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Beta version of 2006 OS version available!

June 9th, 2006

I have just flashed my Nokia 770 with the new Internet Tablet OS 2006 Edition. It is still a beta version, this is, it may contain errors. However, at a first look, it looks pretty stable.

The first thing I have tested is the web browser. It is still Opera-based. This new version seems to be faster, and less memory consuming. It has got two (at least) new features: password wallet (it asks you to store the password each time you fill a new form with a password field) and history autocompletion (it shows you a list of previous visited websites). I have tested three web browser windows at once time, at the same time than the audio player was playing the radio, and with the control panel open, and everything was right and smooth. It includes now links to Google Search, Gmail and News.

Another new feature is the desktop. Now you can modify the layout, and place the applets wherever you want. You can also configure what applets want to see, as in the previous version, but this time there are more applets available. For example, there is a Google Search applet and a speed access to selected contacts.

Regarding the audio player, it looks like the same than in the previous version. The same with the video player (this is, it is as fast/slow as before). It comes with two songs and a new video (Discovery Channel commercial).

The file manager is the same, but it seems to have a bug. With the previous version, I was able to browse my Motorola L6 mobile phone using Bluetooth. This new version, however, claims that my phone has not that feature.

The PDF reader is much faster. Moreover, as it is loading the page, it is showing it, so you have not to wait until it is fully loaded to begin to read.

The main menu is now better organized, and can be also customized.

And now the really good new features. First of all, in the Memory applet in the Control Panel there is a new option, called “Virtual Memory”. You can add and modify swap to your MMC card, to make the system faster. If you need the space in your car and you previously configured a big size, you can with just one click modify the size of the swap.

It includes a Jabber client, with VoIP capabilities. I have not tested the VoIP thing, but the Jabber client is pretty good. It can manage many accounts (with a profile for Google Talk accounts to make easy to add your account), the chat windows, in spite of the tiny size of the device, are good and usable, and it can enter in chat rooms. For example, there are clients that when entering in rooms with big logs, crash, or terribly slow down. This one however manage well rooms with big logs.

The contacts application can automatically load your contacts from your Jabber/Google Talk accounts, and you can use it to send emails, start chats, or start phone calls. However, it seems there is not a “callout” service, to call to phones outside the Internet.

The email application is now also much faster. It opens the messages in a really short time.

I have though experienced two or three crashes. However, in the opposite to the previous version, these crashes did not reboot the device, but only close suddenly the application. The system gave me the proper feedback, with an “Sorry, an error occurred and the application was suddenly closed”. But this was in something like three hours testing everything.

The other two drawbacks are that you cant no restore a backup from a previous version, so you will need to add again your network profiles and so on, and that binaries from previous versions are not compatible with this version, so all the applications that were available for the old version are not yet ready for the new version.

So the overall impression is quite good. This new system has many more features, and it is much faster than the previous. I suggest you not to wait until the final version is ready, move to the new version now!.