The Pandora Vs Zaurus Sl-c3200

[christo930]

This device (the sharp) is expensive and it seems to be fairly similar to the Pandora (at least in some ways). The Zaurus in the US runs an open linux OS. What about porting that OS over to the Pandora to make it a very good PDA, on top of a game machine. The Zaurus can be twisted into a tablet and has a virtual KB as well as the real thing when in clam mode. I was looking into this at one time and decided I just couldn't justify the high price, but if the Pandora could be almost as good while still being a gaming machine, It just might make it worth while. You could have a card that boots the OS and another card with your games on it. Maybe the devs could take a look at the source and see if it's something that they could do. It would really make this machine interesting. It has a good web browser, decent apps, same resolution. Does that Pandora have a RTC? If so, can it turn the Pandora on?

Chris

 

[Prophet]

This device (the sharp) is expensive and it seems to be fairly similar to the Pandora (at least in some ways). The Zaurus in the US runs an open linux OS. What about porting that OS over to the Pandora to make it a very good PDA, on top of a game machine. The Zaurus can be twisted into a tablet and has a virtual KB as well as the real thing when in clam mode. I was looking into this at one time and decided I just couldn't justify the high price, but if the Pandora could be almost as good while still being a gaming machine, It just might make it worth while. You could have a card that boots the OS and another card with your games on it. Maybe the devs could take a look at the source and see if it's something that they could do. It would really make this machine interesting. It has a good web browser, decent apps, same resolution. Does that Pandora have a RTC? If so, can it turn the Pandora on?

Chris

Pandora does have a RTC, yes. Check the specs here: http://pandora.bluwiki.com/

As for the Zaurus - to me the Pandora is very unique so I don't even compare it to anything. Nothing out there has game controls like the Pandora design does, and as it so happens, it just might make a great little pocket computer as well.

 

[dabomb3627]

well you see this zaurus only has 2/3 the processing power, half the RAM, and actually has a smaller screen than the pandora, and no built in Wi-Fi. porting its OS should be entirely possible if the source is out there, and would be a good idea for quickly generating a ton of organizer apps for pandora in a short amount of time.

 

[christo930]

well you see this zaurus only has 2/3 the processing power, half the RAM, and actually has a smaller screen than the pandora, and no built in Wi-Fi. porting its OS should be entirely possible if the source is out there, and would be a good idea for quickly generating a ton of organizer apps for pandora in a short amount of time.

If they did that, I think it would be enough to win me over for a quick buy, assuming the screen is appropriate. Is the screen as good quality as a pda? Is it suitable for reading? The GP2X screen is definitely not, the gp32 (non back lit version) is. I have an iPaq 3650 and the screen is awesome (though I wish it was bigger and higher res) for reading. I can read for hours on the iPaq. Even a palm III has a good screen for reading, although not too much information can be on the screen at once with only 160x160 res. There are 640x480 pda's but the dot pitch is so tiny that you can't read normal size fonts, so you end up with the same amount of information on the screen because you have to nearly double the font size to be comfortable. This shouldn't apply to the Pandora, because the screen is bigger.

Chris

 

[BaDToaD]

Even a palm III has a good screen for reading, although not too much information can be on the screen at once with only 160x160 res.

Chris

Get a Sony Clie SL10 off ebay. Runs On AAA batteries like a palm III but it's 320x320 greyscale. It's palm os too.

Better by far screen wise than the Palm III and even the Palm M500. Brilliant at night, the black is darker than either the Palm III or M500. The only downside is the batteries don't last as long as the Palm III. It has a memory stick slot though so you can carry a load of books. Last one I got cost about £15 off ebay in great condition. I keep it as a spare as my original that I bought about 5 years ago is still going strong

 

[christo930]

Even a palm III has a good screen for reading, although not too much information can be on the screen at once with only 160x160 res.

Chris

Get a Sony Clie SL10 off ebay. Runs On AAA batteries like a palm III but it's 320x320 greyscale. It's palm os too.

Better by far screen wise than the Palm III and even the Palm M500. Brilliant at night, the black is darker than either the Palm III or M500. The only downside is the batteries don't last as long as the Palm III. It has a memory stick slot though so you can carry a load of books. Last one I got cost about £15 off ebay in great condition. I keep it as a spare as my original that I bought about 5 years ago is still going strong


Actually that sounds pretty good. 320x320 is higher than qvga and the ipaq goes through the battery every few days and if I forget to put it on the charger, I have to set it up again which is a pain. I like palm desktop better than ce services and I have very few books in msreader format. For reading, I won't miss color at all so long as I can read in the dark. The palm III has a greenish color light thats not too comfortable for reading in the dark. Does the unit you are talking about have the same light as a palm 3 or is it a white light?

 

[BaDToaD]

Does the unit you are talking about have the same light as a palm 3 or is it a white light?

