Zaurus

From OLPC

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The Zaurus is a series of PDAs produced by the Japanese company Sharp. The three models marketed in the USA all looked like PDAs with one of the first integrated slide-down keyboards. However, in Japan they marketed a series of models that looks like a mini-laptop with a PDA-size 640x480 screen. The most recent models are available with a built-in 6 gigabyte CF hard drive. All models have one CF slot and one SD slot. This means that a CF wireless card can be added to any model and there is still the possibility of data interchange.

The Zaurus is built around Linux with Qtopia as a GUI. However, other Linux distros have been developed for the device, both with and without the Qt toolkit.

The japanese models are widely available through several Internet dealers in the USA, Europe and Asia. They are also often featured on Ebay.

This would be a valuable tool for developers since it could potentially be configured in an almost identical software configuration to the OLPC. Developers could use this to test proof-of-concept applications in a portable wi-fi connected device. Using wi-fi does drain the batteries of a Zaurus fairly quickly, however this is not a disadvantage to a developer trialing an application to be used on the OLPC. It more closely models the OLPC's usage environment, i.e. frequent recharging. Can your app thrive in an environment where it is frequently shut down abruptly due to batteries running down?

More info is available here: http://www.zaurususergroup.org and http://www.openzaurus.org

The Zaurus could be coupled with a Freecharge portable charger to more closely simulate the OLPC's usage environment.