i want one now :)

I was just looking around at prices on ‘em myself!

That’s really nice for such a (seemingly) modest device!

Does anyone know about any store in europe selling the Zipit? Shipping & handling rates from the US would be prohibitive for a low cost device like this one. So far I’ve found only a US seller on Ebay.

@LateBlt: http://www.zipitwireless.com/where2buy.aspx?skinid=5
Looks like a list of specific target stores that have them, and mentions target and bestbuy’s online store.
$49 + their website says one has to get their service for a year with it. 49+10*12=169

Please, in the name all the people who are bothered by white on black webpages, please, please, change your webpage background to something other than black. Every time I read something on Hackaday, I see black and white stripes when I go back to a regular webpage. Am I the only one? Please comment if you especially agree, or disagree.

EyeCrazy: Disagree. Must be you or your monitor.

Is it a CRT, X-RAY, DLP, OLED or Liquid Crystal type?

If its one of the first 2 it might be the reason why….

The instructions say you need a Linux computer with gparted in order to setup your Z2. How hard would it be to do this on Windows?

nate: because you need to make a ext2/3 partition as well you’ll need linux as windows can’t format ext2/3 but a livecd will work

Thanks Russell. I went through the instructions and came to the same conclusion. At first, I thought perhaps some compiling had to be done, but the formatting process seems to be the only reason Linux is required. I’m trying to find a free/open formatting tool that supports EXT3 for Windows, but I’ll probably just go with a gparted live CD.

with linux it can aspire to be a netbook, silly Mr. MS3FGX man.

And wth, this is HACKADAY. This is a place of HACKS, we don’t care about INTENTED USES here, that’s the point.

Latebit: I purchased mine on clearance at the Target near me two days ago for $35. It turned out to be the contract free variety as well, so I’ve got something to play with for a while till I can put a real linux distro on it.

Steven: The zipit’s keyboard is much larger then that of a phone, and the spacing is better. What makes this cool is that it’s a linux based device, with support from the manufacturer to repurpose it as the user sees fit. Also, like I mentioned earlier, I paid $35. Much, much cheaper than a netbook, and much smaller.

Hunter: yes i’ve had to give up my linux dev box as the kid needs it for college and to be running windows so i have reverted to my vmplayer/virtualbox image for compiling oe based stuff and a livecd (sysresccd) for partitioning and formatting.

the image is pretty big and a few months old but would do as a starting point for anyone with only windows who wants to use oe or buildroot.

if anyone wants it http://russelldavis.org/stuff/Zipit2%20Devel%20(Ubuntu%209.04).7z — userid and passwd info is in the archive. it is a 40gig dynamic hd. — iirc i think i also setup the ipkg repository on it too.

i’ll probably make a better version in the next few days as i’m a windows only shop again for a while.

any chance of a internet browser in the future?how about an app similar too kismet?thanks

I think i get it.
This is ideal as my random internet radio station alarm clock!

Or as a cheap wifi home automation. Flunk one in a car and have a server at home notice arrival and turn on the automatic coffee maker :-)

I think got the picture.

Hey Labrd, nate,

Firefox, fennec, dillo, epiphany etc all compile fine. I never got firefox loaded up correctly but the rest have no issues. Probably missing a gtk lib or something. The Z2′s Marvell chipset is the same as the iphone as far as I know, meaning no promiscuous mode and no kismet or snorting

Russel,

Nice image :) I’ll have to give that a shot this weekend, if it ever finishes downloading on my slow connection heh.

Does this has a miniSd slot or not? I see on the http://elinux.org/ZipIt_MMC that you need to add your own slot or is that about a older version? (I know nothing about those zipit things).
A few friends will go to the usa next week, I think I might ask them to get one or 2..

I got a surf 2G for $135 and the internal WIFI injects and it runs BackTrack4. It’ll also emulate various ROMs and runs windows when needed.

This device isn’t very appealing. The hardware security might be fun to mess with; if there is any.

