what is a phone?

No no, it's a superphone now! :-P

It's pretty much decimated the use of my netbook for browsing and stuff. In fact the most use my netbook has seen in the past couple of weeks is as a fairly cumbersome and inefficient phone charger

ok jaark - do you have another phone that you use.?

Certain people need to get themselves out of the mental rut they're in.

The rigid, boxed-in mindset that cannot understand anything other than "this is an x" and "this is a y" is going to be left behind and feel increasingly bewildered as tech marches on.

The whole point of what we're witnessing - Apple, Nokia et al - is "convergence". Technology is now so flexible and powerful that we're now making serious attempts and piecing together just the right mix to provide people with an ultra-mobile device that supports as much of their imagination as possible.

A "phone" is just a software implementation. The radio hardware it utilizes is just a physical carrier, nothing more. Networking software/hardware engineers have understood this for decades.

The marvel of the iPhone/iTouch/N900 etc is that they provide excellent computing horsepower in a platform that is now effortlessly present in our lives. No more lugging around a laptop. Everywhere we go we can have a first-class network device (now a full linux platform) with all manner of software to enrich our lives....on-the-go in realtime.

What would be cool is if somebody could figure out how to drive the N900 cellular hardware to provide a SIM-less ad-hoc networking platform. Perfectly plausible.

its a phone
its a web browser
its email
its a music player
its a games platform
...and some other things I probably dont understand
It needs to be able to do all of these things (esp basic phone functions) more proficiently than it currently does. End of.
Who gives a toss whether one person calls it a phone or a convergance device?? To me its a phone and more
If someone asks if they can look at my phone, I'll show them my N900 without giving them a hard time over it. Now get over it :-p

So it is a PHONE. Yes, I knew it!

its all immaterial what people call it- its all immaterial if people say you shouldnt call it something

whats material and why this argument is happening is that this product isnt finished yet , its not up to scratch on basic functions and has been sold as a replacement to the b4 phone(or what ever you poeople want to call it)

this unit will for the majority be there primary phone, and we shouldnt have to feel bad about complaining that its sold unfinshed surely- jeas some of you lot are mad- you wanna live in a society wshere we are dictated by corporations. you wanna be nokia tablet fanboys. jeas get a life , tell em how it is /or shut up and dont have a pop at others for bringing up the faults- but certainly dont start threads about this nopt being a phone ??????????*&*(?

thank goodness - i was just boxing it up to return it as occassionally it makes a noise and I didnt know what to do