Thinking of getting a 6000

[elvis]

1. How does the 6000 stack up with respect to its PIM software? I'd like to get it because its a mini-computer but without decent PIM software its usefulness will be greatly diminished. I imagine zautrix's PIM software should run...

2. How is the battery life in the real world? I hate that the 5500 dies in about an hour. That is much too short for useful work. And I'd like to know the battery life when the backlight is set to maximum.

3. Can you really connect any USB device? I'd love to be able to connect it to external hard drives.

4. Can you connect the 6000 to any computer and have it automatically appear as an external hard drive? Or do you need special software?

5. How many dead pixels? I read somewhere Sharp claims fewer than 0.01% but for a screen with 640x480 pixels that is almost 30 pixels! Unacceptable...

[BarryW]

The pim software works okay for me.  I did find out that I can't hear the alarms I set in the calander program so I just about killed my Z when it was doing it's alarm thing for about an hour.  I have three dead pixels that I can see with an all black screen.  I'll let you in on a little secret, you can't see the pixels.  We were having a class at work and were talking about how lcd works.  I set my g4 powerbook's screen under a disecting microscope and we could watch the sub pixels change when I changed the background color.  When I set my Z under it I found that the sub pixels are about a half to a quarter the size of the powerbook.  So unless your eyes are better than mine, which are way better than 20/20, you probably aren't going to notice.  I can usually get a full work day out of it.  I connect to our network every now and then to check email.  Surfing will kill the battery faster though.  I don't have a usb adapter yet, but one of the guys at work does, Duffman here on the boards, usb keyboards do work, it sees a usb bluetooth adapter, but doesn't have the drivers installed.  Some other guys here on the boards have attached drives.  I use macs so I can't really connect mine to a computer, can't help you there.

[nevarrie]

1. How does the 6000 stack up with respect to its PIM software? I'd like to get it because its a mini-computer but without decent PIM software its usefulness will be greatly diminished. I imagine zautrix's PIM software should run...

I have not used teh PIM software at all on my Z yet, though that may change now that my Treo 180 has died...I have the KAddressbook/Pi, OpieMail/Pi, and KOrganizer/Pi on my Z but I currently only uses OM/Pi so I can connect to my imaps server to read my mail..The organizer and Adressbook look nice though I have nto put in data into them yet...

2. How is the battery life in the real world? I hate that the 5500 dies in about an hour. That is much too short for useful work. And I'd like to know the battery life when the backlight is set to maximum.

With backlight set to one above off I can get about 10+ hours on the battery if I am not using wifi..with WiFi on and sshed into a server doign something like irc then I get about 1.5 to 2 hours...with just doing IM and websurfing I am able to get about 3 hours of battery life...I have not spent much time tiwh the backlight at max so I am nto sure how it really effects battery life other then when I am plugged in...

3. Can you really connect any USB device? I'd love to be able to connect it to external hard drives.

I have used flash drives and harddrives without a problem on the usb host port, now my keyspan usb to serial adapter shows up but will not work since the kernel drivers are missing...I can nto remeber what my problem was with the extrernal cdrom, I want to say I was able to access files but I am not sure...So overall it works just as well as my desktop in access usb devices, you just may have to compile in a few more drivers to make everything work(Part of the reason I am working on getting OpenEmbedded to build a usable rom for the 6k, that and having X), Oh yes my usb keyboards have worked great on myZ...Usually I am using one of my Logitech wireless keyboards with my Z and the main keys work great though some of the other keys are nto maped correctly...You do have to have a cable that has a Mini-A connector to uses witht eh 6K...I uses a quick connect cable from GoldX since I can change out the ends to any of the different USB connects(A-male,A-female,B,Mini-A,Mini-B )

4. Can you connect the 6000 to any computer and have it automatically appear as an external hard drive? Or do you need special software?

I have not got this to work with my Z...I have tried through both the bigass docking station and through the usb host and it comes up as an unknow usb device for both on linux and windows 2000....

5. How many dead pixels? I read somewhere Sharp claims fewer than 0.01% but for a screen with 640x480 pixels that is almost 30 pixels! Unacceptable...

I have not noticed a single died pixal as of yet.  I would agree with BarryW that they are so small they you will not see the Died pixals....