Oh, and regarding Windows 8, what I've gathered (but I haven't done much reasearch) is that it is awesome for touch tablets (can't wait to try it on my Lenovo Tablet PC and hopefully someday an Asus Transformer Prime equivalent) but confusingly different from Windows 7 as a non-touch upgrade.

My takeaway so far is that it's not exactly bad, just different. It will take a while for people to get used to it. I have NOT (yet) gotten the impression that it's Vista levels of buggy or anything.

It may be an unnecessary upgrade for non-convergence devices.

Yeah--I'm still waiting to find out what's either wrong or limited with 7 that 8 will improve on while we're still in the middle period where you can get either on new hardware.

As for touchscreen devices--I do find myself reaching out and trying to move things on my laptop (thank dog I'm alone--I look really dumb doing it), but the ergonomics aren't that great--they'd be worse at work on the dual screen setup. The laptop half of that is out of reach, and if it were in reach, it's on my non dominant side--the right side is clear so I can write and manipulate things on the desk.

That will be an interesting transition--seeing if touch makes it onto laptops and desktops in the standard workplaces. Well, maybe not if and just when.

Do we have a feeling about HTC phones? Or is the question less who the manufacturer is and more the question of OS and 3G/4G?

I like my HTC phone

My myTouch is made by Htc. It's officially 4g, but it's not that fast.

It looks like skeuomorphism at Apple is on its way out: [link]

Is that good or bad thing?

If it means less of this then it’s a good thing.

it's a good thing. seriously. Ive is heading up the whole enchilada.

Hmm, power is flickering. Trying to decide if it's better to unplug the laptop to avoid a power surge or unplug and risk not being at full power. Decisions, decisions.