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It Does Little and Not Very Well
wiredog writes "A Washington Post (frryyy) review of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, a handheld Linux device. The reviewer complains about the lack of keyboard, poor WiFi implementation, outdated software, non-standard memory card, and almost as many crashes as an unpatched Win98 install."
From TFA: This latest failure underscores once again the main problem with miniaturization...that while we can continue to make things smaller and smaller, their interfaces (input - keyboard/mouse, output - screen/speakers) must remain large enough to be useful, and the larger, the better. Even if you totally discount other problems like removable data storage, the main problem of user interfaces will continue to stand in the way of true miniaturization.
I'm still wondering why we haven't seen a personal data device marketed with either a roll-up or projected keyboard, fingertip mouse, and VR glasses? Freed of these constraints, the device itself could easily be made small enough to be wearable.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
2) And - the review did not mention the O/S crashing - just applications crashing. Linux is not the problem here.
Anyway, on to the meat:
Nokia's 770 platform is only just starting. The 770 is available for retail sale, but not really intended for the general public.
There's an upcoming release of the linux derived O/S it runs (in 2006) and Nokia are actively courting developers. (including discounts for gnome hackers)
I say kudos to nokia - they're (as the review shows) releasing a cool bit of hardware kit and they're going to let the software developement community (both free, open & proprietary) fill in lots of gaps. I hope it works out.
Oh - and rereading the review - it appears the reviewer's "biggest complaint" was the lack of keyboard. That's what seperates a tablet from a tiny laptop retard
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
If it had a keyboard, I'd buy one right away. Without keyboard, what's it good for?
The rest of the specs are weird, too; as the WaPo points out, why use RS-MMC? Full-sized MMC fit in my 6230i phone, why could'nt they fit in a device 4 times bigger? It's like chewbacca: it does -NOT- make sense!
This review sounds a bit like a Windows user reviewing Linux. This Nokia 770 device runs a modified version of Debian, and is an ARM architecture. While Nokia couldn't bundle something like MPlayer with it, there is nothing stopping anyone from getting a copy of MPlayer and using it to play all of the different formats/codecs that the reviewer has had a whinge about it not being able to play.
For geeks, this seems to be a good device! For Rob Pegoraro, it sucks, because it won't run Windows Media Player. Poor baby.
it runs Linux!
Someone has ported GPS over to 770 and now combined with a bluetooth GPS receiver it acts as a gps decive showing maps etc. There are plans for VOIP support soon. Combine this with FON router and you are on online at many places and make free calls, check email etc. I was thinking on the lines of hacking this into a car. There is already GPS available, so why not hook it up with car stereo and double it as an mp3 player. And if you have a FON account every time you drive by a FON location it downloads your email.. missed calls etc. This can be pretty interesting. Any thoughts ?
Username: mobb@deep.com
o m
password: mobbdeep
http://bugmenot.com/view.php?url=washingtonpost.c
if those don't work
keyboard? get a bluetooth keyboard.
crashing? dont load mega-websites on a machine with sixty-four megs of ram. lots of sites work fine.
does little? there are tons of emerging third party apps emerging... did that guy even check the maemo wiki page?
most useful third party app on the seven-seventy is fbreader. lets you read any txt files rotated or not, large/small fonts and so on. most of your standard ebook features are there.
another useful app is the xterminal. if you ever use ssh to connect to remote sites to do stuff, you'll find this xterm-in-your-pocket highly useful.
All I can say is that I finally saw one of these about three weeks ago, and immediately (as in, next day) went to CompUSA and bought one. I love it. It does exactly what I want, and the only complaint I have is the lack of software -- but that will be quickly solved as the community ports apps to it. www.maemo.org is very active.
So it does what I want, and I think it's great. Obviously, if it doesn't do what you want, you'll think it's awful/pointless/a waste of money.
It has replaced my Zaurus (and has the added benefit that the form factor is almost identical to the Zaurus, so I can even use the same case for the N770).
Just plugin a thin USB or bluetooth keyboard and the problem is solved. Next question, please.
Could have as many crashes as an unpatched Win95 install....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Excited, I picked one of these up about two months ago. But, I found it extremely lacking and returned it for an ipaq. Why didn't I like it? The email app almost always crashed when accessing my imap accounts. The browser (opera if I remember correctly) had real issues with moderately complex websites. The wifi seemed very slow when using encryption. In general, it wasn't much of a pda. On a positive note, the screen was beautiful and the movie playback was fantastic.
Just for the record, there is NO "off the record" record.
Make a record of that.
I think this would be a wonderful replacement for the search computers at the local Borders store. Every now and then, a computer would either be stuck on the Windows 98 logo screen or a blue screen. Of course, they would have to chain them to the wall so no one walks out with one or shelved them in the "when technology goes bad" section.
I bought one and had to return it after a week of various things. First it was the flaky battery, then the flaky software that ended up becoming all but unusable. To put it nicely, the software is crap. Not only that, but it's incredibly slow. I would gladly have paid an extra $150 for a system based on embedded Qt with 128MB of RAM, a better processor and a real, fast SD card system. Basically, it is a short cut looking for a quality product. They cut so many corners that's nearly a perfect circle.
Nokia is very new at this and it will take the organization several years until they get the hang of it; that's the same whenever a new platform is introduced into an organization and has nothing to do with Linux. Look at Motorola's iTunes phone to see how even adding a single new capability to a phone is non-trivial. Thousands of highly reliable embedded Linux devices show that embedded Linux itself is very much up to the task.
