The Nokia 770 as an e-book reader: Godsend or a turd?

The 770 is a “solution in search of a problem”.

When is came out I thought “Wow! Cool toy!” But try as I might, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. For surfing the internet or doing mail, my Sharp MM20 did better. For truely portable PC work, my Zaurus SL-C760 worked fine (and had a keyboard). The battery life of the 770 is no better than either of my devices (actually worse than my MM20 since I bought the bigger battery for it).

For eBooks the 770 fails mainly on the battery life. I want to read ebooks for hours per day (i.e. more than 3 hours per day) and I don’t need a device that won’t last that long without a recharge.

The 770 is advertised as an internet tablet, so if it fails in this area, I can well imagine that people are angry;they have been deceived by the advertising.

Funilly enough, Psion had a device aeons ago called the Netbook that was apparently a champion at this type of work, but Psion let it die a quiet death, presumably because they did not see a market for a portable network client.

What examples do we have for a device that failed at its intended task, succeeded at a user-invented one, and where the manufacturer actually managed to turn around and focus on the new, successful task?

I’m quite happy with my 770. In fact, of all the PDA-like stuff I owned (palm, clié, zaurus, psion, etc.), It’s the only one I’m still using everyday after a few months.
I don’t use the mail client, I use a gmail account that gathers all my addresses.
I don’t use the news reader, I use newsgator that syncs with NetNewsWire on my desktop.
The web browser, while not perfect, is the best I ever tried on a small device.(with swap on)
I use it a lot for eBook reading (pdf and plucker), specially at night when my gf sleeps.
Messing with bash is fun too.

You need to configure a bit to make usable, e.g. adding at least 16MB of swap is a must. The “CPU/Mem/Screenshot applet with SwapOn/Off” makes it easy. So this is maybe not for the average user.

I gladly pay a little more to have more cpu and memory, but the form factor is perfect and, once improved a bit the system will be ok too, much better than symbian, palm or windows CE, IMHO. The battery life is much better than what I was expecting, perfect for my use, but I don’t have the time to read ebooks, or even surf with the 770 “for hours per day” 😉 . As these are standard nokia batteries, it’s quite cheap to buy an extra one if you need it anyway.

I love my 770. It’s not a “solution in search of a problem” because it’s precisely what I have wanted for a long time, and had been waiting for.

At home, I plug it into my stereo to listen to internet radio and podcasts. Or download the podcasts and save them on the MMC, to listen to later.

On the train, I used it as an e-book reader (using FBReader).

Around town, in cafes or wherever, there’s almost always an open wireless network to get online, where I use the web and IM.

And when there’s no an open wireless network, or even when I’m riding in a car or on the train, I can get online via the mobile phone in my pocket.

When you put the cover on, it goes into power-saving mode, so you don’t have to wait for it to power up whenever you want to use it. Just pull it out of your pocket, flip the cover around, and begin.

I take notes on it when something comes to mind that I don’t want to forget.

These are the things I wanted to do: Easily play internet radio in my home without setting up a computer in my living room or buying some appliance. Browse the web, check email, and use IM while out and about with time to kill. Read e-books. Be able to jot down notes as they come to mind. It does all of these things well, and at a great price.

Also, it has a virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition. I did not, not NOT want a device with a thumb keyboard. A handheld device has to fit in my pocket, and a thumb keyboard is just wasted space. The surface of the 770 is all display, and I love that.

I’m also excited about the VOIP features that are supposed to be in the next version of the software.

OK, now the bad things:

It can be a little sluggish, especially when you’ve got two or more applications open at once. But it’s not _that_ bad. (Note: I have not tried setting up a swap on it. This supposedly would improve things.)

The menus on it are annoying. I never use the built-in email reader, I use gmail. but I can’t remove the icon for the mail reader from the desktop. There’s no way I can see to remove the software that comes pre-installed, like the email reader, news reader (I use bloglines), or the games it comes with. And everything you install goes into the “Extras” menu, even though some of those things may be games and it’d be more appropriate to put them in the “Games” menu. (Note: there may be a way to do all this by going to a command prompt and editing data files — but one shouldn’t have to do that.)

The handwriting recognition isn’t very good. If it was, it’d be faster to use that than the virtual keyboard.

Every time you connect to a wireless network, it makes you enter a name for this network, and it saves that info for next time. Even if this is just some wireless network you found downtown that you’re never going to use again. There should be an option for one-time use of a network where it doesn’t ask you for any extra information to use it.

