n800

Herewith my Grassroots Open Mobile Web presentation (original PDF) that I presented Monday April 14, 2008 at the Open Web Vancouver conference.

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Presentation Links:

• Chumby
• Bug Labs
• How a Bug could save the US Government 100s of millions of dollars
• Bunnie's Blog about awesome Chumby hacks
• OSGI Java components whitepaper (used on the Bug)

The presentation was a lot of fun to put together and present. Next year, I hope to present a followup with my musings on the actual real Bug and any OSGI Java components that I manage to get working.

I love my iPhone (which I paid for with my own money and am still glad I did) because:

• it's beautiful and so is the interface
• the web browser is great, gmail and google reader work well
• the switching between WiFi and EDGE is seamless
• SMS interface is great, so it was great when I was out of Canada and didn't have access to affordable data and wanted to communicate with fellow SXSW attendees
• the voice call interface is great

I hate my iPhone because:

• the 2 mega pixel camera s*cks
• no video, i need video!!!!!!
• it's closed at the moment so there's no ShoZu, I need ShoZu! I am addicted to ShoZu's ability to post photos of the kid to my private flickr account and other pictures to my public flickr account

If the iPhone had a 5 megapixel camera and video and ShoZu was available for it, I'd switch in a heartbeat and use it all the time for everything. As it is the phone in my pocket is my N95-1 provided by the Nokia Blogger Relations program (thanks!) and the phone that i would buy with my money if I lost my iPhone and N95-1 would be one of the N95 North American versions.

Having said that I also have a love/hate relationship with my N95-1

I love my N95-1 because:

• It runs ShoZu which has literally changed my life. The ability to "photo-document" my life in real-time has been and continues to be amazing. And if ShoZu ever integrates with Twitter and gets Facebook status updating working, I'll never have to use SMS again when I am in Canada which would be no big loss since I am not a fan of SMS (or paying for messages, I just want to pay for the bandwidth I consume, SMS rates are a ripoff.)
• It runs Qik and similar 'live from the phone videocasting' apps. Qik, flixwagon et al are killer apps over WiFi and 3G!
• It's "open" (since you can only develop 1st class applications using Carbide which only runs on Windows and uses the archaic and silly C/C++ combo, it's not fully open in my book; the whole certificate model and the fact that the amazing hardware on great devices like the N93 is crippled by missing certificates for Python so you can't really access the full power from more modern and dynamic programming environments like Python means Python et al are second class citizens on S60)

I hate my N95-1 because:

1. S60 is not truly open (see the Python problems mentioned above). Hoping for a re-focus around a Linux core e.g. using Maemo from the N770, N800 and N810 Internet tablets.
2. S60 is clunky, hard to use and a maze of twisty little menus and apps are constantly moved around each firmware release. I have taught many people who just got their S60 phones how to use their devices. you don't have to do that with an iPhone which while not perfect is much, much easier to use.
3. It doesn't have enough RAM so ShoZu occasionally hangs and a reboot is required (granted this has become a lot better in the latest N95 firmware updates thank goodness!)
4. The display is too small. As big as the iPhone or VGA please!

Looking for a gift for a Canadian Social Geek? Then you are in luck. I'll show what's cool and give you a tour of the difficulties of being a Canadian Social Geek (there's no such thing as free trade in reality between Canada and the USA since it's even harder now than in the past to get gadgets over the border)

