If you want you can write Ruby apps directly on the phone (See Ruboto), having access to the full Android API. This is forbidden on iOS, since they don't like interpreted code.

Oh, I'm not saying that I recommend this! I just meant that if you are in the unusual situation that you can't have / don't want a Google account but still want to use Android it is possible to do that, albeit dowdily.
It's safe to say that in most cases it only makes sense to buy an Android device if you also will use it with a Google account. I even advise everyone to NOT buy any Android devices that lack the standard Google apps (Mail, Talk and most importantly Market), since the experience will be much worse.

Sorry if that wasn't clear from my first post.

At least in theory it should be possible to install a different contact apps (without market access you would have to hunt down an APK for this on the web). The nice thing about Android is that every program can be replaced since all apps are abstracted: Lets say you install an emergency button widget and in the configuration you can select one phone number that should be called when the button gets pressed: That app would request a contacts selection dialog, normally that would come straight from Google's contact, but if you installed a second contact app it would show you a dialog where you could select "Always use OtherContactsApp".

As for the market, you can install different markets, but those have way less apps.

TLDR: In theory you could get all the functionality without having a Google account, but the experience will still be a bit worse than with a Google account.

No, since you want to park the mower in the same spot at the end.

(Unless you build two sheds in different locations to optimize your mowing path...)

Cars bumping into each other doesn't seem that dramatic to me. I thought that the only thing that could bring the end to robotic cars would be if one of them ran over a child?

Also, have they figured out the insurance question yet? Which automaker would want to sell those, if they have to pay in case of an accident?

Thanks to the GEMA (German RIAA) we won't get this in Germany.

It's bad enough that we have to rent proxies to use Hulu, Netflix, Pandorra etc. but now we have to use proxies on our PHONES to reach the content we want to pay for? I'm really trying hard to pay, but I'm not sure how long I can resist the much simpler way: just pirate it. :(

Is there even a way to fake being an USA citizen on Android? How much work would that be? X(

You don't have to use Java, I prefer to use Ruby (see Ruboto). Android is very open, you are allowed to use any language you want, even interpreted ones (those are banned on the iPhone, I don't know how the situation is on WP7)

My personal opinion is that WP7 is the first OS that actually has style. Android is ugly and iPhone is very plain, imho.

Nonetheless, I'm still very happy with my Android for these reasons:
- I was able to replace the OS with a customized version that allows me to use my phone as a wifi hotspot
- I replaced the home screen interface with a different one that is closer to how I want it to work
- I can program apps for it without owning a Mac, in fact the SDK runs on Windows, Linux, Mac and since it's open source some people are porting it to BSD
- I got Ruboto IRB from the market for free, wrote a little server directly on the phone, opened the terminal emulator that comes with the custom rom (Cyanogenmod), and used telnet to connect to localhost, all within maybe 5 minutes.

While Android is the perfect thing for tech savvy people, I honestly don't know which device I would recommend to the "average" user. Maybe it depends on the integration: WP7 for Microsoft users (Outlook, XBox...), iPhone for the Maccies (iTunes) and Android for the Google users (Mail, Calendar, GTalk etc.)

Then just use the perfect spelling of the German language (just don't use its grammar or pronounciation, those suck)

"u" is always u as in "boot"
"a" is always a as in "car"
"ä" is always ä as in "care" (Germans would spell it "cär", not "care", which would sound like "cuh reh")

If inglish followd thies simpel ruls it wud bi a lot isier tu lörn and yuus, don't yu agri?
If english followed these simple rules it would be a lot easier to learn and use, don't you agree?

You mean the one that has no Unicode support?

We might have already lost the battle, but PLEASE try to only buy from stores that sell unencrypted EPUBs which work on every device. For German books, I buy them from "beam ebooks" (Not sure if it's okay to post links that could be seen as advertisement, but it should be easy to find anyway). I haven't yet found a good store for english language unencrypted EPUBs, could anyone recommend one to me? Finding these is such a hassle because of all the lying sellers ("It's the cool free open EPUB*!" *includes DRM that makes it impossible to view on your device)

Also, even though it's illegal, if I can't buy an unencrypted ebook anywhere, I resort to downloading the free pirated version or not read the book at all. Since DRM often doesn't work on my ereader, the only legal alternative would be to fill my house with more paper bricks.

I mean, it's totally obscene: This is how I became to read the German bestseller of 2010 "Deutschland schafft sich ab":
1. Tried to buy it online, wasn't available.
2. Found a horrible pirated scanned PDF that I did not want to read
3. Gave up and went to the physical book store: All sold out everywhere for days, even amazon could not deliver
4. Gave up, but within days of release, somebody crafted a really nice EPUB with OCRed text and all diagrams embedded correctly. So I downloaded that one and was very happy with it.

Why, oh why couldn't they just sell me the EPUB in the first place? I hate hunting down pirated versions and want to give money to the authors.

I type my notes into my personal Wiki (so they are available to me everywhere and can easily be organized). Take my wifi from my cold dead hands!

Seriously, why should I be punished to force the facebookers/warcrafters to pay attention? What's next, banning pencils because people like to doodle?

So the lesson of the story is that the people in the boat and helicopter had no free will and were instead remote controlled by god?

Also, why does god only perform SOME miracles? Doesn't he have the time to defeat all evil?

So, how to watch Pink outside the USA? Anyone knows?

I'm looking forward to the time when thepiratebay will have the latest sports car for download.

On a serious note, 3D printing could kill the physical product industry. Will there be DRM on car blueprints? Hm.

They were always called "pad" on Star Trek. Or does that count as future use of the word?