I came across this article on the RSS Reader on my Nokia 770..so had to respond 🙂

As a general web browsing, ebook reading, RSS feeding, music listening, board gaming pocket device it’s the best I’ve had (and I own/have owned a Dell X51V / Ebookwise 1150 / Zaurus SL-5500).

FBReader is very good, just missing the one feature from Mobireader that I really want which is autoscroll.

I still have my Dell X51V purely for GPS and Audible support. I dont expect commercial GPS software or Audible support for the Nokia anytime soon..so it stays.

With the Extended Filesytem on the MMC card and occasional use of a swapfile, I’ve never had memory issues (in fact I never had memory issues before but realized I was going to use this device a lot so made the change).

So as an Ebook reader, its pretty much on par with Mobipocket (better in some features, missing a feature), much better resolution wise than the Ebookwise/SL-5500 and highly recommended.

Count me as one of the fans of the 770. It does exactly what I want it to do: browse the web and display ebooks. The web browser is, of course, slower than a browser on a desktop machine, but not so slow that it’s a real issue, especially when you keep in mind that it’s the web in your pocket. For those that haven’t done it yet, enabling swap and flashing the latest update from Nokia helps in this regard. The 770 is so handy that I find myself hitting the web from the couch when, say, I’m watching TV and see something that I want to look up, or from the kitchen while I’m cooking. Frying bacon is way less boring when you can catch up on the links at A&L Daily between flipping.

As for ebooks, FBReader is great. In vertical mode there’s enough text on a “page” that you don’t have to turn the page every ten seconds, which seems to be a big issue on other handhelds. In fact, the reading experience in FBReader is so nice that I’ve actually found myself reading books that I own in dead-tree form on my 770 instead. I’ve read a lot of Project Gutenberg books since I got my 770, far more than I ever read on my laptop. The battery life issue has never really been a big one for me because, let’s face it, I’m never reading for more than three consecutive hours without being within reach of a power outlet (and 3 hours is the minimum battery life if you don’t have WiFi turned on; I’ve gotten up to six). I’ve even got into the (probably bad) habit of reading books or saved articles in FBReader while walking to or from the office.

Other bonuses: games (although I’m definitely not much of a gamer [if I were, I’d have a PSP or something], there are some good ones available that I play occasionally), the terminal, SSH and VNC.

Now, are there some issues? Yes, of course. For example, the email client sucks; it’s slow, tries to cram too much into one line, and doesn’t seem to allow bulk deleting. But hey, that’s what webmail is for, anyway. The newsreader is mediocre, but, again, there are plenty of web-based alternatives that work fine. The PDF viewer is pretty good, but I do wish it allowed you to flip orientation the way FBReader does. And none of the word-processing options available are that great, but, to be honest, who’s going to be doing a lot of word-processing on a 770, anyway? (Well, aside from Mike Cane, apparently)

But, again, these complaints are pretty minor considerations for me. I got my 770 to be a super-portable web-browsing and ebook machine, and, at least in my experience, it does both of those things quite well.

Aside to Sean: In the last paragraph, you mentioned the 770 saving any network you connect to. I’m assuming you’re talking about the dialogue that pops up saying: “Tapping ‘OK’ will save this network to Connection settings. You can edit these settings in the future in the Control panel. Save settings?” If so and if you don’t want to save that network (i.e. if it’s a network you’re unlikely to use regularly), just choose “Cancel”. The 770 will still connect to the network; hitting “Cancel” just prevents it from saving the network. I had the same problem for a while until I realized that the dialogue is just really poorly worded; it should say “Do you want to save this nework’s settings?” and give you a Yes/No option. The wording along with the OK/Cancel options make it seem like choosing “Cancel” will cancel your connection, but that’s not the case.

I can’t comment ont he 770 because I have never used one, but since you mentioned the Pepperpad, I have one and it is a great web pad if you are in range of your own WIFI or a hotspot. I would enjoy as an ereader if there was a way to put it in landscape mode because it is speedier than the Cybook.

It would also be more functional for me if it had a pc card slot for my EVDO card. I would gladly take it on the road with me instead of my laptop.

One last issue is that as of now there is no file explorer that I know of for it. I like to download a bunch of web pages and links one deep for reading later if I am not near a hotspot, and save it to a SD card. As it stands, the Pepperpad won’t let me view what is on the card from their web browser.

