@ Songwillie, thanks for actually giving my ideas some thought. That's all I wanted. I'm not the only person like me, either. To say the N900 isn't for me is akin to saying smartphone users like me have no business in the tablet territory, and that's making assumptions based on assumptions.

@ Mandibella, I really appreciate your position and polite response. I think you jump to conclusions on the intended design thing, though. By Maemo being FOSS, it is agile and adaptable for OUR needs, not just the geek developers with high paying jobs and wifi.

The N900 is a PC, pure and simple. I use it as I want, including rotating my screen for browsing. Maemo is designed to become whatever I want, and I'm telling you, I'll find a real developer that loves challenges to get my device to have ASR. I'm willing to bet users will come out in droves wanting a similar feature.

Nokia has different OSes for different features. OK. Does that mean Maemo is only for what it does out of the box? Or can we make it better? What is the difference between Maemo 5 and the WinMo Touch Pro 2? Its open nature and ease of developing apps, but other than that, not much. So why is an advantageous feature on the TP2 a hinderance on Maemo? Why aren't we focused on removing those disadvantages, especially ones not limited by the form factor?

The N900 IS a smartphone and IS a web tablet. It should behave like one as well as possible. ASR is a part of life now. How is ASR so diametrically opposed to the design of the N900, especially since its now a phone? Its no different than the N97, and it gets along just fine. How are they so different? Isn't the N97 just an N900 Lite? Shouldn't the N900 be a total upgrade in all respects? It is so far, and when ASR comes (It will, even if some devs are lazy or incapable) it will come full circle.

I'm telling you, instead of us saying, "Go get an iPhone or something else", we better be saying, "We'll have to wait on a community solution for ASR, but it will be addressed in Maemo 6", or the blogs and media will roast the N900 and use it as ammo. No need for bad press.

I'm ready to roast it myself on this small caveat, but only because of the cold reception some of the developers here give new guys. They don't teach manners at Comp Sci programs, I guess. I have yet to hear anyone say,"Let's get a conformation from Nokia that ASR is or isn't coming, or a plan to implement it ourselves" which is the reputation this group has had, undeservedly so, I now see.

@ crustie, that article you posted should be required reading for the "I don't want to change" Maemo developer crowd pervasive in this board. I'd subscribe to that site, but its above my education level atm. BTW, your landscape T9 solution already exists in the N97, but any good T9 typist will tell you its easier in portrait. And holding a $700 phone with one hand in landscape is not a good idea with small hands. Its much easier to make the entire UI rotate. Fulfill the expectation from jump street. I'd rather the UI be ASR and apps can choose what aspect they wish, but not the other way around.

I think the dashboard button should've been an actual button, but it needn't be. It should be in a lower left corner position in portrait. We don't have to experiment with it either. Nokia has done it for us since 2005 with the N90 until now. We have the research and case studies in previous devices.

@ ragnar, you brought up devices/OSes missing common features and having success. The device you allude to eventually saw the need to add it, all while being outsold by the N95, which had the feature at launch. Who are we imitating, 2nd place? Are we aspiring to be Apple, or are we aspiring to be better? I happen to remember a survey of people that didn't choose the iPhone, and the biggest reasons were
1. No multitasking
2. No Flash in the browser
3. No MMS
4. No BT OBEX Push

So it mattered to millions, and it helped the N95, N82, and 5800 rise to legendary status because of it. The fact of the matter is the best smartphones of the world have been mostly portrait devices, with landscape as an option. Negating that and forcing users to use another hand unecessarily is a bad idea, IMO.

We can't rest on our laurels just because we can. It doesn't take 3 years to implement MMS, and I doubt it would take more than a few months to a year to do ASR. Would ASR hurt the platform, take away from its intended usage, or make it undesireable to anyone? So why hate, guys?

Maemo is OURS, and suitable for most of what we want if we decide to implement it. If it takes a year, cool. But if Maemo 5 will never support ASR, let me know so I can ignore this space until Maemo 6. I'm done trying to convince this forum that some may need it. They don't, and that's all that matters to these devs.