I am debating on purchasing an N800. The only real reason is so that I have continual email access and ability to blog during my month long trip to Australia/New Zealand. and also wonder about access to wifi there.
I am not really technically savvy and have been reading about downloading apps and upgrading to OS8 etc and am wondering the diffilculty/frustration that may cause me? I run Windows XP on my desktop and we only have dial up and wonder if that is a problem.
Bottom line...ease of use out of the box for people like me??
I am planning on purchasing my N800 at Tiger Direct in Canada and wonder if they can do upgrades and application downloads etc for me??
I'd appreciate as many opinions and answers as possible to help me make this decision

Overall, I think general use of the N800 is straight-forward and user-friendly. You shouldn't have any problems updating firmware or installing applications yourself. For general use (email and blog access, multimedia) you won't need to install any applications. As you use the tablet and become more aware of its capabilities, however, you'll probably find yourself wanting to learn some technical skills to make full use of its potential.
Bottom line...you should have no problems out of the box. Just remember that it's not Windows, so things will be different.
From your post, the one thing I think might cause you frustration is getting wireless internet access at home if you only have dial-up. You'll have to either put a wireless card in your home computer and set it up as an access point with internet connection sharing or find some other method to get a wireless access point.

out of the box it's perfect for the non-techie user (like my wife)

it's simple to move to OS2008 IF YOU NEED TO (it's nicer and faster than OS2007)

adding applications is as simple as in winXP if all repositories are enabled

and when you'll be ready for hard core Linux, the n800 will still be there to satisfy your curiosity.

I got my n800 from ca.buy.com for 239$ +tx but it's not available anymore

You could find free wireless hotspots near you, too, depending on where you are ... the Toronto Public Library, some hotels, and some bars/restaurants have free wifi, as does the hospital I work at. (Other towns & cities I don't know.) Much easier to upgrade and install over a fairly high speed wireless connection.

Essentials for you to load that I use almost all the time would probably be Maemo Mapper, Claws mail, and the GPE suite of personal organizers(calendar, to-do-list). You can always find some tutorials and ask us for advice. It might be intimidating but just have patience and the N800 is a very powerful utility that I use daily... well, hell every minute

Oh and as for wireless you should probably just get a data plan though your cellphone provider and just get internet that way its probably the easiest and you will always have internet.

I agree that the ease of use out of the box is quite good. Nokia has done a very good job of making the basic functions built-in and easily accessible for non-techies. In addition many optional applications can be installed from the Application Manager with a few quick clicks, and it's even more convenient and painless that installing applications in Windows.

Fair warning though - if you get into applications outside of the basics, you may find it a bit frustrating. Linux techies scorn documentation and speak in a language that only vaguely resembles English when asked for help.

The lack of a WiFi internet connection at home may be a bit of a problem in getting things set up before your trip. It is possible to download applications to your PC over dial-up and then transfer them to the Nokia tablet via USB, but it's slower and more complicated. On the other hand I have found that open WiFi connections can be found almost anywhere if you hunt around (e.g., coffee shops, public library, airports, shopping malls etc,), so you may want to try some of those locations to get set up.

Hi Lish,

Personally I think the N800 is one of the easiest gadgets for a beginner to use. I started a Nokia tablet site because a relative of mine had severe problems using desktop computers but found the N800 very easy to use.

Application installation is very, very easy. You just enter the address maemo.org/downloads, find the app you want and click on the green arrow next to it. There are other apps outside maemo.org which are more complicated to install, but you can ignore them, the apps on maemo.org are the ones that beginners would want.

Firmware updating is also very easy if you have a Windows PC, you basically just install the updating application on your computer, plug in the tablet and click on next. You can see a video of the entire firmware update process on my site:

http://tabletschool.blogspot.com/200...-firmware.html

One thing I'd be a bit nervous about is relying on dial-up, the tablet is designed primarily for internet use and you really need a broadband connection with wi-fi to get the most out of it. If you think you can get access to wi-fi (or a 3G mobile phone with a cheap data plan) then go for it, the tablet is really good at doing internet-related stuff.

Dial-up ain't all that bad, as long as you can get 56K. Not hot for installing programs, of course (painfully slow), but it works for much internet radio, and for web and email. I've even, occasionally, done VNC over dialup (albeit not with an N800), and that was workable, if awkward. If you set up your computer with WLAN connection sharing, you should be fine.

I have a n810 and I do use it all the time, but I'm a techie.

People that frequent this site are those that are generally using the device successfully, but I would say a large number of people try it for a few weeks and give up on the unit because it does not fit their needs. Before I had the 810 I tried the 770 for a week and sold it.

Keeping in contact generally requires a lot of typing and the n800 has no keyboard. Are you sure you don't need an eeepc or a BT keyboard for the n800 in order to make it more functional as a communications device? Multimedia is hit or miss, sure it will play mp3's, but almost all video's and some music will have to be converted to make it work.

OS2008 is much better for multimedia now, it's compatible with most of the major audio standards, and video conversion is extremely easy thanks to Nokia's Tablet Video Converter software, but I'd still say the tablet is primarily an internet gadget.

As Benson says, dial-up speeds are workable, they'll just be a bit slow.