Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Linux.com reviews the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. "The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a thin black handheld device with a Linux operating system and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, but, unlike most Nokia handhelds, it's not a cell phone. Instead, it's a fun way to connect to the Internet. The latest version shows promise, but it's still not quite ready for prime time."

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Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 29, 2006 23:19 UTC (Tue) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] (5 responses)

When are they going to put a GSM radio in this thing? If it could double as a cell phone I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

... pending decent battery life, of course.

Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 30, 2006 11:37 UTC (Wed) by shapr (subscriber, #9077) [Link]

I hope they don't integrate GSM actually.

Ari Virtanen said on CNET "Once you put a SIM card in, it's automatically controlled by the operator."

I don't want to buy any hardware where I am not likely to control both ends of a connection. WiFi uses peers, but WiMAX uses a $15,000USD base station. I'm not likely to buy one of those ever.

So I'll skip out on GPRS, UMTS, WiMAX, or any other technology where I must talk to an expensive base station that will be controlled by a vendor.

I might buy a pocket widget that lets my Nokia 770 talk to the mobile phone network via bluetooth, but I don't want to be forced to buy that.

On the other hand, software radio that does GSM would be great.

Posted Aug 30, 2006 13:05 UTC (Wed) by shapr (subscriber, #9077) [Link]

On the other hand, I'd cheerfully pay three times as much if they can shrink something like the Gnu Universal Software Radio Peripheral into this form factor or slightly larger.

Then we'd be able to write our own GSM implementation. That would make me a very happy camper.

Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 30, 2006 14:20 UTC (Wed) by dufkaf (guest, #10358) [Link]

Hopefully never.

http://jaaksi.blogspot.com/2005/11/it-is-not-cell-phone-a...

Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 30, 2006 18:00 UTC (Wed) by ehovland (subscriber, #2284) [Link] (1 responses)

> When are they going to put a GSM radio in this thing?

Funny, I was going to say, when are they going to put in an SD slot instead of RSMMC and a usb controller? Both of these lacking items make it a tough sell to me over say an iPAQ or a Zaurus. I might give up the USB controller. But I am really not interested in getting into Yet Another Memory Form Factor.

I would really like it not to get a tri-band radio. I could get a sloppy ol' treo for that.

I double-dog-dare you to hold that 4 inch screen up to your ear and say "Can you hear me now?" It would be unusable as a phone without a headset of some sort (which I do conceded it has ample i/o for).

Nokia 770: Portable fun, but still needs polish (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 31, 2006 6:30 UTC (Thu) by shapr (subscriber, #9077) [Link]

Actually, google talk works fine without a headset of any kind.
I'm guessing that they use the included DSP to filter the voice signal like a real speakerphone.