Re: [NTLK] Nokia 770

James Grubic wrote:
> It all depends on what you want to use it for.
>
> My immediate need was for reading eBooks and mild web browsing, and for
> that it is perfect. I was tired of constantly scrolling on my Treo.

My original 770 is now lying next to my bed and serves time as a
dedicated ebook reader. It doesn't have the battery life of an e-ink
device (6-8 hours, depending on the brightness), but that glorious
220dpi display more than makes up for it.

> The web browsing seems to take a few seconds to connect to the WiFi, and
> a few seconds to display. It's not enough of a delay that I would gripe
> about it, since it serves its function at a small size.

If you use it as a web browser, it's perfectly okay to leave the WiFi
connection on all of the time. The WiFi power management of the 770/N800
is actually quite nifty and I found that just leaving it on doesn't add
significant suckiness to the battery lefe.

> I do agree that the handwriting recognition is unusable, but I am fine
> with the keyboard for now. As I said in my original post, I will need to
> play with deleting all of the HR presets and start anew to really figure
> out if the HR deficiency can be solved. A long-time Newton user who
> depended on the HR will no doubt be very disappointed.

I found that on the N800, with the second-to-last firmware (I haven't
dared to upgrade to the last iteration, because it can destroy memory
cards!), the handwriting recognition is on par with Decuma Alphabetic on
my Sony Ericsson P910i phone: It still blows baby chunks compared to my
MP2100, but at least it is now marginally usable.

Interestingly, someone has already developed a proof-of-concept
iPhone-esque (<spit!>) keyboard, with the popup letters. If hooked up to
  Meamo's word prediction algorithms, this might be interesting (for
those that like the iPhone (<spit!>) paradigm, that is.

> A few people who contacted me off list were also looking for something
> to simply read eBooks. I have absolutely no problem recommending it for
> that purpose. The FBreader programs allows greater customisability in
> the UI than any other eBook reader I have seen. It can't read encrypted
> eBooks, however. The screen as mentioned is gorgeous.

Yeah. Once again I appear to have reacted before reading the entire post.

Maybe a h4xx0r tip: While ereader encrypted *.pdb books cannot be read
with FBReader, there are programs to be found that will unencrypt and
translate *lit books. You just didn't hear that from me, right?

> The N800 seems to have a larger form factor and I don't like the silver
> case. The black casing on the N700 is less obtrusive. The protective
> housing that comes with it is very thoughtful and will no doubt extend
> the life of the unit.

True, but the N800 is significantly better as a videoplayer. It's a
shame Nokia dropped the 770's cover though. Then again, the N800 has a
built-in stand, which is great for reading while wolfing down a hamburger.

-- 
Karel Jansens
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