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Nokia N800 review on the way—with lots of FBReader details
August 2, 2007 | 7:54 am
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By David Rothman
A review of the Nokia’s N800, the successor to the 770 Internet Tablet shown here, will be coming later today or tomorrow—with extra e-book details provided courtesy of Joseph Gray.
In some ways this will be review of FBReader freeware as well. FBReader is what makes the Nokias interesting as e-reading devices. Among other things, Joe’s sidebar will tell how this freeware would work out well in the future with the new IDPF epub format.
Nokia 770 coming for the TeleBlog
So why the picture of the 770? Well, despite the risks, I’ve ordered one from Buy.com to help the TeleBlog keep up with the freeware e-reading scene. There are some interesting pluses in the N800′s predecessor.
The discounted price of the 770 at Buy.com is $144—in fact, just $133 if you qualify for a Google Checkout discount. Please note that accurately or not, I’ve heard that existing Google members may not qualify for the $10 discount even if they’re new to Checkout.
And speaking of hardware: Sony Reader fans might want to check out Simple instructions for adding a clock and joystick page turns to the PRS-500 in MobileRead.
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Comments:
To make you feel better, I’ve had a 770 since it came out and have never had a problem with it. It makes a great ebook reader with FBReader.
I also have an 800, which is a much better machine in terms of general operation. The 770′s processor was underpowered, and it’s memory was too scant,making it a real pain to use for anything other than ebooks. It wound up on the shelf. With the 800 the machine is now fully usable and may start to live up to its potential.
The button placement on the 770 is better for ebook reading, but this can be gotten around on the 800. To change a page just tap on the left or right side of the screen to go forward or back. Now that I am using an iPhone the 800 has taken over as my ebook reader, replacing the Nokia E61i.
FBReader handles Mobipocket just fine, with the exception of some strange characters displayed with certain punctuation on certain books. It is not capable, of course, of handling DRMed Mobipocket, which I try to avoid, but there is sometimes no choice. For this reason the machine will probably be replaced by something else in the future.
Paul: Thanks for the reassurance. What a shame you’ll have to replace your Nokia 800 in the future because of DRM. This is among the many reasons why social DRM—or no DRM—is much gentler on consumers.
I’ll buy DRMed books if need be, but, like you, I’d rather not. I want to own books for real and use them on many machines.
As for the 770, I’m pretty well reconciled in advance to its not being a terrific browser, but I will see if recent software upgrades can help. E-books are the main app I have in mind for it.
By the way, I was going to mention in the review that the buttons pn the 800 can be reconfigured. Thanks for making sure that this important information got into the blog.
David
I bought a Nokia 770 on eBay as a buy-it-now item. The unit was stated to be factory-sealed and that appeared to be true when the unit arrived. I’ve had it for about a month and have had no problems with it.
My purpose in purchasing the units was to use it as an e-book reader, and in that it has been superb. I have a long rail commute and have been able to read even when the lights in my car have been weak or off. At $350, the unit would have been a little pricey (like the Sony PRS-500), but at $150 it is an excellent device. I have no complaints. (It is my understanding that adding a larger memory card and allocating at least 128 MB to memory will make it a more responsive as a Web browser.)