Honestly, I just don't see the difference. Apple did the thing Jobs has always been good at doing: integrating a handful of different technologies into a single device, and wrapping them up within a shiny, pretty unified container for the consumer to use. In short, he's turned the smartphone into a toaster.

And since then, everybody wants to make toasters. Smartphones are getting no smarter! Simpler, prettier, yes -- cute little widgets on the homescreen are our new innovations. But the whole point behind Android was to do _exactly_ what Apple did; hide all the technology of a smart phone behind a gaudy interface, and entice the user to buy lots of tiny colorful apps to perform lots of tiny colorful functions for him.

I just don't see any real difference between my four-year-old iPhone and the latest offerings from Apple or Google or whoever. The n900 is the closest thing I've found to a phone manufacturer willing to try something different.