Some questions before buying a Nokia 770

[Cowboydan]

Hi everyone !

I'm a newby to this forum and to the Nokia 770. I wanted to have some information about the device and figured out that the best way to find answers to my question was to ask to the people that do have the Nokia 770.

I'm thinking about buying a Nokia 770 but I have a "special" interest in this device. Actually, I don't want to use it to surf the web (I don't have a WiFi connexion nor a Bluetooth phone) but to read web pages (or PDF files) that I have archived on my PC (with the useful "Scrapbook" extension under Firefox). The Nokia 770 would be some kind of small web pages reader that I can use when I'm travelling by train or when I simply don't want to wait for 5 minutes for my PC to boot (my laptop is pretty old by now).
Do you think, you users of Nokia 770, that the device would be appropriate for this use ?

The battery lasts only 3 hours, as mentionned by Nokia, or it can last longer, provided you do not use the WiFi connexion ?
Do you think it's working well enough right now or it would be better for me to wait for the Internet Tablet OS 2006 ?

Thanks for your help.
Congratulations to the authors of this website which is really helpful and really nice.

Bye

[Reggie]

Welcome to itT Cowboydan!

If I am not mistaken, you can actually create a subfolder on your memory card of say .htm/.html files for off-line viewing. The browser is a full-blown Opera browser so it should read the files with no problem. It's also easy to transfer files since the 770 appears as an external USB drive when you connect it to your computer.

Yes you will get probably double the battery life if you don't use WiFi or Bluetooth.

[BigDaddy]

If you want it for just web browsing, it is fine for that. Don't expect any other "cool" things from it.

[jrac]

If you want it for just web browsing, it is fine for that. Don't expect any other "cool" things from it.


That is a little harsh, the screen is amazing, the games are great, internet browsing works as it should (except flash) and development is coming along very nicely.

For such a new device, I am impressed by its functionality - and even more impressed by its possibilities. Granted, it isnt perfect, but nothing is at this stage in the game. Give it time.

[Reggie]

Don't expect any other "cool" things from it.
It would be unfair to judge the 770 this early. See this article:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/content/view/151/2/

[Cowboydan]

Thanks for your answers.

Reggie > If the browser is a full-blown Opera, than I have no problem viewing html files. I feared it might be a browser developped specialy for the Nokia 770 (that would read only simple pages).

BigDaddy > Well, the ideal thing would be that the Nokia 770 also ships with a Contact / Calendar / To-do software so that I can use it both for reading Web Pages and like a handheld device (like a Palm).
And the awesome thing would be that it ships with Firefox, Thunderbird and Sundbird so that it's fully compatible with my current PC configuration. But, I must be dreaming ...

I might be asking a dumb question but, if the processor inside the Nokia 770 was an Intel instead of an ARM, could the applications running on a Linux PC run also on this kind of Intel-based 770 ?

Thanks for your help !

[aflegg]

if the processor inside the Nokia 770 was an Intel instead of an ARM, could the applications running on a Linux PC run also on this kind of Intel-based 770 ?

Well, firstly an Intel processor would consume a lot more power, resulting in less battery life, for no real benefit:

All of the apps you've mentioned (Firefox, Thunderbird & Sunbird) all will compile and run on ARM Linux as well as they do on x86 Linux. The thing which stops them running on the 770 is the lack of memory and (relatively) slow processor.

However, Mozilla-based browsers are being worked on, and it's conceivable a customised version of Thunderbird and Sunbird could be produced... after all, let's face it even a big, slow and clunky version of Thunderbird would be infinitely better than osso-email currently is ;-)

Cheers,

Andrew

[Cowboydan]

It would be unfair to judge the 770 this early. See this article:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/content/view/151/2/

Well, if we are currently on step #2, I'll wait till we get to step #3 with a better and more stable 770. But, according to your various answers to my question, I really do think that the 770 is a pretty appropriate device for me, all the more as an active community of developpers works on providing news apps.

The key issue according to me is interoperability. If I can share my personnal files and get them to work on the 770, then it's a reassuring and practical solution to use the 770, better than having a Palm. Nokia had a great idea of using a Linux OS on it internet tablet.

[Reggie]

Right now, the Nokia 770's strength is the wide screen, the browser, and support for BT, and WiFi b and g. Of course another good thing about it is its price.

As a fellow Palm user, what I advice is, if you are heavy on PIM, get a Palm TX. But if you are more into browsing, reading ebooks, and if you want be among the first to experience the 770 and how it may become the best handheld device out there, get a 770. :)

[Cowboydan]

As a fellow Palm user, what I advice is, if you are heavy on PIM, get a Palm TX. But if you are more into browsing, reading ebooks, and if you want be among the first to experience the 770 and how it may become the best handheld device out there, get a 770. :)

Well, right now I am not at all a PIM user. But, before I heard about the 770 I was thinking about getting a Palm or something like that. My girlfriend has a Palm Tungsten E2 and I was really impressed by its look and feel. It works really smoothly and the screen (not huge) is really great (can be readable even outdoor on sunny conditions). With such a device I could write down some notes and have my contacts always with me.
I was also looking forward to e-paper handheld devices to read ebooks or webpages because I work on the web all the time and I gather a lot of information (articles) that I'd like to read offline, without a computer.

If the 770 can allow me to do both (read and Pim), I would directly order it on my local Nokia Store.

But what I dislike about the 770 is that the current version sold is like a beta version. I understand that selling it this way is the best way for Nokia to gather feedback from users and improve its product (as mentionned in Nokia's developper blog) but I feel that currently this device is aimed at Linux software developpers more than at simple end-users like I am.

As a simple user and not a Linux developper, it bothers me to buy a product that is not working perfectly right now. I feel that waiting for 6 months or so might bring me a more polished 770 which would be far more simple for the end user that I am. Maybe I think this way because I don't have enough money to change a handheld device each year to get a newer version.

[Hedgecore]

I'd consider myself to be on the fence; I understand how computers work, can/have done dev work, however I hate them with a passion now and just want them to work. (4 yrs of working with SQL embitters a guy.)

I can tell you that in the 4 days I've had it, I've used it for about 16 hours and have't had any major issues. GAIM inexplicably disappeared once. I turned the volume down and the first 'click' after doing so was audible before it kicked in.

I've had 95% less issues in the 16 hours I've used the 770 over the past few days than I have had using XP at work (and this is supposed to be a controlled environment).

I find that I've adopted a mindset that's helped; I remember that even though the device is open to multitasking, I'm not on a laptop. I wouldn't try visiting a flash intensive site like www.ign.com from it. CNN, slashdot, iTT, etc are fine. I wouldn't leave 3 eBooks open, a game of Doom in the background, then try to check gMail.

If that strikes you as negative, this morning I was standing at the streetcar stop across from my appt building and picked up my access point and sent some mail via gMail. How kickass is that?