Are Zaurus Productive Pda ?

[seed]

some people said that zaurus are extremly non-produxtive pda, loss  of time during configuration and rom flashing .... only a gadget form handleheld and linux geek

what do u think about ....
did someone use it zaurus in a very productive way excluding network administrator ofcourse  ...

[JohnKiniston]

Your not required to flash new roms every time one comes out, The Sharp rom still works fine today for many users, I choose of my ow free will to flash my 5500 with a new image any time one comes out because I like new things, Most times I end up flashing back to what I had before as the new roms dont interest me or dont have the functionality or feel of the rom I had before.

I take notes with my Z, Watch movies on it, play games, Use it for PIM, and read books on it. Out of those tasks I'd argue that note taking and PIM are productive uses of it.

If there's another device out in the market that gives the same flexibiltiy of the Zaurus with its ability to run different ROM's I'd be interested in hearing about it, You dont see new versions of Palm OS except when new palms are relased when I'm sure it could run on older hardware, Same with WinCE or whatever its called these days your stuck with whatever the device sold with in most cases.

[seed]

Your not required to flash new roms every time one comes out, The Sharp rom still works fine today for many users, I choose of my ow free will to flash my 5500 with a new image any time one comes out because I like new things, Most times I end up flashing back to what I had before as the new roms dont interest me or dont have the functionality or feel of the rom I had before.

I take notes with my Z, Watch movies on it, play games, Use it for PIM, and read books on it. Out of those tasks I'd argue that note taking and PIM are productive uses of it.

If there's another device out in the market that gives the same flexibiltiy of the Zaurus with its ability to run different ROM's I'd be interested in hearing about it, You dont see new versions of Palm OS except when new palms are relased when I'm sure it could run on older hardware, Same with WinCE or whatever its called these days your stuck with whatever the device sold with in most cases.
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yea u right and that too why i buy a z
but take a look to a bizness user only need pda for pim , sharind date and may be watch video when on travel, he dont need also this flexibility that geek search for ,and this flexibility came with  a "complexity " that cut down the productivity ??

[iamasmith]

some people said that zaurus are extremly non-produxtive pda, loss  of time during configuration and rom flashing .... only a gadget form handleheld and linux geek

what do u think about ....
did someone use it zaurus in a very productive way excluding network administrator ofcourse  ...
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I would agree with this to a certain degree. If you give one to a geek then the versitility of the device can lead to a lot of customisation - in fact this may be never ending.

The target for the Zaurus seemed to be for a while highly customised solutions and I think Sharp wanted to get the buyin for large organisations to buy large quantities of the Zaurus in the overseas market with a view to making customised line of business solutions.. this would be great.. lots of time spent by the technical division developing a Zaurus solution and then a standard configuration pushed out to the workforce.

Practically speaking, its a global geek toy in many ways but when we have stopped playing it's darned useful and we WONT be having to HOPE that M$ release an updated version of Windows CE for the device that we bought 6 months ago that went out of date!

- Andy

[craigtyson]

Productive?  dunno judge 4 yourself
Got a used C750 a few weeks back.  Installed some duff packages on it (was already runing cacko rom) had to clear the flash.  Time lost 2hrs

Patched Rom/kino time 1/2hr
installed all apps and language support 2hrs
Bigger fonts cos Im geting old 2hrs

I now use my Z for
Watchind mpeg4 movies
Listening to mp3 music
browsing the web usign wifi (plug n play no config reqd)
email (sorry aol webmail but pop3 / others avail)
typing up my chinese assignments in chinese
translation / dictionaries from english to chinese
view pdf docs - tube maps - bus maps - train maps
manage my contacts using jcards a java  db app
now have great road maps/GPS app (not got tge gps unit yet but still able to browse the maps)
carry over 50 books on SD.
DOOM !
HERETIC !!
QUAKE !!!
CAD drawing
Full Word edditing (tables/headers/footers/graphics)

I support ipaqs at work and if they could do 1/2 of this in one setup on one device I would be very suprised.

[adf]

Yeah.. Zaurus is absoutley the champ in "Bang for the Buck" and "Bang for the (insert local unit of mass or weight or volume here)"



I'm kinda eyeballin the tiqit, though.

[kahm]

A friend of mine started using the Z back in the 5000D days (He used my 5000d when we were working at the research institute that Sharp gave it to for evaluation)
He is a busy and somewhat absent minded person, so he kept forgetting little details like there having been an important meeting that day, etc.  He hated the Palm Pilot because of the handwriting recognition or lack thereof, but he needed something to help him keep organized.

Well, he got the 5000D with rom v 1.12 and never looked back. Upgraded to the 5500 with the original Sharp rom v3.1. Upgraded that to an 860 running the 1.4 rom translated. Upgraded that to an SL-C3000 with the 1.01 rom translated. He uses the stock PIM and Outlook XP, pushing the integration between the two as far as he can - he lives his life by the schedule and data stored on it every day. His Zaurus completely defines his productivity.

And he's never installed anything more complex than the PDF reader, and he wouldn't know linux from a hole in the ground. Besides PIM stuff he uses it for reading documents, taking notes, and listening to music and audio books.

The Zaurus can be a productive and easy to use PDA if that's all you're looking for. For those of us that want to put the work in it can also be our library, laptop, mp3 and movie player, handheld game machine, portable office, blackberry, telephone, and server.

Try that with just a PDA.

[V-Man]

I used my Z (5500) for a long time as my only PDA.  After I got an iPaq, it took almost 6 months and several hundred dollars worth of software just to get it as useful as my Z was out of the box.  The Z is the best PDA out there in my opinion.  I am a police officer, not a computer geek.  I switched to the iPaq for three reasons: the better screen, better handwriting recognition, and better battery life.  I still use my Z daily, just now it is not my primary work PDA.  It is still more useful than the iPaq.

I did spend a lot of time customizing my Z to exactly what I wanted.  The only thing I am lacking (and that is because I spent so much money on the iPaq) is a good movie player and the Textmaker software.  I am lusting after the recent clamshell Z's, but the only way I could afford one would be to sell off my iPaq and current Z.  The iPaq would go in a heartbeat, but I can't part with the Z.

[samxiao]

Productive?  dunno judge 4 yourself
Got a used C750 a few weeks back.  Installed some duff packages on it (was already runing cacko rom) had to clear the flash.  Time lost 2hrs

Patched Rom/kino time 1/2hr
installed all apps and language support 2hrs
Bigger fonts cos Im geting old 2hrs

I now use my Z for
Watchind mpeg4 movies
Listening to mp3 music
browsing the web usign wifi (plug n play no config reqd)
email (sorry aol webmail but pop3 / others avail)
typing up my chinese assignments in chinese
translation / dictionaries from english to chinese
view pdf docs - tube maps - bus maps - train maps
manage my contacts using jcards a java  db app
now have great road maps/GPS app (not got tge gps unit yet but still able to browse the maps)
carry over 50 books on SD.
DOOM !
HERETIC !!
QUAKE !!!
CAD drawing
Full Word edditing (tables/headers/footers/graphics)

I support ipaqs at work and if they could do 1/2 of this in one setup on one device I would be very suprised.
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how did you get your wifi working?

my Netgear (and i tried Ambicom card) didn't work on 1.22a but it was working on 1.21b
i guess it's just some rolling back config
i'm too tired to try it

any suggestion?