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#1
I am considering buying an 810. I am not plugged into the world of cool electronic devices and reading through the material on the web often doesn't quite make things clear to me.

If some of you could bear my ignorance for a few minutes and tell me the following before I buy?

First, here's what I want:
-small, portable device primarily to handle my e-mail (Outlook, G-mail) and allow me to browse the web using WiFi sites. Primarily something to use when travelling for work but also, I love a cool gizmo (and once I have it in hand I do learn quickly)

Here are my very basic 810 questions:
-If I receive a pdf or Word document attachment via e-mail, can I open it and read it?
-Using Abiword (which I kind of understand is open source software I simply load on to the 810) or another such program, can I make comments on the Word file sent to me via e-mail, save them and then send them back to the sender?
-And I assume I can write a document in Abiword (or whatever) save it and attach it to an e-mail?

Then:
-When I come home after a trip and lots of e-mailing, is there anyway to sync (I think that's the right concept) the e-mail in the 810 to what's on my home computer (right now a Sony but will be an iMac)? IF not, is there any way to move the conversations I've had to my main computer?

Regarding the Web:
-Will the 810 work pretty much the same as a pc in terms of accessing internet mail programs, Google calendar, Skype?

These are the things I need to be sure can get done with this tool. There's lots of other stuff I'd like to do with it but it would be icing on the cake.

Appreciate any assistance.

Thanks,

D
 
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Posts: 2,142 | Thanked: 2,054 times | Joined on Dec 2006 @ Sicily
#2
-If I receive a pdf or Word document attachment via e-mail, can I open it and read it?

PDF reader comes natively, for word you need some hackish solution (nothing difficult indeed).


-Using Abiword (which I kind of understand is open source software I simply load on to the 810) or another such program, can I make comments on the Word file sent to me via e-mail, save them and then send them back to the sender?

Yes. Since native abiword for maemo is still unstable, your better choice will be installing debian and opening/editing word files with abiword (for debian) or openoffice.


-And I assume I can write a document in Abiword (or whatever) save it and attach it to an e-mail?

Same thing here.


-When I come home after a trip and lots of e-mailing, is there anyway to sync (I think that's the right concept) the e-mail in the 810 to what's on my home computer (right now a Sony but will be an iMac)? IF not, is there any way to move the conversations I've had to my main computer?


I'd use a webmail of some sort which is always on-sync for its nature. Dunno for the native client (I have been using only gmail in the last years).

Regarding the Web:
-Will the 810 work pretty much the same as a pc in terms of accessing internet mail programs, Google calendar, Skype?

Internet mail is OK with gmail, as far as I know. Skype is OK and has a native client. Google calendar - don't use it but I seem to remind (not shure) it's OK.
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#3
Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
I am considering buying an 810. I am not plugged into the world of cool electronic devices and reading through the material on the web often doesn't quite make things clear to me.

If some of you could bear my ignorance for a few minutes and tell me the following before I buy?

First, here's what I want:
-small, portable device primarily to handle my e-mail (Outlook, G-mail) and allow me to browse the web using WiFi sites. Primarily something to use when travelling for work but also, I love a cool gizmo (and once I have it in hand I do learn quickly)

Here are my very basic 810 questions:
-If I receive a pdf or Word document attachment via e-mail, can I open it and read it?
-Using Abiword (which I kind of understand is open source software I simply load on to the 810) or another such program, can I make comments on the Word file sent to me via e-mail, save them and then send them back to the sender?
-And I assume I can write a document in Abiword (or whatever) save it and attach it to an e-mail?
Yes to reading PDFs. Yes to reading Word DOCs. You'll have to ask someone else about how well abiword works. It is in beta...
Yes to the question about sending attachments

Originally Posted by Diesel View Post

Then:
-When I come home after a trip and lots of e-mailing, is there anyway to sync (I think that's the right concept) the e-mail in the 810 to what's on my home computer (right now a Sony but will be an iMac)? IF not, is there any way to move the conversations I've had to my main computer?
What I do with my gmail account is download from it via Gmail's "IMAP" support. That leaves the mail in the gmail account but also downloads a copy to my tablet. When I go home I can use my PC's email client (thunderbird in this case) to download it again. This is a lot easier than syncing and works great as long as you can access the account via IMAP. (If you use a different email account with outlook besides the gmail account, ask your email provider if they support "IMAP" or only "POP3.")

Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
Regarding the Web:
-Will the 810 work pretty much the same as a pc in terms of accessing internet mail programs, Google calendar, Skype?
The web browser is pretty darn good. It's just not as fast as a desktop browser and opening a ton of windows is a good way to slow it down. Keep reasonable expectations in mind and I think it will work well for you. Skype works great and I use it all the time, but please realize in advance: There is no video support in the Skype client, and I really doubt there will be anytime soon if ever.

Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
These are the things I need to be sure can get done with this tool. There's lots of other stuff I'd like to do with it but it would be icing on the cake.

Appreciate any assistance.

Thanks,

D
 
Posts: 20 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Sep 2008
#4
Originally Posted by debernardis View Post
your better choice will be installing debian and opening/editing word files with abiword (for debian) or openoffice.
Very cool, many thanks. So Debian is an operating system (remember, I'm a bit slow on all this)? It would run alongside the OS that the 810 comes with?

Open Office looks impressive...do you prefer it on the 810 to Abiword? Im interested that their is a PowerPoint clone.

This sounds like good news...

Cheers,

D
 
Posts: 40 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on May 2008
#5
I just use google docs for word docs. Works pretty well. I haven't been able to find an open office download yet.
 
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Posts: 2,142 | Thanked: 2,054 times | Joined on Dec 2006 @ Sicily
#6
Originally Posted by Diesel View Post
Open Office looks impressive...do you prefer it on the 810 to Abiword? Im interested that their is a PowerPoint clone.
I have all my documents in openoffice format on my work and home machines, so it's natural for me to use it on my tablet, too. I also need reading powerpoint files.
But if you only need to interact with the doc format of M$ Word, you can stick to abiword which is leaner.
Openoffice needs much more time to open on the tablet, but afterwards is swift enough for some light working. My major annoyance with it is not speed: is the fact that I am getting presbyopic

You'll find everything needed in the debian section of the forums. It's likely that a new version of an installable, complete debian package is going to be released in the next weeks, since the time of the Berlin meeting is near
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