Seeing this makes me sooo want to get one....too bad it's a phone (which is MY gripe with it..): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP5R-5NX1BE&NR=1

Yep, iphone nailed this perfectly. If the N900 can copy that functionality, then that's one less thing to worry about

I don't see the Pre-emptive strike component mentioned anywhere- what's wrong with having it included?

No D-PAD - we saw this coming for a little while didn't we? This is the phone variant; a d-pad is definitely more suited for the dedicated tablet format. Obviously size was a hefty determining factor. I understand your frustration though.

No Hard cover - Hmmm, as a phone I'd rather have a belt clippable holster of some kind or a quality leather sleeve but many will just get a screen protector/armor and call it good carrying it in a pocket. (maybe not those paying full initial price) I'm guessing plenty of current sleeve-type phone cases will handle this device's measurements decently. From a mass-market/consumer appeal standpoint, I can only see the metal sleeve type of previous models being an option down the road if at all since this has no markings to indicate edges to ride, perhaps again left for a Maemo 5 tablet form factor. Without a real hard bezel to lift a case from the display, you'd have to take a different approach to design.

Keyboard etc. - Have we seen much of the virtual keyboard yet? I recall a pic which mimmicked the 4.x virtual keyboard fairly well. Obviously chances are greater for more character choices there, but do we really know what the Ctrl modifier on the hardwware keyboard will do yet? And what about the shift key- who says you can't hold it and press either of the left/right directional arrows and navigate as tabs that way? That may not be the exact method but there should be more than a few ways to generate the results you're looking for, given a little creativity on the programmer's part. And the Sym button- will that pop up a virtual selection of extended symbols such as the pipe you're looking for? Wouldn't it be sweet if each keypad button was OLED and you could see the image of its function change with each modifier?

Overall I think one has to look at this at face value- it's a high-end consumer phone with killer web-enabling technologies that will inevitably explode beyond what we see here to include so much more compatibility and convenience that will solidify it's position as the do-everything platform and tool to never leave at home, forget in your car, nor walk more than 3 feet from as you'll always be going back for it.

@daveb70: what do you mean d-pad is more suited to 'web tablet variant' and not the phone variant, whne nokia has been releasing a gajillion of phones in the past WITH d-pads..

Btw, what's with calling up on screen cursor?
I saw it in the youtube video when they're demo-ing the browser.

daveb7: I was trying to call out some of the common complaints from the last few months to avoid having them brought up later. It didn't work.

Oh, it worked... if you were tryin to piss me off about the dpad

Yeah, what was that all about? Maybe there will be a vertical Maemo announcement, 'cause that had desktop written all over it.

I nominate this "The most uninformed thread!"

"I heard this rumour, I didn't read the specs or watched the videos... ergo I hate the n900"

I am going to be an early adopter but this thing is fat at 19-20mm at certain areas (not 18).

I've been thinking about this since you wrote it, and I don't believe it will be a big deal like it was with the N810.

The N810 came with significantly less onboard storage than my N800 had by that point. Also, it used an expensive, non-standard card.

With 32 GB on board and a micro SD slot (micro SD seems to be a lot less expensive than the goofy mini SD in the 810) I don't think people will start griping about this on the N900...

...until next year.