The Mobile Web Tablet» N800

Updated my N800 to OS2008

Erik Starck — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:49:44 +0000

Just finished updating my Nokia N800 from OS2007 to OS2008. What an improvement! The GUI is starting to take shape and find an identity if its own. The bundled applications are very good, for example the map application. Seems like the browser is a bit more stable as well.

So, how am I using the N800? Well, actually I use it mostly at home. The Sony Ericsson P1, together with Opera Mini, Google Mail and the built in web browser is a much better mobile solution. Why? It’s smaller, and more importantly: it can be used one handed.

Using the scroll wheel and changing the right side button to launch the task manager makes the P1 a very quick to navigate mobile device. I wish the N800 had a one-hand-mode…

A day at Hubbub with a mobile web tablet

Erik Starck — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:40:57 +0000

My newly purchased Nokia N800 web tablet together with, a somewhat larger, Apple bluetooth keyboard became my setup for the day during the Hubbub-conference in Stockholm yesterday.

I tried live blogging during the presentations but gave up. Partly because I didn’t really get up to speed with the WordPress blogpost editor in the browser on the N800 and partly because the Jaiku backchannel for the conference consumed most of my attention.

All in all, the N800 + BT keyboard combo worked fine. I mistyped some Jaikus (like this one), but could take notes without problems.

So, what about the conference itself?

It was arranged by nuStart, describing themselves this way:

nuStart was established by aspiring entrepreneurs from the National University of Singapore (NUS) who are on a one year internship program in various start-up companies in Stockholm. The program is a collaboration between NUS and Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska h??gskolan, KTH).

The conference was free and open for everyone. It gave a good overview of Stockholm startups, especially the ones coming from KTH. Add to that industry insights from veterans such as Ola Ahlvarsson and Hjalmar Winblad and you get a pretty good mix of content.

A big thanks to all the Hubbub-people for arranging the conference. Pictures from the conference are here. More here.

New toys: Nokia N800 and Apple Bluetooth Keyboard

Erik Starck — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 10:12:36 +0000

Got myself a true mobile web tablet yesterday: a Nokia N800. Let’s see if it will replace my Sony Ericsson/UIQ + Opera Mini-combo for doing all that micro-surfing to kill off dull moments throughout the day. Time will tell.

First impression: a much better device than the Nokia 770, which was a typical 1.0 showing great promises but failing to live up to them. Can’t say that the N800 is a high performer but it’s certainly faster than the 770.

Also got myself an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard to use with the N800, my Macbook and whatever needs a keyboard and supports Bluetooth HID. Will try it out today at the Hubbub conference.

(I’m also considering buying the QNAP TS-209. This is a small linux machine whos primary purpose is storage, but it also has a MySQL-server, a web server and a few other goodies running on it. Together with my Macbook, that’s two linux devices that will make my life a Microsoft-free zone.

Linux might never conquer the desktop, but it might very well take over everything else.)