Did a reboot and my missing contacts were back.

9. SKYPE Video - works REALLY well on test calls over my internal LAN - at first, video wasn't working at all from my old aptop to n900. Did some tests from laptop to desktop - video ws OK. Decided to upgrade my skype client on the laptop - thereafter, I made a video call where the quality from both n900 and laptop was excellent - as long as I kept n900 front cam fed with good lighting, I got lovely clear, smooth motion on both video feeds. Surpassed my expectations. Don't know whether the skype upgrade on my lappy is significant there (4.2.0.169) - it said it was a major new release (can't remember what my previous skype version as, but I only installed it about 3 months ago, so it should not have been that out of date ...)