The Nokia N800.... [Archive]

maniacmusician

July 7th, 2007, 07:18 AM

lisati

July 7th, 2007, 07:36 AM

godd4242

July 7th, 2007, 07:51 AM

It makes me cry, because I don't have one....

Product Demo (http://www.nseries.com/products/n800/index.html#l=products,n800,demo)

Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800)
Engadget Blurb, with links to various reviews (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/25/nokia-n800-internet-tablet-review-roundup/)

It's even got some improvements since release that the reviews don't take into account.

...le sigh....

Was that google talk in the product demonstration?

PS:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nokia-N800-Internet-Tablet-with-2-x-1GB-SD-Cards_W0QQitemZ160133327239QQihZ006QQcategoryZ3833 1QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

350 is manageable.

maniacmusician

July 7th, 2007, 01:55 PM

Was that google talk in the product demonstration?

PS:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nokia-N800-Internet-Tablet-with-2-x-1GB-SD-Cards_W0QQitemZ160133327239QQihZ006QQcategoryZ3833 1QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

350 is manageable.
Well it's obviously going to shoot up in the last 10 minutes or so, by a lot. This thing retails for $400 anyways.

I unfortunately don't have enough money to splurge for one. It makes me really, really sad. I was considering buying a Helio Ocean (a phone) later this year, but I think I may save for this thing instead. It's so good....

I have gadget fever :(

darkog

July 7th, 2007, 02:14 PM

darrenm

July 7th, 2007, 02:28 PM

maniacmusician

July 7th, 2007, 03:13 PM

The is the 2nd thread I saw on this product. Just curious, why are you guys so interested in it? What's so special about it? Is it because the OS is a Debian variant or because it's small and portable?

Re: portability -- there seem to be quite a few products out there that are portable (though maybe not many Debian variants) -- so not sure what makes this one so special.
I know there's another thread on it, but mine is strictly a mourning thread :)

What's so good about it? Well it's a pretty nifty little device. It has lots of cool pieces of software that are out for it, and since it's Linux based, one can always feel free to build a piece of software themself! Basically, in any place that has WiFi, this tablet is king. There's so much stuff it can do; for example, it has a terminal, and you can use it to ssh to your computer. That alone opens up a world of possibilities.

And yes, the portability helps

darkog

July 7th, 2007, 07:00 PM

Ubuntu Gutsy runs on it doesnt it? Theres lots of talk about Nokia submitting lots back to the project so have I missed something or are Nokia going to be putting Ubuntu on there as standard in future?

it says it runs http://maemo.org/ :neutral:

darkog

July 7th, 2007, 07:10 PM

What's so good about it? Well it's a pretty nifty little device. It has lots of cool pieces of software that are out for it, and since it's Linux based, one can always feel free to build a piece of software themself! Basically, in any place that has WiFi, this tablet is king. There's so much stuff it can do; for example, it has a terminal, and you can use it to ssh to your computer. That alone opens up a world of possibilities.

Ahh. now I see. I was about to wine about no keyboard but this looks like it's got a touch screen keyboard, right? Well, does look like a cool thing.

justifier

July 7th, 2007, 07:13 PM

i have the N80. nearly 800 :(

maniacmusician

July 7th, 2007, 07:41 PM

it says it runs http://maemo.org/ :neutral:
I was trying to find a community based around the N800...that one looks good.

Do you know of any more community sites based around it? Sites that create software, etc.

darkog

July 7th, 2007, 08:28 PM

I was trying to find a community based around the N800...that one looks good.

Do you know of any more community sites based around it? Sites that create software, etc.

I have no clue. I just started looking into this last couple of days. I got maemo from the wikipedia entry no the n800.

I would have to really touch and feel the n800 to get some idea about it. i still have a bad experience from the my psp. it was touted as being able to do so much -- and it does, until you have to type something on that lame keyboard it's got. hope the n800 touch screen keyboard is very good and responsive.

someone else somewhere posted about the asus eeepc (http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Hands%5Fon%5Fwith%5Fthe%5FASUS%5FEee/). the only thing thats making me feel a little more confident about that one is that it's actually got a keyboard.

if all that you use need with a laptop is web, email and essay writing -- i think these products have a great shot at becoming very popular with that crowd. i use my laptop for everything though --- i mean everything everything -- it's my only computer and i carry it around with me 24/7.

sal

July 7th, 2007, 08:37 PM

the n800 is the best IT (interweb tablet) they make! i have the nokia 770 which is the previus model and it rocks. yesterday maemo just released a firmware upgrade for the n800 that noiw includeds skype by default. so you can make skype calls. aslo it now has flash 9 for youtube. and a bunch of other cool features.

the best place to go for into with the nokia intenet tablets is here: http://www.internettablettalk.com/

trust me if you can save for one then go for it. im currently saving for the n800 as well.

maniacmusician

July 7th, 2007, 08:58 PM

I have no clue. I just started looking into this last couple of days. I got maemo from the wikipedia entry no the n800.

