You cuss me out after calling me an unmitigated idiot. Classy. Intelligent. Definitely not idiotic at all.

You're right. Sometimes ish does in fact happen. For mentioning this ish, you decide to personally attack me. You don't make any argument about the point and in fact conceded the validity of my statement by saying "Sometimes shit happens."

Stay classy, Dog-Cow.

Since I disagree with your viewpoint and you have no counter-argument, you sir or ma'am have shown yourself to be the close-minded, unmitigated idiot in this discussion. I cannot comment on your personality as I have never met you, as you have made the assumption about mine with the comment of "asshole."

If you have an issue, please, by all means, refute with facts and an argument so that these cogent points can be reviewed. Otherwise, I guess the rest of the crowd on this site sees fit to hound and pursue anyone that disagrees with an opinion if you have no cogent response and insult people personally. Next you will probably call me a "fag" because I use words and grammar that are alien to you by the looks of your response.

The fact remains that if there is a system that you advertise as fully open source, then all programs included should also be open source, especially when there is no possibility of changing the included programming to something different.

If you advertise that your system is open source, you should be advising that the system contains closed source software or remove said software. You should not advertise as COMPLETELY open source. It isn't. While you are right, at the same time, if you remove the closed source apps, the OS and phone is almost useless, and doesn't operate anywhere near advertised. This makes major portions of the operation of the phone as closed source. It's legal, just immoral. If Google was really committed to open source, Android would include a barebones email system, maps, etc, and leave the option for closed source downloads through their app store. The shocking part about that whole business for many non-IT professionals was not the fact that Google was heavy-handed, but that not all of the system was open source. Also, remember when Android didn't have a store? That means, although the system was "open source," there was no other programs for some items (MAPS, etc) other than Google's proprietary "stuff," which isn't open source.

So what you are saying is that it is okay to advertise something that is partially Open Source as completely open source. It doesn't matter what part was balked at. The fact of the matter is that the way that the system is advertised, it is completely open source. If you put proprietary pieces into place, it is no longer open source by definition, because not all of the code is open for alteration and that part of code is not redistributable. Therefore, Android is just like everyone else's OS, except instead of putting in an SDK and spending money on figuring out ways to keep part of the system closed while opening other parts, you leave the code open for the same things that you would normally make an SDK for and lock down the parts you don't want touched. That's not open source. That is a very efficient and cost effective way to avoid making SDKs. More power to Google for taking this route...but it is NOT open source. Give me a phone where every part of the code is open for alteration and I will see an Open Source phone. Otherwise, Android is JUST like every other system. BTW, with all of the talk of customization, Windows Mobile is almost as customizable after developers get done with it? The iPhone can be jailbroken and heavily customized. While neither of these companies outright ALLOW this, DevTeam and others have been doing it since the cell phone became popular. Basically, without the "Open Source" moniker and a different (not necessarily better) UI, there is no difference between Android and anything else. Therefore, it becomes much more grave of a situation when one of the only selling points for your product is only partially true when no indication had been given as such before. This is called "false advertising." True "open source," such as OpenOffice and Firefox or the huge majority of Linux distros, use ONLY open source software. Everything is code-downloadable, not just the OS or parts of the OS. In addition, with the way that the Google tools interact with the OS, how can you say that it is not in the OS for these parts? You can remove it, and some of the vaunted integration goes away. Splitting hairs is always a way to win an argument, but not one to improve upon products.

It's only open source until Google decides that they don't want someone else using the "Open Source" code and files a court injunction as was done last week. If you are going to bash, bash evenly. Google deserves your ire as well.

The power draw in the iPhone is from the cell radios primarily. Turn them off and you triple your battery life. The screens are not the main source of power consumption, at least on the iPhone. Yes, the power consumption goes up, but this is a decent trade-off for the extra screen size. Also, remember that as the thing folds and has two sides, so does it have room for two batteries. Might make it a bit more heavy, but the convenience factor can more than likely make up for this. As for someone reading on an iPhone, that is all well and good, but when I can't even read a full paragraph due to size constraints before moving to the next "page," in addition to the small text size to do any type of serious reading, it really isn't the best form factor for reading or textbooks.

Two screens double the size of an iPhones. Very nice. The pocket in the middle...very nice. the folding (a 15" combined screen area in a package the size of a small netbook)...very, very nice. If this thing even thinks about supporting Office, Apple may have a tough time competing with this thing if it is all as listed here. Of course, as with any company, things change before release (anyone remember WinFS?).

Have you ever heard of the phrase, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions?" I am sure no one intended for an vermicide to be used to commit mass genocide, but Zyklon A and B are your prime examples. How about nuclear fission? I'm sure Einstein really meant for a world destroying weapon when he was deducing General Relativity. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This is similar to going to each person's house, looking over their shoulder while they are looking at their morning paper over coffee (does anyone do this anymore), and crossing out articles they don't like with a black marker. Then they turn around and blame the newspaper for it's horrible printing methodology. Censorship is censorship by any definition. The RIAA has already gotten a bunch of people to court by IP address obtained through legal means. There is no need for an ISP to be censoring data in any way, shape or form. Comcast, just stop trying to screw your customer base over. PLEASE! This goes for you, TIME WARNER, as well. AND YOU Verizon. A little for Cox Communications, although they are WAY better than the previous three mooks. I have said it before, but cable companies need regulation like electric, water, and garbage companies. This is what having a virtual monopoly does for your freedoms. The government actually got it right for once. Republican, Democrat, who cares?!?!?! JUST GET IT RIGHT!

There are so many problems with this.... 1. 10 people watching a moving = COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT 2. Someone is always monitoring your activities?!?!?! 3. Someone is always monitoring your activities?!?!?! 4. Someone is always monitoring your activities?!?!?! 5. Really? Seriously? Giving up your free rights to be observed so your programming is more towards your liking? 6. Someone is always monitoring your activities?!?!?! 7. Comcast and others already overcharge, hold their customer's hostage, charge for the month when the month isn't even over, cut off service for no reason whatsoever, limit your data usage or attempt to charge additional for "unlimited plans," treat their customers poorly, limit bandwidth, etc. Do we really want them knowing what we are doing all of the time? 8. Someone is always monitoring your activities?!?!?! Cable is the worst industry there is. I worked for the best of them at one point, and they sucked. Cable and cell phone companies take complete advantage of their customers, with little to no protection from government agencies because of the "non-essential" nature of their business. Electric, water, gas...regulated. In this day and age, internet and cell service is quickly becoming an "essential" service, and these companies should start to be regulated like electric, water and gas companies. The government is 5 years behind in tech advancement. It's about time someone reigns in these abusers of the "free" market.

Thus is ridonkulous. A program that tracks your exact location, transmits this info wirelessly, and stores it on the web....and does it in the background?!?!?!?! I have a Blackjack II and an iPhone - this garbage won't go on either phone ever. I have a problem with Apple rejecting it - freedom to have yourself tracked with "government privacy protection" stemming from an institution that can't decide if an IP address can identify you - but I will never put this garbage on my phone. Instead of knocking on the iPhone or Microsoft all of the time, turn your attention to Google for once. We allow them to track our emails and "scan" them. Docs, maps, geo-locating, chat "scans." Now Lattitude. How much will we allow Google to know about us before we become alarmed?