Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Hello,

This is my first venture to these forums.

I've been a Palm user for about 4 years, and the lame non-replaceable batteries are a killer. I lost one Palm due to a weakening battery, it would barely hold charges, and now my second one (T5) held a charge for a few days, and then suddenly won't turn on.

I started shopping around for a replacement, and had been considering iPaqs.....but I had reservations on those due to my not using Outlook etc, so syncing would be an issue. In the process I was guided by a conscientious Amazon reviewer to the n-series.

On the surface, the 810 appears to be everything I always tried to make my Palm into, and everything I hoped the iPaq would be. But the temptation of the Wimax edition got me thinking about how nice it would be to have its own connectivity. Wimax is, of course, almost a joke as most non-metro areas won't have access to it, at least for a looong while.

But seeing the pattern of the OS and product release dates, and seeing as to how the new OS details are coming out this week, is there any speculation (read: SPECULATION, not release announcements etc) as to when we may expect the n900 (assuming there will be one) to be released? My Palm has revived itself for the short term (now it reads 100% battery all the time until it refuses to boot, but lasts for near-typical usage again.) I can hold off for a little while I think so if an n900 could be on the near horizon it may pay for me to hold off a bit.

Also, as an extended question, I've heard you can use a bigger battery in an n810? Is this true? If so, which one?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

How did this wind up in the News section?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Err, apparently that's where the registration page stuck me on the "go back to where you were" link. (Oddly it didn't wait for me to activate the registration, it presented me with a post page....apparently in "news". It was supposed to be in "General"

Is there any way to move it (without re-posting?)

Incidentally, an hour later I got the registration activation link, and activated with it :D

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Wow. The "News" section (normally) can only be posted in by staff; it's for the discussion of articles on the front page. So nice glitch you found. ;) Reggie can move it, I'll PM him.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Moved to General.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

See this thread for battery options
http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ad.php?t=22811

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Thanks for the battery link!

And thanks for moving the thread. I do tend to find the odd ones ;)

I'm still hoping for some juicy cure-all n900. I love my Palm T5, but it's just a bit too kludgy for using it how I want to use it. Cloning my T5 onto Garnet VM on an n* would be the the cure-all (except for beaming to other Palms and using my irDA keyboard.) A faster 810 with it's own comm (other than wimax...meh) would be amazing. Those new os specs are a bit intriguing, assuming they keep the hardware in step with it instead of trying to turn it into an iPhone....but that doesn't seem to be where they're going with the OS, which is good.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

We are all assuming that it will be some time till the N900. No one really knows. I doubt Nokia knows. Maybe next year...

Anyway, what do you want to use the tablets for? I, like you, pushed my palm a lot. The batteries on my T3 are so bad, it just lives on the charger. Seriously. If you can wait, then wait. Thats my advice. If you need a device NOW, and want to save some cash, get a N800. If you want the features of a N810, get that. Your Choice

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

May I exclude myself from "us all". I do hope that we see something in Q4/08, Q1/09. The N8x0 hardware is really dated now. I just cannot imagine how they'd plan to survive on this market without any substantial announcement soon.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

My usage overlaps the Palm, plus all the things I wanted to do with the Palm but couldn't, or doing so was kludgy. For the PIM type stuff, and possibly even Documents 2 Go if it runs, I'd use the Garnet VM. I also have an HP48G calculator emulator on Palm an Oxford dictionary I'd consider running if it ran. The stuff I can't do (well) on the Palm, is file transfer to/from my file server (there is Palm software for samba and sftp, but it's crude and the wifi card is always fussy at best) SSH remote admin for my other unix boxen, of course would be a plus. And the thumb board is a big plus for writing emails, memos, notes to myself which is painful on the Palm without the keyboard. Right now I use PrintBoy and print it to my printer, then scan/OCR it to text when HotSync behaves badly. Hotsync, as well, no longer works on my Vista64 box, but the Hotsync version for the TX would. Right now I just run the Palm software in a VMWare box to bypass that issue.

Remote web browsing goes without the saying, is all but impossible in Blazer, and would be amazing for when I don't what to lug out the laptop-tablet for small tasks (frequent on-off isn't good for them anyway.)

All of that can be done on the 810. The GPS would be a fun tinker-toy too with the open-source alternatives to the tracker software, but it's not a critical feature.

BUT, if I can get a bit more power and the possibility of an independent data connection, it would really be the end-all device. I don't intend to buy a "data plan" of any sort at the moment, but the feature would be good to have. A far superior blackberry without voice. Fine by me!

