New to the n800 and was playing around, and noticed there is no way to add a physical address field in the built in Contacts program(I'm using OS2008). Am I missing something, or is this really a missing field?

It seems strange not to have this field, especially since mapping seems to be an important function for the N810 with it's GPS, and looking up a contacts address for a map and directions would seem to be a nice part of a GPS internet tablet, and one would think fairly easy to do. So the missing physical address field baffles me, or maybe I'm just missing something.

Nope not missing anything, just search the forum.
A Good PIM application is one of the biggest gripes about the platform. Nokia seemed to think that you would use the built in contacts more like a phone dialer and not a PIM suite.

Might I recommend GPE, Pimlico, Gene Cash, Garnet VM /PalmOS for you PIM Needs. As far as GPS Integration, I think you are out of luck al together right now, but hey, this is a Open Source Platform.

Correct.

You make an excellent point. Would you be willing to open an enhancement request with this explanation in maemo Bugzilla? An existing bug, # 1260, touches upon the lack of a mailing address field, but does so in the midst of a confused, rambling laundry list of complaints. A specific, clear, and concise enhancement request--with accompanying justification--such as you've written up here may not be deemed a duplicate.

Perhaps GeneralAntilles could speak to that last bit.

Thanks for the info, I knew that there was no true integrated PIM when I bought it, and that Nokia thinks of it as an accessory internet device. But it would seem to be trivial to add, since the Contacts uses the Evolution data server, to have an address field and link it to opening Google maps in the browser as well, though the second part is less important.

Anyways I worked around this slight problem by adding google maps web address's to my contacts "web address" fields one can add. It's not optimal as I can't just see the address quickly and won't work offline, I did try saving the maps locally and linking, but for some reason the browser renders the saved page without scrolls, and the printed address is off the screen. I've also put the address in the nickname field, since I have no idea what would actually use this field, so I can actually see it quickly.

I know about the other contact management apps, but don't know how useful they would be. GPE contacts doesn't seem to work with the e-mail or IM or SIP or phone features of the n800, so why bother, I guess I could import the vcards into it for addresses, but that's all I could really use it for it seems.

Anyways I think my workaround will function well enough for my needs

So far I'm pretty happy, the GPE Calendar syncs well with all my Google calenders through Erminig. The default email app does the trick for me, especially since I can access all the web client email apps with the browser as well.

I think all default task management apps in PIM devices suck, except for pay programs like My Life Organized on Pocket PC, or Life Balance on Palm. So I hadn't really cared for default task/todo apps as long as Remember the Milk works, and with google gears I can even work offline, yeah!!!!, for me this is great. Also I noticed there is a new Gnome application that Novell employees created called Tasque that is a local client for Remember the Milk using sqlite, so I'm hoping it will/can be ported to the Nokia.

Enhancement request in maemo Bugzilla? Does this actually do anything? Did anybody put in an enhancement request for a PIM suite, and if so how is that going?

No, I don't know that anyone has. Go ahead. It'll get some votes.

That said, I can see a difference between a full PIM suite, probably including synchronization with multiple applications on multiple platforms, and an addition to an existing application, especially when it could enhance the functionality of another.

Not every request is fulfilled, of course, but yes. It certainly does more than not submitting one.

FYI, You can use GPE in Phonelink and a few other apps using the ContactInfos applet. Unfortunately MAemoMapper/Wayfinder are not ContactInfos aware so using GPE for GPS Addresses is still out.

Almost all of Nokia's phones, even the cheaper ones, have PIM functions like a calendar and proper address book, but they seemed to be deliberately left out of the tablets.

I think Nokia was trying to avoid any comparisons between the tablets and PDAs, because these are meant to be used in a totally different way.

However, the point you made about using addresses in GPS is a really good one which I suspect Nokia hasn't thought of because GPS is such a new feature on the tablets.

i still say, regardless of what class of device this is intended to be...anyone that buys a pocketable computing device is going to expect it to have good PIM features.

I was planning to propose a patch to MaemoMapper to link it (via DBus) to ContactInfos but I never had the courage to do so ...

May be one day ...