make it not so expensive that its like buying a laptop.

did anyone suggest having a supercapacitor in it, so that if the device is deep asleep you can swap the battery without rebooting it, and thus have a spare fully-charged battery ready to go.

Yes, everybody has suggested everything (I've suggested this on multiple times), there isn't anything more to be said here.

Wow, a lot of posts that would lead to making it larger and more expensive!

I agree with those who say to keep it low priced so to compete with the iPod Touch.

Also, lets Keep it small enough to fit in a pocket.

Those wanting it to be a full laptop computer should find an ASUS eeepc forum and tell them to make the next model based on an ARM processor so it will run for more than two hours on batteries, then load it up with all Open Office, VGA in/out ports, keyboard features, etc. In other words please don't ask to make the N900 something that is so different (as in much larger and expensive) that those of
us that bought the current models would not be interested in it!

Back to those dreaming about doing the presentation in a board room on a NIT: They forgot that the special docking port would NOT typically be pre-installed in the board room and that it would require external power. By the time you tangle with all that mess you would be better off with a one-piece laptop anyway. Just demand one that has decent battery life. I don't know why every time an advance is made in laptop power, they compensate by putting in a smaller battery!

It seems like a lot of people who have owned several NIT models seem to like the size of the N800 the best. Maybe if the N900 went back to this size we could get some of these bigger machine features squeezed into it like bigger screen, better keyboards, bigger battery, full-sized SD, etc.

Finally, the supercapacitor is probably too big. I think a better solution the problem is for a 3rd party to make a sleek, thin external battery pack that nicely attaches on the back of the NIT and plugs in the charger jack. You could probably quadruple the battery life while only adding about 4mm across the whole back of the unit.

on the battery issue, i think someone recently applied for a patent on a laptop battery with a built in connector so that it could be hooked up to the power port while removing the spent one and inserting the new.

beyond that i would just ask for this:

go back to the N800's two full size SD slots, put in a bigger ARM cpu and more ram, put in a screen thats similar to recent tablet pc ones. beyond that, dont change a thing.

With you that far.

Well, I got tangled up in that, and got too busy defending the N800 is a laptop line to mention that, although I noticed it at the time... And I'm not a real big fan of docks anyway.

But, you're not unambiguously better off with a laptop, unless it's an insanely dinky (smaller than original eeePC) laptop. In the attachments, you can see my normal kit + USB-VGA; as you can see, the kit bag is about as easily pocketable as the N800, and often gets pocketed. The VGA adapter, naturally, doesn't go anywhere without a reason, but can also be pocketed with no trouble. Second picture shows entire contents of bag; third shows the actual setup for projection, with the unused stuff sitting on the bag.

Naturally, for smooth work in a conference room that I know has wireless, I'm not going to have the Ethernet stuff out, so the "tangling with all that mess" boils down to pulling two devices out of a bag, making three USB connections, and the VGA connection you'd need anyway. (If fidgeting with gadgets isn't a problem, I'll probably have the gadget-pulling, two of the three connections, and repocketing done already...)

As fast as a laptop? Not quite, obviously. Is the added delay (~5 seconds) worth lugging a non-pocketable device around for? To me, no way! To others, maybe. But it gets even easier if you have a separate, battery-powered dock, with VGA, USB hub, and batteries to run that and sustain the N900. I'm actually considering integrating mine up that way, but a factory one would be cool, and reduces it to pull dock out, make one VGA connection, and drop N900 in. Not unfeasible, just not quite as slick as envisioned.

Amen! I've actually only had (or even seen) N800s, but I do think the N810 went overboard cutting size.

Possible, but have you seen the high-capacity battery for the N810? Too lazy to dig up the link, but someone makes a thicker battery, which comes with a bulged back-door to accomodate it; much cleaner than a reach-around plug. Unless you're actually going to carry more than one of those, and want to use the charger jack to allow swapping without shutdown, that's just as good, and a touch tidier.

Good to see someone else reading the "realistically", though...

How about an operating system that really works and when it updates does not crash programs already installed. Like Diablo did to Xjournal, Camera, Videocamera. Not to metion that i have tried several fixes that did not work.
Now i do love my N800. But i would love to be able to not think Microsoft when i use it and it crashed. I would like not to have to be a computer programmer in order to use a product. I would like to just turn it on and have it work. Not to much to ask for. Just have it work.

Battery life:

* Newer kernel with CFS;
* Suspend-to-RAM included & enabled by default (see n800-s2ram project);
* PowerTOP debugging, also in SDK (works with QEMU?);
* Solar-based power over LCD screen (invented by RuG);
* Teaching users how to improve battery life of Li-Ion battery;

Connectivity:

* 3G functionality in Europe;
* Either no GPS, or a good GPS;

Performance:

* OMAP3;
* 256 MB RAM;
* 3D (for visual effects; related to usability);

..and last but not least for its the most important of an embedded device..

Usability:

* Not 20 applications providing the same functionality (multimedia wise a good example is the many audio and video players); Linux-related problem;
* Replace Navicore with Nokia Maps 2.0 port;
* 3G...
* Hildonized Evolution port, or hildonized maemo PIM;
* Usability-related improvements on the software part (Diablo was an improvement in this regard). Fix important bugs. Realize the huge importance of this.

(Can't edit my post; page doesn't render well...)

I forgot to add:

Usability:

* Allow better remote management using the NIT; stable rdesktop port, and NX Client Embedded Edition port (already ported to ARM!).

Number one on my wish list for the n900 right now. Availability for the holiday season this year. Well, before really, but we're supposed to keep it realistic, so....