Well, folks, the very few that visit this site, I am parting with my Zaurus SL-6000.
Over the last year, I have barely used it, and not much new is happening in the Zaurus world. Sharp has abandoned the whole line and with a kid, I really don’t have the time. I guess technology had just passed PDA’s behind. With smartphones and Netbooks, it is a dead end. They are in an unhappy middle which has no future. I loved getting this as a gift, but I have felt very guilty about not using the Zaurus more. In the end, my MP3 player is easier to use, my camera takes much better photos, and my contacts are on my phone, where I use them most. The only remaining task was web surfing, but the current state of the internet with the small amount of RAM on the Zaurus made many sites painfully slow. I also have nurtured my lifelong love of wristwatches, so that is taking up my free time now.
So, what now? We are getting an Acer Aspire One netbook. 16 times the ram, 4 times the clock speed, 160G hard drive and a six times bigger screen. Though, nothing can compare to the clarity of the SL-6000. Probably the best LCD screen ever made. I didn’t like the battery life when networking was running, so the new Netbook will have 8 hours of battery life and an almost full sized keyboard.
What does this mean to you? Well, the site will remain and the feed will be left for the sake of people who still use their Zauruses. There will be no more updates and no technical support.
Thanks for reading-
David Nelson
HI, I was very sad to read that a diehard Zaurus user like you has abandoned but I understand. Amazingly I still use my ZR-5800 Zaurus that I bought in 1997 and I recently bought SL-C750 which I’m excited to use. Yes, I have an android tablet, netbooks and all sorts of other gadgets that I could only have dreamed about in the 1990’s yet I still love the old keyboard based Sharp units. I like to store lots of credit card information, passwords, notes and other private data, no modern device gives me the security as does an old Sharp Zaurus with the wireless card removed! I also like not having to constantly be bothered with updates and a million programs running in the background, connecting to the internet without my knowledge etc. There is no GPS so my Zaurus can not be used to track me wherever I go. The modern smartphone or tablet would have been unimaginable back in the day but for all there glory they have brought with them their own problems. I have no plans of abandoning my zaurus. It still has a place although I may be the last man standing 🙂 Great website, thank you!
Here, here. I second that! I keep my zaurus alive for a secure “off-grid” scenario.