I would have to really touch and feel the n800 to get some idea about it. i still have a bad experience from the my psp. it was touted as being able to do so much -- and it does, until you have to type something on that lame keyboard it's got. hope the n800 touch screen keyboard is very good and responsive.

someone else somewhere posted about the asus eeepc (http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Hands%5Fon%5Fwith%5Fthe%5FASUS%5FEee/). the only thing thats making me feel a little more confident about that one is that it's actually got a keyboard.

if all that you use need with a laptop is web, email and essay writing -- i think these products have a great shot at becoming very popular with that crowd. i use my laptop for everything though --- i mean everything everything -- it's my only computer and i carry it around with me 24/7.
well in th demo, it showed that it had handwriting recognition as well...so perhaps they keyboard won't even be that big of a deal. And yes, I'm sure it's much more responsive than the PSP...PSP wasn't touchscreen. It was a pretty bad device actually. My brother bought it when it first came out, and he's regretted it since then

MedivhX

July 7th, 2007, 10:06 PM

OMG OMG OMG!!! iPhone is nothing comparing to this Nokia!

Swab

July 7th, 2007, 10:07 PM

OMG OMG OMG!!! iPhone is nothing comparing to this Nokia!

Except the iPhone is a phone. I see no mention of the N800 being a phone!

maniacmusician

July 8th, 2007, 01:38 AM

Except the iPhone is a phone. I see no mention of the N800 being a phone!
It's not supposed to be...It's really just an internet tablet. Well, not an internet tablet...more like a WiFi tablet. It has Skype functionality though, and vide conferencing as well, so it's not too shabby.

godd4242

July 8th, 2007, 01:50 AM

Except the iPhone is a phone. I see no mention of the N800 being a phone!

Pay 10 bucks a month for unlimited Skype calls with VoIP

A lot cheaper than a real cell phone plan.

michaelzap

July 8th, 2007, 02:17 AM

I just ordered a Nokia 770 ($120 from Woot), and boy am I excited to start playing with it!

Dimitriid

July 8th, 2007, 02:21 AM

Looks alright but unless it has cellphone functionality I rather get a small laptop.

maniacmusician

July 8th, 2007, 07:25 AM

Just found this through Og's blog on Planet Ubuntu:

A list of Repositories for the N800 and 770 (http://www.gronmayer.com/n800/repos/index.php?lang=en)

whayong

July 8th, 2007, 07:50 AM

If you missed the woot, one can get the 770 at buy.com for $139.

maniacmusician

July 8th, 2007, 08:16 AM

If you missed the woot, one can get the 770 at buy.com for $139.
the 770 is good, but it may just be more worthwhile to get the N800 in August/October. Its price will surely go down a little, and well, it's better

omegamike3

July 9th, 2007, 03:11 PM

I've had an N800 since February/March and I couldn't be happier. Especially now after the update last week, the flash playback is beautiful! It's an incredibly flexible device. Want a media player? It can do that, and now officially supports 8GB SDHC cards which should give you plenty of room; plus you can use UPnP to stream to it. Want to play some games on the go? How about NES/SNES/MAME emulation while your lady friend tries on clothes? How about some PIM functionality? It can do that. IM your friends with GAIM. Get your mail right away with instant notifications. Browse some photos, take some photos, do a bit of video conferencing, or make a few calls with Skype. It does also have a web browser, if you're into that sort of thing. Full Opera, no stripped-down 'mobile' bull. The N800 actually IS the internet in your pocket. So is this the Jesus device that it seems to be? No, of course it has a few issues. The camera isn't all that great, quality-wise (VGA 640x480). The battery life leaves a bit to be desired if you're planning on using it as a media player exclusively (which you shouldn't do anyways) compared to most players which are getting ~20 hours nowadays, the tablet will go ~5-6. The update after last week has increased it's efficiency supposedly, and while I haven't had enough time to run it through it's paces, from what I've seen, it's increased significantly. I mainly use my while laying in bed or sitting out on the balcony. My girlfriend appreciates it because I don't keep her up with the TV in bed at night, just put on my headphones and stream Doctor Who or anything else I want to watch to it. The one feature I'd like it to have is a stable USB host mode that doesn't require using an older kernel version, but hopefully the community will come out with better version with the update that just came out. iPhone, schmiPhone, get it, use it, love it. You won't regret it. Just my 2cents.;)

supergrapeman

July 14th, 2007, 09:27 AM

I had a N800 for a couple of weeks. I like it. There's something very cool (if pointless) about being able to walk around with a web server in your pocket. And last night I got Kismet working on it. Sweet. Mplayer runs very well too..

