Nokia will offer its Linux-based Internet tablet to developers at a discount, and donate proceeds to the GNOME Foundation, it announced at GUADEC (GNOME User and Developer European Conference). The “developer device program” will make 500 Nokia 770 Internet Tablets available at 500 Euros, Nokia says.

(Click for larger view of Nokia 770 Internet Tablet)

Nokia unveiled the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York last week. The small mobile device connects via WiFi or a suitable Bluetooth phone, allowing users to browse the web, check email, read news, listen to Internet radio or their own music, watch videos, and store and view images.

The Nokia 770 is based on a 2.6-series Linux kernel, along with a selection of desktop-oriented Linux software such as the X Window System, pared down to work with the low-power ARM9-based Texas Instruments SoC (system-on-chip) that powers it. The 770's software environment features a task-oriented user interface based on a GNOME derivative called the Hildon User Interface and Hildon Application Framework.

Nokia's director of open source software operations, Ari Jaaksi, said, “By adapting [GNOME] for handhelds, we are delivering [a] product that will grow with the help and input of GNOME and Open Source users and developers.”

The Nokia 770 is expected to ship in Q3, 2005, priced at about $350.

 
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