As for the 770, the hardware is nice, kind of like a big Palm; it's the UI that needs several more iterations--but that's OK if they stick with it.
For the time being, the Palm Tungsten X is probably the most mature device in this space--if you want something that "just works" get it. But don't be smug about it: the Palm T|X software platform is beyond obsolete, and Palm is in deep trouble since they still haven't figured out what to replace it with.
Seems to me the big makers don't always listen, so here goes:
Keyboard and IBM-style nipple-mouse instead of a wand and touchscreen.
Foldover format like a Psion 5 - should fit inside a suit inner pocket
Inbuilt Bluetooth and WiFi
Proper POP/IMAP client that handles SSL and StarTLS
office-style apps that read either MS formats or Opendocument
web browser than handles AJAX properly
ability to either add a SD card or similar for storage
O/S irrelevant. I just need the features, I don't think anyone offers this. the nearest I could find was various HP Jornadas which don't have WiFi or Bluetooth by default and because they rely on PCMCIA expension cards, can only have one or the other at a time.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
I just got one a week or so ago, and it does everything I expected it to do and it does it well. It even serves as a nice walkman type device for when I'm mowing the lawn...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
What the Nokia 770 *is* - it's an internet tablet with an very high-resolution 800 pixel wide display, with a basic email client, RSS reader, multimedia support and some apps thrown in. It does come with expandable memory, and there are other apps you can load onto it for free.
It *isn't* a laptop replacement, nor a PDA, nor a phone, nor is it a games machine or a personal multimedia player although it can do all of these to an extent. Primarily, it's designed to give you a much better web experience than you would get from a cellphone while it fits in your pocket. If you choose to extend it with keyboards, new applications and even things like GPS then it's up to you.
Two words of warning - I bought mine directly from Nokia (I had one of the first) and the first unit was faulty, at which point I discovered that Nokia's customer service is not great. And to get the best out of the N770, some work is required in terms of patching and loading on apps.
One last thing - it's great value. In the UK it works out as £250 including tax and shipping which is cheaper than many mobile phones.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
When I first saw the 770, I was thinking how great it would be as a "One Stop Ultimate Full Home Remote with web capability"
Wireless and all is top, but what I really wanted was a 10 meters IR in addition to the wifi and ethernet.
A nice homy tablet, allowing me to indulge in a "potato-couch" lifestyle. I could manage my VCD/DVD/TV/Video Projector, possibly some home automation tools, etc + web browsing, possibly some mail, etc.
Some remotes offer such capabilities, strong IR, web access : Phillips Pronto, around 600-800 bucks.
Now give me a Nokia 770, add a 10-15 meters IR receptor/emitter with a nice learning soft and it could become the standard gadget in most geeks houses.
Of course, stable applications, possibly a tool to automatically compile what I want (Hello Gentoo emerge !) or even better a full apt-like system, and it's golden.
Now, I didn't find a strong RS-MMC IR addon that fits the 770, so I'm nicely waiting for the "771" to be more "home centric". (yes, I know it is a "digital lyfestyle, outdoor tool", but hell, it's a GEEK tool, and we mostly spend our time indoors).
Also, give me a "waterproof" model (100% humidity, not a 2 meters deep case) with a good and intelligent media player (or something that can grab frames already decompressed by the powerfull home server and just put them on the screen from wifi) and stream MP3/ogg/Flac in addition to web-browsing and you'll have the perfect jacuzzi/hot tub companion for nerds.
Hello Mr Nokia. My consultant fee starts @ 1000$/day, and I'll be happy to cater to your needs.
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
It's not a PDA or a teeny laptop. It's a handheld webbrowser.
I can read news sites, RSS feeds, check my Gmail, all works just fine. It's also servicable as a MP3 or video player - certainly not as good as an ipod, and reformatting videos to appropriate resolutions/framerates/formats can be a PITA...
I think of it as more a compact second (ok, in my house it would be 4th) computer that I can pick up and check my mail and a few news sites without wandering off to another room to log in. I don't generally respond to mails on it - it's bad at that, but that's not the point.
I agree. I have one and hack on it all day. It's a fun little beast. It's basically the only device of its kind available in the states. It's a next gen Zaurus, except Nokia is sponsoring development of lot's of 3rd party apps. However, I wouldn't buy one for my mom right now. A lot of apps are still being ported and are buggy. I think the first generation of the 770 will probably fail. But once maemo has lot's of apps ported (actually, it already has a shitload, but not so much "business apps" and many aren't hildonized) and Nokia learns some lessons of the 770, it will be a success. The base install is VERY limited and that's what they review it based on. I think the potential for the 770 is in 3rd party support. How much fun is a windows install with no 3rd party apps? I'm working on porting my home automation app to the 770 (perfect example). It's a hell of a lot easier to port to the 770 than blackberry or symbian. There are some hardware issues to address (battery life, gprs, storage), but once Nokia starts including more software and has a second iteration of hardware, this line is going to be a beast. If you want an expensive lame windows box, buy an orgami. If you want another lame calendaring and email device, buy a blackberry. If you want something different all together, buy the 770.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I have a Nokia 770, and I love it. Yes, wiFi drops out, but I have installed ssh, telnet, gaim, gnumeric, joe, and a whole bunch of other things. It will axtually work as a remote X terminal, (gnome proggies, not kde ( it crashes)).
