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Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Reviewed
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has reviewed the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet which is powered by a variant of Debian Linux. Eric Bangeman praises the device for its "wow" factor and has high hopes for its potential, but nagging issues with the implementation, relatively weak specs, and small software library lower the device's chances of becoming a hot item. From the review: 'The 770 could also use some beefier hardware. One of the attractive things about the 770 for me is the price--US$359. In order to hit that price point, I imagine Nokia had to make some hardware trade offs. Unfortunately, those make themselves glaringly apparent at times. 128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.'"
I'm APT to GET something like this.
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
I was emailing Chris Ball, one of the developers of dasher, which is a very novel and efficient method for character and word input. Unfortenately, I was dismayed to learn that:
We finished the port. Problems:
So I don't think we're planning a release.
What a shame. I thought that with the maemo platform being open-source, this would be a killer device.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
The stand is designed so that you can prop the 770 up on your desk, coffee table, or any other flat surface so you can use it with a single hand.
Ummm...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
Unless you got your order in before Nov. 16th, grabbed one of the few at CompUSA, or want to pay a premium on eBay, don't plan on getting one any time soon. Nokia has been awful about meeting their ship dates. I think the date on their web site for new orders is now sometime in January.
This way to the egress...
I was a day 1 zaurus owner and this is exactly what the Zaurus should have been but was not. Out of the box, you pop in the included 64meg memory card, turn it on, and boom right in front of my face is my web browser, my RSS reader and e-mail. Best of all since its Linux they support all the secure e-mail connections (tls, ssl, imaps everything) so I don't have to compromise my security while using it. It has a huge library for something that has only been out for a short while. It's package management is 100x better than the zauruses! I jump on WIFI or Bluetooth to my phone to the internet, browse to the maemo.org site, click a package and it asks to open it in the package manager! It uses Opera 8 with Flash support. Plays full screen videos just fine, and let me tell you the screen is incredibly bright and detailed!
Its a 800x480 display, just beautiful! Not to mention the browser is a full one! No PDA versions of web pages, no side scrolling. You can zoom in, browse history and book marks it works!
I installed very easily mind you, GAIM for IM, Doom a bunch of other little games, an xterm, they have SSH for it, and the library is growing!
Drawbacks:
Occasionally, when using it not as intended, say using the not-ready or polished GAIM, or lets say loading up 20 web browsers, with your rss feeder in the background its going to run out of memory. This is an internet tablet, it has RSS feeder, web and e-mail and its all fully featured and ready to go out of the box. If you use it as intended it works and thats that!
Contrary to any reviews I have NEVER encountered any wifi flakyness or bluetooth crazyness. I have used it every day for about a week now, and it is just SOLID. Its design is slick as snot! check out the screen shots below, and check out nokias own site for the 770, its silver metal case and its included pouch is just awsome.
and of course, it runs linux! all my Ipaq and palm friends are very jealous!
check out http://maemo.org/ for more info.
For screenshots: http://maemo.org/screenshots.html
Third party applications you can install at the click of a button: http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog
Another Nokia 770 site: http://www.internettablettalk.com/
I'd be all over this as a remote tool using VNC to either my Mac or PC. The higher-rez screen than we usually see in something this small is the big appeal.
Additionally, I'd use it as a portable viewer of some sort. But what kills it for me is that it doesn't have a standard USB host port or a standard SD or CF slot. Either/Both of those would let me plug in a memory card or thumbdrive and view/transfer/share the contents. RS-MMC is not going to cut it if you'd like to pop in the card from your camera and see images on the screen, and without the standard USB host connector you can't even use a cheap card reader to view. (a hack will enable host mode, but the connector won't be right and can't supply power by itself )
Bluetooth and WiFi are great, but being able to read/write common external storage devices are important too. The lack of them is what killed it for me.
Ars Technica is reporting that Nokia 770 Internet uses Opera, but I would think it's quite possible that Nokia will offer updates containing a KHTML-based browser (some version of Konqueror) soon.
Nokia has been collaborating with KDE developers to build a browser for some of their other embeded systems, such as the Series 60 Smartphone. Nokia engineers have stated that KHTML is more resourceful than Gecko, has a cleaner architecture, and starts up faster. Also, KHTML is free (LGPL), while Opera is proprietary and therefore probably requires them to pay licensing fees and royalties.
I will wait to check their next release...
Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100. I've got a friend with the C3000, and I'm strongly tempted to get one of the C3100s at the end of the year.
Can you say techno-blase?
;)
35 years ago it was "Future Shock", when market demands of science and technology create such rapid changes that it leaves people incapable of adjusting fast enough, leaving them in a state of perpetual disorientation.
Now we have just the opposite, where the insatiable market demands for faster, cheaper and better technology based products cannot be adaquately met by scientific research quickly enough, leaving consumers in a perpetual state of disillusionment and disappointment.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Remember Wirth's Law: "Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Maybe it'd help if the GUI toolkit was implemented in ROM instead of using GTK or whatever bloated "modern" system this is dependent on. Just to name one example of a poor implementation choice for a portable device.
Besides all that, Delphi for instance is capable of producing executables under a few hundred K. You could install several of those on half of 128MB. Honestly, with a device that is meant to be connected to the Internet and thus able to take advantage of lockers, streaming audio/video, etc., I just don't see why the provided hardware shouldn't be more than enough.
This thing is basically a powerful Apple Newton (as originally designed, not as it was released) with a disappointingly poorly implemented OS.
www.blueapples.org
... wanting to love it for certain elements, but being seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359). This is in contrast with something like OQO which looks to be very cool, but costs $1299 (MSRP). Honestly, I'd like to see something OQO'ish in the $599 price point range that can run Linux. That would probably be the best of both worlds.
In other news, I really wanted to like the Kia Rio, but was seriously disappointed by the 110-horsepower engine, which is probably a function of the low price point ($10,570). This is in contrast with something like the Ferarri F430 which looks to be very cool, but costs $174,585. Honestly, I'd like to see something Ferarri-ish in the $15,000 price point range that can do a 13-second quarter mile. That would probably be the best of both worlds.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
The three hour battery life is only if you are using WiFi constantly. Most users report 10+ hours of usage before needing to recharge.
What use is an "Internet Tablet" if it's not connected to the Internet?