At CES, Nokia announced the latest update to their Internet Tablet, known as the N800. While Apple's iPhone got a lot of the buzz, the N800 is available now for under $400 and even cheaper for open source developers. While it's not a phone, it has a beautiful (and larger) screen and is much more useful than Microsoft's overweight UMPC.
The N800 follows on the heels of the N770 which was targeted primarily to developers rather than end users. Now Nokia is getting even more savvy by offering a limited supply of 500 N800s for 100 EUR to qualified open source developers. (To be clear, this is 100 Euros each, not all 500 units for 100 Euros!) This is a good move for Nokia to help build out the applications for the N800. It includes the basics already, such as the Opera browser, email client, a no-frills MP3 player, etc. However, I think these applications are still pretty basic and there is plenty of opportunity for folks to create much more powerful or customized apps for the N800. In fact, I would say the one thing that keeps the N800 a niche product right now is that it doesn't have a killer app that makes it a must-buy device. That could certainly change as people start to take advantage of it's wifi capability to do VOIP based communications, Skype or some other new application.
All of the source code for the N800 is available under open source license at Maemo.org. There's also a decent SDK, documentation, APIs, various hosted projects, applications and blogs. And there appears to be a growing community of Nokia-toting internet addicts who are out to build new apps for the N800.
There are links to a couple of reviews below. I'll follow up with my own hands-on report in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, if you're at all curious in building apps for this platform, I encourage you to get one and check it out.
- Amazon: Nokia N800
- InternetTablet Talk: Home, Forums
- Maemo.org: N800 Developer Program
- Maemo.org: News, FAQ, Screenshots, Downloads, Documentation
- Quim Gil's blog: Developer Device Program Update
- Mobile Crunch: N800 Real World Review
"All of the source code for the N800 is available under open source license at Maemo.org."
Statements like this are very misleading.
In fact, several very significant pieces of the system are completely closed-source and proprietary. If you are looking for a completely open Linux device, this is not it.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 26, 2007 at 04:07 AM
Anon,
this is the first I've heard of some code not being avail. If you have some more info here, please post it.
Thanks
--Zack
Posted by: ZUrlocker | January 27, 2007 at 05:38 PM
Most of the code is open. Opera browser, Adobe Flash, real player ... are closed, of course! All UI components and middleware are open. APplications (engine parts) are open but a thin look&feel layer (visual UI) is closed -- most of them.
It is more open than anything I*ve ever seen ;-)
Posted by: Anonymous | January 29, 2007 at 04:29 AM
Ok, yes, that's a good point. It should have been obvious that some elements (Opera, Flash) are closed. Not sure why some of the UI is closed. Perhaps one of the folks from Mameo.org or Nokia can comment on that. Still, as you said, it is more open than anything else. And for developers its a great platform.
--Zack
Posted by: ZUrlocker | January 30, 2007 at 11:56 AM