Nokia N810 Portable Internet Tablet
Nokia N810 Portable Internet Tablet
Nokia N810 Internet Tablet RX-44 - Works with ATandT and T Mobile service only. WiFi Internet Tablet with Linux Internet Tablet OS, Integrated slide Qwerty keypad, GPS, ALS to control back light, micro USB OTG, 2GB internal flash memory, single mini SC card reader (up to 32GB support), preloaded maps. 802.11b/g, BT 2.0, 3.5mm audio out, stereo speakers, OMAP 2420 (330MHz), RSS feed reader, Internet calling with Web cam, Instant Messaging, email
Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5
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Review
I purchased this after seeing it at a Linux user’s group meeting I went to. I’ve been needing a PDA, particularly something that would keep track of my to-do lists for work and home. I love that I can tinker with it and customize the software packages to those that I want, but you need a little more technical knowledge than average to really get the most out of it.
The web browser is great for the limited space, but it occasionally fails to show some pages. This is more due to the web’s unpreparedness for mobile devices, though, so I don’t fault the Nokia. It doesn’t come with a to-do list application and some other minor things out of the box, but it was trivial to install them. I’m a little annoyed, however, that it doesn’t include my metropolitan city (Phoenix) in the time zone list.
The GPS functionality suffers from a poor receiver. It takes quite a while to sync up with enough satellites to know where it’s at, and can frequently lose track of those satellites. Although I don’t have one, it can connect to an external GPS receiver through Bluetooth, if available, and use it to get satellite information instead.
For USB connectivity, it uses a MicroUSB connecter, with a provided USB-to-MicroUSB adapter. Although this conserves valuable space in the design of the device, MicroUSB cables are currently pretty rare. On that note, cell phones are starting to use this as their standard, so you might be able to find cables in those sections. To minimize the cables I carry with me, I found a MiniUSB-to-MicroUSB adapter at my local technology retailer in their mobile phones section.
A standard WiFi connection can get you to the Internet just about anywhere nowadays. I don’t have data on my cell phone plan, but it can also use Bluetooth to connect to a cell phone and use it for an even more mobile Internet experience.
It runs on Maemo Linux, rebranded as Internet Tablet 2008, and the maemo.org website provides plenty of help and easy to use installers. For those who are interested, Maemo is a derivative of Debian Linux, which is the basis for the currently popular desktop Ubuntu Linux.
If you’re using maemo.org to acquire and install software packages, I’ve found that some of them, particularly the ones I’m most interested in, are broken in one way or another. Some of this is due to poor packaging, though.
The following is for above average users or those that want to tinker with the inner workings of the software: For those who know Debian-based distributions, the command line package tool, apt, is available, but the root account is disabled and there’s no documentation on the sudo password for the user account, rendering it pretty much useless. Installing the OpenSSH server package from maemo.org creates a root account, so you can log in remotely with administrator privileges, but I can’t use su on the device itself without root privileges, which the user account doesn’t have.
The terminal shell is ash in BusyBox, and the paths aren’t set right. This was annoying when I found ifconfig “didn’t exist”, but discovered I had to run it with the entire path, /sbin/ifconfig. There’s no proper, graphical text editor in a proper package yet, but vi is there, which is more important for the command line junkies anyway.
There are ways to fix all these little problems, which I know can be found from maemo.org and related sites; I just haven’t dived into it so far.
All in all, it’s a great little device for people who want mobile Internet but don’t want an Eee PC.
By Scott Sparks Jr., Arizona
Summary - Great Little Geek Toy and PDA
[Updated 2008-11-20 01:07:05]