The Nokia N800 and 'semi-convergence'

Hey Krisse,

Great article! Loved reading it! Loved the photo - reading your article, it's exactly how I envision using an 'internet tablet'. Doing web-related tasks on the couch (or on public transport), without the whole weight and attached wires of a laptop.

Greetings,

--Tim

Thank you Tim!

I have to admit that the photo of the guy on the sofa is one of Nokia's official publicity shots 😊 but I did choose it precisely because of the reasons you gave, it had the concept in a nutshell.

The rest of the N800 pictures are ones I took myself, hope you liked the rubber ducks.

A very interesting and well written article.
I fully agree with both the concept of semi-convergence - I have been advocating it all along - and with the recommendation to the Series 60 team to "learn" from the Maemo group.
Different markets, for sure, but a look at the Maemo.org web page is refreshing and the E90, stunning as it is in the H/W department, still looks too much a phone. An excellent phone, to be fair, but hardly "what computers have become" to copy from the N95 slogan.
Congratulations to the author again.
Regards, FC

Thanks for the nice article, actually I had the same idea a few months ago, already posted on a different site. The only difference was, I was thinking about the Nokia 770 instead since my budget is somewhat tight and the 770 does basically the same.

I think that the N800 in combination with a good BT keyboard and a phone is a good alternative to a laptop.

But on the other side I would really like to just have one device with me all the time, albeit with most functions stated and PROPERLY WORKING!

As far as Linux is concerned, yes I like it a lot but again, not much is ported so far on Nokia's Maemo yet, e.g. where is a good office program that actually runs on the device?

So the evergreen question still remains: When do we see a nice E90-type smartphone with the advanced functions of a better S80-type software, the freedom of a system like Linux, the screen quality of the new N800 and the PIM functions of the old Psion computers.

By the way...I hope Nokia finds the time to fix things on the E90 very soon, and I hope my provider will be smart enough to give it away for the same price with contract as the N800 costs now. I might consider it...again...

"I was thinking about the Nokia 770 instead since my budget is somewhat tight and the 770 does basically the same."

If you can, try to get a N800. The 770 apparently has slower web browsing and is more buggy. The price difference isn't that big either. There's more detailed discussion of this whole 770 vs 800 issue on the internettablettalk.com site:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums//forum/thread/5103/

"I hope my provider will be smart enough to give it away for the same price with contract as the N800 costs now"

Your provider isn't giving anything away, you're paying for your phones in installments. You could pay for anything in installments if you buy them on credit.

Good Article!

This goes back to the idea of ubiquitous computing. The idea being that computer devices are becoming so common that rather than having just one device that does the work that was previously done by many devices we will have lots of devices around the home and office each specialising in doing one thing very well but also able to do many other things such as connecting to the web.

We then choose which device to use based on convenience such as which is closest, has the best sized screen or best input device for our intended use.

One other point is that although the N800 looks pretty good I wonder if a small tablet computer bought off eBay for about the same price wouldn’t be more capable in the long run? You could then use Office, Firefox/Opera and link to your mobile.

Krisse,

Great review! The N800 can also be a great mobile device for playing online Flash games. A screenshot of online game website on N800 would be great.

Currently not many Flash games are optimized for the N800 but checkout gamoku.com - their website and Flash games are optimized for mobile devices such as the N800.

Very disappointing to see you hopping in the touch screen bandwagon. You really, really think N95 has enough screen space for stylus pointing? I think not. I have owned the N770 Internet Tablet andI tried to avoid using the stylus as much as I could.

Your reference to mouse was good. Mayby you could realize that mouse is not the most effective way to command your PC. It's shortcut keys. Every program has them and let's face it: the mouse is just a way to get yourself a tennis elbow or similar problems.

Laptops have better solutions with their touchpads or whatever..

Consider the joystick your mouse. You don't need two hands and a pole to operate your device.

UI tweaks are of course welcome..if you like touching things, why don't we have floating UI elements like in the coming web browser for the S60. We could have them instead of grids and lists..and steer the joystick to touch them.

I think Christian Lindholm was the first one to put it straight: touch is the new slim. It's the nerds new hip thing. It could be cool for a while, but it doesn't make it good however..

Very, veery disappointed..

This device seems to have roughly the same screen real estate as the iphone - at least in the nokia promo shot. The whole device is larger because of hardware buttons and surrounds. Is this the case? (I know the pixel count is higher on N800 but I have enough problem on my E61 with Nokia's minute text size - looked at E70 and that was impossible! - without having to read 10 point on a miniature hi-res screen)

Bill

"Maemo has apparently been started from scratch, and feels far more like a computing UI."

Maemo is the name of the platform, Hildon is the name of the UI.

Hildon was "started from scratch" - at Psion! Nokia adopted it as the UI for Series 90 - it's identical to the Nokia 7710 UI.

Excellant arsticle Krisse...

Having been effectively "on the road", 10 days out of every fortnight for the last two years, I was well & truly fed up with either:
(1) Having to cope with any of the S60 web browers, but most of all...
(2) The alternative having to lug even a 12" laptop et al around and go through the unending routine of booting up windows etc...

This is brilliant!
Net access is now all but instantaneous, bar the slight delays when using bluetooth & GSM but it is soooooo much more convenient. I take it out of my pocket and switch it on. I can switch it off and put it back. I do NOT usually need a table or lap etc etc... (N800 users do it standing up... Doh!)

I have Email which can be read and deleted or left on the server until whenever I get back to the office if I really need to do more with it. And that bluetooth keyboard now occasionally earns its keep on longer text documents cos I feel more inclined to use it with the bigger screen. Yes, I know it has'nt got Word/Wordperfect/whatever your favourite processor is, but while you're farting around with presentation and whatever fancy font kisses arses best, in the real world its content that counts and raw text is faster, keeps the file sizes down, and works with everything.

And I have loads of data storage on the move. Far more than I actually need anyway. The N800 works with my 4gb card (my N73 does'nt) and according to other reviews will work with cards up to 8gb (when I can find them), that will be 16gb on the machine. PLUS, you have full bluetooth file access to anything on stored your paired device(s) (and can play them as well...)

The experience has reminded me of the first "digital revolution" in my life, the Psion 3a and all that followed. This has all but changed everything for me again.

Read Joses' review on Mobileburn, which does it justice as well.

And here was me waiting for the E90. But then again I suppose could have one if I reallywant too and still have my N800 as well.

So it would appear you can have your cake and eat it! (and I love my cake...)

Keep up the good work!