O2 Joggler

My O2 Joggler just arrived and it is quite an interesting piece of kit.

I’ve not had much time to play with it yet, but the O2 software stack seems a bit limited. Google calendar can be installed, but no mail, and I’m not sure the calendar will pop-up if something is approaching.
No web browser was a major failing in my opinion – Sure you get Sky News, but the interface for that is rather simple and I expected better (feels like WAP on a phone!)

The weather apps (for some reason there are two) are ok, but the default one seems to show some odd forecasts (Friday, Thursday, Saturday with Friday and Thursday showing night forecasts for some reason)

I have yet to try uPnP for pictures and music, but the internet radio plays BBC stations fine.

The traffic app looks a bit simple, though the google maps app is nice. The messaging could be interesting as it can send/receive texts, but as I can’t see me using it much. The O2 calendar I have yet to try.

After poking that far, I decided to boot Ubuntu, so following http://www.stephenford.org/joggler/ I downloaded the Ubuntu image that has been customised for the Joggler, copied it to my usb key and it booted fine.

Getting wireless up was ok (at least I could copy and paste the wpa2 key from a file I put on the USB key before booting it, rather than typing the rather long random string I have on the on-screen keyboard as I had to for the O2 software), but I did find that using the touch-screen is not a good alternative to a mouse (and the on-screen keyboard can be really annoying!)

At least Ubuntu gives you a web browser (Chrome and Midori are installed by default in this image), but it is still tricky to use.
I had to increase the font sizes just to get windows that I could click the menus on.

So far the only thing it is actually great for is solitaire – which is a rather expensive deck of cards!

I need to try some of the hacks at http://www.jogglerwiki.info/ like installing telnet/ssh and then see what I can hack on top of the O2 software, as it seems better built for a touchscreen and keyboard-less device, though I am not sure what I will be able to get working. It does appear to have flash running on it, and one site suggests that any flash .swf file can be launched easily

Update: Good review at http://jtlog.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/new-clock-radio/