<off topic>
Good gracious, the N97 is injection-molded super sex. I just learned today that this thing has TV out via the 3.5mm headphone jack; not HDMI, but it's still something. This is arguably more useful (though likely not more preferred) than HDMI as only modern sets use this. When it's likely to be used (on the road, hotel rooms, etc), you may not have the option of an HDMI set.

<off topic>
It would be perfect to have both HDMI and composite, but I fear this is quickly drifting from the realm of 'realistic'.
</off topic>

As far as I can tell, the jury's still out on determining if it is using an OMAP 3 CPU. But one can almost forgive these shortcomings with the luscious 5MP camera attached to the device WITH LED flash! Talk about a convergence device!

Imagine taking a picture and having a laptop capable photo-editing suite to edit the shot, and mail it out right after? All without leaving the old-folks-home! Oh my!

For those that don't know, hit up the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-6YcXoRDG0
</off topic>

With the specs of an N97 upgraded to, a higher resolution 800x480, HDMI-out, and and an OMAP 3 (which has more or less been confirmed) the N900 would be so hot, I'd have to drop it.

I think this is a good indication of what's in store for the N900... and I'm excited!


YARR!
}:^)~
Shiny, Capt'n

Yeah, an N97 scaled up to the size of an N810, with a 5-row keyboard, E71 button group on the face, some form of video out (I'd prefer apple's new micro display port, personally), USB Host/OTG, USB client for charging/data syncing, GPRS/EDGE/HSPA, gobs of battery life, and a few software things (SyncML compatible PIM suite, compatibility with Google Voice, compatible with Redfly (for displaying on a Mac/PC/etc.), and Dalvik for Android apps) ... that would be a major dream come true :-}

But even if just the "N900 is a scaled up N97" part is true, that'd be a damn good start.

N810 is 14mm thick. N97 varies from 15.9mm to 18.3mm thick.

So by all means let's scale up the height and width to fit a 4.x inch screen, but expect a thicker device to accommodate the better camera.

Regards,
Roger

That's a great point Eiffel, and one I hadn't considered. Of course, considering that the N810 is wider than the N97, a compromise may not have to be made in the thickness of the unit (excluding the camera 'bulge' of course) with a clever redistribution of the system's guts.

I have a few questions that some genious here may be able to answer:

1) Does anyone know if the N97 has a removable battery? In the interest of the N900 possibly following this form factor, this is relevant. I love that the N810 has a removable battery, but I don't think I'd trade it for all of these features, if I had to choose.

2) Does anyone know if the sources of the built-in N810 apps are open? I really quite like the N810 built in apps, but there is much room for improvement for the N900 (no images in mail kills me -- at least make it an option). I know, I know, I haven't searched, but I figured it would be interesting conversation nonetheless.


YARR!
}:^)~
'Big Bear' Corrupt

Not a problem. I can definitely live with that (my wallet is in that thickness range, about 15-18mm thick). If that thickness is the price of having an N900 which has the format of a N97, but the length and width of an N810 (and screen size to go with it), I'm game. Especially if I get everything else on that list.

Most of the important ones are, yes.

http://mxr.maemo.org/

Does a hard-to-get-to option count? Half points, perhaps?

In any case, to find it you'll need to install gconf-editor. Then, use that application to investigate apps->modest->fetch_external_images.

Don't know 100% for sure but I would be very, VERY surprised if it didn't. Nokia is a cell phone manufacturer after all... they get huge benefits from having modular batteries that are used across multiple devices in terms of manufacturing/design costs, etc. As far as I'm aware Apple's the only one who insists on giving you non-removable batteries and that's almost entirely because of marketing (sexy "seamless design" coupled with when the thing fails, buy a new device mentality). Anyways I won't get into the big "Nokia VS Apple mentality" discussion, but...

It depends which apps you're talking about as "built-in". Modest, the email client, I'm pretty sure is open source (the built-in email app has changed two or three times with OS releases and things, and I'm pretty sure one of the biggest moves with putting modest in there, other than ticking people off initially because of some bugs, was to make it more open). You've also got a slew of alternatives for different purposes too don't forget... I know a lot of people swear by Claws for email, though it's not quite as "finger friendly" apparently it's very stable and functional. Same story with the browsers... I'm not sure exactly where MicroB stands, in that it's based on Mozilla, but I don't know how much of the actual Maemo implementation has source floating out there; but alternatives such as Tear are full out open. Some things are definitely still closed (though the list is tiny compared to even a year ago and Fermantle looks to be targetted at making this point even stronger)... the alarmD/clock apps, for example I know are definitely closed still. I'm sure there are other prevalent examples too...

MicroB engine SVN location: https://garage.maemo.org/svn/browser...microb-engine/

Build instructions: http://browser.garage.maemo.org/docs/build_howto.html

The built-in email application has changed exactly once. From osso-email (which was closed) to Modest (which is open).