• The MiFi is the killer enabler for netbooks-like computers;
• The netbooks have miniaturized to the point where they are becoming to use a keyboard and/or a good screen at the same time
• The Windows tablet is horrible, but an Apple one, with an iPod / iPhone interface would be awesome
• The iBlet (like the name?) is the drooling dream of anybody using iPods, iPhones, Macs, and quite a few Win-zealots

If it happens before September, send me a cookie. If it’s called iBlet, send me an email and I will send YOU the cookie.

Post from: Online shared intelligence; copyright © 2008 Carlos Caballero. All rights reserved.

Is there an Apple tablet in the way?

The fact is, I need to enable sudden, serendipitous posting, or this blog won’t get anywhere. Because I have twenty things to write about each day, but I just don’t stay put too long behind a desk (and when I do, I have a zillion work obligations to wrap-up). In Airports, traveling in the car (my wife drives most of the time), in coffee stores… that’s were I need to have access to the blog (Otherwise, I will just write a note in a piece of paper and NEVER write it on the computer).

The phone? Nope, too small, too hard to type. The computer? Yes, sometimes, if I have access and am comfortable (as right now, traveling north along the California coast, my wife driving and Satie’s music cranking). The Nokia N810 tablet? MOST certainly, all I need is access (the N810 and the wireless portable keyboard fit in a large pocket – and at 265 pounds of weight, believe me, my pockets are already huge). So, all I need is access. Not any more: I got a MiFi today.

In a nutshell:

• The size of three credit cards glued together back-to-back
• A wireless hot spot that goes with you wherever you go (like now, on the 405 in Ventura, many miles away from any place where I have ever connected from, in the car, at 80 mph)
• Up to five computers or PDA’s at a time can connect to it by just sharing a password
• Speed? I would say 5 or 6 times faster than an iPod connecting via 3G.
• Cost? Verizon service, barebones $40/Month, beefed-up $60/Month, no more than 5 GB a month, 5 cents the extra MB

Nuf’ said. This thing is awesome. Without even thinking, I was looking just for ubiquitous connection for my laptop, and in the process I made an iPod killer from my old Nokia N810 (bigger screen, more memory and processor, better –and free– apps). The only thing missing (THE PHONE!) is now in thanks to the MiFi connection and Skype or any other VoIP running on top of it     Haven’t tried it yet, so let me go off and try it. See you in my next post!

Post from: Online shared intelligence; copyright © 2008 Carlos Caballero. All rights reserved.

Back thanks to the MiFi?

I bought onto the Nokia Tablet concept early on with the 800, then the 810. Originally, it was just compulsive, plus professional interest on the tablet field itself. Like many other people, I have been buying into the convergence category for quite a few years (HP LX, Newton, PDA-Phones, Smart-phones, and now tablets).

So far, I had always avoided questions of return on the money, or ‘worthiness’, because the devices were little more than toys. Sure, PDA suites and synchronization with the PC bring quite a few comforts, specially for the mobile worker, but then again, that’s work, not life. On the other hand, desktops and laptops were nice for personal stuff, but had the same association with work that spoiled the fun altogether.

The Nokia 810 tablet has been quite a revelation, and I realize that the surprise is a combinations of changes in  me (i.e., changes in my habits are making it more worthwhile), the environment where I live (with increasingly ubiquitous wireless access) and a special mix of functionality… I don’t know how it applies to other people, but since I find myself to be quite an average common guy in many aspects (of course, inside well defined demographic and geographical segments — American middle class technology-aware white collar worker and a few more descriptors), I decided to keep exploring this event, with the hope of collecting my thoughts better.

So, I created a new category for this posts, let’s see where they take me.

The exploration map

I won’t list the specs of the device, they are readily available from the Nokia site, but instead follow a more personal path:

* What do I find myself doing with the Nokia N810? Why?

* What specific features/functions of Nokia’s Internet Tablet make those activities enjoyable?

*  What things *don’t* I do with the N810, even when I could? Why? Are there any ‘waiting for’ feature/functions that would get me to use them?

* How could it be improved, from the naggy to the grandiose?

So, I will start to write a few separate postings in each of the stages above, hopefully remembering to come back to this one and cross-link them. Further, I will also use the N810 to contribute some of the posting themselves, and we will see how it goes.

E la nave va…

Post from: Online shared intelligence; copyright © 2008 Carlos Caballero. All rights reserved.

The Nokia N8×0 phenomenon