There is no perfect phone.

The Nokia N900 was never meant to be only a phone.

Those who thought Nokia N900 might be the perfect phone did not realize GSM/voice was never a primary feature for Nokia N900/Maemo 5.

If one wants a really good phone there are better alternatives than Nokia N900. Or iPhone 3GS, for that matter.

This is convergence 101. Sacrifices have to be made. Obviously, the convergence device cannot be as good as the best, high end, dedicated devices made to do one thing really well in KISS way.

Next headline: N900 not the perfect camera???

That said, this is entirely your headline. Original article didn't use it. Also, the password box is a more general problem. Because you're in public, even the key strokes can be recorded by a camera or sharp eye. To circumvent that, some kind of PKI together with password entry should be used for important authentications. Such as SSH access. Note that, whenever you are using mobile iTunes on an iPhone you experience the very same problem as described.