This machine looks great. I'd love to take it on a trip to New York City or Chicago, two places I've really wanted to return to for a while now - This would make navigation and wayfaring that much simpler! It'd also look really sleek, which might help me blend just a tiny bit more smoothly.

This is a sweet giveaway... Hope I get it!
There's always great stuff here on Engadget.

Aw c'mon, that was tooootally 'Wide VGA' :) A little rush, maybe, but I didn't think it was 'Y'.
That's one of the things I kinda wished would've been featured more actually, I want to know how that WVGA resolution compares to an iPhone or Hero screen. Great review though Chris, pretty thorough for a device we've known a lot about for a while now.

Now if only it ran Android... and/or had that 5 megapixel camera from the Hero.

If there's any feature that's perfect to be branded with something, the Ask Engadget feature is the one.

There isn't really any editorial content in these posts, they are, obviously, questions to the hive mind. Editors can't have a conflict of interest if they're not even answering the question to begin with.
Aside from that, I'm pretty sure they have a strict separation between the editorial staff on here and their ad-sellers at AOL. There was an ad campaign (or two) in the past that definitely provoked editor ire, and it was pretty clear they had no say in it. It's not as if Joshua Topolsky is vetting the ads on the site; they get sold elsewhere. They pay the editors' salaries, true, but considering these guys have been accused of being *EVERY* kind of fanboy*, I think that means they're generally pretty even in their assessments. They don't want any one company to succeed, they just want the perfect gadget, period.

*(Well, okay, except Josh Tops really is a Palm fanboy, and Chris Ziegler is an S60 fanboy, but even *then* they've seemed fair. :p)

Apple has, over the past few years and possibly earlier than that, acted in "evil" ways. Your main argument seems to be that they've not been grossly anti-competitive, which is another metric altogether.

To say their "small" size should protect them is no longer a valid claim. iTunes and the iPod are hugely dominant, with iTunes now the largest music retailer, period. Bigger than Walmart, bigger than Amazon, period. They have enormous clout and power in that market, and their practices have been hugely anti-competitive while their iPod line has been largely iterative, not innovative, for years because of their dominance. The world doesn't benefit when the world's largest maker of portable music players *still* doesn't even include a radio in any of their players, among other features/innovations that other manufacturers included long ago. Apple's treatment of the iPhone has been even more brutal, and its market share increases every day.

Regarding the claim that Apple is somehow too "small" to do more for the developing world, consider that as of February 2009, Apple was widely reported to be sitting on $15 billion in cash. $15 billion is a huge number to just sit on, yet that's what they've done while suing publications out of business, keeping prices (and profit margins) high, standing by while one of their employees kills himself after an alleged security leak, and claiming the iPhone could be used by terrorists.

At what point does their anti-competitive behavior become big enough to matter? When 90% of the population is shuffling between our iPod, iPhone, and MacBook while hunting for a power outlet to charge them all since they don't give consumers the option of using spare batteries?

This would be great.
Maybe I could recreate one of the afternoons at the beach we had when I was a little kid, but this time a little more upscale. It's been years since I went to that beach, so this would be a great excuse to return!

Okay, I don't mean this as a flame, I'm genuinely curious:
What is it about the Tour that has people so excited?
I know people are terribly excited, but I haven't seen any concrete reasons why. It's usually just some form of salivating/eagerness in comments without any meat behind them.

Are the specs impressive? I've not seen them listed anywhere save for the 3 megapixel camera, and that's not terribly exciting in 2009. Is it the looks that have people drooling? It is a handsome Blackberry, but it's not drastically different from other handsets of theirs.

What is it that I'm missing, and why should I want this more than the Bold on AT&T? (aside from, of course, complaints about AT&T's network)

I'm afraid I concur with those who argue against this interpretation of the memo. This isn't the first biased reading I've seen from Mr. Murph, either, though I confess I can't recall other specific instances. (And, in fairness, the guy writes like 80 bajillion posts a day; everyone is allowed a little oopsie every once in a while - it's not like the biased/unbiased ratio is above like, 1/100.)

The memo states Windows 7 isn't JUST a "Vista that works", i.e. it's not *only* that. The phrasing is such that there's an implied 'but' missing, e.g.: "This new operating system isn't SOLELY a "Vista that works" program - it is INSTEAD a new operating system that features: improved productivity, functionality and creativity that uses less computer resources."

The memo seems to be arguing very clearly that Windows 7 is MORE THAN a "Vista that works", and it is making this claim precisely to dispel contrary opinions. Many pundits, including this very blog post, have argued that Windows 7 is "Vista that works". This memo states otherwise, to combat that misconception. That it goes on to state the other benefits of the upgrade is further proof of their intentions. Their wording is a bit clumsy, but it seems clear that their entire purpose is to give their staff more than "Vista that works" as a talking point.

I haven't played with Win7 yet, but after a year and a half of Vista, I haven't had nearly the headaches that posts such as this would lead one to believe. Vista has been a nightmare for Microsoft, but let's at least work on our reading comprehension skills before adding another shovelful on its grave, shall we?

Meanwhile, talk about burying the lede! FREE upgrades starting 3 weeks from now? That's like, huge.

That's certainly what it looks like, at least... The latest version, 3.0, with all the shiny zoomy fun 3D stuff.
Wonder if they actually bought licenses for it or if it's just being slapped on there?

Pretty excruciating trying to guess what Richard was saying based only on the replies to it.
Ah well, I know @tront usually does great work, and everyone's allowed a mistake here and there. Any plans to re-release the episode somehow, or is that pretty much impossible?

Shame, really, since the slate of topics *is* rather full this week!