NOKIA N8OO- OUT OF THE BOX IT'S A COOL UNIT BUT...TO MAKE IT A FULLY FUNCTIONING SUB-NOTEBOOK IT NEEDS SOME ACCESSORIES. TAKE JULIAN'S LITTLE TABLET TOUR TO SEE HOW I CREATED MY BUNDLE.
The one thing that the N8OO lacks is a full blown office suite and this kind of installation is beyond me. But because I'm among the many tableteers who would like to have better office tools I keep looking around to see if any company has developed a nice little program that will work on the tablet and is easy to install but it hasn't happened yet as far as I can find out...there's nothing at all on the Maemo office/business downloads site. All I can find is individual developers who are working on this.
Of course OpenOffice would be my first choice and this site even has a video showing how it looks on the tablet along with some details of his installation...but..... :-\
http://n800-as-a-professional-tool.blogspot.com/2008/05/openofficeorg-and-abiword-work-in.html
I'm more disappointed that a better office program isn't available because since I got the Nokia SU-8W bluetooth keyboard recently, I'm really in a position to use such a program.
As the Nokia N8OO internet tablet arrives, it's useful and fun right out of the box but I spent a lot of time and money adding software, files and accessories to make it much more so.
So I first upgraded the O/S to OS2008. The newest version is the one on Nokia's website . Then I configured Gmail . Then I set up a Skype account and a Rhapsody one as well.
Then I installed , Pidgin Messenger, Chess, Mahjong and Sketch ...and Gizmo ...And X Terminal, Streamtuner Mplayer and MaemoPad, Xjournal and MaemoSDKTablet....and a few other programs that are free downloads on Maemo...so now.....my battery's dead.
The N8OO only came with one battery that's good for only about 1.5 hrs of surfing ( longer off line) I have five batteries now. (don't even think of ordering a spare Nokia brand battery unless you have a spare $65.00 ) I bought after market batteries on Ebay for about $5.00 each but they don't hold a charge as well as the Nokia battery.
And the only way to charge a battery is when it's inside the tablet. This is a change I'd make...it should charge from the the USB port... but I did find a a USB cable with interchangeable plugs that included the 1.5mm size that fits the N8OO. So now I can charge the device from my desktop with the USB data cable connected at the same time. In addition, I bought a desktop battery charger. Now I always come home to a fully charged battery. These accessories are very cheap. A dollar or two only. Of course Nokia doesn't recommend the use of them but Nokia doesn't sell them either so what are the choices?
I recommend powering down the device after each session because it drains the battery even on stand-by. Sometimes I just lock the touch screen to avoid rebooting but my experience is that each day of standby will drain the battery as much as 20%.
For good measure I bought a 1.5 mm pin adapter plug, 12v charger AND a cable to connect to my car stereo. Now I have an MP3 player for the car that will play tunes all the way to Calgary! (Not that I'm a Flames fan)
Speaking of music, the headphones that came with the unit are great for Skype but not very good for listening to AC/DC so of course I had to get nice bass responsive Nagaoka headphones.....
And of course the superfine Nokia su-8w keyboard...There are other, cheaper folding bluetooth keyboards available but nothing that folds as small and matches the N800 as well as the SU-8W...but...it's not available in Canada....$CND150.00. I got mine from Expansys and it shipped from Illinois....katching!
So then I needed a proper case since the useless fabric sleeve that was supplied doesn't have any room for these accessories anyway. I finally found an expensive Case Logic, PHDC-1 clamshell, polyester, hard drive case at Office Depot ( $30.00 )that carries all this stuff just about perfectly.
And course, these things NEVER come with enough memory, so....a few $$$/8 gigs to upgrade the ridiculous 128 MB SD card that Nokia supplied plus one for the external card slot....whew...hooray for Ebay!
Finally I've spent about $500.00 (ouch) on my N8OO and now it is a very mobile, versatile and unbelievably compact computer system......I think it's unlikely that anyone else in Canada has a N8OO system as complete as mine...cool eh! )
I recommend the N8OO even though in the couple of years since it came out other handheld devices have come out with built in WiFi. Recently, the newest generation of the tablet, the N810 was launched with WiMax installed.
One more change I'd make if I was Nokia. I'd put the sliding cover back on that was on the N770.
Oh and one more thing, it's a pet peeve of mine with many portable electronic devices...the buttons should be recessed into the cabinet, not proud of it. Then they are less likely to be pressed inadvertently.
Regards,
Julian.
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