Hear, hear!

I've been a maemo user since 2005, and remember opening up the 770 in awe at how awesome it was compared to all other mobile devices I had used and owned (well, maybe not entirely more awesome than the Newton )—it was the internet, in your pocket . . . the real internet. The platform has really come a long way since then. A wonderfully talented developer community has formed around the platform and brought us tons of wonderful applications. Then came the N800, which was a huge step over the 770. It was truly the world's most portable laptop.

I use my N800 daily. It wakes me up with its alarm in the morning (no need to reset the alarm for my differing schedule each day, the N800 does it for me!). I can then check the RSS news feeds and for any important emails before I get up. I hook it up to a set of portable speakers in the bathroom to listen to NPR (I can even get my favorite NPR station from home at college thanks to internet radio) in the shower. At breakfast I browse through the rest of the email, check the IRC logs and forum updates from the night before (and usually get in a few replies* ), and maybe listen to some tunes through Vagalume or Rhapsody.

On the way to school/work (depending on the time of year), I'll listen to either MP3s or Rhapsody (the 3g connection at home during the summer can usually swing it). At school, I use it for taking notes with my iGo Bluetooth keyboard (don't need to carry around anything more than a binder papers and to keep the keyboard in), checking the web for references (or fun, during those particularly boring lectures), and sometimes viewing PDF textbooks. Between classes I'll usually go to the union and read a book with FBReader or browse the web some more, and listen to music with my Shures.

At home, it stays in my pocket all the time (this is more relevant at home-home, as my 1-bedroom apartment at school doesn't ever leave me very far from my rig ), and idles for me on AIM, IRC, and Gizmo SIP. I can tap off quick replies to IMs as they come in (auditory notifications are great) with the fullscreen-keyboard, check up on my favorite IRC channels and receive calls thanks to Grand Central. Sometimes I'll just kick back on the couch and reader, or pick a movie or TV show to watch from my server (thanks to EyeTV for the TV shows!) and have it transcoded on-the-fly thanks to aflegg's excellent mediautils.

It's great around town, too. I can flip it out and check movie/video game reviews from Amazon while browsing through the selections at Blockbuster and Best Buy. With maemo mapper and my Bluetooth GPS, I can get directions to anywhere—find a place for dinner on the web and drop its address in. I frequently go on nocturnal canoe trips with friends, and we usually plot out the courses ahead of time with Google Earth. I can pick up these tracks for navigation on the water with maemo mapper, and the Google satellite images are great for spotting navigation hazards, and determining depth (it provides some nice tunes on the water through a portable boombox sometimes, too).

I have to drive back and forth between school and home fairly often, and the N800 is the perfect road companion—drop in an audio book, or grab a few podcasts through Video Center or Canola2 (caught up on Car Talk and This American Life last trip). Set up the GPS so you have a big-picture overview of your total trip progress (not something you get with a Garmin). It makes those long trips much more bearable.

Having a tiny, ultraportable laptop with you everywhere really changes things. Get directions, read reviews, check the weather, settle discussions with wikipedia, find quick information for troubleshooting problems in the garage, solve a computer issue for your mother with the help of SSH and VNC, send off an e-mail to a colleague about whatever—the list is endless.

Nokia has really done something special in getting the ball rolling in this market, and I can do nothing but thank them for it.

*A "posted with" tag for individual posts would be such a neat feature.