Despite the shortcommings, it is a great way to ssh into my server(s) and fix things.
The browser also works with my online banking, which is rare in portable devices.
It may not be the best consumer device, but if you know what you are doing, then it has a lot more usefullness than many, if not all of the other micro-portables.
It is well worth the $359.00 it takes to buy one.
Cheers
* Carthago Delenda Est *
First, you have no idea what a catch-22 is.
Second, "Mac generally gets it right but only because they totally control and limit what hardware you can connect to their stuff." doesn't make any sense here.
This article is the perfect example of why Mac stability is really quite remarkable. We have here hardware controlled entirely by the manufacturer, Nokia. It's *less* expandable than most Macs. You can pretty much guarantee nobody's hooking anything up to it, and if they do it's something non critical like a bluetooth device.
Why is this Linux phone crashing all the time? It's not because of hardware unpredictability.
This little device changed my perspective on the mobile web. As the owner of a SE P910, I think that the device is trying to do too much. Imagine a small mobile that simply makes calls, but now add a tablet such as this. I can call, access network apps like gmail or the new calendar. Does it play flash slow as hell? Yep! Device makers totally under-estimate the needs of tablets...
I have to admit that the thing is a gimmick today. But real soon, a platform like this will be indespensable. The hundred dollar laptop is here today at $349! Add keyboard... Something like those rollup things I've seen for the MS device would be great. The thing has not crashed on me yet, though as mentioned running Flash is not recommended. I do need to try some Widgets!
You must not have looked very hard; there are plenty of tiny tablets with keyboards. The tiny Thinkpad X41 tablet weighs less than 3 pounds. I didn't want a 1024x768 screen, so I went with the Toshiba Portege M200, which is 4 pounds and offers a 1400x1050 resolution. Both are convertible tablet PCs with keyboards. After a year of owning the Toshiba, I'm quite happy and have recommended Tablet PCs to many other people.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Ah to the modder... it's not off topic. If Nokia chose windows CE and not linux it would have a wealth of work already done for it. Most hardware drivers would already be written for it. It'd be simply a job of gluing all the pieces together , as opposed to making half of them.
This sort of device is alot harder to do with Linux than it is in windows CE... Nokia has basically doubled or trippled the amount of work to deliver such a device to market
I'm sure their choice of platform was not based on technical considerations. Where would they be if they chose windows CE ? Answer: No where in the market they'd be just making up the numbers.
I got one a few months ago, spurred on by the port of Einstein. If *something* could finally replace the Newton, this might be it. The truth is that Einstein is too slow for normal use, but I fell in love with the 770.
/. crowd, IMO.
I use it *constantly*, because it's has a real web browser (Opera w/Flash) and is pretty easy to connect over WiFi. It fits nicely in my coat pocket, and has a glorious, bright display. And it's an open and well-supported platform for development.
The reviewer makes some good points for his world. It doesn't play well with Microsoft. That's not a factor in my world. Sure, it doesn't play WMV9. But it does play MPEG-4.
It could use some additional memory. I moved the root fs onto a card to deal with that, and it's much more stable now.
The network messages are a little obtuse. Basically if any connection has reached a timeout (why there's a timeout for WiFi I'll never know), it says "Network Connection Error" when you try to send a packet. So you click 'Connect', pick a network, and you're off.
It uses RS-MMC because that's what the rest of Nokia's products use now.
It works flawlessly with my RAZR on Cingular, and the thought of EV-DO has me looking at the Sprint/Samsung RAZR clone.
Make no mistake, this is a 1.0 product, and not really ready for prime time. But it *is* ready for the
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
Don't forget, there's a supercool BugMeNot Firefox extension.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Thanks, TMM! Another thing to note, however, is that there are *MANY* interfaces that can be used in-place of a keyboard. We have buttons, microphones, and other devices. We have accelerometers, infrared, ultrasound, and frickin lasers.
Devices designed by committee are generally stupid. If Apple had an iPhone that worked properly, I'd be all over that. As it is, I haven't found a phone I like better than my old Nokia 3650, and it's of poor design!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
http://maemo.org/
I bought one of these last October when they first came out.
The form factor is great, battery life is good, and I don't miss a keyboard. The web browser is OK, but the Mail app does suck (very very slow with a reasonable sized imap mailbox).
The bigger problems are the lack of memory and processor speed. If you're running the mail app, you can only open a couple of web windows too before everything comes to a standstill.
I'm hoping that Nokia are going to do something with memory and speed optimisation with the next software release - but haven't seen anything from them since December. A new rev was due end of Q1, but that's been and gone. Anyone have any inside information on when a rev might be made?
Thanks!
It did reboot and crash . The whole piece . Not just the Apps . You are blindly defending it just because it's Linux . The product is not something of quality any of us would actually pay for.
Not everyone that says MS products are good or Linux sucks are posting flamebait/trolling . Plenty of people actually hold this opinion .
"unpatched win 98" . Oh no ! He said MS doesnt suck enough ! OMG ! Kill him !111!!!!11!!one!
