I own a Nokia 770 internet tablet, which is an 8-ounce device running a full Debian Linux distro (called Internet Tablet 2005) with built-in WiFi. It has an ARM processor.

It's basically specialized for portable internet communication (despite the big screen it's about the size of a PDA). There's no VoIP yet, though. VoIP is promised in 2006, but no specifics yet and the date is slipping. Maybe July?

770 apps use Hildon, which is (as I understand it) GTK+ with some additions for the hardware keys, the two modes of the 800x480 screen and access to the virtual keyboard.

The speaker and the microphone are placed so that when you hold the device up to your ear, they're in the right places for a phone communication.

I was told by a Nokia VP that every high-end Nokia phone will hereafter include a WiFi phone as a matter of course (and that 6 Nokia phones already have it) -- Nokia seems really committed to WiFi phones, so much so that the 770 doesn't include a cell phone at all. (You can use Bluetooth to connect to one if you need cellphone access to the internet.)

So, all of this intro is to ask What would be involved for Skype to issue a 770 version?

I've read developers' reports that they ported their GTK+ applications in a day, an afternoon, a week, and so on, with minimal adjustments, to the 770. There's already an active community of users and developers (see Internet Tablet Talk, http://internettablettalk.com, and Planet Maemo, http://planet.maemo.org).

In trying to get a handle on this, I have more questions:

Is Skype for Ubuntu written in GTK+?

Any specific info as to the likelihood/impracticality of a port?

Is it possible even, or impossible without starting from scratch?

And: Is there a more direct way to suggest this than this forum?

Thanks,

Roger Sperberg

Skype for linux uses the Qt toolkit not GTK+

Ah, then it will be a more complicated port.

Thanks for letting me know.

if it is nokia, there should be qt already for it
nokia has several qt licenses. (AFAIK)

Perhaps those are the WiFi-cellphones. The 770 uses Hildon widgets. Hildon is basically GTK+ adapted to a single screen size and accommodating a virtual keyboard and the device's hardware keys. Porting from QT to Hildon can be easy or hard, from what I have read on the developer's list for the 770.

I'm also the proud owner of such a nokia 770 internettablet.
i would be also very happy to see a skype port for this device.

so i also would like to ask:

And: Is there a more direct way to suggest this than this forum?

Skype would be perfect for this kind of device.


Sebastian

Has anyone tried just installing the Debian package or the binary package (with Qt compiled in) directly on their 770? I don't have a 770 of my own otherwise I'd give it a try.

(edit: Silly me, it slipped my mind that the 770 is most likely not running an x86 processor.)

The 700 is not x86, it's ARM, so no.

Is anybody from Skype team see this? Gizmo and Google Talk already implemented for Nokia 770. Please don’t be too late. :evil:

I tried the deb package on my 770 a few weeks ago
I got the error message 'component already installed' !

(does the processor really matter anyway? - that's only for the OS isnt it?)

The Nokia Linux tablet that is one step above the 770, the n800, has Skype on it.

Also Skype is available for all the main distros now.

So it seems that the 770 should be able to get it too.

If not, then it seems possible we 770 users can put a new distro on the 770 and then install the skype offering.

My $0.02

So, Is there any possibility to have Skype on N770 device? N770 have this hacked OS2006 (N800) also, so Is that the workaround?

Yes, Skype runs and works fine by default with the newly released Chinook hacker edition. I doubt the sound side works though, since Chinooks audio drivers have issues with 770 chips. Otherwise it's excellent. It's an unofficial release from Nokia and at the maemo site they claim it very unstable. However, I find it extremelly stable compared to the last official update on os2006. Crashes are indeed rare, the browser is very stable and so on.

Note, OS2008 requires lots of space from your Nokia 770, thus I recommend you not to install anything but necessary. Or alternatively boot the OS2008 from MMC.

I have Skype & Mplayer (mplayer requires some tweaking to get it working though). I had Gizmo but the lack of free space started a series of crashes at bootup which stopped by themselves only to be repeated soon again.

maemo.org announcement & OS2008 bin
MPlayer tweak information
MPlayer armel debs
The Nokia 770 updater for doing the flashing on windows. For linux there should be flasher tools on the maemo site.
Skype, Mplayer & Browser are enough for me and they brought my old Nokia 770 alive ^^

I would like to place Skype on my Nokia N770, but am hesitant to do it without some help as I do not not want to suddenly find myself with use of my Nokia N770 as I have somehow scrambled its brains in the process of downloading a new OS. So, is there anyone who might like to help me out here? Please contact me via email and we will connect via Skype and take on this challenge together. I really would like to be able to use my Nokia N770 to make Skype calls as I do have a Skype-In number. Here is my email address for anyone interested in helping me out - lamar@mchsi.com.

Sincerely,
Lamar Morgan