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The Zaurus WayBack on Trck and Moving Forward By Dan RasmusAugust 1996, Issue 11 All is well in Z land. The ZR-5800 bug is squelched and new software is starting to roll onto the shelves of Zaurus suppliers. With a constantly charged Sharp CE-BK1 NiCad battery I don't worry much about battery life. When I am at my desk I plug into AC. My first set of AAs lasted well over two months, even after lots of faxing. As I thought when I first acquired a Zaurus, faxing is a great feature. No longer do I have to power up my Macintosh or PC to send a fax. I just type a note, use the formatter, and off it goes. I am more productive because I don't procrastinate nearly as long about sending a needed fax and the piles of paper in my office are much smaller. What isn't smaller lately is my email. Zaurus Way traffic has ticked up the volume a notch, and I enjoy reading your comments. A few of you informed me that I overplayed the ZR-5800 screen buzzing problem in the last issue. For me, the LCD buzz hits a frequency and volume that exceeds my irritation threshold. Most importantly, the Zaurus is back on track and pretty soon the buzz will be about all the new software. ZR-5800 OS PatchAfter the brief operating system faux pas, Sharp is back on track with the Zaurus ZR-5800 and their customer focus is to be commended. Not only did they promptly ship the fix when they said they would, they offer 24-hour turn around on mail-in shipments. Remember that not all ZR-5800 units in the field had this problem, only units with a serial number ending in a 1 or 2 without a black dot.I ran the update application on my Zaurus with no ill effects. Since I stopped using the Notes feature the second I read about the operating system problem, I did not corrupt any data or lose anything. The application took several minutes to load. After the update was completed I was informed that the operating system was patched and that my data was not repaired because it didn't find any problems. I hope all of our
readers all had good experiences with the update. If you're in the target group
and you haven't yet updated your ZR-5800, do so today. Patches can be downloaded
from CompuServe, AOL and the Sharp website at My favorite comes
from Aegis (520-773-0189) in the form of a US$49.95 parallel cable that turns the
15 pin output port on the Zaurus into a Centronix compatible parallel port. Just
plug it in to anything from an HP LaserJet to an inexpensive dot matrix printer
emulating one of the Z's supported printers. The six foot cable weighs less than
two ounces and adds only a two percent battery penalty. I never leave town
without this cable. Chances are good that the hotels I frequent will have a
compatible parallel printer in their business support center, and if they don't
there is always the local copy shop. Aegis cables are available direct or via
resellers. I find the second solution more elegant, but Sharp CE-IR1 is
aimed at a more stationary position in my print repertoire. The CE-IR1 hooks up
to the DB-25 end of a standard parallel printer cable and turns IR output from
the Z into bit streams for the printer. This is a great solution for the office
or home office, especially if you've already made the printer investment.
Disconnecting can be a pain, so I suggest an A/B parallel switch box. Switch A
handles input from the computer and switch B accepts input from the CE-IR1. The
CE-IR1 requires batteries or an AC adapter.
My favorite PDA Panache
pen comes equipped with an LED tip ($29.95) that emits a faint glow for
illuminating non-backlit models in low light conditions. PDA Panache also sells
styli ranging from an inexpensive promotional model to high-end slimline models
($12.95) and Euro-designs ($14.95). All pen tips, except those on the promotional
version, are covered by a lifetime warranty.
It may not be
enough to just make trades at low rates. Many private traders actually want
information about investments before they commit their money. Notable keeps
personal and professional financial wizards up-to-date with Septor software and
paging service (800-814-4214). Septor regularly transmits financial information
to the Zaurus over airwaves to a Motorola PC Card Pager. The service includes
current stocks and news companies you select. Receiving breaking news and
making stock trades is important to people who invest big bucks in stocks and
bonds. Equally important is the management of day-to-day information in a
personal way. Zaurus with its information management features is a perfect place
to not only trade millions, but to keep the Girl Scout troop accounts accurate
and remember an important baseball game or dance recital. The Zaurus helps manage
your most important asset: your time. -
Parra Development has
written an application that literally links the Zaurus to the Windows clipboard.
Point the Z at an IR device and press send. The PC receives the record or set of
records to the clipboard in a format that can be pasted into Word via RTF or as a
table ready for anExcel spreadsheet. On the reverse side, you can cut
information from a Windows application and paste it into Clipboard Link ready to
beam to a Z. Text items can be imported from the disk to the clipboard. If the
item entered into Clipboard Link exceeds the Z's 16K limit, it will automatically
be segmented into 16K chunks and loaded into multiple Zaurus entries. Items in
Clipboard Link can be printed, saved to disk or beamed to the Zaurus. Sharp and
ACTiSYS IR devices are supported as well as ASK emulated ports like those found
on some PCs. I use Clipboard Link all of the time to send fragments of
articles or bits of notes over to my PC. I also use it for keeping my Z memory
clean by sending over whole letters for archiving on the PC. RTF mode imports
complete documents, digital signature, formatting and all. Clipboard Link
works great on documents, activities, contacts and data files. I'm spoiled now,
so I hope the next version supports notes, scrapbook entries and outlines.
Sharp is selling Clipboard Link bundled with an IR device under the name
Application Partner (US$199). Clipboard Link is available as software only
($49.95) from Pygmy Software at 800-447-9469 or http://www.pygmy.com/.
A visit to similar virtual hangouts dedicated to the
Zaurus reveals almost nothing. A few postings about compatible PC Cards and a
bunch of PC interface application updates, but no shareware or freeware. And when
you go looking for commercial applications, the pond is almost as dry, though a
few have arrived like the Rupp's Zgames and Sharp's Expense Manager. Clearly,
there is a problem somewhere. So I called Sharp to find out what the deal
is, and I discovered that they have created a process for qualifying their
developers which includes filling out many forms and doing market research.
Before developers are given the keys to the Zaurus OS, Sharp makes sure that the
companies are qualified and that the application is the kind of application they
want to see running on a Z. Qualification also includes nondisclosures and
co-signment agreements. Once a developers is accepted into the Zaurus
family, they attend a two day training seminar and are presented with software.
The development kit contains a compiler, linker, debugger (C++ and Assembly) and
C++ libraries. The developers also receives an ICE (in-circuit emulator) which
hangs off a PC serial port and emulates a Z. Modules are compiled and linked and
then loaded to the ICE for testing. Zaurus development is currently limited to
PCs. No publicly available development environments exist for the Zaurus,
although I've heard a rumor that an end user language will appear by year end.
Until then I'm told you need to call 1-800-BE-SHARP and tell the operator you are
interested in developing for the Zaurus. They will filter your message into the
Zaurus development group to start the qualification process.
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