I'd rather have a smartphone with the option to block all 3G/EDGE traffic at the phone level, relying on wi-fi except in emergencies. I've been waiting since the Treo 600 was hot news. Its retail launch was in mid 2003, so ... eight years or so?

It's not an option out of the box, but you can accomplish this with software on Android devices. They work by changing the "APN" to invalid values - e.g. "APNdroid" as a simple toggle or "JuiceDefender" to do it based on a schedule.

Technically you could on iPhone, too, (same general process) but I'm not sure if you can do it on the fly (a profile which changes the configuration will accomplish disabling data).

The problem is getting a carrier which doesn't require you pay for "unlimited" data. Android has an advantage there since it's easier to buy an Android phone that's entirely unlocked and then bring it to a GSM provider without the provider knowing what you are using.

Soon, the Nokia N900 will be available under similar terms. It runs Maemo Linux, which is "more open" :) (It is also more mature than Android)

Older, maybe, but I'm not sure you can assume it's more mature. I haven't used Android, but Maemo, at least with the N810, seemed to be a good ways away from being "mature". The mail client was horrible and still evolving to be slightly less horrible. The UI was not responsive. The browser was horribly inadequate and often unusable with weird scrolling issues (tap and drag not working unless you happened to try to tap on an element that it wouldn't interpret for other purposes - like a link).

As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I want Nokia to come out on top simply because of their slightly more open phone policy and nicer hardware, but just because Maemo is older doesn't mean it's mature.

What was wrong with the UI shown in the videos linked that the iPhone does so much better?

I haven't watched the videos (and I wouldn't trust them if I did), but I owned an N810 and used an N770, both previous generations of that line of product. The main problem I've had with that line has been responsiveness. The touch screen doesn't register touches as often and as cleanly. User actions often lag behind a little. Scrolling in the web browser was painful at times. Clicking and dragging in the web browser sometimes didn't work for whatever reason or would click a link instead of dragging.

Nokia does some amazingly good hardware. The N95 should be way more capable than the iPhone with a great screen, fast processor, and a phenomenal (for a cell phone) camera. The UI is such a step backwards from the iPhone, however.

There's one thing Apple got really well with the iphone, and that's responsiveness. This, more than the app store, is what makes me like it so much. I REALLY want Nokia to triumph (or Android), but in the months I've had the iphone (3gs), I've never once been frustrated by how it *responded* to a simple task. The design for many things is backwards (largely due to their focus on control), but the UI is really smoothly implemented.

Nokia might get it right on the N900. I'm just skeptical. Maybe it will be a phone that lets me answer the phone regardless of what I'm doing (S60 failed on that). Maybe it will feel like it has enough processor for the apps it's running (N810 feels like it's struggling to run the browser). Nokia just hasn't proven themselves capable of making a complete package yet to me.

This written by someone who had an N95 for longer than I had any other phone in my history of having cellphones. I still am more fond of it than the iPhone, although the iPhone is more generally useful to me.

(In fact, the worst part was stripping the DRM from Amazon's ebooks before I left, so that I could read them on Stanza rather than on Amazon's shockingly bad Kindle app ...)

I find that interesting. I went the opposite way when I downloaded some books through Stanza and didn't like the interface at all (I found it to be rather laggy), so I converted them to a format the Kindle app could read.

What do you dislike about the Kindle app? For me, it's focused, quick loading, and very legible.

Kindle customers now know to make a backup copy.

I generally agree with your post. But this comment shows that you aren't very clear on how Kindle works. It's all wireless magic. I briefly used Kindle on iPhone. You "buy" a book and it just appears. If you have multiple devices they all know what page you're on. If you drop your Kindle in the tub, presumably you buy another one and all of the content reappears.

My understanding is that the "real" Kindles do allow you to access the files you've downloaded over Whispernet by connecting the device to your computer via a USB connection. The iPhone Kindle application does not allow you to see those files, but that is a limitation of the iPhone's design, not of the Kindle application. You can't access any application files on the iPhone without the application explicitly providing a way (through a web sync or by running, say, a http service inside the app).

A Jailbroken does expose the Kindle eBook files.

Once you have the files, though, there's the question of how to deal with them. I would imagine you need to remove the DRM before putting them back on the Kindle once they've been revoked.

It works fine for backup and saves the emails and attachments to .eml format (one per email), so even if the restore functionality fails you'll at least have the emails backed up in a usable format.

I have not tested the restore yet, since I know at least I can access the emails from the filesystem.