I’m not going to cover all the basics, you can find out all the specs from another site. Summary: it communicates by just about every means possible: quad-band GSM, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM. It’s missing a GPS receiver, which is too bad, because Nokia just released some really cool navi software. More about that later. The screen just rocks–it’s hi-res and readable in any light.

It has two web browsers, which for some reason have indistinguishable icons. I won’t spend much time on them because neither are particularly useful. The “Services” browser is a WAP/HTML browser made to render web pages at screen-size. It doesn’t work on a lot of pages, but it’s stable. The “Web” browser is made to render pages faithfully, and it’s based on the Safari rendering engine, so it does a really good job until it runs out of memory, which is often. When they get the bugs out, “Web” will probably be the way to go.

Currently, the two real choices for web browsing are good old Opera Mini, which uses a downsizing proxy to speed up page loads over GPRS, or to use the S60 v3 version of Opera, which renders pages as well as “Web” but does it way faster and doesn’t crash, and although it’s missing some of the eyecandy, is nearly as functional as what you have on your desktop right now, especially over a Wi-Fi connection.

Speaking of Wi-Fi, if you’ve been using GPRS for a long time you’ve probably never browsed very fast on your phone. With Opera and Wi-Fi, I can page through Google Reader faster than I can skim a page full of headlines. I’ll take some video of it and post later.

What do you do with all that broadband? Put a ton of internet apps on. At this time I have the four web browsers, three mapping programs, VOIP service, and a two podcast clients. The default podcast client is missing some features here and there (for example, bookmarking current place in a podcast), but it does download original MP3s and videos from any site you want, limited by what the N80 can play, of course. The podcast client I used before, Mobilcast, is more mature, but it only streams selections from Melodeo’s library of downsampled streams.

There’s a built-in RSS reader, and Opera and Opera Mini have them as well, but I’ve not really used any of them because it’s so darn convenient to get to Google Reader.

The N80ie (Internet Edition) comes with some software to upload pictures and videos to sharing sites, but it’s not as convenient and featureful as ShoZu, which uploads to several services and also pulls comments back down to your phone. It also works as another podcast/vodcast client, although like Mobilcast, it works from a limited library of downsampled content.

The phone is capable of making video calls. I haven’t done that. However, I have tried out the VOIP, and it’s surprisingly easy to set up. An included (or at least easy to download) setup wizard for Gizmo had me talking via my existing GizmoProject account in about three minutes. The only time I’d end up using this feature would be for cheap international calls; would have been useful for about six weeks of last year, but this year, who knows.

Other reviews complain about the short battery life. After the first four days of using the phone I’d agree, because my desk at work is a cell phone dead zone, where there’s no reception and the phone burns itself out trying to make contact. However, I used it at home (good reception) and even though I did 1-2 hours of browsing and navi (and some talking), it still had full bars at the end of the day.

Speaking of navi, back to the new software. Nokia’s Smart2Go is a truly cool navi package meant to compete with dedicated systems. It will use an integrated GPS receiver or an external bluetooth receiver. Even without GPS it’s every bit as useful as Google Maps for Mobile, plus the interface is quicker and it has downloadable maps. The talking turn-by-turn directions cost money in the form of a subscription with terms from one week ($10) to three years ($130). I won’t be going out and buying a GPS puck any time soon, but if I was traveling somewhere unfamiliar (like I did last year) I’d totally consider it worth the dough.

In summary, here are the good and bad points of the phone. First, the good:

• Many web browsing options, and at least two of them work.
• Great screen
• Small overall size
• Takes good pictures in decent light
• That great S60 user interface
• The WiFi is fast (> 3 mbits d/l on dslreports’ speed test over my WPA network) and super handy for downloading podcasts, uploading photos and video to the home network, browsing.

And now the bad:200 kbytes/sec

• Battery life. It’s just too cool to be running out of battery after three solid hours of fiddling.
• Not enough memory considering the size of the apps. My old 6620 used to bog down only when I had 7-8 apps open, and I always left the commonly used ones open just for speed. Some N80 apps eat up all the resources and thus need to close all the other apps when they open. Thankfully, apps launch faster than on my old phone.
• Video resolution is 352×288
• Doesn’t play iPod videos natively

Next gadget review will be the iRobot Scooba I got for $160 refurbished. Totally worth it.

