I've mentioned it in a couple conversations and a guest spot in a podcast, but never posted here about a conversation I had at the Nseries Unlocked Event. Someone asked me what the greatest advantage and disadvantage to the N800 was. My response may not be the whole community view, but here it is:

The results from my first poll are in. Thanks to everyone who voted. The question was: What is the most wanted (missing) N810 feature, and the options and results are:

USB OnTheGo 39 (8%) FM Tuner 32 (7%) Video Out 51 (11%) Scroll Wheel 47 (10%) Full sized SD slots 100 (22%) WiMAX 67 (15%) SIM slot (cell phone) 101 (23%)
It looks like GSM radios edged out over my favorite (Full SD card slots) by only one vote. WiMAX trailed in at number 3. I locked this so only one option was available to each voter so there is demand for each one of these options.

I am not certain if my last option meant to include data access as well thus taking votes from WiMAX. I'll create a simple poll this time. I talk at length as to why the N800 (and now N810) are better without an integrated cell phone. It's too big to be a phone. It would need to be banded internationally or have region-specific models. It would raise the cost and lower battery life. Even so, there is demand for this feature within the tablets. My vote, obviously, is "no." What's your vote? Should Nokia offer "phone" and "non-phone" models? Look for the poll in the right navigation bar on tabletblog.com.

Speaking of polls, there's a great one on InternetTabletTalk as a follow-up to the podcast. Read the post, see the votes, check the comments, and read Jonathan's take on if users are "always connected" or "connected on demand."

On my uStream.tv channel, I will be hosting a "Live Community Tech Support" session this coming Thursday at 6PM Arizona time. I get tons of tech support questions on a wide range of issues and do not have time to answer them all, so I figured I would make a live chat and invite community members to join in and answer each others' questions.
You can mark your calendar with this link:

As of this writing, there are three entries to the N810 Giveaway Contest. Track this page to see current entries and to get ideas on how you can use your own tablet. With the deadline for submissions still 13 days away, there's plenty of time to get your entry in.

With judges barred from nominating their friends as finalists and InternetTabletTalk users deciding on a final winning entry, there is enough protection for EVERYONE to enter except the judges themselves. Yes, Texrat. Even you can post a video. (That's an inside joke if you're not an InternetTabletTalk regular.)

I am not the only one who took a stab at building a Nokia N800 vs. N810 comparison. Here we have:

• NeonCherry
• Tabrez
• Forum Nokia's comparison chart (at the bottom)
• NokNok.tv

All worth reading for different angles. Yay second (through fifth) opinions! If you have your own (or see another) N800 and N810 comparison article, let me know.

On a related note, I love it when users comment with different angles on the same technology. Even when someone says "Dan, you're totally wrong because...." it helps me break my mold and expand on others' insight. If you don't read my comments from time to time, I welcome you to do so.

On a final note: The contest entries are due in two weeks! Win an N810!

The two teasers I did earlier (the picture and the video) were both composed, uploaded, and posted with the combination above: The Nokia N95 and the Nokia N810. I discussed this combination before and wanted to put it to a good test. Yesterday afternoon, the FedEx man dropped off my new N95-3 and this morning service was established for it. It was hiking time!

Camera performance:
The N95's camera was a solid performer. Even on a hazy day, I managed to snap off a handful of very good shots. They were directly uploaded to Flickr with Shozu. Go ahead and look at that gallery to see the results.

Video Recording:
The video I took was less impressive. My hands were shaky by that point in the climb and I was on unsteady ground so there is a lot of wobble in it. The N95 did not handle the wobble too well, as can be shown in the YouTube video.


Internet Access:
I got a solid 3.5G connection through the whole event. Granted this mountain is literally IN THE MIDDLE of a city - still it was nice to have a solid, reliable, and fast connection.



Actual Blogging Performance:
Blogger's page worked perfectly, as did YouTube. I wasn't able to Shozu upload the video as it was 13 megs and Shozu caps off at 10. I copied the video to the N810 and then uploaded it. It went across the Bluetooth link twice. I wish I could have avoided that, but I wasn't able to use the Bluetooth phone browser as a source on the YouTube upload page. The upload was the longest wait (I didn't time it) but at that point in the hike I NEEDED the break.

I noticed several typos in my entries (fixed when I looked at them at home) that I'll chalk up to carelessness with the keyboard. Even so - I would not have had those typos on a regular keyboard. Still: it's the best thing yet for pocket blogging.

ThoughtFix's Performance:
My feet hurt. My back hurts. My arms hurt. I forgot to snag a GPS shot while I was there. I flaked out on the last 1/3 mile of the hike (because it looked like this) so didn't even make it as far as I said I would. Oh well. At least I got the review material I wanted. I also took yet more pictures using my PowerShot. That was a nice painful amount of fun.

This post (like the last) was also tapped out on the Nokia N810. The video above was taken on the Nokia N95 and uploaded from the tablet. I decided to forgo the last half mile (you will soon know why) but I will post a full wrap up when I get home.

I am halfway up Camelback mountain in Phoenix. The picture above was taken with my new N95-3 and I am posting it from the N810 tethered to AT&T's 3.5G network. I will post more from the summit.

Upgrade are failed!

The broken English error message above came when I tried to upgrade the firmware on my Linksys WRT350N router. Following that, it rebooted and the power LED blinked rapidly. Nothing worked.

I grabbed my N810, used my phone's data connection, and started searching for solutions. After an hour and a half of experimenting, I finally found one that worked: Using manual address assignments, tftp -e 192.168.1.1 from my Mac's terminal window and manually force the new firmware in, then wait for it to finish upgrading/rebooting.

For a guy who lives on the Internet, a router failure is a major loss. In this case, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet literally rescued me.

The three of us got together over Skype and talked for almost an hour about our experiences with the tablets over two weeks. Three guys, three N810's, two weeks. Your hosts:

Reggie Suplido - InternetTabletTalk.com
Jonathan Greene - maemoapps.com and atmaspheric endeavors
Daniel Gentleman - TabletBlog, your host here.

Download the Podcast Here
66.1 MB
57 minutes, 47 seconds

Contest News - Don't forget that the deadline for submissions on the Nokia N810 Giveaway Contest is November 16th. The first video submission is up and it's a good idea. That video is exactly what I hoped to see: An interesting and innovative use of a pocket Internet device that may not be obvious right out of the box. Remember that this contest is now open to anywhere Dynamism ships!

Geek News - My US banded Nokia N95 will be shipped to me soon. Always eager, I paid extra for fast shipping. Using the Nokia N95 for pictures, video, and internet access and the Nokia N810 for notes and writing, I will provide live coverage from the CES floor in January.

CES News - With the last point in mind, I launched what will become a high-volume microblog during the show at ces.thoughtfix.com. Unless you're really interested in following my preparations for CES and watching my test posts, don't worry about subscribing yet. I'll remind you later when the show nears.

Information/FAQ News - This project was outed a little prematurely (though I still love you, WOM World) because I wanted to start it with feedback from InternetTabletTalk readers first. It's my own little wiki (thoughtfix.com/wiki) in which I will keep my notes, FAQs, HOWTOs, and more. There's already a wiki on maemo.org and a wiki on InternetTabletTalk, but I set up my own because I know MediaWiki's markup much better. Users are welcome to contribute at their option. In the meantime, drop questions into the talk pages on any of the articles.