Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

This handheld device has been around a few months but I want to revisit it because it’s just had an upgrade. Even though Smart phones have internet access and I even put Opera Mini on my Samsung a920, surfing for any length of time on a small screen can get tiresome very quickly. This Nokia has a 800×480 touch screen and uses a stylus for navigation. The Tablet has built-in WiFi so, visit one of those Internet Cafe’s for surfing. If you have a compatible Bluetooth phone (1.2 specification with DUN {Dial-Up Networking} and FT {File transfer} protocols), use the phone as a modem. It should come as no surprise that many compatible phones will be Nokia, but others may work also.

The Tablet runs on a linux Debian distro, so it will be stable and lovely. For those Geek-Types out there who are ambitious and want to develop programs for this device this site is set up to exchange info and programs for any hardware which is maemo compliant. The Nokia 770 has a Web browser, a Flash player (version 6), E-mail client, News Reader, Internet radio player, Media players, Image viewer, File manager, PDF Viewer, World Clock, Calculator, Search, Back-up software, and games.

Use of the stylus is fascinating. You can use it two ways. One is through the QWERTY keyboard interface that pops up on the screen. You tap over the letters with your stylus. Which is how I type on my laptop except with about four fingers. Yes, I have all ten fingers. I’m just too lazy to use them. Now, the other stylus method uses handwriting recognition software. Writing on the screen will be compared with a library of characters. After, say, writing an “r”, the software searches for the closest match and it displays an “r” on the screen. There’s a database of several different writing styles and you can also “train” the system to learn your own personal style. I think my brother’s style would be called “chicken scratching”. I have several styles depending on whether I want to be readable or not.

In addition to connection via Bluetooth (WLAN: 802.11b/g), the Tablet has a USB port, a Memory Card expansion slot for RS-MMC (Reduced Size – MultiMediaCard) and a 3.5 mm stereo audio out connector. The On-board Memory is Flash 128MB which seems like a reasonable amount for a handheld device. The Standard Li-ion Battery 1500 mAh is supposed to give the user about three hours of use during browsing and seven days of “Standby Time”. The Tablet has a2mm power connector and I noticed that one of the accessories you can get is a power Charger for use in a car.

The recent update for the 770 includes VoIP app Google Talk so all G Talk Members can yak it up. And it comes with Opera (woot!) Check for details, upgrades and support on the Nokia site.