daou

July 14th, 2007, 09:55 AM

I've been playing with a 770 for a while. It's excellent, though I would recommend going with an N800. The 770 is a bit underpowered.

Someone mentioned that they run Maemo. There's nothing wrong with Maemo. It's very easy to develop for because it uses Gtk. I hacked the 770 to control frequency changers for a university project with a basic Gtk+ interface that worked the same way on my Ubuntu as it did on the 770 ;).

It's also easy to port apps. In fact, if anyone has been following the development of Ubuntu Mobile, they seem to be using a couple Maemo and Hildon packages (both from 770 and N800). Plus, they have a couple of guys from Nokia helping out. Big props to Nokia for their good work in OSS.

Some good tips: booting from an MMC card (http://maemo.org/community/wiki/HowTo_EASILY_Boot_From_MMC_card). The system is almost twice as fast. And I'm using a 2 GB MMC-mobile card, free space is no longer a problem (lots of MP3s and apps).
Become root and get SSH (http://maemo.org/community/wiki/howdoibecomeroot2/). With that, you have root access to the device to wreak as much havoc as you want :D. And nothing like SSH to control your 770/N800 from a desktop/laptop. And then you can really start having fun with the command line (XTerm).

Only problem with these devices is their dependency on WiFi. It's pretty much a brick without a connection. Aside from playing games like FreeCiv (free version of Civilization), Doom, and listening to MP3's.

michaelzap

July 15th, 2007, 05:39 PM

Don't forget reading eBooks, browsing docs and manuals, and composing email to be sent when you're connected again...

Naralas

July 15th, 2007, 05:55 PM

My worries:

When you use a bluetooth keyboard (the usb on it is not capable of hosting a keyboard) is the OS smart enough to stop using the other on screen keyboard? I hope soo.

Is the on screen keyboard as ugly as the one on my cell. I go to enter my password, click to edit a field and the whole screen turns into an ugly ugly little screen with horrible size management, each line for inputting text has an extra 7 unused vertical pixels... THATS UNNACEPTABLE ON A CELLPHONE PPL

anyway, i hope the on screen keyboard is not retarted. I have never seen google talk actually running other than the webcam demos.

PS: You can only webcam with other N800's usng the special gtalk client isn't htat true. Even on my XP machine Gtalk does not have webcam.

It works with pidgin, but pidgin + webcam, yeah right...

BatPenguin

August 13th, 2007, 07:41 AM

Hey there, I'm considering getting this thing to have as a little toy around the house when I don't feel like using my laptop. Could somebody clarify some things, please:

The N800 actually IS the internet in your pocket. So is this the Jesus device that it seems to be? No, of course it has a few issues. The camera isn't all that great, quality-wise (VGA 640x480).

I'm guessing you can't use the camera for Skype, right? Since linux skype doesn't (at least the version I've seen) support cameras yet.

My girlfriend appreciates it because I don't keep her up with the TV in bed at night, just put on my headphones and stream Doctor Who or anything else I want to watch to it.

What do you use to stream stuff into it? Please explain...and do you know if there's any chance of getting it to work as a myth frontend? I have a myth backend/frontend in the living room and laptop set up as a frontend as well, but this one would be really cool as a frontend. I just don't know if it can handle it or if myth could be compiled on it. Anybody?

Thanks!

ssam

August 13th, 2007, 09:12 AM

the n800 is a big step up from the 770. more ram, faster processor, two SD card slots (upto 2x8GB) vs 1 MMC slot (max 2GB).

maemo is the default distro, but pokey (http://www.pokylinux.org/) has recently arrived. third party distros will be limited by not having access to some of the proprietary parts of default firmware; can't use the DSP chip to accellerate multimedia, no proprietary apps (skype, flash, etc).

cunawarit

August 13th, 2007, 09:13 AM

one can always feel free to build a piece of software themself! Basically, in any place that has WiFi, this tablet is king. There's so much stuff it can do; for example, it has a terminal, and you can use it to ssh to your computer. That alone opens up a world of possibilities.

