Nokia 770 SDK

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Yes, this has been covered heavily. Not nearly enough noise has been made about how easy hacking this device is. Nokia has opened up almost everything even placing the graphics under a Creative Commons license. Nokia has also constructed a firm foundation to develop on. Underneath everything is a Debian based system with a 2.6.11 kernel. Debian is one of the largest binary distributions mainly because of its apt package management system. Apt will make it really easy to get new software and keep the installed software updated. A modern kernel means the device will be able to keep up with developing technologies like bluetooth and usb. The next layer is an Xserver. This is not a pda and Nokia has decided not to use technologies like Qtopia or Opie for  the application layer. This will make porting graphical apps much easier and with the addition of Gtk they will also have a consistent look. If you’re worried about the ARM processor support, just check out all of the programs that people ported for the Zaurus.

The best news for you is that Nokia has set up a comprehensive development site. It describes the underlying software layers and how to set up the development environment to emulate the device. It even has a walkthrough for how to port applications to the device. As an example they show how to port Gaim, which is funny because most places have reported that IM support won’t be released until 2006. If Nokia does a good job building in support for Microsoft htpcs, iTunes control, and Tivo control I think this device will be certain to take off. I’d like to see someone make an electronic programming guide that you could use to change the channels on the tv and schedule recordings instead of the intrusive on-screen-displays used by most cable boxes. If anything it will be nice to hang out on the couch reading news and ebooks without having to use my genital scorching Dell.

16 thoughts on “Nokia 770 SDK

  1. This thing is cool. the next step to a low cost, low power laptop for note taking students and that. I don’t recall if the nokia has sound support, I’d only assume it does. If this is true, while critics are saying that its lack of an integrated cell phone will hurt sales, this device has crazy potential being ip based. knowing this, I can’t wait until ppl start loading VoIP clients on them. haha no more cell phones! (thank god!) Maybe the next version will play videos too!

  2. I’ve played with the Nokia 770. It’s very cool. The price point will be cheap and it can be the ultimate touch screen thin client.

    It doesn’t have much in the way of storage, but in the way of hackability? 100% customizable. They haven’t decided yet who they will go with for VOIP. Personally, I am hoping to just make a client to work with SIP, rather than wait for some propreitary system such as SKYPE.

    It also has bluetooth, which will allow you to listen to music, make some VOIP calls, etc.

    It would be really cool interface to a web based game whose client resides on the Nokia 770, and the multiplayer interaction and persistant world data resides on the webserver. I posted a bit about the Nokia 770 on my blog, but I can’t post pictures (yet)

  3. This is something that should have been put in the links page yesterday or today. I think this is going to be a great product and there is no doubt in my mind that there will be hacks for the nokia 770 but are their any right now? Some of the links from yesterday could be used for good featured articles but instead you post “news”(not a hack) of the nokia 770?

    I still like the site but I think the choice of featured articles and your links of been a little off lately.

  4. Nokia re: voip provider. Just write a simple API and let all the providers code to that. We need some standards in voip handsets, and Nokia has the weight to develop them.

  5. Anyone know availability and pricing for the UK? Can’t wait to get my hands on this – was going to buy a cheapo laptop for using on the sofa / document viewing / notes out and about, but now I think this may be even better – lighter, will do everything I want and more!

    superb, nokia does it right for the first time in a long time!

  6. I agree with post No 2 made by John. For me VoIP is why I want to go for this product, but it has to be an SIP client like Xten’s X-Pro/eyeBeam, which is already available for the PocketPC, which will enable those of us that already use VoIP accounts to access them wirelessly. They definately should not turn this into another Skype/Vonage type closed system!!

  7. Concerning about the storage limitations, I would like to see somebody hack a Ipod into this thing since it does have a USB port to connect to the computer. Does anybody know if there is somebody developing something like this for the 770 or any device like it?

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