You understood me as I was sure you would. It was just one opinion to another.

I couldn't agree more with the middle part. People are desperate for convergence and it's making them loony. I did my own rudimentary convergence proof-of-concept 11 years ago, so everything's just been a very slow, but continuous refinement since then from my perspective. I'll babble a little about Skype below.

Who knows, the 4G might be the answer for you. I very poorly continue a response to this at The Bottom.

I appreciate that, and I feel the same for others that are happy with what they've got. I chose to respond because as different as we are, I consider us as agnostic as it gets around here. I try to be loyal to ideas, not to names. If the names stay the same, good for them. Right now I'm more ideologically aligned with Nokia than any other big player. So I'm happiest building in their sandbox. I don't see anyone, Google included, fostering loosely coupled open source relationships like they do. This is important to me.

Nothing, I just found your comments a little myopic. These devices are becoming more and more general, so during stage 4 of 5 (yes, I just went there), or whatever, it isn't that difficult to find gaps. I find gaps in my sleep. I basically know what the n900 can't do for me, but I'm much more interested in what it can do for me and what I can make it do for me. Which is everything!

The Bottom of Meaningless

I have more computers than I know what to do with, but I work on a Mac Mini all day long, and last year my good friend and I decided to collaborate on some stuff. He has a Mac household (iMacs, MacBooks, iPhones, iPod touches, and probably an iPad eventually) and he personally uses a Verizon Droid. Anyway, we wanted to video chat, but all I had was this broken (the tape part) Canon 4mm video camera that could only use firewire for this purpose.

Works great, but only iChat recognizes the firewire microphone; so, with Skype and Google Talk I have video but no sound.

Well, my mom has been video Skyping with my sister and her kids for a few months now; Windows-to-Windows. I'm the computer weenie in the family, so of course I get the, "All I have to do is click on this thing and I'm seeing and chatting with your niece and nephew, but I want to see all of my grandchildren. Can't you make this happen?"

The other geeks know exactly what I'm talking about. So, I said f*ck it, and just two days ago I picked up a middle-of-the road Logitech USB video camera w/ mic. I took it out of the For-Windows-Only box, flung the Windows-Only disc across the room, and plugged it into my 10.6.3 Mac Mini. Everything works, and it works with everything.

Really Bad Point of this WTF? Story

Since PR 1.1.1 (?), I remembered some people had discovered that video chatting now seemed to be working on the n900. So on Wednesday I gave it a try. I logged in to an alternate gmail account and initiated a video chat to my n900. It worked. My son and I had a video chat from different parts of the house. Granted, it's not Skype, but it works.

Sure, I could have made my mom setup a Gmail account and install the Google Talk plugin so I could use the n900, but I just gave in. I'm very ashamed.

Mostly True Conclusion: The n900's ready, the code and the ball are in Skype's court.