It’s pretty obvious that one can watch television on the Nokia 770 Internet tablet, and if one were to spend $70 on TurboLinux 10F with licensed Windows Media support for Linux, you can get the WMV files to play. However, this one is different. Sharp is making a television set (15′’, so it’s unlikely to be a big hit) that consists of WiFi transmitter and the monitor itself.
The Wireless AQUOS uses Sharp’s SmartLink wireless digital audio video transmission system. The theory is that you connect the transmitter to something like your DVD player, then watch the show from anywhere in the house. The transmitter uses the 2.4 GHz band and operates under the Wi-Fi standard of 802.11 b. The transmitter is about the size of a small VCR and you plug your cable and components into it. Then you can take the monitor for a walk and watch TV.
However, unless Sharp uses an encrypted signal and they’re not willing to talk about the specifics, the beauty of this product is ability to use a WiFi TV signal on any one of your wireless devices, including, of course, Internet tablets. It’s not quite obvious from the Canada.com article whether the wireless transmitter is capable of receiving several television channels simultaneously and broadcasting them on different WiFi channels (without clogging up the home network, if one exists), but ability for each member of the family to watch their own channel on a wireless tablet is pretty impressive.
From TeleRead I learned about PepperPad. It has Wi-Fi support, stereo speakers and support for gaming. However, it seems to be more loaded than Nokia 770, with Bluetooth support, mini-keyboard, support for Secure Digital and MMC, and 20 GB disk. The price reflects that however - $799.99 on Amazon.
Their software package, according to the site, includes:
- Web Browser - Directly access the Web with our Mozilla®-based browser. Keep and organize your bookmarks and Web page clippings (for offline viewing).
- E-mail - POP3, IMAP4 and AOL® Inbox support
- IM client - A completely integrated AOL® Instant Messenger™ compatible IM client with tabbed session management.
- Music, video and photo libraries - Collect, organize and watch (or listen to) your favorite MP3s, MPEGs and digital photos.
- Remote Control - Control your TV & Stereo equipment (only available with the Pepper wireless pad).
- Journal - A rich text editor lets you resize and color your text, change the font, add hyperlinks and Web clippings, and bulleted and numbered lists. Create a journal you can share with family and friends or simply record your thoughts.
- Internet Radio - Listen to your favorite streaming radio stations.
- Games - Improve your hand-eye coordination (oh, who are we kidding? Just have fun) with our entertaining, ad - free games - quick, simple and always a hoot.
Cyrus’ Weblog has a pretty good opinion of the upcoming Nokia 770. Looks like Cyrus has been on the lookout for a device like this one:
Then came the 770. It has a wide and higher resolution screen with an open source os, with everything I needed and guess what: with a price tag of $350! I thought it was love at first sight but after a while I came up with facts: + It has a 800×480 screen + Comes with RSS client, flash player, pdf reader etc. Everything I need in a single package.
Cyrus loudly complains about the choice of RS-MMC and that argument is valid and has been voiced throughout the community. I know that Nokia reads this site so hopefully if enough people chime in with support for Secure Digital cards, we can get the storage capacity above the gigabyte level on 770. Support of Turkish language, or rather the lack of it, is another complaint, but that could be fixed with software on an open source platform, just have to get a critical mass of those Turkish hackers.
However, Cyrus seems to bash Nokia for supporting and advertising Internet radio so much.
They mention internet radio but.. how many of you geeks listen to internet radio? I don’t even have a single friend that listen to it neither I think it’s a feature worth mentioning. But they serve it in a golden plate.
Not true, Cyrus. The situation might be different in Turkey, but here in the States 56% listen to Web radio, be it the radio embedded in Windows Media Player, WinAmp, just standalone apps, or perhaps subscriptions like Yahoo! Unlimited. If I can get my 770 hooked up to my stereo system and let it play the music from Yahoo! Launch, it’s almost an ideal media center.
In maemo-developers Karoliina Salminen provided an excellent overview of developing for Nokia 770 on Ubuntu.
I am too using Ubuntu (Breezy) and I have installed the Scratchbox packages using the debian source from scratchbox.org. Works fine.
