wahlau's online hut

time to use and play with it... :) was thinking to myself, how to actually use such a device? Now i have some suggestions for you...

1. portable internet radio
i tried streaming on the unit, and as many mentioned about this, the Nokia N800 is faster and more responsive (especially with the latest firmware update) as compared to the Nokia 770. Just within a few clicks i have BBC stations up (they are stored as default, i think). Wifey did not really like the channels, so i went to shoutcast.com to select other types. a click at "tune in" will spring open Media Player, and we had breakfast together with classical music stream directly to the unit. neat.

2. quicky Internet
recently i signed up 200MB traffic 3G package, and am enjoying it now. With the N800 i can quickly pop up a browser and start searching for some info such as train schedule or weather forecast. I must say at this point it is nice only if my notebook is not around. I notice it is still faster to wake the thinkpad up from suspend and start checking my mails (i have like 3-4 accounts to check). Partly because of the keyboard, and also the fact that i have not installed any shortcut/bookmark for my webmails. Using the tablet for emails takes slightly more time. But at the breakfast tablet, which munching or waiting for toast, a few taps until my mailbox showed in browser is not too bad. Shall put in claws-mail and try that again soon.

3. Multimedia
yeah, my third major usage is to play music (mp3s and oggs) off this unit. I am the very few that do not own a mp3 player... partly because i have my notebook with me most of the time, and i have a MD recorder for portable music solution. But now i do use the tablet on and off as music player. I find the default player with ogg support is good enough for me - i can use it like as if i have an ipod nano or shuffle anyway :P

4. VoIP
Gizmo on N800 is much pleasant as compared the Nokia 770, perhaps due to the faster processor. But as compared to a stand alone VoIP phone (i am using a Targa DIP 450) or on desktop, i think it is still slightly sluggish... Not sure is it software related issues, or is it just the processor... Nokia just announced their beta software on Internet Communication, which include SIP and Telepathy and other goodies. Shall report when i have the time to test it. So far it will do as a simple VoIP client when i don't have another 2 choices. Ah, when the time permits, Thoughtfix is gonna try out a Skype conference... let's see how it will work out for us :)

i would expect the above to be the most common usage of the Internet Tablet... i wonder if anything else can be also considered as common usage, like playing with VoIP or so.