Greyscale Qvga 802.11b Linux Pda - Zipit

[speculatrix]

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8107883197.html

The Zipit is marketed under brandnames that include ZipitWireless and K-Byte, and is currently available at Target and TigerDirect, priced at $99, in colors that include white, silver, blue, red, and pink. It includes an 802.11b WiFi radio, 16-color greyscale LCD with QVGA (320x240) resolution, and a thumb keyboard with rubber buttons. Also included is a stereo DAC (digital audio converter) connected to a speaker and headphone jack.

sounds like a great toy!

[samxiao]

not bad for $99

but i'll still stick with my powerful C1000

[speculatrix]

My brother is in the 'states at the moment and I've asked him to get me one...

if I'm going to hack around with some arm hardware, I'd rather it was $99 zipit than my $600 sl-c860! I figure I can learn a bit about soldering stuff in, like bluetooth, and gain some confidence before performing some zaurus surgery!

[TsingTao]

I'm glad to be out of highschool.  I'm even glad to have graduated college (well...junior college...the real 'BS' is yet to come   ).  But they were both  (in retrospect) happy times in my life.  But if I may say...

 Where the #$%# was this thing when I needed it ?

 Heehee! JK !  I got jiggy with ye olde TI-8x  calcs for my in-class electronic chicanery (as most of my technically inclined/socially inept bretheren/sisteren did).  But it looks like that torch might be passing or at least getting a little competition/company).

 But their website is a little annoying, so I'll ask here, is there a dev kit available ?  are there any accessory i/o's on it (SD, CF, etc...).  If not, how do you hack it ?  Pop in a new (E(E))PROM ?  Or do you hack your own local network's DNS to redirect this device to one of your machines during it's 'autoupdate' (a la the earliest PSP 'hacks') ?

 Looks like a nifty little device.  A little expandabillity and telnet/ssh would make it a bit more interesting in stock trim though...but then I suppose it's limited use is designed as part of the appeal for parents...

 I'll keep an eye on it. If it or a followup product comes with a CF slot and a rudimentary MP3 player for the same money...I'm sold.

[lardman]

Do a search on slashdot - there was a post about it yesterday or the day before with links to various things including hacks, dev kit, etc.


Si

[albertr]

if I'm going to hack around with some arm hardware, I'd rather it was $99 zipit than my $600 sl-c860! I figure I can learn a bit about soldering stuff in, like bluetooth, and gain some confidence before performing some zaurus surgery!
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I think ZipIt would not be the best choice for playing around with hardware. It seems to be very "cost-effective" design, i.e. nothing else is present except what is used already. There's a hardware mod to add a serial port, but that's pretty much it. ASIC is in BGA packing, the PCB is rather small. Everything is highly integrated. Also, it has only 2MB flash - not alot of room.

IMHO, for about the same amount of money Simpad SL4 would be a better choice
for playing with hardware unless you need a keyboard.
-albertr

[ThirtyOne]

I got a SL-5500 with accessories (wi-fi, sd)  for $140.  In what way is this better?

[speculatrix]

I got a SL-5500 with accessories (wi-fi, sd)  for $140.  In what way is this better?
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the zipit is still $40 cheaper, and has built-in 802.11, *if* my brother buys it and so I don't have to pay for delivery, import etc.

however, I didn't think about buying an SL-5xxx and doing hardware hackery on that. I'm also interested in the attempts to turn the 6000L into a 6000W.