I've been tardy to report that Ubuntu has been ported to ARM with much help from Nokia. It seems clear that the Nokia Internet Tablets will be getting at least some code base in the future from Ubuntu.

There is nothing I can say about the news item that has not already been said by the link above. However, it leads me to think a bit further into what the future software platform will be on the Nokia Internet Tablets.

If the Internet Tablets take a normal Ubuntu route, they will be more "desktop-like" and turn into more utility machines than consumer electronic devices. This is the opposite direction from the Nokia-stated goal to make these normal consumer friendly devices. What's the alternative to "Normal Ubuntu?"

We know darn well that Ubuntu Mobile uses a lot of the open source code from Hildon, well developed by Nokia's maemo team. With this latest news, the code can be flowing both ways. Ubuntu Mobile developers may well be working on porting their existing interface to the Nokia Internet Tablets! And why not? It's an interesting interface and has common goals with Nokia. Hop over to this article to see what I have learned of Ubuntu Mobile so far.

Here's a video done by my good friends JKK Mobile and UMPC Portal.

I think the Ubuntu Mobile user interface is just fine for the Nokia tablets to make them more consumer friendly. Maybe I'll harass my friends at Nokia to see if they'll give me more information on this.

HEY FRIENDS AT NOKIA! I KNOW YOU READ THIS! ;)

Jaffa has a fantastic essay up on his blog. It's all about the responsibilities of Nokia, developers, and community in advancing maemo as an "open source" project. I rather enjoyed this particular bit:

It's surprisingly simple and wholly true: It's impossible to have total openness, control, and community involvement at the same time. Giving more of one means taking from the other two.

Read the article. It'd have been great to hear this one as a speech - especially with the chance to listen to audience questions.

That's right. The Nokia N800, initially a $399 device, is now available through Dell at $199. That's $28 less than the lowest I've seen so far.

Reminders on the difference between the N800 and the N810:

• N800 has two full sized SDHC card slots for massive storage.
• N810 has a single MiniSDHC card slot plus 2 GB internal storage.
  
• N800 has a pop-out rotating web cam.
• N810 has a fixed, user-facing web cam.
  
• N810 has a sunlight readable display.
• N810 has a keyboard.
• N810 has a GPS.

I don't know who this guy is, but his work is fantastic. I love unique uses for tablet. Reminds me of a very old video (you can tell I didn't have Final Cut yet) of when I installed Windows XP on my Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Readers: Come up with your own unusual (and humorously impossible) use for the Nokia N800 and N810!

The comments to my post about the Internet Tablet UI generated a stream of "me too!" comments. Krisse of Tabletschool went so far as to say the Canola interface should be the Internet Tablets' next UI. I think now would be a good time to discuss what WE think would be a better interface for the tablets. Wouldn't you know it? It's time for another poll! I mentioned three possible alternatives (

... will be slow! There are a couple things going on off-blog that are going to keep my attention and will slow the writing here though I will try to update as much as I can. As some of you here already know, my day job (a hospice company where I work as "the Linux guy") got bought out. They're closing the Phoenix office and my job will end this July. I now have to find a new day job that will

Yes, the news of Android running on the Nokia N810 did not escape me - but I am trying to get a build working for myself over here before I blog about it in depth. Be patient - I am working on it!

For those of you interested in non-Nokia Linux tablets, I clear up some of the confusion on "What is Moblin?" and "What is Ubuntu Mobile?" over on UltraMobileGeek.com. Have a look!

My last post (in which I proclaim the Nokia Internet Tablets unprepared for mass consumer appeal) got a lot of attention and great reader response.

Now that CTIA is over and the Nokia Internet Tablets have the trifecta of device options, it is time to go after the "Average Joe Consumer." There's no time to become complacent.