Adding my appreciation to that already well delineated by others would seem — probably actually is — superfluous. I bought my 770 from CompUSA (on a brief rebate sale at $299) for the primary purpose of reading ebooks with the FBReader. I had been using, and quite satisfied with, the eBookwise 1150. I still love that reader — but my wife appropriated it and I thought to buy the Nokia rather than a second 1150. The Nokia is almost perfect for my ebook reading. Lightness of weight, clearness of type, customizing ability for print style, backlighting, search capabiility, etc. It’s only lacking (hopefully only for the present) other features of the 1150 such as highlighting and dictionary lookup. I had initially been concerned for the relatively small screen size, but the crispness of the image quickly overcame that worry. I read my books full screen in vertical format. I readily download (with conversion if required) all the titles I had access to with the 1150, and then some. The only serious flaw
I have found to date in the unit overall is the fact that I can’t access email via AOL! My reading of other forums on this subject plus contact with AOL lead me to believe that this to date is a conscious policy of AOL not to support this device. Why, I don’t know. Anyway, add my sense of enthusiasm to the others who have tried and adopted the 770 for their ebook reading. Jim

Great headline, real class, David.

Bowerbird: Thanks for your offer of assistance, but I’m confused. The site you give leads to AOL’s The LiveWeb Blog. Is there something there I’m supposed to be looking for? Any further help you give would be appreciated. Thanks again. Jim

Hi Jim and Bowerbird,

Is it webmail aol com ?

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Reading the various 770 user comments is really great! Beats the standard cnet review anytime! 😀

Anyone with pics of it in side-by-side view with a common object? … like a hand or something? 😉 … Maybe a side-by-side view with a paperback, newspaper etc? 😀

I agree with Snappy. A picture with a common object would be nice; just email it to me, and I’ll post it in the comments section. Meanwhile, thanks for thoughts on the 770 and the Pepper Pad; I hope the comments will continue. Oh, and below I’ll reproduce Mike Cane’s funny reaction to my item. – David (who also appreciated Roger’s comment on the headline)

Via the piece of shit known as the Nokia 770:

I’ve been busted! I’m sure the Finns are flying over a squad of Enforcers to shut me up!

I stand by my hatred of this Finnish Abomination. InfoWorld was right to trash it. NEVER AGAIN will I publicly praise a product unless I’ve used it for at least a month. It took me that long to coax out the tons of bugs in the 770. It has more bugs than a lower east side NYC apartment!!

Although I am looking forward to a UMPC replacing the 770, the rumors of a Dual Core iBook now tempt me — I could also throw XP on that. I’m not married to pen input. And after this 770 weakling, I need a portable device with *muscle*. It needs to be like The Incredible Hulk! I want something that not just kicks ass — I want something that KILLS!

Here’s some pictures of my 770 next to a CD and a coffee cup. The 770 is showing Project Gutenberg’s version of Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist” in both portrait and landscape mode (I prefer portrait for reading, but I offer both for comparison). A note on the reading experience: page turns are accomplished by pressing a rocker switch on the top of the 770, which is precisely where the middle finger of my left hand rests while holding the 770 in portrait (vertical) mode.

Oh yeah, a warning about the images: they’re quite high resolution, so be warned if you’re on a slow connection. Anyway, here they are:

http://www.sellingwaves.com/mt-static/images/770compare1.JPG
http://www.sellingwaves.com/mt-static/images/770compare2.JPG
http://www.sellingwaves.com/mt-static/images/770compare3.JPG
http://www.sellingwaves.com/mt-static/images/770compare4.JPG

Shonk: Thanks for the useful pictures. Of course, with FBReader you can choose different fonts, type size, line spacing and margins to establish your comfortable reading settings and page appearance. JIm

My thanks, too, Shonk. BTW, the background appeared darker than I expected, but I assume that’s because of either the lighting conditions or the reader program’s background. One thing I like about the Nokia, as viewed from afar via PR photos, is that the screen is high contrast–much better in that respect than the E Ink machines. OK, guys, carry on. This is the kind of useful reader-to-reader dialog I cherish. David

Yeah, some weird lighting (seriously overcast here in Philly this morning) along with the low angle of a couple of those shots makes the screen look darker than it is.

shonk, that is one of the best side-by-side picture I’ve seen ever! 😀 … sometimes I get pictures of GadgetA next to GadgetB, both equally unbeknownst to me in terms of size.

Having the CD for comparison is great!

Hmmm … the Nokia 770 looks very handy there, and still not too small … 🙂

> If you want a speedy Web browser, no, the 770 probably won’t be for you.

