Sharp NetWalker PC-Z1 unboxing and hands-on

[cedarvaleave]

By the way...

I personally consider Taiwanese also Chinese...

I refer myself as Cantonese, but I am also Chinese.

[flatblackstrat]

I guess us dumb Americans aren't the only ones that can't tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese..... Give me a break haha.

[kevinchui828]

Chinese!!!!

Is it a clone:D

[cedarvaleave]

@kevinchui828

==.==" Its a Japanese product...

Japanese use a lot of Han Chinese words in their language...(most of the time)

This is a very good product, but only if you have certain knowledge on linux.

You have to find ubuntu/debian software that support ARM.

The only problem with this machine is internal flash to small. (Maybe solve by boot from SD)

Ubuntu can get very big in size after extensive use. (mainly due to installing apps.)

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave Don't know where you heard that but it is rather easy to spot the difference between Japanese and Chinese since Chinese lacks Hiragana and Katakana. Also since Han Chinese is also no longer used in China at least from a written perspective since it has all been simplified and does not match the Japanese Kanji 9 times out of 10. Taiwan Macau and Hong Kong are the only countries that still use traditional Chinese characters.

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

I am from Hong Kong...

My keyboard has the "characters" just like a japanese keyboard...

some Kanji may look a little different... but recognizable by any Chinese

By the way, I had a panasonic laptop (with dual characters on each key, japanese and 倉頡碼)

but I uses it with traditional Chinese OS.

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave And I am from Japan and went to college for a year here with people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland, and Macau, and went for a week to Kenting and Tainan and nobodies keyboard used the Japanese layout with Hiragana. You must use something similar to the Taiwan layout which has little parts of radicals similar to a Japanese keyboard but it is most certainly not the same. Anyways the Jap keyboard is done phonetically through Romaji anyways. Chinese can't do Jap Kanji that well BTW

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

my sister bought me that laptop... she went to university in Japan.

I am not sure where she finds it though.

all i can think of is... you know the "japan only models"?

that made its way into Hong Kong, and they may have added the characters.

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave I was merely stating that the keys do not have Hiragana on them. For example the Taiwan keyboard has ム on the P while the Japanese keyboard has せ. I know several people here in Japan that are Chinese and use a Japanese keyboard on Japanese Windows and just install the Chinese language packet and will sometimes run their own conversion software. Just an example of how Japanese and Chinese Kanji are different I.E. 手紙 is a "letter" in Japanese and "toilet paper" in Chinese.

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

for the keyboard thing... yea i agree...

I know the words sometimes means differently.

most of the time, its understandable"

like mailing letter.... doesn't matter japanese or chinese...

i don't think anyone would think of mailing toilet paper...

but of coz, Chinese would only understand/guess the Kanji part of japanese language.

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

I just sent you a message of a link to a chinese traditional keyboard layout image...

it does have ム... but on the N

I never come across any situation where i need to look at those.

i always thought they are for typing japanese... since most of them look like japanese characters.

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave Chinese and Taiwan keyboards are very different. The Taiwanese have their own form of Hiragana that they use for spelling things phonetically and I believe their keyboards are the similar to yours and they have Katanaka's mu on the P key (sorry I'm in Linux now and it doesn't have dual language support). Everything in mainland China is different. Go look up a hong kong keyboard on google images and you will see what I'm talking about, it's a jap layout with Taiwan characters.

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

Hong Kong uses the same exact kind of keyboard as Taiwan...

Chinese from mainland China can just use a english keyboard... (they uses pinyin)

but not the people from Hong Kong...

And... As far as I know...Hong Kong doesn't make keyboards or electronics...

they are usually from Taiwanese companies... (since we type very much the same way anywayz)

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave Yes which was my original post if you go up. I said what you use must be similar to a Taiwanese keyboard, which is similar to a Japanese board minus Hiragana. Also Hong Kong doesn't seem to make much of anything., your GDP is almost entirely comprised of the financial sector and public services. I'm curios what does Hong Kong make domestically?

[cedarvaleave]

@flatblackstrat

As far as I know, Hong Kong locally has a very very small manufacturing industries.

Mainly because they all moved to China(only headquarters and research departments remain in HK.

(Research facility remains in HK due to Mainland China's corrupted culture)

Only food related factories remains in HK, since China's reputation in food industry is tooooo bad...(I don't buy food "Made in China")

[flatblackstrat]

@cedarvaleave Yeah I tend to not eat anything from China either except vegetables that were sent here and then inspected and packaged. After the whole Gyoza incident many Japanese stay away from Chinese made foods. The sad part is that many frozen foods are made in China these days.

