My few cents*...

[Chad]

I'm looking forward to ordering one of these in January :)

I think Bluetooth would/will be a very important feature in that it
allows laptops to very easily access the phone's features, even aside
from the usual things like headsets.  For instance, the GPS could be
bridged into a bluetooth "serial" line and made to look like a
standalone bluetooth GPS unit with an NMEA interface.

And something I haven't personally seen in any phone yet is the
ability to avoid running AT commands and use the default settings -
and just get on the Internet using the phone as a LAN interface.  Both
Bluetooth and USB have network classes that will allow this (using NAT
or bridging from the GPRS/PPP interface)  This will make it easier
especially for first time cell-data-on-laptop users.

Another thing you can do when you have a USB/BT network connection
would be to set up a web server on the phone, and be able to setup the
phone - both system settings and address book stuff - via a web
browser.  You could also then download a backup of those into a .zip
file to upload everything back later, if needed.  And the *nix users
could even start a copy of the phone's main interface over an X link
to a 480x640 Xnest window.

Basically no smartphone should ever be an island (even though some US
providers - i.e. Verizon - really like that idea!) and Bluetooth fixes
that.  USB client mode also fixes it, if you can afford to have a wire
hanging around, which isn't always the case. ;)

An SDK question:  will apps for the phone be forced to use the
system-specific API's ala Maemo?  I found that very limiting when
working on an application* for the Nokia 770 - you *had* to use gtk+
with the Maemo hooks... which changed without backwards compatibility
in v2.0.  (I know that there's stuff needed to 'package' the app, but
hopefully that won't extend into the app itself as much.)

I also see a few parallel streams of development:  things that make
this the ultimate phone for Linux users, features that use cell data
in new ways (at least outside of Japan and South Korea ;) ), other new
and unique features - perhaps involving the ultra-high-DPI
touchscreen, and last but not least things that make it *the* easiest
to use phone around.  Once they're weaved together the result should
be quite amazing.

- Chad

(* - interesting bit on inflation - a US quarter made before 1965 has
well over $1 in Silver in it at todays prices.)