I'm not making excuses for Eldar, but I consider him a friend and colleague, and he isn't the type to give bad reviews because of his feelings. He's a consummate pro, and takes his job seriously. Also, those two comments I quoted were copied from two seperate tweets. The crash cmmments weren't a slight, but a response to a question from someone else's question. Just a quick disclaimer before we jump to conclusions.

Eldar has long been an associate of Nokia, and usually is invited to see the latest prototypes and manufacturing processes, and one of the first to test new production devices. His access to the N900 is testament to that. I consider his reviews the best in the business, and I'm always telling him that any chance I can. So I'm an Eldar disciple.

His original words of the N900 were something like "the best device released THIS YEAR, and would be that top dog for at least 6-12 months." (a paraphrase. I know, because an associate posed the question)

qole, why do you say he has stolen his device and software? He has good relations with Nokia and most other major manufacturers. He doesn't have to steal, they deliver to him or fly him to see new kit.

What no one has caught onto is that Maemo has legitimate competition, and only a short time away. We didn't think this yesterday, but now we probably should. What I was saying is what could be close to Maemo? What OS are they using? I doubt its LiMo with the TouchWiz UI that I'd seen at presentations in the past. So what is it??

Eldar is experienced enough to understand the directions taken by device manufacturers and OS designers/devs. He's obviously seen something worth watching out for. Just thought we should know that competition DOES exist, and we need to come together and stop the snide remarks and instead make sure we make Maemo and Maemo Apps the class of the industry. Complacency could mean doom for Maemo and Nokia if it isn't well received publicly. Being a phone, Maemo will have eyes on it it never had to accept scrutiny from. Be aware.