Nokia 770 Internet Tablet PC

It only has up to Flash Player 6 which is built in, in it, and to the best of my knowledge and research at this moment of writting this review and I have done some, I can't upgrade it. Thus I can't play Youtube, Dailymotion, etc. on it or watch movies on it.
Maybe if somebody know how to upgrade it to the latest Flash Player or to atleast Flash Player 9 or maybe to something equivalent or comparable, I would ask them to please share that knowledge here.

Only 1 slot for a 2 GB small MMC Card.
Does not support the SD memory card type.
Does not support Skype.

slick , cool , fun , useful, works as claimed, not microsoft and that's a plus! easy to learn if you have half a brain, that's all i used the other half was watching tv. shop for best price. get free 770 software on line, most 800 will also work, get the free 770 video converter and buy lots of 2gig rs-mmc, great picture, record whole movies on 2gig with lots of space left over, change mem on fly as long as you are not accessing it!
shop shop shop now that the 800 is out i have seen the 770 from 50 to 275 dollars!

i don't find it slow, but perhaps my expectations were different that some people's. i think they may have expected a little laptop. i compare it to web surfing via my Nintendo Wii, and the 770 has a more stable wifi connection, is easy to type on, and is somewhat faster.

i've used the built in GoogleTalk to talk to friends long distance. they've indicated i sound marginally clearer when using a headset with a pc, but being able to walk around the house beats that.

i like this thing so much that i considered trading up to the newer model, but it doesn't have the metal sleeve the 770 does, and i decided the sleeve was a feature i really valued. it offers a high degree of protection and i love the way it slips into sleep when the cover is reversed.

i installed (free!) software to stream mp3s from my pc, and i plug the 770 into my stereos. it's almost worth the price just for that feature alone.

it's been very useful on trips too. some hotels have free wifi now.

i wouldn't recommend hoping to use the handwriting recognition features, a wealth of free maemo software (there isn't much, and some stinks), or sites that require an up to date Flash plugin (there's none), but i can't believe how many things the 770 does well for the price. this is the best purchase i've made in a long time.

the things i hate--probably the only thing--are the pc requirements for updating the software on it, and the lame Flash support (not Nokia's fault, but nevertheless).

This runs Linux really well. You can get to a command-line prompt just fine. There is quite a bit of software that can be downloaded to run on it. It connects to my WPA-secured 802.11g network easily, and it can also connect to unsecured 802.11 networks all over town. You can install an SSH client and also a server. It plays MP3 music out of the box, but for some reason you have to install a separate OGG music player. It would be nice to have a newer Flash player so that YouTube videos could be played - I understand that there is a "beta" version of the OS that does include a newer Flash player, but I'm not happy putting anything beta on a product that I use as much as I am using this one. I bought this one and am quite happy with it, but if I could afford it, I would probably get the newer n800-series unit - This is a good product. Recommended.

I bought the 770 as a cheaper eReader device for my partner. Turned out the upgraded os and the ablility to get access to all the Linux goodness made my Geek very happy. Turned out to be a great gift. With a Gig of SD card added and a new Kernel the memory and speed was vastly improved. The VPN works fantastic, the browsing regular sites is great and the screen is amazing.

Had I a choice between purchasing my present Palm T|X and the Nokia I would purchase the Nokia. Though the price I purchased it at made it worthwile.

I couldn't get it to connect to the cisco wirless net work at work I sent it back for a refund thats the only positive thing I can say I got my refund quick thanks amazon.

The device itself is awesome, I grab bunch of applications from maemo and install it with no problem as far as you know how to work with Linux command line.

So far I am 100% satisfied with the device and the price I paid for this thing.

The only reason that I gave 3 stars are, there is problem with the display in this series I guess, as once i had this problem I google it and found that there were lot of peoples were facing the same thing. In my case what happened was one morning when I woke up and tried to turn the device on, I saw only bright screen, I heard the sound which tells me that machine is booting up. but can't see anything on the screen at all, just white bright screen. I was very lucky that it happened to me on my 22nd day of purchase, so I returned it.

beside that this is amazing PDA on this price, if you really wanna spend less than $200.00 for PDA thats the device to go with.