My Starcraft 2 Blog
geez, from the sounds of things Nokia should have licensed Calligrapher or whatever it's called these days. (Russian company originally, IIRC, at one time owned by SGI, then either spunoff or otherwise became independent... They used to sell OCR software for wince machines that was pretty good, but not appreciably better than M$'s transcribe(? or whatever it's called...). They also produced the original cursive OCR for the Newton which was fairly decent with a good sized dictionary, pretty much a must for decent OCR. (Printed text should work better, but it's slower inputting info, and if you can't even print decently, well... and spacing of characters can be problematic...)
Had they done this at least the keyboard part would have gone away, as this device shouldn't even really expect to have a keyboard excepting in rare situations as it's a TABLET! otherwise it'd be a funky NOTEBOOK!
Still sounds sort of nifty, esp. at the price, but overall I'd still think that I'd rather go with a Tabletpc or an origami device with a full windows install, etc. They're not that much more expensive and offer greater(if not notebook class) performance and capabilities, plus on the Tabletpcs there do exist linux distros that support them to an extent, but then you'd be back to crappy OCR again. Hmm... so, I guess I'd be much happier with either a full notebook with some decent horsepower or an origami as the Tabletpcs are even more stunted now v. when they first appeared they weren't that much more poorly off than current notebooks...
--- C00l
I ran Win98 on over 100 machines with countless screaming kids trying to break them on a regular basis with no problems. Patched or not. Now granted, all of these machines had been policy edited, were behind an OBSD firewall, ran Litestep, and had been stripped down to run just what I needed and nothing else, but crashing? Not likely. Not often. When a machine crashed I forked over a free hour (this was a game center, btw). Not something I liked to do and not something I did often.
So here I'm lost as to where your information comes from for Win98 crashing. Sure, it takes some skill on the admin's part, but not much. And much less work/skill needed to do squat on a *nix machine. I know it's customary fanboyness to call MS products crap, but you really should think before you post out troll dung calling something troll dung.
I hate MS, too. I just hate mouth-running fanatics more.
The only exception to this fairly self-evident situation is one of marketing: an older, cheaper laptop can in some - and only some - ways be 'replaced' by a bleeding-edge laptop, etc, etc.
So really, it is a matter of deciding for yourself what functionality you want from a device and determining if the technology and/or market are available for that functionality. If all you want a computer for is word processing, spreadsheets, and solitaire on a 15 inch screen (like the majority of people, say, 10 years ago), then even the cheapest current laptop will fulfill those functional requirements. But if you want 3D gaming, wireless internet access, 5.1 surround sound, and dual-head 22" displays, well you're not going to get that on anything but a desktop for the time being.
The problem is that handheld devices still cannot really fulfill the lowest-common-denominator functional requirements (office apps, simple games, music, telephony, internet, and email) adequately for 2 main reasons: display size and input quality (ie: keyboard and mouse).
Personally, I have no interest in editing text documents or spreadsheets, playing games, or watching movies with a stylus on a 2" x 3" touchscreen. I might read (but not write) email and check RSS newsfeeds, but that's all I'm comfortable doing without a large screen and a keyboard and mouse, or equally functional input devices (ie: voice recognition and pupil-driven pointing device).
I'm sure the technology will bring the functionality I need to handheld devices quite soon, but we're definitely not there yet. So for the time being, when I'm on the move it makes more sense for me to have a phone I can check email with and/or a laptop to actually do work on.
A-Bomb
From TFA:
WiFi on the 770, however, may not work much better. The review model I tested frequently failed to log on to my home network's wireless signal for no apparent reason; uselessly vague error messages such as "network problem" left me guessing about the cause.
Now, don't go blaiming his home wifi setup. There's nothing wrong with it, I haven't had any problems over the last two months, and I'm two miles away using a Pringles box as an antenna.
For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
Its Linux what can you expect...Yeah troll I know.
Ooh Ohh I know this one!
///"?
What is "Apple
What is "Karl Rove"?
What is "Windows 1.0"?
What is "Windows ME"?
What is "Microsoft Bob"?
What is "Moeller SkyCar"?
What is "3DO"?
What is "Buran"?
And the Daily Double,
What is "FEMA"?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Does the reviewer not understand the concept of a 'tablet'? Tablet in that it has either a passive or active touch display operated by a stylus a la pen and paper?
Yes, I know that some tablets have keyboards, but sticking 'no keyboard' on a list of negatives is like complaining a car doesn't have wings.
If this guy knew what he was talking about, there would've probably been a mention of the Nokia's closest competitor platform -the UMPC - in the article, but there isn't. And he might also have figured out that if you happen to need a tablet with a keyboard, you can buy foldout Bluetooth-enabled ones, but he doesn't.
If there's one thing that gets be annoyed, it's people who review devices solely on how well it matches desktop/laptop usage models...
The 770 was developed by the same team who put out the 7710 so it probably inherited some of the design problems in that first device.
Personally I think the whole form factor of the 77x(x) series is just wrong. I worked as electronics engineer for the big N in Southwood England a couple of years ago and I remember getting to play with the un-released 7700. All I can say is thank goodness they didn't release it, the software wasn't that bad but the design of the thing was like a kids toy. I actually originally though it was a proto and was somewhat shocked when I was told it was a soon to be released product.
It is the wrong size, yes you get screen real estate but it is too bulky to pocket and not big enough to act as a laptop replacement ( bit like UMPCs in that respect ). This is not even beginning to mention it's shortcomings with regards to user input.
It is interesting that Nokia is pursing this route when the rest of the industry seems to be moving from stylus based entry to small thumb boards ( Treo 650, HW6915 etc. )
You should try the Qtek 9100.
