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Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Reviewed 198

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cutting-corners-never-works dept.
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has reviewed the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet which is powered by a variant of Debian Linux. Eric Bangeman praises the device for its "wow" factor and has high hopes for its potential, but nagging issues with the implementation, relatively weak specs, and small software library lower the device's chances of becoming a hot item. From the review: 'The 770 could also use some beefier hardware. One of the attractive things about the 770 for me is the price--US$359. In order to hit that price point, I imagine Nokia had to make some hardware trade offs. Unfortunately, those make themselves glaringly apparent at times. 128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.'"
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Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Reviewed More

Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Reviewed

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  • Debian...w00t! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Orrin Bloquy ( 898571 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:14PM (#14242060) Journal
    I'm APT to GET something like this.
  • Double the battery time, quadruple the memory, and sell for $500. Profit!
  • I'm curious: What kind of rendering engine is this thing using? KHTML, Gecko or Opera?

    • KHTML / Konqueror soon... (Score:5, Informative)

      by billybob2 ( 755512 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:50PM (#14242318)
      Ars Technica is reporting that Nokia 770 Internet uses Opera, but I would think it's quite possible that Nokia will offer updates containing a KHTML-based browser (some version of Konqueror [konqueror.org]) soon.

      Nokia has been collaborating [kde.org] with KDE [kde.org] developers to build a browser for some of their other embeded systems, such as the Series 60 Smartphone. Nokia engineers have stated that KHTML is more resourceful than Gecko, has a cleaner architecture, and starts up faster. Also, KHTML is free (LGPL), while Opera is proprietary and therefore probably requires them to pay licensing fees and royalties.
      • Someone has already contribted a beta build of gpe-mini-browser which is based on GTK-webcore, which IIRC is related to KHTML in some way. mini-browser has some issues right now, such as lack off HTTPS support, but renders well and is impressively fast on low power hardware. It runs great on my Zaurus C1000 (with an Xscale @ 416MHz). It would not suprise me to see a port of konqueror show up at some point. Firefox is also likely to be an easy port since it will compile and run on a Zaurus (both have ARM

  • Agree on wanting something beefier (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famous@NOsPAm.yahoo.com> on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:19PM (#14242103) Homepage Journal
    I liked TFA's author's point that he was conflicted, wanting to love it for certain elements, but being seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359). This is in contrast with something like OQO [oqo.com] which looks to be very cool, but costs $1299 (MSRP).

    Honestly, I'd like to see something OQO'ish in the $599 price point range that can run Linux. That would probably be the best of both worlds.

    - Greg

    • With the slower proc and shared RAM, and limited software library, is this anything more than a somewhat enhanced Palm like device? Sure it's got a bigger screen, but it's a bigger unit too, so perhaps less portable... I know that certain Windows based handhelds like the ones Toshiba makes can easily break the $400 mark...

      • With the slower proc and shared RAM, and limited software library, is this anything more than a somewhat enhanced Palm like device?

        I think the screen width of 800 pixels would put it in a different class. That's the minimum usable size for a decent web client IMHO. Even 640x480 is pushing it on a Palm-sized device - the pixels are very tiny. (Not that I'd ever want a grainy screen, but at some point more pixels just look better instead of also equating to more screen real estate).

    • Re:Agree on wanting something beefier (Score:4, Interesting)

      by NeuralAbyss ( 12335 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @07:02PM (#14242401) Homepage
      Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100. I've got a friend with the C3000, and I'm strongly tempted to get one of the C3100s at the end of the year.
      • Just got a 3100 from pricejapan.com [pricejapan.com]. Came in less than a week, at under $600. (Could have wished for packing material between the retail box and the shipping box, but it arrived intact despite that lack.) Then put pdaXrom [pdaxrom.org] on it and it's a real Linux computer. I'm also running Debian Handheld [pocketworkstation.org] on it in a chroot -- haven't got that fully ironed out yet, but it does run nicely enough. And this is nearly twice as fast as the model under discussion, with a 4 gig HD as well as SD and CF card slots. It fits in a no
    • Wow. I didn't know the oqo, it certainly is a lot prettier. If it ran Linux I might even have given it a go. Though the built in keyboard doesn't look very encouraging (usability wise).
    • ... wanting to love it for certain elements, but being seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359). This is in contrast with something like OQO which looks to be very cool, but costs $1299 (MSRP). Honestly, I'd like to see something OQO'ish in the $599 price point range that can run Linux. That would probably be the best of both worlds.

