About a month ago I was given a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. I waited this long to post a review because I wanted to see how it would fit into my life before I passed judgment on it. Well, a month has passed and I can confidently say I am ready to review the 770. So, without further delay... Geek In Gear's review of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet:

From Nokia's site:

Go ahead - move the Web! With the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet you can browse your favorite sites and catch up on your email - from right where you are. Whether you're relaxing on the sofa or enjoying the moment at your favorite café, if you have broadband access over WI-FI the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet gives you instant wireless access to the Web. You can also stream files, tune in to Internet radio, News Reader, or play your favorite videos and music.

Hardware:

Size-wise the 770 is about the size of the original Nintendo DS (just a little thinner) at 5.5" x 3.1" x .7" (the770.com has a nice size comparison shot here). Weighing in at just over 8 ounces the 770 is barely noticeable in my front jeans pocket. All of the buttons are easily accessible, at least to a right handed person, lefties may have some difficulty with the right-hand-centric controls. The stylus is not accessible with the slide cover in the "open" position (though when closed the stylus is easily accessible), requiring the cover to be slid up and down to access the stylus and return it to its home. This is a small annoyance that can be easily overlooked, but is something that should have been caught during design testing. Lefties may also have some problems as the stylus is located on the right hand side of the device. The stylus design is more than adequate, after all these years of pen driven devices you have to really try to screw up a stylus. I also like the fact that 2 styli are included in the box, which is great for people who often misplace small things. The access door for the memory card is also easily accessible and open-able, but not so easy to open that I would be afraid of losing my memory card.

The slide cover, in my opinion, is the best part of the 770's physical design (forgiving of course the issue with the slide cover blocking the stylus). The slide cover is made of aluminum and is quite sturdy. I feel perfectly safe placing the 770 in my pocket with the cover in place. Something that I would never dream of doing with most of my other portable devices because of my tendancy to destroy their screens (at least 3 PDAs and a bevey of other devices have met their end in my pcokets). When slid over the screen the 770 suspends its self, which is a nice feature (so nice in fact that I rarely, if ever, have to touch the power button). I do not recommend using the 770 without the slide cover because of both the loss of the easy suspend and the protection that the slide cover affords the device.

When you turn on the 770, one of the first things you notice is its brilliant 800x480 4.13" screen. To say the display is stunning would be an understatement. It has one of the nicest screens I have seen on a mobile device, though in direct sunlight the screen is very hard to read, even when set at the highest brightness level. The screen size is more than ample for surfing the web, viewing images and movies, or reading ebooks.

The 770's 250 MHz ARM based processor is more than adequate for running the device. While some people have criticized the processor's speed, I feel what they are looking for is a laptop replacement, which the 770 clearly is not and was not designed to be. There is plenty of memory available in the device for storing additional programs. However, media files though, should probably be stored on the external memory card. You will probably want to upgrade if you will be storing movies or many mp3s on the card (a 1Gb RS-MMC card should be available for as little $30-$50 on-line).

The battery in the 770 will last for about 3 hours of constant use (or more depending on what you are doing and your screen brightness setting). While in standby, according to Nokia's specs, the 770 should remain usable for up to 7 days. I never have tested this because I use my 770 throughout the day and inevitably wear the battery down to the point that it needs to be charged before the next days usage.

Connectivity:

The 770 includes both bluetooth and 802.11g wireless connectivity. Both perform well, as you would expect them to. The 802.11g connection supports most common wireless protection schemes and is easy to set up. The bluetooth connection is great and works well for transferring files to and from bluetooth enabled devices. The 770's bluetooth is especially useful for viewing photos you have just taken with your camera phone. Your success in connecting through your phone to the Internet via bluetooth may depend on your carrier and service plan.

Software:

Before I get into the 770's software let me say that I highly recommend upgrading the firmware (available from either Nokia or the Maemo site) as soon as you take the 770 out of the box. The original firmware/OS that shipped with the device was an utter piece of crap (which I think accounts for some of the bad reviews the 770 has received). It had many memory/stability issues that are fixed in the newer firmware revisions. If the thought of updating firmware gives you the shivers, don't worry. Nokia provides a nice graphical update tool for Windows and a simple command line tool with excellent instructions for OS X and Linux.

