Hey jon... help a brotha out... spare me the cash! ill buy it hehe j/k when are we having an advanced lug meeting id like to attend but as you know school has started and stuff so its been hard for me to attend lug meetings, dont get me wrong i like being a part of the brlug i just wish i was more active in it! lata playa... damn i want that zaurus! - abbott
On Tue, 24 Sep 2002, John Hebert wrote: > Just got my new Sharp Zaurus in today and thought I > should do a short review of it from the BRLUG > Laboratory. > > I bought it from TechDepot for $350 along with the > Ambicom Compact Flash 802.11b card ($137). I bought > the Ambicom card because it has low power consumption > capabilities. I initially thought that setting up this > card on the Zaurus would require some Linux driver > finagaling, but I thought I would just try it before I > RTFM, and hey, it worked! All I had to do was set up a > TCP/IP instance, tell it to grab an IP from my DHCP > server, and ba-da-ding, I'm surfing the Web while > laying in bed. I'm also typing this in my Yahoo mail > account. If you do want to get the Ambicom card, be > warned that it does get in the way of the stylus and > headphone jack. I knew this before I bought it, since > I had read that the card can be surgically modified > with an Exacto knife. Wish me luck. > > The keyboard is _very_ tiny, so it requires getting > used to, but I've noticed just during the course of > the email that my thumb typing has tripled since I've > started. Using this keyboard is easiest when using > your thumbnails to strike the keys. Typing in numbers > or special characters requires holding down a function > key. The key placement works well enough to get the > job done. > > There are many nice little features to the Zaurus, > such as automatically dimming the backlight when not > in use for a few seconds, and this duration is > configurable. Also, I originally deleted the preceding > sentence, but changed my mind and undid the delete > with a (function key - z) sequence. Trolltech did the > GUI, and these are the same good folks who do the QT > library that Opera uses. > > Speaking of Opera, that is included too. It has a > button to resize the browser display between 5 > different settings, and even the smallest setting is > still readable. > > I just noticed a small LED that has an email icon next > to the battery LED, so I'm hoping this is for email > notification. That would be damn cool. > > The unit is pretty well built and seems sturdy, though > not as sturdy as my Handspring Visor. I should > probably get a case for it. It does have an opaque > flip top to protect the screen. > > Well, I'm getting carpal thumb here and I wanna check > the status of hurricane Isadore, so I'll cut this > short. If you are in the market for a PDA, check out > the Zaurus. It is cool as hell. I think it is very > likely that we are going more PDAs running Linux in > the future. > > John Hebert > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! > http://sbc.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://host19.nocdirect.com/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net >