David, I think you must be crediting the invective emanating from the reprobate Cane with some level of accuracy that it doesn’t attain. For instance, MC Hammer-the-770 reported it took him two minutes to open a webpage. That’s slow. However, I opened the same page with my Nokia 770 in 6 seconds. Others reported similar times to mine.

The 770 isn’t slow at web-browsing. It provides the best web experience you can find on any device that’s under 8 ounces of weight or that fits in your pocket. Period. And it’s selling for $300-$360 today — not $600 or $800 or $1169 (like the MM20: http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=3469972 ) and not “real soon now.”

You know I like the 770 for e-book reading.

But don’t dismiss the prospects of more web-based texts if citywide WiFi clouds become ubiquitous and everyone totes around a WiFi-capable handheld with 800-pixel-wide screens (like the $600-$1000 UMPC’s, and like the 770). When the web is with you no matter where you are, who cares then if you have the text in your device?

So what you want in the device — web-browsing, e-reading — may not be an either/or scenario but an amalgam.

I do not have a Nokia 770, but I’ve tried web browsing on many handheld devices, and they all mostly fail. Either their browser is dated, or its too slow. From the reviews I’ve read from normal users (not some celebs), the performance is good, and I would be more likely to believe the users. 😀

The reason being that I’ve tried dillo 0.8 in NetBSD on an *old* NEC MobilePro 790 HandheldPC device (168Mhz MIPS cpu with 32mb ram, circa 2000, WinCE 2.11) and its speed is really good, in fact I would call it fast. And dillo was not even polished when I tried that last year. Linux OS is seriously simply fast on identical hardware. It’s like that since I tried Slackware 11yrs ago and its still true today when I try it. So I would believe the Nokia 770 is not really sluggish or anything. 🙂

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OT alert:
In case anyone think that this is written by a linux fanboy, think again. I’ve been coding on the wintel platform since mid 80s and only try linux once awhile for fun, to check out the otherwise. And yet I come away impressed.

The only thing that is stopping me from jumping ship is that I still maintain some code for the wintel platform and am so used to using VisualStudio to develop. 😉 And the other thing is the support for Big5 Chinese characters. Linux distros can support Big5 Chinese but usually need more tweaking than I wish to do. 🙁

Well, Roger, as noted, I’d love to try out 770 eval. unit. Would that I had more time. How’s the screen contrast, as you yourself see it? I’m under the impression from the PR shots and from another commenter that it’s actually quite good, as one would expect of a backlit LCD. Thanks. David

The Nokia 770 screen is bright, and the 225-pixel-per-inch display is stunning. in one square-inch that puts 5 times as many pixels as my laptop LCD. I think the brilliance of images is a result of that pixel packing.

But you have to see it to understand it — you can’t show what that resolution is like on someone’s 100-ppi display.

Note, of course, that as with all LCD’s, bright sunlight makes everything wan. I wouldn’t take the 770 to read at the beach, and not just because electronics don’t mix well with either sand or saltwater.

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks, Roger! – David

Avid Pepper Pad user here. The MobiPocket reader on the pad is coming along finally… the latest software update allows one to change the font and font size finally. A better UI for bookmarking pages is on its way, right now it only saves the position you were last looking at on a book. I’ve converted a few PDF books to MobiPocket and it was a joy reading them – better than my previous e-book reader, a Newton 2100.

Oh, and to the fellow looking for a file manager, I’ve built a GTK2 file manager package for the Pepper, it’s at my website.

Hi, Victor. Since Pepper Pad is sending me a review unit in the next few weeks, your remarks are quite timely. I hope you’ll keep us up to date. What are your thoughts on the Pepper, in the wake of all the fuss over the Origami? How do you think the two stack up–in fact, all three machines, based on specs? I realize this started as a Nokia thread, but in this case, as main perp of the TeleBlog, I won’t mind this OT stuff. Thanks! David

I have purchased 3 handheld devices to use as ebook readers: The Nokia 770, ebookwise 1150, and the Cowon A2 PMP. Much to my dismay, I am unable to download any of the Adobe pdf or Mobipocket ebooks from my local library on to any of them. Library ebooks are encrypted which does not prevent me from reading them on my WinXP PC or my Mac, but I can’t take them out of the office. Does anyone have any suggestions (other than to just give it up)? Is there a handheld device that will work with encrypted Adobe PDF or Mobipocket ebooks? Or, is there a software program which will make them readable on a handheld?