I love my 770. It has replaced my laptop for getting my news on the couch. It seems like porting applications is really fast. I'm even thinking of porting Qalculate! to it. I want to buy a small bluetooth keyboard for the thing.
It has a great browser, though it definitly could be improved.
Things to improve:
* Video player should support more formats
* Audio player should support more formats
* You should be able to easily switch windows when browsing in full screen mode
* Smoother newsreader
* The browser (opera) does not work with wellsfargo.com (let us change the browser id)
* Nokia needs a more centralized app registry instead of the ApplicationCataloge, something professional, so I don't feel like I'm risking my tablet with an install from an unknown source.
* Better note taker (waiting for Xjournal to finish porting)
* I wish the directional buttons only scrolled the page, instead of going from link to link.
Get the voice recognition done already! I can handle a virtual-touch keyboard for the one-off case, but I need a full keyboard until we have good voice recognition.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
If Nokia uses Win CE, it cannot differentiate the Nokia 770 from the gazillion me-too products that looks the same. Morever, WinCE has higher hardware specification than the embedded Linux.
Nokia has enough engineering resources to push this device. If I am not wrong, the device was launched within a year of product conceptualization. I admire Nokia 'cos Nokia will never want to compete with all those cheesy no-brand company which will happily slap a WinCE with hardly any real engineering and sell it at a me-too price to undercut each other.
What about a chording bluetooth keyboard .... maybe like the Chordite.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Why can't anyone release a piece of hardware/software that actually does what people want and doesn't cost an arm and a leg or as in this case doesn't seem worth even looking into?
I want a light laptop that is always connected via cell network or wireless and has a decent sized screen, is easy to update (RAM, hard drive, software, modular hardware components) AND CAN BE UPDATED.
Then I want a connection plan that doesn't rape my wallet when I send an email.
With out fail everything I have looked at sucks in its implementation, or is way overpriced (like the cell phone companies data plans).
It seems like there are some ripe opportunities for some bright group put there...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
It would about have to come from a voice interface then. One that worked. A bluetooth or wired headset and just...talk to the machine. Then it could be small.
I so much agree on the tiny, I detest having to go get new cell phones, it has gotten to the point I can barely use them they have gotten so small. All this new really small stuff is designed with young humans with tiny fingers and great eyes in mind it appears. It doesn't matter how tiny the device is if you just can't use the thing, doesn't matter how many features it has if you can't see the screen or manipulate the buttons.
Note to hardware companies-look around the western world, the population with a lot of disposable income is neither real young nor do they have great eyes. Stiff fingers/arthritis and bifocals are *common*. You want those folks business, keep that in mind when you are designing stuff. These companies are telling folks who think nothing of dropping 100 grand on an RV that their market segment isn't worth releasing products designed with them in mind. Pretty much a huge missed business opportunity there near as I can see..with my bifocals. Keep saying FU to that market and it will reply in kind. Cater to it, you *might* get some bizznezz...
I have a Nokia 770, and I love it.
Yeah, well I love my Dell, and I can prove it!
What makes Palm OS obsolete, in your opinion?
It is still the device that I turn to for portable information-management with long battery-life. I would buy a Treo if they worked with Grafitti.
I think Palm's biggest problem is software development tools -- I haven't tried their Eclipse-based studio yet, but I would like to know the comments of people who have used it.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
This guy's a genius, debunking Mac fanboi trolls. He should be an editor.
--
Trolling all trolls since 2001.
There's a few things where Nokia missed the boat on this one. First:
MEMORY
64 MB is a paltry set of memory for Linux. Would have been much better with 128 MB of ram. There's also not enough rootfs space either. Notice ye hackers doing things like Swap on the RS-MMC....I don't have to do that on my Pocket PC!
RS-MMC
RS-MMC??? I can't really bitch that it's not standard because it is (follows MMC) but SD or even transflash would have been a way better choice. IN fact, here's what to do in the next iteration....integrate a MicroDrive or make SD the standard.
NO PIM APPS!
Ok, I know, it's NOT supposed to be a PDA yet it looks very much like a PDA....so what is it?? They say it's a internet tablet. People want a PDA or a Pocket PC that has these screen specs! If they had PIM apps, it could replace a PDA for most people. The open source ones are coming, but I need to sync my calendar TODAY.....not in a year!
ANEMIC CPU!
You could have tried the Xscale PXA270. It's about twice as fast.
That said, I still would love to have one of these to hack around with. I have been think about it for a LONG time. Since CompUSA didn't do what I thought they were going to do (Thought they were going to give me a gift card, they instead upgraded me to a HP iPAQ hx2495), I will have to wait a while.
Not ready for the market? Nokia must have thought it was and Linux geeks are not the only ones buying these things. For light websurfing, the current configuration DOES work, but it get's slow really quick.
Gorkman
Come on! The attempted Microsoft dig you just made is a hilarious failure. If a Linux device is being compared to an 11 year old OS as far as stability goes...Linux has a loooooooooong way to go!
