Thanks to Mike Cain for sending me this article from the Washington Post.
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet ought to possess all the ingredients necessary for tech success. This thin, light device -- essentially, a touch-sensitive color screen framed by a few buttons -- looks like an artifact from science fiction. It comes from a company with a long history of innovation in mobile devices. And it runs on the tinkering-friendly, open-source Linux operating system.
But while this $360 gadget might fit in great on "Star Trek," in the real world it competes with a galaxy of other handheld devices -- most of which do more than the Nokia 770, and do it far more reliably and gracefully. The Nokia 770's aptitude at providing a pocket-size window on the Web can't overcome its ineptitude at almost everything else......
Its biggest flaw is the keyboard that Nokia left out. You can enter text only by tapping a tightly packed on-screen keyboard, with help from an automatic word-completion option, or by taking your chances with handwriting recognition that's either ploddingly slow or wildly inaccurate. That alone should sink anything built for constant Web and e-mail use.
Read the full article
Mike has made it no secret how much he dislikes the Nokia 770, which he uses. I get a chuckle each time I receive an e-mail from him because the e-mails always start out with, "Via the piece of $#$* known as the Nokia 770:"
Mike also sent me this article from Teleread: Bring the Ebooks Home, the blog of his buddy David Rothman.
Media vs. Nokia 770 fans–redux
CNET'S dislike of the Nokia 770 clashed drastically with the opinions of its readers–and some of the TeleBlog’s. Now Washington Post tech columnist Rob Pegoraro takes on the 770. This oughta make my buddy Mike Cane very happy. From afar, I myself have high hopes for the 770 as an e-book machine. Hello, Nokia? I’ve left a message with one of your PR reps about a possible review unit. Related: Thumbs-up from CompUSA customers and Adam Wolf’s tribute to the 770 as an e-book machine.
I've read on some forums that many people dislike the Nokia 770 due to the sluggishness of it's browser. Fellow writer Jimmie Geddes got a 770 recently and took it back within just a few days, and I think it was because of that very problem. I always enjoy reading the pros and cons of any device and there has certainly been some interesting reading about the Nokia 770!