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Archive for the 'WiFi' Category

A manifesto for the walkaround-web tablet
By  RogerS   April 27th, 2008 33 comment(s)
Categories: Internet tablet, Nokia, Nokia N800, Nokia N810, Nokia N810 WiMAX, WiFi, observations, walkaround web and wimax

Walking around but still web-connected

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.

What did?

Or maybe easier to answer now, from the perspective of time: What is a walkaround-web tablet? What does it look like, what can it do, what is required of it?
Continue reading ‘A manifesto for the walkaround-web tablet’

HAVA Player First Look - TV on your Nokia Internet Tablet
By  Reggie   April 1st, 2008 16 comment(s)
Categories: OS2008, WiFi, software and video

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.

The web on mobile devices
By  RogerS   January 24th, 2008 16 comment(s)
Categories: Nokia, Nokia 770, Nokia N800, Nokia N810, WiFi and walkaround web

Despite the iPhone’s tremendous hype, we all know that it’s a small, small segment of the total mobile-phone market. According to IDC, a market research firm, iPhones comprise just 2 percent of smartphones — compared to the 63 percent powered by Symbian*.

Interesting then that in December, Google reported, it had more internet traffic from iPhones than any other mobile device.

Think this says something about how useful people find the walkaround web? Or why AT&T is giving free access to 10,000 WiFi hotspots to its broadband subscribers?

And why the Internet Tablet has an 800-pixel-wide screen but still fits in your pocket and weighs only 8 ounces?

Ari Jaaksi pointed out more than two years ago that with the arrival of the Internet Tablet the web wasn’t stationary any more. People with laptops aren’t walking around checking the web. And surfing the internet on a cellphone screen is just painful. Those were never harbingers of a web paradigm shift.

But we users of the Nokia 770, N800 and N810 know the truth of Ari’s statement. And iPhone users are learning it too. We need the web, wherever we are — not every second of the day, but at any moment of our day.

And a large screen, light weight and small size are absolute requirements.

I think we’re going to see a much wider commercial acceptance of this “useless” niche this year.

__________
* Nokia owns 47.9 percent of Symbian.

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