> I'll never buy though because I want to do stuff with my device that Apple doesn't allow

Like what? I'm about to give up my BlackBerry (the *real* phone Slashdoters love to hate), leaning towards iPhone, but am not very cognizant of the box into which I could be climbing.

Yup, EM on Windows here too.

I expect it will require a shift in how apps are delivered. Provisioning all the apps your buddy wants to share with you, and that your company needs to run their business, it now simply too tall a mountain to climb for any newcomers.

One app for all is the promise of HTML5, but it doesn't seem like it's managed to fulfilled that.

There's lots like you. But they've got all their peers telling them Windows and BlackBerry are the wrong choice, for so many reasons that, right or wrong, are hard to argue for anyone who isn't knowledgeable. We're social animals, most just move with the herd.

I'm so tired of people repeating that old fallacy. BlackBerry stayed the course of maximizing battery life and minimizing data use because the carriers world wide told them they had to. When those who are throwing the bags of money at you set the rules of engagement, it's awfully hard to argue.

Much like someone mentioned of Windows phones, my Z30 has it built right in, works great.

Depends on whether "free" is a necessary feature. I held onto Mulberry for far too long, finally made a switch this past summer when I built a new machine. After evaluating several potential email clients, I settled on eM. It can do most if not all of what's being asked. There is a free version, but it only supports something like 3 accounts. I needed more, so paid for the pro version.

The Z30 has a 2880 mAH non removable battery, I charge it every morning, but only out of habit: by the end of the day it's maybe down to 60% but is usually higher.

> For one, not enough photos of infrastructure before putting up the insulation and drywall.

We took photos of all our walls and ceilings pre-drywall when we built in 1999, and have referred to them so very many times in the years since. It's great not only to know where wiring is, but plumbing, studs, which way joists run, and more.
Just do it.

Like others have mentioned, we ran conduit from basement to top floor to enable easily changing wires. We pulled ethernet cables, speaker wire for in-wall speakers, 4-wire phone cable for an IR repeater system (maybe not as necessary now, but we still use it), TV cable, video cable...some of these to allow the AV components to reside in a different room from the television.
In the years since, we've pulled lots more ethernet, speaker wire, HDMI, etc., often to locations to which we hadn't run conduit. And yeah, those photos were invaluable.

Enjoy!

> The BlackBerry Classic Is One of the Best Phones of 2009

What most of the internet seems to have missed is that BlackBerry intended the new Classic to be "one of the best phones of 2009".

What is also missed is that, that's okay. There are people out there who don't want an iPhone or Samsung, they want a new&improved Bold 9900. Maybe that's not you: fine. But maybe it is, and that's fine too.

...Firefox and Ubuntu, both of which are hatching new smart phone platforms. Surely they must be "too late" as well, or does that somehow only apply to Blackberry? If they're too late, how can Firefox and Ubuntu be so misguided as to bother trying?

Does the petition include the change from Frankenheit to Celsius? It doesn't seem to be specifically mentioned.