The Internet Tablet 2005 Software is a good software package and is easy enough to learn how to use. Other than the occasional browser crash, the only real complaint I have is the lack of any PIM (Personal Information Management) software. Nokia purposely left out PIM software on the 770 because they wanted to establish it as a Internet tablet and not a PDA. After listening to the 770's user base, Nokia has announced that PIM functionality will be included in the 2006 version of their Internet Tablet software that is due out later this quarter (which should be a free upgrade to existing 770 owners). This short coming is easily fixed though, since their are a few PIM packages (both free and commercial) currently available for the 770. My personal favorite PIM package is the GPE-PIM set of programs, though I recommend chacking out all of the available options to see which one suits your needs best. The only problem with the "aftermarket" PIM packages are that they do not integrate with the 770's built in email client. The email client seems more than adequate, though it suffers from the aforementioned PIM software shortage. I do not use the email client often because most of my email is routed through Google's Gmail. Gmail, coincidentally works perfectly in the 770's web browser.

The web browser in the 770 is based on the Opera web browser. It does an excellent job of displaying most web pages and has a nice zoom feature. Opera does a great job of scaling websites to fit the 770's screen. The browser is crippled though by the older version of Flash installed on the 770 (which affects some sites lile Google Video and YourTube). Also the browser has problems displaying some sites based on the newer AJAX technology, such as Google's new Google Calendar. One notable exception to this is Gmail, which as I have stated before works flawlessly with the 770. Hopefully the upcoming update to the 770's software will address these issues.

Other software included on the 770 is a news reader, a music player, a video player, a image viewer, a PDF reader, and a few games. The news reader is userfriendly and has all the basic features that you would expect from a RSS reader, though I prefer to read my news feeds through Bloglines, which works very well in the 770's browser. The rest of the included software performs their assigned tasks well. The best part about the 770 is the availability of free software for the platform and how easy it is to add new programs. Maemo.org has a full list of software for the 770 that is growing day by day.

Support:

The 770 has a great community supporting it (the most notable being Internet Tablet Talk's forums) that is friendly and willing to help new users explore their device. While I have not personally had to contact Nokia for support (because of the 770's quality hardware and intuitive user interface), those who have, say that they were friendly, courteous, and helpful.

Overall Impression:

I love my 770 despite its few short comings. It has replaced my PDA for everyday use. I have no major complaints about the hardware and the software issues the 770 has seem to be vanishing with each new software update. I would easily recommend the 770 to anyone who wants a extensible device that focuses mainly on Internet connectivity and portabillity. (Lefties may want to take the 770 for a testdrive though, to see if the control layout bothers them) Those looking for a laptop or desktop killer should pass over the 770 as it is not the device you are looking for and you will probably not be happy with your purchase.


Nokia's Official 770 Internet Tablet Site
Maemo.org
Internet Tablet Talk

Technorati Tags: gadgets reviews Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

Not a "new" item per se, but by far the most useful pocketknife I have ever owned. Weighing in at just shy of two ounces and a mere 2.5 inches in length the Leatherman Squirt P4 packs a tool box full of tools into such a small package, you won't even notice it in your pocket. On-board the Squirt you will find needlenose pliers, a straight knife, wire cutters, an extra small slotted screwdriver, a medium slotted screwdriver, a small flat phillips screwdriver, a single cut file, a cross cut file, a bottle opener, and an awl.

I have used this knife on a daily basis for over a year, and it has held up very well to the riggers of pocket life (including a few trips through the washing machine). The Squirt has replaced my full sized Leatherman as my primary utility knife, both at home and at work. I can without hesitation say that the Squirt P4 is the most useful knife I have ever owned. If you are looking for a great utility knife or just a small pocketknife, I recommend that you consider the Squirt P4.

The Squirt is also available with scissors (the Squirt S4) and both models are available on Amazon for about $30-$35 dollars.

Leatherman Squirt P4 [via Amazon]
Leatherman Squirt S4 [via Amazon]
Leatherman Squirt Product Page

Technorati Tags: gadgets knives leatherman

From the In2TV website:

In2TV is the first broadband TV network and it's got the largest collection of free TV shows anywhere on the web. Not just highlights or listings, but full-length TV episodes with a range of choices and loads of interactive features. On-line. Anytime. Always free.

Here at Geek In Gear free is a word I love to hear. So, when I heard AOL had launched a free Internet based TV network I got all giddy. The selection of shows seemed great. There is a nice cross section of classic TV represented from cult sci-fi hit Babylon 5 to classic comedies like F troop. For me, the selection was great. I would however like to see the selection of shows grow, but I am sure that anyone can find at least one show that they like from the selection of 30 shows in 14 categories.