Friday I came home a little early and started dinner (grilled flank and bacon-wrapped scallops¹). Tara repeatedly came in from the back yard and ask “Hey Daddy! What you doing?” then when I answered, she’d run back out and, before leaving, chirp “We’ll be back!”

The video is from the new phone. The quality isn’t great, but the mp4 files are way smaller (~4 MB/min) than the videos from Jennifer’s camera (~60 MB/min) and I can upload to YouTube with a single click.

¹ Sounds fancy, but it turns out the bacon-wrapped scallops only have three ingredients, counting the toothpicks.

Tara turned two this week and I thought it would be appropriate to post a an executive summary. She continues to be the cutest child ever. She’s a champ sleeper, and super easy-going to boot. Her speech still isn’t very clear, but she knows a lot of words. The other day she was prancing around in some of Anna’s dress-up clothes and said to me, “Look Daddy! I’m a princess!!” Admittedly, I thought at first that she was telling me she was a pencil, but still, we’re very pleased. She calls herself Tara more often than not–she used to refer to herself as “baby.” She’s 50th percentile for height, but leads the class in portliness. Anna was almost the same way but thinned out when she decided that macaroni and yogurt were the only foods worth eating.

Anna tonight put on a stalling clinic with Jennifer, choosing the last few minutes of her day to discuss intelligent design, Dr. Martin Luther King, divorce, and American history. She’s a terribly smart girl, and she’s very practiced at manipulating us, so it’s hard to figure out when to put our foot down and when to cut her some slack, because after all, she’s five.

I got my N80 the other day and it is seriously the coolest thing ever, but that deserves its own post on another day.

The family room is a mess.

The kitchen is a mess.

Jennifer and I pick at the remains of crab claws and crudités over the light of a candle while Diana Krall coos a romantic melody through the TiVo, streamed from one of my low-power Linux servers attached to one of our 802.11g access points¹. The candlelight alternates with 900 watts² of overhead lights that Anna and Tara are alternately switching on and off while the two of them alternately fight and giggle. Anna runs upstairs to fetch her Little Mermaid book light to replace the candle she plans to blow out. Tara takes the opportunity to push a chair over to the light switch so that she can turn the lights out again.

The phone rings. Anna squeals and runs over to fetch it. Jennifer crossly asks Anna to hold still so she can read the caller ID. I’m trying remember what time the UPS guy stops by on Tuesdays, and if I should leave work early to pick up the Nokia N80 I ordered. It’s Grandma Donna on the phone. Jen takes the phone and shuffles out to the living room.

I eat the last olive in my martini, then hold the toothpick over the candle and watch the flame jump to it. Anna blows out the candle, not noticing the toothpick I have cupped in my hand. Anna runs out to find Tara and I can again hear Jennifer on the phone. The toothpick burns to the point that I have to drop it in my glass.

Dinner’s over.

Two years ago this day Tara was born. We had a minor celebration over brownies this evening, and will probably have a somewhat less minor celebration this weekend. Tara doesn’t seem to fully understand what all the fuss is about, but Anna surely does–she’s jealous of the extra attention paid to Tara, what with the presents and people calling. Anna was home with a sore throat today, so she was basically a sickly diva, and you can imagine just how pleasant that was. I imagine when we’re older we’ll all have a good laugh thinking back to these days and then they’ll raise our dosage until we settle down a bit. After a typically gruesome day of work I was too wiped to even get out my camera to take pictures, but Jennifer did get some video, so I’ll amend this post later with the cap.

In other news, I saw the car I’m going to marry buy someday: the Volkswagen EOS. It’s a hardtop convertible with four seats and a six-speed transmission. I ran into a fellow volleyball player who had one and I was awestruck by the folding roof; I’m hoping to take a test drive soon, but since my current VW has < 50k miles, I should probably wait until some time in the ‘08 model year for them to get the bugs out.

Yesterday I set up my photo gear in the living room, which is not an easy feat when there are a couple kids who are not used to seeing a big PVC frame and light stands in the middle of the living room. Eventually I had to move the couch to barricade myself in while I got things set up and calibrated. Then there was the matter of getting the kids to stand directly in the middle of all this wonderful gadgetry and neither play with nor look at their new surrounds, but instead to focus on and smile at their same old father with his same old camera. By now you’re getting the picture, or at least beginning to understand why I didn’t get the ones I wanted.

I suspect I’ll try again sometime soon, and in the meantime I’ll contemplate the question of whether by repeating an exercise in frustration I will become more excercised or more frustrated.