Well, I did it. I went out and bought the Nokia 770 last night. Apparently, CompUSA is running a sale or something...read on for the specifics and my thoughts after a day.

Well, here is the deal.

The Nokia 770 is available from NokiaUSA for $359 , and according to the CompUSA site it's $349.
Imagine my suprise when I checked out yesterday and they rang my 770 up for $314.99 (+$22.05 in tax).  I didn't say a word, but it was quite a pleasant surprise.

I have no idea if this is a bug in their system or what, but it makes me happy!

On to the first day thoughts.
(technically I haven't had it for a full day yet, but close enough)

 The Pros:

• The display is fucking disgusting. The resolution is goddamned amazing, it's really, really high resolution. At what would seem to be like a 2pt font on the PC text remains perfectly readable. Insane
• The web browser kicks ass. I had some problems with javascript, but otherwise it renders pages beautifully and fast. In fact this very site (which looks like shit in IE) looks perfect, and flash animations work flawlessly.
• Video playback is great. It ships with the Ice Age 2 trailer, and I've since loaded up a few episodes of The Tick....amazing. No artifacting or washed out edges, very nice.

The Cons

• There are no PIM apps at all. More after this list
• handwriting recognition takes a bit of getting used to, it's not as accurate as I would like.
• Seems like the only way to get a decent sized RS-MMC card (the media it uses) is to order one online, and every other store is sold out.
• Really, really light on the base applications
• The maemo community hasn't really exploded yet with new or ported applications (there are several "useful" apps, and a bunch of apps that were ported due to ease or "just because" factor.
• The display stand thingy that comes with it is only useful if you don't have the data or power cable plugged in, making it, IMHO, not useful at all
• The stylus can't be retrieved when the cover is on the back. You have to remove the cover, get the stylus, then put the cover on the back. This is too much work.
• The bag that they provide is about 1/8th an inch too fucking small. Getting the 770 in/out of it is such a chore that I probably won't carry the bag at all, which means that nice metal sleeve is going to get scratched up.
• The stylus is kinda shitty. I don't think it would have killed them to put something besides this flat piece of plastic in, but that's my opinion.
  

Indifferent:

• When the data cable is plugged in, it appears to the PC as a flash memory device and the expansion card is unavailable to the 770 user. The upshot is no drivers to connect it to your computer (windows, os x and linux already have these drivers by default), but to install an app you have to plug it in, copy it over, unplug it, run the app.
  

PIM apps. I understand that Nokia isn't trying to sell this as a PDA. In fact they are intentionally pushing this as a "surf the web and check email" gadget. It seems that everyone in the industry is trying really hard to not make a "PDA". It's like calling your device a PDA is a death kiss.

Well that's all fine and good, but here is the thing. Would it have killed Nokia to have released some sort of PIM apps (even a simple address book?) to it's maemo community site, and allowed people to download it themselves? Hell, to even make it difficult, provide the source and make people compile it themselves.

I am really annoyed that a Nokia fanboy such as myself can't easily sync contacts between my phone and tablet. In an ideal world, my phone, 770 and apple would all sync flawlessly with bluetooth. This just doesn't seem to be the case.

As for the stand thingy,  I am not too upset, since I already have plans to create my own "dock" using a project box, some extra cables, hot melt and a dremel.
Given the way the data cable works, I would like to put a "connect" button on the "dock" that disconnects/reconnects the pins on the USB cable. That way I don't have to plug/unplug my 770, I can just push a button.

I've installed just a few apps (since I can't really find any that I need or want). So far GAIM and the BPE ToDo list. GAIM is really unstable, but hey, it's a quick port by all accounts. BPE ToDo is...eh. Not good or bad, but better than nothing. 

Knowing then what I know now, would I still have bought it?

Yeah, probably, but I would have thought a little longer about it. The complaints are relatively trivial, but there are enough annoyances to bug me. I am really hoping that when they release the tablet 2006 software (should be soon) they add some things to it. They've stated VOIP and instant messaging, so we'll see.

Would I recommend this to someone else?

Yes, but only if they were fairly tech saavy and the "early adopter" type. As I stated, there aren't a ton of apps built/ported for the maemo platform yet, and while installation (assuming the porter/developer has done a good job) is a breeze, this is not always the case.
On the other hand, if someone wanted something that they could surf the web, read eBooks, check email and IM with (basically what this device is intended to do) I would highly recommend it. The problem is that I can't see many people buying this for just those reasons. It won't take any owner long to realize that this thing is highly portable, and therefor might make a good PDA.

With any luck, Nokia will release some sort of PIM apps with the 2006 system update.

Note: There is DejaDesktop, but in my book this doesn't count. It isn't free and it only works with M$ crap (outlook and the like).