Nokia today introduced the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, signifying a new phase in portable internet communication. Sporting Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a full-fledged web browser, there’s only one thing missing: WiMAX. However, a WiMAX version of the N810 will be coming next year. In the meantime, the N810’s Wi-Fi connectivity will provide Internet access through hotspots as well as home and office networks, including via Boingo Mobile. Applications compiled for the previous two Internet Tablet models will not be compatible with this one. This hurt the N800 a lot too, because most developers didn’t care to re-compile their apps as they kept their N770. Hopefully this is the last time Nokia breaks compatibility.
Nokia Announces the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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If this was cheap enough, I may just consider buying this instead of an eee… I have a full sized laptop and aside of the VGA out, this has pretty much everything the eee has (minus the faster CPU but even smaller size and GPS)
I am not sure they are in the same market, to be competitors.
The EEE is more for portable work, such as word processing, spreadsheets,etc. Thats why its bulky.
The N810 isnt designed for productivity, its designed for messaging, voice calling, media services (video, audio stuff), GPS and quick internet browsing, all while being highly potable.
I’d have to say, if you were a poor college student, the EEE would be the way to go. If you are a in blackberry/iPhone/iPodTouch land (Multimedia/Internet Device) the N810 is a great deal. GPS is an awesome addition.
OS2008 will work on the N800.
Are you sure? Link?
I read OSAlert every night on it and use it as a remote (with ReMoot) to remote control my HTPC.
Anyway, the only thing I miss on my N800 is a keyboard… I really can’t buy a new one just for that, or can I?
The N810 is even more expensive…
btw. Why does OSAlert ( http://www4.osnews.com ) present a different layout to the N800 than other browsers. (No login fields etc?)
Nokia has apparently went on record on more than one occassion about this, I can’t spot a direct quote with a name attached at this time. But Nokia has a good history of being community friendly, and I don’t think they would break and obselete a break compatibility with the N800 right out the gate with only a minor version number change…N800 to N810 is one thing, N770 to N810 is another.
I imagine the details should be on maemo.org within the next couple days as it runs the new v4
http://maemo.org/news/announcements/view/1192637131.html states that it is fully compatible with N800.
Edited 2007-10-17 21:49
as the N810 is 99% the same hardware as the N800, it should work like a charm.
as for the layout, i think osnews have been set so that if the browser identifier say something with maemo (or maybe nokia?) in it you get the more mobile friendly version.
I picked up the bluetooth iGo (formerly Think Outside) slim folding keyboard. It’s fantastically small and sexy looking but the number row is combined into the qwerty letter row with a function button to access them which sucks for typeing. I’d recommend having a look at the iGo larger bluetooth keyboard though; it looks like a direct remake of the old Palm keyboard that folded into it’s own little square casing. I’m actualy tempted to ebay the sexy slim one just to afford the larter one with the fourth row of keys.
According to previous communcations from Nokia and the Maemo team, for the foreseeable future, this will be the last time the major compatibility is broken between releases.
Yet another disappointment as it, yet again, don’t support charging via USB port… (just to sell more USB2Nokia adapters?)
Looks really nice, but with a flaw of this size for a portable device I’ll pass N810 as I did with N800 and N770 before that. I’m carrying proprietary adapters anymore, just plain simple USB cables and it has to be enough!
Maybe N900? Well, Nokia IS on the group of the unified micro USB for charing mobile devices… I hope that’s for real, not just empty promises.
Still… nice software inside. I hope Maemo, Hildon and cia become more and more popular with this mobile devices as they’re gaining attention more and more… like this MID devices with Intel. Gnome Mobile seems to be evolving fast too. I hope we can have a real standard for mobile linux/unixes apps real soon.
yeah, Nokia invest in a warning light to tell user to unplug the charger in order to save energy. Well, USB was probably to simple … Not to add that it is the same connector in EU, Britain, Americas .. well the world.. This would probably be tooooo convenient.
Granted, they are different animals. But have you ever tried to actually work on a 7″ laptop? Think Libretto?
A friend of mine does all his work on a 1280×800 7″ Libretto and while it is one of the best screens ever (only Neo1973 exceeds it in my view but I’m sucker for DPI), I still couldn’t deal with it for any amount of time. It’s decent enough for some surfing, but writing college papers? Not really.
To me, both machines are basically good enough for surfing, writing short emails and that’s about it. The eee may have an advantage as it has VGA out and thus can be used for presentations without having to lug around that 3kg 15″ desktop replacement laptop all day.
Don’t think these are remotely in the same category. The EEE and friends are meant to be budget ultra-portable laptops.
To bad the N810 doesn’t have a SIMcard slot lol..But that would obsolete all the kewl phones Nokia put out like the N95. I have been hot to but a N770 or N800 for the last couple months, just to keep from needing to carry a laptop for on the go surfing and media. The N810 might actually fit my all-in-one companion needs finally. Every other device in its class falls a bit short. (by my standards)
If this drops the price of the N800, I’d recommend having a serious look at it.
I’ve been watchign the little device market for the last many years while Palm seems to grow more and more stagnent. The N800 was the first device I could consider an upgrade to my T5 as everything else I’ve looked at meant giving up most of the functions. Actually, the only thing I lost was the IR port.
My only warning would be admitting the hope that the GPE suite matures more (address book is sad compared to T5) and more bluetooth phone apps become available. The only thing I’ve found so far is a app called Phonelink which I’ve yet to see work with my Razr.
Good to see Nokia sticking behind maemo by providing hardware though. Good also that the 2008 OS release does not make the N800 obsolete; hopefully not the N770s either.
boy does this thing look tempting… If I would’ve got the money, I’d buy one.
