I second this. Furthermore, if you want to get gasp-inducing cool stuff running on small embedded platforms, you need a language which can leverage existing multiplatform libraries and content. Namely C.

This is why the iPhone app count exploded after the SDK opened, they released C*! With OpenGL! Suddenly it's not a case of writing your own crappy library in Javobfuscript to handle parsing or physics, because there's one already! You don't have to reinvent the wheel with the world's slowest framebuffer, as there's direct access to the 3D chip! I can't believe companies are finding this hard to grasp! If you can get cool games running on your platform, you can get cool anything running!

I would buy a Palm Pre in a heartbeat, if only they'd hurry it up and release some C/OpenGL bindings. Well, that and release a 3G version so Australian stores can stock it.

* Okay, some might say mandatory Objective C may inspire you to gouge out both eyes with a rusty toasting fork and spend the rest of your life as a blind luddite hermit. Suck it up like a man, write some C/C++ glue code, then drink to forget

And yes, .the.product is (for the better part) playable under Linux with Wine's DX8 wrapper, if you don't mind the music being a tad out of sync.