08.06.08
Posted in Views at 6:35 pm by Jonathan Greene
I love the Nokia Tablet!
The battery life is amazing and the applications I have installed enable a very rich and capable mobile experience. I am currently sitting in the Toronto airport enjoying a beer (or two) while connected to Boingo enabling me to post this while enjoying streaming last.fm, IM and Mauku.
There are few if any MID / UMPC devices with the power to weight ration of the NIT. I chose the power to weight automotive metaphor because that’s really a key variable. I am definitley interested in what’s happening on the MID / UMPC front, but so far none have appeared to deliver more than 2-3 hours of life in a form factor that fits in your pocket. The netbooks are also interesting devices, but I already have a 3lb laptop for work I carry most everywhere and am definitely not looking to double the weight of my existing ear bag for a less capable device.
The Lenovo X61 I use for work can get close to 5 hours of battery in careful use and that’s awesome, but it’s still too big for every day while mobile tasks. The N810 is intantly on, ready to connect to my phone or an available wifi connection and deliverss most of what I need for information consumption – and creation.
I’ve made this point previously here, but it’s worth repeating, the Nokia Tablet truly is an outstanding ultra mobile product. I find it to be the standard by which I compare new things. Additional CPU capabilities seem great on the surface, but to only be able to consider 2 hours battery life is a joke. The main thing I feel it lacks is an independent cellular connection. That would seriously add some flexibility to my connection options and offer that much more power to an already rocking system.
Technorati Tags: Maemo N810 “internet tablet” MID UMPC Nokia Boingo
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07.30.08
Posted in Views at 1:07 pm by Jonathan Greene
The results are in on the Tabletblog poll and looks like the majority would love a 3G enabled N810 over the pending WiMax device. I know I’d love the 3G tablet! I tether regularly with my phones (currently the Nokia E71), but having an independently mobile connection would be killer.
Having wireless beyond wifi really makes the Nokia Internet Tablet that much more powerful. The initial plans, as seen in our current devices, were to pair with your phone and extend the online experience. As I think many of us clearly realize there’s been a lot of action in the MID and UMPC space as of late, but I’d be willing to bet that few if any of these devices have yet to match the N810 in capabilities. Sure some have more power on the CPU or grpahics end, but none can offer 5 hours of battery life or fit in your pocket.
3G would certainly impact battery life as it does with everything else, but it seems like an acceptable give, in order to get a considerably greater range of use.
Technorati Tags: maemo, nokia, nokia internet tablet, n810, 3G, wimax, tabletblog
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02.20.08
Posted in Views at 11:35 am by Jonathan Greene
Last week at The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona I had the opportunity to finally see the Intel MID platform in action. I was very excited since there had been so much news around CES and when I saw Intel was at the show I made it a priority to check things out. From what I had read, I had started thinking about what more I might be doing with an ultra mobile device – beyond the Nokia Tablet.
I was very pleasantly surprised to realize just how solid Nokia’s vision for the Internet Tablet truly has been and I am even more committed to the platform now.
The MIDs are considerably larger than the N810 and N800 and is definitely something you can’t slide into your pocket – unless of course you are wearing a winter parka with oversize pockets! While specs of the MIDs seems awesome … Faster processors, more memory etc, there was very little benefit to this in my limited hands on. (My Qik video seems to have vaporized or I’d share it here). I found the overall experience to be pretty slow on both devices I messed with and also found the UI of both to be more difficult to move around than what I’m accustomed to with Maemo.
The N810 fits in my pocket, connects effortlessly to the networks of my choosing and easily offers both access to information and the ability to create it. The gorgeous screen offers a great way to consume my online as well as local content and I’m able to enjoy media via Canola, MPlayer, Rhapsody and the built in media player. While we know it’s not a phone, I’m able to make VOIP calls even including video at times. As I saw cooking with Truphone last week, sms is right around the corner as well for an even more complete communications solution.
The MIDs I saw were running either mobile Ubuntu or Red Flag Linux. The offered options like a full office suite (open office) media playback, slider keyboards etc … Running office seemed like a great option, but running it I noticed it took several minutes (my perception… But at least 1 min of staring at an unchanged screen). I’m not sure whether things just have yet to be optimized or if this is really what to expect when products arrive later in the year.
