Some weeks ago now, it came to my attention that Expansys were stocking Nokia 770 internet tablets for a ridiculously cheap price. Now, I already have an array of personal electronic gadgetry but if there's one thing I have been seeking, it's Linux In My Pocket^tm. I already knew that the N770 runs a version of Debian, so I checked out the scene and it seems to be ideal for pocket hackery. I ordered one.

After what seemed like forever (2 weeks) it finally arrived and I ripped open the pack and connected to my internal network. I had already scoped out the apps I wanted first and made a bee-line for them. The osso-xterm advanced was first port of call, along with OpenSSH and MaemoMapper for GPS goodness. Over the last week I have also got hold of NetHack, MPlayer, an SMB Browser and MaemoPad+.

I have to admit to being impressed by the screen. While I read that it was good, I never really pictured how clear an 800x480 screen would be when squished to a 15:9 aspect, 4.1" display. Even at 1/2 brightness it's rivalling most laptops, and is perfectly visible even in bright sunlight. Of course, most of the time I keep it around 1/4 brightness to save battery life. I still can't get over that the resolution of my palmtop device is almost as high as my 14" monitor of 13 years ago.

The software is also good. I was surprised at how well they've handled the email client, and the browser is just right. It would be nice to have the option of a newer version of Flash, but I can live without. I spend most of my time browsing with elinks anyway, so having high res browsing with pictures is something of a novelty. The 'optimised' layout mode of the browser is also good for squishing the site down onto the 800px wide screen, but given that only the most naughty of sites demand 1024 it's usually OK as is.

I was genuinely surprised to find that the widgets on the home screen are also useful. I have a couple of 'quick access' contacts on there, the RSS feed is a nice overview to the day's browsing and the internet radio is a nice touch. The speaker on the thing is actually pretty loud so it's all good.

One small problem I did have was connected via bluetooth to my Samsung X820. It started dialling, then just timed out. Fortunately, not only did I discover that it's due to a bug in the phone, not the N770, but I also discovered that, because it's Debian, the fix described on the Ubuntu forums works fine. Given that I applied the fix by using sudo and vi via the xterm, it meant my dream of properly usable pocket linux had arrived. Minor hacking and a decent CLI.

I'm sure I'll have lots of fun with this little device. I already use it when I don't fancy my legs being toasted by my Macbook and just want to check one or two things or hop on to IRC. On the subject of IRC, osso-xterm advanced has a handy set of 'ctrl shortcuts' that let you do screen+irssi things in single clicks, like pgup, pgdn, ctrl-an, ctrl-ap and the like. Top stuff.