Hello, my first post here!

There had been rumors about a Maemo phone already before this leak and the oFono project seemed to fit the picture perfectly. Then I came to this forum to see what people thought about it.

And boy, was I surprised to see everyone crying foul about the two exact things that had _kept me from buying_ a tablet before: device size(screen size) and phone functionality! Heck, someone people even stated that anyone who ever wanted phone functionality in these devices doesn't belong here and should leave this forum immediately. Talk about feeling welcome.

The two deal breakers for me were that none of the tablets were small enough and that they didn't have cellular data or voice. I want ONE pocketable device with big enough screen that has everything I need whenever I leave my desktop computer. It doesn't have to be the best device for everything. DSLR takes better pictures, dedicated ebook readers are more comfortable and so on. But, if it does everything well enough then I'm sold.

Some of you might ask me why I haven't bought an iPhone or an Android device?

I'm not liking the iPhone walled garden approach. The app store is probably nice, but I certainly don't want Apple to decide what I can and cannot run on my own device. And don't get me started about AT&T:s influence. Most european carriers let customers tether their laptops freely without any additional charges, after all, they have paid for the data already! Who cares what's using it? And forcing all these artificial restrictions on software. My carrier lets me use skype over 3g if i want, but somebody over at AT&T decided it's not allowed so no go for me either.

I don't know so much about Android but it seems that it's not as open as I would have liked. And the G1 is butt ugly.

My brain has been overheating when I've been trying to connect the dots between all that Nokia's been doing lately. Rumors about a Maemo phone, oFono, open sourcing Symbian, Trolltech acquisition and so on. And now the news about a whole Maemo devices division.

I think we are living some interesting times.. first the Qt stuff. I don't know if any of you have been reading the Symbian Foundation blog, but it seems Symbian might getting a serious UI overhaul in version ^4. The all Qt "Orbit" UI widget library and "Direct UI" are proposed to replace the old Avkon UI I see in my E71 today. The new libraries are said to be optimised for touch based interaction.

And when you look at Qt Software(ex trolltech) roadmap http://www.qtsoftware.com/developer/qt-roadmap it screams mobile UI. All the Kinetic stuff, multitouch, gestures, new APIs for mobile development etc.

In the light of this http://events.nokia.com/developersum...n_Rytkonen.pdf I wouldn't be surprised at all even if that Orbit widget set would find its way to Maemo. You could use the same software in both Symbian and Maemo devices (and WinMo probably?). This could bring in a lot of developers and speed up Maemo adoption to make it even better a platform.

And the phone functionality is another factor that's going to bring more people in. I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who don't want to carry around multiple devices but still want the flexibility Maemo can offer.

The platform is still young and needs more users and developers. And I hope Nokia really pushes hard to make it *gasp* mainstream. Because as it is now, it's a niche no matter how you look at it. It even further proves my point that people here are arguing about having to using d-pad in xterm.

I understand all of you may not like this. After all it's different from what you have come to like in these devices. But it's a move in the right direction for many other people. You shouldn't lose hope either. I think people were so angry at Peter@Maemo marketing that his words didn't really sink in. Well, here it is again:

"I'm done for today. Spent already plenty of time on discussing about Maemo 5. I spent especially too much time here considering that we haven't even said what which Maemo device will be. Hopefully I could clarify a little bit for the community what we have said publicly about Maemo 5 and the purpose of Maemo in the future."

"If we want to take Maemo and open source to more consumers (and therefore ensure the future of Maemo), then we need to find the sweet spot for the intended product concepts supported by Maemo. When you have seen the Maemo 5 lead device, experienced the UI in WVGA, seen the hardware-accelerated graphics on a processor that delivers 3 times more performance at 20% less battery consumption (according to TI), then a judgment is justified. Currently, we are all looking at some rumours on the internet."

I have high hopes for Maemo in the future. The full linux underneath the hood is what could make it a killer platform. Ultimately the device could even be my desktop computer at the same time. It runs linux, has usb and didn't they just release linux drivers for displaylink. Or it could just have decent video out. It can have external hard disks plugged in, it can have a mouse and keyboard plugged in. It can be my webcam at the same time. The screen could be a touchpad if I don't have a mouse nearby. It could have a normal Maemo UI when not connected to an external display and a different desktop computer mode where it would run a full blown Linux on the external display. And it's still a _phone_. I'm getting a bit carried away here, not all of this is realistic yet with these relatively slow processors and little ram. But I sure hope this is the convergence Nokia is talking about eventually.