[undocumentedspot]

I have been thinking of this for quite sometime, sure it is slower than one wishes it, but it is small enough ,light enough and affordable. thanks for the very good review.

[sriswan]

have my sharp netwalker up and running but how do i upgrade to the 10.04 version of the software..

[vengeanceunlimited11]

great video as always from JK

[me1ne]

@hassler100 You seem to know what you're talking about. Plese elaborate your statement

[battery77]

Your reviews just keep getting better and better! And now I'm confused which UMPC to buy. I'm looking forward for the Viliv N5 though... cheers mate.

[datingwomensex]

jkkmobile, This video rocks.

[bmgreatness1]

quickest boot/ wake or what ever

[jy02250883]

of course it is japanese, japanese include chinese charactor

[MrPlaystationboy]

presentation that screen looks like a great sise to show presentations on lol

[IrishClanKing]

i think i will stick to my eee pc 900 lol.

[portalzine]

Just to small for my big hands, I rather use a netbook. This device would make my work so painful :) At this size i rather use an Android or apple device .

[wazzzer]

You always make the best unboxing videos dude.. Another fine job as usual..

Your voice is very calming. It reminds me of Mika Hakkinen. Im a huge F1 fan so I spotted it instantly..

Any chance of a psp go review/unboxing..

[jonandhispal]

Chinese?

[balanarahul]

its not microphone its a kensington lock

[Boonchocks]

when in thiland you stay at my brothel. i have room for you.

[QPOproZaC]

The instant boot you showed is not technically a boot of the device. It was in a saved state.

[pubtor]

wols :(

[jza6]

Yeah, looks a bit more robust than some of those Happy Meal mini laptops. Nice office by the way. :)

[kaltsinho]

One of the best netbook by jkk we need more linux...

[richardsimpotuts]

Cool. It is soo small! Please can you post the site here? i didnt understand you in the video :( sorry

[ykh008]

The star logo is hot key to use scroll the screen.

[yanni6556]

What do you do with all the laptops after you have tested them. you must have many choices!

[JacobsMichiel]

ow and the beta is coming out today :-)

[JacobsMichiel]

9.10 comes out on October 29th

the RC comes on October 22th

[trevsweb]

would love to get my hands on one of these :D

[int3rl0per]

Also, JKK, you should also install "ubuntu-restricted-extras" - open up a terminal (can usually be found under "accessories"), say sudo -s and give your password, then say "apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras" - should fix the video issues. :)

[JacobsMichiel]

I think you just need to install flash support for youtube.

Applications->Add/remove->do a search for "flash"

[jkkmobile]

I tried.. not found..

[Kenjineering]

wwooow the ignorance... It comes from Japan.. and yet the manual is in "Chinese"!!! HAHAHAHAHA

It is actually Japanese 1:47

[HeroesFail]

I think the reason the YouTube playback isn't working is because it might be trying to play the originally uploaded file as opposed to the converted one hosted by YouTube.

[MadSon011]

I saw this the other day but never thought to use your thumbs to type

[mirgefg]

Is this a successor to the Zaurus? Looks like a modern version of the SL-C3100... Used to love my SL-5500.. still got it somewhere.

[ttk1opc]

The youtube plugin problem has a patch, it is an easy fix. I can e-mail if you want.

[jkkmobile]

Cool.. would be great if you could send it to me.. ( youtube patch for sharp )

[int3rl0per]

A quick Googling tells me you could probably just use the Flash plugin from your N900. But first, check to see if

apt-cache search flash

brings up anything - you might find something like flashplugin-installer - install that with

apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Failing that, you could try GNASH or SWFDec, but last I checked, they both sucked. There is probably some way to get an ARM build of a mozilla plugin you can use. :)

[jkkmobile]

Thanks, i tried..

not found...

Sharp is saying they will release a patch soon...

[int3rl0per]

Further googling tells me that the inability to view youtube videos in Totem (Movie Player) is due to some obscure gstreamer bug (probably triggered by the Ubuntu maintainers) - they're saying it'll be fixed in Ubuntu 9.10 (you're running 9.04), so you'll probably want to install that once it gets out.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ubuntu 9.10 WAS the patch Sharp was referring to. :)

[jkkmobile]

Fash update now on Sharp's site.. info at jkkmobile . com

[wrdomoraskyhotmail]

hey what do u do with all of these laptops?

[ingodwetrust365]

JKK do you get to keep the devices you unbox?

[MajinFrahma]

I've been waiting for this one to come out.

[zeusmihai]

FIRST!!!!!