>Mobile phones these days are quickly becoming Jack-of-all-trades, masters-of-none.

>Think about it: A decent (but not great) camera, Acceptable (but not outstanding) web browser, Basic (but not very useful) GPS, Not bad (but not good) MP3 Player. Etc. etc.

I don't buy it. Those cameras and GPS programs will only improve (as we've seen with Android's Google Maps navigation, which has many features that standalone GPS devices don't). And I believe the iPhone is already a better music player than any standalone MP3 player. It can do all the usual things a music player can do, but it can also identifiy music playing around me, allow me to purchase music whereever I am, play streaming radio stations from around the world, etc. And my iPhone is loaded with apps that allow me to do things quicker than I could any other way. If I want the weather forecast, or information on what movies are playing in town, I never reach for a newspaper or laptop, because I can get that information in seconds on my iPhone. So Mr. Cooper is simply wrong when he says "Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well."

And I believe he's wrong when he says "Our future I think is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives. On a day by day basis my cel phone has replaced my address book, watch, check register, calendar, maps, notepad, calculator, radio/music player, netbook, portable game machine, and more, while at the same time allowing me to do many new things easily and quickly. And smartphones aren't just getting more powerful- they're getting easier to use. I'm not saying they're on the verge of becoming universal, but they certainly do many things well.

er... doesn't anybody remember a certain Engedget review that came out a few months ago...

"So Flash is kind of a big deal on new smartphones. The iPhone doesn't have it, the Pre doesn't have it, BlackBerry devices don't have it... but the Hero does. Unfortunately, in our testing, we found the inclusion actually hurts operation of the phone more than it helps. When browsing to a site heavy on Flash (there are many), the browser loading times were abysmal. Furthermore, trying to view videos in-window produced choppy, nearly unwatchable results. You may have a better experience with lighter kinds of content, but in our opinion the main reason to introduce Flash into a mobile environment is to allow for broader media viewing options, and in the current state of this Flash player, you're not really going to get much mileage out of it."

- http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/

Why judge a phone by the software that ships with it? Isn't it better to judge it by the updates and bug fixes you hope will arrive later?

Well, Windows Mobile has been losing ground in the consumer market. Maybe they figure this will only appeal to business users who can afford to pay more. Maybe they're tired of subsidizing the living daylights out of smartphones. Who knows?

Sleep:
Stay Awake (Fred Molin cover of the Disney lullaby)
The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust (no disrespect intended, but I've had this classical CD for years, and it always soothes me to sleep)

Wake up:
Texas Trilogy - Lyle Lovett cover (my longtime wake up song)
Good Morning, Good Morning -Beatles
The Promise of a New Day -Paula Abdul
Come and Get it -Badfinger
I Won't Back Down -Tom Petty

Why only 600 apps at the store, when there are so many Windows Mobile apps out there? Well, an awful lot of Windows Mobile apps are pretty old, and don't necessarily work on most of today's phones. Many were really abandoned some time ago. And many are pretty crappy. (I say this as an owner of a Tilt.) But really, it's not how many apps there are that matters. It's how good they are, and if they address your needs and interests. And of course the price counts. iPhone apps became pretty dirt cheap pretty fast, because there's such a vibrant, competive market.

The folks running Hulu have stated that the studios get most of their money from television advertising and cable fees. They know putting Hulu on the living room TV is a big threat to that revenue, since Hulu ads bring in nowhere near that amount of money. So they are trying to keep the service OFF the living room television. They know relatively few people are going to download a bittorrent file, copy it to DVD and watch it in the living room, so there's no real threat there.

I believe that a year from now, pretty much all smartphones will offer Flash. Apple will get on board because they're not going to want to be at an enormous disadvantage, and Adobe will clearly work with them to make it work. They might not offer Flash on older iPhones if it's a resource hog though. Flash won't hurt the sales of iPhone games, which are optimized for the iPhone and iPod Touch and are dirt cheap. And Apple never intended for the iTunes store to be a major revenue source-- it's there to benefit the iPod and not the other way around.

@Canadian Bacon

>Like I said, I'm thoroughly enjoying my phone but don't make it out to be something it's not. Don't try and say that it's a revolutionary step from the previous iPhone, or even the first generation, because it's not.

Er... I never said that it's a "revolutionary step from the previous iPhone". I merely suggested it was an error to say that the 3G S is an "iPhone 3G with a compass". As the name implies, the 3G S is clearly an evolutionary improvement of the 3G, and I'm happy about that. There were clearly some basics that needed to be worked on before making dramatic changes to the platform. And I don't believe in making big changes (with all the attendant hassles for third party programmers and accessory makers) merely for the sake of change. If it's not broke, don't fix it, and most of the iPhone works very well. As for the camera, well, there's real limits as to what is possible with the optics of a tiny cameraphone lens. I've heard some say that using the screen on the 3G S to adjust the brightness and color balance can make it a lot easier to take shots of specific subjects, and the higher resolution pictures should look better when printed or cropped, but it's clearly not going to put Nikon out of business

Yep, it's just an "iPhone 3G with a compass". And a much faster processor and twice the memory. And twice the storage. And a better camera with autofocus. And support for shooting, trimming and uploading video. And voice control.