. Sharp had a lot of them at CeBIT, not a single SL-5600. They know it's much nicer.
    Here are some links:
    My Zaurus Info page [www.mocm.de]
    Conics Shop for ordering outside of Japan [conics.net]
    Sharp's Japanese Zaurus Page [ezaurus.com]

    • Re:The C700 is much nicer (Score:5, Informative)

      by n1ywb ( 555767 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:45AM (#5574000) Homepage Journal
      There is a place that will sell you an English C700 for $700.

      http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/index.shtml

      Purchasing information:
      The Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 ships direct to you from Japan, arriving in about 3 business days. We do accept returns within 5 days, and subject to a 15% restocking fee. (Returned units will be sold at a discount on our specials page.) For the latest delivery info, please call a sales representative at 800-711-6277. Please see our pricing page for ordering information.

      The MAJOR drawback to the C700 is crappy battery life, only about 4 hours. Thats not much better than most laptops.

    • Re:The C700 is much nicer (Score:5, Informative)

      by Guylhem ( 161858 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMguylhem.net> on Saturday March 22, 2003 @12:02PM (#5574067) Homepage
      The battery life is not a problem - you can fit in a 5600 battery after doing some shaving ;-) Just go to the Zaurus C700 hardware forum [externe.net].

      Regarding the low memory, some of us are trying to upgrade it to 64M. The problem is not hardware now (read - hardware hackersl could replace the 32M of RAM by a 64M chip) but software. We are trying to make the XScale recognize that much RAM. It may involve kernel and bootloader hacking since the easy solutions like mem=64 did not work. Any help is welcome.

      And for those who may say the CPU is too slow, I personally did overclock mine to ~450 Mhz, and the RAM to ~150Mhz.No problem of any kind. I did also enable the Cache (disabled by default by Sharp for a risk of bug on some hardware revisions) so I can now play divx full screen at 20 fps without any problem. It is certainly better than carrying a huge laptop in the plane!

      I just need the bigger 5600 (b500) battery a friend is bringing back from Japan and I'll be most happy with my Zaurus C700 PDA ;-)

      PS: if you want to get one, check the C700 FAQ [externe.net]. We are filling it with tips from the forum.

    • with its 640x480 super crisp display and its morphing ability. I hope they will sell it outside of Japan. Sharp had a lot of them at CeBIT, not a single SL-5600. They know it's much nicer.

      Then which is the eMail address or "petition page" (anyone on broadband -who's not a spammer- set up this one?) to convince Sharp that there's a market for the C700 (or even an improved version in this form factor, e.g. with more memory and wireless "connectivity") in Europe and the U.S. as well?

      Sharp must have noticed

  • SL5000 (Score:2)

    by rf0 ( 159958 )
    I bought one of the first Zaurus in the shape of the the SL5000 and wondered if anyone has any figures for the battery life on it? I do find the a WLAN CF/SD Card and backlight I will get 90 minutes if I'm lucky. If worse comes to worse I just plug it into the mains :)

    Rus
  • One thing they've done differently is the memory.
    Its flash+RAM based, instead of being ROM+RAM-based.
    That should effectively provide more space (if they write all persistent data to flash when the unit is shut down), and better battery utilisation.
    This is a cool device, and a couple of my friends have the original 5500. One of them, who does testing for EMC, used to mount his test volumes over NFS, and start off his test scripts over telnet, all over the 802.11, while he sat in boring meetings.
    Not as much s
    • Flash+RAM if what they mean is a move to permanent storage and applications executions space seems like a move towards a more PC-like setup.

      Without better support for XIP (execute in place) Linux have seemed to fit less well on portables needing more memory than necessary.

      Now with support of applications executed from CF cards and the like (and maybe a Swap partition) wouldn't this make us run in circles around standard PDA's.

      Of course this doesn't mean that this is the best way to do things on a PDA. Is

  • Battery Life (Score:3, Interesting)

    by druske ( 550305 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:13AM (#5573877)
    Why do you suppose they didn't compare battery life under similar conditions? Most of the specs for the 5600 look great, and the battery life on its own doesn't look bad either, but this paper gives no basis for comparing the battery life of the 5500 and the 5600.