Nokia 770 Internet Tablet PC

Nice device for surfing the web when you are out and about. I had a problem with the on button not working right, went to website and downloaded latest firmware and it fixed the problem. I had done an internet search of "power button not working" and saw others had same problem and followed suggestion to "get latest firmware".

It's nice because it is small and fits in pocket easily! 1/2 the thickness of psp. And I like the zoom feature so I can really zoom on sites and drag the pen around the screen (touch screen) . I thought my psp would be great for web surfing but it sucks, this is MUCH MUCH NICER!

Picked it up for 130 dollars. Everywhere I go, I have always been able to find FREE wi-fi so really nice to go to park, or mall or anywhere and surf the web and check email.

It elimates the need for taking a laptop to coffee shop or bookstore.

You can get a 2 gig card for it for about 40 bucks if you want to have movies on it , but I use my psp for that.

At this point no skype but you can use skype like gizmo service to make internet phone calls which I haven't done yet. The 800 does skype but it cost 350 dollars.

So if you want tiny internet in pocket with nice battery life, get it! :)

I bought this item from Amazon at a price below my expection. So, it is a happy purchase. Product came in just as I expected. I use it mainly to view webpages when I lay down on the bed. Also, I need it for a temporarily online solution to find a map or location. It is kind of slow, but has its value. I lived in NY, but hardly to find a hotspot to use it as it is just too slow. I believe N800 will solve the problem, however, it costs more than double of the money. Anyway, it give me a good alternative way to enjoy the convinient of internet. If you want the good experience, go N800. If just need a back up and you have time to wait for the downloading of the small pages, take this one.

Connectivity with WiFi is easy. Thanks to the 770's massive 4.13" diagonal, 800x480 pixel display, browsing and email should be quite comfortable. Excellent product

I bought this Nokia 770 internet tablet PC at the beginning of the month, and I love it. All of it's controls work great. very bright video, and getting your emails is a snap.
The only downside is the battery life. However, except for the battery, it's a great buy for the price.

I've only had mine for about a week, and I love it. Incredible device for the price. My main reason to get it (which it works well for) is to stream radio in other rooms of my house. I can listen to my favorite streaming radio stations anywhere my wireless signal reaches.

You can download a music player called Canolla with an iPhone like interface and listen to music or podcasts on the go.

Screen is ultra sharp and battery life is excellent. It makes a great eBook reader.

Another great feature is that it is open-source which means even if Nokia loses interest, there will still be a community of developers creating software for it.

I have never heard of this kind of tablet computer until the day I bought one. The moment I read the description, I knew that I had to own one. I have had it for over a month now, and I am still excited about it.

First of all, it is a tiny computer running a shortened version of Linux OS. You can install an X-term program, and then you can do most of the stuff you do on a linux box! Isn't it cool? (I am a Linux developer)

Wireless connection is effortless. It only took me a minute to set up the connection to my home wireless network. You can save the connection to be default, and the next time it will connect automatically when it needs internet connection. The boot-up time is very fast (~ a minute). I sometimes use the 770 to check my email quickly at home, because my desktop pc booting up takes for ever.

The large (800x480) LCD display is quite sharp. Reading an ebook on it is even more confortable than on a laptop PC somehow. You can play video, music and it supports most of the popular formats. If you install a small program called Simple Center (?), it also allows you to play music stored on your home computer. IM is also available, although I have not tried it yet.

The Nokia 770 a simple, easy-to-use internet vieweer with built-in browser and email client. It starts up quickly and has good battery life. It has built in Wi-fi and bluetooth connectivity. The downsides are periodic browser crashes (just disappears) and the display is unreadable in direct sunlight. I still give it good marks for casual / mobile indoor web browsing.

I purchased Nokia 770 for about $130. It is well worth it. If you are a Linux user you will really enjoy it. You can do things such as VNC and ssh to other computers, stream music and browse hard drives on other pcs. One think that it does not do easily is watch youtube and google videos it is possible but not very convenient (using uktube). It does play real player format so you can watch some things. Over all for the price it is great little device.

I would have given it 4 stars but couldn't resist adding one just because it is such a good bargain :) A caveat though - it seems that Nokia has stopped supporting the 770 so be prepared to accept some quirks that will remain unresolved. So this is definitely a closeout item.

