they got best email integration for phone . BBM is pretty good . Yes they still got soe work to do in App space and it takes awefully long time to re boot the device but hey its not that bad if you ask me . they have got a Legeacy to support too .

Classic case of hubris and " love to hate " syndrome . It has got a good CPU , Support Flash , QNX run on Dalvik VM so there is always a plan B of supporting . Android Apps . I think for version 1 this is a decent device and i have used the pre released unit . Multitasking is good enough and by any count it is better than Xoom . in a world filled with Android and Apple Fan boys its hard to measure anything on a standalone basis .

I guess MS holds some stake in that . one way or another Bill G will make money

How many year more before we realize that its was a mistake ? Groundhog day

his Id is sjobs@apple.com . HE needs to read it :)

They are not *Betting* on HTML5 they are just complying with standard or hedging for it. last month at Mobile Web Conference'2010 Eric Schimidt Touted Flash Support in android . I doubt they would do it for HTML5 . when it comes to mobile Google want it to be app/pluggin centric pardigm where they control things as they control Android . things like HTML5 which pushes WAP paradigm is something they won't like .

When was the last time Performance and better quality became critical in deciding which tech will be widely deployed ? Unless a biggie like Google /MS /Apple back on HTML5 i don't see why it would replace incumbent standard :Flash . i have seen this movie before in Betamax Vs VHS and I am sure that lot of folks on slashdot are reading this discussion on IE 6 . comaprision like these are geeky amusment at best .

this is more to do with keeping Google Check out at bay . Checkout is default payment method in Android .with all the transaction moving to Mobile phone this can threaten paypal's core business sooner or later . interesting time ahead .

Screen size is just one aspect of it , this is a multi headed monster , other issue is input method ( touch ,trackball, triple key press ,QWERTY) , Heap Size, Memory constraint , diffrence in JVM implementation ,diffrent interpretation of specs etc . Device fragmentation is the harsh reality of Mobile world and its going to stay . let me repeat fragmentation is here to stay . Its evil cousin of differentiation . As long as manufacturers keep producing different devices we will keep running into these issues . I doubt if any of these alliances can do much to change that . not in any meaningful way , unless they can enforce end user to get app from them only or work with handset OEMs to make devices comply with some common minimum criteria before they allow them on their network .

Much as I like to be other wise genie is out of the bottle here , only thing we can do is to keep design of your app as platform neutral as possible. than attack the implementation part with tools for cross platform development , Java , J2ME is one way , there are other tools like Mobile Distelry ,Phonegap and Mitr trying to solve this problem only . but we have a long way to go on this . for more detail i suggest you read this excellent paper from a NUS professor named RAJAPAKSE . it will give you a lot of insight about the same .
Disclaimer : I work for SpiceLabs the company behind Mitr

why you are feeding the troll . that too on Valentine Eve ?

Very nicely put

nothing beats that IMHO

heat map variation sensor make a more elegant solution IMHO . with a little knowledge of topography of room you can do a relistic 3 D modeling of scenario .

Same here .slashdot never fail to give me new perspective on a seemingly insurmountable problem

you surely live up to your name