Re: Zaurus

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Craig" == C Oda <craig@example.com> writes:

    Craig> do 16 colors under X.  Also, since I'm buying a PDA
    Craig> primarily for the calendar and datebook, I think that it is
    Craig> a better strategy to buy something real small and light and
    Craig> have it talk to a desktop at regular intervals.

One advantage of the Zaurus over the rest of the field (when I bought
it) was that it easily fit into a jacket pocket (and I can stuff it
into some of my Oxford pockets, but not all of them).  I think the
PI-6/7000 are even smaller.  I would guess that to have a keyboard with 
much advantage over the Zaurus's pen interface you'd need at least 2x
and probably 3x the real estate.  At that point I would prefer to
carry a briefcase/shoulderbag/backback and a notebook computer.

I don't know about the Casio you mentioned; I've seen a few
subnotebooks, and I just don't see a great advantage to them.  If
you're going to write more than a postcard, you need a real keyboard.
If you're traveling light, you want a jacket-pocket device, and either 
the 1-finger typewriter interface or the tegaki memo wins over a
subnotebook keyboard for 95% of the English-language tasks I've
encountered.  If you're writing in kanji, the character recognition
interface beats all keyboards, even full-size ones.

The pen beats a mouse or trackball hands-down.  For this application,
I think you should definitely go with a pen-based PDA like the Zaurus.

    Craig> Stephen, if I get the Zaurus and the cable, I'll give you a
    Craig> report.  If you want me to pick a cable after this, I can
    Craig> ship it to you.

No, I gotta go to Akihabara again soon.  My wife needs a modem for
this PC-kyuu-hachi notebook she inherited (yuck).  :-)  But do tell me
if you get it interfaced to a Linux box, 'cause that will give me real
incentive to get it hooked up.

Steve
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