It's a green screen light similar to the palm but better quality. At night the contrast is way better than the palms. ie. the green is brighter and the screen darker but it's still very easy on the eyes. I much prefer it to reading off my TH55 or GP32 especially for long reading sessions.

You will need to get a screen inverter though as otherwise you get a bright screen with dark text at night. I use a tiny little app called invert (lcd-invert maybe)

There's a hi res off option in palm preferences that you tick for individual apps to make the device compatible with difficult 160 x 160 apps so you can run nearly all the old software too. Most 160 stuff runs just fine anyway without the hi res fix.

EDIT: It also comes with backup software that can back up to memory stick. I backup to the stick as well as PC so if I change batteries and lose my stuff. (It happens on my old unit sometimes) I run the backup app straight from the launcer directory on the stick and click on restore. 2 mins later all is back in place and at worst I have to find where I was in the book I was reading.

 

[christo930]

Does the unit you are talking about have the same light as a palm 3 or is it a white light?

It's a green screen light similar to the palm but better quality. At night the contrast is way better than the palms. ie. the green is brighter and the screen darker but it's still very easy on the eyes. I much prefer it to reading off my TH55 or GP32 especially for long reading sessions.

You will need to get a screen inverter though as otherwise you get a bright screen with dark text at night. I use a tiny little app called invert (lcd-invert maybe)

There's a hi res off option in palm preferences that you tick for individual apps to make the device compatible with difficult 160 x 160 apps so you can run nearly all the old software too. Most 160 stuff runs just fine anyway without the hi res fix.

EDIT: It also comes with backup software that can back up to memory stick. I backup to the stick as well as PC so if I change batteries and lose my stuff. (It happens on my old unit sometimes) I run the backup app straight from the launcer directory on the stick and click on restore. 2 mins later all is back in place and at worst I have to find where I was in the book I was reading.


Thanks so much for the information. I have a few other questions. I've heard in the amazon.com reviews that you can't read a book or access a file from the memory stick, that you have to copy it to main ram first. Is that true? With my iPaq I keep all my files on the compact flash card to keep the main memory free to run more apps. I also read there that daylight reading is good, but what about direct sunlight? My iPaq is a reflective lcd, so the brighter the better. Even direct sunlight. I assume mp3's are not an option? Does the IR have good range (to use it as a remote control)?

I like my iPaq (especially since I paid $17 for it at a flea market), but it has it's draw backs. For one, the CF slot is not built in, it's in a sleeve that makes it twice as thick and draws more power. The battery life is ok, but when it goes dead everything is lost and you can't restore it unless you backed it up to the cf card. The reason is really ce services. When the device goes dead, ce services see's it as a new machine and won't let you restore your backup to it. Color is nice, but not needed for reading and having the memory card slot built in makes it smaller. I've been checking them out on ebay and they are definitely in my budget.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[BaDToaD]

Thanks so much for the information. I have a few other questions. I've heard in the amazon.com reviews that you can't read a book or access a file from the memory stick, that you have to copy it to main ram first. Is that true? With my iPaq I keep all my files on the compact flash card to keep the main memory free to run more apps. I also read there that daylight reading is good, but what about direct sunlight? My iPaq is a reflective lcd, so the brighter the better. Even direct sunlight. I assume mp3's are not an option? Does the IR have good range (to use it as a remote control)?

I like my iPaq (especially since I paid $17 for it at a flea market), but it has it's draw backs. For one, the CF slot is not built in, it's in a sleeve that makes it twice as thick and draws more power. The battery life is ok, but when it goes dead everything is lost and you can't restore it unless you backed it up to the cf card. The reason is really ce services. When the device goes dead, ce services see's it as a new machine and won't let you restore your backup to it. Color is nice, but not needed for reading and having the memory card slot built in makes it smaller. I've been checking them out on ebay and they are definitely in my budget.

Thanks,

Chris

If you have a launcher directory you can launch apps directly from the memory stick. Personally I copy books from MS to ram to read but 8mb goes a long way on palm OS especially when most apps can run from the MS.

No MP3s.

Direct sunlight is fine for reading.

IR range is not good enough to use as a remote. Get an M100 or 105 of ebay for that. Great range and stupidly cheap.

EDIT: Oh and because it's 33Mhz it runs the Gameboy emulators phoinix and liberty at a playable speeds for RPGs and some other games too. Phoinix is freeware The keys are good for games too compared to most PDAs. GB roms need to sit in RAM but I have a great little file manager called FileZ that I use to copy them to ram to play. Only takes a few seconds.

 

[Ravnos]

On topic, doesn't the Zaurus just run Qtopia on Linux anyway? There's already a Qtopia port for the GP2X, I don't see why it couldn't be ported easily to the Pandora.