A USB stick is sufficiently low power that it will power through the device (the external power requirement is for USB hard drives).

And yes, the N8 is not an n900 replacement, but as Nokia are slotting the Maemo devices as more computer than phone, I'd be very surprised if a feature like that is rolled out in the Symbian N-series and doesn't wind up on their Meego devices.

It's certainly not a slam dunk, but for them to have gotten it working on the N8 they would have had to intentionally build that capability in. I presume that the odds are better than not that the next Meego device won't backtrack from that decision.

Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic.