i'm enjoying my tablets more and more every day...

brontide, thanks for your work on DialCentral.

Lets hope Nokia ¨regroups¨ with the release of the next Nxxx.

I've never owned a device that didn't from my personal perspective have flaws or a lack of some things I'd like it to do -- my N810 is no exception. However the negativism that some seem to have amazes me. Particularly when that negativism is for things is based on personal conviction. I've learned to adapt my personal processes to the ability of my tools. Although I'd love to see others provide me with more of what I want for no charge I accept a device for what I can achieve with it. I've seen improvements in a number of applications over time. Those that to me like mcalendar were unworkable I replaced with other choices, e.g. gpe-calendar and erminig. No doubt others swear by mcalendar because it meets their expectations. We're all different -- thank God we are. I plan to continue using my N810 for some time until it ceases to meet my needs or the geek in me takes total control over some new wizbang that catches my fancy.

I'll throw in my two cents (which aren't worth any more than that, as everyone's opinion varies).

I bought an n800 pretty much right when it came out. I loved the idea of the device. I didn't really have much practical use for it, but I liked screwing around with it.

When the n810 came out, I bought that the first day it was available. After a week, I sold it and went back to my n800. The two main reasons for upgrading (GPS and the built-in keyboard) weren't appealing after I used it (the GPS took ages to get a signal, and even then I didn't really have a use for it; and the keyboard was dismal compared to the bluetooth folding keyboard I had bought for my n800).

Anyway, a little while ago I recharged my n800, reflashed it (in the hope that maybe the reason for it being so painfully slow was because I had too much crap on it), and tried to come up with a use for it again.

At the end of the day, this board is filled with people who have come up with cool uses for their tablets. They range from incredibly geeky, to more "average-user" (although I think there are more of the former).

When the next tablet is released, assuming it is what the leaked information seems to indicate, I will totally get one. Will I use it...I have no idea. Such is the life of a technology-fetishist.

My only real gripes with the tablet are:

1.) It doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be. If the idea is just to have a linux device in a small formfactor, then I guess it's successful. As an "internet tablet", I don't really think it does this exceptionally well. As others have gone on about, the email client is abysmal, and I really find the web browser to be painfully slow (at least initially with connecting to a page, after it starts to load, it's not so bad).

I still think the device is useful though, and a lot of really dedicated, really smart people have worked their asses of to make it more useful. I think that's awesome, and frankly, why I continue to like this platform.

2.) I really don't think it's well suited to be a media player. Audio is fine, I suppose, but even after two years of fudging with settings and re-encodings, I find video playback on the device to be pretty sub-optimal. Not terrible mind you, and not bad considering it's not the primary use for the device, but I've found you can either have video which has a good framerate but looks pixelated, or looks crisp but drops frames.

I've encoded literally hundreds of video files over the years trying to maximize this, and it really seems to be a limit of the hardware (hence the cpu being pegged as soon as video playback starts). I have hope that the new device will have dedicated hardware for video playback, much like my ipod.

Anyway, I'm rambling..

Right now my tablet has been relegated to running Mauku full screen and sitting on my desk as a twitter screen. It excels at this task. I hope that when the next tablet comes out, I can come up with a better use for such a cool device.

I just bought an n810, mostly to replace my Zaurus SL6000L. The Zaurus is fine -- it's the most reliable device I've owned -- but batteries are hard to come by.

I've been very happy with the n810:
the interface is snappy;
it plays audio and video fine (for the latter, I just used Handbrake's default iPod-lowres settings, but switched the bitrate to 350 kbps);
caching maps with maemo mapper is great, and waiting for a GPS fix doesn't bother me so much;
carrying around thousands of pdfs of scholarly articles is incredible;
having rsync, ssh, and vim is a joy -- and being able to plug it in using the usb cable and mount the memory cards is also a joy;
claws mail is fine, I think -- though I haven't tried sending mail yet.

All I miss from my Zaurus is a flexible audio recorder, but I haven't looked around carefully. (The Zaurus recorder lets you adjust lots of settings.)

Really, vim, pdf viewer, decent html viewer, ssh, and rsync make me a very happy camper.

Maybe my standards are low!

Best wishes, brontide!!!
--Helen's Dad

I've got to say that I was struggling between the iPod Touch, iPhone and the N810, I went for the Nokia and have not looked back.

I would ask for better (existent) PIM but other than that it does everything that I need and more.

I can't believe that you have a gripe with the battery, mine does me for a day and I have been really impressed.

I agree that they could market the device better, people on the street don't seem to know about it at all and yet everyone that I show it to love it.

Steve

Ok, personally, I am not a programmer, though both my parents are. I just LOVE to tinker and mess with stuff. The tablets are great for doing that (out of necessity is another mater). However, when I just want something to work, it does not. This is the worst part about the tablets.

For example, I can do cool and awesome things like stream my camera wirelessly, switch on my computer when i connect to the home router, etc...

However, when I just want to GPS myself home, I have to wait for a signal, pray to god nothing crashes, pray that openstreet is reliable, and that is just one task.

When I bought this device, my dad offered me the iPhone. At that time, there was no app store. I knew that the iPhone would be more polished, but I trusted in the community to make the N810 better. Now, it seems that the community is slowly pushing forward, because they have a 1000lbs brick holding them back. We may laugh that the iPhone has to be hacked to run a bluetooth keyboard, but they laugh right back.

Nokia just cut too many corners, and the community is just doing what it can to fill the gaps. Personally, it is really sad, because you guys are working just as hard as everyone else, and there is really nothing to show...

Yes the GPS fix can be slow, but once it locks on it is fine. I use Googlemaps and they have always been fine too.

"and there is really nothing to show..." That's not true, every week a program gets updated and the NiT improves. The community is constantly refining and improving this product.

What can the iPhone do that we can't? (except sync contacts/calendar) If the NiT was closed off like the iPhone then it could be more polished, I prefer less sheen and more usability.

When I meant "nothing to show," I am not talking about updates. I am saying that the number of completed programs, programs that are "finished," are lacking. Many people are like "It works, so I am done." Its because there is just so much to be done on the tablets, that its a good thing and a bad thing.

P.S. I don't have a bluetooth internet, so I have to use navit with openstreet and its routing engine.

ah, the "eternal beta" issue...

remind me, is gmail still tagged as beta by google?