To get the best use out of this device, you will need to install at least x-terminal in order to edit the opera.ini (increase cache) and opera.input (use the buttons to scroll right/left/up/down instead of jumping to the next link) scripts to improve the web surfing experience. As far as video playback is concern...well, after spending some time encoding some test videos, the best solution for me is to encode all videos in .rm format @ 240 x 144 for 256 DSL. The resulting file is smaller than .avi and playback is smooth. There is also no sync problem between audio and video and you don't have to install additonal software to make it work. You may have other solutions but that's why this is fun!

Be very afraid of spending $270 on this product. After only one month it died on me and has to be sent back in. To make matters worse, Nokia will not warranty it b/c they claim it does not have a valid WLAN#, meaning that it was not meant for sale in the US? WTF!? I live in Florida, and ordered it directly from Amazon, so I cannot figure out how that happened? Anyways, I am sending it back to Amazon for a replacement, who has so far said that they will exchange it. We will see what happens...

I was a little skeptical at first. I didn't think the device would be life changing. Well, I was able to get the device for about half off, so I took the plunge. What I found was a portable Internet tablet that allowed me to freely surf the web around the house. I even took it to the bathroom. This device isn't like a Windows Pocketpc; its web browser application allows you to see a web page in its original form instead of the stripped down version to save memory on your Pocketpc. I was able to find free video content on the web (a Betty Boop cartoon) to play on the device. Also I downloaded some Internet radio talk shows encoded in MP3. Both media played fine on the Nokia 770. If you're going to get this device be sure to get a RS-MMC memory card, I would say a minimum of 512MB, to allocate more memory for your device and to store your media content.

Now, I don't think this device is worth $400.00, unless you are addicted to the web. It is the only device in this price range that can give you a good web surfing experience, the only other options are a small handheld type of computer like the one Sony makes and the OQO. These devices are portable and can be held in your hand, but they are pricey costing around about $1,500. So for some this device might be worth it. I still feel that it should be priced at about $249.

All in all, I have to say that the device has proved to be life changing for me.

I just bought the Nokia 770 for $130 from an internet store. I love the fact that there is a Linux based mobile device out there now. The browser works great if the websites do not have much animation. Have not tried out the email app but love the internet radio and the chat client. There are lots of add on application for the Nokia 770 available as open source. I downloaded the PIM app and it seems to work great. I have two minor gripes about the device - a) the screen has a grainy appearance (especially if the background is white) and the installed RAM is too less (if you want to run multiple apps simulteneously). However, the device is good value for money at the above price.

I picked up one of these for $140 from a major internet retailer. I expect that the introduction of the Apple phone plus the availability of a newer Nokia tablet lead Nokia to dump these.

Well, it's a pretty good tool/adult toy, and I can recommend it at the closeout price.

The killer app for me is the Voip -- internet phone capability. I installed Gizmo, a Skype clone that works on this unit. Allows me to call landlines in France for 2 cents per minute. Voice quality is quite good, you just talk at the unit and it talks back, no additional headset required. Really that function is worth the price of the machine for me.

Number two advantage for me is the internet radio -- I have bookmarked a dozen stations, they come up fast and clean, I am playing them via a connector out of the Nokia headphone jack through my component system and quality is just fine. The supplied headphones deliver good sound as well.

There is a media streamer app so if you have D Link or Windows Media connect on your main computer it will stream music for you from your main machine onto your tablet -- have not yet tried the video stream.

Less exciting is the Internet browser, it is just too inconvenient to be of genuine use except in cases of dire necessity. When you get to my age (65) less (font size) is not more. Also the browser is kind of stripped down, AOL hates it and will not let me retrieve my mail, which was my erstwhile reason for the purchase in the first place. There is an email program. I tried to set up a Google gmail account but got tied into knots with POP protocols, and Google does not have specific setup help available for the Nokia

But I like the phone and the radio so much that I am happy anyway. If those are the main things you want then the 5 stars are deserved.

Bought a 770 as a birthday gift and it stopped working after a few minutes. It fired up and I entered setup info (time,date,etc.), then it wouldn't/couldn't find my wireless internet, so no connection was ever established. Now the screen comes on, but nothing comes up on the screen except for 2 vertical lines. Returned to store and have bought another to replace it. When it comes in, I'll update this review ( provided that one works ).

