The Nokia N800
I just landed at Las Vegas 30 minutes ago.
It's out now. And this time we did the launch a bit differently -- you can go and buy one immediately; tomorrow at the latest. As you already know ;-)
There will be a lot of material and news available covering N800 -- so I will not repeat that all here. Some personal thoughts, though:
This is a natural next step in the evolution of Internet Tablets. I like the way it looks and feels, and software is improved. It's now more appealing for a larger audience. Some of the new goodies include video calls, enhanced connectivity that always finds an optimal way to get connected, combined media player for video and audio, improved web behaviour with e.g. updated Flash player, and improved general performance.
At the maemo application catalog, some of the old 770 applications will work -- and some of them won't. We'll get you the information at http://www.maemo.org/ .. some issues there still but we'll work them out. For example the new application catalogue is still here: http://test.maemo.org/applications and it is not functional. But soon!
You have all the tools & documents to make your own applications and components N800 compatible .... and yes, we do not like the break either, but it was necessary. The software is still so young and evolving that we needed to make changes that cause developers some extra work. So we try to do our best to help you with:
-launching a new Maemo 3.0 SDK for you and updating the whole maemo.org web site
-providing detailed documentation & tools for you to make you software N800 compaible
-running a developer program: we will sell 500 pieces N800s to key maemo developers at a discounted price of 99€. The most active maemo.org hackers should expect an email very soon!
We are making some progress here!
posted by Ari Jaaksi at 10:59 AM
27 Comments:
Congratulations, it looks like a nice evolution to the 770.
Has CompUSA breaking the embargo been a good or a bad thing? You effectively got free publicity, pre-CES, however at the expense (presumably) of annoying other retailers (and geographies).
As a developer, the most important question for me is whether OS 2007 is going to be backported to the 770 - or is it going to stay on OS 2006? Supporting two different OSes for each half of the user base would be "fun".
Also, how soon is "very soon" for the developer device programme email? If I was cheeky, I'd also ask if Maemo-related hacking like VidConvert counted towards eligibility, or just software ;-)
Congratulations :)
Will Nokia be offering a part-exchange deal for those people (like me) who bought the 770 on Day One? Otherwise I think I'll wait for the model after the next model after the 800.
But this is exciting stuff - no other competitor really comes close to this, and even the 770 is great for video and audio if you're willing to reencode videos on PCs.
Nick
Others might have been waiting for this, but I'm still positively surprised how soon a successor to my beloved 770 hit the stores. Happy to learn that Nokia improves and continues this line of devices.
As for the device itself: I have mixed feelings about it. There are some good news (speed, memory, SD-slots), quite a few bad ones (users report that the hardware buttons are far too small and don't respond well; they miss the metal sleeve etc.).
The worst thing from my point of view is an information from maemo.org: IT2007 is not compatible with the 770. Period.
I'd have expected something like this on any other platform. It's the usual routine with new hardware. But this was exactly the reason why I chose the 770: Nokia marketed it as a device built upon free software. This means that anyone can go, take the source, re-write the camera-part so it always returns a still image and re-compile it for the old CPU. You cannot do such a thing with proprietary systems, but you certainly expect it when the package boldly shows the Linux penguin.
This incompatibility deprives me of one of the key benefits of FOSS. One of the benefits that makes me use FOSS whenever I can despite of some quirks. - I'm not sure if we're on the right track here.
This post has been removed by the author.
You don't think penguin logo, should also be there on the device?
or
Should be provided as sticker for those who need it.
Great feeling :)
Dear Ari,
Can you explain nokia's pricing politics?
N800 price in US is 399$ and 399€ in Europe.
It seems, that euro and dollar rate for nokia is 1 and about 1.3 for the rest of the world :) http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/13/12/default.stm
Thank you
Will OS2007 be ported to 770? Or do you just try to force everyone to buy new device and pribe developers to new incompatible OS version with cheap devices?
...despite the fact that Nokia's actually based in Europe, so no export or customs stuff should be involved into the proce calculation... If it ever had been priced as high as the 770 (mine has 10 months and is in mint conditions..) or at 399/1.3 = 310 I would have gone for a N800 immediately...
You guys forget about VAT. Here in Belgium there is a 21% VAT and the N800 is €399, which means €329 without taxes. I'm stil not sure I'll upgrade my 770 though. I'll wait for MacWorld announcements first anyway... who knows ;)
Congratulations Ari! I was proud (and still am) to be a part of this effort!
You should definitely send one of those invite-emails to that guy who is working hard porting a decent email app to (currently) the 770. I don't remember his name but it's easily found on internettablettalk.
