FYI anyone looking for a contract deal on an N900 before its announced January release date – ***some retailers are already shipping it *** so will be with you before NYE…

http://www.omio.com/phones/nokia/n900/deals

Well worth it IMO – an unparalelled mobile browsing experience.

It does let you add a note to a contact. Launch the Contacts program, select your contact, click their name on the top of the screen to call up the menu, select “Edit”. Go to “Add field”, and Note is at the bottom of the list. It sounds more arduous than it is. I found it during experimentation.

That said, it’s frustrating that you can only edit a contact this way, by launching the Contacts program first. Bringing up the contact’s info by clicking a shortcut on the desktop, or selecting them out of the ingoing/outgoing/missed call list, won’t let you edit the info.

here is a list of functional deficiencies/required improvements I hope the N900 team can work on in time for a full, commercial launch:

•  predictive input with soft keyboard is impossible (it needs an equivalent for right arrow key on the hard keyboard) •  the shift and blue shift keys should auto-release if they are not used within 2-5 seconds of being pressed. •  the predictive text dictionary should be more like T9 and allow you cycle through word candidates. and also it should allow me to add words to it. •  photo geotagging is missing •  ability to expand telephone log records •  ability to organize contents of programs menu •  ability to fine tune touchscreen sensitivity •  tne screen usage paradigm for notes should follow same manipulation convention as browsing •  cannot mark mails or act on multiples of them. •  must delete mail by tapping screen via delete submenu and a comfirmation–should be able to delete without confirmation and by pressing the back space key

just to name a few…

The N900 is competing against all the other smartphones out there, i.e. iPhone, Droid, Pre, Blackberry, as well as Nokia’s other smartphones, i.e. Symbian v3/v5 phones. Users of these phones are accustomed to features like the fm receiver, podcasting, etc. out-of-the-box. If the N900 does not have these features even loyal Nokia customers will be dissatisfied with it. Early adopters like myself or some of you on the forum might think nothing of their absence or maybe we do not mind downloading 3rd party applications. HOWEVER, the average user who enjoys the functionality already provided by Nokia Sybian v3/v5 phones will be disappointed with a N900 that does not at least match if not improve on their experience with other Nokia products.

I listed the fm receiver and podcasting because they are easy to note. But, the really sorely lacking functionality are in areas essential to N900′s use as a phone but more difficult to describe: the ability to customize profiles; limitations of phonebook customizability; limited call log functionality, etc. Particularly, business users have spent considerable time creating their phone books and customizing their phones. Perhaps those interested in using the N900 primarily to browse the web will not notice.

It is essential that new Nokia products match and/or surpass the functionality of other Nokia products and competitor products. If they don’t the market will slam them–instead of noting how Nokia is leading the way with new product concepts critics (particularly in the US) will pipe in how Nokia tried to match Android or iPhone and missed.

I am providing this critique as a Nokia fan with its reputation and success in mind.

P.S. The phone cannot lie flat on a table because the camera cover and kick stand apparatus. In my experience when I set it on a table it moves around when I input using the keyboard or try using my fingers or stylus to use the touchscreen.