Once this is in place how long before [insert hacking group of the month] breaks into an ISP and posts this online? The more of this stuff which is collected the more Sonyesque cases we are going to see. The eternal optimist in me says that maybe that will cause a rethink of these types of laws; the pessimist has a quite different opinion...

<minirant>

With the death knell sounding for the N900 a friends I recently decided to buy a Xoom figuring that Android is where things seem to be heading. I have to confess that I've been rather underwhelmed by it. My current list of gripes are:

• 
     
• The marketplace is a massive pain to use and to find anything useful in

•    

• Many apps just don't work (probably because they were never tested on the Xoom)

•    

• A general feeling that the apps are just unpolished or beta-quality

•    

• Lack of hardware consistency leading to confused software (some apps expect there to be some form of h/w keyboard present)

•    

• No video calling with Skype (the main reason I bought to device in the first place, more fool me for not checking)

•    

• ...

Aside from the Android-specific gripes there are also Xoom-specific ones (proprietary charging interface, a pain to root the device, highly reflective screen, ...). I really wanted to like this device but it feels like an uphill battle right now. It feels like the only way it beats my N900 is on screen size and CPU power; that may have been a niche device but it's still a much better user experience IMHO.

</minirant>

Pedant mode / oblig Wilt quote:
Inspector Flint: Are you inferring we're all stupid?
Henry Wilt: No. I'm implying you're all stupid; you're inferring it

I totally concur. I actually had to stop listening to Pandora since it was becoming a bit of a financial drain: song plays, "Oh, that's good", click-buy-album, wade through a few more songs, wash, rinse repeat. I realise that I'm a bit old skool in that I still do buy actual albums (and that you do get bitten by the old one-good-song-in-chaff problem) but Pandora still found plenty of really good artists that I would have never stumbled across otherwise.

I know I'm preaching to the converted here on Slashdot but the radio in the US is just terrible. Every station plays the same 5 latest "hits"; it's things like Pandora which keep music alive for me.

Man, I sound old.

Bluff!