This is based on hearsay but I've seen this attitude elsewhere too. One prominent site I will not name has stated, according to someone who told me, that the 770 is "an answer in search of a question." Even at first blush I thought that was dumb. But the more I thought about it, the dumber it gets.

I think it stems from the Net Culture. If you primarily derive your living -- or spend a lot of your time -- on the net, you tend to think the net is the world. Well it ain't. Just ask all those cheerleaders for Howard Dean's candidacy who met Real Life when Dean met the Real World. It was like a car going 80 mph suddenly facing a wall! Suddenly all those bloggers and sites got an awakening they never expected.

In a similar fashion, this snobbery towards the 770 is paradoxical. Sure, it's not an Uber Geek device. It's not an OQO. It's not even a Palm Lifedrive. It lacks a hard drive. It is plainly a 1.0 device. But so was the original Palm. (I won't cite the original "Palm-Size PCs" -- which weren't even 1.0 devices!) And the original Palm went on to create an entire new way of doing things.

I think the 770 has that potential too.

All of these sites that sneer at the 770 make me wonder: who the hell are these sites targeting?! Are they masturbatory playgrounds for the 1337? Don't they want millions and millions of people with the power to get on the net comfortably and freely nearly any time? Don't they want more people to have the ability to visit their sites? What the hell do they expect people to use on the go to access their sites -- a lousy cellphone screen?! I disdain the Treo. I've called it a White Castle hamburger screen -- but it recently occurred to me that this comparison is far too generous. That screen is the size of a bloody cheese cracker! It's smaller than my TE screen! Sure you can get the net anytime anywhere -- but do you really want to hit BoingBoing or ITT or PIC or Engadget or any other Uber Geek site with it? Or even the New York Times site? Puh-leeze! I think you have to be seriously desperate or seriously self-delusioned to think a cellphone is the way to get on the net when away from the desktop.

The 770 is the way to go. It's time for the Net Avant Garde to wake up to the Real World. It's time to stop being so thunderously gallopingly stupid!

And go ahead, try this on a cellphone:

http://news.com.com/2102-1012_3-5977...=st.util.print

I think a lot of people are clouded mainly because of the 'camp' they belong to. Unless a PPC, Palm OS, smartphone, OQO, etc. user is open to other devices and platforms, they will be loyal to their investment and would usually say that their device can do the same thing.

You made a good point here Mike. While other devices can do the same thing, the Nokia 770 just has an 800-pixel-wide screen running a close-to-standard browser -- and that's the main difference.

Nokia also dwarfs Palm and most other device manufacturers in size and reach and marketing ability. If anyone can get something like this -- in 1.0+ versions -- into more hands at a great price, it's Nokia. Websites should be cheering this development. At the very least because it's not another handcuff to Microsoft!

Did you mean it IS a uber geek device here? It runs Linux and supports open source development and isn't a call phone (which is what the masses want). I don't see how you could make it any geekier

You're right about the attitude of sites towards mobile devices. Unless they have actually put some effort into them then generally they don't work in small format. It's a shame the whole WAP thing happened when it did. Too early really. Before there were devices around to make use of sites developed specially for limited screens.

If the 770's hardware were intact but it were running PalmOS, Windows Mobile, or even full blown XP for that matter, I wouldn't consider it; a cheaper scaled down device that can get me on the web would suffice. But Linux is still exotic on a handheld, and much like I've preached to friends when the debate has arisen, if they build it, the software will come. Nokia proved that point, look at the tonnes of apps rolling out every week. Not bad for a product most of us can't get our greasy hands on.

Geeky? Yes. Ubergeeky? No. Only things like the Das Keyboard fall into the catagory of "ubergeeky". (I own one

So you complain that people are bashing the 770 and then you go and bash the Treo and everybody who uses one ??? Doesnt seem very balanced.

I for one love my Treo. Surfing is indeed, well a challenge, but it's absolutely great for keeping track of my email while I'm on the go. I've gotten quite good at typing with the keyboard. I have a bunch of handy wireless apps which are also quite useful for me when not in front of my computer. Not to mention having my entire Palm address book (with entries still entered in '97 on a Pilot Professional) integrated with a telephone. I can just search for a contact and directly from the address book app call, sms or email them. Oh yeah and I can edit all this on my desktop computer with the brilliant Palm Desktop.

I also have a 770 and I find it great for surfing while laying on the couch or even checking my web-based tv guide all this while listening to web radio. Can I make phone calls or easily type long emails like a Treo? No but it doesnt bother me because it's a device with an entire different purpose. I'm really glad I got the 770 and I cant wait until more programs get ported to it. I see a bright future in the class of devices.

And this where you and the others that you are talking about just dont get it. You get too religious about one particular device. I have yet to find one device that fits all my mobile needs.

I have a Treo 650 and a Lifedrive each has its limitations as well as plus points. The 770 is merely an additional tool for me and l agree that it's wrong to claim that one device is superior.

I'm finding it difficult to really validate the opinion in the original post. Most of what is written really contradicts my understanding. For example:

My opinion would be that the 770 is _far_ more of an "uber geek" device than *any* of the devices listed. OQO is a big block of potatoes. The LifeDrive is just a palm with a big hard drive. Furthermore the platform of the 770 is far more "geek" than any of the devices above.

We're moving away from a model where all the smarts have to be on the device. Yesterday's announcement of Oboe for instance... who needs a portable music player with a HDD if you have an Internet connection, via 3G or WiMAX?

Currently the raison d'etre of the 770 is Web browsing. It does it in a way no other mobile device (of its form factor) has even come close to. It also does it at a low price, and it provides an extensible platform. It's the platform, and the tried and tested technologies that leverages like X, ssh and so forth that will enable the 770 (and it's successors) to step out from a narrow Web tablet story into a distributed computing one.