The MIDS seem actually more like Intel rebranded the UMPC platform and upped things with revised form factors and specs. They are more in line size-wise with the Fujitsu u810 and a bit larger than the HTC Advantage – both of which I also saw for tnhe first time on the trip. The HTC Shift, which I also saw is even larger. Since I’m not really interested in running windows, neither has that much appeal, but the HTC advantage is a really nice piece of (larger than Nokia) hardware.
The Nokia Internet Platform is in it’s third incarnation and the OS and hardware have evolved consistently to better enable more people to become involved with the platform. The size has clearly been designed to make it comfortable carrying a second piece along with your phone and it’s perhaps no wonder that a phone rather than computer maker has nailed this critical aspect of things. Adding horsepower is clearly not the answer to a positive end user experience. The HTC Shift is a beautiful (non-pocketable) machine, but battery life suffers greatly. The MIDs have a lot of potential, but the user experience seems less about mobile and rather about taking the desktop in hand. There’s no windows start bar as you might see on Windows Mobile, but the Office application I saw load, was the same as you’d see in a desktop version of Open Office. Aside from the obvious load time issue, there’s far too much focus on things you won’t need in a small device. Much of this gets in the way rather than helps and feels it came from the because we can view, rather than because we should.
While most people still do not use more than voice and text on their mobile devices, the multi-part strategy in the Nokia Internet Tablet platform is very compelling for those seeking advanced connectivity, entertainment and productivity. My hope is that the platform will only continue to develop, offering more applications and services as we’ve been seeing recently. The ability to carry such a small and powerful device has transformed what I can and choose to do on the go. I’ve got access to essentially anything I could want from the palm of my hand or within reach from within my pocket. As the the Nokia Platform matures I’m hopeful that more people will realize there’s far more they could be doing while on the go. I’ve got some thoughts on making the tablet more consumer friendly, but I’ll leave that for a future post for now…
Technorati Tags: nokia, n-series, maemo, mid, intel, umpc
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10.31.07
Posted in Internet, Views at 2:27 pm by Jonathan Greene
Well – which are you?
When the 770 came out it closed connections when you slid it back in the case which was a nice feature since it automatically switched into a more power efficient mode. When the N800 arrived and now with the N810, we have the opportunity to leave our tablets on at all times.
Clearly this takes a toll on battery life over the course of a day, but in my usage it seems well worth it. I actually have had both my N800 and N810 set to auto-connect to both WiFi and cellular connections so when I walk out the door, my tablet switches over to my phone as the wifi drops.
This system worked incredibly well with the N73 as my phone since the battery in that phone was hard to kill even with a full day of tethering. The N95 has a considerably less powerful battery — even the newer N95-3 which I’ve been using for a month or so. I find I’ve got power in the car as well as a Proporta Mobile Power system that lets me recharge or maintain charge on the phone while the tablet enjoys a very long day of use. If needed I can top off the tablet with the Proporta of course as well.
Last night on the Podcast, I discovered I was the only one of the three of us keeping my tablet in always on mode. I’m curious how others use their devices… since the tablet is predominantly positioned as a second device (phone being the first) I would think most users are using it as aggressively as I am, though this is clearly a personal thing.
I tested the On Demand method today and found that while it saved a bit of battery life on both devices, I prefer to be able to look down and see live updates to my mail and rss feeds. The tablet is a direct extension of how I use the internet and just like my laptop it’s always connected and powered on.
What works for you?
Update – Reggie posted a poll on Internet Tablet Talk – feel free to vote and share your opinion!
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10.30.07
Posted in Views at 11:23 pm by Jonathan Greene
Tonight I got together with Dan and Reggie to talk about the past two weeks with the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. We ran through quite a few topics from the applications we like and want to see as well as the platform in general.
Dan is hosting the MP3 of tonight’s discussion, but you can do a save as right here. Enjoy and please let us know what you think!
Technorati Tags:
Internet Tablet, Mauku, N-Series, N810, Nokia
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10.23.07
Posted in Views at 4:32 pm by Jonathan Greene
The tablet works great when you leave your home or office connection and automatically switches over to your cellphone so you can stay connected. If you’ve set the connection preferences to auto-connect on any connection this “just happens…” though is not the default setting.
What I’d really like to see is a way for the cell connection to switch back to wifi when I walk into a known area so I maintain the best connection at all times. Ideally this would have preferences to let the user confirm they in fact wanted this to occur and even on which networks. This would let you stay on 3G if you wanted or prevent you from auto-switchng to open public networks (default, linksys, netgear etc) you might have added.
