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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Shiny New Toy: Nokia N800

So I finally broke down and bought myself a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet... All I can say is "Wow, what a device". For someone who is as web 2-point-oh-no-you-didn't as I am it is amazing to have a device with a full and functional browser in my pocket. With it, I hope to handle anything the guys at Google and 37 Signals can throw my way.

Now, with all that shameless gushing out of the way, here are some observations:

* How am I going to convince all of my friends and family to switch to Google Talk? Luckily, there is Gaim and most of my friends are on iChat/AIM. That being said, GTalk is the default client and integrated into the "presence" settings on the device. Gaim is not. So those contacts don't appear in my little applet on the desktop and the robot heads in the side menu don't get that radioactive pulsing glow that they do when you get a message with GTalk.

* Why did they have to make the integrated e-mail client suck so bad? They made every other integrated app so good - why not e-mail? I mean, It is almost like they worked very hard at making it suck so bad. Hopefully, this will be taken care of in a software upgrade. At least I have webmail.

* The fact that it can recognize the difference between a finger and the stylus is so cool and just plain makes sense... Click on a menu or text area with a stylus - you get stylus sized menus and keyboard. Tap on them with my extra large, double meat sized man-thumbs and they go all gigantoid!

* I wish the included case were better than that grey suede-ette thing they included with it (That I have already misplaced/lost.

I will have a more comprehensive review in a week or so on my blog after I have some extended playtime with it. I welcome any tips and suggestions from fellow owners. Especially on recommendations for a case/cover.

emory's picture

The built-in email client really...

The built-in email client really does suck. Hard.

I find that people using Gmail means they're going to start using Google Talk.

I hardly ever sign onto AIM anymore because more and more of my contacts are getting Jabber-able via Google's XMPP service.

Since I have my own jabber server I find this a lot easier to deal with. Especially since on my 770 the Gtalk client lets me use my own jabber server of course.

I'm not super motivated to replace my 770 yet -- they're great devices though, and I'm glad you're liking yours! Jabber is better at doing presence than the other services, no matter what people tell you. The whole point around XMPP is to provide context-based presence.

 
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