All,

I appreciate your many kind words regarding the quality and usefulness of Maemo Mapper. What started as a quest to optimize GPS Drive turned into a neat little maemo application, and it thrills me to no end that others have been able to make use of it.

I have received messages from multiple sources in the past 24 hours (likely spurred by this thread) to the effect that Nokia is or was probably planning to get me an n800 (for free, or at a discount). I have received nothing official yet (no package or email), but maybe it's in the works. If they send a free one, I'll certainly use it to test Maemo Mapper on it.

As for if they offer just a discount... Well, I'll be honest. As of yesterday, if they had offered me a discount (even 75%), I would not have considered it. It's not that I can't afford it. I just don't need an n800 (my 770 is sufficient), and I don't want to spend money on something I don't need. I have certainly been vocal about my insistence on sticking with the 770.

Having read through this thread, though, it is clear that there is demand for Maemo Mapper on the n800. And given that many of you are offering to donate the money needed to cover the expense of acquiring an n800 (and one of you even already has!), I feel that the least I can do is provide to you sufficient support for Maemo Mapper on the n800. And to do that, I'll need to test the application on the actual device.

So yes, if they offer me a discount on the n800, I will eat my pride and cough up their blood money.

As a related side note, I want to emphasize that it's not the hardware refresh that bothers me. Users were complaining about the low CPU and RAM, so it makes sense for Nokia to respond to those complaints. What bothers me is the new OS 2007 and its potential to leave the 770 out in the cold.

I have no (technical) problem with the new CPU, the new RAM, the new chrome style, the new button/port layout, and even the second memory expansion slot. None of these things affect the software, and there is no reason that they necessitated upgrading the operating system in a way that made it incompatible with the 770. When developers start developing exclusively for the n800, 770 users are going to miss out on those new applications if they aren't compatbile with the 770.

If Nokia releases OS 2007 (or some variant based on the same code base) for the 770 (and they still might do so) in such a way that applications can work more-or-less seamlessly between the two pieces of hardware (barring differences in specific hardware usage, like the camera), and if they continue to address the concerns that 770 users have, then I'll have no complaint. Until then, I will continue to worry.

Maybe, between testing Maemo Mapper on OS 2007, I can try and get OS 2006 to run on the n800. Considering the hearsay regarding how slow OS 2007 would run on the 770, and also considering that OS 2007 on the n800 seems to run at an acceptable speed, the correlary then is that OS 2006 would have to run much faster on an n800, right? Of course, the camera might not be usable, but I don't need or want that anyway - all I want are the CPU, RAM, and expansion slot upgrades.

Anyway, again, thank you all for your support in trying to get me an n800. If possible, I will use that support to provide the same Maemo Mapper experience on the n800 platform as I did (and will always continue to do) on the 770 platform.