Having read all of that, other than the obvious like the much bigger screen (and being free). What makes this device considerably superior to a top of the range Symbian phone? I have an N95 and all of the above applies, and more.

There is a free SDK for Symbian and anyone can develop their own apps.

Terminal too, I can SSH to a server using Putty, made easier by the addition of a Bluetooth keyboard. Not only can it SSH, but there are RDP clients available for it too.

The N95 can use WiFi, not only to browse the Web, SSH, RDP, but also to make VoIP calls.

I can connect it to the TV and browse the Web that way too, or even watch streamed media that way.

I am even doubtful that you'll be better off with a Linux based device as far as applications go, Symbian has tons of applications all aimed at the mobile market. Linux has many many more applications, but these are mostly aimed at desktop and server.

Admittedly as far as development tools go, you'll be much better with the Linux based device. But at the same time Symbian is so neat, clean, simple, and it is very well suited to mobile devices. I think Symbian has a big future, and if it keeps improving we could see the point where a little device like an N95 could replace a home desktop mostly used for Web browsing and document editing.

omegamike3

August 14th, 2007, 01:15 AM

Hey there, I'm considering getting this thing to have as a little toy around the house when I don't feel like using my laptop. Could somebody clarify some things, please:

I'm guessing you can't use the camera for Skype, right? Since linux skype doesn't (at least the version I've seen) support cameras yet.

What do you use to stream stuff into it? Please explain...and do you know if there's any chance of getting it to work as a myth frontend? I have a myth backend/frontend in the living room and laptop set up as a frontend as well, but this one would be really cool as a frontend. I just don't know if it can handle it or if myth could be compiled on it. Anybody?

Thanks!

Currently, Skype on the N800 does not support video, however the gtalk client does (though it's currently limited to other N800 users) Luckily, the last I heard, full video conferencing capabilities are coming, so you'll be able to use it with Skype and any gtalk user.

As for streaming, the N800 can act as a wireless UPnP device on the network, therefore any UPnP server can stream to it (obviously there's some compatibility issues and trial and error as there is with anything else) There are several program to choose from on the N800 to receive these streams, including Nokia's own 'Media Streamer' app and 'Canola' developed by the same team who recently showed off some 'iphone-like' functionality on gizmodo/engadget. Conserning mythtv, there is a UPnP plugin available which will stream to the N800. The N800 can also control myth by accessing the web interface through it's web browser (which by the way, the new mozilla-esk gecko-based browser kicks some serious hole :D)

BatPenguin

August 14th, 2007, 07:34 AM

Currently, Skype on the N800 does not support video, however the gtalk client does (though it's currently limited to other N800 users) Luckily, the last I heard, full video conferencing capabilities are coming, so you'll be able to use it with Skype and any gtalk user.

Thanks for the info - sounds really good that video is coming.

Conserning mythtv, there is a UPnP plugin available which will stream to the N800. The N800 can also control myth by accessing the web interface through it's web browser (which by the way, the new mozilla-esk gecko-based browser kicks some serious hole :D)

OK, excellent - so am I correct to assume that I don't even have to setup a UPnP server then (such as MediaTomb) to use that? That shouldn't be a problem if I need to, but all the better if I don't and a plugin will do the trick. I do remember one of the latest myths introducing some UPnP features now that I think of it...gotta look up more information, thanks for the tip.

This thing sounds better all the time...i did some googling around and also came up with these pages, in case you haven't seen them:

http://gmyth.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

So that's another myth thing for n800, they're basically saying that a frontend is coming soon. Check out the cool youtube clip about finger scrolling as well on the bottom, looks good.

Also somebody apparently put KDE on the n800:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=39898

Also, regarding the comparison with the N95: that's a very impressive phone, I agree, but the way I see this (without owning either one of them...wife has N80 though), they don't really compete with each other anyway. Meant for different types of users - although I'm sure there's plenty of people who have both :)

The N95 is one of these "perfect phone" things with everything under the sun, and if you have one of those, I'm sure you won't necessarily find that many benefits to getting the N800 other than the screen size. But I have an older phone that's still perfectly good for calling and calendars etc, it's an old Nokia 6810, the one with the nice fold-out keyboard like E70, but doesn't have one of these new nifty browsers, so I see the N800 as having quite a bit to offer me. As this discussion probably shows, I'm planning on getting it for at least these things:

- Net browsing at home / where-ever else there's a WLAN or through a bluetooth GPRS connection to my cell phone, if needed.

