With the discovery of a press photo of the Nokia N900, complete with its name for the first time, it’s safe to assume that this OMAP 3 / Maemo powered device is ready to be launched. Probably next week.

Maemo is a Linux based OS build from the ground up for internet-based activities. It won’t be as mature as WM, the iPhone OS or even Android but it’s getting good support and is a based on a very open architecture. It even runs a Mozilla based browser that should sync with your desktop to bring over history, passwords and tabs! For the web-focused individual, this is probably going to be the phone to beat because of that, and the next-gen CPU under the hood. Cortex A8 architectures are said to be 2-3 times as fast as ARM11 architectures. The iPhone 3GS is proof of that and we should expect to see more Cortex-based phones soon. Snapgragon, Tegra (2010 version) Samsung and Freescale all have high-end CPU offerings in their parts bin now.

But if Maemo doesn’t take your fancy, how about Android on a similar architecture. The Motorola Sholes (yes, I said Motorola) is sizing up well if the rumors are to be believed and the latest highlights an October launch. With a WVGA screen and slider keyboard, it’s going to sit right alongside the Omnia Pro B7610, HTC Pro2, M900 and N97 in your toplist.

I haven’t got full details on the Sholes yet but the latest on the N900 is here in the UMPCPortal database.