Don't take this article as a definitive answer. My experience seems to be the opposite from this guy. I've had one for a few months now and it has been perfect for me. I haven't had the crashes he describes and I've been abusing it quite a bit. I did notice that when you use up it's memory, it's got nowhere to go and will slow down so much that it looks to be locked, but I think I've had one crash the whole time I've used it, and that was the first weekend I was using it. Not sure what I was doing at the time, but I haven't done managed it since. As far as WiFi, I set it up to my 128bit WEP code and have had no trouble from day one. it connects automatically (it's an option which I enabled) to my home if available and it not (when away from home) it gives the network error he describes and then scans for other networks. No problem. I leave it on all the time (except when I forget and drain the battery forcing it to turn off) and I've had no stability problems at all, as long as I know that any memory hog web pages might slow it down. And, it DOES recover in those cases. I use it constantly when home or away. All the programs work for me, and it's been one of the best gadgets I've ever gotten. I've used all the included apps and they all work better than any PDA app I've used. The email program even download all 1100 email headers from my ISP with no issues and can open up any message I click on. As a long time Palm user, I know it's not going to replace a PDA, but it was never meant to replace that anyway and it does it's own thing great.
I assume it may come down to what you expect and what you want to use it for, but for me, it works great. The on-screen keyboard is my preferred way anyway, so that doesn't bother me. I'd actually forgotten it had handwritting recognition since I've never tried it. The keyboard is fast and easy, so I never bothered.
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
I've had one of these since just about Christmas. It's a great gadget for what it is: a wireless web browser on a Linux platform. The screen is crystal clear, the web browsing works and I've had no issue with network connectivity. To the extent there is a problem it is that Nokia seems to be marketing this as a consumer-ready device. It isn't. Mail is flaky, the PIM functions are missing, etc, etc. If it was only sold to its target audience (alpha geeks) everything would be cool.
All that said - I love it. I can pick it up and check the news, turn the internet access on or off for my kids or even VNC into a server if I really feel I must. Would I spend $350 of food money on it? No. But - if you can affort $350 for a cool toy - this is one.
you can get a dell axim x51v for about the same price and it works pretty good. its display resolution is a bit smaller at 640x480, but it is also lighter and it supports ms office docs and windows media. install orb and you can watch tv over wifi.
Anyone notice that this headline is so undescriptive, it applies as much to itself as to the article?
- Bluetooth GPS and GPSDrive HOWTO
- USB Power Injector 2 (for hooking up USB keyboards, storage, etc.)
- "No Solder" USB Host method.
Firmware/Software Hacks- Manual "mass storage" mounting (using an iPod nano as an example)
- Mass storage mounting scripts
- Application menu "button" creation. (use this with the post above)
- Firmware upgrade notes
- Firmware destruction recovery
Connectivity- Pairing with Windows Mobile devices (requires a firmware patch)
- T-Mobile GPRS use
Ideas and Ruminations:- Portrait of a Consumer
- Ten Simple Suggestions to Nokia
- Google Life
Other fun:I remember looking at these things and seeing a somewhat functional citrix client...
Has anyone tried to get something like this up and running?
I've been deploying tablet PC's in an industrial enviornment that are essentially expensive thin clients, it would be nice to find a replacement at almost a 10th of the price.
A point to all those comments that are jumping on the bandwagon and condemming this device: try it first. This thing is the first of this type of device (or at least one of the few). I keep seeing a lot of reactions based only on this review and the specs. Yeah, you can judge a lot form that kind of stuff, but not all. A lot of these assume "yeah, it's linux, they should have choosen a better platform. no wonder it doesn't work well" or "yeah, a device that small should have a keyboard. it's not usable" look like they are from people who haven't even tried the thing.
My advice: try it first. They've got 'em out in places like CompUSA. Try to use it before deciding "Nokia missed on this one" . Until then, you can say it LOOKS like it's unusable but you can't say it IS unusable until you've actually USED IT. Since it's a new category of gadget, there's only so far you can go with comparisons. It's like the hybrids: you have to test drive one to see if it works for you. No amount of driving other cars is going to tell you if it works for you, even if you know all the details about the engine and such.
AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
This guy seems to like his a lot. It's a blog dedicated to his experiences with the Nokia 770. He's used at as part of a robot, as a GPS in his car, and even managed to connect to the internet through his cellphone with bluetooth, despite the fact that some people think you can't. It's all a matter of it you have the time to spend messing with it to get it to do what you want. Unfortunately, I really don't think it suits my needs out of the box, since what I really need is a pda that has a calendar, wifi, and works on Linux. The Zaurus seems like it would fit that role, but I have no way of trying one out since Sharp stopped making them in the US, so I really don't know if it would fit my needs.
I've got a Sharp Zaurus and it seems much nicer than this thing. Has a full keyboard too. Of course, its more expensive. You get what you pay for.
The moving cursor writes, and having written, blinks on.
Linux crashes a lot more than I was led to believe. I would demand a refund but the distro is already "out of business".
I have to differ from the review in that I found the handwriting recognition to be the best I'd ever used once it had been taught some of my more "eccentric" letter formations. Surely I can't be the only one?
As for the 770, love it to bits - although until IT2006 is released (Supposedly end Q2 now) it is definately a device for the slashdot reader (Though my girlfriend loves it to bits, I have difficulty getting it off her sometimes).
it's yet another poorly conceived, badly implemented device from Nokia - a company that has proven time and time again that they make good phones, but haven't got a clue when it comes to making anything else. Seriously, in a former life I wrote applications for cell phones, and the Nokia devices were THE WORST. Everything was non-standard; every model had a unique twist. They touted their Symbian operating system as an "open and standardized" platform, but our sourcecode was riddled with #ifdef NOKIA3650, #ifdef NOKIA6600, #ifdef NOKIAinsertmodelnumberhere ... blah blah blah. Nothing they do surprises me anymore and I wouldn't carry anything with a Nokia name on it other than a cheapo bottom-of-the-line phone (which they do a pretty good job on).
