I just put an early alpha 1.70 on the web:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...-1.70Alpha.deb

Turned out pretty well already. However, testing that on n800 and 770 you can see the really big problems in n800 page flips. 770 is actually much smoother than n800 version.

ak.n770:
You can theme even now, the image template is there in /usr/share/pixmaps/bg.png (and bg2.png). It's not proper theming yet, but if I add the launcher app, then I could easily support theme images properly. (ok, never say easily... it'll come back to you).
1. Yeah. Essential on the left is the way to go.
2. Yeah, some buttons would definitely benefit from being only in the launcher
last:
Sorry. You have to dig into the code. I suggest that you just use the top applet to change volume.

Now I'm off to watch federer beat novak and then off to bed.