Wireless Net on the Zaurus

An anonymous reader writes "Straight from infosync.no: "Sharp has announced the release of a wireless Internet package for Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 and SL-5000d. Using the Verizon Wireless CDPD network in US, the package includes a Compact Flash CDPD modem from Enfora, the necessary software, and a Verizon Wireless account"."

Its Huuuge

Is it just me, or does that thing look about the same size as the zaurus itself?

CDPD?

Has anyone here had any CDPD experience? I recently purchased an AirCard 710 for use with AT&T GSM/GPRS service, and it was awful. The hardware was flaky and coverage was dismal. I'm thinking about going to CDPD with Sprint, but am pretty discouraged after my GPRS experience.

$40/mo unlimited for 19.2?

It's $40/mo for unlimited use, but it's only 19.2. If you're a bandwidth freak, it makes more sense to go with Verizon's 144kbps Express Network - unlimited plans are $100/mo, and they have PCMCIA cards as well as phones.

No GPS, though!

No GPS! What good is mobile Internet unless you know where you are??
-russ

People aleady use the Zaurus for wireless.

Am I missing something here? My friend uses his Zaurus with a wireless card and is on the internet on it every day. He easily locates access points.

Is the news here that Sharp is providing internet access? Confused as to the news here.

Loomis

the evil Starbuck's..

My boss has a Zaurus with an 802.11 card. After that story the other day about Starbuck's 'interferring' with a free 802.11 provider, I discovered that there are a LOT of Starbuck's around Portland that have the T-Mobile service ready to go. Seriously, I've been to 3 different stores that had it and 1 of them was in the mall. It's a sure bet that the bigger mall will have it soon too. (That Starbuck's is remodelling...)

This isnt' worth the $30 a month they want for it, otherwise this is a seriously cool combination with a Zaurus. I could go to the mall and do my shopping. If I'm concerned about an item costing a little too much, I could run down to the Starbuck's (or just close to it...), fire up the Zaurus, and go check out the price at a place like Newegg.com. Even better, I can find out if a competitor is running a sale! Best Buy's site will let ya order the item from the web and pick it up in the store.

As I said, this isn't worth $30 a month to me, but that's a seriously cool alternative to trying to cover the US with a cellular-like WAP cloud.

Day Late, I'm afraid...

CDPD was great 5 years ago, but today, GSM/GPRS is spreading out and I wouldn't recommend investing in the older, slower technology. CDPD has a data rate of 19.2kb/s, but with error correction and overhead, the users throughput is more like 10 to 15kb/s. Versus GSM, which operates at 40 to 50kb/s and is found throughout the world.

CDPD - Slow and outdated

CDPD is one of the slowest wireless data technologies still in use. It's only 19.2kbps (max speed, you really only get 9600 and that only if you're lucky and in the middle of a cornfield next to a cell tower) and is overpriced for what you get. GSM/GPRS is a more viable option at 60kbps, or sprint's new 3G "PCS vision" [pcsvision.com] service. (70kbps at the moment, has potetial for 1mbps+)

Battery Life

Any word on the battery life for this? I know that 802.11B sucks the batteries right out of most handheld devices. I am testing an "industrial" Symbol device (PocketPC) here at work -- and am hard pressed to surf around for more than about 45 minutes on a full charge.

Based on the size of this thing, it may have an additional battery on board. A few quick glances of the website did not make it appear that way.

Re:Battery Life

The modem has its own battery.

I used one of these as part of the wireless beta. I got a good 2-3 hours out of a charge on the wireless battery and about 4-5 hours of constant use on the Z itself.

Is it just me or...

Is every single wireless or handheld product released, submitted and posted as a story on /. I read /. to hear about the latest and greatest products too, but there seems to be some bias in the handheld and wireless markets. Is Taco getting some kickbacks from the wireless consortium or is this really the fastest growning industry sector right now?

Too little, too late.

Talk in the community is this has been unreliable and slow. (I haven't heard if it's gotten any better). It's easier and cheaper connecting with a cellular phone for now, because in a few months we'll have a choice of several higher bandwidth alternatives (Sprint Vision with a compact flash card soon, for example). We already have several bluetooth devices too, just waiting for coverage.

In the US, eh?

The US has the unique privilege of being one of 4 countries in the world where CDMA is the de facto standard for wireless. In some countries analog or TDMA is the standard, but for the most part, everywhere outside of North America uses GSM.

Does Sharp plan on selling this wireless package outside of North America? If so, then why can't any American just pick up the European GSM version of it, and use it here? Sure, the GSM version would need to support 1900 MHz... but Sharp does expect European users to roam, no?

That's unique

When others are beginning to showcase 3G and broandband wireless access, what do they do, introduce a "19.2 kbps" modem whose actual throughput is more closer to 9.6 kbps [ic.ac.uk] and plan to charge $40 per month for it.

