Bloomberg is reporting that Nokia ordered Quanta and Compal netbooks for distribution in Q3 of this year. Without any supporting sources, we don't know any more about this. However -- What if?

Two years ago, Palm announced a device that would be a "smartphone extension." The 10" screen, laptop form factor, 2 pound device would give users a larger window into all the things their smartphone does: Calendars, address book, email, web, and light media consumption. The price tag was $599. This sad little Palm Foleo was so universally panned that it never even made it to the market.

If Nokia and Intel are going for an "in-between device," they need to do far better than Palm did. It's good that they're starting with Maemo and Moblin as core development models as third-party app developers are familiar with those ystems. The big hurdle here is one that was never properly addressed with the Nokia Internet Tablets: Why do I need one?

The community is weighing in and discussing this morning's news. Here are some highlights:

• Peter@Maemo says: "Let me remind you what we have said about Maemo 5: Maemo 5 will support OMAP3 processors i.e. ARM Cortex A8 technology, not more, not less."
• He goes on to say: Maemo and Moblin will continue to exist as software platforms, no change to current situation but we will align more of what is underneath the UI framework and APIs.

There's more discussion in the whole thread on talk.maemo.org. I don't think many mobile tech blogs understand exactly what this all means (myself included) but I THINK this is what will happen:

Facts: Intel and Nokia combined have a broad understanding of mobile computing - both development and marketing. Nokia has had vast success in handsets, feature phones, and smartphones and Intel is enjoying many years as the top mobile CPU for laptops and now netbooks and ultra-portables. As these two types of platforms converge into a "middle device," it makes sense to bring the power-players in each together to develop some standards.

Through the success of the iPhone and Android, the whole mobile market has learned that platforms MUST have a strong third party developer base. Intel and Nokia will work very hard to make Moblin and Maemo cooperate with each other even though they will have different styles and hardware platforms. This will make it easier for third party developers to write applications that can be released on both platforms without major rewrites. This will encourage developers to adopt both Maemo and Moblin on their respective platforms.

I could be totally wrong, though. What does everyone else think?

Today was the wrong day to sleep in a little: Nokia posted a press release with Intel promising several very important things to the mobile space:

• Open source collaboration, including cooperation between Moblin and Maemo.
• Intel licensing Nokia 3G technology
• Increased focus on standards-based pocketable devices.

Wow. I love the Intel Atom. I love the Maemo tablets. I am swimming in excitement for the future right now.

AT&T managed to dampen my joy of using an N97 and finding my N810 where it hid in my apartment. The DSL router above has a center light that should stay green but is instead blinking red. Apparently - for no reason - my DSL service decided to no longer work and AT&T can't figure it out so are dispatching a tech to my apartment. FRIDAY MORNING.

I'd use my N97 to get online but I can barely get phone reception at home - much less 3G. Who is my carrier? AT&T.

A blogger with a full-time job and no home internet is a slow blogger.

Here's some advice: Don't give AT&T money for anything unless you have no other choice.

I found my N810!

I am borrowing a Nokia N97 (thanks to a friend who isn't migrating to it just yet) and have had my share of "this is awesome" and "Wow this sucks" moments with it in just a couple days. With the N810 getting a little "old" in the long view and with no sight of a Maemo 5 device yet, would tabletblog.com readers be interested in some coverage here?

What I CAN say about the N97 so far - If I can work out a few little bugs and still see no sight of a Fremantle Maemo tablet, I'm going to buy myself one. A white one. I miss a couple little applications of the iPhone (like Yelp and my bank's portal) but the added features of the N97 are worth those losses.

I dug up my Nokia PC Suite application and updated it as part of my attempt to migrate off the iPhone. I realized that the PC Suite is being deprecated as part of Ovi branding push. This makes me wonder - will Maemo devices get Ovi integration as well?

Since the Nokia 770, users have been asking for more desktop interoperability between the tablets and the PC. Simple things like contact sync, calendar sync, and bookmark sync have been requested. So far, the Internet Tablet developers have treated the Maemo platform as more of a "laptop alternative" than "laptop companion." With mobiles becoming more computer-like and laptop class systems becoming more "smartphone-like," it'd be nice if the tablets were offered the same desktop support software of the Ovi suite.

There are problems, though. Applications "available on Ovi" won't work on the Internet Tablets unless tablets and phones have two different application stores. Consumer confusion is a BAD thing, especially with the N series competing with Apple's "it just all works together" iPhone model.

Thoughts?

In my normal FCC filing cruising while stalking the next Internet Tablet, I saw the newly filed LJP-RM504. This is what I know so far:

Confidentiality filed for 45 days from June 3. The button configuration looks JUST like the 5800 XpressMusic, so it's not likely to be the next Internet Tablet. Still - worth watching.

GSM 850
GSM 1900
GPRS 850
GPRS 1900
EGPRS 850
EGPRS 1900
BT 2450
WLAN 2450

Great quote:
This device has Dual Transfer Mode capability for use at the ear. Therefore, SAR for multi slot GPRS mode was evaluated against the head profile of the phantom.

The iPhone application for Yelp is one of the finest non-mapping location aware applications I've seen. I find myself frequently using it around Silicon Valley as I am still unfamiliar with many things around here even after living here since October. Yelp provides an API. Think some creative developer can get into making it an application?

Here's a thought: With reports indicating that the 4th generation tablet may contain a regular GSM phone, it may steer another article series in a different direction. Initially, I had planned to write a series of articles on extracting a user from the iPhone "walled garden" and migrating to a Nokia N97 or Phone+Tablet combination. If the 4th generation tablet includes a phone, that would make it easier as the article series would be abou the migration from iTunes to maemo.

I can start on that now - but need to know a crucial question: Will existing maemo apps still work in the maemo 5 environment? If not, I'll have to wait until maemo 5 apps arrive to start writing about that migration experience.