A great device for keeping in touch. It can connect using either a Wifi (802.11b/g) network or via a Bluetooth capable mobile phone's data service. In addition to the internal memory, a RS-MMC (Reduced Size MMC) card can be used (up to 2GB) to add more storage space. Since the device uses Linux, additional utilities/applications can be downloaded and installed.

I think that the Nokia 770 is a useful device, but with the lack of a integrated keyboard and the OS (that is a little bit slow to react) are strong cons...

The 770 is easy to use and I was able to connect via bluetooth with my motorola phone easily. However, I did find that it does have web surfing limitations. It didn't work with several airline websites that I use and it also didn't work with several financial institution websites. Another issue for me was that you cannot stream video (news web sites for example) or music (sirius on-line). Because of these issues, I returned it because it couldn't perform the basic things I needed it to do. The new N800 seems to have resolved some of these issues and I will try that one instead.

The quality of this device is fantastic. The device is built well and is very easy to use. This is a perfect portable internet radio with fantastic sound. The only limitation is the fact that it will not stream Windows Media player files.

I high recommend this product.
The thing that wil be very succesfully is more aplications for the tablet.
But in general all existing aplications works very good.

This is an awesome internet tablet. It is easy to use and the product is well thought out.

need to be a big and good at it geek,to update it,i am not one!,so my 770 locks up all the time,and offs its self all the time ,i had a n800 but it did the same thing !we take it back to get my $back ,but can not get my $ back on the nokia 770 to late to do that i wood if i kud, a call to nokia to get help was a big bad one !nokia says it is a cellphone!!all the time we called no help at all!and it is not a nokiausa thing so you can not get help from us at nokiausa for it so call nokia uk to get help!!!we do not sell it in usa as of now!! but its a cellphone!all the time! you wood think? by haveing a nokia n800 by now !! its not a cellphone but it was still one at time i/we called !!,[had new one befor you can get it all over the net !( thank you COMPUSA) so i ran back to get my $ back on the new one!!can not on the nokia 770!
i/we LOVE IT TO BUT IT LOCKS UP A LOT AND YOU CAN NOT UP DATE IT AT ALL,need to be a geek to do that,andi,am not,AND NOKIA WILL NOT LET YOU DO IT at nokia site, IT NEEDS FLASH 8 and FIREFOX TO WORK, OPAREA IS NO GOOD and no updateing of it at all i,am usingit to do this its not that good at it?but welove it,for now ?it works fine on line but not all sets work needs flash badly and firefox not oprea, and can not get google talk to work at all and calling nokia to get help, we can not help you its not a cellphone and you can not do that on it!nokia is sobad at helping !you out

I've been very happy with my Nokia770. I've read reviews for weeks and when I finally got one, I have to say that it is even better than I expected. With great sources of 3rd party apps, the Nokia 770 really shines. I love the PIM 3rd party software and the browser and media capabilites.

NOKIA 770+ Internet Tablet Handheld PDA

Internet Tablet OS 2006 Edition


Popular Science

Make the open-source Nokia 770 Internet tablet do anything

By Joe Brown and John Mahoney

Imagine a gadget that fits in your back pocket and lets you surf the Web anywhere, write documents, make VoIP calls, watch movies, and listen to your entire music library. That's not exactly what Nokia had in mind when it released the 770 a PDA-size Internet tablet with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. But because the device has an open-source operating system, anyone can build new programs for it, endowing it with nearly endless functions (we've nicknamed it the HackBerry).


Operating System

Wikipedia

The operating system is a modified version of Debian GNU/Linux (running Linux 2.6.12), including a graphical user interface (an X window manager incorporating the GTK+ toolkit and Hildon widgets), a PDF viewer, the Opera internet browser, with BusyBox replacing many system commands. The development platform for the Nokia 770 is known as Maemo. The Opera web browser and built in video/music player applications are capable of supporting the following file formats:

Audio: MP3, RealAudio, MPEG-4, AAC, WAV, AMP, MP2
Image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, Animated GIF, SVG Tiny, ICO
Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RealVideo, H.263, AVI, 3GP


Maemo

Maemo is the application development platform for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.