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
...seems much better to me! => www.pepper.com
Even a keyboard and 20GB disk
I haven't had any problems with WiFi dropping out, at several different resturant locations, as well as at the house. I have used it upwards of an hour straight with no problems.
The main reason I bought the nokia is for the screen. It is GREAT. I read EBooks from Gutenberg all the time. (Converted to Plucker using GutenMark, and Sunshine.) For this purpose, the Nokia is perfect. (My wife made me buy her one for this purpose also.)
The browser has worked very well so far. I do not use the Email system, but the browser handles my WebMail through Horde very good. Slashdot works very good as well.
Transfering from my computer is a breeze. You hook up the USB cable and you have a Jump Drive. I don't see the problem with that.
The only area I would like to see more development is in the PIM suites available. The each have their own nuances, and neither does anything well. There is currently no alarm on either as well.
Scott Carr
All you bashers (reviewer included), please tell me what $400 alternative is out there that has WiFi and Bluetooth and some kind of mass-storage device? Battery life has to be greater than a laptop, so let's say 4-5 hours. Keyboard preferred, but if there's a workable alternative that would be fine. Screen must be landscape for viewing web pages (so rule out your ipaq's and palms and most cellphones). I think Nokia got the concept, design, and price right... they just missed on the keyboard and the application & connectivity reliability. If they come out with an attachable thumboard (bluetooth or otherwise) and they provide patches for the OS and the apps, I'll definitely buy one. --D
Is this any more convenient than using a notebook. Wifi generally found in an area where you can sit down (ie offices, coffee shops, your home) and pop out your notebook. I never had to access the web while I was walking on the street. Personally, I enjoy my escapes from the web (I don't want it everywhere). Besides, the real hurdle to computing on the go is a reliable voice interface. Forget the stylus and the keyboard, just tell the thing what you want like you would a human being. "Open the Web...Take me to Slashdot...I want read such and such article"
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=17330 1&cid=14420576
i ended up grabbing a dell axim x51v to replace it. you have to jump through a couple hoops to get certain apps to run in vga, but i've been pleased with the unit overall. i use the pre-release opera web browser on it, and i haven't had any problems like i encountered with the 770.
it's also a big bonus that i was able to pick up a bluetooth gps receiver and a car cradle for navigation with my purchase.
most recently, i bought a slingbox media streamer so now i can watch my own tv on it!
overall i'd rather have a umpc when it comes out, because it's mostly about home browsing and gps navigation for me. but i'm glad i picked up my axim, and i think it's orders of magnitude better than the 770. for people who value the actual pda/pim aspects, i think it would be a particular no-brainer (ignoring linux affinity).
If your GUI can be crammed into the kernel, say by seriously mutilating KGI or framebuffers to provide everything you need directly, then have your desktop as an init replacement, you could even get away without a pre-booted image.
The next step after that would be to have the kernel run in non-volatile RAM, so that if the machine is turned off and back on, the system doesn't need to reboot at all. NVR is slower than volatile, so it would depend on whether the last few seconds of boot time were more obnoxious than the degradation in performance.
The power problem should be easy for them to fix - you simply enable CPU frequency scaling, then scale the speed of the CPU so that it never runs faster than the slowest speed that isn't painful for the applications you're running. So the more you run, the faster the device runs (up to maximum speed) so that performance remains fairly constant but doesn't waste power idling for the next task. My guess is that this would improve the lifespan of the battery by a fair amount.
If wireless is a power killer, then it might be wise to look at the wireless device for opportunities. For example, there's no point blasting out full power when the remote device is right next to you, so don't transmit more power than needed to get a working signal to the WAP. Although the received power wouldn't be enough to drive the network chips, it would be enough to drive a transistor to let the device know that a nearby signal is present (although it wouldn't be good enough to detect any signal within the normal range of the wireless device). There may also be more energy-efficient wireless NIC chips out there, which could save on power.
I imagine power is also why cryptography isn't really supported. There are plenty of crypto chips (Motorola's S1 looks good) and those will take less power than doing crypto in software. All it would take is adding the necessary hooks to OpenSSL's crypto engine support. Problem solved.
So if I'm so smart, why aren't I building these and making myself rich? Well, I don't have a few million dollars to burn. Nor do I have a red paperclip. (That guy HAS to be Ferrengi!)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I've been carrying one of these around for the last 6 months or so, and while it has its flaws, it's still a great device to have.
When I'm wandering around with a baby/toddler strapped to me/in tow, the last thing I need to be lugging around is more stuff, even the lightest of laptops, nor do I want to carry anything as fragile or expensive as a laptop.
On the other hand, all the coffee shops around here are temptingly WiFi enabled, and there are a plethora of open networks around.
Having this device comfortably stowed in my pocket means that I can get some surfing and email in while the little guy takes his naps, just about wherever and whenever that happens to be. If I'm out of range of an open Wifi network, bluetooth to the cellphone works just as well.
It might not be a desktop browser, but it absolutely beats the pants off of ANY browser running on a cellphone, and the 800 pixel wide screen is enough to open webpages without side scrolling.
