Well I finally broke down and order a N800 from Buy.com for $240. I honestly hadn't even heard of the device till i got a buy.com newsletter earlier this week and since then i've been browsing this forum and other sites like mad trying to figure out if it's something i really need (well, i guess we don't really "need" anything, just really really want). Either way, the information I found is fantastic and I was ecstatic to see theres such a large development community for the device. I have a Dell Axim x30 I bought 3 or 4 years ago and I could probably count on my two hands the number of days i've actually carried it with me, it simply can't do what i really want to. I can check my school email with it (IMAP), play games, listen to Windows Media and thats about it. IE Mobile royally sucks and can't display webpages to save its soul. I've also not been able to find any freeware mapping program, especially one that seems to work as intuitively as Meamo Mapper, with or without a GPS.

I'm going to try and survive that period of waiting for a new toy to ship, but once i get it i'm sure i'll be back here for more information. Until the, thanks for all the great information here.

I am in the same boat. Only worse. I had a 770 and really enjoyed it, but wanted to upgrade, so I sold it.

In the interim, I built a new Linux PC which ate up some $$ so buying an n800 fell off the radar. Until... I accidentally stumbled on the $239 (too bad I missed the $222) deal on Buy.com.

Now my new Ubuntu PC can play nicely with my new n800 (of course I'll need XP to flash it) and my iPod can play with my XP box.

I ordered late Thursday. Pop me a PM, you can be my first video call.

You don't need XP to flash the N800 (if that's what you meant - sorry if I misunderstood). Flashing from your Ubuntu box whould work perfectly (better actually, as you can select what pieces you want to flash, e.g. kernel only)

Yeah i know the feeling. I've been wanting to build a new computer for a while but opposite of you, i keep buying little toys instead, its a vicious cycle.
My only concern is i'm not too familiar with Linux. My main desktop runs XP, my laptop dual boots XP and openSuse 10.2. I liked openSuse because it has a GUI for just about everything, getting used to all the command line stuff in linux has been my biggest challenge, although you can find directions on how to do just about anything on any distro on the web, which helps a ton. I also have another box running CentOS 5, it will be a server eventually but right now it's just doing DHCP and running VMWare server to host Win Server 2003 Enterprise (hooray for MSDNAA)

I havent even read up on how to do video calling yet so you'll have to help me out there.

hey Maxinfilxion. i guess i can be considered a newb as well. i just got my 770 yesterday and honestly, i can't put it down. i really love the feel of it and it's speed is tolerable for me. never had a pda or anything like that, so getting used to the stylus was tricky but now i have the hang of it.

How reliable is buy.com?

Iv heard some bad things about them and none good (except for this price) but that doesn't mean there there not good. i am looking to possibly buy a n800. would buy.com be a good place?

Buy.com seems to have a dual personality. I've had decent success with them, others swear they are the spawn of the devil. Your mileage may vary.

Oh, and welcome to the new rat! We are growing in number!

Well i've only bought a few things from Buy as did my roommate last year and we never had any problems. Last thing i got was a 4 gig flash drive for $28 with a $14 MIR, and the rebate actually processed fairly darn quick

Buy.com is another one of those companies that gets a bad rep because its volume is so high it gets a lot more complaints than companies that sell hundreds of times less stuff. I got great service from Buy.com and would use them in a flash.

My friends are considering buying N800s now that the price has dropped so much. I paid $400, and it was well worth it back in January. But I think that Buy.com says that the "list price" is now $300, and of course it sells below that.

People with problems are always many times louder than those without any. Anything i've looked into buying, from cars to electronics and everything in between this is usually the case. The few that are dissatisfied tend to be louder than the many satisfied.