[Google "Maemo"]


Reduced Size Multi-Media Card (RS-MMC)

Many owners recommend a 1GB RS-MMC card.

Search: 1GB RS-MMC 1024MB by SanDisk



Nokia N800

Walter (WSJ, 2/22/07) isn't crazy about it but says, 'The new one is speedier, more powerful, thinner and lighter, albeit a bit longer.'... and 'Web browsing is a pleasure ...'

As always, check prices with J&R and other vendors.

Takk så mye!

I find it comical when I read reviews from people trashing the Nokia 770 because it's not a good PDA or a good music player or a good blah, blah, blah.

People - this is an INTERNET tablet. That is what is was designed to do the best. And it is awesome as a web browsing device. The reviewer Sunny who says that the browser constantly crashes must have a corrupt operating system or a hardware problem. I've had the device for almost a year now and it has been rock solid. I have only had the device freeze up once on me that entire time. The wireless connection is stronger than the two laptops that I have. And I love the beautiful display this device has.

By the way, I love the other options that Nokia threw on this device like the Video player and the audio player. While the video player doesn't match the latest version of Windows media player, it does the job. But, once again, if you want to use a device as a media player or as a PDA, you probably don't want the 770. But as a portable, internet web browsing device, there's nothing out there that is better.

I have had this more than a year and kept up with all upgrades including the latest OS2006. I have not installed any applications except xterm. All built in apps work fine except for the browser which tends to freeze the machine and reboots it. This happens quite often - about once every 5 to 10 web pages. Another problem is that it tends to loose WiFi connections requiring me to disconnect and reconnect. Bluetooth works fine but still crashes with the browser. I've disabled everything on the browser like cache, all plugins, etc but no luck. I even configured the device as root but still crashes. It seems to crash randomly regardless of web content. Seamed like a hardware problem but another review above stated similar symptoms. Also Walt Mossberg's review from Wall St Jrnl cautioned on reliability. So it looks like a systemic issue that Nokia has to address. Normally, I would expect Unix derivatives to be very stable but this device proves that wrong. I would not recommend this product untill Nokia addresses this problem. I just purchased a windows mobile 5 device (HTC-8125) and its browser is rock solid. Just wish a WM5 device comes out with a screen as good as the nokia's.

I have had my 770 for a week now. It works great. The key is to download the free open source applications from Nokia. I am using a to-do list manager and note taking software that lets me write hand written notes.

I recommend this device to anyone.

Ordered this from Nokia and kept it two days. The positive is ease of WiFi internet connection and bright screen. Applications are not state of the art and it does not permit connection to all cell phones (it connected to a Nokia but not the Blackberry via bluetooth). A good concept but not yet a keeper. Better to use a small notebook computer in my opinion.

Because of my work and my hobbies, I'm always trying to test new devices, specially the portable ones. I was following the Internet Tablet until it finally got available and could sold my Treo 650.
The OS is quite stable, but some pages make the browser crash and it shuts down.
Sometimes the wifi needs to be restarted because looses conectivity.
And finaly, there is too little software available and the rs-mmc is unnecesary small for not a quite small unit with the consecuences of only 1GB available for upgrade (I thing that 2GB has been released).
The good is the price, always on (you dont have to turn it off, just put it in the case), and the screen of course.
I almost forgot. The size of the system fonts is too large, and some applications like e-mail becomes a problem as you cannot see all the colums.

But for the price and having a great time at hotspots, it worth it.

The easy wifi+bluetooth, viewing screen, battery life, ease of use all add to a great product. That's just Out of the box.
For more apps and better improvement go to maemo.org to get a development's perspective.

Not for the average user...yet - There is still a great need for better app support though 2006 tablet edition could be the answer look for the beta version now or the official later this summer.

Still if you want something VERY portable (better than ultra) that will give your internet access via WIFI or Bluetooth (through your cell phone-connection charges apply) There's not substitute for the money!

If you're on the fence about buying the Nokia, here's a few things to come in mind.

First, the current OS is still a work-in-progress, but it's already developed a huge amount of geek interest and support. In midJune they just released the beta of the 2006 OS, and the actual release is expected in the next month or so.