I know Devicescape and Boingo can help aggregate your wifi connections, but currently they do not work with your cell setup. The iPhone auto-switches back and forth between cell and wifi since it only supports EDGE and this gives the user a better sense of speed. Our Internet Tablets offer considerably more potential and should have this feature as well.
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10.21.07
Posted in Applications, News, Views at 10:46 pm by Jonathan Greene
As you know by now I was lucky to be invited to the N810 launch last week and additionally have one to play with and test prior to the official launch in a few weeks time.
I would first like to thank WomWorld for their amazing invitation to be part of such exciting release! Through their relationship with Nokia, Reggie, Daniel and I were able to gain VIP access to the product managers as well as quite a few other members of the Nokia N-Series and Converged Device groups. This was a terrific experience for all of us as their was plenty to learn from everyone!
The Tablet … WOW!
Let me just say I am in love with this new device! The N810’s we have are still considered pre-production, but are very close to release and are very polished. The build quality feels outstanding and while there’s a certain heft to the N810, it is by no means heavy, but feels solid in your hand. The metal body is smaller than previous tablets but still retains the great screen we’ve grown accustomed to from the original 770. Now, however the screen is readable in direct sunlight and actually brighter than the N800’s.
When you slide the screen upwards to reveal the keyboard, you get a very satisfying click as it settles into place. The N810 is easily held in one or both hands in either slate or open modes and when closed it easily slides into your front pant pocket or nicely inside a jacket.
Button arrangement is a bit different as has been the case with each successor in the Internet Tablet line. There’s a hardware slider which lets you lock and unlock the device if you choose to keep things in slate mode. When you slide the tablet open, it will unlock automatically. Closing it however, does not lock it back so something to take note of if you are quickly dropping it into the sleeve and into your pocket. The zoom keys on the top left are now separated from the fullscreen button and the power button is alone in the middle on the top side.
Using the N810
Startup times seem much quicker than my recently reflashed N800… Not sure why that is, but it’s appreciated nonetheless. I don’t really turn the tablet off very often, but if you are “one of those” it’s ready very quickly.
The Home screen is gorgeous! The two included themes include transparent applets and the area itself is live, meaning you can move things around at will. You will most likely do this by accident as we all did at first. There’s been suggestions to enable a lock feature, but I am not sure that will happen for release. I actually like it now that I know things can just move…
In general, performance of the N810 feels snappier than the N800. There have been some optimizations with regard to the CPU utilization as well as I am sure to the OS which are helping here.
One major difference in this tablet is obviously the keyboard and as a result the on-screen keyboard has been deactivated by default. While I initially turned this back on since that’s where I was most comfortable, I’ve since deactivated it and have been working only with the real thing.
While you are not free from the stylus just yet, a great deal of work has been done to emphasize finger tapping in addition and the more I’ve used the N810 over the past few days the less I’ve sought the stylus in open mode. As things are not totally finger optimized (open menus in applications) in slate mode, the stylus makes good sense, particularly in clicking links in the browser.
The Full internet in your pocket!
A great deal of work has been done on this machine and the OS2008 release to enable the full power of the CPU as it directly relates to your browsing experience. You don’t have to seek out a mobile web page unless that’s your preference as you’ll be able to view any site you want. I don’t think it’s a coincidence (anyone remember the iPhone launch?) that Facebook is a default bookmark, and it’s not some special version of Facebook, it’s the full version with all your applications running as you know they do from your desktop. Wow!
The Flash 9 plugin and the Mozilla based browser (which needs a branded name) can take on just about anything. My only issue to date has unfortunately been Google Reader which is a site I spend a great deal of time on… My guess is that the real issue is my decision to try and track close to 1200 feeds. I’m in the process of drastically pruning this and will report back.
YouTube, Check! No need to work around YouTube if you get a link, it plays just fine – seriously. The video quality is really nice and you can also choose to view the YouTube mobile version and see things in H.264 if you like.
What’s else is new?
Hardware basics … GPS, Transflective and brighter screen, MiniSD, MicroUSB, the button arrangement and a programable LED. Full specs are on the Nokia site.