- Watching tv (mythtv) at home.

- Listing to music from the local network at home.

- If possible, maybe using it as a remote for my living room HTPC (the server doing all this), this should probably be doable too, haven't researched this but since I've seen how-to's on controlling amarok with cell phones, this should be doable too).

- Using it to login to the server from around the home and outside (VNC or something like that).

...and now, yes, I'm sure you can probably do many of these with the N95, but for things like watching anything or using a VNC desktop etc. the larger screen alone should make a big difference.I wouldn't want to do all these things with a cell phone, frankly, the screen is just too small. Not to mention that at least here, the N95 is 690 euros and the N800 is 398 euros...that's a nearly 300 euro difference in favor of the device with the better screen.

They're clearly meant for different types of users - I've never felt the need to have the greatest and latest phone but I'm pretty sure I'll get this thing eventually. And also, Symbian vs. Linux...well, part of its fascination to me is seeing someone install KDE on it. The Nokia media player on the N95 will play your mp3s just as well, I'm sure, but firing up Amarok on the N800 would certainly make this geek much happier :)

tobyfountain

August 14th, 2007, 10:47 AM

if you want one - get it imported from england!! They're £90 over here!! (i think thats about $180) and they pick up a signal from so much further than laptops!!

BatPenguin

August 14th, 2007, 11:00 AM

if you want one - get it imported from england!! They're £90 over here!! (i think thats about $180) and they pick up a signal from so much further than laptops!!

Really? Are you sure that's not the earlier model (770)? If it's really this one, can you point me to a store that has that price...I just quickly looked at amazon.co.uk and at least they seemed to have £247.00 as the price which is pretty close to what it is here in Finland.

banjobacon

September 7th, 2007, 05:38 AM

I'm kind of curious about getting one of these. The only thing I use my laptop for when I travel is connecting to the Internet and IMing, both of which I could do with this significantly smaller device. I know it also does media, VOIP, and internet radio.

I'd feel kind of silly spending money on this and then never using my laptop again, though.

Two questions I don't think I saw addressed in this thread:

Is there any sort of office applications for this, to view and edit Office/OpenDocument files?

Has any decent Bittorrent client been developed for the N800?

BatPenguin

September 9th, 2007, 08:34 PM

Is there any sort of office applications for this, to view and edit Office/OpenDocument files?

Has any decent Bittorrent client been developed for the N800?

I don't actually own one of these (at least yet) but same as you, I've been considering getting one. About the software, you can see available programs here:

http://downloads.maemo.org/

There's at least something called "doc reader" but you better see its description yourself to see if that'd do what you want. Exporting them into text doesn't really sound that great, so editing (other than text mode) is probably not possible.

There was a program called ctorrent there as well so looks like bittorent works fine.

For messaging, I'd imagine a laptop keyboard being nicer although I guess you can connect a small bluetooth keyboard to one of these.

I actually happened to see this picture while surfing:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/10/is-this-the-successor-to-the-nokia-n800/

If this really is the next Nokia Internet Tablet, then that'd probably be GREAT for what you want. I'm pretty much still deciding whether to get the n800 now or wait until this newer one with the keyboard.

Bigbluecat

September 12th, 2007, 07:17 PM

Just got mine. Arrived today. Have put 8G of FLASH in it an looking forward to having some fun.:)

happy-and-lost

September 12th, 2007, 07:38 PM

I don't see the advantage of having one of these... How is it any better than a laptop, which has a higher screen resolution and more storage?

Bigbluecat

September 12th, 2007, 08:59 PM

Think of it as what the ipod touch should have been (not as a laptop replacement).

Linux OS with open source apps. Community developing more open source software.

Full web browser to access all web content (not just limited selection of YouTube a la Apple).

E-mail, IM, RSS, music, video, skype, internet radio - all in your pocket.

Acglaphotis

September 12th, 2007, 09:02 PM

I don't see the advantage of having one of these... How is it any better than a laptop, which has a higher screen resolution and more storage?

Portability mostly. I woulnt take my laptop to the mall, but i would take my n800.

amvidian

September 14th, 2007, 04:03 AM

The N800 is very useful, I got one and I use it for everything, including what my laptop does. It fits in my pocket so if I client needs a server restarted, I can do it on the road a lot easier then whipping out my laptop :)