RandomType provides a pretty good review of Nokia 770 with tons of photos.
The surfing experience is incredible, and the machine is everything but slow (as it was stated on some blogs around). Javascript is handled correctly (this blog works great, even the show/hide news body function), and flash 7 is rendered ok (although I’m having problems with some new stuff I’ve developed using XML. Probably the browser interface is not immediate, but you can live with it.
With strong JavaScript support I wonder how well fat clients like Gmail, new Yahoo! Mail Beta or NetVibes work on 770.
In a statement that points to the approaching release date, Nokia put up the user guides for Nokia 770 device online.
Download Nokia 770 user’s guide in English
Download Nokia 770 user’s guide in Spanish
It’s just 48 pages, so nothing intimidating for a new user.
The news about delay is covered by Reuters today.
“It will be shipping during Q4. The finalisation of the software platform took a few weeks longer than we originally planned, so that’s why it didn’t start in Q3,” Nokia spokeswoman Marika Kojo told Reuters.
Engadget writes about new OQO model, which, depending on how you look at it, might be considered a worthy 770 competitor (except, of course, the price). For a mere $1,899 you can be a proud owner of the device with:
1GHz processor , 30GB hard drive (shock-mounted), 512MB RAM, 4.9″ x 3.4″ x .9″ dimensions, 14 ounces, 800 x 480 W-VGA 5″ display (indoor/outdoor readable), 3D accelerated graphics with 8MB video RAM, QWERTY thumb keyboard with mouse buttons and TrackStik, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, FireWire (1394), 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, Microphone, Pen-based digitizer
NEW support for screen rotation, NEW support for network boot (PXE), Removable lithium polymer battery, Battery life up to three hours, depending on usage
NEW universal power supply with auto and air adapter, Desktop stand, Digital pen, Carrying sleeve, Docking cable with following ports: 3D accelerated 1280 x 1024 VGA video output, Additional USB 2.0, Additional FireWire (1394) , Ethernet (100/10) , DC power , Audio out
Perhaps I agree with Mike Masnick of TechDirt, who compares all the hype surrounding OQO, and says that at $1899 price sticker it’s more likely to cause a yawn than excitement.
Thanks to DamnInteresting for linking to to a new Philip Greenspun article, where he is ready to make a jump from the PC world onto the mobile world:
This is a plan for building an appliance into which a mobile phone plugs and that extends the phone’s capabilities without requiring the consumer to become a system administrator or be aware that he or she owns more than a phone. In the rest of this document we will call the new device “The Appliance”.
It seems to be the question of the day: does Nokia 770 support USB? The official answer: yes it can, but it cannot supply enough power for the slaves.
However, take a look at this nifty hack, which enables Nokia 770 to act as a host and draw power for connected devices from a 9V battery. For about $2 worth of modifications Nokia 770 has been confirmed to run as a USB host.
Over on Mark’s Geeky Ramblings Matk suggests 770 is an interesting new class of PDAs he believes have a future:
Meanwhile, non-cell PDA’s continue to develop, like the Nokia 770. At $350 for a well sized, 800×480 resolution machine with built in WiFi and Bluetooth, it could be a great platform for software innovation.
That’s coming from a person who has owned *lots* of PDAs, it seems like.
Om Malik points to an article in Nordic Wireless Watch saying Nokia is planning to deliver VoWLAN phones some time in the first half of 2006 (make it second half, if you’re familiar with Nokia deadlines). The company expects more than 100 mln of such devices to sell around the world by 2009.
Paolo Molaro posted Mono binaries for Maemo.
You should be able to just copy a Gtk# app and have it run. There is no support yet for Hildon-specific widgets.
What’s Mono? It’s an open source .NET runtime enabling Linux users to run apps developed in C# and Microsoft-specific environments.
Karoliina: How it feels to work with Nokia 770 Internet Tablet?
Apparently Karoliina was also doubting the device future without the GSM/GPRS connectivity, but after some usage it all worked out:
Nokia 770 connects seamlessly to my phone and downloads pages faster through bluetooth than the phone would do by itself with its own browser and instead of seeing just a little part of the page, I can see full pages with no problems with the 770.