RIP N810

My N810 finally bit it yesterday – The touchscreen gave out earlier in the week, and after re-seating the ribbon connector (again), it rebooted with serious video artifacts/flicker/discoloration. When I opened it back up to try again, the connector literally fell off the end of the ribbon, taking out the display as well as touch. Ribbons are not solderable, and replacement screen modules are not available, so it has been rendered pretty much useless.

I was looking at replacement options as soon as the touchscreen went out again, and the field is grim. What I want is a modern handheld-size *nix (preferably Linux) box with a qwerty keyboard, a “reasonable” (800×480 or better) screen of around 4″, an audio out compatible with normal 3.5mm connections, WiFi, and enough battery to make it through the day. Apparently I am alone in this desire. Searching kept bringing me to the list at pocketables, which has the majority of potentially suitable devices.

The N810 was, when it came out, nearly perfectly suited to my needs. It runs an open Linux stack, with a real Xserver and normal userland, has a nice thumbable keyboard, can easily make it through a day on battery, and fits comfortably in a belt pouch. It doesn’t include a cellular radio, so there are no carrier-related issues, and software is handled through apt repositories.

To shut down the two major platforms, Android devices are non-options because the “Bionic-is-not-libc” issue means normal Linux software won’t work on them (except via chrooting, but that is a seriously inferior solution). Apple devices are likewise uniformly disqualified by lack of keyboard.

Before getting into phones, there are a couple obvious contenders:

• Another n810 – The poor lil’ things are getting underpowered for the modern internet, largely because they only have128MB of RAM. This would be an eBay proposition, and only around $50, so it wouldn’t be much of an investment, but I am still regarding this as an opportunity to upgrade. The 5.0×2.83×0.55″ dimensions make a good baseline for comparison.
• pandora – Very cool fully open design, but the OMAP3530/256MB RAM configuration is already dated. A little bulky at 5.51×3.27×1.06″, and designed more for gaming than as a computer. Middle of the pack pricing at around $500.
• viliv n5, agio MID, etc. – These are really netbook hardware in various shapes with 4-5″ screens- they’re expensive, bulky, and have shorter battery lives than their ARM-based siblings. For example, the N5 is about $650, 6.77×3.38×0.98″, and only has a 6 hour expected battery life. They also tend to have quirky hardware making Linux installation difficult.

Now on to phones – I’m willing to deal with smartphones, particularly those I could buy unlocked and cram a prepaid SIM into. That said, I refuse to pay more than around $30 a month for cellular service – in a busy month I use on the order of two dozen text messages and two hours of voice, which adds up to about $20 with my current prepaid service. It is usually more like half that. Data service for the occasions when I am not covered by WiFi doesn’t make up the difference to the O($75) plans Verizon and at&t are requiring with smartphones. To stave off the “That doesn’t exist” argument, Virgin Mobile currently has a $25/mo “Unlimited” data (where unlimited=throttled after 5Gb), unlimited text, 300 minute plan – this is a reasonable price for the service. They just don’t have any suitable devices, and are a CDMA carrier so it isn’t an option to transplant a SIM. Looking at the most promising smartphones specifically:

• n900 – The direct successor to the n810, but physically smaller and burdened with a cellular radio. Like the OpenPandora, an OMAP3430+256MB of RAM is already dated, and the platform is essentially orphaned by Nokia. Six months ago this might have been a good option.
• n950 – This is the prospective last Noka Linux device, slated to come out sometime this summer. Very little information has been released about it, including important details like the presence of a keyboard, but a nice Arm/Meego platform could do nicely.
• Pre 2 – Fails on screen pixels, but WebOS is promising. WebOS does include a normal libc and rudimentary *nix like userland, so things like preware allow for normal Linux programs.
• Pre 3 – Fixes the problems from the Pre2, but not currently available. Slated for release this summer, carrier and radio type still unknown.

I’m thinking I’ll come up with a stopgap (maybe a used n810, maybe making do with a little flash MP3 player and carrying my laptop more) until the summer, and reevaluate when the next round of devices drop. Is there anything out there I’m missing?

Over and over I run into the same hangup with mobile devices: I don’t want to be nickel-and-dimed with “apps”, I want to be able to write my own little scripts to take care of things. I don’t want special “mobile” versions of websites, I want a browser UI competent enough to handle the real websites on a small device. – I want my mobile devices to act more like my workstation, not the other way around.