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Nokia 770 Alive and Well
anon mouse-cow-aard writes to tell us the Register is reporting that the Nokia 770, originally scoffed at by many as useless, is doing quite well. There is even an open source platform development site, maemo, that offers quite a bit. It uses wlan for connectivity and has 'cpu transparency' so you can build apps for normal Debian (albeit with a custom set of libraries) and then run a sort of 'checkout' for the ARM processor, and it will run on the handheld. There is ssh and VOIP coming soon. Overall it is shaping up to be pretty cool.
I'm glad that this is doing reasonably well, partly because nokia is experimenting more with open source also because nokia is putting some distance between a potential flagship product and the telecom/cellphone carriers. Would voip really be an option if nokia had to woo Tmobile, Cingular, etc?
I've tried the 770 and it's crying out for a SIM card slot. Nokia are very proud of their creation (and with a better battery that pride would be justified) but adding cellular connectivity would really catapult it into the 'must have' category. There's still not enough pervasive Wi-Fi to make it a good communications tool, although for use in a corporate environment it does the job.
Having started to use Linux as my Desktop as well as for my servers I was looking forward to getting this device. This is what www.Nokia.ca told me. "Thank you for e-mailing the Nokia Care Contact Centre. We understand you are inquiring on where to purchase the Nokia 770 Internet tablet. Amendt, at this time, we cannot advise you as to whether the Nokia 770 Internet tablet will be released in Canada. We cannot provide information on products that have not been released in Canada. Nokia is continuously introducing new models to the Canadian market. We are unable to disclose technical information on products that have not been released and cannot be more specific with regard to who the service providers will be for new models"
Ok, Flash 6? How old are the rest of the apps? It may not be worth it. Just my .02 cents worth.
Applications (in 2005 software edition)
* Web Browser (Opera 8)
* Flash Player version 6
* Email Client
* Internet Radio
* News Reader
* Media players, Image viewer
* PDF viewer
* File Manager
* Search
* Calculator
* World Clock
* Notes
* Sketch
* Games
It seems like a Bluetooth headset and a WiFi connection should allow it to do that, no? If so, that'd be rather a slick setup -- it's a bit larger than most of the PocketPCs that support Skype right now, but it also has a considerably larger, nicer screen than they do, making it considerably more usable for other purposes.
The universe is a figment of its own imagination.
I think you are out of your mind.
PSP screen resolution: 320 x 240.
Nokia 770 screen resolution: 800 x 480.
I love mine, I got mine on November 25th, and I have to say the software is amazing, I had to make a 32mb swap to the card but other than that, it renders sites beautifully, and it does a great job with all my gtk apps, like gaim and xchat, and abiword. Also I find it to be very easy to transfer data to it with SCP. It would be nice to see a Minimo deb, a Windows CE mozilla browser, and maybe have them tweak the wifi alittle so it looks and operates like a mac. But other than that I love it.. And the screen is crystal clear
keanmarine.com
I have to say I am surprised by the reaction to the device.
:).
1. It doesnt have SIM!!!
No.. because there is no need. That's and extra added expense that not everyone will be able to use. If you want cellulare internet use its bluetooth connection.. that's why its there!
2. Ugly UI.
Only a MAC user would say that. I don't know about you but I think the UI is perfect, its slick, polished and no fuss no muss. I think AQUA is ugly.
3. VoIP/Phone capability.
It wasnt meant to be a phone... look at it, its too big! It's a PDA, it's an Internet Tablet. It will have offical VOiP support from Nokia in the 2006 series firmware. That's great and all.
4. Third party apps/support
Right now this is the amazing part, there are tons and tons of applications for it for free obviously. It's so easy to get going with the official SDK. This device is simply amazing on the third party front.
5. Screen quality
The screen is 800x480, any website that was meant for 800x600 (allmost of them!) can be viewed without side scrolling on this beautiful screen. It's great having such a high res screen.
