Nokia announced the birth of a new product range with the launch of the Debian Linux powered Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Looking a bit like a Nokia 7710 on steroids, being 13mm wider and 10 mm taller, the new 770 is meant to be a home Internet appliance that, get this, is not a phone at all. That's right; the 770 has no mobile phone inside. Instead it relies on its Bluetooth v1.2 and WiFi (802.11b) support to connect to the Internet either through your home WiFi router or via your Bluetooth compatible mobile phone. Nokia envisions the 770 as an inexpensive (about US$350) and convenient replacement for the 2nd or 3rd PC a family might have at home. It is the kind of device that you leave on the coffee table or on the night stand next to your bed. When you need to check your email or do a quick Internet search, you just power it on instantly (like a PDA) and have at it. Thanks to the 770's massive 4.13" diagonal, 800x480 pixel display, browsing and email should be quite comfortable. In addition to the Opera web browser and the built-in email client, the initial Q3 2005 release of the 770 will also ship with a RSS news reader, an Internet radio, various media players, a PDF viewer, and Flash v6 compatibility. A user installable software upgrade that is expected in Q1 of 2006 will introduce Voice Over IP (VOIP) and Instant Messaging to the mix. Text input on the 770 works much the same as with the 7710, supporting both a virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition via a pen stylus. The UI could be considered a simpler version of the Series 90 UI seen on the 7710. Apart from the stylus, the 770 offers a 5-way d-pad controller, and home, menu, escape, zoom, and full screen hardware buttons for user interaction. As I mentioned, the 770's software is based on Debian Linux (v2.6). The new platform is called "maemo", and the user interfaced is derived from the well-known GNOME UI seen on Linux boxes around the world. Nokia plans for maemo to be an open platform (much of it being Open Source based) and will provide a SDK. The 770 runs on a TI 1710 OMAP (ARM based) processor, and has 64MB of DDR RAM, and 128MB of internal FLASH memory, of which about 64MB should be available to the user. Storage can be augmented by inserting a RS-MMC memory card. A 64MB card will ship with the device. The 770's v1.2 Bluetooth system supports the Dialup Networking, File Transfer, GAP, Serial Port, and SIM Access profiles. USB connectivity is also available, as is the forementioned WiFi support. The included 1500mAh battery should be good for about 3 hours of browsing or 7 days of standby time. Also included in the retail package is a USB cable, a travel charger, a carry pouch, and a desk stand. No stereo headset is included, but thankfully Nokia has decided to include a regular 3.5mm stereo headset jack instead of relying on the finicky Pop-Port based headsets they currently push. You can get more information on the maemo platform at the official maemo website. We'll have live photos from the Nokia 770 launch event at LinuxWorld NYC available later in the day.Source :http://www.mobileburn.com/
