TabletBlog.com by ThoughtFix

Matthew Miller of ZDNet Blogs responded to a popular article by TechCrunch outlining what they think is the ideal web tablet. Matthew says that it's already here in the form of the N800 and N810. Take a look at both articles and decide for yourself.

Further proof that the Internet Tablet community is awesome and can do anything: InternetTabletTalk forum member jmayson showed off his working installation of Windows 3.1 on the Nokia N810.

Can Apple's new holy grail emulate whole other operating systems? I think not!

CompUSA now has the Nokia N810 at $299. That's not bad for an 800x480 web browser with Flash, a Skype phone, an Email and chat device, a music and video player, and a GPS with a navigation upgrade. Nope. Not bad at all. I hope the international community gets some price-cut love soon too.

Update: There's already a thread on InternetTabletTalk discussing this.

With 232 votes cast and nine days left to vote, the current poll stands as follows:


The discussions in the comments are rather insightful, especially Karri's post on how developer space and telco space need to be divided. I hope more developers can chime in on this. Does anyone work on the OpenMoko platform around here?

In the comments to the last post, the mention of the iPhone price as "US $199" ticked off some readers. This is true: The iPhone will end up costing more over the life of the contract. The international price on purchase is also far more expensive. That should roll into the discussion about a 3G or WiMAX Nokia Internet Tablet: Does the lack of carrier service keep the "total cost of ownership" down and continue to give users freedom of carrier choice? I think so - but it comes at the price of filling another pocket. In the end, users must decide what is most important.

Please keep those comments coming!

On a rare rainy Friday morning in Phoenix, the AT&T store on Cave Creek and Beardsley in Phoenix had coffee, water bottles, some folding chairs, and donuts for those in line. The store only had 40 iPhones. I was number 37 in line. It finally activated later in the afternoon.

Without actual world experience, previous comparisons between the N810 and iPhone were incomplete. $199 is finally the right price point to make the purchase for the sake of comparison. After a few days, I see distinct advantages and deal-breaking disadvantages. I know that the tech crowd here is sick to death of iPhone coverage so any comparisons will be posted "elseblog." As soon as I have some, I'll post a link on TabletBlog - but only once.

Windows, most Linux distributions, and several mobile phone operating systems are available on devices from different manufacturers. We know maemo is open-source and other distributions use some of that code. With the trend to adopt fewer OS/firmware standards and the amazing Internet Tablet community accomplishments, is it too far-fetched to think that another device maker will come up with a device using the maemo platform?

For example: Nokia has long-since had the technology to make a GSM/HSDPA Nokia Internet Tablet. They have chosen to go against this despite popular demand and skip right ahead to WiMAX. Non-WiMAX markets are effectively cut out of this product progression. Besides the fear of Linux, what is stopping another phone maker to release an Internet Tablet running maemo?

Specifically regarding that example (and now with the ability to post polls) the options are as follows:
As usual, go directly to http://tabletblog.com to share your opinion.

The results of the last poll are in. Do you carry your Internet Tablet around with you?

InternetTabletTalk member qole posted the link and HOWTO, then Ricky of Tablet-Guru made a nice video overview.

Follow both links to see what all the buzz is about.

This hack, the Android installer, KDE and XFCE, and all the applications, hacks, and conversations make the Nokia Internet Tablet community full of awesomeness.

Speaking of the community: If you have experiences with the Internet Tablet Video Converter (especially the SDK,) please share them in the comments. I hope GOOD feedback will encourage Nokia to spend more time developing desktop application companions for this platform.

Tardy to the party post: It is widely reported that some brilliant minds over at InternetTabletTalk (great job, penguinbait and qwerty12) packaged Android to install properly on the Nokia N810.

In trying to do anything interesting with the install, I've failed. This is a great tool for developers, but only a curiosity for normal Internet Tablet owners so far.

In any event - it raises the question: Can Internet Tablets have non-maemo/OS2008 Linux systems available to them? We'll see. Any alternative Linux OS on a device serves to inspire innovation across the whole platform.

The GPS performance on the Nokia N810 is often criticized. This is for a good reason: It has historically taken a great deal of time to obtain a satellite lock. Often, GPS units could take between two and five minutes to get the first lock and under a minute to get subsequent satellite locks.

Diablo proports to have Assisted GPS support enabled. Often A-GPS is thought to require cell tower triangulation to help the GPS chip along in finding the right satellites. This is incorrect, however. A-GPS can use cell towers, WiFi, measurement of fragmented GPS signals, or even more advanced calculation of the signals it receives. A popular example of this is the Skyhook service on the iPod touch. Skyhook is not perfect, however - it still thinks I am sitting outside my old apartment when inside my new apartmet 30 miles away.