      In other news, I really wanted to like the Kia Rio, but was seriously disappointed by the 110-horsepower engine, which is probably a function of the low price point ($10,570). This is in contrast with something like the Ferarri F430 which looks to be very cool, but costs $174,585. Honestly, I'd like to see something Ferarri-ish in the $15,000 price point range that can do a 13-second quarter mile. That would probably be the best of both worlds.
      • But you're forgetting the most popular competitor of all in the market for Internet Tablets: nothing, for $0. Most people don't think they're worth the money. The market is clearly waiting for a better value, not just a different point on the existing price/performance curve.

    • I agree completely. Why on earth go with a 250Mhz arm for the processor? That's 5 year old tech at least. For maybe 50 bucks more they could be running AMD Geode x86 [amd.com] at 1Ghz at least. The thing would be a PC you could hold in your hand. You wouldn't have to port anything to it. Every linux distro would work straight from the iso images. Wine and Windows XP would run on it. And software you could buy at CompUSA. All major GPS software would work on it. It would be a no-compromises handheld.

      • Because x86 consumes too much power compared to ARM.

        ARM cores have a very good performance to power consumption ratio, that's why they are used in PDAs, phones etc. But 250MHz is a bit slow indeed, and I wonder how much the 770's software benefits from the OMAP's DSP core...

    • ... seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359).
      A faster processor also means a lot more power consumption. The thing only lasts three hours as it is...

  • Dasher developer agrees (Score:5, Informative)

    by lawpoop ( 604919 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:20PM (#14242108) Homepage Journal
    I'm very keen on a true tablet PC system ( I hate Palms and other similiar devices -- they don't really seem designed to fully utilize a stylus input), but I don't have $1800-$2500 to spend. I have a 770 on backorder.

    I was emailing Chris Ball, one of the developers of dasher [cam.ac.uk], which is a very novel and efficient method for character and word input. Unfortenately, I was dismayed to learn that:

    We finished the port. Problems:

    • It runs too slowly. We did some basic optimisation, but it's still too slow to feel good.
    • The hildon-input-method dynamic library is closed-source, so we can't get it working as an input method. This pretty much removes any further motivation we had for spending our time on it; if you care, I suggest complaining to Nokia.

    So I don't think we're planning a release.

    What a shame. I thought that with the maemo platform being open-source, this would be a killer device.
    • It runs too slowly. We did some basic optimisation, but it's still too slow to feel good.

      Eh? It's a 250 MHz ARM processor! If they can't get it to work fast enough on there, they need to retake CompSci. I could understand perhaps if graphical performance was the limiting factor, but somehow I don't think so. Since I don't believe that Ball actually failed CompSci, I think the real reason is the second part:

      The hildon-input-method dynamic library is closed-source, so we can't get it working as an input metho
    • I agree. I've seen Dasher running really quite nicely on a 200 & 400 Mhz PXA255 Linux system. I believe that the TI chip should be somewhat comparable.
      Also, if it is the FP in Dasher causing a problem, you can link to software FP libraries, which ought to be lots faster than the kernel method (the CPU executes an FP instruction, which causes an unknown instruction abort. The kernel traps the abort and synthesises the FP in software. Yes, it is as slow as it sounds :)

    • Re:Dasher developer agrees (Score:5, Informative)

      by mjg59 ( 864833 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @09:23PM (#14243352) Homepage
      It runs too slowly.

      If you grab Dasher CVS right now and build it for a Maemo target (./configure --with-maemo), you'll get something that runs at a just-about usable speed. The floating point has all been removed from Dasher itself, which helps things a great deal (I got about an 8-times speedup from removing a small amount of floating point code - integer maths is pretty much good enough in this case)

      The hildon-input-method dynamic library is closed-source

      More of a problem. There's currently no API documentation for producing an input application in Maemo, which makes it difficult - ideally, Dasher would be integrated in the same way as the keyboard or handwriting recognition. The other issue is that Dasher makes much better use of vertical screen real-estate than horizontal. On a device like the 770, Dasher would work much better at the side of the screen than at the bottom - and that's something that the libraries just don't support at the moment.

