06.25.07
Nokia 770 is the Woot! of the Day
Woot : Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
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If you’ve been waiting to get one… today’s your lucky day as Woot is offering a new 770 for only $129!
Technorati Tags:
Nokia, Internet Tablet, 770, Woot
05.05.07
Maemo.org redesigned and relaunched
Be sure to check the new Maemo.org site as it’s just been redesigned, and looks great. Should be a much easier experience for everyone!
Great job guys!
Technorati Tags: Internet Tablet, N770, N-Series, Nokia, N800, Maemo, Maemo.org
04.16.07
Intel Loves Maemo
I’ve just spent some time reviewing a presentation or two (PDF Links) from Intel’s Developer Forum (IDF) and wow does this confirm Nokia’s move towards Internet Tablets!
As I read through the documents I could not help but compare the Nokia Tablet to the MID Platform Intel is promoting as a revision (fork perhaps?) to the UMPC platform they initially developed with Microsoft. The MID (Mobile Internet Devices) as defined by Intel are built on Linux with 4-6″ screens, target the Prosumer and are sold at Consumer price points. Sound familiar?
Intel is focused on delivering an un-compromised Internet experience with an excellent UI, strong performance, responsiveness, battery and memory. They define the usage models as “Stay in Touch,” “Be Entertained,” and “Access Info and Locate.” As you can see from each of these slides, things vary enough to make the case for unique priorities. I’m probably more of a Stay in Touch kind of user, but would be very tempted by the Be Entertained system as well.
I’m hoping someone will realize that a nice cross-over will serve the true Prosumer — someone who stays in touch constantly, wants to be entertained while on the go and would like to know where they are (GPS). Why split this stuff up into smaller groups of people than will likely be attracted to the platform initially anyway??
I hope the Nokia / Maemo team is watching this carefully. While there’s been a great deal of positive energy around the platform recently, things are going to really heat up with multiple OEMs pushing similar devices based on Intel’s reference designs — especially if it means being free of Windows licensing. Actually – a Nokia / Intel partnership in this category would be very interesting.
This looks inspired by iPhone with those icons than Maemo, but it’s probably running either Linux or embedded Windows.
There’s no denying Maemo in that first shot. Seeing Firefox here makes me quite happy. I’m hoping we’ll be so lucky on the N800 soon enough as it will likely lead to greater compatibility as well as extensibility through plugins.
Here are a few more pages from the presentations. You’ll can see the differences in each reference design as well as note the key applications (at least as they are thought through now) on each system.
Technorati Tags: Intel, Internet Tablet, Maemo, MID, N-Series, N770, N800, Nokia, UMPC
03.31.07
Slow week ahead
I’m heading south to sunny Florida for vacation with the family today and will likely be blogging very lightly if at all. I’m leaving the laptop at home and only taking my N800 (though with Keyboard). I”ll probably do most of my reading on the smaller screen (which I do plenty of) though have not blogged much from the tablet. It’s all good.
03.27.07
Rhapsody Official Today!
According to the Press Release from CTIA, today is the day we’ll be able to download and enjoy the official Rhapsody client on our tablets. Unfortunately, neither the site referenced (http://www.nokiausa.com/n800) nor the the Tableteer page on the Tablet is updated yet, so we’ll just have to keep on standby until Nokia’s product team catches up with the PR. This happened previously with the eagerly awaited Smart2Go and took a while for the download to become available. I hope Nokia is more on the ball this time so they won’t feel compelled to apologize again.
While you wait, you might want to update the OS, which I am sure will be a requirement. Don’t forget to do a good backup.
When The release is official, Here’s the link to download… I’m on my way now!
Technorati Tags: Maemo, Music, N-Series, N800, Nokia, Rhapsody, smart2go
03.21.07
What’s ahead for the tablet?
Om Malik has an interesting piece on the tablet up today following his meeting with Nokia at GigaOM HQ. From his post, it’s clear that the Rhapsody and Skype pending deals are just the beginning of the business development process. Nokia is interested in expanding the services offered from partners with mentions of additional music (Napster, Yahoo and MSN) as well as additional IM services beyond the installed Google Talk which I actually have really grown to like, is not where all my friends are.
I don’t agree with Om’s headline (Will Skype save Nokia Internet Tablets?) which implies that the table is in need of saving and that Skype will be the savior. Sure Skype is popular, but most people do it for free and would rather not buy a $400 device just to make calls. From my perspective, it will certainly add a great deal of utility for when I want to call another Skype user, but I am personally quite happy with the SIP-capable Gizmo and the video-enabled GoogleTalk which are already here.
Improved stability and feature enhancement (like flash performance…) are key and something I know are coming soon with the next update to the tablet OS. I hope Nokia takes proper care to enable future IM systems to embed in the OS rather than run as separate clients which will not only add additional resource needs, but will actually just be annoying as you’ll need to run multiple apps to simply stay connected. And yes I know and use GAIM which works pretty well actually… but will probably become a second choice to something provided by Nokia and partners. I have yet to see anyone embed with the system from a 3rd party perspective, but while those check books are out making deals, let’s do it right, ok?
Sales may be slow on the N800, but it’s only month 3 with this unit. The 770 was a sleeper that was positioned to geeks looking for a cheap linux system to hack. The real thing that the tablet platform needs is some marketing. It’s a new device in a new category and something that needs to be experienced and explained to be best understood.
Technorati Tags: Gizmo Project, Internet Tablet, Maemo, N-Series, N770, N800, Nokia, GoogleTalk, Rhapsody, SIP, Skype, VOIP
03.13.07
Maemoapps.com
In case you missed it, this site is officially located at Maemoapps.com not the atmasphere.net address when I launched. The Feed should be cool if you have the feedburner address subscribed…
03.11.07
Welcome!
I read a bit today on how debian has a site focused on highlighting an application a day. It occurred to me immediately that the Nokia Tablet and Maemo platform also needed a resource to help users explore the growing list of applications and get a better understanding of the tablet’s capabilities. And so here we are…
While there are certainly more official resources for information on the tablet, I thought that by creating something here I could contribute more directly back to the community as a user. My main blog tends to cover an array of topics and so this site has been created to focus only on the Nokia Tablet and Maemo platform.
You can expect some geeky details, but my main focus will try to be on helping the more normal prosumer understand how to get a great experience from the the tablet and how to extend what’s in the box with what’s been developed in the community.
I’m sure I’ll do reviews as well as some video walk-throughs as I’ve done at my more regular home. You can also expect a good flow of application and service discussion – hopefully with some contact and discussion with users and developers and maybe Nokia if we can rouse them up!
Ok, now I’ve got to get to work here!
Technorati Tags: N770, Nokia, Open Source, Maemo, N-Series, N800, Linux