I would like to recommend everyone starting installing maemo by going to www.scratchbox.org, picking version 1.0 or later (I am using 1.0.1), reading the installation instructions from there and put the debian sources to /etc/apt/sources.list . Then just start Synaptic, select the scratchbox packages (you can search with keyword scratchbox). Do not install the uclibc packages, just the glibc toolchains. I have the following packages installed:
- scratchbox-core 1.0.1
- scratchbox-devkit-debian 1.0.1
- scratchbox-devkit-doctools 1.0.1
- scratchbox-libs 1.0.1
- scratchbox-toolchain-arm-gcc3.3-glibc2.3 1.0.1
- scratchbox-toolchain-i686-gcc3.3-glibc2.3 1.0.1
After installing these packages with e.g. apt-get install or by clicking them in Synaptic, starting scratchbox is done by going to directory /scratchbox and executing the login script found in that directory, in other words:
cd /scratchbox
./login
However, prior to that, you need to add your user to the scratchbox users. That is done with command
scratchbox/sbin/sbox_adduser usernamePlease find more documentation from the http://www.scratchbox.org.
Then you can do a target. Apparently when you are not having the device (yet) unlike we have here, you need to create a i386/i686 target. sb-menu command starts the scratchbox configuration program. You can also create a arm target and use qemu in that. However, you can not propably run the whole maemo platform with the qemu, but all arm compilation etc. works fine and you can run some gtk programs without the maemo framework through the qemu propably without problems as long as you have built-in libosso etc. dependencies.
After doing all this, you can untar the rootstrap inside the scratchbox.
The user configuration issue I had and Asko propably mentioned below was that sometimes you had to copy from your /etc/passwd file your user’s line to the /etc/passwd file inside the scratchbox, to enable e.g. ssh and scp to work inside the scratchbox.
It might be useful to create a symbolic link from your home directory to /scratchbox/users/username/home/username to avoid typing long things when copying stuff etc. Also when using a text editor with graphical UI that is being run outside the scratchbox (e.g. GEdit, Kate, KDevelop, XEmacs etc.), this can make life easier when you can go directly through your home directory to the scratchbox home directory, at least that is what I have used to do unless I edit something little quickly inside the scratchbox.
There is some not so useful stuff regarding maemo-platform found in the Scratchbox documentation as it is for the devices that were available prior the 770 was announced. However, just pick the applying parts (e.g. do not download the rootstrap from scratchbox.org since that is not what you want, you want the maemo rootstrap instead etc.).
Internet Tablet 2005 software edition is the basis for a range of new noncellular Internet tablet devices. The first device in the range is the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet and all future devices powered by Internet Tablet 2005 software edition are designed primarily for consumers using a wireless local area network (WLAN) in the home or at public hot spots. A secondary function is to complement the capabilities of Nokia �s mobile phones as well as enterprise WLAN installations. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a pocketable alternative to a PC, focusing on Web browsing and media functionality. It is targeted at home users who wish to browse the Internet or use various media via a WLAN or Bluetooth connection.
Another official Nokia 770 image - everything an online user needs to start the day.
Interesting quote coming from Nokia leadership regarding company’s future directions:
“The number of new mobile users in fast growing markets continues to rise dramatically and nowhere is the rate of growth more evident than in Africa. By the end of this year, Nokia anticipates Africa will be home to 100 million subscribers and expects the African subscriber base to double to 200 million by 2009. Nokia has been instrumental in propelling the industry towards the goal of 3 billion people connected globally by 2010 because mobility offers so many benefits, such as creating employment, opening new channels of communication for social services and even helping to stimulate economies,” said Juha Pinomaa, Vice President, Mobile Phones, Nokia.
With MP3 support and cameraphone sales the company is becoming more of a major player in the entertainment industry. Perhaps with the development of IPTV and video-on-demand Nokia is planning something more than Internet tablet? Perhaps a mobile audio-, video- and gaming appliance, which would combine the features of TiVo-to-Go and Tablet PC?
Amid the criticism for the platform as well as complaints about the battery life (which definitely should be improved before the official release), it’s refreshing to see that The Gadget Blog thinks Nokia 770 is a pretty good replacement for a Tablet PC. Considering the price, not a bad deal, either. Especially if future generations will have larger storage capacity and better battery life.
Before the official launch of Nokia 770, the company will sell 500 devices to the developers and donate the proceeds to GNOME Foundation. Says Nokia:
Nokia, which recently launched the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, announced today a developer device program at the GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC). The developer device program will sell 500 Nokia 770 Internet Tablets for 99 euros and donate the proceeds from the sales to the GNOME Foundation.
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is based on Linux and widely deployed Open Source technologies like GNOME. At the core of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is Hildon Application Framework, which is based on GNOME technology. This technology has been adapted with extensions and modifications to evolve a user interface framework that is better suited for handheld category devices.
The venerable New York Times introduced Nokia 770 to its readers. NYT sees the device as personal entertainment gadget.
While it uses a chip similar to those found in personal digital assistants, the 8.1-ounce device is not intended for business travelers, and it will not have an address book or a calendar. Instead, it is designed for the casual Web browser, at home or at the nearest cybercafe.