Maybe this will drive the N800 pricing down like the N770? Sucks for those who just got a N800, but I think I still kinda like the dual SDHC cards on the N800, over the 8gb MicroSD support of the N810.
App compatibility is not so big of a deal for N800 users since 2008 will run on the N800, but N770 users get left in the dust? Don’t know if the hacker edition will be able to pull of squeezing OS2008 onto the N770.
I was a little disapointed to see N810 anouncements two months after buying my N800 but having had a better look at the 810, I think I prefer the solid feel of the 800; chassis is solid, weight seems just right and no seem down the middle too slide half the chassis back and forth. It was knowing that os2008 would work just fine on the 800 that really did it though.
2 SD slots is a great touch too. I wish the external SD had a spring behind it like the PalmOS devices but it’s not like it get’s removed often with openSSH installed. The internal SD card has already been cut into a 512 fat32 and a 1.5 gig ext2 partition too dual boot. The 256meg internal memory limit is now simply a restore image for the rare times when my mucking about in it’s guts breaks my primary boot on the SD card. (heck, I can image the SD card to a second SD and have a swappable full restore).
It looks like the N810 will only have a single miniSD slot which can take miniSD or microSD cards with an adapter. It does have 2 GB of onboard flash.
If so, this is a big step backwards from the N800’s two SD slots. The N810 should be big enough to have space an full SD slot. Nokia should realize that some people will use it as a media player and the bigger and cheaper SD cards is important. Except for the price, the lack of SD cards is only thing that is stopping me from getting it.
its just missing one big feature – cellphone.. if only i could plugin my sim card, and setup a bluetooth headset, i’d buy this thing as soon as it hit the market…
With skype and the wealth of hotspots in most cities; it is a cell phone. A proper cell radio would be a nice addition though. I think someone else hit it on the head by pointing out that the N800 with a cell radio would cancel out most of Nokia’s product line.
i do not wish to use skype, its a closed and bastardized vendor lock-in system, in short, its not for me.
Also, i wish to use my phone at places where there arent hotspots available.
Quite frankly, I’d rather just keep my E70 with me. It’s a phone, I can browse the web on it and it has a keyboard when I need it – which is basically for SSHing. Anything bigger doesn’t really interest me too much, and I have never seen anything that tried to be a laptop, but smaller, that was any good – and that includes this long line of Nokia tablets.
Considering my mobile computing is currently limited to a 700 mhz toshiba with only 128 MB of RAM this thing looks so tempting.
I know, I know, I can get a full blown laptop for the same price, but the N810 looks much slicker, and comes with preinstalled linux, no more stripping Vista to install, and fighting with iffy wifi.
Hmmm. I wonder if I can convince my wife.
nokia never ever cared about compatibility. if you read my profile this was the very first year when our symbian group wrote balck numbers. please nokia grow up and try to push the series 60 along with your custom linux solution as the 2 and I mean the only two platforms. and when you do, take a look on how pathetic the codewarrior RAD could be fixed.
Browser: Palm680/RC1 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D053; Blazer/4.5) 16;320×320
Somebody is behind the times… CodeWarrior was replaced by the Eclipse-based Carbide some time ago…
Built-in GPS! How’s that for value? I don’t know what’s the market price for GPS navigators with HVGA screens, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were higher than the N810’s.
The cheapest navigators are 150EUR to 200EUR, so if this comes out at 350EUR, it is like getting a high-end navigator at an el-cheapix price, with an improved N800 thrown in the deal for only 150EUR more.
Oh, and now that my laptop has died the death, with full Firefox and Flash9 on the N810, I can save on a 500EUR new laptop I would only use to surf while in the garden or in the loo.
350EUR N810 – 200EUR Navigator – 500EUR laptop = 350EUR savings! So I get an N810 I will be 350EUR richer. How’s that for creative accounting?
I’m gonna try that approach… Wish me luck!
Let’s just hope they improved the framebuffer performance for video playback. The N800 had plenty CPU to playback VGA XViD but had poor framebuffer drivers so it skipped on anything to high-res.
Anybody care to try on their N800 or n810 with the new OS2008?
Has anyone tried to reverse engineer the closed source drivers that are necessary for Linux to run on the Nokia 770 or 800?
I’d only consider a purchase if the software was completely open source so I could update the software indefinitely and according to my own wishes and not those of Nokia or some other company wishing to create another upgrade treadmill.
If Intel does a better job with the power consumption of the processors in their MID devices and all drivers will be open source, I think many people would prefer them to these semi-closed Nokia gadgets.
Has anyone tried to reverse engineer the closed source drivers that are necessary for Linux to run on the Nokia 770 or 800?
Not as far as I’m aware, and this just shows how hypocritical Nokia is with this device. They’re using software created off the backs of other peoples’ work, and then they’re turning around and making their devices closed. It’s not a strategy that is likely to be successful. They should just run Symbian on it.
Btw, does anyone know whether the N810 (or the N800 for that matter) can connect to a wireless network that uses EAP-TLS w/ certificates (against a RADIUS server)? I can’t seem to find any information on that anywhere and would need to know before investing in one. Thanks.
Check the forums at http://www.internettablettalk.com/
Certificate handling on the n800 is poor. I’ve not been able to get client certificates to work with my web server from my n800, although every other browser works fine. I haven’t had problems with server certs for HTTPS or IMAPS.
While researching my HTTPS/TLS problem, I saw several discussions of problems with WiFi authentication certificates. I don’t know if the problems were solved or work-arounds found.