Nokia hid an FM radio in the N800
jkOTR reader & commenter, gorkon, shot me an interesting note last night while I was shopping for my Dash. Turns out that Nokia tucked in an FM radio in that N800 Internet Tablet along with the WiFi and Bluetooth radios. Folks over at Internet Tablet Talk found this out and have a nice link to an application for using that radio, not to mention a video of it in action by Johnathan Greene using the headphones as an antenna. This is pretty slick, but I have to wonder why we haven't seen any mention of the included FM radio in any documentation? If I was marketing a device, I'd be touting all of the features, not hiding them like Easter Eggs. ;)
Edit: added a link to Johnathan's site; Internet Tablet Talk embedded his video so I only had a link to them. Johnathan did a great job with this and narrates everything in the video!
Sounds like somebody forgot to get FCC approval to me.
Posted by: jk | February 08, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Nah...this thing snuck out via the FCC filing. Likely the filing papers do not have complete schematics. They send the device and run every test regarding RF interference and then give it a pass/fail.
Posted by: gork | February 08, 2007 at 12:05 PM
Maybe they didn't have the software complete in time and decided to surprise their existing customers at a later time with a nice upgrade. I like it!
So I wonder now what Lenovo hid in my new X60 tablet.
Posted by: Oliver | February 08, 2007 at 12:23 PM
THANKS to my favorite site, I'm listening to the local jazz station on my Nokia 800! On the speakers. And to think that after evaluating the 800 and 770, I was about to take the 800 back. Glad I didn't. The 800 also does a reputable job on Youtube videos. The only issue I see is the VERY much shorter battery life. Ya gotta plug it in every night or POOF...it's gone. The little 770 was good for a couple of days. I think it might be because the 800 stays connected to the wifi all the time, vs the 770 booting up the wifi connection each time you select a wifi based application....very slow...but very good on the batteries. Now all they gotta do is get Skype going and all will be golden!
Posted by: Al | February 08, 2007 at 03:51 PM
What no link love? I love the work here... but ah, that's my device and image from my video... :(
Posted by: Jonathan Greene | February 08, 2007 at 03:59 PM
Done deal Jonathan; ITT had your video embedded in their post, but I've added links to your work directly now as well. Thanks for letting us know about the inadvertant faux pas! :)
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | February 08, 2007 at 04:05 PM
Thanks for the update!!
Posted by: Jonathan Greene | February 08, 2007 at 06:26 PM