Regardless of the system used by the N810 in Diablo: It helps! The first GPS lock took a very long time, but subsequent tests were better. Here's a little overview:


Test 1: Start Wayfinder software in a moving vehicle from a fresh Diablo installation - 14 minutes to lock.


Test 2: Reboot the same N810 (power off/power on) and start Wayfinder (also in a moving vehicle) - less than 1 minute to lock.

Test 3: Do not use the same N810 for 48 hours. Drive 22 miles away from the last locked position and start Wayfinder software (from a stationary position) - 1 minute and a few seconds to lock.

Stay tuned for additional tests non-Wayfinder software.

After the most recent update to the ACCESS Garnet VM for Nokia Nseries, I decided to collect a bunch of the questions others have asked me and take that collection directly to them. While they couldn't answer all questions (as is normal when asking about product releases,) ACCESS Company gives us some insight on the purpose and goal of the Garnet VM. I thank them for their time in answering these questions.

ThoughtFix: The first version of ACCESS Garnet for Nokia Internet Tablets took many of us by surprise. What inspired ACCESS to provide this software?

ACCESS: The Garnet OS ecosystem is undoubtedly one of biggest in the mobile industry. Its success belongs to all the individuals who are part of the ecosystem, from the 25,000+ applications developers to the millions of consumers who use their products. We wanted to give all these parties the opportunity to keep enjoying this great platform and its huge software portfolio.

Additionally, we wanted to validate and enhance the compatibility level of Garnet VM by involving developers and end-users. With the Garnet VM beta version release, we will create a dedicated web page where users will be able to provide us with feedback on the applications they use.

This reinforces the value of Garnet OS applications to consumers and partner platforms. We are leveraging the development work we’ve done on Garnet VM for ACCESS Linux Platform to create an all-around win: Nokia users will have access to the thousands of great applications running under Garnet OS; it will give our loyal developers a larger installed base of devices; and it will enable ACCESS to fine-tune Garnet VM based on customer feedback.

Thoughtfix: Is this release primarily geared toward developers or consumers?

ACCESS: Both, as described above. We’re also looking to validate and enhance the compatibility level of GVM with the applications.

Thoughtfix: On the consumer side - One of the most essential aspects of the Garnet platform is desktop and informational service sync. Does ACCESS have plans to release a desktop counterpart for Garnet VM users?

ACCESS: We understand that data synchronization is a key feature. This is something we’re considering but we cannot speculate on future product directions.

Thoughtfix: How do you see the Garnet VM moving forward?

ACCESS: We will keep working on enhancing the compatibility with applications and plan to release another beta this year.

Thoughtfix: Can we get a glimpse of the Garnet roadmap both within and outside the VM?

ACCESS: We cannot speculate on future product directions

Thoughtfix: Can we expect a commercial release of Garnet that will turn any VM-capable device into a full Garnet system?

ACCESS: We cannot speculate on future product directions

Thoughtfix: Does the Garnet VM have the ability to share information (such as contacts, media files, Email messages, and alerts) with applications on the host machine?

ACCESS: The current version of Garnet VM does not have the ability to access data stored on the host file system or on a removable memory card. So it cannot access contacts, media files, etc. The results of our Garnet VM survey indicated that accessing the host file system/memory card is the second top most wanted feature after support for Full Screen. Now that the GVM beta 2 provides full screen rendering, this has become the most wanted feature.

Thoughtfix: Is there a way to make full two-way desktop-to-device synchronization work for ACCESS Garnet VM users?

ACCESS: Yes there is a way. The operation, which was very simple on Garnet based devices, is a bit more complex with GVM for many reasons. First, the only way to perform the sync procedure is over WiFi. This means that the network configuration between the desktop machine and the portable device must be correct. Second, the account used on the PC desktop must be a freshly created account as described in the GVM FAQ (which we recently updated with that regard.)

Thoughtfix: What else would you like the readers of TabletBlog.com to know about this product and ACCESS?

ACCESS: ACCESS is continuing to support Garnet and its ecosystem by incorporating it as one of four development environments in our ACCESS Linux Platform (the other environments being native Linux, Java and ACCESS NetFront Widgets). As with the Garnet VM for Nokia, ACCESS Linux Platform will allow developers and users to take advantage of the tens of thousands of existing software applications that run under Garnet OS.

If you notice is a little overlap in the answers: the interview was conducted by Email. This is my fault as my schedule did not permit the more personal interview they offered. If you have more questions, be sure to read the above-mentioned FAQ or even read the white paper (pdf link) to get information directly from ACCESS. Finally: Post questions and discuss this in forums. It sounds to me like ACCESS is watching user response to this more closely than we would have guessed.

Thanks again for the time, ACCESS and the Garnet team!