      On the plus side, porting Dasher and making it look and feel like a native Maemo application took about 3 hours, including setting up the Scratchbox build environment. Compared to developing for the Zaurus, the 770 is an absolute dream. I'd actually put it ahead of developing for PocketPC, too, despite the lack of a specialised IDE. It's a really nice device for developers, and (despite the occasional obvious lack of performance) it's a much better integrated device than any other small, portable ARM based machine that I've ever used.

      So, there's certainly hope for Dasher on the 770 - it's just something that I don't have time to work on at the moment (I'm doing a PhD in genetics right now, so don't have anywhere near as much time to hack on stuff as I'd like to), and Chris has left for the US and h0t chixx0rs (well, possibly only the one). The current performance issues are primarily down to the amount of time taken to draw all the anti-aliased letters, and the simple optimisation of disabling anti-aliasing for them or using Xft directly rather than going through Pango would probably help greatly. Then somebody just has to spend enough time working with Nokia to deal with the input API, convince them to add support for vertical input widgets, rebuild it and things would work beautifully.

      If anyone's interested in hacking on it, then check out http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/Develop. html [cam.ac.uk] and get on the mailing list (Yahoogroups, I'm afraid. Yes, I'm sorry). Someone with enough time could probably get it into a useful state in well under a week.
      • Dude, you rock! Sounds like you did the work to get the thing up and going. Now if I only had a 770... ;-)

        I always thought that Dasher was a neat idea. Unfortunately, I just didn't see it showing up in a useable device any time soon. Now that it's been ported to the 770, it looks like there's finally a really good use for it. Here's hoping that you can get Nokia interested in helpimg to improve your work.
      • Most gadgets with pop-up input areas are horizontally rather than vertically oriented. Could Dasher be rotated 90% and work moving down the screen rather than accross? Or does that feel too much like a downhill slalom to be comfortable...?
        • It can do that, yes (in the desktop version, you can choose the orientation in the preferences). It doesn't seem to work so well, though. Having the letters approach from the right means you get to read entire words in a fairly natural way. Having them come from above doesn't get you that advantage.

          (Yes, it flips to work left to right on left to right languages)
  • he price--US$359. In order to hit that price point, I imagine Nokia had to make some hardware trade offs. Unfortunately, those make themselves glaringly apparent at times. 128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.'

    All that and more (just look at the specs) for that price in a small package "isn't enough"?

    Can you say techno-blase?

    • Re:Sheesh (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ch-chuck ( 9622 )
      Can you say techno-blase?

      35 years ago it was "Future Shock", when market demands of science and technology create such rapid changes that it leaves people incapable of adjusting fast enough, leaving them in a state of perpetual disorientation.

      Now we have just the opposite, where the insatiable market demands for faster, cheaper and better technology based products cannot be adaquately met by scientific research quickly enough, leaving consumers in a perpetual state of disillusionment and disappointment. ;)
    • Well, it is ok spec wise - but aside from the nice big screen most common PDAs have more powerful CPUs.
      My Asus 716 which is almost two years old has a 400MHz Xscale in it as well as being easy to expand via a SD and compact flash slots. At time of purchase is was less than $400.
      Just making a quick look - $400 for the top of the line Dell Axim gives you:

      624MHz Xscale
      64MB SDRAM
      16MB video RAM
      256MB Flash memory built in
      VGA resolution screen (640x480)
      Expandable via SD, Compact flash
      Integrated bluetooth and wifi
    • It's difficult to use like a laptop -- even plugging keyboard and mouse into the USB, I doubt there's enough room on most laps to hold a keyboard and this device. You can prop it up against a wall, however, if you want to use this like a desktop with an LCD monitor.
    • The device does not contain a cellphone, which is a little confusing.
    • For the price, it would be nice to have Windows XP on the device. Even if it had to be in a dual-boot configuration, it'd make gaming easier.
    • For the price, it would be nice to have Windows XP on the device.

