I have written up an article comparing the Nokia 770 and the Palm Zire 72. So head on over to 770 Fan and tell me what you think.
I also want to thank Reggie for letting me post over here now.
Archive for September, 2005
Today is the last day of 3Q, but still no announcement of the 770’s postponement or eventual release date from Nokia. (It’s 10:45 pm in Finland, so we think it’s safe to say it didn’t make the originally stated 3Q release.)
Reports at Portable Gadgets and Gizmodo are simply repeating what we said here (well, including the report from teddythebear) and not providing independent confirmation.
As Mike Cane has said repeatedly, it’s more important to get it right than to get it out early. Have to say we agree with that, especially if the delay is only a matter of weeks (hopefully) or even a few months (Xmas has been mentioned). Still, the type of activity that we outsiders can observe is consistent with an earlier rather than later release, at least from the software side. Hope there isn’t a manufacturing problem behind all this.
Renato Oliveira, in his Tux en Recife blog, reported that “today I finished the port of rhythmbox to maemo.” He added that he and Marcelo Oliveira were working to revise the user interface and that he would post a URL to the package shortly.
Rhythmbox is “an integrated music management application program, originally inspired by Apple’s iTunes.” According to its website,
Rhythmbox has a number of features, including:
* Easy to use music browser
* Searching and sorting
* Comprehensive audio format support through GStreamer
* Internet Radio support
* Playlists
Here’s a link to our earlier report on Septermber 21.
For those who have wondered about the developers at INdt, many of whom have recently begun blogs (as part of their regular English days?), Renato posted cartoon caricatures of them all last week. I hadn’t noticed at the time that he also linked each to their websites or blogs. Given the steady flow of games and applications from them, this provides a rich source of exploration for those eager to learn more.
Nokia’s Karoliina Salminen posts an entry in her blog about how it feels like to work with the Nokia 770:
…after being able to use it for some time, I became very convinced, it is cool, fast, great to use and does its work - browsing - very well - even when it was quite slow in our terms (before performance optimizations), boot time was at least a double it is now etc. it was fun to use and I have never wanted to go back using a web browser in a smart phone after that. Nokia 770 connects seamlessly to my phone and downloads pages faster through bluetooth than the phone would do by itself with its own browser and instead of seeing just a little part of the page, I can see full pages with no problems with the 770. And one more thing which is great - it runs Debian Linux, it is based on open platform and if you ever find a bug, you can file the bug with Bugzilla by yourself, we can fix it, and you can even provide a patch if you like.
Om Malik just posted a quick review of the Nokia 770:
The switching between the applications - email, audio player and browser was sluggish, but the Nokia representatives say that it should be fixed by the time device ships later this fall. The four way keypad navigator works nicely and helps you toggle tasks nicely. One of my concerns was that it would be too big to be used casually, but that is not the case. The ultra-bright screen makes up for the size, while it is light enough to be thrown into your messenger bag without inducing any permanent damage to your spinal cord. Now I cannot wait to get one for a full blown review.
Previously, he wrote about the Nokia 770 saying:
…the linux under pinnings make it more extensible. I think there will be more hacks for this device very quickly. With WiFi becoming common place, at least on school and college campuses, this one has a potential with the next generation.
itT just received a rumor that the Nokia 770 may sell at the $250 mark, when it is released.This might be wishful thinking, but the rumor of the Nokia 770’s delayed release was true. 
IceBreaker has been touted from the beginning as a game that will be running on the Nokia 770. I don’t recall having seen any screenshots or other information about this till now.
The INdT list of applications now lists the game, as does the Maemo wiki, with a link to the originator, Matthew Miller. At his site, he indicates a beta version with themes is available; the wiki description is ambiguously phrased, so maybe that beta version is coming too. The themes change the colors and turn the penguins into bugs, aliens, Hello Kitty! kitties, and so on.
Here’s how INdT describes the game:
Ported version of the famous IceBreaker game based on the famous jazzele for Windows. Use your stylus to break the icebergs and lock the penguins on small portions of ice. Smaller portion bigger score!
For those who’ve never played the game, here’s a screenshot from Matthew’s website (in the game’s original proportions), showing how the iceberg onscreen is broken up, isolating the penguins on the floes.
Update: The GameDevelopment page at the Maemo wiki has had a photo of IceBreaker running on the Nokia 770 since mid-July, which escaped my notice.
The Application Catalog at the Maemo wiki lists a new game: MammaSnake.
You can download the MammaSnake installation package, mammasnake_0.9-1.deb (”works on real N770 device!” notes the site), or the MSnake source code, mammasnake-0.9.tar.gz.
At Neave Games, which sells a version of Snake for Nokia phones, this description of the game appears:
This game has been around since sometime last century, but it only recently took off since it came as standard on Nokia mobile phones (or ‘cellphones’ as those crazy Americans like to say)….
The idea is to guide the snake to eat the food. The sooner you eat, the more you score. And just like real food-eating snakes, the more you gobble, the fatter you become. And don’t eat the walls — they taste awful.
itT just got word from a contact at Nokia that the Nokia 770 release date has been pushed to October "to enable more mature software at launch. A decision that we [Nokia] hope that people will recognize as a good move, ultimately benefiting all Nokia 770 users."
Looking at the Application Catalog at Maemo.org, it seems like developers are really working hard to finish on-going projects. It’s nice to see that AbiWord, Plucker Viewer, and GPE-mini-browser are done.
Nokia previously announced that the Nokia 770 will be released by the third quarter of 2005.
In a comment to Reggie’s news item at Internet Tablet Talk, fermunky sent a photo of his Nokia 770 connected to his Bluetooth keyboard, noting “I am so happy this worked. This is the first app I could actually install to the device, and it worked!”
At Mike Cane’s request, he also posted photos of the Nokia 770 stand, showing how iit folds up for carrying.
