The first hardware mod my N800 is going to get is two little wires going from the USB port to the DC input port so my N800 will charge whenever it is plugged into USB and I don't have to take the charger everywhere. It would have cost Nokia nothing, err less than nothing to do this for me. Why even have a DC port? Anyone else give this a go yet?

Won't you also need some diodes on there as well to stop you from injecting 5v DC into the USB port on your computer?

But yeah, pretty lame for Nokia not to support USB charging in this day & age.

Didn't think about that. I don't see what harm it would do but better be safe than sorry. maybe some epoxy in the DC port would take care of that problem.

I agree that not including this functionality is lame... however they may have included the DC port simply for the fact that some devices that are USB hosts aren't that great as charging devices (e.g., laptops). I'd rather have a small adapter that I can use whenever necessary that splits the USB cable into separate USB and power heads that can than plug into the 770/N800--but I guess that's just me :-) I like flexibility...

You can plug a higher amperage ac/dc or dc/dc converter directly into the usb port if it is designed with a usb plug. I don't see a great need for a high amperage charger while connected to the pc but I suppose putting two usb ports on the N800 wouldn't hurt. Or they could sell a splitter for those who need the functionality.

As the N800 (unlike my Palm T3) supports a proper, normal charge plug instead of those ridiculous, unreliable error-prone multi-connectors, I would just go for a USB-to-chargeplug cable instead, charge from USB that way and leave the N800 USB connector alone. One of the _good_ things, nay, one of the _best_ things Nokia ever did was to stop using a proprietary junk multiconnector in their devices (unlike most other makers). Which also means, IMO, that the need for USB charging isn't that big really. Anyway, that's how I think about it.

And there's also the fact that you cannot use the (external) memory card while connected via USB...

what about an Y cable? one end for the computer's usb port, one end to the n800's usb and one end with a jack for the power (my son's psp has a cable like that).
Here is a picture of the cable:

Or even this.

Yeah, now that I think about it that would probably be better than taking the soldering iron to my n800.