Internet Tablets: Encouraging Updates

At the end of my early-February writeup on Nokia’s three-member Internet Tablet family, I indicated that an A2DP (two-channel Bluetooth audio)-cognizant media player was available for the N800. I haven’t yet attempted the install of the optional A2DP add-on, finding the ’simplified’ instructions to be more intimidating than my degree-of-bravery currently permits, but I’d welcome feedback from those more courageous than I. One of these days…

I have, however, made more encouraging progress on several other fronts. My early-February T-Mobile Dash writeup (wow, I was productive in early February, wasn’t I?) included the observation that this Windows Smartphone’s O/S variant discarded Bluetooth DUN (dialup networking) mode in favour of Bluetooth PAN (personal area network)…which the N800 didn’t support out-of-box. Last week, on a hunch, I did a ‘check for installable applications’ on the N800, which surveys apps available for download from the maemo.org site, and lo and behold maemo-pan came up on the list. I installed it and, since I’d already pre-paired the phone to the Internet Tablet…well, a picture paints a thousand words:

Here’s the Bluetooth PAN link loading the Brian’s Brain home page, via an EDGE cellular connection on the Dash. Note per the icon in the upper right corner that the N800 is not connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi.

I’d also long desired to be able use the N800 to remotely control other LAN and WAN gear via VNC. Unfortunately, a VNC client never popped up when I did a maemo.org site search. However, Google came to the rescue. Here’s the aptly named vncviewer (which, oddly, is hosted on maemo.org, so I don’t know why it didn’t come up in the ‘installable applications’ list) in action, manipulating one of my laptops (both pieces of gear are Wi-Fi-tethered to a common router):

And, if you want to take VNC in the opposite direction, with the Internet Tablet as the controllee versus the controller, a N800 server program is also available (Google again).

By the way, I took all of these screenshots using the very slick load-applet program, which also shows CPU and memory usage in the display top-bar. Recommended, too!

Viva, open source! By the way, the N810 recently was the beneficiary of a $90 chop (although the price seems to have crept back up since then). I’m sticking with my N800, but if a built-in keyboard (and/or GPS) is important to you, and you don’t mind the defeaturing that accompanied the N800-to-N810 evolution…