Not content with the weird widescreen 7710 and the strange spinner-driven 7280, Nokia has announced the 770, a device that outdoes all its off-the-wall predecessors by not even being a phone. It's an Internet appliance -- a tablet-style device that lets you connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth connection to a mobile phone.
The 770 measures 141 by 79 by 19mm, so it'll go in your pocket -- as long as you're wearing baggy skateboarding jeans. Be advised, though, that the 770's weight -- some 230g -- is likely to drag those jeans down to your ankles. However, we don't expect you to take it out and about. The 770 is more likely to find a place on your coffee table, for quick Internet look-ups and accessing email.
The 770 has a 800x480-pixel touch screen capable of displaying 65K colours, so it's better suited to Web browsing than most PDAs. Relative to a PC, it's smaller and cheaper, boots up more quickly and is less likely to clash with your decor. So, in theory, it's perfectly sized and specced for the task of providing Internet access from the sofa. In practice, we've seen plenty of proposals for Internet appliances in the past, and none of them have made it to the Crave living room -- so we're deeply cynical about its chances of success.
The one thing that might enable the 770 to find a small but loyal audience is the Linux-based operating system, a favourite of geeks around the world. Nokia has set up a new development platform called maemo, enabling developers to collaborate on future devices and applications. You can find out more from the maemo Web site, if you're so inclined.
For the rest of us, the 770 should be available from Nokia.com sometime in Q3. Pricing is yet to be confirmed. -ML
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