So that's what you understand by having a device designed to be online 24/7. You think that it doesn't work unless online. When I see that, I understand that it CAN be online 24/7.

By contrast to other Nokia phones, that only go online when the need arises and hang up when "wap" is closed or services or web or whatever it's called to confuse non-technical people, N900 can be left online, so that online functions no longer require manual connection.

Having an automated connection and the ability to let it run doesn't imply it's mandatory any less that a car that has an "autonomy of 1500 Km" HAS to be driven that long or it won't work right.

As a side note:

My car analogy kind of failed its point. Let me reiterate: A product line that is may years old becomes well known. Such a device or service (navigation) is the expected to have several functions, whether required by law or not. As a result, one expects a car to have doors, even if not explicitly stated. In fact, if one plans to sell a car without doors, a roof, or engine it should be sold as such. The car should be labeled as a dune buggy, a convertible, or a pedal-powered car.

One does not sell it as a "car" and then reveal it has human-powered pedals. "Technically qualifies" is insufficient. That's why we have seat belt laws, mandatory lighting systems, all ensuring we get what we expect.

By navigation I understand on-board maps, routing, search, POI (manual or centralized), saved points of access and a minimum or control over routing - nothing fancy, just prefer short over simple, e.g.. Some I could part with, some I could not. And I believe that some (like local maps) are mandatory.

I have no idea how you preloaded such maps. The web states N900 not supported, PC suite fails to provide the service and there is no on-device tool that allows me to do so. Manually scrolling the map at all zoom levels is unacceptable. Especially since I don't know where I'm going.

And let's not bring in what your carrier told you about the device or has provided with it. This is about Nokia N900, not Vodafone N900. I don't remember the site that advertised the N900 saying that "navigation requires internet connections to search and download maps on the road".

I don't know. I'm starting to lose momentum with N900. Not a bad device but getting all worked up about anything is becoming increasingly pointless. Right or wrong, bad or good advertising, we're never getting bookmarks, voice navigation (I personally don't want one) nor any other decent improvement we moaned about.

I remember when I bought the device and came here how everyone was all worked up about bug hunting, brainstorms, enhancements. Heh. Brainstorm. What a waste of letters. 500 proposals, 10 implemented. All site enhancements or 3rd party solutions.

I can't believe I took a survey about what I thought of the N900 features. I feel like an idiot. I fell for the corporate version of jingling keys.

You were right after all. I'm starting to feel like I'm ... striking at a dead animal here.