The best thing is... its not a PSP thats been HACKED 6 ways from sunday to have some sort of functionality. It natively runs Linux and has corporate support. Nokia is committed to this device, and it has sold like hot cakes everywhere. The 770 can only get better, and who knows what the "880" will hold!
Any doubts you may have, go to a CompUSA and try it out at the Nokia display, it really is the greatest thing since sliced bread
I pre-ordered the Nokia 770 back in November. My ship date was supposed to be the 14th of December, but around the 18th, still no 770 nor any email.
I called Nokia USA and they told me that my credit card company was rejecting my charge. So I call my credit card company to ask why they are rejecting it. They asked who was running the charge, and I answered "Nokia". Well, nobody named Nokia was trying to charge my card -- but there was another copmany with a generic counding name that was trying to charge my card, for the same amount as my 770. I call Nokia back to ask if they are charging under that name and they tell me yes. But now my order is delayed until January 10th.
All in all, they have way more demand then they anticipated, and they really don't have their act together with production, shipping, even charging people's cards properly.
However, I am glad that there has been a literally overwhelming response -- I have always wanted a true tablet computer, but I didn't want to shell out $2500 for a table "notebook" that really wasn't using a pen-based GUI. I'm an obsessive note-taker, and if I can take down notes or draw sketches directly into digital, hooray! I hope Nokia pursues this line and develops a reasonably priced tablet computer with an OS that is truly driven by the stylus.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Try 480x272 for the PSPs screen resolution.
The confusion comes from the firmware-limited video capabilities of the PSP. In 4:3 mode, it supports up to 320x240; and up to 368x208 in 16:9 mode.
Yes, the Nokia still beats it. And the PSPs browser has no Flash support either...
Weird, the 770 is already selling in the Philippines. Not sure if that makes the country ahead or behind the rest of the world :-) 3G was switched on about a month ago. Stupidly expensive for data, though 3G phones have been on sale for a long while now.
The PSP screen res is 480x272, not 320x240.
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
I've been blogging my experience with this one like mad:
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/
Posts today:
- Using the device's USB host mode without soldering a special cable
- Using an iPod nano as external storage
Lots of other things too, like enabling sshd and other thoughts and wishes.
I spotted this puppy at Fry's on Dec 31. Did some googling on my T3 and was intrigued. I was a bit worried it would be too much of a duplicate of my Palm T3, but boy was I wrong. I love roaming around the house with this in hand. Web surfing and email are obvious uses. Haven't used the email client and just use a webmail client. IM is great using 3rd party GAIM app and I really haven't found the "written input" any more difficult to use than the Palm graffiti. It's been fun reading CES coverage blogs while listening to podcasts. (It's interesting that I've found no CES coverage on the 770 @_@) Another nice thing to do is listen to mp3s streamed from slimserver. It's really not a replacement/duplication of my Palm T3. Basically, it's a VERY portable web browser and audio/video player. Battery life seems pretty good and DivX 4.12 avis seem to work best. It really reminds me of a portable palm-sized 3Com Audrey, if anyone remembers those (I still use one!) I have had no connectivity problems and it connects to my phone (Nokia 6230) and laptop via bluetooth with no problems.
I think a killer app for this thing would be GPS Navigation. It supports bluetooth, and already works with the various bluetooth gps receiver options.
It just needs a good software package, like the TomTom software available for several PDAs and their own Linux based device.
Navigation systems are becoming more popular. A device that combined good nav, with wifi / www functions would be very interesting.
- I already have a cell phone
- I already have a cell carrier and contract
- It keeps the price of the unit down
- One internet tablet can work on all carriers
- I go through cell phones faster than I go through pants
- Carriers will want to lock down the device and "get in on the pie" with software releases
- Carriers are greedy and don't like open-source
Good enough?Here's another thing, too. Nokia has gone out of its way to explain to everybody that this is a brand-new product category. But it isn't really. We've seen plenty of products like this one before. We call them PDAs. Nokia trounced every PDA to date by including a noticeably far superior screen, but it left out the PDA software. With that big omission, we're all left wondering what exactly we're supposed to use it for.
