I found out that N900 would not let you take a picture while you are on the phone, when you start a camera application it stays on standby and gives you error message saying the audio is being used by different program.
why do you even need an audio when you are just going to take a snap (for video I understand)?
Is this a bug or a feature of Maemo?
Is there a way to bypass this or this going to be as it is?

Nice find! It will have something to do with the camera application using the microphone when in video mode. I guess at present it is something we will just have to live with.

Or does that because the audio output is in use? I mean, when playing music and starting the camera, it pauses the music. Maybe it has something to do with the shutter sound that is played when a picture is taken.

when the phone is set to silent the camera still works for counting as its not opening because of speaker in use for the shutter sound to work.
I would really like to find this out, with help of some Guru in Maemo