The service, unfortunately, is Windows only. In fact, it requires Windows XP, a requirement that may leave some people unable to use In2TV. Here are the rest of the system requirements:

Core System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows® XP, 32 bit or 64 bit
• Media Player: Windows® Media Player version 10.0
• Web Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0+, Netscape® 7.2 and 8.0+, Firefox® 1.0.7+
• An Internet connection
• Macromedia® Flash Player 8. Get it HERE!
• In2TV video is only licensed for viewing in the United States.

Recommended System Configuration:

• BYOA/LAN, DSL, Cable
• Pentium® class Multimedia with sound chip or dedicated sound card
• Pentium III 1.0GHz or better
• 256MB RAM
• 1024x768 monitor resolution @ 32-bit Color Depth

I was excited to see Firefox and Netscape on the list of available browsers (mostly because I loath IE), but unfortunately these system requirements are only for the streaming video player and not the Hi-Q downloads (more on that later).

The In2TV site is fairly easy to navigate. Though I will admit, there are a lot of links on the each page that may confuse some users. I found the best way to get to a show I wanted to watch was to click on the show title at the bottom right of the main page and select the episode from the listing on shows page.

When it comes to watching the episodes, you have two choices. You can watch the show in either an player embedded in the show's page or by downloading the episode to your hard disk via AOL's free Hi-Q player. This is where my opinion of In2TV started to sour.

The embedded player is only a few inches wide and at the center of a very busy page. I found the video quality to be good for streaming content, but between having to lean in to watch the show and the fact I was easily distracted by the rest of the page (there is a lot of flash content) I was not able to comfortably watch a full 30 minute episode of F Troop. Clicking the full screen viewing button on the bottom of the player yielded even more unsatisfactory results. The video quality did not handle being scaled up well at all. Playback also became choppy in the full screen mode. While watching content you must also either manually disable the screen saver and power saving mode or constantly move the mouse to prevent the screen saver from starting or the monitor from turning off. Overall the embedded player did not deliver even a passable viewing experience.

I was just as disappointed with the Hi-Q player. First, the Hi-Q player has its own set of system requirements:

System Requirements:

• Windows XP
• Internet Explorer 6.0
• Windows Media Player 10.0
• Javascript, ActiveX and cookies enabled
• Broadband recommended

Note the absence of non-Microsoft browsers. This is because the Hi-Q player is an ActiveX plug-in. Yes, that ActiveX. The one that any security conscious user that for what ever reason still uses IE for browsing has disabled. Putting my reservations about ActiveX aside, I allowed the plug-in to install itself.

As far as the Hi-Q plug-in its self, I found it sluggish and hard to navigate with. Also I found no way to directly download In2TV content from the page the Hi-Q player opens when you launch it (hopefully there is just a matter of time before this is fixed). To download content to the player you must click the the Hi-Q icon next to the episode name on the individual show pages within the the In2TV site.

Shows can only be downloaded one at a time, which is fine (especially for a free service). Downloads were relatively quick, taking anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the length of the show on my fast cable connection (speeds topped out at approx. 1MB/s). Long download times are due to the large size of the video files (near 1GB for the hour and a half pilot of Babylon 5 and approx. 250Mb for a 25 minute episode of F Troop). The download times are offset by the fact you can start watching the show as soon as you start downloading (though I recommend letting at least 10% of the show download so you do not have to stop watching while the rest of the show downloads).

The Hi-Q player has a basic download manager in it allowing you to pause downloads and arrange your download queue's order. It also appears to have some scheduling and subscription functionality, but I do not believe that this has been implemented with the In2TV content yet. The download manager also shows you how long you have to watch the content you have downloaded. For the In2TV content you have a week to view the shows you have downloaded (though since this is a free service, you should be able to just download them again to re-watch the episode).

Video quality on the player is more than adequate (it is by no means hi-def, but for free it is fine). The player opens in its own IE window so it is not plagued by the same distractions as the embedded player. Full screen quality is also more than adequate (if you are using the recommended resolution of 1024x768, any higher and video quality suffers). Unfortunately the Hi-Q player suffers from the same screen saver/power save issues as the embedded player. Also the lack of playback control in the full screen mode is also annoying.

The In2TV service has a lot of potential, and is fine to use if you can forgive its short comings. If AOL addresses some of the problems with the In2TV and Hi-Q players the service could really take off as a on-demand IPTV service. I would love to see the Hi-Q player turned into a IE independent standalone application more like iTunes instead of the current ActiveX monstrosity that AOL has foist upon the public. Also while I feel the current content is good, I would love to see it grow to include a wider variety of shows.

In short, AOL has some great content and a flawed delivery system. If it can over come its delivery problems, In2TV could quite possibly become an IPTV powerhouse.

AOL's In2TV
Technorati Tags: review iptv aol television