fantastic news.

i've held off owning anything but the dumbest of £15 pay-as-you-go nokia phones for the last 10 years, this year i may finally crack and get a maemo 5 smartphone.

I'm really hoping you're right... but if the N810 experience repeats, then the French AZERTY-toting version will be way behind the rest :-)

I don't remember where I read it, but I think that europe was last (with many months of difference) in the release plan.
But don't worry, we'll have to pay much more than everyone else for the privilege of being last

No doubt about that The supposed release plan is now clearly way off (said June announcement with July release). On the other hand every source said this year, so even if the availabilty will not be global from day 1, there can't be much of an offset between markets.

Photos are out! here http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=290

ARGH...

(small rant time, caused by a few years of frustration with thumb keyboards designed by complete idiots)

Do mobile phone thumb keyboard designers have any clue whatsoever? Are their heads firmly lodged in their butts? Do they ever even bother to actually USE the devices they design? (this isn't just Nokia, I've got a Samsung with a similarly brain damaged keyboard layout; and neither the nokia's nor the samsungs that I've used with control keys have them as toggle keys, which would at least make them usable)

How the F are you supposed to do a control-C on this thing? Or a control-D? Control-X or V?

The most common control key sequences are all RIGHT thumb keys. Having the control key on the right side works for full sized keyboards because you've got MORE THAN ONE FINGER to use at a time. THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR THUMB KEYBOARDS. IT'S F'ING ASININE TO PUT A CONTROL KEY ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF A THUMB KEYBOARD.

*****s.

(end of rant)

The application hasn't even been examined yet. It's status is "Docketed New Case - Ready for Examination", meaning it has not yet been looked at by the examiner.

http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair

OK, the screen is really slick, no bezel and all, but... am I the only one who fails to see the home/esc buttons ? The mini-rectangle on the left of the face looks more like a speaker (in line with the voice functions).

Something I've never thought about occurred to me when I was reading this list. "Capacitive screens: Activation: Requires direct skin contact." So someone with a prosthetic hand or arm would not be able use a capacitive screen device. Just a random thought.