Thread: Oh no! Another Newbie with questions!!
View Single Post
HeebieJeebie is offline HeebieJeebie
2007-08-25 , 01:33
Posts: 104 | Thanked: 3 times | Joined on Aug 2007 @ Oregon
#2
I'm not really an expert, but I'll give a few of them a shot.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(b) Edit Word/Excel docunents
For spreadsheets there's Gnumeric. As to Word document editing, there is work being done on Abiword and it's not quite ready for primetime just yet but it's coming. See this thread with comments from the developer for more info.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(c) Play MP3's, maybe even an AVI type movie.
The media player already plays MP3 and AVI files, but you may want to install mplayer as well as it sometimes does a better job of handling media files. If you want a full on media center app to handle pictures, movies, podcasts and music I suggest looking into Canola.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(d) Play the occassional game (I like pyramid solitaire)
There's Aisleriot Solitaire and lots of other games in the download section of Maemo.org.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(e) Be able to do some wireless sniffing (as a work tool - I'm not into War-Walking or War-Driving; I'm just trying to make sure no one sneaks in a wireless router in the office - I'm the system admin).
Linux wireless tools and things like Aircrack and such are available for the Nokia IT. If you look around a bit you'll be able to find them.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(f) Have the ability to do some IP diagnostics (Ping, Traceroute, etc...)
This takes a little Linux know how, but it's possible according to the instructions in this post on the Maemo users mailing list.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(g) I might be getting a Bluetooth keyboard is all the above stuff works
The iGo Stowaway Ultraslim BT keyboard seems to be pretty popular with the Nokia IT crowd (don't have one myself). And then there's Nokia's own keyboard, but availability seems a little sketchy.


Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(1) I think I'm running Tablet 2006, how do I confirm that?
Go to "Tools>Control Panel>About Product" and it should tell you which version of the firmware/OS you have. If you need to upgrade, download and install the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard and follow the instructions.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(2) Which utilities should I install?
(3) What applications should I install to make this little gem more functional? (See the above list - and please keep it simple. I know 2003/XP, but I'm not a Linux expert)
These two I'll leave open for suggestions since I'm running out of wind.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(4) (Most importaint) - Is there a "770 for Dummies" document floating around?
This forum and the wiki are it as far as I know. Google is also your friend.

EDIT: I just stumbled across a blog called "Internet Tablet School". It claims to be "...an unofficial website containing step-by-step tutorials about how to use Nokia Internet Tablets such as the N800 and 770.

This site is intended for people of ALL skill levels, especially beginners."

There's not much there right now, but it looks promising if they keep it up.

Originally Posted by bmwgsa
(5) Any other advice?
Yeah. You might want to add some more repositiories to the Application Manager. Got to "Tools>Application Manager" and then "Tools>Application Catalog>New" to add them. A good list is here. You will see a lot more applications available for install after you do that.

I'm still learning myself (have an N800) and it's a great little device if you don't mind tinkering a bit. Hope this helps. Have fun!
Last edited by HeebieJeebie; 2007-08-25 at 02:01.