Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

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Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

Manufacturer	Nokia
Type	Internet appliance
Connectivity	IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth
Retail Availability	2005-11-03
Operating System	Debian GNU/Linux - based
Camera	N/A
Media	RS-MMC or MMCmobile
Input	Touchscreen
Power	BP-5L Li-Polymer 1300 mAh Battery
CPU	250 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 1710
Display	800 × 480 resolution, 4.13 in wide
Touchpad	N/A

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a wireless internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York on May 25, 2005.^[1] It is designed for wireless internet browsing and e-mail functions and includes software such as internet radio, an RSS news reader, image viewer and media players for selected types of media.

The device went on sale in Europe on November 3, 2005, at a suggested retail price of €349 to €369 (£245 in the United Kingdom).^[2] In the United States, the device became available for purchase through Nokia USA's web site on November 14, 2005 for $359.99; Initial customers reported long shipment delays due to apparent high demand and supply shortages which have since been resolved.

1 Hardware
2 Software
- 2.1 Internet Tablet OS 2006 edition
3 Accessories
4 Versatility
5 Criticism
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Hardware

The Nokia 770 is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 1710 CPU running at 250 MHz, which combines the ARM architecture of the ARM926TEJ core subsystem with a TMS320C55x digital signal processor. The device has a display resolution of 800 × 480 pixels at 225 pixels per inch. It is accessible via WLAN (IEEE 802.11b/g), Bluetooth 1.2, dial-up access, USB (both user-mode, and non powered host-mode), and RS-MMC (both RS-MMC and DV-RS-MMC cards are supported). The device contains a speaker and a microphone. It comes with 64MB of DDR RAM, and 128MB of internal FLASH memory, of which about 64MB should be available to the user.

The unit measures 141 × 79 × 19 mm (5.5 × 3.1 × 0.7 in) and weighs 230 g (8.1 oz) with protective cover or 185 g (6.5 oz) without. The device is manufactured in Estonia and in Germany.

[edit] Software

The operating system is a modified version of Debian GNU/Linux (running Linux 2.6.12), including a graphical user interface (an X window manager incorporating the GTK+ toolkit and Hildon widgets), a PDF viewer, the Opera internet browser, with BusyBox replacing many system commands. The development platform for the Nokia 770 is known as Maemo. The Opera web browser and built in video/music player applications are capable of supporting the following file formats:

Audio: MP3, RealAudio, MPEG-4, AAC, WAV, AMP, MP2
Image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, Animated GIF, SVG Tiny, ICO
Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RealVideo, H.263, AVI, 3GP

[edit] Internet Tablet OS 2006 edition

On May 16, 2006 Nokia announced a new version of the Internet Tablet operating system which includes major improvements in response to user requests.^[3]

Most notable of these improvements include a thumb-driven on-screen keyboard for fast text input and Jabber-based Voice over IP and instant messaging software. The VoIP software is compatible with Google Talk. Also included was the ability to support 2Gb RS-MMC cards (formatted - FAT32). This upgrade will be the default OS shipped on new Internet Tablets and became available as a downloadable upgrade for existing users on June 30, 2006. The Linux kernel has been upgraded to 2.6.16 with the associated patches for the OMAP platform. This new version is pre-emptible for improved interactivity.

On June 9, 2006 Nokia released a beta version of the development platform aimed at developers porting their programs to Internet Tablet 2006 Edition (shortened to IT2006). End users were advised to remain with the April IT2005 edition until IT2006 was officially released. Some of the final features in IT2006 were not yet present in the beta, such as multi-protocol messaging.^[4]

The full release version of the Internet Tablet OS 2006 edition was posted by Nokia on June 30, 2006.^[5]

[edit] Accessories

In October 2006, Nokia released the Navigation Kit for Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It includes a Nokia LD-3W GPS receiver (Bluetooth-based), navigation software from Navicore with maps of Europe, a memory card, a car holder and a car charger.

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[edit] Versatility

Because of the Linux based operating system and the open-source contributions from Nokia, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet has a great appeal to the hacker and DIY markets. Programmers are porting applications to the maemo platform allowing a much more rapidly growing application catalog than other mobile platforms would enjoy.^[6] The inclusion of WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB host functionality (through a hack) permits enthusiasts to expand their tablets to include USB mass storage, bluetooth GPS receivers, a normal USB keyboard, or other devices.

[edit] Criticism

The Nokia 770 has received much criticism from some technology reviewers. The universal complaint being the overall speed of the system, due to the relatively slow CPU, and small memory. Short battery life (in the case of continuous WiFi usage), was also a concern. Many reviews condemned the handwriting recognition, and some said even tapping the on-screen keyboard was slow. Another complaint was that the item lacked the functions of a mobile PDA (although there are now several PIM options created by the community) and relied on a bluetooth phone acting as a modem when away from a WiFi hotspot. One minor complaint was that the device used Reduced-Size MMC cards that were hard to find and had a maximum storage capacity of 1 GB (2 GB capacity is supported through a hack).

Many 770 fans pointed out that the primary function of the device was a quick way to access the internet, and that the 770 was never intended to replace normal PCs and laptops.