And guess who makes the decisions and allocates the funds?

It seems you have a dislike for Nokia and I guess I must be one of their fanboys because in my opinion the divisions that have been making the mobile phones seems to be interested in creating devices that work really well.

I have been using Nokia mobiles for 12 years and have actually NEVER, EVER had one breakdown on me (no lie!). I similarly expect(ed) something similar with the N800. I am a bit of an evangelist when it comes to mobile tech with my friend circle, I try and keep up with all the latest phones devices etc. The N800 I am not freely advocating to everyone yet, only the tech savvy and patient, but I cannot think of a single device for the price/weight/size/power that can do as much.

What attracted me somewhat is their original investment.

500 units to developers for $99 euros...

A lot must have taken the thing an ran... If list was $399 then each one saved $300 dollars and I thought for sure they would return the favor by providing back to the community $300 worth of code.

That's 500 x $300...

I haven't seen anywhere near $15,000 worth of free community code.

I paid list and I am a bit disappointed with it all.
Hell, even searches on Maemo org for snippets or just about anything brings up mostly 770 stuff with the caveat "this has not been tested on the N800".

Since January it seems that Tableteer, the source to "Keep up-to-date with your N800" has only been updated itself 3 or 4 times.

I think emotions are running a little high in this thread!

Considering that they are developing a fresh platform, things could be worse. We're getting a reasonable amount of feedback, new features, and sexy hardware.

Assuming we get support and refinements to opera, rss, skype and e-mail for another year or two I will be comfortable with my purchase. At that time we'll either have a product we love, and purchase the new fangled n900 on the 'amazing' maemo platform... or we'll dump it for the new intel MID's.

Oh, I know very well who does what.

I just took aim at your broad brush.

In general: trust me guys, I share your frustration. I just wish I could share a few things that I can't. But that fact alone should help a little... right?

No, we've had another poster in this forum who claimed to be "in the know", remember?

I consider myself an average user with both Linux and Windows experience. It's hard for me to understand the frustration and criticism I read over and over again, not only in this thread. I begin to wonder why I'm not dissatisfied with my Nokia 770. Why do I think the mail client is simple, but still useful? Why do I love surfing and dont complain about some missing plugins? Why do I enjoy watching my DVD collection on the 770 and dont complain about it not beeing able to deliver full resolution at 30Hz? Why wouldnt I ever expect the device to open *.doc attachments? Why am I content with a concept that offers little out of the box but a whole lot of 3rd party software?

I really dont know what makes me so different from other consumers. Maybe our inhouse advertising was better when I bought the 770 last year; it said quite clearly that I'd get a 800x480 touch screen for surfing and reading mails. Period. It was only afterwards that I discovered the endless possibilities of the device and was really, really pleasantly surprised. So it might be a matter of advertising after all.

Yeah, but he gave out supposed details that turned out to be nothing but fluff. I'm torturing you with intentionally vague references to alleged activity. Big difference.

Texrat, just say this and we'll all be happy:

"Nokia is releasing a firmware update with 2D and 3D Acceleration enabled, flick scrolling has been implemented, a brand new email client developed from the ground up to be integrated with Skype and Google contact lists, directly accessible from the quick contacts applet, as well as Starcraft Maemo Edition and a new faceplate with Nintendo Gameboy style buttons for control. With the next firmware revision promising a licensed iTunes interface directly from the iPhone! "

Woot Go Nokia!

For what it's worth, the built-in email client is, if not integrated (as in 'synch both ways') with the google contacts list, at least it's able to import contacts. You'll have to set the contact to 'Always' in 'Show in Quick Contacts?' though (in the gmail web interface) to be sure to get it imported.