My views may be skewed by my own desires so I'd like your feedback on this blog post. Tell me what YOUR desires and observations are and I will incorporate them into a more clear portrait.

Yep, that's me all the way. Excellent summary!

Whole-heartedly agree.

I agree, except on 2 points:
-lack of keyboard can be solved via a bluetooth keyboard. Nokia has one, why do I have to hack the device to get it recognized?
-my wifi connection is not stable enough for real browsing. UMTS via bluetooth works, though.

You summed things up nicely.

When I first heard of the 770 I was interested but not at the price it was to be carrying. I couldn't justify that prior to making the purchase, knowing that yes, I could buy a full-fledged laptop for about $400 during the big holiday sales. Besides, I have a very compact Dell x300 laptop which is compact enough and lightweight enough and which I've been using it quite a bit on the couch in front of the tv.

Once I finally got a chance to see the 770 in action and read about the upcoming VOIP and potential for other unique uses, it became clear that even though I'd rather wait for the 2G version (assuming Nokia sees reason to further the product line) and gain the bonus of all the improvements, I didn't know if that would happen in 6 months or 12 months. I didn't want to wait 6 months!

I feel it should be 12 months before Nokia puts out an improved model, giving the 770 plenty of time to saturate, letting all those who think they can outdo it put their product out, only to be blown away by the next Nokia internet tablet. Nokia makes great phones IMHO, no reason they can't make another great idea even better.

Now with the 770 I can sit/lounge for quite a bit longer browsing the web and catching up on the latest tech news. All this with even less weight and distraction due to the extremely small footprint. And as others have found, once you get your prime bookmarks and feeds in place, there is less and less typing done on the device, foregoing the downside of the less than adequate HWR. I never took the laptop anywhere other than work and home, the 770 I take everywhere.

I too do as much research as I can stand on a product before purchasing it, sometimes too much. I can easily talk myself out of something, and that is often the case when I buy something on impulse- either I put it down before I get to the checkout, or I return it within the standard return period for the store. If something doesn't live up to the hype/expectations (and shortcomings) that I've read about, it isn't worth my money. I went into the purchase of the 770 knowing it was a platform in the making, and as such I am willing to hang tight with it to see it evolve into something even more impressive. I honestly don't usually spend the $ on something first to market- it is often not justifiable to my pocketbook, especially when I know it will be cheaper down the road. This Christmas I had very few people to spend $ on, and a side job just before I bought the 770 gave me the funds to splurge on myself.

I agree the goal you present was achieved-I installed and ran GAIM the other day...small but completely functional...I was impressed. I don't have a huge need for the IM functionality, this is more of a novelty and maybe attraction for those addicted to it. Maybe I just need to create a new nick and give it out only to those I really want to be bothered by. I have not set up the email program for any of my accounts, I may do it for kicks, although I don't have a huge need for it now since I generally use the web interfaces, with my most personal account configured on my desktop and also forwarded to my Blackberry. I don't have much need for Notes, Tasks, Calendar on the personal side, only for work. Maybe I'll find more need and uses to implement them on the 770, much like the "solution that was waiting for a problem" idea.

I don't know how the onscreen keyboard can be improved to the extent of saving space, other than creating maybe a set of "ALT" keys overlaid upon the standard letters, much like the Blackberry physical keyboards are on all their current QWERTY-based models.

Why not design a new sleeve for the 770, one with a USB plug on the inside and a slider keyboard which is integrated into the "back" of the sleeve (where the NOKIA etched logo is currently)? It would be more of a thumb board, still keeping the overall package compact and lightweight. For a more desktop-like, lengthy typing session external/larger USB or BT keyboards could be utilized.

I wonder how the notion got into Nokia's head to not make BT keyboards a built-in capability. They must have had a different vision of their target cosumer/market. The Nokia 770 is a tech gadget, and tech gadgets beget integration with other tech gadgets. I am slightly disappointed that IR was not included, despite it being a legacy form of wireless communication. It has been around long enough you'd think the components necessary to include it would be small enough to have a place within the 770. I too liked the idea of making the 770 a remote control, but I also realize it can't be everything.