Me personally, I can't find much use for it so far other than some light Web browsing (because "serious" Web browsing will crash it) and FBReader, the open source ebook software that was ported to it by a third party. The included e-mail program is awful. The PDF reader is totally unusable unless you turn off images. The RSS reader is interesting, but not really my cup of tea. The Opera browser mostly works, but is crippled by lack of memory and lack of ad-blocking features.
After all that, I'm still fascinated by the device. It's just too bad that this first generation is still more concept than reality.
Breakfast served all day!
Install the latest firmware to start. Following that, consider setting up a swap :)
- upgrade-plus-gps-wishes.html
. php?p=4013&postcount=13
My experience with upgrading:
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/2006/01/update-and
A link to setting up a swap (not for noobs)
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showpost
Hope that helps.
I really like it. Quick overview is that it's great if you basically just want to use the internet (hey that's what they made it for) and don't expect it to do everything a PC can do.
Here is what I like about it:
1. I commute by train, so if I have a few minutes to wait I get a coffee in the cafe at the station and jump on somebody's open wireless network (the hotel next door, maybe?) and check my RSS feeds, do my email, browse the web, open up GAIM and chat, etc. When you've got a wifi connection (and since I live in an urban area, there's open wifi networks all over the city) it's a great.
2. Hook it to my stereo in the living room at home and stream internet stations or podcasts. I love doing this. I get Soma FM's "Drone Zone" going when I can't sleep. And this month is old-timey country month on Radio David Byrne!
4. Stream podcasts using the little built-in speaker. The little built-in speaker isn't great, but if you're listening to a podcast where it's just voice and not music, it's great. If I'm cooking in the kitchen I'll set it on the table and fire up a podcast.
5. Use the internet from bed, or the recliner. I admit it. I have no shame.
6. When there's no network connectivity, for instance when I'm on the train or in the middle of nowhere, it makes a great e-book reader using FBReader. Or if you've downloaded some music or podcasts and have some headphones, you can listen to those.
OK, now here are the things that so far I have disliked about it:
1. Handwriting recognition isn't that great, so I use the little virtual keyboard instead. You can see a longer post I wrote about the handwriting recognition here.
2. While the Opera browser that comes with it is great, it does seem to have some problems with pages with a lot of DHTML on them. For instance, if you start loading Gmail or Bloglines, and then switch to another window while they're loading, and then come back, you'll see they didn't load properly. For some reason when loading those pages, I need to keep that window in the foreground for them to properly load.
3. The Opera browser doesn't have a way to change the font size. If I'm reading a page where the font just shows up too small, I can't increate the font size, all I can do is use the ZOOM IN feature, which creates a horizontal scroll bar in the browser. This is actually rarely an issue, though, since the display is so crisp and easy to read.
4. Running the Nokia-distributed version of the operating system, there's no way that I can see to remove the icons for the Mail and News readers from the left-hand-side menu. I don't use them, I just use Gmail and Bloglines in the browser, so I don't want those two icons taking up space in my menu. (Apparently it's possible to install the Maemo operating system directly, instead of using the Nokia'd-up version, but I haven't tried this.)
5. No network file browsing! So if I'm in the living room, I can't browse the music on my desktop computer over the network and play them. I have gotten around this by installing SlimServer on the desktop computer and connecting the Audio Player in the Nokia to that, but this is sort of clunky. I'd rather just have SMB support in the nokia.
6. Videos have to be sort of low-quality to play smoothly, I think. At least, I've downloaded a couple of videos to it, and they were choppy. This isn't an issue of the display, I think, it's an issue of the processing power.
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
The 770 hardware is great. The fact that it's Linux-based is great. The connectivity is great. The fact that it uses X11 is great. The UI is pretty good.
What is not so good is that the device is sluggish: a 250MHz processor ought to feel zippy, yet the 770 does not. I suspect the culprit is the Gtk+ toolkit. Nokia needs to do more work on pruning it down, maybe throwing out some functionality and visual features.