Also for the computer geniuses trying to school other computer geniuses: The primary reason for no windows is because xscale is RISC. CE is the only MS product to ever run on top of RISC chips. The file system claim is retarded.

I wonder if you could get Mono on this thing, then you could chuck on Airfoil Speaker and do home audio with a screen way cheaper than an Squeezebox or even the displayless Apple Express.

usb host support?

No usb port. If you are handy with a soldering iron there are serial leads on the motherboard.

@epicelite. Take some time to learn linux. Bash and regular expression are what you need to come to grips with. Its well worth the effort. If your interested in any sort of automation.

Forget windows, MS is about selling you more software, not getting things done.

Also useing a terminal for everything defeats the purpose of a GUI.

Any way to get Android up and running on one of these things?

anyone know where i can get full hardware specs on this
hd size, prossesor, ram, etc…
if it has part/model names that would be good too
love this thred of hacks… but too lazy to buy one yet

getting a little confused, do you need to pay the 1 year plan to IM or no?

soggy pretzels: most of the info you want is on this page http://linux.zipitwireless.com/wiki/Z2 , and the rest is on other pages on the wiki.

why does therian hate everything. He is jealous because he doesn’t know how to work with any of these platforms because he has commitment issues
stop digging when your already 10ft under.

This thing is pretty cheap for what it’s made up of. If only there were more (any) international suppliers, I’d snap one up like that.

Also pretty awesome, you can bring out a serial connection pretty easily.

http://zipit2system.sourceforge.net/?page_id=82

Oh so i’m in a desperate need of an american friend… Beside how’s the battery life on that thing ?

Having a Zipit(1st Gen) and a G1, I can definitely say that a Zipit(2nd Gen) would be crap compared to an actual netbook.

I just got mine from the link in here.
Looking forward to it.
Is it possible to run a IM client inside the linux hack. Just the dosbox makes it worth 49.99 and they did not make me sign up for a plan or anything.

Hunter,
Your link for the image, does the image have an IM/Email/RSS reader type thing?

Claws or Pine possible?

WINDOWS 3.1 IS THE FUTURE!
lol it would be awesome to run windows 3.1 with wiFi. that would free up so much hard drive space, go back to simpler times.
I want to run Linux on my SGH-a877 (samsung impression) and since it doesnt have wifi and i dont have a data plan, figure out how to access my wired network via the USB cable or Bluetooth, to surf the internet from my phone, using my DSL connection.

Re: Hackaday’s color scheme.

Build a bookmark, label it “ZapColors”,
and put the following code in the url tag, and load the bookmark in your bookmarks toolbar. When you click on the link, the current page will go to black text on white background.

javascript:(function(){var%20url=window.location.href;%20if(url.indexOf(%22mail.google.com%22)<1){var%20newSS,%20styles='*%20{%20background:%20white%20!%20important;%20color:%20black%20!important%20}%20:link,%20:link%20*%20{%20color:%20#0000EE%20!important%20}%20:visited,%20:visited%20*%20{%20color:%20#551A8B%20!important%20}';if(document.createStyleSheet){document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:'%22+styles+%22'%22);%20}%20else%20{%20newSS=document.createElement('link');%20newSS.rel='stylesheet';%20newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(newSS);}}})();

@Samantha
Curious, I just tried it again in Firefox 3.5.7, copying the text straight from my comment above. At first I loaded it into the sidebar, and it only popped up a side window; then I redid it without loading into sidebar, and it worked fine.

It’s Javascript (obviously), so it shouldn’t be browser-specific.

Go here:
http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html
to grab the bookmarklet and drop-&-drag it directly into your browser bookmark bar. My version simply removed the confirmation popup.

HTH.

does anyone know if they work in canada

ya i know

i wanna no if it works in canada and apparintly it does

no i no wat it is

just wunderin

Which is better, the Z2 or Z2a? Pro or Cons for hacking? Funtionality? Features? In advance, thanks for input,thoughts