I created a video in response to viewing the James Kendrick video on the HTC Advantage yesterday. It shows how I think the Nokia N800 compares to the Advantage. You be the judge! You can download it as high resolution 30 minute 50+ MB video in full 800 X 480 size to get a real feel for the N800’s screen.
August 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm |
[...] Link Posted by rodfather Filed in umpc, Gadgets [...]
August 17, 2007 at 6:57 pm |
Great video.
August 17, 2007 at 11:07 pm |
Great video. How do you get tv shows saved and onto the n800?
August 17, 2007 at 11:28 pm |
How do you play this video? I get nothing on the Mac except external component required and audio only under Vista.
August 17, 2007 at 11:54 pm |
I was looking forward to watching it, but seem to be missing the codec required- Quicktime says it needs a component but brings me to a web site listing tons of available codecs. Windows Media player plays the video as an audio file only, and Real player says it doesn’t have the ability to play this file.
Please let me know what codec is required- would love to check it out!
August 18, 2007 at 12:31 am |
What codec is this recorded in? I get audio but no video on the file i downloaded.
August 18, 2007 at 5:56 am |
800×480 is great for many things, surfing etc. I really enjoyed surfing on my Nokia 770.
The chief advantage of any Windows Mobile with a built-in phone is the true seamless online experience you get. You are online all the time, which opens up for several cool things – the most important of which, for business users, is the push Activesync. Until one has experienced that, one doesn’t get just how fantastic and seductive a push system is. You don’t have to check email, you just get email. You can also stay online all the time on IM services if you prefer, because the connection is there all the time. It’s a surprisingly big difference when one has experienced it – the connection is always there, no need to even think about it.
The Windows Mobile also has built in calendaring, to-do and contacts that also sync seamlessly over the push Activesync, and once that has been mentioned, a Windows Mobile phone has just crushed the N800 into the dust for a business user.
Better surfing, Google talk etc just don’t come close to competing.
The N800 is a great leisure device, but the lack of a calendar and sync capability pretty much disqualifies it immediately and completely for business users. OWA sucks hard compared to having Mobile Outlook – again, you have to go to OWA and log in and blah blah whereas with push Activesync mail is just there.
August 18, 2007 at 6:12 am |
Excellent demo. I really like these video reviews. I had no idea that device ran such “mainstream” applications like a “normal” computer.
August 18, 2007 at 6:16 am |
More thoughts are that you are doing lots of workarounds all the time. Instead of a real, cool, great note taking program you’re using the built in Notes which is highly limited in what it can do, but you love the N800 so much you have contorted it into working for you. That’s great, but it sure isn’t (for instance) PhatPad, or even the Microsoft OneNote companion software that one can get for the Pocket PC. Xournal? Not bad but essentially a gimmick, and completely self-contained, not syncing to anything. Ergo, much more limited than something that can sync content to a big computer – the fact that you don’t even use it more than once in a blue moon is pretty much proof that it is hardly indispensable.
Also, though it seems like the N800 can do a lot, essentially it is very much a one-trick pony – it offers a really great web experience. If you lose connectivity for just a while, you are reduced to half-baked open source crud.
Media viewing – I can view full-size 700Mb Xvid or Divx movies untouched on my VGA Pocket PC. On the N800, we’re talking conversion etc etc, a huge pain.
FBReader I can’t argue with, it is an excellent book reader and there the 800×480 screen also shines. However… I’m still getting as good or better an experience with µBook for Pocket PC, with beautiful antialiased text and 640×480 works just as well for reading.
But again – the reason the Advantage costs so much more is simply that it is a better device in many ways. Faster, more powerful, always connected, is a full-featured PIM extension and has huge quantities of third-party software available. I dislike the Advantage myself, but that’s because its needlessly huge, but the N800 is an entusiast device. For enthusiasts it’s great, for business users it’s a toy with bad software on it (with the browsing being the one exception.)
Wow, this turned into a novel all of a sudden. Ah well, it’s not like I’m paying for the web space storage.
August 18, 2007 at 6:28 am |
Thanks for that. I agree with you about Notes. I find that if I export Word docs as html they open just fine in Notes. (In Word 2007, I use “Web page, filtered” rather than “Web page”: the latter produces heavily tagged files designed for round-tripping.) I haven’t tried it on Word docs containing tables or complicated layouts, but footnotes don’t seem to be a problem; Word converts them to endnotes.