1. N95-1 Nokia Cameraphone ($650 from dell.ca)? Why because you can upload awesome cameraphone pictures automatically with suspend/resume to flickr for free over Wifi using ShoZu (every social geek knows where to find free wifi) and if you are rich you can do it over EDGE. Be sure to get your geek to upgrade the latest N95-1 firmware update which makes the phone much more stable when using ShoZu. And if you are really rich get an N95-3 ($619 US from Amazon USA) and upload over 3G over the r*poff Rogers and Fido 3G Network. Oh and you can do great videos but there's no automatic video upload solution (ShoZu will automatically upload 10MB videos which is far too little since that's less than a minute of full res video on the N95). Why not Sony Ericsson? Because ShoZu doesn't work so well on their phones (granted Sony phones take great pictures, better than the N95, it's just their software is even cr*ppier than Nokia's and even harder for 3rd party developers). Trust me your SGeek will love the quality of the N95 pics!
2. Apple iPhone - $US399 from Apple USA + about 150 bucks including shipping for a Hardware SIM unlock so it can work in Canada - lousy pictures but the most usable phone the world has ever seen for SMS, web browser for twitter, utterz, jaiku, etc. Notice how there are no CDMA devices on this list. That's because CDMA s*cks :-) (at least the Canadian and US implementations of CDMA s*ck, the fact that there are no SIMs means CDMA users are forever enslaved by the CDMA carriers) and even if it didn't there are no cool devices for it. Sorry Windows Mobile and RIM aren't cool and email is great but it ain't overly social :-) !
3. Chumby - display your friends flickr pictures and RSS feeds on this cute truly open hardware and software device - $179 shipped only to the US (but you know somebody in the USA you can ship this to right?)
4. Eye-Fi WiFi SD card ($US 99)- if you can't afford an N95-1 or 3 then this is the next best thing. Your point and Shoot or Digital SLR with SD to CF adapter = poor man's ShoZu. It ain't ShoZu because it doesn't have suspend and resume if connectivity is lost but it's the next best thing and the 2nd fastest way to get your pictures social. Ahem, not available in Canada. Buy in the USA at Walmart, Amazon, Costco.
5. One Laptop per Child (give one and get one for $US 400 and they ship to Canada, hallelujah!) - cool Linux laptop with built in mesh networking
6. Canon Digital Rebel XTi ($650 with decent kit lens but get the 50MM too):
   Rebel Xti + EyeFi Card and CF to SD adapter + Canon 50 MM f1.8 lens (about $100) + ISO 3200 + f1.8 = shoot in almost dark conditions and upload to flickr over wifi the moment you get to one of your locations with WiFi e.g. your house or work, the Nikon D40 is also an awesome camera but it doesn't take the Nikon 50MM lens so it ends up being more expensive (coz you have to buy a 3rd party 50MM fast lens or similar lens like the Sigma 30MM F1.4 to get a fast low light prime lens)
7. Nokia N800 ($274.99 from dell.ca) or N810 Linux (only available in the USA!) Internet Tablet - great for mobile blogging, twittering, jaikuing etc, also does mobile Skype very well! The N800 has two SD slots for a maxium total of 16GB of storage; the N810 has one slot but has a keyboard.

I am not a big fan of keyboards on mobile devices (nor mobile email, i get enough email (hundreds/day like everybody else!), if you want to reach me, SMS me or call me) but if the keyboard is easy to use and doesn't make the N800 successor too thick (I like the N800 form factor), I might actually like it!

From TabletBlog.com by ThoughtFix: Third Internet Tablet a slider - Confirmed!:

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Remember the photo above from Engadget? Click that link for more of them. Well - there's now a VERY good chance that it could be an early prototype of the third Internet Tablet. So this whole post was probably wrong.

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The N800 together with Skype and WiFi makes a great "long distance telco route-around device". I have used my N800 to call people on their land lines in Belgium and California and Seattle from Vancouver over my WiFi at home (802.11b on an aging Airport) and it works fine!

Welcome back to blogging, Russ! Gotta try this iPhone like keyboard for the Nokia N800.

From RussellBeattie.com - Open Mobile Systems Rock:

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Very cool - someone has already implemented an iPhone-like virtual keyboard for the Nokia N800. How great is that!? Check it out here.

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Yes! Sign me up for the beta in July! Can't wait for Skype on the N800! Looking forward to doing a head to head comparison versus Gtalk and gizmo!

FROM jkOnTheRun: Skype on the Nokia N800: it's alive, it's ALIVE!:

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I'm getting ready to leave NYC and the Digital Experience show, but had to share one tidbit before leaving. Among the many booths I stopped at was the Nokia booth. The big news there wasn't a new device, it was a service, and that service is Skype! It's been a long time coming, but Skype support for the Nokia N800 is right around the corner. I got a chance to see it, but it won't be available as a download until some time in July. The Nokia N800 already supports Gizmo for VoIP, but the addition of Skype adds more choice to make a good mobile device an even better one.

