Last summer my N810 was stolen during a library visit. Since I praised Nokia when it first released the Internet Tablet for ruthlessly paring away the inessentials — the 770’s absence of a phone, hard drive and keyboard stunned most mobile-device observers — I didn’t replace it, but instead relied solely on my N800’s* for my tablet needs.
Besides I already had a Bluetooth keyboard and GPS. I didn’t have to have the newer Internet Tablet if I wanted those features.
Then last Thursday, I ordered an N810 from Buy.com, paying $227.86** for the little treasure that arrived this morning. (It’s sitting next to me on the computer desk, charging now.)
Why?
I’ve been pondering that. Maybe subconsciously I think I’ll use the built-in GPS (even though I rarely use the external GPS I own). I don’t really type faster with the N810’s slide-out keyboard, though I know having it simplifies using some programs. Does losing display real estate to an on-screen keyboard interfere with my thinking processes more than I’ve been aware? Could be. I know that my tap-drags to get an upper-case letter succeeds only about 60-80 percent of the time, so entering some characters is way slower than is good***.
And, trivial as they may seem, I know I’ve missed the screen-lock button and the cover-that-doesn’t-fall-off.
These are little things, and I’m struggling to find any bigger reasons for using an N810 instead of an N800. OK, “little things mean a lot,” but two hundred-plus dollars’ worth?
Still, I’m content with my purchase. Something in me knows this is a good deal, even if I can’t consciously say why. Even though logic says to preserve my cash for some forthcoming, more dazzling new tablet. Not sure why, but definitely sure it’s a good thing.
Like I said, I’m content. And that’s a good measure.
__________
* Um, yes, I’ve acquired three used N800’s, intending to gift them to family in California, Texas and Georgia, but I’m like Scrooge McDuck in his private vault when I’m cooing over my tablets and I can’t seem to let them go . . .
** Including taxes, shipping and handling
*** Years ago, IBM released a study showing that any interruption in typing that was longer than a tenth of a second drastically reduced your efficiency.
I met Reggie in Berlin before the Maemo Summit, and he was working on his presentation, What Users Want (which will be posted soon, btw). I looked over the notes that Krisse Juorunen of Internet Tablet School had sent him and made some suggestions. I thought about how the tablet is being used today and how it might be used — which was exactly what Ari Jaaksi asked a group of Maemo users the next evening.
I ended up putting my thoughts down on paper (unable to use the hotel’s power converters with Nokia’s AC-4U battery charger!). I hadn’t put in for a speaking slot, so making notes was just a way to keep my head in the topic while Reggie was working on his slides. He didn’t finish till 4 a.m. on Thursday night, so I kept writing. Here is what I wrote up but didn’t say at the Maemo Summit:
What more do we want?
In Ari Jaaksi’s talk at OSiM World, he characterized the reception of the 770 Internet Tablet as people asking, “What is this PDA that doesn’t have PDA functions? What is this phone that isn’t a phone?”
No one had seen a mobile device like this, explicitly designed for internet use: a full computer without a keyboard, without a hard disk, which fit in your pocket and was light enough that it didn’t act like an anchor.[1]
A Seamless Software Upgrade (SSU) notification should prompt you of a v4.2008.36-5 firmware update once you go online with your Maemo 4.1 (Diablo) device. The update aims to improve email, web browsing, and connectivity.
Early reports from itT members are mixed. Some have updated with no problems and have reported faster browsing, while others are experiencing locks, boot menu problems, looping reboots, and package conflicts which seem to get fixed after a manual reflash.
If you have installed anything out of the ordinary, be sure to read through the comments before updating.
Yay, Diablo has been released! Nokia has just released new firmware upgrades for the Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets that adds a Seamless Software Upgrade Feature. Based on Maemo 4.1 (Diablo), the new OS2008 feature upgrade lets you now perform future OS upgrades over-the-air (WLAN only).
A new automatic notification from the home screen will now notify you of new versions of the OS and system apps, including updates to third party applications. The new firmware also replaces the current email app with an open source version based on Modest and tinymail. Chinese fonts have also been added, reported openssl bugs have been fixed, and browsing panning experience has been improved.
Why web pads, internet tablets and ultra-mobiles aren’t the same thing
Ari Jaaksi famously announced the walkaround web in November 2005 when he pointed out that surfing wasn’t stationary any more than phone calls were. Cellphones had untethered calling, and a device like the first Nokia Internet Tablet meant the internet was available anywhere we were. We didn’t need to go to a computer in a specific location to get to the web any more than we needed to find a payphone to make a phone call.
Henceforth, we could carry our web-access with us, the same way we carry our phones. Ari said it all when he wrote: “I surf in trains, in cafeterias, at airports, even while driving. I can go online anytime and anywhere I want.” He called his observations “bold” but they were in fact revolutionary in understanding how this changes not computing, not using the web, but how we organize our lives.
Long before I heard of the Nokia 770, I used a small, keyboardless WiFi-enabled tablet to access the internet from Bryant Park in New York City. The notion of the web away from the desk antedated Nokia’s efforts by many years. By my count, it produced at least eight web pads (the contemporary term) prior to the 770, all of which failed to establish themselves.
My most complete experience was with the Screen Media FreePad, from a Norwegian outfit. The FreePad had a 10.4-inch screen, 800 x 600 resolution, built-in WiFi and “cordless telephone services”; and it ran an embedded Linux. No disk drive; if you wanted, you could attach a USB keyboard.
