Telenav, now Navteq? They are definitely gearing themselves up for something bigger. Apart from the obvious spread of GPS navigation capability to more and more future phones, who says they won't take a stab at the dedicated GPS car units themselves? Hard to say, as it may well compete directly with the NIT, and in the end the NIT may well betheir portable/car GPS offering.

As for the next generation design, having used BBs and Treos for business, I have no problems with thumbing my way to get places, but I don't have large fingers yet find the soft-keyboard offered on the 770 originally I was not overwhelmed by its capability. Maybe the fact that you lose the actual screen you're typing into just to make use of it for standard functions on the tablet- it drops in that window on top of the soft keyboard. So if I had a choice, yes, I'd go hardware keyboard of some type, slider or ?, but at least I'll have the context of my efforts in full view.

As for the 4-way pad everyone envisions being here or there...I say DITCH IT, and go trackball or rollerball such as we're seeing in more compact mobile devices. It works, and gives you nearly limitless navigation coverage- works fine in menu-based environments and gridded icon based layouts, nevermind the improvment for movement in a mapping-type application or the obvious, games. Yes I know, the ball will stick out some...such is life, but not a whole lot more than the D-pad; design to accomodate it - others have. BUT also make the ball user-replaceable if necessary.

I guess when it comes to the keyboard options Nokia has to decide either to offer multiple designs - maybe one without and one with, or go one way and stick with it- improving upon it each and every time. There is no good way to measure who uses their device the most, but developers typically will be the winners when it comes to obtaining a fresh device for feedback purposes rather than the casual user who could have the best ideas on how to improve something. Thankfully we have forums such as these.

Has everyone given up the concern for improved handwriting recognition? I mean, this again boils down to Nokia deciding what to do with the platform. If it's X, then you should be able to work fluidly w/o need for a hardware keyboard. If they can't/won't perfect the handwriting piece to meet *everyone's* requirements (as if), then perfect the keyboard option instead.

I for one don't want another generic "does what every other device out there does" unit. I have 2 770s - the first I bought as a gift to myself, knowing full well it would be overshadowed and improved upon by the next-gen offering. But I purchased anyways. When the much cheaper 770s hit this past summer, I had another choice- buy a 2nd 770, or save and get an 800, even though it too would be surpassed eventually. I went with another 770 so that I could in fact have one to tinker with, the other to use regularly. And at some point I may let the kids (teens) have access to my aging one. By choice I did not get the 800, but whenever WiMax gets incorporated and things settle down a bit on the FCC spy-front, I may get the WiMax-enabled model. The question then becomes...do I really like Sprint enough to get a data plan with them?

Okay, I think I am staying on topic about the Third Internet Tablet vs. my MAC II GS played the best b&w games of any computer back in the mid-80s and I can run MAC OS Cheetah on all my old hardware.

It's really now just a waiting game, and until then, I'm going to enjoy my NIT further by trying more software and digging further into the HE and the ported CLI applets. With a much larger audience now than when the 770 was let out the door, Nokia has ten-fold the population to please...I wish them megaluck!