Hi there this is my first post, so please pardon me for any formatting errors...

I am thinking about switching to the n810 from a HTC Windows Mobile Device (the HTC Universal). Now I have a few questions for the great comunity of this device. I already searched in some forums and the Maemo sides.

1) Usability

How fast does the N810 feel? I watched some Youtube videos and it seems like most applications do not have performence issues.

I was wondering if you guys can tell me about some performence issues performing usual taks:

- checking email...

- surfing the web...

Besides the crappy windows mobile I have on my HTC, the thing I hate about it the most is, that you have to wait for most things for ever... and even in the UI (when I install sth. that looks better than the standard home screen like the Touch interface) there are some noticable lacks with pretty much everything.

2) Office work

what are the best word processors out there? I heard Open Office got ported to it but it seems pretty slow

3) Note Taking
I love the youtube video about Xournal. But is Xournal fast enough and the screen big enoug to lets say take notes in class or a meeting?

Can you annote pdfs at a good speed?

4) Syncing
As far as I understand GPE seems the best PIM application on the N810..

can you sync it with the google calendar...

or even better with ical and address book? (I am using a Leopard Macbook as my work machine)

5) GPS
Maemo Mapper seems really nice, but does it support offline map viewing / turn by turn directions? Like can you download a map and than use it while being not connected to the internet?

Can you use the internal GPS receviere as a normal bluetooth GPS reciever with any other device?

6) Evernote

I love evernote... do the evernote sides look ok on the browser? Any possibility do send the xournal notes to evernote?

7) Android / Java
I've been coding some Android apps and love the plattform.. do you think there's still a good reason to keep my n810 after getting an Android phone by the end of the year?

Does it run normal Java programms or just mobile stuff...

7) mini SD
do 8 gb mini sd cards work on the n810?

8) Security Encryption
I am using Trucrypt... I read that ther is a trucrypt version for the n810... any experience with that one?

9) Podcasts
I herad gpodder seams a nice podcast downloader, does it support video podcasts and can I schedule backround updates? I love the Loaded video podcast and the other ones from cnet, would be sweet to watch em on the n810's screen instead of my ipod

10) DivX
How is the viewing experience with movies and TV-Shows?

Thank you very much for your help

I'll answer what I can and skip those that I'm not includes/not able to answer.

1) Usability: It's snappy, but not a speed daemon. The biggest problem is that anything graphics intensive will be slowish. App launch is 2-10 seconds, but app switching is 1-5 second.

5) Yes you can download maps ( they are bitmap so they are huge ) and you can download turn-by-turn directions that can be used offline. You can even download maps around a route ( so download the route and then download appropriate maps ). You can use other GPS receivers with the n810, but using it as a GPS device is hard ( but possible ).

7) mini SD: Yes I'm using an 8gb card myself

9) Podcasts: Canola2

10) Videos: You have to re-encode just about everything to work on the device because of several limitations.

2) Office work

abiword is pretty good (still in beta). Does doc format.

3) Can take notes quickly, but it is a bit of a skill. I personally take notes using the n810 keyboard which you can with a bit of practice get a good speed out of

4) Syncing
erminig allows you to sync with Google calendar

Welcome to the forums.

1, Speed: I think the UI is usually quick. But web browsing full pages can be slow. Mobile versions of webpages load quickly, full versions take a little while to render.

10, Video: Using Mplayer, the N800/N810 can almost play SD resolution (640x480, 704x396, etc.) DivX files. If you set Mplayer to decode at reduced resolution (i.e. 640x480 -> 320x240), they play smoothly but with added compression artifacts.

2) Thanks for the question, I'll need to try abiword for docs. I use Gnumeric for xls and Evince for PDF formats.

7a) There is development for an android platform (or maybe it's considered and emulator).