The T|E was the one with the REALLY bad battery....I'm not sure what's up with my T5. After several rounds of shut-off status within 3 days, it's been running all week, was at 100%, yesterday with some IR and wifi usage dropped to 97, then today I watched it creep back to 99. I'm starting to think the battery is fine and the voltage monitor memory is messed up.

I definitely don't need it NOW, though I wouldn't get an 800 unless it was VASTLY cheaper...the keyboard is a big part of the deal for me. I'm not sure if the T5 can hold out a whole year though ;) Maybe I'll wait out a bit and see if at least prices will dip a bit, for the the Palm to die...whichever comes first.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Nokia folks in Berlin have said there'll be no new hardware before Christmas, and the first alpha of the Fremantle SDK won't be released until at least November, with weekly updates following and eventually going beta.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

When I got my Palm some years ago I wanted to use it for 2 things:
1) Typical PIM stuff (well, not documents, but calendar, meetings, alarms, that kind of thing)
2) As a mini-internet-laptop. I bought a wi-fi card, got email working, networked through both BT and wi-fi, got a better browser, installed ssh etc. etc.

1) worked out very well.
2) did not. Too limited, too little screen estate, and worst of all, my Palm became unstable and I ran into whitescreens so often I had to start a strict backup regime.

Then the N800 came out and I let it take over all of 2) and more. It's bad at 1) though, so now my Palm is a strict PIM device and my N800 is an internet device. My Palm has never crashed since and my N800 is way better than the Palm could ever be for 2). But the N800 can't do 1) even half as well as the Palm, so now I carry both devices.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Anyone know if the N900 will have two full sized sdhc card slots?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Hmm, they're all talking about Fremantle. We're at Diablo right now. IIRC, after Diablo will come Elephanta. That naming scheme started with OS 2007, which was Bora.

- Bora (OS 2007)
- Chinook (OS 2008)
- Diablo (OS 2008.5)
- Elephanta (maybe OS 2009?)
- Fremantle (maybe OS 2009.5 or OS 2010?)

Fremantle is said to be a big leap and comes with new hardware, so I suppose it will be OS 2010 and the device will be released sometime during Q4 2009 or Q1 2010.

This would also mean that the next major OS release (Elephanta) will run on N800, N810, and N810WE. :)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

I still hope we'll see new hardware before Q2/2009. You see, the N800 will be more than 2 years old then. Nokia admitted themselves that the N810 was not meant to be the next generation after the N800. Even if you'd count the N810: It was announced almost 1 year ago and will be 1 1/2 years old in Q2/2009.

Not having a new device at least in Q1 will be very disappointing.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Maybe someone in hardware at Nokia does, but no device announcements have been made; the big device thing we know about is the HSPA access, which is important as a software issue because it means all apps can always assume internet connectivity and completely fail to work without it. (Fortunately, sane developers won't listen too well...).

Nope, Elephanta was written off some time ago. Fremantle will be Maemo 5, and while it's possible Elephanta gets brought back (was reserved?) for a substantial dot-release, it'll still be an SSU from OS2008 (Maemo 4.1), so I expect Maemo 5 on the tablets would be OS2009. (Actually, I have a vague recollection of hearing that they wouldn't be using the OSxxxx nomenclature any more...)

One possibility (again, presuming they do bring it back, i.e. they pulled it intending to reserve it for this) is that Elephanta gets used for a Maemo 5 back-port... A2DP, linux-omap, Xorg, etc. on N8x0, without being closely enough coupled to the OMAP3 version to be troublesome. Something like the HEs.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Elephanta was skipped. Quim said so few months ago (at the time Nokia bought Qt).

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

I would guess CES in January 2009. There is no way Nokia would wait until 2010 to release a new device, the market moves to fast. Remember the state of the hardware has nothing to do with the state of the software. For all we know the hardware is done and they are polishing the software over the next several weeks/months.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Well, we do know the software team doesn't have finished hardware yet, as they're using third-party hardware for testing.

And some reasonable things may be assumed, though we don't know. (Does anyone ever know anything?)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

The Fremantle *beta* SDK is being tentatively announced for april/may 2009, so a true "gen 5" device would be after that.

If something comes out in between it will be a stopgap, not a Fremantle device. It might have the gen 5 hardware though, waiting for a firmware upgrade.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

I think that's unlikely. Large capacity internal storage of some variety appears more likely.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Not to fuel the rumor flames, but that's not necessarily true - with such an open development system, how are developers supposed to write and test code for Fremantle without a good idea of the hardware? If you think of the timeline for Diablo, wasn't the n810 released before the Diablo beta (which was also in April)? Just saying.....wishful thinking on my part as I am similarly in the situation of wanting a tablet, but wanting updated hardware, and wanting to only spend money once. :o

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

They have a good idea of the hardware. It'll be an Cortex A8 (armv7) OMAP3 with 3D acceleration, audio/video decoding acceleration, HSPA connectivity, an OK-quality camera, and somewhere in the ballpark of 128MB of RAM.

