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<st1:PersonName><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Papyrus; color: navy;"></span></st1:PersonName><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Papyrus; color: navy;"><o:p></o:p></span>All,<br>
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<font face="Arial"><br>
Here are some thoughts on the use of the N800 and its successors as a
business productivity tool as well as a </font><font face="Arial"> fun,
casual entertainment/consumer oriented device.</font><br>
<font face="Arial"><br>
As one who has carried (in the early days lugged) laptops and before
that, dumb terminals, literally around the world for business purposes,
and especially for that killer app, email, I was very interested in the
possibility of a product/device that would allow me to intentionally
"lose the laptop". <br>
<br>
To that end I performed a somewhat (not too) risky experiment yesterday
by NOT bringing my trusty laptop with me to a critical customer install
of some broadband wireless (on both the WAN and the LAN side) router
equipment but, instead, bringing along my trusty N800 and, as I
typically do, my EVDO broadband service enabled mobile phone. Now I
knew that if I really got in trouble I could count on this customer
having plenty of desktop and notebook computer horsepower at hand but
my goal was to not have to avail myself of that contingency resource.<br>
<br>
In short, the experiment was a mostly unqualified success. Using the
N800 I was able to <br>
</font>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">a) drill into the router admin http
port of the broadband wireless router from the 802.11 side to
perform configuration via the www admin interface and diagnose
configuration issues and, later</font><br>
<font face="Arial"></font><br>
<font face="Arial">b) connect the N800 to my EVDO enabled mobile
phone via Bluetooth to
verify that the EVDO signal was in fact strong enough inside of the
building where the router is installed to be useful for Internet access
by test browsing Internet www pages from the N800.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Arial"><br>
Navigating the router admin port www pages was a little extra work
(scrolling of 2 levels nested windows) but with the N800 I was still
able to perform the necessary configuration adjustments on the router.
Although my mobile phone also has 802.11 capability I have found that
the screen size of that device (a UTStarcom 6700) is just too small and
not productive for real config work like I was performing successfully
with the N800. The N800, with its full VGA and larger screen size, and
www page zoom capability seems to be a very workable compromise to a
notebook/laptop as long as the www site does not have stuff (e.g.
active-x etc) that does not render/work in the N800 browser..<br>
<br>
If I had had some of the standard network tools installed on the N800
(e.g. ping, and perhaps even nmap) I could have performed further
diagnostic testing of the broadband router EVDO network connection
(e.g. to confirm that the firewall was enabled and working correctly).<br>
<br>
Some additional observations/comments re: N800 usability:<br>
<br>
+'s<br>
<br>
</font>
<blockquote><font face="Arial">One interesting aspect of the N800
bluetooth capability that I discovered during this implementation
project is that the the bluetooth signal was strong enough between the
N800 and my mobile phone that even when the
N800 was ~20 ft from the handset and separated by an inside wall and a
cubicle wall I was still able to keep the pairing active and have
broadband network access via the mobile phone</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Arial">Finally I want to mention that although I have
used my mobile phone to browse the www while on the underground
(subway)system in my area, the experience is much more productive when
using the N800 paired with the mobile phone, than using the mobile
phone by itself, again, because of the large screen size, higher
resolution, etc. of the N800 vs a mobile phone. This is an environment
where, especially during the crowding conditions during rush hour it is
neither practical nor unobtrusive to whip out a laptop to try to
accomplish some simple Internet related task. On the other hand the
N800 paired with a mobile phone is quite satisfactory.</font><br>
<font face="Arial"></font></blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature"><font color="#330033">-'s<br>
<br>
</font>
<blockquote><font color="#330033">www sites with embedded objects (e.g.
flash) that do not render well or very slowly in the N800 browser. In
this respect, ironically, it seems that the Microsoft www site
including the Mobile www page works no worse than and, perhaps, a
little bit better than Nokia's own www site in the N800 browser. <br>
<br>
As others have commented, the N800 mail client really needs
improvement. It is nowhere year as useable useful as the Windows Mobile
5.0 (I call it Outlook-lite) client on my handset. For starters,
although the N800 allows the user to create multiple mailboxes, it only
seems to maintain one set of IMAP folders. This is a non-starter.<br>
<br>
There needs to be a reader for Microsoft word .doc's, Excel .xls files,
and Powerpoint .ppt files Perhaps a stripped down version of Openoffice
would be a workable solution for this requirement.<br>
<br>
The bluetooth Icon should remain in the system tray (or whatever it is
called) even when Bluetooth is turned off. Or at lest the option to
configure it to do so should be made a configuration option for the
tablet-top. This would make it faster to toggle the bluetooth receive
on and off if there is a difficult pairing situation with another balky
bluetooth device.<br>
<br>
When entering text, a cursor position count should be shown. This is
important when entering text that has to be a certain length, given the
fact that sometimes a "touch" on the touch screen does not register.
This was a problem when I was entering WEP keys for 802.11<br>
<br>
Just as there is an icon/applet in the system tray to change/view
status of the display it would be helpful to have an icon/applet
similar to the "network connection"system tray applet in Windows
XP/Vista to provide one click display of network config parameters.
Perhaps this could be provided via another menu option on the already
existing N800 icon/applet for the network connection, something like
"display current connection properties".<br>
<br>
<br>
That is all I have for now. I look forward to further exploration of
the use of this device as a business tool and I will continue to share
my thoughts and ideas with this list. <br>
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Best Regards<br>
John Holmblad<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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