The email client sucks. I've been using webmail which works just as well until the software update comes out.
This is not a consumer level device yet. I would probably best describe it as an open beta-test. But for the price and convenience it's a great thing to have around if you know how to work with it. That, and it can run nethack.
This device was a proof of concept and after hours pet project of the designer and a few others. It wasn't necessarily MEANT to be a PDA/laptop/whatever replacement. It is a gadget built by and for gadget lovers. Is there alot you have to do to make it do what you want? yeah, but it CAN do it and that's 1/2 the cool. The people who want it are picking it up faster than Nokia expected (hence its low availability when it first launched).
... very crisp.
... the reviewer seems to have wanted it to be something else. Anyone who knows how to compile and/or install linux software is going to find it quite fun.
Its also awesome for people who want to develop on an embedded platform that mimics platforms used by cellphones. It is a TI OMAP 1710, same as a very popular TI reference architecture, and has built-in bluetooth and WiFi. A VERY cheap development target compared to the 4K you'd spend on an OMAP 1710 reference kit. And the environment can be developed on your x86 box and easily cross-compiled to the 770.
The screen (800x400) is -very- nice if you do take the time to install your apps. I have very little problem reading the small text because it is crisp
All in all it is what it was meant to be
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
No, what you want is a Danger Hiptop (available from T-Mobile). It's cheaper, better designed, has a nicer keyboad, and is easier to use than the Blackberry.
"almost as many crashes as an unpatched Win98 install"
Because after patching Win98 is because a stable powerhouse of an OS... wait.
I won't comment about the 770 as I (still) don't own one, but this article reminds me that last time I checked, Bill Gates' wife was in the Washington Post board of directors. This and the fact that Microsoft recently announced a similar product (origami) should make us think about that article.
The Newton was darn close with the latest revision, the 2100. With today's technology, it would be possible for Apple to make a device that could truely replace a notebook, but clearing the user-adoption hurdle woudl be a real challenge. Notebooks just serve their purpose very well and people are very used to them.
and fun. thank you for the laugh 8)
Yes, maybe I shoud have added 'girlfriend friendly" in my needs 8p
I do have a linux box, already LAMPised, a PS-2 port IR receptor that came with one HP4000 Laserjet that might be an emitter too and enough PS-2 cable to put it from the computer room("where old hardware comes to die") to the living room ("where brand new, shiny very expensive top of the line hardware never came").
And I think I can get the missup to accept one more cable running the corners.
So your solution has already be given some consideration
But I am looking for a less "nerd-ghetto-project" solution...for now
Even more when it can be more easily solved by just a 10 meters RS-MMC format IR emitter...which I didn't find anywhere....
Maybe that's where the soldering iron comes in play 8)
And the Guts needed to insert your newbie made pile of electronic into your brand new N770...
Oh, the burns ! 8p
On another hand, there are some nifty IR repeaters that can do what I want without problem. they just cost another 300-400eu.
Still not the "All in One - ready made - Ultimate Remote" I'm looking for 8(...
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Wow, I've never seen "yadda yadda yadda" abbreviated before. I'm impressed!
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
In practice, nobody writes complex programs purely in hardware any more. It's much more power-efficient, it is usually faster, but there's a price to pay. It takes more space and it's often impossible to update. In consequence, the optimal solution is a compromise - not realy "pure" hardware solutions, but still "mostly" hardware with a bunch of programmable registers and gates.
Even then, this won't do everything you'd want. You still need some software. But it should be kept to an absolute minimum, for a low-power device. Software is cheap on space, but costly on power. It is also dog-slow, which means that you need faster (and therefore more power-hungry) CPUs just to get the same performance.
Ok, given that, what needs to be done to wring as much performance as possible, for as little power? Offload engines for CPU-intensive work (such as cryptography) is an obvious must. You also really want offload engines for anything that is used frequently enough that even a small saving would make a huge impact. A good memory manager would be useful, by that reasoning.
You also want to use every trick in the book to squeeze resources as far as possible. If the CPU is only doing something 50% of the time, then halve the clock rate. Don't waste power on NO-OPs. You don't need to have a fully-powered network card to detect the presence of a signal - use the signal's own power for detection purposes. I'm not sure if arial types are mandated, but if not, three loop arials at 90' to each other (with only the arial with the strongest signal being in use) would reduce your power requirements for transmit significantly.
Ok, so you've used every trick in the book (and written three further volumes besides) to save power through hardware where at all humanly possible. What else can you do?
Reduce the workload the software needs to do. By freezing images and restoring them, you eliminate startup requirements on time and power. By compiling with profiling, then compiling using the profiling to improve optimization, you can reduce space requirements by a fair amount. Eliminate costly programs (such as X) and use KGI or Framebuffer instead to eliminate a lot of overhead on space, power and internal bandwidth.
So there's a mix of software and hardware solutions, but it is NEVER more software, and it is ESSENTIAL that the software and hardware is squeezed as much as possible.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Well i also own a 6700, and it is very nice. But this device is almost the same size as the 6700 AND it has a much larger, much more expensive screen.PLus it is half the price. Hopefully the next iterations will have a keyboard!
It's easy to modify since it's Linux-based. Putting a swap file on mem card is easy.
Plus it's the best platform for old Lucasarts games, desktop computers included (scummvm ;-)
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack