Good news! The folks from fring just announced today that the first version of fring for the Internet Tablet is now available for download. For those who are not familiar with fring, it lets you make free calls and live chat with all your fring, Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM friends.
fring is available in all sorts of platforms — Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Java ME, and now Maemo. If you are connected to a high-speed connection, calls made to other mobiles running fring is free. Calls however to landlines and regular cellular contacts can be made via SkypeOut or via SIP.
Marcelo (aka handful) of INdT has announced that the new version of Carman is coming August. Carman is an on-baord diagnostic analyzer for the internet tablet that lets you monitor and detect problems on your automobile by accessing the data stored on your car’s on-board computer, the same data that service technicians use.
The new version gets a user interface overhaul and uses the same graphics library of Canola. A Trip Report feature has been added that lets you graph your trips so you can find the fastest and most econimical route, based on engine stress. It also adds simple navigation using maps from OpenStreetMaps.
Enjoy some screenshots below. You can find more at Marcelo’s blog.
Great news! Access just released Garnet VM Beta 2 adding fullscreen support as well as MathLib support. Please verify and report any other enhancements that you find!
Since our launch in November 2007, the ACCESS Garnet VM Beta for Nokia Nseries can boast over 15,000 downloads! Like you, thousands of Garnet VM users around the world still enjoy using Garnet OS applications for their simplicity and their diversity. During the last six months, we have received a tremendous response about the Garnet VM launch. You have shared valuable comments about the features you want to see in the next version of Garnet VM and the improvements you want in the applications. We listened to our GVM community and thanks to your help made some changes. We have added the most requested feature—support for full screen rendering. We have also identified and made other improvements to Garnet VM including providing full support for MathLib that will enable many additional applications to run on Garnet VM.
Today, we are pleased to announce that the new ACCESS GVM Beta 2 for Nokia Nseries is available:
A new version of the Internet Tablet Video Converter has been released to fix bugs, add API support for Python, Perl, and Java, and now support for Mac OS X.
Victor Brilon, Sr. Product Manager, Home Networking Solutions, Convergence Products posted the following at the Nokia Beta Labs Blog:
Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter has been updated and we’re thrilled to bring you this latest version. This latest release includes several major updates, including:
A version for OS X that’ll run on Tiger and Leopard on Intel and PPC platforms. This is our first release for the OS X platform, so we are eager to hear your feedback on how it could be improved
The codecs for the Windows version have been updated and hopefully we’ve fixed the bugs that the community has reported to us
The Developer API has been updated based on user feedback. It now supports Python, Perl, and Java as programming languages to access the API. We’re very interested in seeing what the community can cook up using this feature.
Thanks to our great Internet Tablet community, we’ve made some really good changes to this software and we hope you like it as much as we do. Please report any bugs you find at https://bugs.maemo.org.
My reminders look like this: Michael’s birthday in three days and Time to leave for dentist appt. They’re entered in a calendar app. They’re triggered when I arrive at a particular date or time.
But what about when I arrive at a particular place?
Since I have GPS in my Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, why can’t I get reminders that look like this? — About to pass Home Depot. Need to get electrical tape.*
Or: One block from dry cleaners. Pick up Jill’s sweater.
Come on now. We have a full-fledged computer system at our beck and call. Call Jim as soon as you get back from lunch should only activate when I return to work in the lunch timeframe and Pick up milk at grocery only when I’m passing the deli in the evening, on my way home.
You know, that GPS in the N810 has got to have way more use than we’re making of it.
_______________
* This isn’t a new idea. More than two years ago, I wrote a post about Geominder, an app that runs on Series 60 phones.
Every time I mention the Nokia Internet Tablets — on the web or in conversation — I always describe them as running “a full Debian Linux (modified to be aware of the hardware keys).” I used to say “virtual keyboard and hardware keys” but the N810 obviates that.
This passes the truth-in-advertising test, I think. But it’s not one-hundred percent true.
Sure you can take just about any Linux application and compile it so that you get something that runs on a NIT. This screenshot of the particularly idiosyncratic font-creation program Fontforge running on my N810 is proof enough for me.
Even if some apps are slow or not really suited to a tablet, I am generally tempted to say you can do anything on a NIT that you need to do on a computer.
Except you can’t print.
Can’t print out that email with the address and time of the meeting. Can’t print that web page with the neat info. Can’t print out the short notes entered on the train coming in to work. Can’t print out that sketch of the new design to hand to your wife.
Supporting every printer imaginable — OK, it’s not something I want to ask for. I think a “full” Linux ought to, but I’m pragmatic enough to know that’s a fool’s errand.
It would be nice if some apps could print to a generic inkjet or Postscript device.
See, sometimes I want to surf away from my desk, on the walkaround web.
And sometimes I want to walk around with a piece of paper in my hand.
I just read a post that I think others would be interested to see. In a thread about the MyPaint application, forum member MobileDividewrote that “[MyPaint] and Numptyphysics have redefined my tablet use over the last few days.”
MyPaint and Numpty Physics have one thing in common — they let us use the Internet Tablet as a tablet. Sketching can never be done gracefully with a mouse. Even graphics tablets — hand on the tablet, eye on the screen — have a disconnect. So sketching your idea right on the screen — or painting it — is, well, transformative.
Unlike other graphics programs the IT has seen so far, MyPaint focuses on brush controls, rather than image-editing, enabling the full range of styles a pressure-sensitive tablet can capture.
When we talk about the Internet Tablet as being revolutionary or transformative, it’s because everything in its conception — display, open platform, size and weight, price — serves to free us from the constraints our desk/laptops have imposed on us.
So, thanks are due to Martin and Anders and Tim and Erin Catto* for these specific versions of these great applications. And to the Nokia seers who conceived the Internet Tablet.
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.
In Las Vegas, where the CTIA Wireless 2008 show is going on, Nokia officially announced its N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
Because WiMAX signals extend 2-3 miles — as compared to a few hundred feet for WiFi — WiMAX networks enable broadband internet connections (2-4 Mbps, with peaks of up to 10 Mbps) for users on the move.
The device will be “available in the United States during the summer of 2008 in areas where WiMAX connectivity is available.”
Nokia also announced an
upgraded OS2008 [that] introduces useful new features to the platform, including an enhanced e-mail client, support for Chinese character rendering in the browser and RSS feeds and Seamless Software Update functionality to eliminate manual software updates, making periodic updates of the operating system quick and easy. While standard on the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, current owners of Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets with earlier operating systems will be able to upgrade their device to the revised operating system for free during the second quarter of 2008.
I’m not sure if this adds anything to what we already knew about the next OS release, but since Reggie is having all the fun in Las Vegas, I’m reduced to reading and re-reading the press release.
Here’s the obligatory statement of significance by an upper-level executive:
“By delivering the kind of open Internet experience that consumers previously only expected on a desktop PC, the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition is a compelling example of how next generation broadband wireless technology will not only change the way people think about the Internet, it will change the very nature of the Internet itself,” said Ari Virtanen, Vice President of Convergence Products for Nokia.
“Much in the way that the evolution of the fixed Internet from dial-up to broadband enabled a host of new Internet services and changed people’s expectations of what an Internet experience should be, the transition to a broadband Internet experience set free from the constraints of a fixed network will spark the next wave of new mobile Internet services, and will forever change the perception of what the Internet can be.”
I think Ari means the walkaround web is a totally new experience and the new tablet will be the first to deliver it in this form. No argument there. (I guess if you’re in one of those WiMAX locations, we’re talking about the drive-around web, actually.)
Just so there’s no confusion about this new tablet: When not in range of a WiMAX network, the Nokia N810 WE can also “access the Internet over Wi-Fi or via conventional cellular data networks by pairing to a compatible mobile phone via Bluetooth technology.”
Nokia’s press release ambiguously notes that “a number of VoIP and IM clients are available, including Skype, Google Talk, and Gizmo5, which can also take advantage of the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition’s built-in web cam for video calls.” Whether this statement includes Skype among the VoIP clients that can make cam calls depends upon how you parse the sentence. Clarification is already being sought on this.
Added later:
Where will you find WiMAX? Alex Vorn at World of Gadgets cites these locales in 2008: Baltimore, Washington DC and Chicago (with Boston “soon” and New York after that).
itT was lucky enough to be among the first ones to try out the new HAVA Player for the Nokia Internet Tablet from Monsoon Multimedia, Inc.
Basically, the HAVA Player lets you take your TV anywhere and access your DVR, Cable, or Satellite boxes (standard and HD channels) connected to a HAVA appliance at home, via the Nokia Internet Tablet, as long as it is connected via WiFi or by any other high-speed connection.
From our initial tests, the Internet Tablet version of the HAVA Player even outperformed the PC version, with regards to video and sound quality. There were some minor sync problems that happen occasionally, especially when you keep switching from fullscreen to the remote control screen, but I never encountered the slow down nor the sound tone change that happens on the PC HAVA Player. The app is still on beta and should be released sometime the third quarter of this year.
We have been playing with the beta version for a week now but we weren’t allowed to disclose anything about it since we were under NDA until CTIA (a press release is coming out from Monsoon in a while). We are releasing a 11 minute first look video that I took this weekend. I hope you all enjoy it!
As always, feel free to comment and suggest features. The Monsoon folks will surely be monitoring this thread.
