An amendment to the Australian Road Rules to take effect soon will make it illegal to use a phone for any purpose while driving other than to make and receive telephone calls. (Of course the rule also requires that the phone be either mounted to the vehicle, or that you make or receive the call without touching the body of the device*). This is under Australian Road Rule 300.

The result is that using Maemo Mapper or that other maps application for driving directions will be illegal - even if the phone is affixed to the vehicle.

The limitation appears to have been directed at things like web browsing (email, text messages and video messages are explicitly listed as not being phone calls).

This is despite the fact that a navigator device ("driver's aid") is explicitly permitted even if it is affixed and used in the same way as the phone (rule 299). This is because the restriction on phones is a separate prohibition that does not take into account the permissive provision for navigators.

The same problem does not appear to affect the N810 (or the N800 and N770 with a bluetooth GPS receiver), although it is possible somebody might argue that the N810 counts as a phone if it is configured to make and receive SIP calls and has an active Internet connection.

This amendment was agreed by the various jurisdictions in February this year, although it has only just received media attention.

Hopefully not too many people have ordered the N900 in Australia hoping to use it for this purpose. Given that its retail price here appears to be something in the vicinity of $1,000, it may be that not many people have.

* - Usual disclaimers apply - this is a summary of the applicable division that does not cover all the details.