Agreed that a docking station is a great idea. Have you seen those Philips digital photo frames? Why pay £120 for a dumb photo slideshow, when my 770 has the perfect screen and form factor to do exactly that?

Heck - market it as a combined photo frame and Web browser, and watch it fly off the shelves! Maybe nokia should try taking some tips from Apple.

d

The problem with doing a dock is not so much as coming up with it, as it is with coming up with the cash to do a minimum production run of say 1,000 units. The best solution would be a straight-through replicator for the audio, power and usb so that these cables can be connected to the rear of the dock, which would save on production costs. Heck, if I was certain there was a market for at least 2 runs I would do this myself.

Anyone know how many units Nokia have sold? Perhaps you could make a prototype and take deposits for a run on ebay to gauge interest.

Would $100 - 150 us be acceptable? My homebrew docking solution has the following:

6 usb ports
1 ide connection
wireless keyboard & mouse
vga out
eithernet
battery and 110 power
it could be expanded quite abit, the best part is that it does not slow down the nokia. Once I get it put in some kind of box I will post some pics right now its all velcrowed and glued together. Pretty ugly. Somebody that really knows what there doing could expand on this a lot.

How is the VGA-out done? Are IDE and Ethernet USB conversions ? And I thought mice didn't work in maemo ?...

My own liking for a docking station (which should ideally be portable enough to use on trains etc) would be:

• a few USB ports (2-4 would be sufficient)
• built-in USB ethernet (and possibly serial)
• power connector which charges the docking station's batteries as well as the 770's
• pass-through for headphones
• VGA out would be fantastic if possible (are there USB -> VGA interfaces?)
• Built-in stand for propping the whole thing up
• Slotted in 770 with some kind of restraint to keep it in once docked.

A larger unit which allowed the inclusion of a 2.5" laptop HD connected over USB could also be very interesting.

I think there's requirements for two different markets here:

- Some require a cradle just for charging, that allows the 770 to be dropped in, rather than plugged in
- Some require a cradle that give additional functionality, to open up all the 770's capabilities (USB hub, ethernet, etc).

I'm personally quite happy with a simple cradle frame, with pass-through for power, headphone, and USB. I mostly use my 770 for wireless web browsing (the only wire I might have in it while in use is a pair of headphones), rather than as a mini-desktop; it's definitely a stylish device, but yet you still have to leave it lying on a surface with cables trailing from it....


Damian

I got it all by using an sbc or single board computer then remote desktop. I thought it would be easier to use the strenghts of linux like its networking. There are some really good and cheap sbc's and with their ability to use I/O modules there is nothing you cannot do with remote dektop or through a web interface. I just wish the 770 could use Ajax apps.

I wish I would have found this one first.

Instead of the traditional stand I am thinking of using about 2 ft of 1/2 in flexible gas pipe attached to my base. This will allow for a close to the face viewing position hands free.

oh, you mean you actually use an entire PC as a peripheral to the 770? that's not quite my idea of a docking station :-)