Nokia, targeting the growing market for wireless internet access devices, announced the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is optimized for Internet browsing and email communications in a pocketsize format. It features a high-resolution widescreen display with zoom and on-screen keyboard, for viewing online content over Wi-Fi. The device can also connect to the Internet utilizing Bluetooth wireless technology via a compatible mobile phone.“We are very excited to introduce our first Nokia Internet Tablet device to the market,” Janne Jormalainen, Vice President of Convergence Products, Multimedia, Nokia, said in a statement. “With the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet consumers can access broadband Internet services away from their desktop, for example in the backyard or at a café within a Wi-Fi hotspot.” The device runs on Linux based Nokia Internet Tablet 2005 software edition which includes widely deployed desktop Linux and Open Source technologies. The maemo development platform (www.maemo.org) will provide Open Source developers with the tools and opportunities to collaborate with Nokia on future devices and OS releases in the Internet Tablet category. Jerry Purdy, principal analyst with MobileTrax, said more announcements are expected about products offering wireless Internet access.“The whole concept, where you get the entire Internet via WiFi is very exciting,” he said. “Linux doesn’t mean as much (in this space),” Purdy said. “It’s the browser and the applications more than worrying about what the OS is. The key is not just the features. It’s what you can do with it. How people find it useful to them.” Nonetheless, Nokia is excited about Linux. “Linux is a logical choice for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet as Linux and the Open Source development platform provide us with fast and efficient solutions to build products for this new, Nokia product category,” Jormalainen said. “This is the first step in creating an Open Source product for broadband and Internet services. We will be launching regularly updates of the software. The next software release planned for the first half of next year will support more presence based functionalities such as VoIP and Instant Messaging.”Additional highlighted applications of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet with the 2005 software include an Internet Radio, RSS News reader, Image viewer and Media players for selected types of media. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is planned to start shipping in the third quarter of 2005 in selected countries in the Americas and Europe. Technology Industry