On our very first podcast, Thoughtfix, Jonathan Greene, and I have talked about our Internet Tablet connectivity preferences. We would like to hear everyone’s thoughts on this matter.
Do you ultimately prefer your tablet to be an “always on“, always connected, auto-bluetooth/WiFi switching device so you can immediately be alerted of any incoming email, messages, IM/VoIP calls or would you rather prefer the tablet be an “always available“, connect-on-demand device, connecting and retrieving data only when you manually ask it to. Or may be you have other thoughts on this matter…
It has been two weeks since the three of us received our Nokia N810 Internet Tablet test units. Check out our first ever joint podcast where we talk about how we have been using the N810, what we think about it, and what we envision about its future.
Thoughtfix is giving away a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet! If you want a chance to win a Nokia N810, all you have to do is create a video on how you would use a Nokia Internet Tablet in your everyday life, and upload it in YouTube as a ‘video response’ to Thoughtfix’s video, tagging it as ‘Thoughtfix Nokia N810 Giveaway Contest Entry’.
The deadline to submit your videos is on November 16. Finalists will be announced here at Internet Tablet Talk on November 17.
Best news for me over the last ten days is the new MicroB Gecko-based browser for the Nokia internet tablets.
As it happens, I’m just finishing writing my first Firefox extension.* I’m no magician, but I can manage a satisfactory amount of prestidigitation in Javascript. Having an appropriately scaled venue at last for my talent and ambition (an extension, get it? not a whole app) gratifies me immensely.
And hopefully the overhead of implementing XUL (”zool,” rhymes with “tool”), the Mozilla-created XML UI language, will drop in future and I can use that familiarity on the tablet, too.
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* I’ll let people know when it’s officially out. It’s a dictionary extension — highlight a word and choose “look up [that word]” in the context menu. Unlike other extensions, this one returns the results in a side or bottom panel. And, um, at the moment it works only with the Khmer, Thai, Lao and Burmese dictionaries at SEAlang.net . . .
I just did a quick price check at PriceGrabber and you can surprisingly now get a Nokia N800 internet Tablet for just $235.60 shipped. The cheapest price on the list (before tax and shipping) is just $224.
It is already quite a steal to get the N800 at this price, considering it can be flashed later on with OS 2008. It would be interesting to see how low it goes for.
“I realized that there’s more to a GPS than simple navigation. The Nokia N810 is a ‘location aware’ device and is open to location-based applications…. People can meet from across a rock festival without getting lost.”
I think that would be a really great application for someone to write — “I’m here, where are you?” And icons representing you and me both show up on a Google map.
Sure, when we’re talking about two people cellphones might be easier to use. But what about when it’s 20 people? (A scout troop at the World’s Fair. A family reunion at DisneyWorld.) Or when, as Daniel suggests, the people don’t know each other yet?
Talkster today announced that they are releasing a new application by next month that will be interfaced with Facebook so Facebook members can call other members, anywhere for free.
From James Wanless, Talkster Co-Founder and COO:
Talkster’s Free World Dialing application for Facebook lets you call other Facebook users all over the world simply by selecting them from your friends list. Because you may not be comfortable sharing your phone number with some of the people you have in your friends list, Talkster never exposes your personal phone number. Couple this privacy element with our free long distance, international and conference calling features, and we believe the global Facebook community is going to love talking with Talkster.
Facebook members just need to setup their Talkster Free World Application app on Facebook, select members to call, and even add other phone numbers outside Facebook for group calls. Members can transparently call other memebrs wether they are on a mobile phone, landline, or any voice capable IM service like Google Talk, Yahoo!, AOL, or MSN.
infoSync reports that Talkster can be used together with the Nokia N810 (OS 2008).
Our pre-release Nokia N810 doesn’t have this application so we are not sure if Talkster will be bundled on the the N810 when it is released next month. In any case, Talkster will be another great communication app on the Maemo platform, joining Google Talk, Skype, and Gizmo.
But in fact one of the most interesting news for software developers and open source enthusiasts is not tied to the N810 or Chinook, although it’s influenced by both. Maemo is from now on a supported platform in Forum Nokia. This means a lot:
Forum Nokia offers support to professional developers. This is what they do, and this is what maemo.org was/is not intended to do beyond community support.
I think this means we’re going to start seeing a lot more professional — er, commercial — applications on the Internet Tablets.
I haven’t held a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet in my hands, but it seems to me it represents some very astute decisions on the part of the Nokia team.
The 770 and N800 tablets have the largest, highest-resolution screens of any device in the pocket-carryaround category. That comes from an awareness of the high frustration that accompanies surfing the web on a too-narrow screen.
From day one, we’ve been asking how can Nokia take advantage of their units’ display advantage?
Well, having used a Nokia-loaner GPS unit for several months, I can testify that one thing that benefits greatly from a larger, higher-resolution screen is looking at a map, especially traveling at 65 mph when you can’t spend more than a moment or two glancing at it.
So building in GPS has a surface logic anyone can appreciate. But that’s not what I think is astute.