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I tried USB and Bluetooth but couldn't get Nokia Media Transfer to work with my N800. Nokia please fix in future betas. Not a surprise since it's not on the compatibility list. I hesitate to try it on my N93 since I only have 2GB of storage there and it's mostly full of kid videos and pics!

The N800 makes a fine car MP3 player. Unfortunately my naive drag and drop of 500MB of music didn't work (could only fit about 100MB of music in a single directory even though I have over 3GB free on my two 2GB cards). I guess I'll have to do some googling and asking around. Hopefully I can get it to auto-sync with Mac iTunes via a plugin!

I misplaced my mouse at Super Happy Dev House. I went shopping for a replacement on Friday and found that the combination of the:
N800 and 850 GSM phone + unlimited data plan = perfect price checker and shopping companion.

The 850 means that unlike GSM 1900 phones it basically works anywhere except a Faraday shielded bunker :-) ! A bit geeky but it was fun being able to take notes and check out the websites of the mouse I was considering as well as verifying that contrary to the label on the box, the mouse I bought, a Microsoft Wireless Bluetooth Mouse 8000, actually works with Macs (inaccurate MS 8000 mouse review - works fine for me out of the box with latest MS drivers - I luv MS mice; I think this is the 4th I've bought with my own money!) !

And I guess maybe not so geeky since I didn't get any second looks and I see "normal" people playing around with their Sony PSPs and Nintendo DS's all the time these days.

Mark my words, shopping and checking prices and taking photos and sharing media back and forth about what you are buying with friends while shopping will become just as normal as playing games on mobile devices!

My apologies to Oren and the Contec crew; they gave me an early BUZmob heads up and for no good reason I didn't get around to trying it. Tried it tonight and it rocks on my N93 (both WAP and normal WebKit browser). Fast, sleek and useful river of news RSS aggregator. Now if only we had affordable mobile internet in Canada, sigh !

Question for Oren et al: will it work on any WiFi device? It works great on my Nokia N800. Will it work on other mobile devices like a Sony Playstation PSP or Nintento DS? My guess is yes!

And a feature request: please have an automatic 'mark as read' (don't need checkboxes but why show me something that I've already read?).

If you have a mobile device with WiFi or some sort of connectivity built in, you'll have fun with BUZmob. It's a great way to browse the web (since anything important on the web is linked to from an RSS feed!) Check it out! Go Contec go!

FROM BUZme mobile feed publishing service is now in open beta « The Mobile Net - From Useless to Useful:

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Wow, it’s been a busy few months here at Contec Innovations. Today we announced the immediate availability of our mobile feed publishing service, BUZmob.

BUZmob is a web-based service which allows content publishers - bloggers, media sites, social networks, business websites - to instantly make their RSS/Atom based content available to all of their mobile readers. Mobile users need not download anything to their phones, and don’t even have to subscribe to a web-based service in order to access mobile content. The service combines text messaging, on-the-fly content adaptation, personalization, automatic bookmark generation and universal access to go beyond technophiles, and to enable even first time mobile-Internet users to easily interact with the content they regularly consume on the web.

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Anybody up for some impromptu Nokia N800 hacking at the Vancouver Super Happy Dev House on Friday? I am in as long as: i) it's less than a 1000 lines of code; I am an old man and can't keep more than 1000 lines in my head at once :-) ii) we use a dynamic language like PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, etc. Sorry I am done with C++, Java, C# etc and refuse to program in them ever again!

I'm really enjoying the Nokia N800 that I received from the Nokia Blogger Relations Program. Surprisingly, Nokia have made Linux almost usable :-) . Seriously, it's fast enough and does what it does well (of course what is the market for the N800? I think it's a great portable Linux computer for geeks and cheap phone and video call power users today!). I am not a big fan of the stylus so I am happy that you can use your fingers. Going to have to try to go a day without my laptop once I have all the apps installed (irc client, ssh client, and a few others).

I think that all major operating systems will be built on an open source core in less than 10 years. So why not build S60 on top of Linux instead of whatever it's built on top of now? Perhaps the N800 as atmasphere suggested in twitter is the one of the first steps to that.

In the long run, it makes sense given the introduction of Open C and Widgets on S60. If apps actually use these two APIs then they should mostly work if S60 were to switch to Linux.

