Tech Eye: Instant gratification

Promises have often been the empty hope upon which we hitched our cart of dreams, before seeing it crash off the yellow-brick road and plunge into a deep ravine of desolation following our less than steady guidance.

First it was the local preacher telling us we could save our souls with good works. After a whole day spent loving our fellow man, we heard that it would be a lifetime before we got any payback. Never one to wait while we have good chips that need a-cashing (or a-rebetting if we're being truly honest), we decided to ditch the brotherly love in favor of the more earthly and easily gotten delights available right here, right now, after the odd crime spree.

Many is the day that The Man has also managed to keep us slaving for one more day with promises of promotions, bonuses and free hootch, only to unceremoniously tell us, once our weekly deadline had come and gone (and with full knowledge of the 80 percent unemployment rate in the local village),  that we could go whistling if we thought we were getting a dime extra.

The Christians have yet to deliver, the Scientologists are good for nothing this side of the Apocalypse, and The Man has macroeconomics on his side, so TechEye is sticking to what we can get our mitts on now. Last week we praised the wonder of the great white hope that is Apple's iPhone (which you won't be able to get for months), so this week we give you a similar gadget that you can grab this instant.

This is Nokia's N800 Internet Tablet. It has a high-resolution widescreen display, and comes with an Opera 8 web browser, which supports Flash 7. This means you get internet calling with integrated web camera, instant messaging, e-mail and a full-screen, touch keyboard. It also packs in some stereo speakers, memory card slots, and a USB 2.0 high-speed device mode for PC connectivity. It costs roughly zł.1,520 and, like a convict who attended some anger-management classes and wants to repay his debt to society, it's out now.