I'll have to disagree with you on the video playback bit. I have my videos encoded at 25fps using the N800 Video Convert 0.8.4 and they *all* play back smooth with no skipping. Also, I see no point in being able to play back media at 800x600 since the screen is that small anyway, and I really could do with smaller media file sizes (which I get, thanks to the Media Convert software)
Likewise, I can honestly say that I have not encountered any skipping issues when playing my MP3s back using Canola (which, I believe, uses mPlayer).
As for the video camera, video calling isn't something I do a lot of, unlike VoIP, so it's not something I miss at all. That said, it *would* be nice if the video camera could be used for video calling MSN and Yahoo buddies (yes, i know aMSN does that, but i'm not prepared to start tinkering about a working combination now that I have everything working exactly how I like it), but again, video calling, in my case, in a nice-to-have and not a must-have (like how VoIP and web browsing is)
Now, seriously consider this: Rather than spitting in Nokia's face the way some of us do in this forum, has anyone really considered being grateful that they did produce the Internet Tablet that we are all using today?
I used to work in the Nokia APAC team and can honestly say that it takes quite a bit to get a product like this out the door, especially when it has very little mass appeal in its current incarnation. For a project like this to have even the level of support it has today is something I would consider a miracle.
The fact that the iT project has actualized itself in the form of the N770 and evolved to the N800 and N810 is a huge leap of faith for them, seeing that they could be assigning resources to other areas of the business which have better revenue/feature elasticity
What we have today still needs a bit of polishing around the edges, but looking back at the month since my wife bought me my N800 for Xmas, I've had nothing but positive experiences with it. Here's why the N800 works for me: - media playback - works fine for me, don't know why some people are complaining about skipping. movies play back fine, as do my MP3s. Internet radio is dependent on the quality of my network connection. - web browsing - aside from the very occasional microB crash, I've not had any real problems. the crashes are just inconvenient, not life-threatening - VoIP - Gizmo and Skype works. 'Nuff said - IM - could be better if MSN/Yahoo worked properly, if contacts could be synced with the respective service providers, displayed in the correct folders, and I could have all my contacts (phone numbers, email addresses, and IM addresses and presence all in one app). GoogleTalk and Gizmo work fine for me now. Besides, I'd rather be IMing off my E51, which has Gizmo and Windows Live Messenger, and I'm quick with two-thumb T9 texting (as are most Singaporeans)
The way I see it, we have a decent hardware platform, and there are some pretty good 3rd party apps out there. Nokia probably committed itself to coming up with the platform, and a baseline suite of applications.
Frankly, it's the power users who complain day and night about how the platform isn't up to snuff. Fact is, I whinge all day about how Windows Vista stinks as well, but considering the amount of crap I have running on my system, I sometimes wonder if it is a miracle that it doesn't crash more often than it does.
Let's focus on what we have, and give thanks for it. I would really hate to have chosen a Windows Mobile device that costs more and has a horrible user experience. The Newton did it for me back then (MoreInfo was the killer app for me), and since its demise, after having experienced several generations of Palms, Psions, Windows CE, Windows Mobile over the last 10 years, I can honestly say that this is the only device that comes even close to how the Newton made my mobile computing fun and enjoyable.
Now, imagine if Nokia decided to say, "Screw these ingrates, we'll pull the plug on the iT since it's clearly not profitable and rather than taking negative publicity for it, let's just dump the whole platform and move on to 'what computers have become' (i.e. N95)" ... where would that leave us, the people who have adopted the N800 and really enjoy using it for what we bought it for? For most of us out there, i dare say this device is worth its salt.
Yes, things CAN improve from where it is today, and things certainly ARE improving, thanks to the developers out there who contribute so many hours of their time to bring us freeware, listen to feedback and improve on their apps. It's not like they sold us a brick, for crying out loud