Now here's the good news. People on the Nokia 770 bulletin boards have been absolutely raving about improvements they've noticed in the 2006 Beta. Adds VOIP support, Google talk, alarms for the Personal Information Manager, better interface, better package manager. (On the flip side, many of the apps for the 2005 version need to be respun--apparently no big deal though). Oddly, they had a fully functional microphone which they never enabled until the 2006 version of the OS.

On the software side, they've added a better contact app (which is still not great). The GPE open source application has undergone substantial improvements, and now that 2006 has alarms, that solves a major gripe people have had. FBReader is now the premier ebook reading program capable of reading PDB, HTML, RTF, TXT and FB2 files.

So before you buy, you might want to look up the improvements due to happen on the 770 real soon. And be pleasantly surprised. Now's a great time to buy the nokia, because the device is just about to hit its stride.

One of the best gadgets I've ever bought. I spend more time with my n770 than my wife!!

This is a great product - bottom line. It provides on-the-go Internet access around the house, at work, and while out and about. Instant start up - no waiting. It is very small and sleek. I absolutely love it. Be sure to pick up a 1GB RS-MMC card when you buy the unit so you can carry some music and movies around with you. Does the job well and best of all it is OPEN SOURCE - LINUX. The new operating system will be available in June 2006 and things will be even more exciting. Don't wait - Buy it !

This device works very well. I had no trouble associating with my wi-fi at home or work. Downloading content and browsing is better than expected. Email and RSS feeds are easy to setup, download, and view.

You can only expect so much from a small screen but, for reading email, news clips and quick checks to Google, Wikipedia, or simple web browsing it has worked great for me.

Nokia 770 was smaller than I thought it would be. The nicest part is that it found my wireless network just fine and the browser works. Downside is that performance is generally sluggish for a memory based device. Displays web pages nicely but not very quickly. Email app looks nice but also is sluggish and is missing some key functionality to really use it. Instant on is really instantaneous. I see this as a web browser to keep near the couch. Newsfeed feature is pretty good also. Some games are in progress from outside vendors but only buy this for an instant on browser. There is functionality to make it work with your bluetooth phone but I have not tried it. A faster processor and a little more memory (64mb vs 128 mb) would create a much better feel to the product.

I really liked this one. Wifi setup is so easy. The device picked up the wifi signals around my house so well, better than my Sony Vaio VGN T140 P/L, unbelievable for such a small wifi device to beat a top rated Sony Vaio notebook on picking up weak wifi signals.. I tried several wifi USB adaptors and all of them are worse than Nokia 770's. Setup the WPA was so smoothly. I got on to yahoo, google, fidelity, etrade... no problem at all.
the only thing I don't like is the size of the words are too small to read when it is in full screen, but after I zoomed to 150%-200%, no problem for me to read at all.
I tried to change the homepage, but the device did not let me change it.

The battery life when I was surfing the web, was over 3 hours so far. Good. It is a better design than OQO at greater price.
In future, I would like to see a larger screen and higher memory and to support different languages other than english.
Couple of hundreds $ more, no problem. Nokia 770, I love you.

I'm a bit of a geek, and have been waiting for a *good*, under US$500 "real" computer that fits easily in my pocket.

Nokia delivered.

The 770 oozes quality, with a solid but not too heavy feel. WiFi performance is excellent - it picks up more neighborhood networks than any desktop in my home, and connecting to mine (ahem) was simple and quick. Downloading is FAST.

Put an RS-MMC card (up to 1 GB; a 64 MB is included) in the slot and connect the 770 to your desktop via USB, and it acts as a disk for transferring media or office files. The removable battery is also a nice touch; my PDAs usually required factory assistance in case of rechargable battery failure.

The 800x480 display is simply gorgeous, and well-supported with the dedicated "Full Screen" and zoom / unzoom buttons on top (in audio apps, zoom / unzoom becomes volume control). A "normal" 3.5 mm headphone jack makes the unit suitable as an MP3 player as well (my Palm has a "small" 2 mm jack for which headphones are hard to find).

First charge took about 4 hours while using the WiFi heavily; unplugged, the battery gauge dropped to half in about 2 hours. With WiFi off (a single click), I haven't budged the battery gauge yet.

