I also have a palm background many years. N800 is a great improvement in most areas, but the calendar department really lacks. Palm calendar really wipes the floor with GPE Calendar. The usability is from another planet, but the biggest flaw is that GPE Calendar chokes if you have a lot of events. At this point I have to wait 3-5 seconds every time I change the view (select another day, week, or month), edit a event or do pretty much anything with the calendar. It is intolerable, but I'm stuck with it as there aren't any other options. I really miss the palm calendar. It was lightning fast and super easy to use.

The funny thing is that I didn't even realise how advanced it was until I switched to N800, because the UI was so simple. I wonder if somebody could port it to Maemo

The PalmOS UI API has some things going for it: It's easy to make applications where you can tap on anything and it goes into edit mode, for example. No buttons needed.. I wish for a PalmOS UI API layer for Linux/X11.

IT companion: I think Nokia 6300 nicely fit that description. Camera could be better though.

There is one other possible consideration. Although the PDF reader on the Nokia770 is OK, it does NOT read encrypted PDF whereas Palm devices do. This is a big issue for me as I like to use the 770 as an ebook reader. Local libraries use DRM protection on their loaned ebooks, so as of this writing, only a Palm owner can take advantage of their libraries ebook lending services. (Yet another strike against DRM.)

But Evince (aka "Document reader") handles password protected pdf's very well :-)

Agreed 100%. Also, all the arguments which merited the creation of an Internet Tablet: phones' screens are too small and crippling, data entry is poor, etc. - all apply to contact and calendar management on a phone.

So, if the Internet experience on a phone (and by that they mean web - just look at all the other Internet services we can access on a tablet) is so poor that it resulted in the creation of a new device type (apparently), why not the poor state of PIM software on a phone?

My phone is nowhere near as powerful at PIM as any of my Psions, for example.

My history with PDAs began with the HP100LX, and in a lot of ways it's been downhill ever since. Even though the 100LX was just a pocketable XT clone, it was designed from the bottom up for the user and provided a bulletproof PIM suite. To this day, I haven't encountered a PDA with as much thought put into it.

Anyway, my point here is that, over the years, I have migrated my PIM data to a WinCE platform (the horror =:O), then to a PalmOS 3 device, then to a Zaurus. I thought the Zaurus was the worst platform for PIM apps until I encountered the N800. Not only did I learn that the N800 was never meant to seriously support PIM apps, I also ruefully came to understand that mobile Linux probably will never come close to realizing the bright future previously forecast for it. Even though the N800 was never meant to be a PIM device, I wrongly supposed that a reasonably technical person such as myself could eventually adapt existing apps on the N800 to my purpose.

So I have reverted to a PalmOS device with its non-multitasking, hacked-up OS and its dead-end architecture. Because it does what I want, very well. Indeed, it:
- will let me connect through my cellphone via BT, where the N800's osso-ic internet-connection engine wouldn't (bug #1149), and where Nokia would neither fix osso-ic nor open up osso-ic;
- will deal with my calendar appointments and alarms predictably and intelligently, and ALWAYS notify me with a clearly audible sound;
- seems to have available a much wider range of reasonably functional (i.e., not constantly broken) corpus of software.

After a comment like this, I imagine I'll not be welcome here. ): Nevertheless, I thought belliott4488 deserved to hear from "the other side".

Yes. A palm top computer should be able to do pim and web browsing and media and whatever else. I used a palm for several years and my biggest need currently not being met is todo software. I have been working on updating it. I was planning on doing some profiling becauase the responsiveness is bad. FYI there is a palm emulator called POSE. My experience was it was slow for things like todo and it hogs memory but maybe these can be improved upon. It will sync with hotsync but it is an older version of the OS which requires SW for things like todo recurrence.

There are also capabilities n800 has that aren't being used like alarmd or maybe even cron for people who have it installed that should be incorporated. I think more mods to take advantage of Nxxx capabilities and even perhaps a complete redesign with a lighter UI or better DB usage is needed for GPE to make it more responsive. I do not know on the latter without some profiling.

Also, if you are looking to edit your PIM information on a desktop x11vnc can work nicely for that.

Personally, I won't be getting rid of my Treo anytime soon, but I'm definitely considering the N800/N810 almost as a "Foleo-lite". I want something with a larger screen (for books, web mostly) better web browser, something that has GPS built in or that I can attach a GPS to because you can't navigate and take a call at the same time on the Treo, and that can be used for Gizmo/ VOIP calls.

My Treo will still be kept with me at all times for PIM and push-email, but for the extended trips, so would the N800/N810 (having trouble deciding which still).

Of course you're welcome! Thoughtful, objective, well-reasoned criticism is great. It's the rambling, ranting "oh-make-sure-to-look-at-me" complaints that old-timers have little patience with.