Well, actually, if the connection would not be "proxy based" - it could make a lot of sense - to have a always-on (even low bandwidth) connection in your pocket which does not suck your batteries in a second. But this "proxy based concept" seems to be the fun-spoiler and aimed to make your life more difficult when you actually would like to do something fun with it. Like making it more difficult to get an IP masquared for that.

I just bought the Enfora wireless portfolio.

I've been researching this for a while and I wanted a convenient way to access work 24x7. So I bought the sharp zaurus SL5500 and now the wireless portfolio from enfora. The portfolio looks like the better deal as I get to use my CF slot for something else.

Obviously I won't be doing much C++/Java coding through it but it will be nice when I get a call out on the town and I need to fix production.

Much better than explaining the use of the 'top' command to find a run-away process to the new operations guy. (yes, I've had to do this).

Specifics about the modem

I ordered one of these last week. I'm told it appears as a compact flash serial modem running PPP, doesn't really require a proprietary driver (although proprietary modem management software comes with it), and works as a general network device rather than just web and email.

My 1/2 Gigabyte SD card came in the mail today. I have an 802.11 card from SMC in the CF slot right now. I can ssh from my desktop to the palmtop.

I am about to put the OpenZaurus load on the machine instead of the partially-proprietary load it comes with.

Bruce

Quick primer on CDPD

CDPD - Cellular Digital Packet Data.

The CDPD system involves sending short, relatively low speed data bursts over a voice channel of standard North American Analog Phone Service (AMPS). This allows a standard AMPS system to carry CDPD with little retrofitting of the cell towers, whereas GPRS requires a whole new system. Given that your average cell site runs about US$1M, that adds up very quickly.

CDPD is a CS/A TDMA system (Collision Sense/Collision Avoidance Time Domain Multiple Access) system - Multiple users transmit on the same frequency at different times, much like Ethernet.

CDPD is in common use for vending machines, electric meters, and other systems that need to report relatively little information.

When it first came out, years ago, I thought "YOU IDIOTS! You are pricing this PER PACKET - it will never sell. Price it flat rate and people will eat it up!" Guess what - now they are starting to look at pricing it flat rate, and it is now becoming attractive!

CDPD operates in the 800MHz US Cellular band. It can use encryption based on RSA.

I had done some work on a CDPD tester [navair.ca] in the past.

is this like GPRS or?

is the availability similar as to having gprs modem in europe? (like, will it work from the deepest woods to darkest sprawl?).

my bro has a zaurus and even with just a clumsy gsmphone(with flat rate gprs) connected with ir it's attractive as hell(tho should be much more user friendly when/if he gets the bluetooth card for it), ssh&opera everywhere!

is there similar lag in this system? accessing pine through ssh is like you're on 9.6kbps modem, transfer speeds average around ~8kbytes/s when moving files though so it's pretty snappy, plugin the card from camera, click, leave it to u'l the pictures to home during night, blam, your all ready on the morning for another phototrip.

ssh. The missing feature.

Sure imap and web browsing are neat tools for sales guys but what I really want is a way to login analyze and fix a problem with a server from anywhere.

The scenareio would go something like this:

Use remote server monitoring software to check on my server.

• If a problem occurs an email is sent to my palm pilot account.
• Using the same palm pilot I can login and fix what is wrong.

Now that would be cool. (Except if my company expects me to carry it on holidays).

my experience w/PDAs and CF expansion.

I have an older PDA (Cassiopeia E-125). It has a single CF slot (as from what I read does this machine).

I have been recently excited about getting a wireless CF LAN card (after rebate they are in the $35 - $40 range at BestBuy and Circuit City). Problem here is that the machine itself comes w/little on-board space and my large storage comes from ANOTHER CF card.

So, without two CF card slots (I always found laptops w/only one PCMCIA slot annoying as well) this machine is not very good for any sort of Internet connection.

When the machines come w/1G on board or a second CF slot for my Microdrive, I will make another PDA purchase.

Zaurus and Wireless

I own a Z and think that wireless access would be great. But CDPD is so slowwwww! And outdated. Plus, check out their coverage chart...

http://www.verizonwireless.com/mobile_ip/svc_avail ability/index.html [verizonwireless.com]

Not much to talk about. They say most major US cities. How did they come to that?

I already have wireless

I walk around my school running kismet, within a few minutes, I'm on!

How is the Zaurus doing?

I went to purchase one of those little bad boys at Best Buy and they said they are no longer going to sell them. Is this PDAgoing to share the same fate as my agenda VR3?

19.2 kbps?

Man, that's lame. I miss Ricochet (128 kbs).

Zaurus CDPD

From my experience with the Jornada, and the Ipaq, I would have to say any internet connectivity is better than nothing... but the only way you're going to be able to do anything other than transmit text and tiny graphics at 19.2k*(PEAK!)* baud is to plug in your 802.11b nic and go to the nearest coffee shop...