      Oh yeah, they'll release an XP version just as soon as Microsoft completes the ARM port, any time now...

      Even if it had to be in a dual-boot configuration, it'd make gaming easier

      You do realize computing != beige box PCs right?

    • Re:Parent's sig (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by guitaristx ( 791223 )
      Grammer tip: 'Effect' is used as a noun. 'Affect' is used as a verb.

      Spelling tip: 'Grammar [reference.com]', not 'Grammer' [reference.com]
      • You misunderstood. He was quoting Kelsey Grammer, I think it was in an early episode of "Frasier."

      • Re:Parent's sig (Score:2, Offtopic)

        by nganju ( 821034 )
        Not to mention that 'effect' can be used as a verb. Oh, and 'affect' can be used as a noun. Grandparent had good intentions, but needs to look at a dictionary.
        • It's a sad day for literacy that people need the fact that the great-grandparent is being humourous pointed out to them.
          • It's a sad day for literacy that people need the fact that the great-grandparent is being humourous pointed out to them.

            Perhaps they don't. Sometimes I find jokes less funny because the premise has a gaping logical flaw in it. I find it particularly irritating when I can see a way the joke could have been told without the logical flaw.

            That doesn't mean I don't get the joke, it simply means that the joker's delivery was flawed. It would be a sad day for humour if I had to explain that, but fortunately I d

            • Perhaps they don't. Sometimes I find jokes less funny because the premise has a gaping logical flaw in it. I find it particularly irritating when I can see a way the joke could have been told without the logical flaw.

              Yes, but the response to that is not to criticise the joke as if it was meant seriously.

      • Since the USB port doesn't supply any juice, you can't use a keyboard or mouse.
      • It's not supposed to...
      • Are you crazy?
        • XP won't run on ARM
        • XP won't fit in the 64 MB of Flash ROM that Linux fits in
        • What gaming do you expect to do on a four-inch touchscreen?
      Hmm. I should stop replying to flamebait.
      • What gaming do you expect to do on a four-inch touchscreen?

        Well you can do plenty of gaming on a 4 inch touchscreen. There are tons of great PDA games available that use a stylus. Not just puzzle ones like Bejeweled and Bookworm but stuff like Age of Empires.

        But yeah as for "dual booting into XP for gaming", I sure the poster was a troll, I can't imagine being that stupid.

    • Re:Some drawbacks. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cygnus ( 17101 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:32PM (#14242208) Homepage
      It's difficult to use like a laptop
      it's difficult to use like a hammer, either. it isn't long enough to generate enough leverage, and i'd be happier if the weight were distributed more to one end.
      The device does not contain a cellphone, which is a little confusing.
      it doesn't have a can opener, either. what if i get stranded out in the woods? i'm stymied.
      For the price, it would be nice to have Windows XP on the device. Even if it had to be in a dual-boot configuration, it'd make gaming easier.
      i'd also like a port of OS/390, in case i want to convert my international banking corporation over to these.

  • Another Review.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dynamoo ( 527749 ) * on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:25PM (#14242145) Homepage
    Also reviewed here [mobilegazette.com] but the review unit didn't want to talk WiFi. Looks like Nokia's customer service is dreadful [mobilegazette.com] and probably best avoided.

  • But does it run... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by J0nne ( 924579 )
    long enough with a full battery to take it along?

    you thought I was going to say 'Linux', didn't you ;).

  • One-handed browsing (Score:5, Funny)

    by BushCheney08 ( 917605 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:26PM (#14242156)
    The stand is designed so that you can prop the 770 up on your desk, coffee table, or any other flat surface so you can use it with a single hand.

    Ummm...

  • Backordered (Score:3, Informative)

    by YodaToo ( 776221 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:33PM (#14242210)
    Unless you got your order in before Nov. 16th, grabbed one of the few at CompUSA, or want to pay a premium on eBay, don't plan on getting one any time soon. Nokia has been awful about meeting their ship dates. I think the date on their web site for new orders is now sometime in January.