  • 5500 firmware upgrade? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by caraiman ( 659379 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:40AM (#5573981)
    When is Sharp going to provide a firmware upgrade for the 5500? The latest firmware still has bugs. Here are a couple of examples:
    • Although you can configure multiple SMTP accounts, the mail client only uses the one configured first
    • Every now and then the soft eject for a CF card doesn't work and you have to physically take it out
    In addition, since Sharp has already worked on a new kernel, PIM, etc., it would be great if existing 5500 owners could benefit from what their software group has done since the latest firmware upgrade came out.
    The hardware changes on the 5600 are not a radical shift from the 5500 (unless, of course, you buy into the MHz hype). I bet that not many people will ditch their 5500s and invest in 5600s primarily to fix problems that could be resolved through a firmware upgrade.

    • Re:5500 firmware upgrade? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dybvandal ( 535813 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @01:00PM (#5574315) Homepage
      they are actually quite radical .. for example the mmc/sd chip is now integrated btw: the opensource community is trying to get 2.4.19 to run on the 5500 but the old mmc/sd module needs an update ... which is impossible because the community does not have a license from sd.org and sharp doesn't have the "resources" to take care of it for us nor is it offering any assistance in getting one of the community the rights to do it himself .. this is where i am pissed

  • Most improvements seem to be in the software (Score:4, Interesting)

    by vlad_petric ( 94134 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @11:45AM (#5574003) Homepage
    ... then I'm wondering why are they not releasing an updated ROM for the 5500 as well?

    As a (relatively proud) owner of the 5500, I can tell you for sure that there's a lot of room for improvements.

  • A question... Does anyone know what web browser it uses? Certainly would be nice to know if there's an Open Source browser out there with decent performance and stability.

    • Re:Browser? (Score:2, Informative)

      by ouzel ( 655571 )
      The 5500 came (comes) packaged with a version of Opera. You can also install an embedded version of Konqueror. See here [killefiz.de] for more software than you'll know what to do with :-)

    • Re:Browser? (Score:3, Informative)

      by rusty0101 ( 565565 )
      From what I understand, the SL-5600 uses Opera6 as the default browser.

      I have a SL-5500 which comes with Opera 5 as it's default browser.

      Downloadable browsers include Konquer and Links-ssl.

      -Rusty
      • Hmmm... Well I would imagine that Konq would be quite slow, even on the 400MHz model (my Psion is 35MHz and that's more than I need :-) )... BTW, that goes for Konq-embedded as well.

        As for Opera, I admit I didn't try 6, but as of 5 it wasn't very stable for very long. Do you have any problems with it crashing, or perhaps do you not use the browser enough on the handheld that you would have a problem. I guess it's a moot point anyhow... I strongly dislike Opera's preferences, bookmarks, tab system, etc
        • I sold my SL-5500 a few months ago and honestly can't remember how quickly Konq and Opera loaded. But I know I'd remember if it were really slow because it would have annoyed the heck out of me. :-)

          The Zaurus is an amazing machine but I found that I spent most of my time giving it care and feeding, instead of using it to be more productive. It was also my first PDA. After a while I realized I'd be a lot happier (and more productive) just using a laptop, which is what I did.

          Speaking of productivity,

          • I found that I spent most of my time giving it care and feeding, instead of using it to be more productive. It was also my first PDA.

            This seems to be a universal problem. My first was a Windows CE device. I wised up and got a Psion, which happens to be pretty much the only handheld that you can be productive with. WinCE devices are just useless tech toys, and Palms are glorified alarm clocks. I'm not sure where Linux handhelds fit in, but I'd bet it's in the same area as WinCE.

            BTW, MAME has been worki

            • Well, #1 the Zaurus is a glorified alarm clock as well. That is really one of the best PDA features. You punch all your meetings in and the sucker beeps and buzzes when its time to go. This is handier than you would believe.

