Teemu’s Blog

Yes it has finally arrived. Get the Gizmo Project SIP based VoIP client software for the Nokia Internet Tablet from here. Below are some screenshots of it running on my Nokia770. I did brief tests and it seemed to work just fine. Only downside is that it takes 8MBs of memory when installed.

l just finished porting SER (SIP Express Router) for Maemo platform. Well, not much porting actually was needed. Just compile for ARM and create an application installer friendly .deb package.

You might be wondering that what is SER? A simple answer is that it is a very fast and configurable SlP proxy server. If you still do not know what I’m talking about, this application is probably not for you. It is also a valid question that what is the use of such application for a device like Nokia 770. Well, my intention was only to test if SER can be run on Nokia 770 and how well it works. Seems like it was easier task than what I thought. The .deb package can be downloaded from here.

The application can be used without root privileges. By default the users are not authenticated, since I’ve not yet had time to configure it with the dbtext module. That might come later… It is quite fun to experiment with this using SIP enabled WLAN devices and ad-hoc WLAN connections.

Lately my blog has drastically biased towards the Nokia 770 internet tablet, but this is far too interesting news to be left out. Skype is coming on the Nokia’s Series 60 platform. Allaboutsymbian.com reports experiences of using Skype over 3G network using Nokia 6680 phone. The report states quite clearly that 3G network might not be suitable for Skype calls and that we might have to wait for some WLAN capable Series 60 phones coming to the markets. Anyhow, very interesting piece of news.

I stumbled across interesting news about VoIP and Nokia 770 while browsing the web. I found a picture of Larry Page from Google presenting that Nokia 770 will support GTalk. The site was in Spanish so I had to rely on Babelfish to translate it for me, so the news might not be that accurate. I started to think a bit more about this and remembered Google also announcing that GTalk will be open towards other XMPP services. Probably it was this that Mr. Page was talking about. So conclusions from this is that Nokia 770 VoIP software will support also XMPP. This naturally means only instant messaging with GTalk users and that should be already possible using Gaim for Maemo. Or maybe Nokia 770 will also support Jingle which has also become freely available. This way it could support also voice. The Jingle option sounds a bit too far fetched, since why would it be needed if Nokia 770 already supports SIP for VoIP. Well, it remains to be seen.

Some thoughts around the web have also risen up from the fact that Skype is also available for Ubuntu and Debian linux, so why wouldn’t it be also for Nokia 770. Why not? Or more like, why it should? Ok, first of all Skype port would have to be done by Skype and that is very unlikely to happen for a while anyway. Also SIP is the way to go since that is the way to make different VoIP communities interoperable. Users should be able to decide what client software they can use for their VoIP calls and not to be limited only to some special software. I know that Skype works very well and current SIP clients are quite far from that, but we are getting there… some day. Anyway, my opinion is that keep the Skype out of Nokia 770.

Have you ever even tought of having a mobile VoIP PBX? No? Well me neither, before I saw this post on maemo developers mailing list saying that Asterisk 1.2.0 actually runs on Nokia 770. Now that it seems to be possible, we just need to figure out what could it be used for. Ideas, anyone?

Whether you can use it for something actually usefull is irrelevant. The point of the whole thing is to show off your geek friends that you have asterisk running in your pocket. Anyhow the power of this kind of mobile linux device is that it can really open new ways of doing things that no one has ever even thought of, or even would have thought until they really get to use something like this.

After learning that there really is a microphone in Nokia 770 it sort of hit me. Soon I will have a WLAN VoIP phone running on Linux. After the software update coming early next year of course. How will it work as a phone remains to be seen, but I have high expectations.

I have some earlier experience from Zyxel’s Prestige 2000W WLAN VoIP phone and I really can’t say anything positive about it. Well the price is half of the N770’s, but it sort of includes one per cent of it’s features. You can do the math.

Anyhow, I have some suspicions about N770 as a phone. How would I hold it on my hand? Where would I talk to? I’m having sort of scary flashbacks from seeing people talking to an NGage. As Hedgecore said on Internet Tablet Talk Forums: I wouldn’t like people thinking that I’m “trying to talk to a calculator“. Well it remains to be seen how well it works for mobile use. At least using a bluetooth headset would work perfectly.

I could easily see myself using N770 as a desktop VoIP phone. If the microphone is good enough, it would be a great speakerphone. The VoIP software coming early next year is probably included with instant messaging features also. Then again it would be nice to have presence support as well. After all, N770 is running on Linux so it just needs someone to code it if it isn’t included. At least minisip is already being ported.

Now I finally got it. I have to say that I’m really impressed how easy it is to use. The start-up wizard did pretty much everything I needed and I got Internet connection up right away. It’s a shame that I can’t use the WLAN at the office because of the VPN, but with 3G it worked also nicely.

Here is a photo of it on my desk. Sorry about the quality, but my hands were sort of shaking because of the excitement.

So the 770 is now in stock and ready for order at least in Finland. I made the order and now the timer is ticking. When will it arrive… Delivery time is supposed to be 3-4 days, but lets see.

At least that is what they say on their site. For those who don’t know Nokia 770 is a Internet tablet that runs on Linux. It has WLAN connectivity, so you are able to browse the web and listen to Internet radio. So far you are not able to use it for VoIP to make calls over Internet, but that will happen in the beginning of the next year.

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet’s software is upgradeable and currently runs on the Linux-based Internet Tablet 2005 software edition. There is a planned launch next year of an operating system upgrade – the Internet Tablet 2006 software edition – that will support additional services, including Internet telephony (VoIP) and Instant Messaging.

The price in Finland for this beauty is €369,00, which I think is a bit too high. Anyway… looks like I really have to start saving money for this one. Me wants it…

I just had to write about this application. I mean the Gizmo from Gizmoproject . People are talking about this beeing the next Skype killer. Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less. Why some application should “kill” Skype. I have nothing against Skype . I mean nothing except that that they don’t use open standards and seem to be quite slow in developing their system. Gizmo on the other hand uses open standards (SIP) and the same audio codecs that Skype has from Global IP Sound. Also they have quite interesting new features like “call subject” where the receiver can see the subject of the call before answering it. Also it has the call recording feature that Skype is lacking. And last but not least there is also a realtime call quality indicator showing network issues that can affect call quality.

Anyway, to be honest I haven’t used these Skype/Gizmo clients that much yet, but I really considering to start using Gizmo regularry. Check it out…