Linux based products are usually criticised for not being Windows. Because Linux is an OS. When Nokia introduced the first Internet Tablet reviewers complained it wasn't a phone. Because Nokia is a phone company. And when elder people who grew up without ubiquitous internet access learn about these tablets they tend to miss the lack of PIM applications. Because a decade ago PDAs were used exclusively to store dates and contacts.

Most consumer products are sold with a single killer application in mind and some extra features thrown in. Here the killer application is web browsing, the extras are audio and video playback and streaming, messaging and VoIP. Combining a 800px screen and a Mozilla based browser (like a portable version of Firefox) which plays nice with Javascript and Flash OS2008 tablets really excel at Desktop like web browsing.

Whether we like it or, web surfing, communication and media are typical uses of computers nowadays. Many people do nothing else with there heavy and expensive notebooks. Consequently Internet Tablets have been compared to $2000 UMPCs and Asus' eeePC.

For me, the N810 will replace my Zaurus SL-C860. Look how similar they are:


While the Zaurus used to be slightly more flexible with CF cards and custom ROMs, it never came close to N810's out of the box experience.

The N810 is a N800 plus keyboard plus GPS running the latest software version called OS2008. Most people are disappointed with both the cellphone like thumb keyboard and the built-in GPS compared to external (Bluetooth or USB) variants. I'm impressed how they can squeeze so many things into such a small device, so I'm not going to complain.

What's in it for the open source community? Seeing Nokia's anti OGG, pro DRM, pro software patent policies and the fact the some Internet Tablet related software is closed source, we cannot consider Nokia a hacker friendly company at the moment. However, unlike locked down (i)Phones, using Maemo we can develop and use Open Source Software easily. And there's Python for Maemo.

Curious? Best place to learn about these devices is Internet Tablet Talk.