New Zaurus SL-C3200 - and it looks a bit disappointing

[Chaos]

Akibahara News has a quick piece on the new Sharp Zaurus SL-3200. In the past the Zauri have been interesting, unusual, and often the first to implement some feature (such as the hard drive in the SL-C3000, or the hidden thumb-board in the old SL-5500). But it seems that Sharp is slipping somewhat...

So, what's new (vs. the SL-C3000)? A 6GB hard drive. No wifi, no bluetooth... Just a simple hard drive size-bump, in the more-than-a-year since the C3000's release.

The slightly-sarcastic (is that 'Enlish' really a typo, or a subtle comment?) news puts it this way:
Ok, the HDD gets a bump from 4 to 6GB, you get a ton of software to learn English in collaboration with the (very bad) Enlish school called NOVA so that you can improve your TOEIC score (the one that increases if your English gets worse). So yet another disappointing release by Sharp, that see their pocket computers, release after release, transformed more and more into an oversized dictionary.

If Sharp wants to remain any sort of valid competitor at all I think that they'll have to pull their act together... Wifi and bluetooth would be a good start, I think.

[doctorow]

No wifi and no bluetooth, what were they thinking? We live in 2006, when everything in our daily life works through wireless communication. PDAs are in the decline, and Sharp is certainly not helping to reverse this trend by releasing a backwarded device like the C3200 ;(

[Chaos]

The Zauri do play very well with compact flash wifi cards (except to some degree the added bulk+power consumption)... But still, as my original post noted, not having it built in is, most likely, a very bad mistake.

There's also an article on the C3200 at Brighthand, and another on Engadget. Nothing other than what's noted here, however.

[StuBear]

Bluetooth is almost unkown here in Japan, and wifi is only slightly better.

There are almost no wifi hotspots available in Osaka (the 2nd biggest city) and it is mostly limited to home networks (although warwalking can score you a heap of access points even those are drying up as most wifi routers come wep or wpa enabled by default).

As the C3200 (like all the other clamshell modules) is only designed for release in Japan - you will noyl be able to get it outside Japan through greymarket exports - there is no drive to add wifi yet (there probably never will be for bluetooth) although it is dissapointing to see that they haven't upped the RAM on the latest model.

All in all a poor "upgrade" by Sharp

Stu

[hardfocusmedia]

Originally Posted by StuBear

Bluetooth is almost unkown here in Japan, and wifi is only slightly better.

There are almost no wifi hotspots available in Osaka (the 2nd biggest city) and it is mostly limited to home networks (although warwalking can score you a heap of access points even those are drying up as most wifi routers come wep or wpa enabled by default).

As the C3200 (like all the other clamshell modules) is only designed for release in Japan - you will noyl be able to get it outside Japan through greymarket exports - there is no drive to add wifi yet (there probably never will be for bluetooth) although it is dissapointing to see that they haven't upped the RAM on the latest model.

All in all a poor "upgrade" by Sharp

Stu

As a networking service provider and road warrior myself, in Japan, I can attest that:

There are tons of hotspots in Osaka, Tokyo and the smaller cities in Japan.

There are several networking options in addition to WiFi. Wilcom, Docomo, AU, are among the national coverage providors with more in the major urban centres (Osaka, Tokyo).

The only time I have been without net access was when I was in the mountains. But even my cell phone didn't work, then.

Anyway, Sharp's approach is a modular one. Rather than lock you to a built-in network interface, you choose your provider, select a compatible network card and get connected.

As long as you are comfortable with written Japanese, this is pretty straight forward. The SL-Cxx00 series is a bit of a problem outside of Japan if for no other reason that it is only marketed in Japan and the available network card drivers reflect that unfortunate reality.

As a recent purchaser of the SL-C3200, my issues are more related to getting to know it under the hood (i.e., the linux implementation) so that I can cobble together my own NOC access tools. This is strictly a learning curve issue. The device itself is perfectly capable of doing everything I need in terms of networking.

As for bluetooth, I have it in my cellphones, I have it in my laptop, I have a bluetooth earphone/mic and it works with these devices. I've tried it in several situations but I don't use it. Just don't see the need. Not sure if the current Zaurus's support it or not. I will say that it is hardly unknown. I know people who use it and everyone seems to know of its existance (even the grandmothers), even if they don't know what it does.