The KRZR works great as a modem for the Nokia N800. Glad I finally found something the KRZR is good for :-). (For me personally, the KRZR K1 just doesn't work since the KRZR I have from Rogers is both closed and locked so there is no easy way to get videos and photos onto online services like flickr unless you enjoy the USB and Bluetooth chain of pain which I don't. Bluetooth and USB cut it for those who take one photo a day. I unfortunately take much more than that!)

Got my free trial Nokia N800 from Nokia Blogger Relations on Thursday (thanks Nokia and Andy). Haven't had much time for fun video, voice and other N800 geekery yet (fun with the Canucks in the playoffs, work and family has taken up too much time :-) !). Have to install new update to the N800 operating system and have bought two 2 GB SD cards to store music and my experiments. Looking forward to video GTalking (rolandt AT gmail.com) with you all (I'll finally be able to see Ken Camp!).

First impressions:

1. Have had one spontaneous reboot already of the N800 (I thought this only happened with S60). Hope this is fixed in latest N800 update.
2. The built in Opera web browser is fabulous!
3. The automatic WiFi detector works great!

Please read the very thoughtful N800 review that I've quoted below. I can live without YouTube, really (and I am sure this will be fixed!). Easy to make video and audio calls with SIP and soon Skype + open Linux make this the closest thing today to Doc's ophone (anything with a SIM in it will never be truly open!) concept. I definitely want one of these things! Saving my pennies! When Skype comes out for it, I'll be seriously tempted to cross over the border into the USA and pick one up! Go Nokia go!

[BTW still want the N95, N999 and the iPhone :-) Yes I am obsessed or rather I have a compulsive need to create and consume stuff on the go and N95, N999, N800 and the iPhone are (or will be) the best ways to do this!]

FROM My review of the Nokia N800 - when the walkaround web meets the see-me-anywhere call at Internet Tablet Talk:

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Take it from me, see-me calls are just … natural. When you don’t have to decide up-front, “I want to pay extra for this, so it better be worth using,” there’s an immediate acceptance of “this is the way it’s meant to be.” And it’s the kind of thing that makes people buy a new device, the way Visicalc (the first spreadsheet) made buying one of those new-fangled Apples worthwhile 20-plus years ago. The step-in price is reasonable, the experience is unique and persuasive immediately, and you don’t worry that “this is going to cost and cost and cost.”

You won’t hear this described as “video conferencing” or “video calls” next year, btw. Those names are so Flash Gordon in their invocation of the future. So don’t trust that any reviewer who uses one of those terms has any idea of what’s coming. Video conferences are what the guy holding a Treo expects to happen, once Verizon offers it as part of a $120-a-month data plan.

Some users wonder about why the N800 jettisons the useful screen cover that the 770 comes with. It’s so you’re always able to get a call. Putting on the 770’s cover doesn’t turn off the WiFi (or Bluetooth), but it breaks the wireless connection. Users make it a physical representation of “I’m putting my device to sleep.” You don’t put your phone to sleep, and the N800 behaves similarly.

And it makes a world of difference between these tablets and laptops that really do sleep. Your tablet is just on. You start using it. No delay, no wakeup, no nothing. I’ve always regarded the 770 as “instant on” because it’s live the moment the screen cover comes down. But the “never off” side of the N800 is better, and I’m more comfortable with keeping it on all day and connected to my network than I have been with the 770.

It’s my contention that the opportunity to hook up with voip giant Skype got tied to the webcam, and Ari Virtanen’s ascension to the VP of convergent products not only put the internet tablet into the mainstream of Nokia’s future thinking (and N-series)**, but also into the CES and consumer electronic marketing timeframes. They weren’t going to launch entry number two on some random day in spring like entry one (May 25, to be precise).

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Can't wait for official N800 announcment. I want a 2 megapixel still camera and CIF video and Sip client that handles Gizmo and Truphone and GTalk and .... :-) ! Sounds great so far!

FROM Ring Nokia: Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Specs:

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Fortunately Carrypad has all the gory details on the new Internet Tablet, which sports a 4.1-inch, 800x480 pixel touch screen, a 320MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of Flash ROM, dual SD memory card slots, 802.11b/g WiFi, a built-in camera (they don't specify resolution), and Bluetooth 2.0. Apparently CompUSA, which carried the original Nokia 770, already has 'em for sale in some stores.

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