Posts by Chris Hembrow

@all

Yes, it's supposedly hackable, according to an article in Wired a month or so ago. The advert is on the inside because Ford financed a BIG chunk of the experiment, and they had a specially designed thin battery which should last a couple of weeks

Mini-ITX

Looks like a mini-itx solution, but cheaper than DIY. Would make a perfect mythtv media-centre client.

re: First touch screen device

Or the 770, n800, n810 or recently announced N810-we (wiMax)

Common sense

coming out of a government agency! Who'd have thought it. But I've still set up TOR, even though I'm not with one of the ISP's who've sold out. Maybe I'll just switch all my traffic to Three mobile broadband on PAYG, and get myself about as anonymous as you can get. Cash only top-ups though, of course.

VOIP over edge

@Chad - I've used VOIP over GPRS, using the GSM and G729 codecs. Just because skypes codec is so bloated that it doesn't work, doesn't mean that VOIP can't work.

The GSM codec was created to carry voice over, er, GSM networks, and GPRS runs on, er, GSM. So yes, edge is _easily_ quick enough to run VOIP.

No SIM!

So. I love my n800. I pair with my Nokia 6500 for 3g when I'm not near a wifi connection. With a wifi connection I use the n800 for making phone calls over SIP, but it works equally well with skype.

Adding a SIM slot would have significantly increased the cost. OK so a GSM modem is dirt-cheap to add, but you've got to factor in the cost of adding the additional required security software for sim access, the significantly increased testing costs (both in-house and FCC-type approval). And do you go gsm or cmda? umts or hsdpa? mobile tech progresses very quickly. By leaving it out nokia have cut the cost of the device and don't have to build different versions for different markets. Just compare the cost of the n810 to the HTC tytn 2, another gps smartphone device with a keyboard. The tytn is 50% more expensive, with a lesser quality screen.

It horses-for-courses. I use my n800 primarily for browsing and reading ebooks. The browsing experience blows the iPhone out of the water due to the higher resolution screen, and for the same reason ebooks are great.

Re: Not an UMPC

And the resolution (640x480) sucks, but that's a limitation of windows mobile, not the hardware. More proof that it's not a UMPC. Although you don't have to run windows to be a UMPC.

Mobile Phones

I use VOIP for most of my calls (still have BT because I can't get cable :( ). In the event of a power cut though, I'd just use one of the 3 mobiles we've got, the odds of them all being out of power is pretty low.