Welll... As lovely it would be, it would mean producing entire new set of parts (display, chassis, covers, main board, etc.), even if the core tech stays the same, it would mean extra costs. And remember we are talking about the company that refuses to make operator specific variants of their phones, arguing that that would lower their production efficiency too much.

There is no way they'd release a bigger iteration just for the relatively small hacker community, especially as most of us will buy the N900 anyway if no better maemo alternative shows up for a while

There WILL be other Maemo 5 devices in 2010 so the question is not whether Nokia will try to cover a larger market, but WHAT market segments will these additional Maemo devices target ? Cheaper/lower spec ? No voice ? More compact ? No qwerty ? Larger 4-5" screen ? That's why I was expecting a Maemo device roadmap now that the N900 (and more importantly Maemo5) is out, but alas, still no info.

Ok, I'm just as disappointed as everyone else here that there's no USB host on the N900.

But I'm so confused when I read these posts. "I bought the N8x0 so I could leave the laptop at home, but with the N900 I'd have to bring the laptop!"

What happened to your N8x0?

Last I looked, my tablet was still a lot smaller than a laptop, and it does USB host and it has a bigger screen. But the N900 has a much faster processor and it has a built-in phone. Between the two devices, you have it all.

For the 1% of the time that you need USB host mode, you can make a little more space for your old N8x0. It also is very useful for giving to the kid(s) as a in-flight movie center.

We definitely need a little app that does a fast ad-hoc wifi connection and VPN between an N8x0 and N900, allowing file transfer, internet sharing, and remote control (via vncviewer / x11vnc).

I'm still hopeful that someone will write a workaround driver that will put the N900 into "damn the consequences host mode," a software host mode that (probably) won't supply any power to the USB device, and must be manually enabled and disabled and won't allow charging while in use.... It seems that it should be possible, just not recommended.

For all we know there will be another Maemo 5 device. All we know is this is the "lead" device. We know from source there is an RX-71 whether it's ever released is a different matter.

Probably on sale to fund for the N900 as people thought their NEXT Gen device would be a FULL upgrade!

I'm pretty sure if they did both, the larger version would sell just as much as the n800/810 because the market for the larger would expand with the numbers the smaller version would bring in. I assume nokia made some money on the n800/810?

Also this seems like a ludicrous argument since nokia makes a bazillion different chassied and screened phones. Nokia has not refused operator customization, but will not cripple software for the operators, I haven't seen anywhere that nokia argued this was due to production efficiency at all.

Well, if you could sell your beloved old NIT for the next new-and-shiny, then you get what you deserve.

I hope you are right qole. But several items said it was a problem at the hardware level. Did I miss some information about that problem being just for "official full support?" I.e., when you say "it should be possible" what are you basing that on?

For me it isn't 1% of the time that I need USB. Especially with my hope to rig a full-sized monitor to work via USB. USB is a primary requirement for me.

Is there a test we can give to someone who has an N900 to find out whether OTG or host can be activated?

Yes well. The n8xx din't exactly "sell". They apparently never were ment to, either.

nokia crippled the software on the e71x or let AT&T do it one.