As linked earlier and the almost-announcement.

That's all of the relevant information.

as a gamer might want to keep your eye on:
http://openpandora.org/

I don't know much about it, besides it looks pretty cool and seems unavailable

yeah, Pandora is pretty cool... but it's never gonna come out, lol, there was this cooler project where the guy had massive processing, bluetooth for controllers eg wii, multitouch, it was really cool but i've lost the link

For reference, I've had both the ipod touch (2g) and the N810. My initial impression was that I'd definitely keep the ipod touch and eBay the N810, but I ended up doing the exact opposite. The N810 definitely benefits from various tweaks -- it's a linux distro based off Debian (afaik), and various sysctl tweaks along with microb/webkit tweaks made it a very nice browser. Here are my impressions on both systems:

Ipod touch --
Pros: really good for multimedia with decent browsing and a ton of apps.
Cons: locked down (unless you jail break) which means that simple tasks such as storing PDFs is a major chore. Also no BT tethering, which means that it's worthless outside of a WiFi spot.

N810:
Pros: very open architecture and if you have any linux experience you'll feel right at home (running bash with the expected FS layout and the usual editors - vi, emacs, etc). Once you've taken the time to do some minor (or major depending on your skill-level and patience) tweaking, it's a very nice device. Fantastic screen, great browsing and very usable for reading (I've read various technical PDFs, HTML articles saved on SD, ePub books, etc). I don't use it for audio as I have an old ipod nano that handles that task, and I don't view a lot of videos (the occasional youtube video is handled just fine by the N810).

Summary: if you're looking for an ipod with some websurfing abilities then go with the ipod touch. It's a pretty well made device and I certainly enjoyed using it. However, if you're looking for something that could realistically function as a laptop in a pinch and has an awesome screen, then the N810 is a great device. I carry it around along with my BB to make up for the various deficiencies of the BB (lousy screen, horrible browsing, etc... though the BB rocks for email and that's it's main duty for me). The fact that you can pair the N810 with a bluetooth device for net access is also a major bonus.

Anyhow, apologies for the rambling post, but the bottomline is that the N810 is the most pocketable MID out there right now and it'll handle your net activities (from surfing to VNC to ssh) along with serving as a decent ereader and a multimedia device if needed.

-CM

Also forgot to add that most of the tweaking is fairly brain-dead if you just follow the instructions on posts/wikis off this site. Other than rudimentary vi skills (or BT keyboard pairing), there's very little knowledge required to get a very nice system setup thanks to posts from folks like Brontide, qole and several others.

-CM

Good Game, sorry this is off topic...

If Nokia expects to sell a tablet for 500-600, I feel sorry for them. Even 400 for the N810 was pushing the limit. Now with Archos and Apple selling similar devices, and the fact you could get 3 N800s for that price, a 600 dollar device is going to "die", no matter how good it is...

My guess is that it will be subsidized, like some netbooks with 3G. Hopefully. If they expect us to pay full for the device and the service (WiMax Edition anyone?), its not going to do well either.


Anyway, iPhone 3.0 looks cool. I would wait for Pre, 3.0, or RX-51. They are coming soon.

The N810 started at $479, and it sold just fine. Hardware prices drop eventually (within the first year of release), so don't get your panties all in a bunch because things start out expensive. They hardly stay that way, and the cheaper individuals will come flocking in when the price drops.

Besides, I don't have any clue what the actual price will be, so it's also not worth it getting worked up over speculation.

1) GPS - I have no idea. I don't own one (I have an n800 + a bluetooth GPS).
2) Installing transmission is relatively easy. It actually might be in extras now. If not you just search for it on the forum here, and click on the .deb and install. I rarely download with it though unless it's a small file (big files are for my laptop or desktop).

As for Ubuntu I've found it depends on the wireless card. Both my laptop's Intel integrated one worked well (Intel has great open source drivers). My desktop's atheros one works well too. Tried installing Ubuntu on girlfriend's laptop and it uses Broadcom (YUCK). Though nowadays if a driver doesn't work, you can just use ndswrapper. There's even tools now that will do it automatically for you (it'll delete whatever wireless driver your currently using and use your ethernet connection to download the [windows] driver and then set it up. Haven't tried that myself but next time I get around to installing Ubuntu on her laptop I'm going try it.