This article from Slate includes an interesting quick review of the N800 in the context of the iPhone announcement:
http://www.slate.com/id/2157400/fr/flyout
"[the N800] proves phone service is on its way to becoming one more application over a wireless Net connection. Instead of buying minutes, you'll buy a data plan for everything. In at least one way, then, the iPhone is already behind the times."
Good afternoon, Mr. Jaaksi!
My name is Pavel, I am from Moscow, Russian Federation. The Linux community here, in Russia, was very discouraged on decision to not sale Nokia 770 in our country. But now the rumor says that N800 model will soon be available in Russia, but nobody could tell when and where exactly. Even Moscow Nokia Flagship store managers couldn't help us.
Please, if you have any information on availability of N800 in Russia, tell us. We're looking forward to see this tablet here!
Hi, I'm from Russia, Moscow.I wonder, why Nokia does not sells this funny device here in Moscow?I'm definitely want to get one of these n800 :) but unfortunately can't find any.I do have Wi-Fi both at home and at job so it appears to be Right Choice (tm) for me.Furthermore, I do like Linux and it will be lots of fun to try to port something to this device, play with it's Linux, etc.
Please tell Nokia staff to supply these devices at least into Moscow where broadband rocks.I guess there will be quite lots people who buys it.
Btw, MS did few brutal mistakes (like lawsuit against school teacher), so lots of Russians are actually getting to hate MS and their products.Don't Nokia thinks it is right time to make its turn on this growing market?
russian linux community is strong. i think n800 and similar devices must be very popular in our country.
you can see lot of russian developers in maemo.org, handhelds.org and similar projects like openwrt.org.
i am a developer palmos applications for the pre- and van- selling, now my program is used at several hundred handhelds in a number of russian trading companies. n800 looks more attractive to these decisions, and i am pleased to rewrite these applications under linux.
and, of course, i want buy one n800 itself ;)
What about Ukraine? I bought 770 in Germany and I like to buy N800, but there isn't any information about N800 will sell here.
Dear Ari!
I'm from Kiev, Ukraine.
My 770 died tonight from infamous "white striped screen" (hardware?) issue.
I've been using it for less then 3 months since I bought it new on eBay, but it's OK, I was going to upgrade for N800 soon anyways.
The problem is: there is no N800 officially on sale in Ukraine.
I really don't want to became "happy" owner of two dead Nokia bricks (€800 total value) after next three months.
Is there any chances for buying N800 in Ukraine with manufacturer warranty anytime soon?
By the way, post-soviet countries such as Russia and Ukraine well-known as inexhaustible source of good software developers. There is lot of developers in here for historical reasons. I'm pretty sure you have some employed for Nokia :)
Making hardware freely available for local linux community can give Maemo development a good boost.
--
Sergei
I would love to use my N800 to access my company Bank of America account which requires a PKCS #12 user digital certificate, which the browser does not support.
Any ideas?
Dear Ari,
I believe that I have contacted you SEVERAL years ago when I was doing a report tracing back my Family Tree to Finland :)
I would like to congratulate you on all of your numerous successes.
My Name is Katie Jaaksi, if you get a chance: please send me an email. eurokatie@yahoo.co.uk
Yours in Success,
Katie :)
These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.
Just picked up an N800. Overall, it's a great device, but why, oh why, doesn't it include an application to synchronize Contacts with a PC (or even a Nokia N-series phone)? This seems to be such a glaring omission. Yeah, I know it's "an Internet tablet" and not a PIM or a PDA, but still... You have a fully connected handheld device with its own Contacts application, and no way for a user to sync it with the hundreds of contacts they undoubtedly have elsewhere already? Please tell me it's on the list of things due out in the next release.
I bumped into a couple people at OLS who said I could probably qualify for a discounted N800 since I wrote some of the software shipping on it. (I maintained BusyBox for a while and wrote a couple dozen of its applets.) That was the first I'd heard of it, and google brought up this as the top hit. But if there were only 500 it's probably gone through, and I never heard about it. Oh well.
Rob Landley
Thanks for the nice post!
I feel the same as all those guys from Russian Federation and Ukraine.
I work in Nokia offices in Poland, but can not buy this device in my country.
I want it, so I will buy abroad, but it is frustrating. I do not appreciate that distribution policy.
Could someone please provide a link where one can download
bash, csh, tcsh, sh, ...etc for
the N800?
Thanks,
JD1008 AT GMAIL DOT COM
nice post
i of the most desireable phone for me fo all times...
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