New Zaurus Successor?

[fpp]

A couple of questions about the touchscreen version :

- does the tactile digitizer noticeably degrade the display compared to the original non-touchscreen SA1 ?

- when the new version first appeared, there was a rumour on a forum over here that maybe the touchscreen was something special that required the stylus provided by KJS to work with. This came from a board member who only had the unit in hand for a few moments, and was unable to use the screen with his fingers or the stylus of his own PDA. Can anyone confirm or deny this ?

TIA,
fp

[Snappy]

A couple of questions about the touchscreen version :

- does the tactile digitizer noticeably degrade the display compared to the original non-touchscreen SA1 ?

- when the new version first appeared, there was a rumour on a forum over here that maybe the touchscreen was something special that required the stylus provided by KJS to work with. This came from a board member who only had the unit in hand for a few moments, and was unable to use the screen with his fingers or the stylus of his own PDA. Can anyone confirm or deny this ?

TIA,
fp
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162134\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

AFA the ones I tested at the bookfair are concerned, I had no non-touchscreen SA1s to compare with, but the ones I tested were pretty bright and crisp.

I can use my fingers and finger nails on the screen. Actually, I probably used my nails as I've always been on my PDAs and Zaurus.

Why? Oh Why must the keyboard be so stiff ...

[cycle_55]

A couple of questions about the touchscreen version :

- does the tactile digitizer noticeably degrade the display compared to the original non-touchscreen SA1 ?

- when the new version first appeared, there was a rumour on a forum over here that maybe the touchscreen was something special that required the stylus provided by KJS to work with. This came from a board member who only had the unit in hand for a few moments, and was unable to use the screen with his fingers or the stylus of his own PDA. Can anyone confirm or deny this ?

TIA,
fp
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162134\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

AFA the ones I tested at the bookfair are concerned, I had no non-touchscreen SA1s to compare with, but the ones I tested were pretty bright and crisp.

I can use my fingers and finger nails on the screen. Actually, I probably used my nails as I've always been on my PDAs and Zaurus.

Why? Oh Why must the keyboard be so stiff ...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162143\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Am I the only one that doesn't have a problem with this keyboard? There must be something wrong with me....  

cycle_55

I keep forgetting that this is an international forum and should have written "does not" instead of "doesn't".

[Snappy]

Anyone else have (no) problem with the keyboard?

[rickh]

A couple of questions about the touchscreen version :

- does the tactile digitizer noticeably degrade the display compared to the original non-touchscreen SA1 ?

- when the new version first appeared, there was a rumour on a forum over here that maybe the touchscreen was something special that required the stylus provided by KJS to work with. This came from a board member who only had the unit in hand for a few moments, and was unable to use the screen with his fingers or the stylus of his own PDA. Can anyone confirm or deny this ?

TIA,
fp
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162134\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

AFA the ones I tested at the bookfair are concerned, I had no non-touchscreen SA1s to compare with, but the ones I tested were pretty bright and crisp.

I can use my fingers and finger nails on the screen. Actually, I probably used my nails as I've always been on my PDAs and Zaurus.

Why? Oh Why must the keyboard be so stiff ...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162143\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Am I the only one that doesn't have a problem with this keyboard? There must be something wrong with me....  

cycle_55
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162144\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Obviously you're not the only one, since the last comment was a complaint on the keyboard.

Complaining for the sake of complaining accomplishes nothing.

R.
==

[freizugheit]

Following Snappy's reply, I went to the show room of

Personal Automation Mart Pte Ltd (P.A. Mart Pte Ltd)
109, North Bridge Road #04-18
Funan The IT Mall Singapore 179097
Tel: (+65) 6338 3530     Fax: (+65) 6338 3532
Website:www.pamart.com.sg

to test drive the Kohjinsha SA1F00W (S$1,198 =US$790)

[img]http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/04/kohjinsha_02.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

The black version, Kohjinsha SA1F00V (S41,049 = US$690),

[img]http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/04/kohjinsha_01.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

is not available for testing.

The salesman was asking me to pre-order and said that it was selling like a hot cake ever since the news was published on the local Sunday Times on 27/05.  The new stock should be available on 29/5.  When I saw the latest Compaq notebook running at 1.7GHz costing about S$1,299, I held back my purchase.
 
When asked whether the company planned to introduce the machine during the forthcoming PC Show at Singapore Suntec City Convention Centre from 31/5 - 3/6.  The salesman said that  they might want to do so.  Normally, you will expect big discounts or good deals for every IT devices during the trade fair.

The following were my observation during testing:

I could feel the heat emitting from the demo set that is running by the adaptor.

The TFT colour screen was not so sharp as expected.

The keyboard is indeed not suitable for those who have big fingers.

[desertrat]

I keep forgetting that this is an international forum and should have written "does not" instead of "doesn't".