  • A review from a Nokia 770 Owner (Score:5, Informative)

    by skynetos ( 778296 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:39PM (#14242247)
    I was a day 1 zaurus owner and this is exactly what the Zaurus should have been but was not. Out of the box, you pop in the included 64meg memory card, turn it on, and boom right in front of my face is my web browser, my RSS reader and e-mail. Best of all since its Linux they support all the secure e-mail connections (tls, ssl, imaps everything) so I don't have to compromise my security while using it. It has a huge library for something that has only been out for a short while. It's package management is 100x better than the zauruses! I jump on WIFI or Bluetooth to my phone to the internet, browse to the maemo.org site, click a package and it asks to open it in the package manager! It uses Opera 8 with Flash support. Plays full screen videos just fine, and let me tell you the screen is incredibly bright and detailed!

    Its a 800x480 display, just beautiful! Not to mention the browser is a full one! No PDA versions of web pages, no side scrolling. You can zoom in, browse history and book marks it works!

    I installed very easily mind you, GAIM for IM, Doom a bunch of other little games, an xterm, they have SSH for it, and the library is growing!

    Drawbacks:
    Occasionally, when using it not as intended, say using the not-ready or polished GAIM, or lets say loading up 20 web browsers, with your rss feeder in the background its going to run out of memory. This is an internet tablet, it has RSS feeder, web and e-mail and its all fully featured and ready to go out of the box. If you use it as intended it works and thats that!

    Contrary to any reviews I have NEVER encountered any wifi flakyness or bluetooth crazyness. I have used it every day for about a week now, and it is just SOLID. Its design is slick as snot! check out the screen shots below, and check out nokias own site for the 770, its silver metal case and its included pouch is just awsome.

    and of course, it runs linux! all my Ipaq and palm friends are very jealous!

    check out http://maemo.org/ [maemo.org] for more info.
    For screenshots: http://maemo.org/screenshots.html [maemo.org]
    Third party applications you can install at the click of a button: http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog [maemo.org]
    Another Nokia 770 site: http://www.internettablettalk.com/ [internettablettalk.com]

    • The N770 has no PIM suite! I repeat: no PIM suite.

      For me, this is a pretty fundamental omission. Someone is working on a GPE port. I'll probably buy one of these boxes when it can replace my Palm IIIxe. For now, I'm in the process of returning the one I borrowed from a friend. It's awesome, except for the one task I use a palmtop device for most often.

  • Biggest gotchas: flash slot and USB missing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MDMurphy ( 208495 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:43PM (#14242263)
    I'd be all over this as a remote tool using VNC to either my Mac or PC. The higher-rez screen than we usually see in something this small is the big appeal.

    Additionally, I'd use it as a portable viewer of some sort. But what kills it for me is that it doesn't have a standard USB host port or a standard SD or CF slot. Either/Both of those would let me plug in a memory card or thumbdrive and view/transfer/share the contents. RS-MMC is not going to cut it if you'd like to pop in the card from your camera and see images on the screen, and without the standard USB host connector you can't even use a cheap card reader to view. (a hack will enable host mode, but the connector won't be right and can't supply power by itself )

    Bluetooth and WiFi are great, but being able to read/write common external storage devices are important too. The lack of them is what killed it for me.

    • wifi and ssh? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by twitter ( 104583 )
      Bluetooth and WiFi are great, but being able to read/write common external storage devices are important too. The lack of them is what killed it for me.

      It's supposed to work with ssh. If that's true, you should be able to drag and drop your files from any computer using Konqueror.

      I've done similar with a Zaurus running OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org]. Using GPE, you can even run stuff via X forwarding, which is kind of fun, but silly if you are really intersted in a laptop replacement that fits into your pocket.

      Yes, having

    • It's not that hard to hook up just about anything that's supported in Linux over the USB. The connector is a standard mini-USB port and all it takes is connecting 5 volts to the power wires (black/red) within that cable to make it talk to any device (a F-F gender changer is needed so you can actually plug something into it). I've connected a flash reader, keyboard, and hard drive so far and I am loving it. Nothing else even comes close to the 770 in that regard! My next purchase will be a USB network

  • I think the problem with specialized devices like this is that everybody is going to miss that one feature that _they_ really need. So in the end, to please anybody, the device ends uphaving to be a complete computer like the OQO. And then people complain about feature creep, and why they have to spend money on all those features that _they_ didn't need.

