Linux Tablet to be Released in Two Days

Rambo writes "Nokia has finally set a November 17th US shipping date for the $359 770 Internet Tablet. It features a Debian-based distribution called Maemo, which includes kernel 2.6, X.org/Scratchbox WM, and GTK for easy porting of applications. Hardware specs are: 800x480 ) screen, 220 MHz TI OMAP ARM processor (with DSP), 64M of RAM, 128M of flash, USB slave port, 802.11b/g wireless, Bluetooth, IR, and a RS-MMC slot. Even more details at LinuxDevices and Internet Tablet Talk. It sports a battery life of 3 hours for continous Wi-Fi usage, and accepts common Nokia phone batteries. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Nokia, and am anxiously awaiting my own pre-order!"

Comments

Thickness

[dsginter]

Does anyone know when these things will be down to the thickness of a standard pad o' paper? They're impossible to write on, otherwise. So, unless you specifically need to walk and write, these are pretty much useless.

Or is it just me who has trouble writing on something so thick?

Re:Thickness

[littlecharva]

It's not so much the thickness of the tablets, as the lack of friction when writing. Surely a rubber nib to create a little bit of friction would make these things a little easier to use?

Re:Thickness

[GuyWithLag]

Lack of friction is good, as it means that your touchscreen isn't getting worn off or scratched.

Re:Thickness

[littlecharva]

Good point, but when I write using a real pen on a pad of paper I get friction, and my writing style has developed over the years to become acustomed to this, so when I try to write on a tablet it looks like the handwriting of a three year old. In fairness though, since I mainly type, even my best handwriting looks like it belongs to a nine year old.

Re:Thickness

[Bastian]

Thay make little textured plastic screen protectors for PDAs. They're much nicer than the clear ones that most stores sell because that texture provides enough friction to make writing much easier - there was an overnight improvement in my Graffiti speed and accuracy.

They're also much nicer than a rubber nib or a textured screen because the bit you're chewing up with all that friction is easily replaceable.

But that's all beside the point - this thing doesn't appear to be a tablet PC so much as an internet appliance. Me still wants, though.

Re:Sure it can play flash movies

[diegocgteleline.es]

Indeed it does, how would their scripts work if not?

It's a linux-based distro, feel free to install whatever you want. The main issue for me is the lack of keyboard - not neccesary to use it as a tabletpc but neccesary when I want to change something - but I think a USB keboard or a bluethoot one will (or should) do it

Im impressed

[NVP_Radical_Dreamer]

For the first time I'm actually impressed with a linux based device. Most of they time its a great idea but poorly implemented or at a price point that scares me away or lacking crucial features. This looks like a nice device and at a VERY attractive price point. Now if I can somehow convince the wife that I need one...

Re:What exactly is the difference between a

[CortoMaltese]

In addition, the 770 doesn't have any hardware to support a timed wake up, for e.g. calendar alarms, so IMHO it's not that useful as a PDA.

Re:I can't be the target market

[BasilBrush]

And its not like you can just use it anywhere. You're either using it on your home network, where it would be a toy not a tool (why wouldn't you use your real computer?) or your using it in an expensive access point, or do they expect you to steal other people's connection?

Erm... why didn't use at the office occur to you as one of the places you could use it?

Great for secure computing

[ScrewTivo]

It seems impossible for a keystroke logger to get installed on it so it would be perfect for banking and trading. The 800x480 screen should handle normal web pages. I boot with a live cd either ubuntu or knoppix when I am doing this stuff. If I can get some GPS software for it then it will be under the tree in december. May end up there regardless :)

Ultimate Remote Control ?

[da5idnetlimit.com]

I've been on the hunt for an "affordable", fully programmable remote control for some time for the home theater.

Most offering that are interesting are WAY more expensive than this tablet :

        iPronto TSI6400 Wireless Remote Control
iPronto is an advanced universal remote control panel providing a single, ... the iPronto can acquire TV programming information using its ...

        $800 - $1,700

        Philips RC9800I iPronto Home Control Panel
RC9800I IPRONTO HOME CONTROL PANEL BUILT-IN UNIVERSAL LEARNING IR CODE DATABASE FOR MORE THAN 1100 BRANDS QUICK INSTALLATION THROUGH AN ...

        $403 - $639

(Just type in ipronto in froogle, you'll see the rest...)

So if the IR port is strong enough to cross the 8 meters separating me from the video rack, I'm definetly going to have a go at trying to "convert it", maybe create a Tcl/Tk or even a flash remote interface...

+I'll have the nice internet access, and it should be possible to just read a few e-books/magazines while waiting for the program to begin...

Anyone has a clue on an already existing project covering the remote control+interface ?

Re:Ultimate Remote Control ?

[mrchaotica]

Screw infrared, why not use the Wi-Fi to control a HTPC (particularly, one running MythTV)?

Same Hardware as current 3G phones

[OlivierB]

As someone who is attentive to the 3G phone scene I was at first impresseds with the capabilities of this tablet.

Looking a little more into the (hard to find) tech specs I soon realized that this device is nothing more than a 6680 or n70 hardware wise besides the gorgeous screen.

