No, they said that there will be portrait mode support for the browser, which is far from extensive.

Benny and others, maybe it'll be good if you take a step back for a second and take a look at what the differences between Maemo 4 and Maemo 5 are. Original out-of-box experiences, third party software aside.

Maemo 4 is a (very interesting) operating system for something akin to a handheld device with no PIM. No calendar. No voice functionality. No java. Pretty much every bit of software Nokia use to sell cell phones, is on purpose omitted from the 770 - N810. Why? Apparently because Nokia expected you to have a Nokia telephone to tether it with, where you already have all this.

Maemo 5 is ment for different usage. It is now a phone OS (also?) Much of what your Nokia telephone can do, has been duplicated over to the Maemo platform. We're getting PIM and calendar, phone essentials, etc. They are taking a mature NIT OS and adding a completely new module of phone centric software.

Most of the things discussed here, did not exist on this platform at all four months ago. Many of the things that did, are mature.

In some ways, the phone part of the OS can be compared to the Android dev phone. It wasn't the best phone ever. But it was a leap in other ways. The N900 should have somewhat higher expectations, because only the phone centric parts are "new".

My windows mobile phone died last week. I'm currently using a T610. Fairly ready for the N900 now. But I expect it to be (far) behind the HTC Hero on some areas.

And much, much more interesting in other areas.

But Maemo 5 isn't mainstream yet. It's the very first phone on this platform, and it doesn't help much that xterm is mature already.

i couldn't see the simple Fax field for contacts.

umm how about this for starters?

1. Instead of promising a release date that you can't meet. you're better off not hyping the phone up just yet and making it open for pre order so early

2. The one month delay has nothing to do with the huge amount of missing features. Nokia wasn't even intending to put these features in in the first place. Thats the problem!

Feel free to vote for https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5742 by clicking on "Vote for this bug".

Exactly! Nokia announced the N900 as the step 4 of 5 in getting Maemo ready for a smartphone.

Hence step 4 of 5 not 5 of 5 yet.

The N900 is useful for a limited market and was truthfully announced as such.

Thanks Andre.

Agreed. I bought this knowing fully well that as a smartphone the N97 (which I already have) is leagues ahead. But as data is more important to me than voice, I don't mind that at all.

Hmmm. Disclaimer first. I do not own a n900. The extent of my exposure the n900 has been playing with it on several occasions in the NY flagship store. The last time I held one was a week before the NY flagship store called me (I was on the store list), but of course I was out of the country and could get to the store by 8pm the next day when they called. I have a 770 and n800, and will ...probably get a n900, just waiting for the madness to die down. I also have an e51 (a Nokia s60 phone for those of you who aren't familiar with it). I can understand how people whose first experience with the NIT is the n900 feel that it's missing features, because it is, even compared to Nokia's own s60 series. We need to remember that if a device is touted as a flagship device (was it officially?), then the expectation is that it will have all of the capabilities of the lesser models and then some. Of course for most of the long time forum members and owners of previous models, the "then some" is in all of the slightly more esoteric capabilities of the phone, and all of the other stuff (including the cellular radio) is fluff anyways. Regardless, I think that all of the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair by the n900 owners who are new to the platform is a good thing .....not only in compiling the list of must have fixes and features for the coming firmware updates, but more importantly for the next model. I honestly think that Nokia is going to have to step up their game a little for the coming final step (Maemo 6 and associated devices). The niche they had all to their selves is getting crowded, there are (and will be more) quite a few comparable alternatives, so if they don't get initial releases right or fixed quickly, they'll have another n97 on their hands, as in dead on arrival. It all well and good for those of us who love the platform and the features that come with it to tell the belly-achers to go buy a lesser alternative and be quiet, but it will weaken the n920 or what ever it's going to be called. Yes, their tone could be more constructive, but there is often a nugget of truth in their moaning. I think we owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to extract that nugget, what ever validity there is in the cries of the first of the mass adopters, and make sure it gets to Nokia. Just my 2 pence.

Exactly. Nokia cannot rely on any stage 5 out of 6 (or stage 4 out of 5) to excuse any deficiencies the device may have unless they want to lose further smart phone market share. Many would have been turned of Nokia by the N97. N900 may be intended to be a niche device but Nokia cannot select who they sell it to. If many buy it and are disappointed then they would be turned off Nokia and no way would they consider any N920.