    My missing feature: video out. With video out, I could bring this device instead of a laptop when I travel, and connect use it to run to presentations from

  • Handwriting Software (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Compholio ( 770966 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:44PM (#14242274)
    Does anyone know if Nokia will be releasing the handwriting recognition software or does anyone know of any good programs for an on-screen keyboard with handwriting recognition for Linux that's free?
    • Does anyone know if Nokia will be releasing the handwriting recognition software

      Graffiti like handwriting recognition comes and goes on OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org]. Rosetta and Xstroke have done the same. Why it goes away, I don't know, but when it's there it's about as good as Palm's ever was and WAY better than any M$ device ever dreamed of being. You should be able to apt-get it if it's available for use.

  • I expected the Nokia 770 to be another dud. But the review on it was not too bad. Too bad I already spent my mad money on a GP2X [wikipedia.org]. Else I might have gotten a 770, although by the time they quit being out of stock I'll have more mad money.

    I wonder how well the video chipset of the GP2X and Nokia 770 stack up against each other. It's sort of a shame the nokia didn't put some buttons on both sides of the device, maybe you could play some old games on it (1942, Galaga, etc). Also I wish support flipping the but

  • How does it compare to Dell? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Eccles ( 932 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:50PM (#14242324) Journal
    The x51V model (I think) has similar specs, and a faster Mhz processor (only 640x480 screen tho'); how do the two compare?
  • I was wondering. The extra bit of resolution would be nice but it sounds like it's underpowered, and the apps out-of-the-box aren't any better, so the main advantages would be lower cost, and that it's the current vogue while the Zauri are now hard to find. I hope they manage to sell a ton of them anyway, but my hopes have fallen a bit since this device was announced.

    What's with that RS-MMC crap that only Nokia is using? There is no way they couldn't afford the space for an SD slot. They are as bad as S
    • What's with that RS-MMC crap that only Nokia is using? There is no way they couldn't afford the space for an SD slot. They are as bad as Sony in this regard trying to push yet-another-memory-card that nobody has a good reason to buy.

      I'm right with you on that one. Using some bizarro memory-card format that's only used on some cellphones (I don't care if they're Nokia's cellphones) was the nail in the coffin of my interest in this device. I hope it's successful because I like the concept, but they shot thems
      • Here in Sweden, street prices for a 1 GB MMC RS [webhallen.com] seem to be virtually identical to those for MemoryStick Duo [webhallen.com] (around 700 SEK, around $88 US). Both of these are ~25% higher than for 1 GB of Compact Flash [webhallen.com], but I guess you get the smaller size for the extra money. In comparison to foreign prices, keep in mind that these prices include the Swedish VAT of 25%.
        • That's actually cheaper than I can find it in the U.S. for (and that price includes 25% tax??).

          Meritline.com [meritline.com], which traditionally sells media quite cheap, has a 1GB MMC-RS for $95 USD. A regular MMC costs $58 for the same capacity. CompactFlash is about the same -- however CF has the additional advantage of going all the way up to about 8GB also.

          The kicker for me is that if they had used a regular MMC slot, they would have given consumers the choice of either format, since you can put an RS-MMC into a MMC s
    • Perhaps this [linuxdevices.com] may offer one valid reason for not choosing sd. Not sure that RS-MMC is any better mind.

  • Sad (Score:2)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 )
    This is the state of mobile computing? Look how think that sucker is! How about a little style? Seems if I want to read something on the john I'm still going to have to print it out and shred it when I'm done. At least I get to make environmentalists cry.

  • Phone Function (Score:3, Interesting)

    by deconvolution ( 715827 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @06:59PM (#14242380)
    Nokia should integrate a mobile phone into this device. I could not understand why they are trying integrate everything such as contact list, calender, mp3 player, game console, even two digital cameras into one mobile phone whilst this is for nothing. Anyone who need 770 for serious purpose must realise each time he/she goes out for travel, he/she must carry one 770, one mobile phone, at least one charger and ear phone. She/he probably have to charge two devices every day. Every true mobile operation must take care two devices (770 and phone) in the same time....

    I will wait to check their next release...