Now what's fun is ATI drivers. Come on ATI, get with the program already. Though the way things are going for AMD/ATI it looks like the next desktop I build (in a few years) is going be Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU.

Well as I said, I don't know anything about the n810's GPS. (actually besides the n800's pros such as dual SD cards, one of the reasons why I didn't like the n810 was the integrated GPS. From what I've learned about GPS systems, they never tend to work when they're not out in the open. And since I didn't want to put my tablet on the dashboard just to use the GPS, it was obvious what the choice was :P).

Torrenting shouldn't be a problem (well besides space on your memory card).

So yeah, that explains the issues you have. You have Broadcom (yucky) and ATI. Did you know if you used ndswrapper to install the drivers? (basically did you do anything or did Ubuntu do it all?). If Ubuntu did everything for you then it likely tried to use an open source driver (which are somethings great, though thanks to companies not releasing specs they tend to be buggy). So you may want to try using ndiswrapper.

First you might want to install ndiswrapper for the following to work (the authors haven't programmed in a check to make sure you have ndiswrapper and if not to install it). So to take the GUI path. System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

Paste "ndiswrapper" into the search box and install the three (ndisgtk, ndiswrapperutils, ndiswrapper-common).

Here's a link to the auto one I talked about. http://easylinuxwifi.org/

Sadly it's not packaged into a nice .deb and it uses python. It's also relatively new (released this month or last so it's still buggy apparantly).

I'm going to bed soon so I won't be able to help you so you might want to wait till someone else helps or try Ubuntuforums.org. The instructions are copied and pasted from their INSTRUCTIONS document (I haven't tried this myself since I haven't had time)
Translated:

"Place the folder Auto-NDIS-0.1 in your home directory"

Copy the folder to /home/WHATEVERNAMEYOUCHOOSE

"Open up a terminal and type the following command 'sudo python ~/Auto-NDIS-0.1/auto-ndis.py'

or open up a terminal and type 'su' and then the type 'python ~/Auto-NDIS-0.1/auto-ndis.py'"

Click applications > terminal then copy and paste. (copy and paste are weird in the terminal unless you change the defaults. It's shift+ctrl+c and shift+ctrl+v). Or use the mouse or the edit toolbar :P



The command basically tells to run that script with executable privileges as root (or in Windows terminology, an adminstrator). You could also just right click on those two files in the file browser > properties > go to permissions > click allow executing as a program. You'd still have to run it as root however. And with a default installation, root access is usually hidden away from the user unless you setup a shortcut for it. People just prefer using the terminal since it's usually faster. Anyway press Alt+F2 (you'll get a small window that pops up [a quicklauncher]. Type in "gksudo nautilus". This will make another window pop up that starts you in /root/. Then to go /home/YOURUSERNAME. Go to the folder and finally click those two files (after you let them be executable).

Honestly it's easier to use the terminal if you haven't noticed. Especially if your new (like I was). Just copy and paste commands!

As for ATI, I haven't had a problem myself with the driver. But it's an X800GTOII (kinda old.. doesn't have SM3.0 shaders). It's only the more recent ATI cards that have problems.

Anyway, hope it works out for you. I remember trying out Ubuntu for the first time. It was an odd experience, trying to navigate it since I was use to Windows. (kinda like how I am now with Macs since their GUI has changed quite a bit since the days of running Oregon Trail off of elementary school computers).

The problem was that it couldn't connect to secure (WPA/ WPA2?) networks correct? Then this thread at Ubuntuforums.org might help you.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=896713

I don't think Ubuntu installed the ndiswrapper for you. Mainly because it goes against the design idea of everything is open. Usually for drivers it goes like this..

Check if open source one is available. If not, use the closed source one provide by the company. If not then your wireless doesn't work.

So I'd say it's worth a shot. Wish I could help you more, but I'm unfamilar with Broadcom and I'm still a Linux newbie myself (even after using it for 2 years lol).