Marshall's Amazing, Colossal and
While browsing the internet, I chanced upon a brand new Osaris PDA from Oregon Scientific, for only $49.95. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.) It looked a lot like the Sharp OZ-770, but a little larger, with a bigger screen, and featuring 8 MB of memory (and a Compact Flash slot). Anyway, it looked promising, so I placed my order. After a few days, a box came by way of UPS:
Inside the box was the Osaris, a cd, two AA alkaline batteries, a serial cable, and two very small "quick start" manuals of a mere six pages. No printed manual comes with the unit, but there are some html files on the cd that offer a few more explanations. It is fair to say that the documentation and help is minimal.
The Osaris looked promising at first glance. I had read on the internet that the Epoc operating system was really great, and that the Psion PDA's (of which the Osaris is a clone) were powerful and easy to use. However, after using the Osaris a few days, I have decided that the power and ease of use of Psion PDA's is greatly exaggerated. The OZ-770 is much more intuitive, easier to operate, and does whatever the Osaris does.
I had thought that the slightly larger keyboard of the Osaris (compared to the OZ-770), would make typing easier and faster, however that turned out not to be the case. The keys butt right up against each other, making it easy to hit a wrong key. Also, there is no sound when you press a key (like the Wizard's beep), and you must take it by faith that you have actually hit a key properly. Here is a photo comparing the two keyboards:
