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Nokia delays Linux-based tablet
prostoalex writes "Nokia delayed its Linux-based tablet product, the first one to use open-source Maemo tablet. The official site still optimistically promises delivery by Q3 2005, but the word is that Nokia is trying to improve the quality of the product and push the product before Christmas."
The maemo guys are doing some amaizing things with this device. They have just ported over Mono amongst other things. Can't wait for mine to arrive.
Um...Q3 2005 was over a couple of days ago...it's now Q4 2005 unless you're using a business calendar rather than a chronological calendar...
If they're still saying Q3 2005, then I'd say they've already missed.
"... but you can love completely without complete understanding." - Norman Maclean, "A River Runs Through It"
I currently use a tablet PC (Fujitsu Stylistic ST4120) for taking notes in my college classes. Instead of lugging around multiple notebooks filled with smeared pencil or messy ink on increasingly worn paper, I have a few directories full of files. Easy to backup so if something should happen to it, I still have all my notes and problem examples. I can do full text searches and find stuff right away rather than frantically flipping through notebook pages trying to find where I scribbled some key fact or note. If I need a hard copy, I can print it and it even looks pretty much like standard notebook paper. I can convert it to text with surprisingly decent handwriting recognition and make it a Word doc, PDF, web page, etc.
Not to mention some of the side benefits of having everything be digital ink. We were recently doing Karnaugh maps and truth tables in my digital class, so rather than having to redraw the entire thing for each example, I just had to draw a prototype, clipboard it, and paste it whenever I needed another. Five variable truth table? Pull up my template with all the digits filled in, paste it in, and I'm ready to go.
Tablets definitely have a way to go in lots of markets, but I'm fairly convinced they're the Way of the Future(TM) for things like class notes and such. It's been such a drastic improvement I suspect I'll be hanging onto it for the foreseeable future. I haven't personally had any durability issues, I have a stock screen protector on it I replace now and then. Otherwise I just toss it in the bookbag like the rest of my stuff and forget about it. Case has some scuffing and such but it all works fine.
Oh, and for the obligatory "does it run Linux?", I do have Gentoo running fairly happily on it. The main reason I keep it in Windows for class is easy screen rotation and the fact that WinXP Tablet Edition really does do a nice job of integrating the tablet features. I also use the dualhead now and then which I still haven't gotten working properly with the i830 chipset.
You realize that Nokia has something like 34% of the total worldwide market share for cellphones?
You may not always be able to get the fanciest or most wonderful cell phone from Nokia, but they have managed to do well by making cheap phones that the average person actually wants. They have tried slowly moving away from this cheap phone image and some of their more recent phones definitely help to this end.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
There is blue tooth built in so then where you don't have WiFi you can use your cell phone and blue tooth to access the Internet.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
The 770 ships with multiple desktop themes you can choose from, for example here's a shot of a blue one.
Nokia's first generation of cellphones that sold well (circa 1998) were built like tanks. I had a 5400 series phone and that thing STILL works, minus a battery replacement or two in its life. Granted, it can barely SMS, doesn't browse the web, or anything else. But it makes friggin phone calls seven years after it was bought.
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
A few years back Nokia ignored the flip phone trend and as such I can't even buy a Nokia from Cingular, the largest retailer of phones in North America.
Apart of course from the Nokia 6010, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3220, and Nokia 6102. All of which are listed on their website. Last phone I bought was a couple of months ago, from Cingular, in a store, and it's a Nokia.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
A hard drive would have been cool. But on the other hand, I'm using this device to listen to Shoutcast streams and read Slashdot (not some watered down mobile version either but ./ in 800px wide glory with no horizontal scrollbars) on the Bus using EDGE/GPRS. When I get to the office I continue listening to Shoutcast over Wifi. It's not an competitor to the iPod, it's something entirely different.
Also this thing is incredibly moddable, I can't wait to see all the crazy shit people are going to come up with.
It's like deja vu all over again.
What? I just bought a Nokia 3120 from Cingular. So far it's a great phone. As for ignoring the flip phone trend, I think it wasn't such a bad idea. I work for Sprint, doing technical support, and I get a good number of customers who despise flip phones for their fragility. Admittedly, I'm one of those people, so I may be a little biased, but Nokia isn't exactly self-destructing.
Don't blame me -- I voted for Roslin.
Not even remotely true. Press the status bar globe icon. Choose "Connect..." Dialog "Select connection" opens. Select connection (signal strength and open/closed status shown for each). Very complicated. NOT.
The 770 is not a research project. If it was, it wouldn't have been launched at all, just kept under wraps inside Nokia.
Sounds way better than the Nokia, faster processor and a hard drive for one thing.
All your base are belong to Wii.