The rest of FreePad’s hardware was feeble by today’s standards but practical for 2000. Even back then the group I was working with expected to buy the FreePad for just $800 (in quantity).[1]
Eight years ago, and only $800. WiFi was in its nascent stages then, but if you were describing an organization-wide device (as we were) and not a personal weblet,[2] that probably wasn’t what kept the FreePad from succeeding.
We all know how hard it is to get release dates out of Nokia — sort of an extreme version of “ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies.”
But it’s even harder to get word of a product’s demise. One day a product shortage is a sales-finished notice. That’s why this random encounter with an unavailable-in-your-area notice for the Nokia N800 makes me wonder what’s in store.
PS: Did I say the unavailable area is North America the U.S.? Seems like a pretty big market to run dry in.
Added later: Now someone’s posted the info that Dell has discontinued selling the N800.
A couple weeks ago, the Good Morning Silicon Valley newsletter posted a link to a story on Slate (with a devastatingly effective demo on YouTube) of Crayon Physics Deluxe:
Petri Puro, the developer, put it together by himself (it bears similarities to some other gravity-based physics demos/games) and won the “Seamus McNally Grand Prize — the indie-game equivalent of the Academy Award for best picture”* — at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
I downloaded the prototype game Puro wrote, Crayon Physics**, and was blown away by it. So was my son, and we ended up fighting over the mouse to solve the last two levels.
Wow! Crayon Physics is just too much fun to describe (stop now and watch that YouTube demo). OK, Slate comes close: “an ingenious game that looks like it was designed by a third-grader.” I immediately wrote Petri Puro and begged him to consider porting Crayon Physics Deluxe to the Nokia internet tablet.
My real thought was “Too bad that Tim Samoff already gave that gift N810 away!” I know that once Petri got an internet tablet in his hands he would realize that the tablet and his game are meant for each other.
Then a thread was started here in the ITT forums about the game — I want this game on my N800!. I’m not the only one who sees the need.
Maybe somebody in the Nokia food chain will realize the same thing when they see Crayon Physics Deluxe demoed and send Petri a tablet.
in the meantime, I’m going to suggest that everyone who thinks likewise write to Petri and to anyone they know at Nokia and tell them the same thing: Crayon Physics and internet tablets belong together.
Let’s send Petri a tablet!
_______________
* To quote Chris Baker’s original Slate piece.
** Following the precepts of the Experimental Gameplay Project, namely that the game encompass a single theme (i.e., “gravity,” “vegetation,” “swarms,” etc), be written by a single person, and be completed within one week.
Added later:
Visitors to Petri Puho’s blog at Kloonigames can see his other games — he writes one a month and posts them there — and learn a little about this 24-year-old: “At the moment I’m a student at Helsinki Polytechnic, studying computer science. Game development has been a hobby of mine for at least ten years now. My gaming interests don’t just limit to video games, but also include pen & paper roleplaying games, strategy games, board games, card games, etc.”
Chris Baker, in his Slate piece, notes that “despite his obvious talent, Purho isn’t sure he wants to go into the industry after he gets his computer-science degree. ‘It’s more about writing documents than it is about designing games,’ he says. ‘And I really hate writing documents.’” And Baker adds that “Purho will probably have a better chance of moving the industry forward if he keeps flying solo.”
I think that’s probably true. Now why does that seem so obvious? You see, I’m not the only one who agrees. To further Petri’s opportunities, an anonymous benefactor has indicated his intention to donate a now-idle N800 (yes, made superfluous by his recently acquiring an N810) to Petri. Shipping to Finland to occur posthaste. Games, inspiration and possible port to NIT to follow.
I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m not actually developing anything for the Nokia Internet Tablets. I don’t know C or C++ or Python*. (Or Ruby either for that matter.**)
Still, I’m intrigued by a reference to PluThon, which lets you develop Python apps for maemo without requiring Scratchbox.
PluThon is an Eclipse plug-in that allows you to interact with your N800 or N810 and run/debug your Python app directly on the tablet. You work in Eclipse, get your usual language support, and SSH the app to the device from within Eclipse (er, PluThon). And skip the emulation stage entirely.
Right now, PluThon is Linux-only, but it seems like it could be made to work with a Windows setup too.†
Not that I can use it‡. But I can dream, can’t I?
__________
* Hey, lucky Java isn’t available on the Internet Tablets or I’d go 0 for 4 on the big ones, eh?
** I have at least made Ruby’s acquaintance. Just barely enough to nod in recognition when we pass in the hallway though.
† And if you want that, why don’t you send a note to eclipse-integration@maemo.org and ask for it. I have.
‡ Hey, what’s to stop an Eclipse-fond Rubyist from doing the same for that language?
Nokia has released a new firmware update to OS2008. Maemo.org is reporting that this release (v2.2007.51-3) fixes the following bugs:
2417 No includes for libapt-pkg (aka libapt-pkg-dev)
2917 libgdbm-dev is reported missing with chinook’s apt-get
2766 Missing libxslt1-dev in chinook
2901 Can’t install blues-utils-tools on current n810.
Reports from Internet Tablet Talk members say that the only thing this update fixes is the power-on problem. It looks like however that this update is more for the developers, as indicated at Maemo.org and from the release notes and from the Maemo 4.0 to 4.0.1 comparison table.
Dan Gentleman (aka Thoughtfix) turns back the time and 
