3) is most probable, since the time loss to release a N800 image will be negligible, and will surely make Nokia look better in the eyes of the community after the 770 drop.

Or at least i want to think that way

Agreed: anything else would be crazy. But not all decisions a company makes can be considered "sane" ;-)

Could happen . . . but it seems extremely unlikely, as that'll mean support for the WiMAX N810* will last less than a year, and we all know exactly how big the riots will be if that happens.

Nokia's insanity could play into letting this happen, but, if there's any sane reasoning going on in there, it wont. Support for the N810 is free support for the N800, so making us unpack the FIASCO image and flash each piece individually seems to be about the dumbest thing they could do. This is Nokia, though.

This is what I see happening (though if 4.2 ends up being called Elephanta and support ends there I'm really gonna have to get serious about that trout walloping expedition). They have to know dropping support for the N810 after just a year (even less for the WiMAX version) will get them into just as much trouble as they did with the 770—more, even, since they effectively promised us it wouldn't happen again (in spirit if not, now, technically) and there are a lot more people to piss off now.

*Can we agree on a good abbreviation for the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet with WiMAX™ now? I'm really not interested in typing out "WiMAX N810", "WiMAX tablet" or "WiMAX version" for much longer. Would N810W work?

I've used N810WE at least once - that's closest to the actual (presumably trademarked) full name of "N810 WiMAX Edition".

So I'd go for a consensus of N810W or N810WE.

But extra letters are <sheep>baaaaad</sheep>.

Anyway, here's the poll.

is it possible that the n810w will have anything worthwhile for those of us in the UK? i.e. without wimax?

Nice thread. Just wanted to jump in here seeing that I've had my fill and so many of you have contributed a lot towards my learning of the OS side of the IT life.
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Been doing some homework so to speak, looks as if this might be part of a further reaching play by Nokia. My thoughts are this:
- engage the Linux community to play, highlight those folks doing considerable work
- release three devices similar in most of the hardware configuration, but different enough to hit different audiences - effectively making hardware abstract and the software the driver (of innovation, service, purpose)
- then price accordingly with the want of people to be connected and the state of digital networks to come

If that's the case, then effectively step 3 of Nokia's plan could be a 3 device strategy, step 4 a services one, and step 5 the mouth dropping tid bit that has been alluded to in various spots here.

Kinda exciting, but like many of you, the wait and specualtion are killers.
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Would love to see Diablo (a 4.1 not a 5) introduce some consistency in the UI across the default and some of the included 3rd party apps. Matching up with the FF3 engine should be something done, but I wonder how much can be done seeing where that project is at this point (at least one more beta and a release candidate or two I would think before final).

And thinking of the slight hardware tweaks of the N800 to N810, the N810WE (or N830 as the Best Buy circular named it) would seem to have something of a tweak as well. Maybe some tightening of the internals and some optimizations with more efficient RAM modules or something of that sort. Something where those Diablo tweaks really shine through, but aren't so missed on the N800/N810 models.

Again, just some thoughts after reading and thinking a bit.

A different coloured N810

Couldn't agree more with you. My main problem with my N800 is that it is (very) uncomfortable to use with one hand, and without the help of stylus. Of course, we do not use a pocket device only in the sitting position, and it has to be taken in account by the UI team.

I see this point as the main difference/weakness between the Tablets and the iphones/ipods, and maybe should be reinfoced in the next generations. I mean, we don't need all that eye-candy things, but we *do* need the easyness and pleasure to read emails/browse sites.

i dont think the tablets where ever designed to be used on the go like a phone or similar...