10 Really Cool Things to do with your Internet Tablet

I've mentioned it in a couple conversations and a guest spot in a podcast, but never posted here about a conversation I had at the Nseries Unlocked Event. Someone asked me what the greatest advantage and disadvantage to the N800 was. My response may not be the whole community view, but here it is:

The greatest advantage is clearly the Linux base. It allows a vast developer base to use a single development toolkit to use their familiar Linux knowledge to offer applications on the tablet. The tablets are interesting out of the box, but the rich application base truly show their value.

The greatest disadvantage? The Linux base. The tablets, while well received, have not been flying off the shelves as geeks like myself would expect. The reason is that Nokia cannot advertise the functionality that all these applications provide. Nokia cannot advertise that the N800 can use all popular Instant Messaging platforms. It CAN, but cannot be advertised because this is offered through third party applications Pidgin and GAIM. If a firmware update (say, Chinook) suddenly makes this software inoperable, Nokia is holding the bag on false advertising.

It is with that in mind that I am presenting 10 cool things the N800 Internet Tablet can do that Nokia can't tell you This is not for the N810 yet - we're waiting for Chinook updates. Here goes:

1. Read a book! FBReader supports FB2, plain text, html, rtf, chm, and plucker format eBooks. If you need to know where to find some books, start with Project Gutenberg.
2. Microblog! Mauku is a very simple, fast, and attractive Jaiku client. Stay in touch with your friends or simply watch for others' updates.
   
3. Go Geocaching! Navicore/Wayfinder may be good for finding your way to Grandma's house, but sometimes you want to get out into nature or your urban landscape and have some fun. Use Gnuite's Maemo mapper for this one, like I did here.
4. Chat with your friends! Pidgin on Maemo allows you to chat with AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, and many other buddies.
5. Control your home PC! VNC and rdesktop allow you to control your PC or Mac over a wireless connection.
   
6. Enjoy Music, Movies, and Internet Radio! Yes, this is an advertised feature of the tablet but the Canola interface takes it many steps beyond.
7. Read your car's codes! With Carman and a Bluetooth ELMscan reader, you can get your car's status codes directly or add visual gauges to your vehicle. I tried it here.
8. Play some games! There's a wide variety, including Sokoban, Battlegweled, and many more.
9. Customize it! Theme Maker allows you to take an image of your own creation and make it into a full theme for for your tablet. Karoliina also posted some neat ring tones!
   
10. Hack (with) it! As a regular Linux machine, xterm is available as is root access. Linux geeks can explore and customize the internals. Linux ssh and sshd can be installed in the form of the dropbear client/server. A good handful of developer tools are available, as well as several security scanners.