If Nokia really intended this thing to be an "Internet Tablet", they should have got on board with the Internet being a two-way medium. ie they should have put a keyboard (or decent HWR; ideally both) on this thing.
Watch someone with a Sidekick typing stuff on it at 40wpm and then tell me a keyboard wouldn't be an improvement.
At least put hooks on this thing so you can attach a keyboard to it. A separate, folding BT keyboard doesn't work when you're walking around.
Don't get me wrong; my N800 is awesome. But if it had a keyboard, I would use it for all my IMing and much of my emailing. Right now, I just read stuff on it. It could have been so much more, for maybe another $5 in parts.
Hmm. I can't help but add my 2 cents here. I was able to type much faster on the thumboard of my Zaurus C1000 than I could use Grafiti on my Handspring Visor Prism. Real HWR that could actually make heads or tails of my (half-way decent) handwriting would be nice but if I had to choose I'd still take a hardware keyboard for one reason: It's kind of a PITA (for me at least) to use a stylus-based interface while walking or on the train, two situations where I frequently find myself wanting to use my N800. Ah well, I guess I can't have everything I want.
Hmm. I can't help but add my 2 cents here. I was able to type much faster on the thumboard of my Zaurus C1000 than I could use Grafiti on my Handspring Visor Prism. Real HWR that could actually make heads or tails of my (half-way decent) handwriting would be nice but if I had to choose I'd still take a hardware keyboard for one reason: It's kind of a PITA (for me at least) to use a stylus-based interface while walking or on the train, two situations where I frequently find myself wanting to use my N800. Ah well, I guess I can't have everything I want.
-John X
I'm a touch-typist, so I'll gladly concede that I can type much faster than I can write -- on a normally-sized keyboard, that is. Even on my Psion 5mx I couldn't type all that fast and on that keyboard it was actually marginally possible to touch-type (but never for long, because the key placement was just that bit off to what I was used to, that I couldn't help myself from peeking).
I have used lots of thumbboards, most extensively the ones on my Treo 270 and subsequently my SE P910. The biggest problem with thumbboards is that it is impossible to type blindly: You always have to keep your eyes on the thumbboard to see what you are tapping at, and in doing so you lose contact with your text. The virtual thumbboard on the 770/N800 is actually rather good in that respect, but only because it leaves just a tiny amount of screen realestate, which is easy to find. Still, try to tap and look at your text at the same time. I dare you...
I consider that the biggest advantage of full-screen handwriting recognition: You keep eye contact with your text at all times, just as you would with real, oldfashioned pen-and-paper handwriting. For me, the trade-off in speed is more than made up by the inherent focus this input method offers. That is why your comparison to the Grafitti-like character recognition is flawed: Grafitti (and its likes) are basically thumbboards without keys.
I've said here before (ad nauseam, to some) that I'm a Newton user of old. In fact, for almost five years, a MessagePad 2100 was more or less my main computer for on the road. I own a keyboard for the Newton (and with the carrying case it actually almost resembled a mini-laptop), but I've used it only a handful of times. For an entire year, I brought my MessagePad to weekly (often dayly) meetings in a major restauration project and took minutes for those meetings. I was faster in handwriting than the guy with the laptop and usually more accurate, mainly because the Newton has such an amazing handwriting recognition system.
The really sad thing is that the Newtons HWR still exists: PhatWare sells it as Calligrapher and PenOffice -- for f**king Windows only!! All they have to do is port it to Linux (and Maemo, obviously) and noone will ever ask for a thumbboard again (not entirely true: even on the Newton boards there is the occasional deluded individual who wants a thumbboard. They are usually properly chastised for doing so )
Oh, BTW, I also used my Newton on the train, without keyboard. I actually wrote entire articles on the train.