I haven’t yet tried Skype or the Mozilla browser but I think you’ve persuaded me that I should.
August 18, 2007 at 7:57 am |
I’m really surprised to hear that some of you are having problems viewing the video. I used the Camtesia Studio production wizard set to “save to hard disk” format and have no problems viewing it on my Tablet using Windows Media Player nor on my N800 using Mplayer. I’ll re-encode a version in Quicktime on Monday and make it available on the blog then. Sorry!
As to getting TV shows on my N800, I use two methods. First is recording them off DirecTV using a Neuros Video Recorder, the second is getting them from DVDs using PQ-DVD software..
August 18, 2007 at 8:10 am |
For those of you having problems watching the video, download this codec from Techsmith:
http://www.techsmith.com/codecs/ensharpen/decoderhtml.asp
Great video screencast MIchael. Once again, I’m very tempted to grab a N800!
August 18, 2007 at 8:26 am |
If anyone is having problems (I had using my normal approach, BSPlayer and codecs) I tried the “swiss army knife” of video players, VLC. No problems playing it there.
August 18, 2007 at 10:09 am |
Like cr0ft, I used VLC. WMP11 on my Vista PC wouldn’t show the video, it only played the audio.
August 18, 2007 at 10:56 am |
Yes, you need the TechSmith codec which is a pain. Shame on TechSmith for creating a standard format like AVI yet requiring a special codec to actually view the video.
Having viewed Michael’s video I must say he’s pointed out all of the things I like about the N800. As he has shown, the n800 is a very capable device and he’s leveraged it very well. One of the biggest advantages of the n800 that he didn’t show (IMHO) is the ability to play YouTube (and other Flash-based) videos where the Advantage cannot play them. They might play a bit choppy on the n800 but at least you can play them.
Re: the Opera browser on the Advantage. One of the most useful things you can do with the browser on the Advantage is tell it how to identify itself to web sites. You can set the Opera browser to present itself as either a Handheld Computer, which gets you mobile versions of the web sites if available, or as a Desktop computer which will cause the website to produce a full version of the site. This means that even though I demonstrated the mobile version of Google Reader I can easily get the full version as Michael demonstrated on the n800. I usually use the mobile version of Google Reader because the full version can be slow to load when I’m on 3G instead of WiFi but it can be done just as demonstrated here on the n800.
Nice video Michael, well done.
August 18, 2007 at 3:07 pm |
Michael,
Great video! Thanks for taking the time! The Internet experience with a 800×480 screen is really nice, much better than the HTC can provide, for sure. But the advantages (!) of having WinMo instead of Maemo might drive me to spend a little bit more money… Not sure yet…
I wish Advantage has a 800×480 screen and two REGULAR SD slots. Then, it would be an easy decision to me. Maybe… someone could find a way to run WinMo 6 into a N800??? That could be great!
Again, thanks for the video!
Clayton
August 18, 2007 at 5:48 pm |
I am having a hard time understanding why (AT this point) someone would consider buying either the ADvantage or the N800 instead of just buying the Everun. I may be completly wrong but all these devices seem to be roughly the same size (i.e. not really pocketable, but possible to pocket). The Everun gives you a full pc. I guess the one problem with the Everun is you dont have instant on, like the other two devices, but you get a full pc.
August 18, 2007 at 8:13 pm |
[...] Тридцатиминутный скринкаст от Michael Connick может быть полезен тем кто никогда не держал машинку в руках и хотел бы посмотреть как оно работает. Естественно скринкаст не сможет передать реальной картинки, но хоть какое то представление составить можно. Начало довольно утомительно, учитывая что автор говорит на английском и на экране ничего не происходит. Позже он демонстрирует основные операции и работу в интернете. На страничке автора можно скачать видео в .avi – а я закинул его на rutube, после конверта качество просто ужасное, так что лучше смотреть оригинал. [...]
August 18, 2007 at 8:13 pm |
Re: buying an Everun instead of the Advantage or N800 – it comes down to money, and a lot more money at that when you add the cost of application software.
August 18, 2007 at 9:30 pm |
I bought an N800 but could never get it to connect through my treo 700wx on Sprint. Has anyone gotten it to work with this model? I know it works with the 700p.
