Symbiosis60

A few days ago I received an invitation from WOM World to review Nokia’s N800 internet tablet. Since I love gadgets, there was no need to twist my arm. So immediately i gave up my soul, signed the form and three days later (Friday, June 22nd to be exact) I got a box via DHL. Now I’m not going to do the ooohhh’s and aaahhhh’s of some unboxing freakiness. It would be fake anyway since I already saw and handled the device at Nokia store in Chicago.

Instead I’d rather post some of observations and comments. First thing that I’ve noticed is the lack of IR port. This is a GREAT device that could well work as an interactive remote for your TV. You could have an EPG (electronic program guide) application and with remote control functionality you could schedule recording or whatever else could come to mind. The camera that N800 comes with is very basic. It’s on par with the basic cameras of the bottom of the line camera phones but this device (at least in this stage should not be treated as a substitute for camera). One thing immediately came to mind…. Internet tablet in the next incarnation should have some kind of connectivity. Hopefuly by then US 3G networks will be up and running (better to wait for T-Mobile’s finalization of their 3G so the device can be used both on Cingular..err.. AT&T and T-Mob as needed). In my opinion this device was not meant to be a phone and I do not miss this functionality from it. If it had 3G implemented you could run VoIP if needed. For example Real Estate agents could use it right on the spot to create listings of properties. Snap a picture, insert is in the template, add some fancy comments, send to the web and voila…let the offers pour. When It came to the speed, it was perfectly sufficient. One thing that I DEFINITELY like so far is the battery life. From day one (sort of) I was an early adopter of pocket PC’s (basicaly after ARM processor became the standard and took over MIPS and other acronyms). My first PPC pda was Compaq iPaq 3650, then 3850, then 5850 and God only knows what other numbers. Only the last one had WiFi built in. The problem with it was similar to Nokia N80 and N95… WiFi was built in but the battery would go dead in about on hour and a half if WiFi was on. I just checked N800 and it says I have 8 days left of stand by and 6 hours when in use. Of course the six hours are for moderate use but still my guess is you’d get about 3 hours of continous WiFi use which is still FAR better than the previous devices. With the technology advances next devices will probably have 10 hours of continous use and 30 days of stand by.

Since this was my time playing with Linux based internet table I was a bit afraid I would not know how to install programs but it was just a momentary scare as it’s quite easy to do so. There’s an application built in that handles all the installations. Also if you go to the web and try to install something, it works pretty much the same as in windows. You click on the link, a dialog pops up and asks if you wish to install the application. As everyone knows in linux the distribution packages have different extensions than under windows (no exe’s com’s or bat’s) but after a few times you’ll learn what’s what so it’s not a brainer. Since N800 runs an open source OS there’s a plenty of software available for download. From what I was able to find so far, maemo.org is one that has quite a few applications. One I wanted to try was a program that reads out the data from your car’s ODBII interface and you can get the “health read out” of everything but unfortunately it requires a $50 adapter which i do not have so I guess I won’t be able to test it.

One thing I WAS able to try was GPS function. I have a bluetooth GPS so i got a chance to play a bit with the unit. Of course with screen the size of iPod video; NO - Not the screen on an iPod…N800 has the screen that’s the size of the WHOLE iPod….it’s about 4 inches diagonal. It’s Gorgeous. at 800×480 so it’s VERY sharp and crisp. One thing I’ve noticed was the right side of the screen was a bit darker. My guess is that the backlight in N800 is probably implemented only on the left side of the screen and through a diffuser lights up the whole screen. This was a minor annoyance. I paired N800 with my Nokia N95 and the maps were downloaded on the spot (a bit slow over EDGE) but it still worked. Downloading maps can be a time consuming task. I live in Chicago. I zoomed out to cover the whole city and over WiFi it took about 35 minutes to download maps with the most detail (this is not Nokia’s fault though - it’s an open source GPS application that downloads the data). The device itself is an amazing toy. I think Nokia released it to see the market acceptance as well as get some feedback from users what they’d like to see in the future releases. Hopefully they’ll listen to us.

With Nokia N800 i dare to predict the future of iPhone that’s about to be released here in the US of A… It’s poised for doom. I tried to use my finger to navigate some of the big controls on the screen (media player mainly) and I could NOT STAND the finger prints that were quite visible. Stylus seems to be the only and the best option for touch screens and since I think iPhone is already obsolete before it’s even released, I’m quite happy it will fail (I hate when outdated devices get released and the manufacturers want to charge an arm and a leg for them). The next internet tablet tablet from nokia may as well be iPhone killer. All Nokia has to do it loose the hump on the back of the device, smack 3 or 4 MP camera in it, add 8GB of flash memory, UMTS and they’ll have iPhone killer in their hands.

Yesterday I took N800 to work to play around a bit and see what it can do. My boss treats me like a gadget guru (which i’m not) and she’s about to get a T-Mobile sidekick for her teenage daughter. When I showed her what I got from Nokia to play around with, she immediately asked me how much it is and that her daughter would go nuts for this device. I told her that it lacks GSM radio so it can not be used on its own for text messaging…so Nokia..listen… In Japan Teenage girls set the trends (Hello Kitty phones etc etc). In the US of A… guess what… also teenage girls set the trends. Now GOD FORBID you will let teenage girls pick the hardware functionality…leave that to us geeks. Give the girls applications and usage. So for my “wanted list” on the next Nokia tablet… Worldwide UMTS (850,1900,2100-US, 2100-EMEA, Quad Band EDGE/GSM, WiFi). 3-4 MP camera WITH flash. Also to kick operator’s ass why not implementing open source Video Calling…. maybe then Asterisk users would implement Video into their servers as well. On top of that you could ditch Voice functionality and make the device data only (or voice through earpiece…bluetooth of course), built in GPS. That’s all…ahhh…and make it sturdy enough…not flimsy (by the way N800 is built better than any other recently released phones).

Most of the features I like on the device are software based so it only further proves that all that’s really needed is a device with good data connectivity. I’m not the oracle that sets the trends for the whole industry but from my personal point of view it would be a big seller if such device would have a kicker data connection (Thank GOD Nokia is not too crazy about CDMA market so we don’t have to worry about being stuck with Verizon or Sprint hell). I’ll have a couple more days to play with the device so more feedback will be posted.