This is a new one to me. Are you implying that non-native English speakers (readers) aren't (are not ) familiar with the apostrophe abbreviations? If so that is something I wasn't (was not) aware of.

[fpp]

Thanks freizugheit &others for the quick feedback on my questions.

Oh, and I do have issues with the keyboard too :-)
Apparently something can be done about that, see the latest post in Kopsis' blog, or the SA1 Google Group.

[Antikx]

Is the Kohjinsha capable of running Vista?
It's my understanding that M$ won't be allowing OEM XP by the end of the year. I expect to see hardware specs for UMPC's to jump soon if not already.

[cycle_55]

I keep forgetting that this is an international forum and should have written "does not" instead of "doesn't".

This is a new one to me. Are you implying that non-native English speakers (readers) aren't (are not ) familiar with the apostrophe abbreviations? If so that is something I wasn't (was not) aware of.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162162\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I apologize if I insulted anyone, that was not my intention. It is my understanding that translation engines are not able to deal with the apostrophe, and the next poster appeared to misunderstand my question.

cycle_55

[chal]

I keep forgetting that this is an international forum and should have written "does not" instead of "doesn't".

This is a new one to me. Are you implying that non-native English speakers (readers) aren't (are not ) familiar with the apostrophe abbreviations? If so that is something I wasn't (was not) aware of.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162162\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Me too. I thought that was only true of androids.

edit: In light of the post above, I should say and translators.

[freizugheit]

Is the Kohjinsha capable of running Vista?

Have a look at the minimum system requirement for Windows Vista.

BTW, I forgot to mention that  the Kohjinsha SA1F00W or V does not come with an external CD-ROM drive. Hence you need pocket about US$100 to purchase a USB CD-ROM drive.

[kopsis]

Is the Kohjinsha capable of running Vista?

Have a look at the minimum system requirement for Windows Vista.

BTW, I forgot to mention that  the Kohjinsha SA1F00W or V does not come with an external CD-ROM drive. Hence you need pocket about US$100 to purchase a USB CD-ROM drive.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162200\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I think Antikx was really wondering if Kohjinsha will, at some point, start shipping SA1s with some flavor of Vista pre-installed. But I suspect that by the time Microsoft gets really serious about not letting OEMs ship XP (even on hardware that doesn't meet Vista min requirements), Kohjinsha will have a new machine out that replaces the SA1 (my guess would be about this time next year).

I really can't see any good reason for installing Vista on an SA1 that already has XP. You wouldn't get the Aero UI (no 3D graphics chip) and I suspect what you would get would run slower than molasses in January

But if you do need an external optical drive for installing something more useful (like Linux), $25 for an IDE/USB enclosure and $5 for a flea-market 5.25" CD-ROM drive will do the trick. You can get by even cheaper if you do what I did and find a really good sale on a 3.5" enclosure and just duct tape its guts to an old CD-ROM drive (yes, I did watch a few too many episodes of MacGyver as a kid)

[Da_Blitz]

But if you do need an external optical drive for installing something more useful (like Linux), $25 for an IDE/USB enclosure and $5 for a flea-market 5.25" CD-ROM drive will do the trick. You can get by even cheaper if you do what I did and find a really good sale on a 3.5" enclosure and just duct tape its guts to an old CD-ROM drive (yes, I did watch a few too many episodes of MacGyver as a kid)

you may laugh at that however thats what i did, funny thing is i did it all with a swiss army knife as well

one thing i have always  wanted to try is netboot + grub. appartentlly there is a way to setup a netboot server so that it boots grub that then presents you iwth a achoice of OS's to install. if you change OS's, do virtulaisation or any other funky stuff where you have to install a bit it could be nice

or my faviorte trick, knoopix +  qemu + kqemu + windows install. install windows to the local drive while surfing the net!!!... some assembly reqiuired

[fpp]

But if you do need an external optical drive for installing something more useful (like Linux), $25 for an IDE/USB enclosure and $5 for a flea-market 5.25" CD-ROM drive will do the trick.

When I first received mine I was in a hurry so I borrowed an external DVD burner from a friend, it was litterally huge and bigger than the SA1 itself :

http://www.monbo.net/KJS/KJS-SA1-CDROM.jpg

Later I dug into my treasure chest and found a "slimline" plain CD reader that came from an old laptop. I shopped around and found an enclosure specially made for those by ICY-BOX (about 25$). This is more in line with the SA1 size and looks, plus it's powered by the USB port if you really need it :

http://www.monbo.net/KJS/KJS-SA1-KB.jpg

You can get by even cheaper if you do what I did and find a really good sale on a 3.5" enclosure and just duct tape its guts to an old CD-ROM drive (yes, I did watch a few too many episodes of MacGyver as a kid)

Well, it's good of you to own up to that, but after that hairbrush-bristles-in-the-keyboard hack job, it was more or less public knowledge already, right ? :-)