I have to say that with the advent of the new Dates application, I am finally happy with what the 770 has brought me. Think about it: I replaced my Palm Zire 71, which had a beautiful color screen, and all the essential PDA technology with the 770. I now have:

• Dates

• Notes

• Tasks

• Contacts

• Email

… which is what I used on the Palm Zire 71. Sure, the Zire had a built-in camera, but it was of poor quality, and I have a camera on my Motorola Razr that is better. Plus, I rarely took pictures with the Palm. I have my cell phone with me always, and I can email right from the phone.

I had considered getting a Palm Treo, and I got the 770 instead. One of my mountain biking buddies has the Treo, and when he takes it on the trails, he is always worried about it getting broken. Plus, the Treo is bulky, compared to the Razr. I can easily tuck the Razr in my zippered jersey pocket, and forget about it. So having a separate phone/PDA is good for me. I don’t need a PDA when riding on the road or the trail, just a cell phone, in case I have an accident or break my leg (on the trail), or just so my wife won’t worry about me, riding 60 or 70 miles out in the country. She hates when I ride, (because she thinks I will get hit by a car), which is why I am doing more trail riding (where I might get hit by a coyote). Plus, it is better to travel light on a bike. So I like the tiny Razr for that.

I was also recently considering (this is scary) just going back to paper – I took a Franklin Covey class at work, and considered just getting a paper planner thing. Why? Well, I have to take a lot of notes anyway, and I keep track of my time on various projects on paper, so I thought it might be simpler to just do that. I am a copious note-taker. But then I realized that I already hate the bulk of that stuff now. I carry a leather brief bag, with all my journals in it, and really, the problem is not what I am doing, but how I am doing it.

The answer is simple – I need to start to type my notes, instead of writing them on paper. I could never fill up the 1GB MMC card with text, and I have an iPod for music, so I won’t put MP3’s on the 770 – it is silly to do that. Think about it – at home, or anywhere there is a Wifi connection, I have the avail of shoutcast.com, with lots of music, and if I don’t have Wifi, I still have a 40GB iPod loaded with just about every great classical music selection. Why would I need to load up songs on my meager 1GB card? How many would I get on there? Not much. I let the iPod handle music for me.

So I am going to start taking notes on my PC, in Word, and saving them to RTF. Or even text. Yes, plain old text. Plus, I am going to start using my 770’s Bluetooth keyboard in meetings - got it; might as well use it. Most of my notes will be done on the PC, which is fine, because I am a software developer and I sit at a desk all day anyway. I will just set up a folder in my Bluetooth shared folder called Daily (or Weekly) Journals. Each day (or week), I can just make a text file called something like ‘Weekly Journal for 7-24-2006.txt’.

Then I might also save the files onto a USB Flash drive or email them to myself. Do you think paper is safer? Not really. I have heard of programmers being laid off, and told to leave the building, and not being able to go to their computer or desk, to get personal files (because they might do something bad). That hasn’t happened to me, but it can happen to anyone. I like to travel light, and not leave a lot of files or pictures on my PC. Companies can and do read your personal documents on your work PC, so it is better to leave them on your 770, or move them to your 770 ASAP.

So, even though Nokia didn’t want the 770 to be a PDA, dang it, I made it one anyway, and that is what I am using it for. I have what I need now, and if I can get it to sync with Outlook or Entourage, then it will be even better. It certainly is better than paper, and the screen beats the Palm Zire any day.

Finally, we must not forget what the 770 excels at – letting me surf the internet, from the couch, while feigning interest in the decorating shows that my wife loves to watch on HGTV. Honestly, I don’t know what she derives from watching someone decorate someone else’s house. But, hey, it keeps her off the streets.

Would you mind posting what software you put on your 770 to achieve
that functionality?

Dates: the 'Dates' app?
Notes: any text editor or word processor?
Tasks: ?
Contacts: built in 2006 software?
Email: built in email?

Thanks!

I'm still holding out for a light weight database application that I can use for passwords or other lists. I tried Winzig, but it was rather unstable at least on OS2005. At least it looked like it has potential.

Also, I hope someone writes a program that can encrypt/decrypt individual files. On my Psion 5MX I use 'Crypto', which is great since it automatically launches the correct application when a file is opened. It automatically encrypts the file again when the file is closed.

Cool! there is someone else still using a 5MX! If not anything else, my "five" shows me how long a road the 770 still has to travel before you can call it a computer.

Re your questions: I suppose the OP will answer them as well, but here's my stab in the dark:

Dates: either "Dates" or GPE-Calendar
Notes: there's only the built-in Notes, which sucks as a WP or even an editor
Tasks: GPE-Timesheet or GPE-Todolist
Contacts:GPE-Contacts

All the GPE stuff is part of the GPE PIM Suite and can be found at

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog2006

As to the database, there already is SQLite, the database engine. Maybe someone is kind and generous enough to write a decent frontend for it. I'd do it myself, if only I could program.

I installed "Password Safe".. I think it was in one of the application repositories. It uses Blowfish to encrypt your info.. categorizes your entries, and has a note field.

It is in the Garage.Maemo.org section, and works just like the version that I used in IT2005, just fine.

I think it would be great to be able to encrypt documents or spreadsheets with a password, using something like AbiWord or Gnumeric, but they are not ready yet.

Does anyone know if GPE will work on the OS2007 on the N800?

http://fl0rian.wordpress.com/2007/01...n800-maemo-30/

GPE has been ported to Bora (OS2007 N800) already you can add the repository for it and install it right now
check out http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationRepositories
Fred

I know GPE Calendar hasn't been modified to support the new alarm infrastructure in Maemo 3.0, but I wonder if an alarm lights up the LED on the D-pad? It would be great if the n800 could vibrate, but I guess we'll have to settle for the loudness of stereo speakers...

Personally, I'm trying to figure out why they even bothered adding an alarm functionality if the 770/n800 aren't supposed to be PIMs. Do they have something else in mind for alarms? Like email alerts?

Also, will the "OS 2007" for 770 include the new alarm infrastructure?

OS 2007 for 770 should include the alarm infrastructure (it was originally promised for, and designed on, the 770).

*Nokia* aren't making them PIMs, however I don't think it's in their interest to stop third parties.

Personally, I think the reason there is no built-in PIM functionality is that there was no good enough open source PIM suite on which Nokia could base it. After all, the osso-email is (eventually) based on Sylpheed, the RSS reader on Liferea etc. Perhaps a future OS 200x version will do something with Dates, and *then* Nokia will brand it as a PDA as well.