CDPD vs. GPRS

I too was on the SharpMobile beta, but as a lot of the posts point out, CDPD is too slow these days. Sharp's modem is a little large (that battery I guess), but coverage in Manhattan is great. However, the Symbol Bluetooth card and an Ericsson T39m (or T68i these days) absolutely rocks. OK, you have to be comfortable with the command line and a little fiddly set-up. Sharp's solution is for the consumer, but never the less - go for Bluetooth and a phone. Rgds Adrian

no cell phone plugin?

When the heck are they going to comeup with cell-phone modules for the Zaurus?
I'm getting tired of carrying both and a "unification" is past due.

enough ranting...later!

Slashdot on a Zaurus

Here are a couple of screenshots of what Slashdot looks like on a Zaurus. I was connected through ethernet, not wireless. The reason you see the whole Zaurus is because I connected to the Zaurus from my Mandrake box, using FB VNC Server [killefiz.de].

Click HERE [frontiernet.net] to see Slashdot on Opera.

Click HERE [frontiernet.net] to see Slashdot on Konqueror.

Fix the keyboard!

I tried a Zaurus at LinuxWorld and really wanted to buy it. It was on sale for $299, and my wife was standing next to me.
My wife said, "Buy it if you want it." But I just couldn't.

After ten minutes of futzing, I couldn't type on it. I have small hands, and I use a Motorola T900, which has a tiny keyboard too, but there's a big difference in usability between them, and even though it was clear that day that the Zaurus would have a superior wireless solution, better apps, and the coolness factor of opening up an xterm (qtterm?), I just couldn't buy it.

My fingers even actually hurt from trying to reach the number keys, which are sandwiched about 2 millimeters away from the edge and almost impossible to press. The keys themselves are oddly peg-shaped, uncomforably to press, and reminded me of the Commodore PET and the TI 99/4 chiclets.

Sharp, please benchmark against the T900 and Blackberry and try to make the keyboard more usable on the next version.

All well and good, except where's verizon?

Because they're tied specifically to Verizon, you have to have Verizon CDPD in your local area to even sign up. Here in Portland, OR, we have "excellent" CDPD coverage (according to the Zaurus Mobile web site), yet they won't let me sign up because Verizon doesn't do CDPD here. If they did, I'd have to pay roaming charges of $.05/Mb (which really isn't *that* bad if I'm careful). Apparently I might be able to arm-twist them into letting me signup if I call them on the phone, but the web site checks your billing zipcode and if it's not a blessed one, you're outta luck.

Putting CDPD on Your Zaurus...

... is like putting an Archer 8-track stereophonic in your new Lexus. Sound comes out, but it's just plain wrong.

CDPD and PDAs

CDPD slow and dated? Perhaps, but how much bandwidth do you really need to a freakin' PDA?

I have been a CDPD subscriber for several years now. Infact, i am currently on a CDPD connection as of this posting. It has been a very reliable service for me in the Seattle area -- both in coverage and in up-time. I have used this service on both my palm pilot and laptop.

My palm pilot experience was probably the best. Since most web browsers on the palm made use of compression proxies, load times were as snappy as a modem. SSH, telnet, email, etc. from the palm was very responsive. I have done circuit turnups and various other network engineering tasks from this device without fail. Switch techs would sometimes ask what all that noise was....id be driving one day, or at the mall the next...it was a riot.

19.2kbps on a laptop isnt all that bad either. I am able to surf the web, IRC, check email, use various instant messaging clients, SSH, webcam, etc. from my laptop with little trouble. Plus, i can do this from the car, plane, bus, park, etc.

As a network engineer (and frequently being "on call") this service has been a life saver countless times.

Until recently, there has no real alternative. Especially with the wide footprint CDPD provides. Circuit switched is expensive, 802.11b coverage is non-existant, and GPRS is expensive and immature. My GPRS experiences have been absolutely horrible -- enough for me to cancel service.

CDPD is unlimited, cheap, and although a little slow, completely bareable. And when no internet is my alternative, i choose CDPD.

You guys can dog CDPD all you want, but I love it!

CDPD is unbearably slow

CDPD is slow, expensive, lossy, and otherwise sucks ass. Just say no.

See the truth

Greeting- My comments have been up on the Sharp Wireless Service and the Enfora modem that they sell for the Zaurus for many months at http://zaurus.wynn.com/ [wynn.com]. I found it so unusable that I dropped the service in favor of using public access 802.11 sites in the NYC area. There are more and more of them!

zaurus 802.11 heaven

since i have been reading slashdot (on the john) every morning for the past year, i would point out that if you take a dlink 802.11 card for an ipaq, bandsaw off the ears so yoy can get to the pen and the audio, you can run opera just fine. btw, why is it some days slashdot fits ok on the screen and some days runs over? gotta go my legs are falling asleep.

Re:- 1 ??

I think that once you get enough -1's racked up, your postings always start at -1.... you have to be modded up just to be seen by most readers. I could be wrong but I'm basing this on the fact that there is no summary of moderation - it just says -1, not "-1 troll", etc.