Congratulations on your purchase - I love mine!
1. Now B&N state that it comes with 8Gb RAM and can be expanded to 32Gb - does this mean that an additional 32Gb MicroSD card with bring it to 40Gb total or will it only address a total of 32Gb, thus 8Gb is wasted (so perhaps I should get a 16Gb Micro SD)?
I haven't confirmed this but I expect that 40gb is correct. The 8gb is different file tree than the SD card ... so I think that all 32gb would be accessible on a 32gb card
2. I would like to use the NC to view pictures from my digital camera, which has a normal SD card. Is there are way to do this without first transferring to a PC then uploading via the USB cable or copy to the MicroSD? When travelling I would rather not take a PC and the NC to acheive this. I guess the NC would need to be a USB "host" for this to work - not sure if it is. I guess a product
such as this may be an option.
I think the easiest way to accomplish what you want is to us a microSD card in your camera (using an SD card adapter) - then pop the card out of the camera; remove from the the adapter and pop it into the Nook.
There is some talk of enabling USB host; but I wouldn't bet on it - easier to just buy another microSD card that includes a SD adapter.
3. When the update for Andriod 2.2 comes out, do you think the usual rooting process will work with it? I am tempted to wait for this update but may still want to root it...
When the minor update came out from v1.0.0 to v.1.0.1 (both android 2.1) it broke the rooting process for about 12 hours until the rooter was updated. I would guess that will be the case for any more updates. I think it will be difficult for B&N to prevent rooting (because of the nature of the rooting process); but it will need to be tweaked for each updated that B&N issues.
4. I am in Australia and purchased the Nook from the B&N website, having it shipped to USA address (a frieght forwarder) Can I expect to be able to purchase B&N eBooks via WiFi? I am wondering if it will detect my IP address and not let me get eBooks since I am not in USA. This is not a huge problem since I can get eBooks elsewhere, just wondering...
No idea .... but if you can buy nookbooks right now (for use on the Nook for PC or Android app) I would expect that you can buy them on the Nook when you get it.