              Secondly, you stick it in your pocket and go to the meeting without grabbing a pad and pencil since you have the stealth kb to make quick notes and such.

              As far as doing awesome Linux programming on a Zaurus, .. uh ... well whats the point? Load it up with games, and just use it. Its a

              • #1 the Zaurus is a glorified alarm clock as well. That is really one of the best PDA features.

                I probably didn't explain myself very well. The reason I call Palms glorified alarm clocks, is because that is all they are suited to do very well. WinCE devices are toys because they are slow (despite incredibly fast processors, they are smoke by my 35MHz Psion for everything but pure number-crunching like OGG/MP3 and DivX), and they have all the features you could want, but each and every one is sub-par. eg

                • One thing I meant to say is that WinCE devices freeze up ALL THE TIME. Play an ogg file or two and just try to open another app after that... Run 3 apps at the same time for a few minutes and it's time to find the hole for the reset button yet again. The entire time I used my WinCE device heavily (3-4 months), I had to do a manual reset daily, and reload all the apps and data just about every week.

                  Then there is always the horrible battery life, the inability to see the screen in sunlight, the bulky desi
    • I would give dillo a shot. I just built it on my desktop and with -O3 it's memory footprint is only 6 megs. Yeah Opera is probably less. It may have some other features to reduce it's memory usage. I know people are using it on Ipaq's running Linux.

      • I just built it on my desktop and with -O3 it's memory footprint is only 6 megs.

        Hmm, maybe you didn't strip the executable? It's still in early devel so install doesn't strip automatically...

        In case you haven't yet guessed, I've used Dillo a great deal. However, until it has the ability to copy text from a webpage, and save an image within a webpage, I don't have the slightest interest in using it. It's just too much of a hassle to switch to a different browser when I need those features, which is very

        • Hehe... I am probably the first person that ever ran Dillo on Debian/Hurd. I hacked the shit out of Gnu Portable Threads [gnu.org] and got it to compile under Hurd about a year ago. This gave me pthread emulation. I compiled Dillo as my test app. It kind of worked but was not really usable. An aside, I submitted my Pth Hurd patch and it was incorporated upstream! :-)

          Dunno if Dillo can be compiled with QPE. It would probably work great with Debian/Zaurus though. I would be running Debian on it now ( I'm a Debian old-

  • CPU is discontinued? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Snarfvs Maximvs ( 28022 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @12:33PM (#5574205)
    According to the whitepaper the 5600 uses Intel's PXA250 XScale chip, which this article [brighthand.com] seems to imply may well be discontinued already!! Hopefully the new PXA255 is a drop-in replacement. In that case the new 5600s will be even faster since the 255 uses a faster memory bus. If it's not a drop-in expect a delay while Sharp figures out what the heck to do!
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • No one likes the new 400MHz XScale--it is just too different from a standard ARM to be really useful to arm programmers, hard to optimize properly--it's good for a first attempt, but they already have another in the works that sacrfices a few nifty things and brings the performance up to what it should be at fewer MHz.

  • OpenZaurus is better (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tepar ( 87925 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @01:17PM (#5574371) Homepage
    I dropped Sharp's OS a couple of months ago in favor of OpenZaurus, and found nothing but improvements. (Almost) every complaint I had about the original software was addressed:

    1. The calendar app is much more stable. My one remaining issue is with repeating appointments: if you modify a repeating appointment on the Z, it'll duplicate itself and you'll have two appointments in the same spot: one with the old info, and one with the new. If you instead modify the appt. with the Qtopia Desktop software (Linux--I never use the Windows version), you don't have this problem.

    2. I used to lose all my to-dos everytime I synced with the Sharp software. Fixed.

    3. You can get ipks from the Zaurus Software Index (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus) to preserve the Jeode environment as well as the Hancom apps and Opera, so you can still use them on OpenZaurus. These utilities will convert them to ipks which you can copy to your machine. When you install OpenZaurus, you can just reinstall these apps as normal. I can testify that the Jeode one works: I don't have a need for the Hancom apps or Opera, so I never reinstalled them.

