I'm new to using my N900 and I'm not a coder.. but, a few things occur to me.. In order of priority:

Essential Updates

1. Audible instructions in Ovi Maps, and settings (ie: 3d map, night or day colours etc) that stay set.

2. Firewall and Anti-Virus software (especially since maemo is open code?).

Not Essential But Very Useful Updates

3. Open Office (with out having to mount an image of debian OS to run it).

4. Skype Video Calls.

5. Screen Saver Clock (really useful and I just took it for granted untill I didn't have it any more..)



Is there any one in the know about release dates of updates, their contents, any of the things I listed above imminent additions/updates?

please ease my impatience

If its a wish list, is not reality yet :P

Come on! Relax and take a beer!

I wish people would just wait for PR 1.2 and stop wishing realistic and unrealistic stuff all the time, filling the forum with wishful wishes which wish whishes with wishful yet un-necessery wishes to fill forum space

The security could be fixed also without anti-virus program with better security policy (all packages should be signed with debsigs before we get RPM with Meego)

Firewall would be good. Now it is only available with a custom kernel.

I wonder if MeeGo will bring SELinux also to devices? Would be an improvement. Or if not that, apparmor at least.

So are you implying that open source means it's more prone to viruses?

not so much implying as asking..

although maemo is open code, I'm sure certain ellements of it are secure and closed code.

like I said in my orriginal post, I'm not a coder. It's just a concern since its the first time I've used a computer without a firewall for over 10 years.

Open vs closed has absolutely nothing to do secure vs exploitable (though certain parties would like you to believe so...).

Malware scanner is next to useless, there are practically no viruses for linux plus Extras proper and Ovi QA procedures should keep malware out of those (the default) repositories, if you enabled testing or 3rd party repos then you need to trust whoever maintains those repos.

There is a reason why setting up 3rd party repos is frowned upon by the community...

Requiring signed packages is worthless unless they are signed by someone you trust. Nokia signs the packages it ships, but having Nokia sign all packages (and device refusing packages that are not signed by Nokia) is against the nature of the device and the community (we definitely do not want to be like symbian here [and even that model has tons of interesting failure modes]).

As for firewall I have said it before; unless you explicitly install ssh/telnet/someotherservice there are no services to attack (unlike on Windows that by default has turned on a huge bunch of services), also attacking the linux TCP/IP stack with just SYNs (open connection) is "kind of hard" (as in: if you manage to do it I have some old friends who might be interested in hiring you).

It also might be possible to have very simple firewall rules in the stock kernel as well but I'm running a custom kernel and don't have time to look into it in more detail.

Much more important than AV/FW would be that the device data would actually be encrypted so that when you lose it or it gets stolen all your important personal data does not get into wrong hands (think identity theft and industrial espionage), I think the device lock will stop only a casual snooper (since the real security framework was planned for harmattan [as talked about in last summit]).

Not that any other device that I know of does this properly either, but N900 would have the proper hardware for it.

I used to work for F-Secure (first in AV later in Crypto/network security) before moving on.

While the phone is locked, press the Power button (directly on top of the phone, in between the volume/zoom rocker and the camera button)

and.....


videocalls 3g
java me
irda p2p (between devices)
timidity support
games that use open gl
mms options for video camera and .* files
jre
shazaam
and Ovi store app


i think it can be all

Obviously most of us do not use N900 as phone
Otherwise probably the list with the essential updates would start with:
1. Add group support for contacts
2. Add personal ring tone for contacts
3. Add a decent MMS support
4. Add more fields for contact's details like middle name, prefix, spouse etc.
4. Add video conference support
etc. etc....
... things that are supported even in the most simple Nokia phone models...

And the problem is not with which update by Nokia we will get these, but why a phone promoted as a bussiness one, doesn't have them by default in the first place.
If I were you, i would have more patience for getting the features you miss... and i wouldn't count on Nokia introducing those, but on the maemo community
BTW Have you seen a free talking OVI maps app?... I think first they have to use more up to date maps, especially for smaller countries
As for Skype videocalls... ask Skype developers...

Just be happy you got a phone with great hardware and a great OS that has a great community supporting it...
And Nokia... well i prefer not saying anything... 'cause if it was not for the hardware bundled with a unix OS, i would never bought anything from them...