How do they lock the service to a specific device? MAC based? Cause that's really easy spoofable. How does it work with the DS, that also has a deal with T-mobile?

Isn't there a way to forge the detection, on, say, opera mini? I guess the problem is in identifying it? So, why not let me visit mobile.engadget or so, letting me indicate that i'd like the mobile version. Or is there another problem?

If the company would go down, you'd still have the router, which you could reflash to work without the Fon network. But they are talking to ISP's, to make this legal (and giving them a cut of the revenue).
And, altho their original plan was mainly aimed at VoIP, currently the seem to be more focused on Wifi in general, with laptops and other clients. Actually, you need a browser to login to the Fon network, so many Voip phones won't work (those without a browser, that is).

Does it also include a TV viewer? An EPG isn't very usefull without one. (not totally useless, as you can see what your missing, but otherwise...).

We have had them for years now in Amsterdam (the Netherlands, that is), where parking is above �4/hour. I think here they don't have any wireless capabilities, just a counter that is showing that the balance on the card is actually going down. They are quite populair with thieves, and I have allready seen steel casings for them.
Actually nowadays they are promoting the switch to a mobile based payment system (where you call when you arrive and leave), and you get a discount if you trade in such a device.
I have heard on hacked versions, which are supossedly for sale, and report that everything is working, but don't substract money from your card.

Am I to practical, if I ask for a use for such a wall? I can see the Pimp factor of it, and it's sure usefull if you have lot's of 49 Mpix pics to show, but wouldn't for most *consumer* uses a (HD?) beamer be more usefull? No black lines thu the screen of your movies, and Way less expensive. But, then again, maybe not as pimp...

I don't know about you Yankees, but here in the Netherlands, such a service would not be legal, if you don't own the rights to the content. It is legal to record something yourself, and I think it's also legal to tape something for someone else. But your not allowed to ask money for such a service, rendering it kind of useless as a bussinessmodel. Also it's not legal to just tape everything, and use it as a VoD service: your only allowd to tape segments that the customer specifficaly asked to be recorded.
Otherwise, offcource, one central system taping everything would be quite economical: The diskspace required to store a month of, say, 20 channels is quite modest, comparing to giving out 200Gb harddrives to all your customers.

Actually, MD's have one big advantage: They use very little power: my brothers minidisk can run 40 hours on one AA battery, of which you could easaly take a couple of spares. My Ipod runs out in about 10 hours, and needs a recharge then. That is a big difference if you don't have power for a couple of days, for example if you do mountaineering stuff, as I do.

Actually, it would be a friendly form-factor for a router, or so.

I would say: a full-blown E-paper reader such as the Irex Illiad