Editors note: I fixed the typo in the title, lest my good friend and commenter think I am trying to cover my tracks.
So I undertook to survive a week long conference without a laptop. A year ago this would have been a pipe dream. No laptop? How will you check email? Keep up on the news? Check bank balances? Check on flight statuses?
Well, the N800 has , so far, exceeded all my expectations on the trip. Here are the myriad uses so far:
- Personal and work email
- Music, games, and movies on the flight
- Used ftp to download an ebook I forgot at home
- Calendar synced to Google Calendar for the conference schedule
- Took pictures of the hotel
- Quick edit of the pictures, uploaded them to Facebook
- Used wordpress client to publish blog posts including pictures
- Recorded conference session. This is especially neat since I can make a time mark in my notes and then go back and listen to the complicated bits later.
- Random web surfing
Not a bad list methinks. There are a few spots that could use some help but its a much shorter list.
- Couldnt get on the wi-fi at the airport. It connected but both the web and email failed to come up.
- Lack of VPN. Apparently there is something missing from the Nokia kernel. I have the other packages loaded but can´t get it working. This is unfortunate because the remote desktop package is awesome. I can see Windows Machines through RDP with no trouble. The lack of VPN is all that´s keeping me from using the tablet in a pinch if something goes wrong at work while I´m away.
- Camera quality is not good. I know its not supposed to be and putting a better one in would ruin the price point which is one of the most attractive things about the N800. But I can dream can´t I?
- This is a problem for me to solve with the desktop but I have to find a way to boost the audio on DVDs when I convert them for the tablet. Too quiet to hear on a plane.
Overall, I haven´t missed the laptop much and none at all when I´m walking around the conference center with only a pound of gadets on me instead of the 5-10 that go with a laptop bag. Lastly, even though its not a Nokia product, I should put in a plug for the iGo foldable bluetooth keyboard. It has been a dream. I am almost as fast with it as I am with a normal keyboard. Much faster than I would be with the N810 and its slide out thumb qwerty.
There is a joke to be made in the fact that there’s a typo in the title of this post that lauds, among other things, the keyboard you use with this appliance.