To add to the list, I have emacs 23 and citrix client running on this beast.

That's pretty awesome.

How is the n900 otherwise? Is it a good phone? Would you buy it again if you had to do it all over?

I wouldn't recommend it to "normal" people - just because it's still a bit big and doesn't have that many apps. But for hackers it's just perfect imho. The real keyboard feels nice. You've got open access to whatever you want (and open-source access to almost everything). You can deploy your own scripts / apps. You can use multiple IM and voip accounts by default.

If you want to try the interface, you can install the maemo sdk (scratchbox) which will just run the real interface on your screen via X display.

I'm not the parent poster, but I also love mine as a phone and a computer and would totally buy it again given the choice.

I adore it. It's been the most flexible and trouble-free portable device I've ever owned.

Edit: but I find the only issue being with some locked iTunes music -- can't play it here. iTunes Plus and what I (now) get from amazon mp3 is fine.

But the iPhone's is more useful, easier, and less prone to introduce UI stutter, heat, and battery drainage.

Can you define "more useful" and "easier"? The rest is a known price for the functionality.

Especially - how is it "more useful" to have a stripped down version of multitasking -vs- multitasking? And what exactly is easier? For me it's a) tap the corner b) choose an app. For iPhone user it's a) tap the home button b) choose an app.

Your satire is profound and humorous. Here, have another glass of cool aid.

Doesn't the microphone pick up the sound of your fingers tapping?

I'm normally muted during the lecture part so it doesn't matter. During the discussion I'm unmuting myself only when I'm actively talking... So in case you were interested in the microphone property - I have no idea :)

I don't believe any of that (including all of it simultaneously) will be impossible on iPhone OS 4.

"Notably missing? Anything for managing a conversation, like IM or Twitter, which is a big omission."

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/multitasking-comes-to-iph...

The idea is to use the Push Notification Service for that. Whether that's a good solution to the problem or not is up for debate. (It works fine for me for IM; I don't know of a service that uses it to notify about Twitter events but there might be one.)

Can you write an alarm clock app? I don't see any way to make that work. There is no system-level service to tie into. It seems to me that the iPhone 'multitasking' model prevents a great many use cases.

Local notifications?

Yes, exactly.

The way it was presented, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to run an application which should stay connected while I'm doing something else. So IRC + anything is pretty much excluded. Also skype will be integrated in a way that it takes your desktop space, instead of just being there in the background.

Maybe I understood it wrong, but that was my impression from the presentation.

Skype seems to work just like the normal Phone app. Watch the demo starting 22:25 (http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1004fk8d5gt/event/)

My point about skype was not that it cannot be backgrounded, but as I said "skype will be integrated in a way that it takes your desktop space". Not sure what happens when you have more accounts - if you can do that at all and if it continues adding new bars... but I prefer it completely invisible like in N900 (especially when I have 2 voip accounts and 3 more voice-capable xmpp accounts online)

I doesn’t take anything. The double high status bar is a standard UI convention of iPhone OS. It appears when something requires your interaction and is in the background (like ending the call or stopping the voice recording).

Ah, I think you may be right about IRC. Apple continues to want such things to be done via Push Notifications. Which is a pretty good solution for most things, though not all. E.g. I do IM (Windows Live) via Meebo, an app that uses notifications, and don't have any problems with it. IRC seems like it could work pretty well through such a system, too, though I don't know if anybody offers that service.

They specifically showed Skype as being able to run (continue calls or receive new ones) in the background through a very similar UI to the current built-in "Phone" app, so I think you'd be good on that one.