Heck, slap the 3430 chipset, 3.5 jack and more memory into the G1 and people would be happy I would

I could care less now, since the N900 will be my main device and the G1 will be my back-up. No active DSP in the 7201a, so Flash would suck anyways on the G1, except perhaps full screen streaming video.

Still, unless the Droid can be rooted (rumors are 2.0 makes it VERY hard to do), you will be stuck with about 150 megs of available app space and no option for virtual space on the SD card.

Who knows, maybe Droid is popular, a ton of app devs and customers rant about app space and this changes Google's Android devs stance about apps to SD? Nah

What a bunch of hooey, frankly! It isn't clear if these are your words or a quote from a former Google employee. Please attribute clearly if that's the case. OK, on to your (or former Google-employee's) arguments.

Google has a lifetime value on each customer? OK, and every other company does business for purely altruistic reasons, right? The truth is this, Google has changed the entire business model in every area is has touched, and this confuses people who are used to thinking of say, email, as a product you have to pay for if you want any industrial strength features (say, a fast interface and lightning quick searches).

Then, in your posting, you launch into a confused mess out of which I got this - that Apple phones are beautiful, but Apple phones are made for Dumb-istan; and Google is targeting Android to Dumb-istan now also, and this is very bad; and oh, Apple is fighting the Microsoft evil empire.

Please.

Apple products, once we get past the days when advanced publishing and graphics tools were only available for the Mac, are made for the computer un-sophisticated, and marketed as a lifestyle. The underlying business model is to tightly lock and control hardware and software. This much you say. But then Android isn't bad because it has apps to buy like the Jesus-phone. Android is its own thing. It's great, it was the software engine for the first consumer Linux phone. I see that as very good. I don't see it as having anything to do with Apple.

And there are aspects of Microsoft that are "evil." But MS is also responsible for the explosion of PC hardware, which in turn helped the propagation of Linux (or you could argue that Linux cleverly leveraged). A development which wouldn't even be possible in an Apple world.

And finally, Google doesn't "lie" about the price you pay for its products. They monetize in the least obtrusive and most free (as in freedom) way of any company in the same product/service area. In contrast, every Apple ad is uninformative nonsense, which may not be a lie but is certainly misdirection.

Android vs. Maemo? Great. Two different software architectures. Competition.

Nice of you to take it so well and hope you do hang out here and chip in. Maybe the next Maemo-powered phone will win you over.

Sorry, maybe I got carried away, I tend to, but I'm just not impressed with the Droid specs and it really is odd-looking to me. Over the last year I've taken a lot of (somewhat deserved) grief over my G1 so I know the feeling. That's ok, I can take it.

Where the G1 has a "chin", the Droid has an underbite :-)

(and I really wish that HTC would stop doing chins on their Android devices ... I wish my G1 _looked_ more like the HTC Touch Pro 2)

Exactly, well put. Very strange.

The G1 will never win any beauty contests. But I don't mind the chin myself, even like it on the Hero (not the Sprint version, the original). I thought the Hero was nice, clean design and the chin gave it some individuality.

Actually the chin does have a practical purpose. If you lay it face down, it keeps the screen elevated a bit so it doesn't pick up dirt or scratches. Also protects the trackball. I good idea I thought, even if it makes HTC Androids look kinda funny to some. Other than looks, the downside of a chin is it gets in the way when designing a slider with a keyboard.

I've been waiting for this phone for a very long time, that's one of the reasons I'm going to buy an N900 without hesitation.

Yeah, they have the Droid dummies at Best Buy now (in the closets, not on display). I was told real Droids would be there next Friday. The dummy had a non-functional keyboard (just a flat plastic piece, keys couldn't be pressed). However the keys are flat, so the board is going to be less tactile than what the N900 will apparently be (from pictures only, since the beta testers have been so un-forthcoming with reviews). Also, the Droid is a very angular device, looks like Nokia (again, from pictures) found a happy design point between the angular-function-first approach of the Droid and the fetishistic featureless contours of the Jesus-phone.

The size of the keys appears to be the same.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/tags/nokia-n900-review

Continuing on the keyboard comparison, I tried out an N900 kbd at the Chicago store, and the slightly domed top of the keys is going to make a big difference between it and the Droid (keeping in mind that the Droid I looked at was a store dummy, with non-functioning non-pressable keys).

The N900's single shift key s going to take more getting used to than the offset space bar.

The machine itself is well, so small! But it does feel heavy for the size.

As far as the keyboard, the pictures make it look as if the Droid has dished rather than domed keys which would be better than the flat keys that some devices have. I'd still prefer domed for thumbing.

As far as size, it would appear to be taller and wider (but thinner) than the N900. It's also 16 gm lighter.

Other than the OS, they appear to be very similar.

Here is a side by side comparison:

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3...&idPhone1=2917