Yes, and it's a shame. For what this device is sold to do, I would have thought a solid Contacts app would almost be a requirement. I can see neglecting the calendar/todo, and a pared down notes app, but the decision re: contacts is quite baffling.

and what is it sold to do exactly?

i want a decent PIM in maemo
hopefully it won't be too far off.

Yeah, I was thinking for a name maybe "LiqPIM"?

for what i need, pimlico contacts plus syncevolution work very well. pimlico contacts looks terrible (plain gtk, not hildonized), but it accesses the tablets built-in addressbook. so with this combination i can sync from my desktop, have email- and instant messaging data available in the respective stock apps (modest,...) and can view/edit other fields like birthday, address, etc via Pimlico Contacts.

I'm just guessing here, but based on the out-of-the-box installers, I'd guess browse, email, IM, and voip - 3 of which would be better served by a more feature rich contact app.

Call me crazy.

*edit
As I think about it, all 4 could really use a beefed up contacts app - similar to the Palm Pre (reputedly) pulling together information from web services, IM, cell #'s, etc.

Any thoughts about a tight integration wiht GTD apps like remember the milk. Seems to me a web-based tablet should try to work with the web(the cloud) for apps as much as possible. Maybe a python interface to cpnsolidate stuff on say google cal and remeber the milk. Just thinking out loud.

Whenever your definition of good is exactly like another platform you'll always be disapointed. I was a Palm user for many years and used many Tealpoints aps for PIM. For me the GPE aps, erminig and Notecase combined do the job nicely for me. I'm an Ubuntu user and I'm able to run Notecase and the GPE aps there as well. The Ubuntu and Maemo platform versions of these aps are file compatible which makes synchronization as easy as copying a file. The Nokia is my primary PIM input device. Erminig is used to sync bi-directionaly with Google calendar. Gmail is my mail system and Nokia's mail package works with Gmail. I do things differently than before I have a workable PIM solution. Google is an important part of my PIM process.

A agree about Google being a useful essential.

I also noticed they recently added a plug in for To-do's. Doesn't import or sync..
They also don't have Notes ( I use notes extensively and am looking for an online sync setup.)

I am surprised that no one has written an nice/clean package for online sync via Maemo.

Iv'e seen so many packages out there.. it would seem this would be a top priority one.

The problem with syncing is that despite there are standards (ActiveSync, SyncML) for the protocols there is no real standard for the data to sync. Every PIM has its own way to store its data, they often add fields that cant be mapped to the fields of other PIM applications or that at least lead to doubled entries. I had a look at several PIMs and let me tell you: it's a real nightmare.
So for Maemo I only see one solution: write a PIM that uses only the core date needed, leave out all the fancy stuff, and then add syncing based on one of the standard protocols (and ideally provide a server application/database/directory service to sync to, too)

P.S: A few months back some design students showed a nice GUI, perhaps we should ask them whether they'd like us to provide the backend for it