In a previous post this unabashed Apple user wrote that he would be passing on the iPod touch and opting instead for the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, sight-unseen. Now, after actually using the thing for about a week, I’m not so sure…

For productivity the N810 beats the iPod touch hands-down — despite my particular unit having a bizarro QWERTZ keypad it was still orders of magnitude more usable than Apple’s virtual stand-in. And though the N810 is not a phone per se, Skype comes pre-installed — just be aware that you won’t be able to use it for video calling with the tablet’s front-mounted camera.

For media consumption there’s less of a clear winner here. The iPod obviously benefits from being a part of the iTunes ecosystem. The N810 makes do playing standard MP3s and streaming audio, notably a slick Last.fm client called Vagalume.

Continuing its proud tradition of Mac support, Nokia has ported its Internet Tablet Video Converter Tool to OS X. Results were okay, but paled in comparison to the specific output requirements for the iPhone & iPod touch. Codec fanatics can see details of the Nokia version here, and compare and contrast to what HandBrake can do here. I’ll just say that the iPhone/touch-friendly video had none of the motion artifacts that I saw on the Nokia.

Where the N810 leaves iPhone & iPod in the dust is the very moment it steps up to don the role of l33t hax0r sidearm. And that’s where this n00b found it the most frustrating.

Elsewhere on the web tablet gurus have displayed their mad Maemo skillz by installing such entirely useless things as the Windows 3.1 OS; truth be told, this guy bricked WOM World’s N810 for an entire weekend almost immediately after grabbing this screen.

Getting the beta of Google’s smartphone OS up and running is proving to be an unofficial litmus test of Nokia tablet mastery. I’m clearly not worthy, but if you think you’ve got what it takes then step on up!

And if not you can live vicariously through my Flickr photo and screen grab set.

Don’t get me wrong here — I’m thrilled to be an official S60 Ambassador and have been a whore for swag ever since my days on Speaker’s Corner.

But surely you can understand my slight disappointment at opening up my delivery from DHL this week to find my Ambassador’s Welcome Kit instead of the N810 Internet Tablet that Nokia is sending me to trial. Even worse, my faulty assumption caused the actual N810 coming my way to be redirected back to Nokia, a mix-up that’s entirely my fault.

My contacts at Nokia have promised me the very next N810 that becomes available, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get to hold one in my trembling hands until after my birthday. Oh, well…

… And I couldn’t be happier!

Thanks to the magic of virtualization — and the thoughtful folks at Access who’ve released a free Palm (sorry “Garnet”) emulator for Nokia Nseries tablets — my vast library of Treo apps from days gone by can be pressed into service once again.

Downloading the Garnet Virtual Machine couldn’t be easier; I just pointed my tablet’s browser to the Access site and installed it directly from there. The only other necessary step was to dump some .PRC files onto my Nokia’s memory card and voilà — as you can see in the screen grab above, they get automagically loaded into the VM’s launcher.

And this is what the Garnet VM looks like. The Graffiti pad works just as you’d expect, and would make a nice option for stylus input outside the VM, in case anyone from Access was reading this and wanted to license Graffiti to Nokia, hint hint…

HotSyncing to a regular computer is even possible, though just as you’d expect Mac users are left out in the cold on this particular feature. Also, because there is no HotSync app in the VM there is also no place to input your Palm user name, and thus no way to authorize third-party apps and avoid the shareware nags in Astraware Games and the like. There doesn’t seem to be any appreciable performance hit, but there doesn’t seem to be any sound support, either.

Still, the ability to run Palm apps at all instantly makes my N770 tablet twice as useful. Now if I could just find that old copy of Dope Wars…

Forget everything I said about the iPod touch… credit card balance willing, this will be my next gadget purchase — the just-announced Nokia N810 Internet Tablet.

It’s everything the touch isn’t: Real tactile keys instead of virtual ones, additional connectivity via Bluetooth and GPS and, most importantly, unrestricted access to an active community of third-party developers.

Like it’s predecessors the N770 (which I own and use almost every day) and N800, this new tablet from Nokia is not a phone, but earns its N-Series moniker by fitting the definition of a “converged device”, which Nokia has identified as the world’s fastest growing category of consumer devices, with an estimated market of 250 million users in the next year.

With no out-of-the-box PIM syncing software the N810 isn’t really suitable as a PDA — then again, contrary to what I previously wrote, neither is the iPod touch. What this tablet is perfect for is the role of laptop stand-in – for those times you need a quick check of something on the web or need to take some notes but don’t want to haul around a full-sized testicle-frying or ovum-zapping notebook computer. If I seem like I’m pulling a complete about-face from my earlier dismissal of the N770, it’s mostly because issues with using an external keyboard kept it from true greatness.

As for Nokia’s newest tablet I’ll be putting in my order as soon as they go on sale next month, and nothing can change my mind about that — except maybe this…

UPDATE — August 7th, 2008: I’ve now had the opportunity to test-drive the N810; you can read my review right here.

What do you get when you take 90% of the iPhone’s functionality and remove all traces of a meddlesome US wireless carrier? You get the brand-new iPod touch… And a lot of unhappy iPhone owners, I’ll bet!

Someone should seriously write a marketing book about this… Back in June when the iPhone was released, those privileged enough to live in the US and A and willing to spend two years under the lock and key of AT&T were cheered as they left Apple Stores across the nation with their new purchases in hand, while the rest of the world looked on like orphan refugee children pressed up against the fence of their internment camp while their conquerors paraded by.

So what does Apple do? Gut the phone, keep the WiFi and add the ability to buy music right on the device! Now the rest of the world can check out the now-famous tappity-flick-smudge interface right in their very own Apple Store, months before the actual iPhone goes on sale in their local market. I’m betting most of them won’t ultimately be interested in the iPhone, but they’ll be all over this thing. How could we not be after being inundated with so much iPhone hype?

I myself am in already possession of an internet tablet, a last-gen Nokia N770 that I haven’t even bothered to review here because it’s really only good for one thing — surfing on the toilet or in front of the TV. Hey, it’s more portable than a newspaper…

And would I trade in my tablet for a touch? In about two seconds!

For the touch has far outgrown a mere iPod yet still retains the functionality of a classic PDA. It really is a Newton for the 21st century. But this time it’s good.

(A recent photo opp with yours truly and his new toy…)

My new Nokia E61i is just starting its third battery cycle and I’ve already decided that it’s a keeper. Quite frankly I’m stunned by the breadth and scope of what I can do with it — it can run a frickin’ Gameboy emulator, for chrissakes!

My new handset is also my passport to a huge international community of users. Whereas here in North America it’s all BlackBerry this and iPhone that, Nokia owns the lion’s share of the market in Europe and Asia. To put this into perspective, Apple sold half a million iPhones in its first weekend of release, whereas Nokia moved almost a million smartphones worldwide each and every week in the first quarter of this year!

But despite the pressure of being a market leader Nokia is still willing to take chances with their advertising. I previously wrote about Symbian’s viral YouTube campaign for their Japanese products; now they’re running a cheeky website based on the premise of jealous computers. Here’s a sample video:

And you know what? They’re not so far off the mark… I’ve some other new Nokia toys in my stable of gadgets that I’ll be writing about in the very near future:

Stay tuned!