I'm not going to defend the smaller screen in the leaked specs, but you've gotten me thinking...

People are doing that with netbooks now, aren't they?

Our very community here now commonly watches movies and shows on 4" screens. Movies and shows that--only a few years ago--we would have watched on big, living room TVs.

The Internet--on personal, small screen, lean in computers--cut into shared, big screen, sit back television time. But the computers weren't small enough and couldn't take the Internet too enough places, so they shrank to netbooks.

MP3 players were an early indicator--allowing owners to trade in audio quality to make their music portable and more personal. Now it's clear the trend is spreading and accelerating.

I'm running into more and more folks who are canceling their cable or satellite television service as Hulu and torrents suit their needs. And among those who have kept traditional television service, there's a growing interest in Slingbox/HAVA devices that deliver the goods to personal, portable, small screens.

I'm still in favor of a ~4-inch tablet screen, rather than a ~3.5-inch phone screen, but there's definitely a growing crowd of "I want everything in my phone" folks out there. Here's hoping Maemo delivers what that crowd wants, explodes in popularity, and still gives us tablet obsessed faithful what we need.