bgrigor, there was eggtimer on the n800/n810. No idea if it installs on the N900 though.

(see it's things like that, it's sad we can't use applications developed on past Maemo devices on future Maemo devices)

Ahem, "MooBox"? Different sound, but just as useful?

Don't forget N900Fly? I gather if you throw your N900 high enough, it makes a sound.

Come on, there are "fart" apps for the N900 too. But what the heck, there's plenty of room for all sorts of apps.

My expectations of my previous phones (all non-smart phones) was never high enough. I think I installed only one firmware update on my Sony Ericsson Z710i and it didn't help. Having said that, i also didn't spend hours and hours on forum discussing my Z710i, or Motorola E815, or the 4 or five other phones I've owned. I think expectations run much higher around devices like the N900.

It seems to me the N900 works very well without a SIM card (unlike other phones)...so it doesn't actually have to be a phone if you don't want it to be. However, without the phone, perhaps it's not as powerful as the N800, I don't know.

Without a SIM card it's pretty much an internet tablet with a smaller screen. Though Nokia is slowly removing features that some of us liked on the older tablets. (USB OTG, stylus keyboard, now firmware 1.1 seems to be removing the swipe up, left, down, right on the soft keyboard).

don't be such a fanboy. nexus has horrible attery life, no qwerty, crappy camera and video capture and its running :drum rolls please: crapdroid.

android is an overrated OS. it can't even display animated gifs.and the android market is filled with crapy shovelware and buggy software.. force close much?

Hmmm, Egg vs. Toast? IIRC, I did install Egg Timer and I really did not like how it works. I'll look again though.

It just has several sliders, one for hour, minutes, miliseconds (if I recall correctly). You just slide the corresponding one to however many hours, minutes, milliseconds you want to count down from.

I use to use it when doing laundry when I was living in a dorm.

While I don't disagree with one iota that you've stated; an OS should be seen as only the start where acceptance is gained via refinements that allow users to potentially do more - which Maemo succeeds in easily - but then by software that take advantage in an environment that is easy to develop for and has very active developments for all sectors of their users.

So far, Maemo does not qualify for that last part. Sure, Ubuntu and Maemo bring Linux power to the masses while making it friendlier but at the same time there is not a quick/easy way to get the features that matter the most to the different levels of users.

Commandline users are giddy with the N900. I mean, sure, having root on your phone is somewhat appealing, but to do what? If you're not a server admin, commandline, SSH and vi/pico/emacs don't do jack crap for you.

If you're a media savvy user, you do not have a way to easily synchronize your files, music, movies inside of a nice, comfy UI... not yet at least.

If you're a commercial user, you do not have the applications that you might have in other offers... yet. Nor do you know if you will be continued to be supported or if this Maemo 5 branch will dead end like the prior ones... and that's a threat that a person were to do just a little bit of research, there's three prior iterations of the software that are now considered "dead".

But if you're a linux lovin' dude that likes to code in Qt or GTK+, you can do so on your machine natively. You have access to some heavy duty technology that can alter the way you experience the N900 and the Maemo platform. But let's be honest, that's the "core" group. Ubuntu users are not "core" users mostly... some are, some are not.

Maemo is a core group at the moment. It's full of a group of people that are still clutching onto retro gaming, thus emulators and want IM communication, yet don't want to take full advantage of the forward facing camera. Why would I say that? Because they have yet to do so and I know damn well there are enough people here that could do it. Hell, one user here is so close to adding MMS, that I might even go with a N900 before I anticipated because I know it'll be improved by the community to a point where it'll be just fine alongside my DialCentral install - which, I refuse to live without.

So yes... Maemo is something big. It can be a game changer.

But the OS is just the catalyst. It's the carrier. The need for more varied software that transcends the user levels though... that's paramount imho.

I'd love to pull my contacts from Addressbook (Mac) or sync my bookmarks (Weave or X-Marks) and pull music from my player of choice (Zune, VLC or iTunes) and then be able to talk to Exchange 2003 (I'm not using 2007 yet) and can display *.3ds, *.docx, *.xlsx and *.swf files without having to push down a level or have a lack of viewer(s) and ultimately enhance my user experience with Maemo... it will have to be done with more mature software.

Anidel, awesome post. Thank you for Xournal... it's the other software that I refuse to live without. And thank you for your contributions to the community... I hope that you do not mind me adding my 2 cents to your statements in the chase of a discussion.

Take care

Ha! I didn't know... nor would I use a fart app on the N900, N810 or iPhone for that matter.

Thanks for the education.