State of the Zaurus?

[TrekCycling]

Kind of an open-ended question. What\'s the state of the Zaurus world right now. I left it about a year ago, sick of the short battery life on my 5500. I moved to a Palm m130 and have been very happy with it. But like any gadget junkie I check in once in a while to see if conditions have improved and if I might want to consider switching again. Can anyone provide me with some insight into the state of the Zaurus currently? Is there a Zaurus on the market with battery life longer than 2 hours (that\'s what I was getting with my 5500, roughly). Is it affordable and available (i.e. doesn\'t cost $800 imported from Japan to the US, where I am)? Lastly, what\'s the state of synchronization these days. Last time I checked Sharp had broken the ROM in so far as it couldn\'t sync with QTopia Desktop any longer. So there was basically no PIM to sync to on Linux.  Has this changed?

Thanks.

[padishah_emperor]

All the newer machines have longer battery life, my C860 runs roughly 8 hours. I don\'t think the sync issues have changed much, with the newer hardware and pdaXrom, syncing is not relevant, since it\'s no longer a PDA.  If PDA PIM functions are important, you may want to consider another Palm, maybe a Clie.  I\'ve noticed quite a few newbies who think they are buying a PDA (like a Palm) soon run into problems because of one issue or another, probably because they didn\'t think it through beforehand. If you want a machine to sync with a Windows PC or such like, a Linux handheld such as a Z is probably not the best choice, there are better PDAs available, Empower PowerPlay (http://www.linuxda.com) is a Palm OS-like Linux PDA and Amida\'s Simputer from India (http://amidasimputer.com/features).  But if you want a UNIX handheld powerhouse, then go for it.  The machines still have to be imported because they are not mass consumer devices, the SL-6000 is available in the US which has a PDA shape. You are probably still looking at the same price range, quality costs.

But I have to be blunt, if you were not happy with a 5500 and were satisfied with a simple m130, I can\'t imagine what will make you think the Z has changed SO much that you will change your mind.

Hope this helps.

:-)

[havoc]

Korganizer/PI (platform independent) changed everything for me.  Since zautrix released ko/pi for the Z, all other PDAs are irrelevant if they don\'t run ko/pi.

I have run KO on the desktop for a long time (I\'ve been running a Linux desktop for about three years now), but been frustrated by 1) the inability to reliably sync it with my Palm devices, and 2) the fact that KO was tied to my desktop, which limited it\'s usefulness.  now that KO runs \"in my pocket,\" I seldom use the desktop copy for anything other than alarms.  KO is 10x as useful on my Z than on my desk, and 100x more useful than any PalmOS software I ever used.

I\'m running an SL-5600, and I\'m getting about 5-8 hours battery life with the backlight turned down one notch, and not messing with multimedia stuff much.  Even with the backlight on full brightness, the larger 5600 battery offers significantly longer run time.

[vishnja]

Syncing with Linux using Opie-PIM-Apps and evolution through multisync is not an issue anymore...
Battery life is much better with 5600, 760, 860 and 6000.

[PDAgal]

I have no problems syncing my C860 to Outlook and the built-in Zaurus PIM apps. Though the non-alphabetical address book is less than charming

[offroadgeek]

I have no problems syncing my C860 to Outlook and the built-in Zaurus PIM apps. Though the non-alphabetical address book is less than charming

same here... syncing with outlook on my 760 on any qtopia rom I\'ve had has been 100% reliable... much better than when I used to sync with my 5500.