The included Opera-based browser works exceptionally well. Video, audio and Internet radio worked glitch-free out of the box, and the other included software has been stable and reasonably functional.

Since it's based on very popular standards (*geek speek alert*: Debian Linux and GTK+ aka Gnome graphics), a LOT of software is already available for the 770, including productivity apps, games, and 2 Personal Information Managers. Neither PIM holds a candle to Palm (yet), but both are in active development and free. DON'T buy the 770 if that's your primary use, though - if the screen is off, you won't get an audible alert for your meeting (I'm told this is a software rather than a hardware omission).

As with all Debian-based Linux's, installing or removing an app is trivial - two clicks, almost identical to installing or removing an extension in FireFox. And, of course, no reboot required.

A few other "1.0" artifacts keep it from 5 stars: The runtime memory is a bit low, allowing only 4 or 5 programs before a "Low Memory Event" tells you to close something (of course, my Palm can only run one program at a time, so maybe that's a feature). The stylus is flat rather than round, and can only be removed if the case cover is moved a few millimeters first (a small notch is needed here). And although the unit has a surprisingly good speaker, no provision is made for a microphone, built-in or external - an odd omission for a phone company product.

Those qualms aside, however, I'm generally very pleased with my new "Tablet PC in a Pocket". Now, any time I drop into Starbucks or another WiFi-ready location, I'm ready, too.

Purchased mine from Nokia for $360 (didn't mind the wait) less a coupon of $50. Outstanding value for the price. Coupla glitches though (I am a SysAdmin). Most important: If you are planning on using the Bluetooth connectivity to "dial out" through your Bluetooth-capable phone and a data cellular account, be prepared for considerable frustration. Read the boards. It simply does not want to "pair up" to other devices (in my case, a Sony Ericsson P910a smart phone with T-Mobile data service). As of today I have not been able to get it to pair with the P910a. My notebook pairs and can use the Internet through the P910a just fine. However, the P910a is a Bluetooth 1.1 specification. The Nokia is a Bluetooth 1.2 specification. That shouldn't matter, but others report problems with Motorola phones too. The second issue is an issue, not a problem. The OS is, of necessity, simplistic (after all, it isn't a notebook PC for $1,000!). It does everything it says it will do (exception noted above) but there isn't a bunch of flexibility. The browser (Opera) works fine (bit spooky with some stylesheet depiction, but so are other browsers). WiFi is FAST. Connectivity with WiFi is easy. Some other posts claim the WiFi is weak. Not so. It picks up my entire neighborhood and office park! My new HP WiFi notebook can't compare! Screen is bright and easily visible. External (non screen) browser controls are a great benefit. Battery lasts quite a while. E-mail function works well. There are enough tunable parameters to satisfy most e-mail users (corporate servers, etc.) I don't care about "entertainment" but there is a sample video film trailer which is smooth and clear, and the MP3 player works well. No camera - thank you Nokia - so it can be used in a corporate environment. First additional purchase needs to be a screen protector for this large screen. The screen keyboard is great and easy to use. It would get a solid 5 if it weren't for the Bluetooth problems.

This is really a pretty cool device, kind of like having a portable internet connection, with the ability to browse the internet and make emails.

WHat is PARTICULARLY impressive is the relatively large screen size, amazingly large for an item that is meant to be small enough to stick in your pants pocket. The graphics are clear. You can listen to music, store files, check email and browse the web.

Specs are:

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
* OS based on Debian Linux, Nokia has made all their changes open source as the "maemo" project
* 4" 800×480 touch-screen
* 64MB memory plus RS-MMC card slot
* Size: 141mm x 79mm x 19mm
* Weight: 230g

It is NOT a phone (yet) but it is set to be able to make calls pretty son using VOIP technology when a software upgrade comes out in 2006 and then it will also do IMS at that point - pretty cool! . Until then, you'll have to be satisfied with what it can do as far as searching the internet and listening to music. If yo like the "latest" thing, this should keep you entertained.

By the way, it is also hard to get. Sold out everywhere but that ought to change after the holidays. When VOIP and IMS become available for this device and if they are reliable, I'd upgrade my rating to a 5.