eltinio: msn works great, you need to install telepathy-haze, and then it integrates like the other account types.

Flash 10 for ARM? Negative a month or two at least, probably.

Sure. The $10 donations will need to come first though, and we'll need enough of them to buy so many money hats that Adobe give up their happy, closed source, proprietary Flash world and open the code. Oh, and maybe some additional bags of cash for TI to help get acceleration going.

Or we can have a go at porting Gnash - the most advanced free & open implementation of Flash, I believe (there are others but they aren't advancing because they're happy with the Flash level they support)...

Gnash is not there yet, but it's not too bad either, and the more popular it gets the better it's likely to get.

I agree that the TI closedness sucks, and the PowerVR closedness sucks even more,

but is the N900's OpenGL ES 2.0 support insufficient for Flash?

First let me say much props to RevdKathy for this thread. After the mayhem that ensued in another thread earlier, I think this thread will help bring some "calm to the troubled waters".

Here are my expectations:

1) Being able to stay connected: By this I mean whether it is through email, social networking sites, sms, voice, voip, etc. From what I have seen I think this device does that based on the services integrated, message consolidation, and the functionality within the contacts.

2) Organization/Productivity: Meaning a decent calender, note-taking app,and document editing/viewing.

3) Solid Build Quality: Nokia usually delivers in this area, and I think they have with the N900. Yes, it has a resistive screen, but it appears to be of great quality not some half-hearted attempt. The keyboard will take some getting used to (but so will any new device), but imo both are far more than usuable.

4) Browsing Experience: As it has been noted, the browser offers a far better experience than any other on the market, and there are still updates and new browsers in the pipeline. Also, since I am not into downloading 'x' amount of apps to do 'y' task(s) imo having an extremely capable browser eliminates some of that need.

5) Multimedia: Playing back music and video in various formats. As for the N900, looks like it does this okay to me.

6) Storage: Do I want to take my entire music/video collection and all my other files with me? No. But, the N900 does offer more than enough to keep me from having to tote my laptop/portable HDs/flash drives everywhere.

7) Camera: Nokia always impresses in this department, so 'nuff said. I am not looking to replace my digital camera, I just want to be able to take decent photos/video during those impulse "Kodak" moments.

Finally, I think the N900 does everything I want it to, plus more. The fact that it is open source/Linux and all the things that come with that are a bonus FOR ME. Does it do EVERYTHING PERFECTLY? No. I understand, where this platform is in its development stage, and I am perfectly fine with that. I can deal with the current concerns that have been brought up. At the same time, I do demand a certain level of quality for anything I pay for, especially if it carries the "flagship" title. Yet and still, my confidence in this device, OS platform, Nokia, and this community has not wavered. I reiterate that I have yet to receive my N900 (c'mon Dell/Nokia help me out here) but based on what I have seen, it appears to be the device to suit MY NEEDS, based upon how I OPERATE.

Thanks.

Is there something you need from aMSN that the built-in Conversations engine does not provide?

Granted, it would be nice to have features like Nudge, Voice Clips, File Transfer etc, but none of those are a deal breaker for me personally. I will be happy to use the existing, working, support for AIM, Yahoo and MSN that is easily installed from the Application Manager.

I would rather have basic support effectively built-in than have to run a separate application. As being able to merge contacts which have multiple logins on multiple services, is REALLY useful.

i didnt expect much, even with no MMS or Portrait view.

But at least make sure the things you DO implement work flawlessly and have common sense options included in them. Ie. searching email, or a media player that WONT lag when you're advertising mult-tasking capability, oh and simple things like no lag when scrolling.

what Apple does well is, provide less capabilities but implement them FLAWLESSLY, instead of throwing everything into a box and having each thing have something slightly flawed with it.

I've always been disappointed with Nokia's cameras, but maybe I picked handsets with weak cameras.

I'm delighted that the N900's camera is a very good one, and reports are that it not only has a good spec, the results are actually good too.

Same here.

But, perhaps unusually, that's why I need an open phone.

I don't expect any existing productivity apps to fit my way of working. (Haven't found any yet.) Sure, there are handy tools like calendars and so on, but not much to really channel my workflow, give me the right sorts of reminders and promptings, help me coordinate projects, track my accounts when I make business purchases and so on.

Some try, but they just don't fit me very well.

I'm really excited about the prospect of developing a few tools that really fit me personally to run on the N900. Things that don't work very well on a regular computer, because it's not always with me or it's not convenient to switch on. Or just because it fits, somehow, to use a task a time tracker (for example) on a separate little device instead of yet another window on a cluttered desktop.

When I'm at the desk, I'm anticipating that I might not keep any more IM windows open on the computer, as instead the N900 may fill that role, and I can take it away from the desk without interrupting sessions. I wouldn't be surprised if the occasional Facebook check is done on the N900 instead of on the computer browser, too.

Something about separating tasks by physical object separation is coming to mind. Ironic, given it's a "convergence" device. What I'm expecting, or at least imagining, is for it to converge more of my communications, music and personal task management, allowing the "big" tools (laptop etc.) to be involved in less of those and somehow tidying up my brain's use of the laptop.

Or it could be a total fantasy and I spend loads of time tinkering with it :-)

Anyway, point is I'm imagining that I want to use it as a productivity tool - my way - and for that, I anticipate it's open source friendliness is essential. Otherwise I can't make it work for me, because I function better using personalised apps than using someone else's.

You definitely read my mind .