Questions about N810
 

Ok, so granted this could have been answered in other threads, but the reason I want to buy a Tablet is because the lack of time. So please bear with me and please answer me the following questions :)

So I want to buy a PDA, and the N810 looks just great for what I need. But I want to know the following:

- Can I use and create Windows Office documents? .doc, .xls, and such? is there any freely available third party app to make this possible?
- speaking of which, can I use Macros from Excel on this tablet? Or any other app written in VisualBasic?
- Is the movie streaming perfect, as it should be? I mean the avi's encoded with Xvid and such. Do the 3rd party apps offered on this site ensure the great performance I would expect? And since the screen resolution is 800x480 (!) can it run smoothly movies on a 750x400 resolution?

- Since this is out of store for my country, I am considering buying it from Ebay, new and in sealed box. Are there any signs of originality I should be looking for? How do I verify it?

Thanks for your time. Your answers might bring this community a new member. Cheers.

Re: Questions about N810
 

Your expectations are too high. I doubt the n810 is the device you're looking for.
You should probably be looking at a far more expensive UMPC to deliver the performance you are expecting.

Re: Questions about N810
 

* Wince * Well... I'll give you straight and honest answers, but they might not be the ones you were hoping for. :(

1) Yes, you can. Abiword and OpenOffice are both possible for .doc. They are third party and you will need to add them and may need OpenOffice in a chroot (it's been a while since I checked)... really that is pretty easy too thanks to Qole and others. KDE (no chroot) is also possible.
2) Not sure about this one... basically only if it works with OpenOffice, Abiword, or KOffice, though.
3) No, sorry. Mplayer offers great performance, but the 3d acceleration is disabled so it isn't as good as you're hoping. 720x400 is more toward the absolute top of what it can do, although I think it looks great.

Re: Questions about N810
 

the n810 is a gps device with a wifi internet browser for little browslets -average music player video basic-in other words you get what you pay for and some bits and pieces-at $200-a bargain toy-what you need is a laptop or netbook

Re: Questions about N810
 

Yes, with apps such as Abiword, Gnumeric, and OpenOffice (with Qole's easydebian)

Not to my knowledge.

VB is Windows only, so no

If the usage examples you quoted are absolutes, and you're not bothered about the size then a cheap netbook running XP would be more suitable.

Re: Questions about N810
 

Indeed, a notebook is more suited, but want to buy a PDA, already have a laptop. I can hardly carry that around in my pocket now, can I? So the pointed answers have my gratitude.

Good news about OpenOffice, already using that at work. I understand I would need a special version of it? Have any links?

To clarify the movie question: TBH I am thinking of standard res for example 650x350 @ 25fps or thereabout. Those would be movies from my own DVD's ripped for my own use (to be in agreement with the law :)). I wanted to know whether there were any glitches in rendering, skipped frames, animation-like moving, or if the quality of the rendering is similar to the notebook. In other words, can I watch a movie without getting annoyed with the quality of the rendering? Asus 696 can do it, and it's weaker than the 810.

Another thing: I have learned VB, I can also learn another language to develop my own apps. What would you recommend, something with an easy to use UI to create small efficient apps with similar easy UI? What about for databases?

Re: Questions about N810
 

Resolution of the videos should be OK, a lot also depends on the bitrate. there is a thread somewhere on here "video can be better than expected" or similar. find it and read it. I watch quite a bit on my N800 and N810, and find it fine for a portable device.

For OO, again search for easy debian.

And as an alternative to VB, people seem to do a lot with python on these tablets.

A lot of the strength of the tablets, is not that they are really really good at one or two things, but rather the sheer variety of what they do well.

Re: Questions about N810
 

Remember the n810 has a processor which is almost 3 years old. Although the n810 can run word and excel.... the way it achieves it is very very clunky because of the lack of sufficient power. Even the video bit rate you mentioned may need conversion before it can be played.

On the other hand the n900 can read and edit office files via a commercial 3rd party program or way better use of open office org. Coming to video i read somewhere that the n900 can run bitrates of upto 5000kbps.

So save whatever money you can and buy the n900 when the price comes down later.

Re: Questions about N810
 

I have read all your replies and thank you for them. The N900 is not an option for me, waaay too expensive. I think I will take my chances with the n810, I am sure despite minor glitches (that I've come to expect from Nokia :)) I will be satisfied. Thanks again.

Re: Questions about N810
 

Please don't set your expectations too high for OpenOffice. although qole did a great job making it easily available for us, there is still noticeable lag between typing letters and them appearing in your document.