Maemo.org has just released the first Pre-Alpha of Maemo 5 (AKA Freemantle) which is the OS that will support the new OMAP 3 platform expected to be used in the next Nokia Tablet.

The new release includes a lot of new features including support for cellular data, high-def cameras, hardware-based graphics and the clutter user interface (also planned for Moblin 2 in spring 2009)

Demo of a Clutter-based user interface

It’s important to note that this is a Pre-Alpha release and not even ready for 3rd-party devs to build their apps on yet so we’re obviously months away from a new Nokia Tablet launch. As Maemo 5 progresses though, expect to see deadlines appear which would indicate hardware launch timeframes. Also note that there’s an Intel build. Is this X86 or the old intel Xscale hardware we wonder? Anyone got info?

maemo.org – announcements: First Maemo 5 SDK release targeting platform developers.