My experience with the GPS has been limited based on some issues I’ve had getting a connection with the sky. After waiting for close to 10 minutes I paired my Nokia LD-3W and it connected cold (battery was even dead) a few moments after it powered on and paired. I’m hoping that the GPS issues is a pre-release problem. While you can get better battery life and signal with an external GPS, all in one is very convenient.
The GPS antenna is apparently located on the top front left corner …
The keyboard has taken a couple of days to get comfortable, but I am now able to type quite quickly now without making too many mistakes. There are no raised bumps on the F and J keys as you usually see on keyboards so getting started in a low light situation may be tricky, but once you get going and the backlight activates it’s no problem at all.
The keyboard really makes a difference in email too – I’ve been zipping through Gmail with keyboard shortcuts and can easily compose replies and new messages on the go. Once a few applications are compiled the tablet will be a great mobile note taking and mobile blogging (WordPY!)solution as well.
Software… available in OS2008 and soon for the N800 as well
- Panels are the new way applications are arranged in groups. You can change things around of course to your liking.
- Active Applications give you much more of a view into what’s happening. You can see multiple IM indicators as well as a bunch of new mail messages from within the floating display.
- There’s something called Tray Balloons (think that’s the official name – I saw it referenced in XChat) which float over full screen mode windows or highlight in the lower left corner in window mode. These can indicate new messages from IM, Mail and IRC Missed calls etc… I have a feeling we’ll see others as applications are updated for this new OS.
- Backup and Restore has been significantly enhanced. While it still does not automatically restore your applications, all the source info is retained which should make it considerably easier to re-install. We discussed this quickly with the product managers and they indicated much had been done, but it is still moving towards a more ideal scenario. You can now Backup and Restore email messages, Doc and Media files, settings, bookmarks, contacts and your applications list. Upon restore, you are suppose to see any repositories you had installed and from the applications manager any app that had been installed in this way. If you installed from the terminal or via a .deb, you are out of luck in this process for the time being.
- The media player now contains an Internet Radio directory which is managed by Nokia. You can browse by genre or even country and find something good to hear. Anything you bookmark is added to your home screen applet. Out of the box, there are five BBC radio stations programmed and ready to go.
- Speaking of Media, the codec support has been greatly enhanced and you can now plan to enjoy MP4 as well as WMV video for the first time.
- Applications — Because the new OS 2008 contains many under the hood changes, developers need to recompile in order to release and thus far this has understandably not happened en-masse. I’ve installed and tried FBReader, XChat and Maemopad+. I am really looking forward to getting some oldies back as well as seeing what new treats arrive. The GPS has an API which will hopefully lead to some location aware / presence applications (Ovi Anyone?). Once python gets released this coming week, we should see the return of quite a few N800 applications as well.
Stock applications include Skype, Rhapsody, Gizmo as well as a few games (Chess, Blocks, Mahjong and Marbles). The terminal application is also included which is great as I’ve certainly had to install it on previous devices and have needed it for various activities. Based on recent Nokia announcements as well as known partnerships, I think we’ll see Devicescape, Boingo and MP3Tunes at the very least in the Tableteer site, if not as ready to install pieces on launch.
The Nokia N810 is a worthy successor to the Internet Tablet line and something I think a lot of people will really enjoy. I feel like I’ve written quite the long post here, but yet have only scratched the surface. I’m working on some video and will have that shortly to share as well.
Technorati Tags:
A-GPS, bluetooth, DUN, Firmware, Gizmo Project, Gmail, Google, Google Maps, GPS, Internet Tablet, LD-3W, Maemo, Marketing, N-Series, N810, Navigation, Nokia, Nokia Maps, open, Presence, SiRF, Social Networking, Streaming, Travel, unlocked, Video, Web 2 Summit, WiFi, wireless, womworld, YouTube
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07.08.07
Posted in Views at 11:31 pm by Jonathan Greene
I’m not sure what the deal is but my framerate performace is pretty bad when viewing YouTube still. I’m connected on WiFi and it’s better, but not great. Do we think this is a CPU, Memory or Opera issue?
I was also able to view Viddler for the first time as it only supports Flash 9 but the same low refresh issues exist. Not to be a downer here, but why do we have the support when the experience is less than ideal?
Technorati Tags:
Nokia, Internet Tablet, mobile, Maemo, N800, Firmware, Flash
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03.21.07
Posted in News, Views at 3:33 pm by Jonathan Greene
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
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