    • Re:Phone Function (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DaveBarr ( 35447 )
      A good tablet is fundamentally incompatible with being a phone. A good tablet is flat, rectangular, and big enough to read a web page. A good phone is small, small, and small.

      It was plain good design that they a) didn't even try to make it a phone but b) made it dead simple to allow it to bluetooth off the awesome phone you already have. (If you don't have one by now, get one, they're everywhere). I'm tired of otherwise great phones that try and horribly fail at trying to browse the web (and mediocre

    • Why not get a Nokia 7710 [nokia.com] then?

  • Main site: www.nokia.com/770

    USA site: http://www.nokiausa.com/770 [nokiausa.com]

    Buy it here(on back order in US): http://www.nokiausa.com/add_nonactivated_phone_to_ cart/1,1890,p,00.html [nokiausa.com]

  • Maybe not if you like Java (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blueapples ( 614410 ) <isaac@b[ ]apples.org ['lue' in gap]> on Monday December 12, 2005 @07:27PM (#14242597) Homepage Journal
    128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.
    You have got to be kidding me. Considering the fact that the 68k mac was implemented using a 4 MHz processor with 4 MB of RAM and still somehow ran a GUI and was even capable of primitive multitasking with software add ons, I find this statement a bit hard to swallow.

    Remember Wirth's Law: "Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Maybe it'd help if the GUI toolkit was implemented in ROM instead of using GTK or whatever bloated "modern" system this is dependent on. Just to name one example of a poor implementation choice for a portable device.

    Besides all that, Delphi for instance is capable of producing executables under a few hundred K. You could install several of those on half of 128MB. Honestly, with a device that is meant to be connected to the Internet and thus able to take advantage of lockers, streaming audio/video, etc., I just don't see why the provided hardware shouldn't be more than enough.

    This thing is basically a powerful Apple Newton (as originally designed, not as it was released) with a disappointingly poorly implemented OS.

    • You have got to be kidding me. Considering the fact that the 68k mac was implemented using a 4 MHz processor with 4 MB of RAM and still somehow ran a GUI and was even capable of primitive multitasking with software add ons, I find this statement a bit hard to swallow
      The original Mac had 128K or RAM (64K of ROM) and used a 8Mhz (actually a little less) processor. That is not to take away from your core point however

    • Quit living in the past (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      For example: That Apple had something like 512x384 display, 1 bit per pixel. This has 800x480 with 16 bits per pixel. The ratio is 31.25. That would mean Apple with similar specs would require 125 MHz nowadays just to run the graphics on this thing. (And if you today try the good old Mac... Well, it really sucks.)

      Oh, and did it have a web, browser? Or any of these:

      Audio: MP3, MPEG4, AAC, WAV, AMR, MP2
      Video: MPEG1, MPEG4, Real Video, H.263, AVI, 3GP
      Image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SV

  • Comparison with zaurus (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I just picked up a Zaurus C1000 shipped from Japan for $380.
    640x480, keyboard, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, CF, SD, 416Mhz ARM cpu, USB host capable

    Your opinions will very depending on your use (note no built in networking on the Z), but I'd rather have the faster CPU than the slightly better screen and networking.

  • Quit whining... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mikiN ( 75494 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @09:45PM (#14243477)
    ..., start designing.

    On all the forums I visit I hear people whining about mobile devices having weak specs like insufficient RAM and slow processors.

    The answer that comes up eventually is this:
    - RAM, CPU and video chips eat power, raw.
    - People don't want bulky batteries in their mobile gadgets.

    These two are at constant odds with each other, so unless someone comes up with more energy-efficient alternatives for all the above-mentioned, I'm afraid we'll be stuck with things the way they are for a while.

    Quote from an interesting blog posting on MSDN (about the virtues of Persistent Storage on Pocket-PC's) [msdn.com]:

    A typical battery holds 1000mAh of charge. 128M of RAM takes about 500mAh to stay resident for 72 hours. 64M takes about 250. This is why you never saw a 256M WM 2003 device. It would have run for a minute then decided its batteries were critically low.

    So there you have it. If you don't trust the numbers (why should you, even if the article is quite recent?), look them up, then do the math.

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