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What's new in my pocket computers pages?
Friday, October 15th : Ricoh RDC i-700 received
Device securised this morning! No page for it yet; will be one some day.
Wednesday, September 15th : Sharp MI-10 added
Created a page for the Sharp MI-10 i've received.
Friday, July 23rd : new homepage, new machines listed
My collection reached 49 units yesterday as i've received 2 new watches. Added them to the list (no pages yet) and changed the homepage to a weblog format.
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This feature will soon be available
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Sharp MI-10 Color Zaurus
With Digital Camera extension
PDA - Personal Digital Assistant
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** THIS ITEM IS NOT FOR SALE! **
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A USER MANUAL
or IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A RESELLER/REPAIR STATION,
I'm sorry, but I will not reply to user manual requests or to dealer location inquiries anymore.
Please read my FAQ page that might help you if you have any of these questions in mind.
Feel free to contact me for any other question or comment regarding this machine!
My MI-10 with the attached PCMCIA Digital Phone extension.
Special features :
- Said to be the first color-screen PDA
- Internet abilities
- well, basically what winCE brought in a lighter package years later
- Powerful and easy to use graphical OS
Weak points :
- quite large (although very usable)
Related machines in my collection :
Sharp machine from the same Zaurus lineage :
 Sharp IQ-9200
Windows CE device :
 Casio EM-500
Earlier "color screen" device :
 Casio NX-6000
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The MI-10, referenced by some as the first color-screen PDA, is considered by me as the first "modern days" PDA. Although i tend to think it is actually the first PDA offering a color screen and features to match (such as the optionnal digital camera PCMCIA extension), i have neither found information about either earlier color devices nor confirmation about this one being actually the first one. It is for sure the first color model in the Sharp Zaurus lineup.
The Zaurus platform was still very popular in Japan when Sharp released this version, labelled as a "new platform for the new information society" in 1996. What the device exactly brings to the Zaurus lineup apart from the color features is unclear to me, as it seems the product was never released outside Japan, so documentation is quite rare (and it's obviously in japanese too...).
Previous Zaurus models had already introduced cellphone connectivity and e-mail before the Color Zaurus was released. The Color Zaurus apparently offers more advanced internet feature; although i have yet to find out if there's a web-browser feature and how to access it.
The user interface, as i've already noticed on most Sharp devices of the Zaurus family, is very pleasant to use. As i got my MI-10 from Japan, the interface is entirely in Japanese, and there's no such thing as a "language" setting. The japanese settings is quite disappointing at first, but honestly speaking, it was just a matter of minutes before i sorted out how to navigate and make basic operations.
At the time when Sharp releases the Color Zaurus, microsoft is still working on Windows CE 1.0, that is to be released in november of the same year. Color would only be supported in Windows CE from version 2.0, released the year after, as Sharp presented a multimedia capable version of the Zaurus : the Power Zaurus.
Despite it's rather big size (comparable to the Apple Newton's size), the device is actually very pleasant to use; making great use of Sharp's experience in "ancient size" PDAs. The screen is bright, crisp, big enough for easy navigation, reactive enough for efficient sketching... the first impression when discovering the unit is something like "wow"!
As for the following impressions, well... I should wait a few more years of japanese studying before daring to go further into what the device can do.
I'm very happy to have added a Color Zaurus to my collection, as the machine is pretty rare outside Japan, and it's a valuable milestone in the PDA history!
| Processor : | ?? |
OS : | Zaurus OS??? |
| RAM : | ?? |
ROM : | ?? |
| Graphic display : | ?? |
Text display : | variable fonts |
| Display : | Color |
Input : | Stylus (or finger) |
Built-in Applications :
Details to come.
Open to other applications :
Applications available on ROM cards
Ports :
- details to come
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