At this time, because the 770 is not designed from the ground up as a PDA, it won't likely invade the enterprise market sector. People are too addicted to their current platform to make a switch to a device such as an internet tablet. At best those with a Blackberry or Treo will also have their wireless voice service on that hardware, which brings it down to 2 devices to carry including the 770. Nokia already makes and has other phones in the works to be utilized as a corporate-based portable all-in-one PDA gadget. Not a huge need to overlap heavily with the 770.

I have shown a few of my coworkers my 770 and for the brief period a couple had it in their hands they were impressed with the screen and the speed of browsing. Another guy would've never returned it to me had he not been pressed to get actual work done before the end of day- he had to drop it off in my office because he couldn't put it down!

I think continued support of the platform by developers and Nokia, input (both positive and otherwise) and creative discovery by the users, and visibility of the 770 will help propel it into becoming what we all want, which we each define individually, but which on the whole will be ideal for everyone.

I'm going to focus on the portrait part. The thing I didn't expect was the social aspect. The desktop, or even llaptop, act as social barriers to my family. The 770 doesn't. Nokia, if your watching iTt, tell your marketers to pay attention to this. The 770 quietly and unobtrusively blends into your lifestyle. For me it has become the Sunday paper killer.

I agree with what you've said, and you've characterized me quite well.

I'm still stuck at the "solution in search of a problem" stage. While I'll be watching the VOIP application closely, what else do you use the 770 for? I can see a few things:

++ Web: OK, but I'd rather walk 10 feet to my desktop and see Web pages without a magnifying glass
++ Email: Nope, the email application SUCKS! And we all know that.
++ Remote access: this has potential. ssh works, as does VNC. I'm waiting for a port of rdesktop and my joy will know no end.
++ Etext: FBReader is very cool!
++ Internet radio: not always used, but cool!

For me, remote access and etext are the two mostly used apps. And remote access with such a small screen is kinda painful. So for me, add better remote access tools and better email to the wishlist.

What else do we use this for?

-F

Wow - lots of good discussion on this subject. I hope the developers take the comments to heart.

I jumped on the 770 primarily for the web browsing over BT aspect. To this end it works great - I can grab movie tickets in the car on the way to the theater, look up store addresses while shopping, and so forth. For on-the-go information access, it's probably the best device I've used.

That being said, the negatives I've found are:
- the e-mail app (IMAP) is just way too pokey to be really useful
- I like the size of the device but it is definitely not "pocketable;" it's not small nor light enough (thinness is great though)
- overall it's not reponsive enough

The lack of responsiveness all-around hopefully will be fixed by future firmware updates. I do think the next iteration of the 770 could use a few tweaks, or even an added model to the series:

- cut the size of the screen a bit while keeping the resolution & scale up all the on-screen elements and text for this new screen
- this would allow the unit overall to be smaller and lighter
- integrate the screen cover instead of having it be a separate piece
- throw on a thumbboard via an OQO or a Hiptop form-factor

In fact, I think it would be great if Nokia were to make the next 770 more like their Communicators - with a laptop-like form factor allowing for a thumbboard, only it would be MUCH thinner as it wouldn't have the cellphone innards. Keep the touchscreen but make everything navigable via the directional pad, like the Treo does. Then, I really feel it would be _the perfect_ mobile device.

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I'm not a Linux geek by any means, though I know my way around it pretty well. I'm using my 770 as a portable photo gallery, eBook reader (I just got into eBooks and I'm loving reading them on the 770's screen!), web browser, instant messenger on-the-go, and RSS feeds.

I'm NOT using it (yet) for watching videos (aside from a few personal vids I threw on it) - the Video app is totally undercooked. The fact that video files require such specific conversion is a joke. Whether it's hardware- or software- related, I shouldn't have to make the video file's resolutions "multiples of 16" and such nonsense - if my Samsung cellphone can play nearly any format I throw at it (3GP, MPEG4, etc) at appropriate resolutions, it kill me that the 770 chokes on an MPEG4-encoded 3GP file at 320x240 resolution. It has such potential to be a great mobile video player if it would just support more "normal" formats - I should be able to encode an MPEG4 3GP file at at LEAST QVGA format and have it play properly. All the fiddling with multiples of 16 means that most videos will never retain their proper aspect ratio!

That's my view. =)