August 19, 2007 at 4:16 am |
Please teach me how you did the screen video
VNC to a screen recorder?
August 19, 2007 at 4:18 am |
Also – Ping me by Email – I’d like to introduce my readers to you.
August 19, 2007 at 5:24 am |
How do I download Xjournal to my N800?
August 19, 2007 at 5:34 am |
Oops! Just figured out my problem – it’s Xournal not “Xjournal” Plenty of info out there.
August 19, 2007 at 7:23 pm |
on the everun issue. Seems the everun is same cost as the advantage. SO, I guess its n800 or everun, why bother with advatange at this point.
August 20, 2007 at 6:07 pm |
I still cant get this damn video to play! Techsmith codec? Whats that all about?
August 20, 2007 at 6:14 pm |
The video was created and encoded by Camtasia Studio, a product of Tech Smith. It plays splendidly on Windows Media Player 10, and even MPlayer on the N800. However, if you want to view it on Windows Media Player 11, you’ll need to download a codec from Tech Smith. You can find it here:
http://www.techsmith.com/codecs/ensharpen/decoderhtml.asp
Sorry, I wasn’t aware of this problem when I created it since it worked fine on my both Tablet XP OS computer and my N800!
Michael
August 21, 2007 at 1:04 am |
From a Windows Mobile 5 user’s point of view, since I’ve never used WM6:
There’s TONS of freeware for WM. UNO, Yahtzee, Chess, Checkers, FreeCell, Sudoku, LodeRunner, blah, blah. Game console emulators (of course, it would only surprise me a little if the N800 had these, too). TCPMP for music and movies. Add the the plugin for YouTube and Google video.
What can I say about the better browsing experience? NetFront is ok. If you’re riding down the highway, and are limited to one device, then the HTC will provide a far nicer experience than the N800. If you are going to tether a second device, well, then we can just tether a UMPC to the HTC and see who’s best
Says at the iMov site that Pocket PCs can use that for Google Talk. Since we use MSN at work, and since Skype works, I’m not going to try.
I haven’t got much use for FM radio; I just need the channels for my transmitter. However, it was kind of cool using GS player to listen to internet radio on my Pocket PC.
I guess there’s a reason WM users might want to use OWA, but outside of public folders, I can’t imagine why, since we can just sync anything with our Exchange servers over the air (even when a hotspot isn’t available if you have an HTC).
You kinda got me on the Google Docs. If I really want to use it, I suppose I can use Remote Desktop or VNC to connect to a PC that can. I can even run a VPN client and connect to my work PC; I’ve done that before. When I research VPN on the N800, I don’t find a lot to encourage me. Of course, I have run Cisco clients on Linux before, so I’m sure that functionality is on the way, at the very least. I assume that puppy has an SSH client on it?
Now what I truly cannot do with an Advantage is come up with a post and video as nice as yours, but that’s not a limitation of the device.
August 21, 2007 at 6:32 am |
[...] everything is here, it’s a 30 minute video and it’s great. Jump over to Michaels blog to download the video and join the discussion and [...]
August 21, 2007 at 7:02 am |
MiniMage: Yes, the N800 has quite a few game console emulators available for it (I’m just not that big a gamer), and yes it also has SSH clients available for it. Going to something of an extreme, it can actually act as a Web server and even run Ruby on Rails!
Michael
August 21, 2007 at 8:10 am |
Why the Advantage over the Everun? Battery life and instant on. It is that big a deal for all day computing.
August 22, 2007 at 7:20 am |
[...] N800 Overview Video « Staying Connected (tags: nokia800) [...]
August 31, 2007 at 11:19 am |
It doesn’t play on the media player on my N800, nor will it play on Vista even with that codec you said to download.
August 31, 2007 at 11:26 am |
Terry – it plays fine on my Vista machine (with the codec) using Windows Media Player 11. It also plays on my N800 using MPlayer.
September 1, 2007 at 2:44 pm |
Thanks for great video! I`m already purchased N800 and very happy with it. My lovely Debian – in my pocket!
P.S. Funny, but we have same name and family – I`m Mikhail Konnik, too
June 30, 2009 at 1:41 am |
[...] N800 Overview Video « Staying Connected [...]