Zaurus Is Dead .... Long Living Zaurus Aka Pc-z1, Stop buying Netbooks and see SHARPS answer Options

[fpp]

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-18763...!!.html

[Zuse]

Sitting here in Japan with all those gadgets and goodies around... I was still silently crying at night, since my Zaurus (Akita) never was working as I aspect it.

Bought it shortly before Sharp officially announced the death of Zaurus and played around with all those different distribution I was never really happy with it. Coming from Psion I was really annoyed to ride again a dead horse and I was loosing interest in clamshell keyboard PDAs recently.

We all accept Zaurus is discontinued but it seems Sharp start to think different
The Netbook market brings a lot of movement and a little geekish market starts to become more and more mainstream. This means more and more potential customers... music in the ears of every sales manager.

TODAYS BIG SURPRISE !!!! THERE IS A NEW ZAURUS !!!!!!



O.k. the do not call it Zaurus anymore but it is clearly inspired by its predecessor.
Yes, someone might say its not a Zaurus but more a crossbread between a Netbook and a Zaurus, but it has some potential which let it stick out of the generic netbook market.

All infos can be found at

http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/090827.html

The specs read nice. Many features are available which were missing or limited for Zaurus. No official price yet, but rumors in Japan and some logical thinking says we could expect a price around that of a standard netbook.

Model name: PC-Z1-W/-B/-R
Installed OS: Linux/Ubuntu 9.04 (Smartbook Remix ARM-based, Sharp customized version)
LCD: 5-inch, widescreen TFT LCD (Wide-SVGA resolution, LED backlit, touch-screen)
CPU: i.MX51 multimedia applications processor manufactured by Freescale Semiconductor
Main memory: 512 MB (fixed)
Input devices: 68-key keyboard (key pitch: approx. 14 mm; key stroke: approx. 0.8 mm),Quick Launch button
Pointing device: Optical pointer (optical pointing device), touch-screen
Storage memory: Approx. 4 GB flash memory (user area: approx. 2 GB)
Communications function: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g compatible)
Card slot: microSD Memory Card/microSDHC Memory Card x 1 (16 GB max.)
Interfaces: Headphone output (stereo mini-jack) x 1, USB x 1, miniUSB x1
Battery operating time: Approx. 10 hours
Dimensions / Weight: Approx. 161.4 (W) x 108.7 (D) x 19.7–24.8 (H) mm /Approx. 409 grams
Main software:
Browser: Firefox®
Flash plug-in: Adobe® Flash® LiteTM
Mail: ThunderbirdTM
Integrated software: OpenOffice.org
Schedule management: Sunbird®
Graphics: OpenOffice.org 3.0 Drawing
Audio & video: Totem Video Player
Accessory: gedit Text Editor
Other: Document Viewer

Unfortunately the do not state what means USB 2.0 compatible for them. Bluetooth seems to be missing as well and the CF slot is gone... which is bad if you still have Wifi, GPS or other CF-cards laying around.

However, keep your money together! Don't buy a crapy WinXP Netbooks and stay tuned...

Greetings

Zuse