What more do you need?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

That would be extremely sad. How large is large? To use an internal, full-size SD slot is simply the most flexible option. Going to fixed-size, fixed-in-place internal storage of a few gigs is a step backwards. Upgradable internal "HD" (like in the N800), on the other hand, is pure genius.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Not from N810 (=last tablet, step 3) POV :-) Lets hope for full sized slot at least.

The OMAP 3 datasheet talks about three MMC interfaces so having two slots + internal eMMC is possible in theory but IMO it is quite unlikely in reality for space (and cost?) reasons. They may feel N810 does well with one slot so why to add second one again? It is like 770 hardcover - hackers like it but average Joe will do without.

I still hope I'm wrong on this :-)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

You know no one is going to answer me that. I've only been told that to fulfill the improved "multimedia computer" part of the next device, it will need enough internal storage to carry a user's entire media collection.

Yes, I know you archived Napster way back when. I'm sure the Nokia person didn't mean you.

Anyway, large. It's the best I can get. Also, the fact a Nokia person told me that the Maemo 5 device will be notable in that it will mean Nokia's premier device won't run Symbian hints at "large" not just being 4GB or so.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

32GB is the number I heard. Give or take 16/32GB sounds about right.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Doesn't Joe carry his tablet around like hackers do?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Isn't that saying exactly the same thing I did ? :-)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

If we get 32GB it'll keep me quiet for a while, although it's still an inferior solution IMO. BTW the reason the N810 lost the slot was because of not enough space anymore (due to adding the junk GPS chip and possibly the keyboard), according to a posting by someone at Nokia over at Ari's blog. In other words, they didn't necessarily _want_ to ditch the slot, it was removed as a compromise.

That's why the main reason I care about the HW features of a new device isn't that I get to pay for things I don't necessarily use or need, it's because all those features removes (to me) important things.

BTW I'm not storing all of Napster.. I don't have videos or even MP3s on my N800. However, I _do_ like to be able to quickly dump a camera's SD card into the N800. That's something that's not even possible with the N810 - no internal card.

I know I'm going on and on about this, but it's because it's d*mn _important_ to me. I've owned many PDAs or similar devices with only one slot, and compared to the N800 it's just incredibly inconvenient.

I can (and I will) hold on to the N800, but it sounds like I'll get stuck at pre-fremantle too then.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

*shrugs* I'm not a developer so I wouldn't necessarily know. But from other experience working on unrelated projects, knowing the components of a product does not necessarily mean you know how the product will work when it's all put together. For example, how parts talk to each other, what the chassis/usability/feel of the device will be, button layout, etc. But hey, this is just me being hopeful and naive.

Uh...yea. Right. Oops. Missed your last sentence. =)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

True I guess. The limited bus bandwidth that throttles the N8x0's video chip performance probably wasn't easy to infer in advance from hardware specs alone, for example.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

That comment wasn't directed at you specifically. It was aimed at those who would drop in to point out they have 2.6 TB of MP3s and 7.2 TB of DivX files in the RAID-7337 array attached to the HTPC in their living room.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

In other threads, there was some speculation that there could be an announcement on Sept. 20. Is there still any feeling that this could happen? Or is the Maemo 5 announcement all we're getting for now?

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

I'm doubtful of an announcement at the conclusion of the summit - the past week has been awesome in terms of new information on fremantle, and I feel like Nokia wants to ride that wave and stay on topic for a little longer than to overturn all the excitement on fremantle with (an arguably) even more exciting announcement in the form of a device.

That being said - to stay on topic, any ideas for other upcoming events to announce a device? :)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Maybe but according to Nokia designers he actually doesn't want the cover :-) It adds size, weight and there are two ways to put it on and even possibility to take it off completely which is all pretty confusing ;-)

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Uh? At the Summit?

I think you're confusing things a bit, we got what we're going to get. Now we wait.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

Im going to CES :D, and my dad's company does work with Nokia. There has been no talk of a new tablet at CES as far as I know. Maybe I am wrong. They have to release it soon to compete with the iPhones of this world, so...

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

There are plans for some S60 devices to (attempt to) compete with iPhone.

Re: Speculation on new tablet arrival?
 

From what I can tell...

Apparently nokia just wants to compete with itself o.o.