    4. The theme feature is there in OpenZaurus, so if you're using it, you've already got what Sharp gives you in the 5600. I'm using the Liquid theme.

    5. There's a nice Today app in OpenZaurus that gives you a snapshot of your day--both to-dos and calendar appointments.

    6. I haven't encountered a 3rd party ipk that I used to use in Sharp's rom that doesn't work with the OZ rom.

    7. I had to upgrade Sharp's rom to use a 128MB SD card. This also broke my connection to the Linux version (some "security patch" was also included in this upgrade that prevented the Linux Qtopia desktop from connecting, and also disabled ftp). Installing OZ fixed all of these issues.

    8. OZ includes OpenSSH by default, so it's much easier to get into the Z and copy files.

    9. The Sharp ROM crashed all the time. And I mean ALL THE TIME. I don't have that problem with OZ.

    To get to the point, I would recommend to anyone who runs Linux and is purchasing a 5500 right now to save yourself the headaches and replace the default ROM with OpenZaurus. If you back up Jeode, Hancom, and Opera, you won't lose anything by doing it, and you'll have a much more stable PDA.
  • if they could add a GSM module to the damn thing, now that would make it sell like fire
  • I can't tell you all how useful it was to see the entire listing of files on the SL-5600, in fact, I think that should come in all white papers.
    • It is not quite as dumb as you indicate. The screen is quite small and having it as a non nested printable reference is handy. Second on the mailing list you will note quite a few references to how the file structure is laid out. Its handy to point to a document on the web while you do this.

  • Application Support (Score:4, Informative)

    by jaaron ( 551839 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @02:22PM (#5574697) Homepage
    What I find interesting is that they've dropped the XML format for their PIM applications. Now they're using something called DTM:

    DTM (DaTa Manager) is a set of modules that provide database functions to the applications. ... However, all the default PIM applications on the SL-5600 now adopt and are managed by the DTM (PIM database). Thus, and 3rd party PIM applications that access the XML files on the SL-5500 PIM applications will not run as expeected. ...

    This does not spell out well for third party developers who now have to have compliant apps for the 5500 and the 5600. It sounds like they're using something like the pdb format for palm. If they're going to change, I wonder why they didn't go with a standard like iCalendar [calsch.org] (RFC2445) at least for the PIM apps.

  • Using a newer kernel; SD card support? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Saturday March 22, 2003 @04:08PM (#5575128) Homepage Journal
    So far as I know, the only driver for SD cards is closed-source and only available for 2.4.8; does anyone know if the 5600 supports them, or just the MMC version?

  • Mine's been... (Score:2, Funny)

    by 0x7F ( 158643 )
    sitting unused in the docking cradle for a while now. Let's check up on it.
    tpope@marge:~% ssh snowball
    Linux snowball 2.4.6-rmk1-np2-embedix #11 Tue Oct 29 14:43:28 CST 2002 armv4l unknown
    root@snowball:~# uptime
    10:34pm up 70 days, 17:23, load average: 4.00, 4.00, 4.00
    root@snowball:~#
    Wow. Let's see a PocketPC do that!
    • Sitting unusued in a docking craddle?

      A PocketPC wouldn't crash either. Trying to take a pot sot without anything to back it up?
    • The thing is, PDAs, phones, MP3 players and various other handheld thingies should never ever crash. My fridge doesn't crash, my camera doesn't crash and I don't expect these things to either. They are consumer gadgets not full blown computers with lots of drivers and bits that fail.

      My Palm Pilot Vx has had an uptime that must measure in years now. And that's with day to day use. The only time I had to reboot it was when I updated it to PalmOS 4.

      I would be most upset if I 'upgraded' to a Windows CE or L

      • The thing is, PDAs, phones, MP3 players and various other handheld thingies should never ever crash.


        Neither should workstations and notebooks, but they certainly do.

        Anyways, my primary point was how cool it was to be able to ssh into a PDA. I threw in the uptime as an extra (possibly undeserved) zing against Microsoft.

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