My only complaint with this tablet is the poor Multimedia performance I.e. QCIF videos @ 15 fps on a 800*480 screen?? Come on!.

I am not sure if the on chip DSP is put to use yet but if my N70 is any evidence, than it will not play anything MP4 at more than 200kbps. What a shame.

And for the love of god, this device is supposed to be a USER-Friendly device. People all-over are already spitting out debs that are as pleasant to install as it is to eat bolts.
I don't want to fiddle on my tablet too! Palms are increasingly looking like the Macs vs the monster the community is transforming this thing into.

The Palm TX looks mighty sexy in comparison to this with a TCPMP running hi-bps videos and simple to install apps

Re:Sure it can play flash movies

[Majix]

Here you go, an X terminal emulator for the Nokia 770.

Re:No ogg support??

[mbrubeck]

It's not available yet, but someone is working on the Tremor fixed-point Vorbis decoder for the Nokia 770.

here's the dmesg and uname -a

[ubiquitin]

BusyBox v1.00 (Debian 2:20041102-11) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
~ $ dmesg
mapdsp: freeing 0x10000 bytes @ adr 0xc2060000
[69527.536682] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe0fff000, p=0x13c48000, sz=0x1000
[69527.629608] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe0100000, p=0x12700000, sz=0x100000
[69527.629852] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe0200000, p=0x12600000, sz=0x100000
[69527.630157] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe0028000, p=0x105e9000, sz=0x1000
[69527.630310] omapdsp: frame buffer export
[69527.630371] omapdsp: mapping in ARM MMU, v=0xe0300000, p=0x13d00000, sz=0x100000
[69527.630523] hwa742_notifier_cb(): event = READY
[69527.630584] hwa742_register_client(): success
[69528.026519] omapdsp: IPBUF configuration
[69528.026550] 512 words * 16 lines at 0xe0200000.
[69528.026733] omapdsp: found 4 task(s)
[69528.026885] omapdsp: task 0: name pcm0
[69528.059753] omapdsp: taskdev pcm0 enabled.
[69528.059997] omapdsp: task 1: name pcm1
[69528.092498] omapdsp: taskdev pcm1 enabled.
[69528.092742] omapdsp: task 2: name avsync
[69528.170349] omapdsp: taskdev avsync enabled.
[69528.170654] omapdsp: task 3: name audiopp
[69528.245025] omapdsp: taskdev audiopp enabled.
[69530.782836] omapdsp: mmap info: vmadr = 40000000, padr = 12530000, len = 2000
[69530.783264] omapdsp: mmap info: vmadr = 40000000, padr = 12510000, len = 2000
[69560.991363] tlv320aic23 powering down
[69570.117828] tlv320aic23 powering up
[69570.135284] tlv320aic23_init_power() done
~ $ uname -a
Linux Nokia770-40 2.6.12.3-omap1 #1 Wed Oct 5 12:54:09 EEST 2005 armv5tejl unknown

I bought one!

[Torbj�rn]

Ive had my 770 for a week now and so far I'm very happy with it!

I have seen many posts wondering why you'd want one, so here are my reasons.

* I want to have something to browse the web where a laptop is not appropriate, like in the bed or TV couch (I dont want to sit awkwardly leaning down to the coffetable or balancing the thing on my lap)

* I use it as an extra MP3 player in the kitchen, streaming music from my server. When used like this I have external speakers and the power chord plugged in. Since there are lots of wifi MP3 player I can't be alone in having a need for this functionality.

* It can act as a pretty good divx player on the road but I haven't really used it for that yet.

* It's really cool!

This might not be enough for everyone but I have wanted the websurfing part of it since the term webpad was first coined somewhere in the late 1990s. And this is the first one that really delivers on the promise at a decent price point.

I never wanted the tablet pc's becuse the ones I have seen are all laptops without keyboard which means that they are expensive, heavy and not really designed to surf the web on the go.

The fact that it runs Linux and potentially can do a lot of other things is pure bonus!

Many people have questioned the lack of a phone in the unit, but I can't really see why I would want one.
If it had a phone, lets say a 3G one, it would need it's own subscription or a dual subscription if possible, would be heavier and use more battery.

I honestly think that it is much better to use my allready existing phone and subscription through bluetooth. Right now that is a GPRS phone but may soon be uppgraded to 3G, if it had been built in I would not have had the possibility to uppgrade it either.

I guess I should include a little min review also, so here goes...

The good.
* The build quality of the thing is excelent. Since most Nokia phones are plastic little massproduced toys that feels like they will break if you look at them funny I was suprised by this. The 770 feels like it could stop bullets :-)

* The browser, so far it has handled most pages I have thrown at it with ease the pages have been shown in all their glory without having to slim them down to the screen. (Try that on a Palm!)

* The battery life, the stated 3 hours must be while stressing the unit hard, for normal use it lasts a looong time. The powermoding is excelent!

The bad.
* The 64Megs of RAM is a bit to little, the browser suck quite a lot of it and becaus of this it has problems with really large web pages.

* Memory handling in general is not the best, it takes a little to long to load programs.

* I expected that it would include a real dockingstation with power but it came a flimsy plastic stand a standard nokia charger.