Anyone Remember The Sharp Wizard

[Nato99]

I was going through my desk drawer and came across my old Wizard OZ9600II with it's whooping 512kb of memory. I seem to remember when they were the thing to have   Mine even has the optional 8 language translator card in case you find youself in Borneo needing a Pepsi.
Anyone else still hanging on to a relic?

Nato99
Tacoma, WA

[Neverwinter]

lol i guess no one does...how old is it?

[Foxdie]

photos and specs please

[BarryW]

I have an OZ in a box in my garage somewhere.  It was the second one I have owned.  First one's screen broke in my cargo pocket of my bdu's.  Crouched down to put the safety pins in an ejection seat and POP!  That was it.  After that I got a texas insturments Avigo, an Apple Newton Message Pad 2100, casio m-500, palm IIIXe, compaq iPaq 3650, 3850, Sony NX80V, hp iPaq 5550, and now my Zaurus SL-6000.  I still think one of the best ones was the Newton, but then again, I am an Apple snob...  

[burao]

My history goes:

Microsoft's first watch PDA (forgot the name)
Some PCMCIA slot PDA (forgot the name)
HP Omnigo
Palm Personal
Toshiba Libretto (Intel 75mhz with a 4gb HD)
Casio Casiopea
2 Handspings (Forgot the models. later one +keyboard -phone)
Zaurus 700
Zaurus 860

The 860 is the best, though I still want to find a calendar app anywhere close
to the Handspring version. I use Portabase for contacts, though the Handspring/Palm
software was better as well.

[dhns]

The first Sharp:

I have got a replica of the first product from Sharp some years ago (was a Sharp promotional present): "The ever Sharp Pencil"

Sharp invented - I think in 1928 or so - this type of pencil where you press on the button on the end and this moves the pencil lead in a small metal tube.

-- hns

[dhns]

Here is a link: http://sharp-world.com/corporate/info/his/...pany/1915_1919/

[Nato99]

Well, not nearly as popular as I thought  
I looked for some pic's online and can find any. Apparently it's dropped of the technology radar. I bought mine reburbished in 92' or 93'. It was a clam shell design with super high tech touch screen and stylus (OOOOOhhh AAAAAAhhhh), came with 512 KB of internal memory and was totally ascii based I believe. It also had an expansion slot for a pcmia type, proprietary card for games, app's or just more memory although the chance of running out of memory was pretty slim seeing as how the were no graphics.
Just looked on Ebay too and nothing!! If it isn't on Ebay it doesn't exist right??!


Nato99

[BarryW]

Mine was a ZR-5800 with 2 mb of memory!!!

[img]http://idisk.mac.com/barrywoods/Public/Zaurus58001.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
[img]http://idisk.mac.com/barrywoods/Public/Zaurus58002.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

[Neverwinter]

Mine was a ZR-5800 with 2 mb of memory!!!

Which one are you talking about?  The PDA or the robot?  (<-- lol)

[BarryW]

Added the robot for scale.

[byzantium]

...I still think one of the best ones was the Newton, but then again, I am an Apple snob... 

I've got about 6 Newtons ... as I ran a company for 4 years developing software for them.  So I wouldn't say you're the only Apple snob

There were lots of remarkable things about the Newton that most computers, let alone PDAs are still trying to master.

Having said that, the Z is the first device I would consider the heir to the throne, at least in some ways.

Hopefully Sharp can get their act together, or we may be reminiscing about the Z in a few years.

cheers
byz

[caffeinated]

Added the robot for scale.

Whoa!  

That's a pretty big PDA.  Gundam are like over 15 meters tall!