Wait until the 'net is mostly flash-based and then you will see the unfortunate circumstance we are in. At least the bulk of the MS based UMPC comes with the assurance you are running an OS that is fully supported.

That was the appeal of the 770, the false allure of opensource...

If that "mostly" happens, and I highly doubt that, it's years off.

not if Adobe has it their way. Their Apollo/Flex platform is being marketed as the next big thing, and its based on flash. Its trickling into the mainstream already as we speak.

Well, apparently Adobe is trying to integrate mandatory ad support into Flash so that you'll be forced to watch a few minutes of ads before you get to the content. When that happens the world will move on, to the next technology. As always happens when someone tries stunts like this.

Ye of little faith. It's true there will be changes that will disrupt Adobe's plans for "world wide web domination", but even those changes will take time, and I don't think the entire Internet will become "mostly" flash based any time soon because of Apollo/Flex anyways. There are still many third world countries just catching up to what web tech we had years ago for that to happen.

It is hard to deny the influence of flash. Even so, that just presents one technology that is not a a good option for us. What of all the others yet to be known.

All it takes if for *your* favorite website to become flashed and the 770 is usesless to you. So how many N800's have you recommended lately? I personally cannot in good faith considering this is an internet device that still has the horsepower necessary. The lack of support a year and a half later is the kicker.

Yes we have a 07 hacker version but that is only good for a few of us.

Like many people, I will fight wholesale Flash carpet-bombing of the internet tooth and nail. I'd prefer it's usage be as limited as possible, and am of the opinion that most Flash is unnecessary. I despise Flash ads that fly across the page, seize my mouse focus and interrupt my purpose. I only hope enough people will rebel against this insidious evil to at least temper it a bit.

And now Microsoft announces they are finally taking on Adobe and will roll out their own competing technology to Flash.

Just freaking great. Whatever happened to the open standard of SVG? Microsoft was *supposedly* behind it 100%-- but it's still not integrated into IE7.

/rant

Hear hear!

BTW, in my opinion the greatest mistake Sir Tim et. co. did with the original HTTP 1.0 specification was to include browser identification. Talk about opening a Pandora's box of ways to kill the original idea of a client-independent format. Since then it's gone mostly downhill, unfortunately.

Back when I was 12 (which was in 1991) I got an internet acct on a local unix based ISP here in Toronto. I used Lynx via my shell account and got used to the web being text based. The first time I saw Netscape it blew my mind. It was the perfect mix of graphics and content. (Yes, I separate the two). The beauty back then was that business jerks hadn't taken over the internet yet. So much shared responsibility and resources without much money changing hands, they just had to move in and let me know my wang isn't long enough. :/

Oooh, I haven't logged in here for a long time! My 770 headphone socket died today. Well, one channel stopped working. I think the socket is buggered so I figured I'd log on and see if anyone else has had that happen and fixed it.

Then I see this thread. Pretty disappointing reading I must say. No more support for the 770. I also feel somewhat cheated by this. I was a pretty early adaptor of it and went to a lot of trouble getting a friend to buy me one in the states and ship it down here to NZ. That wasn't even 18 months ago and now the thing is obsolete (as well as broken)?

A friend is just buying a 800. He to had to go to all the trouble of getting someone to pick one up in the states for him. I don't know if I have the heart to tell him based on past experience he's just wasted his money. I wouldn't trust Nokia now to buy a 800 and I am actively looking at alternatives. I'd quite like the Raon Vega running XP (http://www.dynamism.com/vega/main.shtml) maybe.

I have found the main use of my 770 has been using it to watch video on public transport as well as using it as a portable internet device around home mainly (not enough open networks around here to make it useful anywere else really). Now with the headphone socket broken that's one main use gone.

I will try to fix it I guess. No point me even trying to get Nokia to fix it under warrenty. I'd have to send it back to the states and then who knows how long it would take to get it repaired. Better to try myself.

It's been a fun little device while it lasted. I never did get into developing for it. Being a Win coder the learning curve going to Linux was more than I could be bothered with. I ended up installing Windows back on my dev box and putting MAME on it (then building a TARDIS around that but that's a whole other story). Owning the 770 never quite lived up to my early Palm PDA days where I did get into development and hacking and all sorts of fun. The little bit of hardware hacking I did on the 770 was fun too but that never really went anywhere.

So I guess this is goodbye. I might log back in to post about how the headphone socket surgery goes I guess. But ultimately it will be onto other things, other devices. And I am pretty certain I won't be getting another Nokia handheld for a while. Not until they show they have some commitment to a device. Be interesting to see how my friend and everyone else gets on with their 800s. Hopefully they get better and longer support than us 770 chumps.

Simon