When I was in Laos I toured the Beer Laos / Carlsberg brewery (owned 51% by the government, 49% by Carlsberg). They used broken rice instead of wheat or rye for the beer. It was pretty damn good.

I didn't deactivate itself, it was remote wiped. This is something that you can do to any enterprise iPhone or one subscribed to MobileMe.

Have you entirely missed the iPhone and the iPad? I think the thing the techie crowd is struggling with is the iPhone and iPad represent a paradigm shift, where you do replace "general purpose computer", but instead of with a single purpose device it is a device that becomes whatever you need. When I need a compass my iPhone becomes one, same with music player, e-mail client, calendar, web browser, internet radio player, map, RSS reader, coupon barcodes, ticket receipt, credit card scanner, calculator, I could go on forever. Instead of general purpose it is becoming task specific - and I for one welcome this. I look forward to the day when I can unlock my front door, start my car, read my sales report, than start a phone call all from one device.

And they have a giant pile of cash sitting around. Seriously F'ing giant. There is also the option they could grab Gimp or Krita and clean up the interface (like they did with BSD, Webkit, CUPS, etc, etc, etc).

Opposite. Do you know how much new CDs and DVDs cost? Just a few dozen and you get close to the cost of an iPad. They get stolen and they're gone, however when the iPad is stolen it's backed up on my computer (hypothetically, I don't own an iPad yet).

Why wouldn't you trust a hundred dollar bill from a homeless man? Sure it might be stolen or gained through illicit methods, but do you really think a homeless person has the equipment required to counterfeit? And you think a counterfeiter will trust homeless people with exchanging fake money for the real stuff?

What OS do you run on the PC? How much did it cost? What antivirus are you using? How much does that cost and how often do you pay? What backup software do you use? How much is that service, or are you taking into account the backup server costs? I think sticker prices, ESPECIALLY for work computers, is almost meaningless. When I chose a copy machines I don't give a shit about the price, I care about the service contract and cartridge costs.

Because developers like to get paid, and there is a shitload of money to be made from a successful app on the iTunes store.

You think Apple has ever thought of Safari, iTunes, and Quicktime on Windows as anything other than bastard kids they've been itching to abandon or kick out of the house?

1) Windows Phone 7 is not shipping yet, Palm is going out of business soon if someone doesn't buy them, and Android wasn't that great until the latest round of phones. In addition the iPhone keeps getting updated, so while not as fast moving as Android it is a moving target.

2)Yes and no, I have yet to have an app where a double tap doesn't zoom in, where a swipe doesn't scroll, or where a pinch doesn't zoom. If every app behaved differently I wouldn't put up with the platform. It's not about being confused by an UI, it's about not wanting to even think about the UI.

I've been using cell phones since they were small briefcases that had to be plugged into your car or wall outlet. Frankly the iPhone was years ahead of everyone when it came out, and others are just now catching up. The iPhone was the first phone since my giant brick from AT&T that I didn't feel I had to fight with the UI. I had phones from Samsung, Nokia, and Motorola, and HTC that were all pains to deal with. My Windows Mobile phone had to be to be reset by holding the recessed button with a stylus at least once a day - that should not have been tolerated but instead it was accepted because it was the best out there at the time. I think RIM made the first decent offering, but it wasn't until Apple that everyone else stopped offering shit for a user experience.

And does Flash perform poorly on Linux because the community wants it to perform poorly? Why is the community denying my the capability of having a good experience?

Except that you also have people complaining of crappy ports from PS3 to X-Box (or vice-versa) when both are designed with the limitations of controllers. Or from Arcade to console, or from console to handheld, etc.

iPhone hardware does not differ substantially from other phones, but the user interface is way different than anything out there - and Jobs wants to keep it that way and keep it consistent. Sure it isn't as different now with Android and WebOS, but when the iPhone came out there was nothing with near as slick and usable system.

I think my point is a little beyond that. Unless I'm developing or debugging an application or OS I never want to see a process manager, even if you fucked up your code somewhere in your program. In my ideal world I wouldn't even have to force quit a program or process, my OS would do it for me. Just like how my drill will automatically slips if it hits too much resistance; or how my car will activate all wheel drive if a wheel slips, I want my computer to make my job easier.