As previously mentioned (repeatedly) I now have a Nokia 770. It takes some digging, but I am finding more and more uses for it.

First up, an expanded memory card. I managed to snag an RS-MMC 1 gig card on eBay today for...wait for it...$22

You read that right. Sweetness.

More exciting than that, I've been contemplating purchasing a Nokia LD-1W. It's a bluetooth GPS receiver. Nokia fanboydom aside, there is a really good reason to buy the LD-1W, first off, CompUSA has it for $129, which is pretty reasonable all things considered. Beyond that, it uses the BL-5C battery (which is the same as my 7610), the same charger as my phones, and it works flawlessly with the Symbian Series60 OS (the OS my phone uses).

The only thing holding me back is all the GPS software is kind of pricey (usually $99 or more) plus it requires GPRS to download the maps. Using GPRS of course would mean I would have to upgrade my plan with T-Mobile (which is tempting, because then I could use my phone as an access point for my 770 or laptop). I am loathe to do this though, since I am already paying far too much for my T-Mobile plan (39.99 a month which gives me 600 peak minutes + nights/weekends free, I average less than 300 minutes TOTAL a month, that's a lot of wasted time). 

But alas, there is a solution. Tapio Tolvanen is quite far along with a port of GPSDrive to the 770, needing only to clean up the UI a bit and make a package out of it.

Exciting, ain't it?

All in all though, I am still disappointed with the community involvement. From everything I've gathered, porting applications is relatively trivial*. With any luck though, once the 770 sees broader distribution and the 2006 software update, it may gather some steam.

 

 

*I actually investigated what is needed to set up a proper build environment and do some of the porting, and while it doesn't seem that anything is beyond my ability, the honest truth is I am too lazy to get the environment set up, not too mention that I have been procrastinating on far too many projects as is.