Yes, it does supply the level of free interoperability that we’re looking for . . . sort of. It’s not perfect and you must be online for some stuff to work (like tasks), but it’s pretty close. I’m not a Google fanboy by any means. in fact, I’m the opposite, in general. When talking about making data available and syncing it up AND making it for free, Google + Android is pretty hard to beat. I love Exchange – it’s rock solid and works the way I expect it to all the time. Gmail, etc via web, IMAP and Android is a reasonably close second, though.

I think GrandCentral/Google Voice has some maturing to do. It’s nicely integrated with the phone app, but not so much with SMS. Once that improves, it’ll be hard to beat. And, the way Google is courting developers, I expect loads-o-apps to be available soon, covering a huge amount of the iPhone App space.

For the price of admission (free). This thing kicks butt. That’s not to say that paying customers with big BES-fronted Exchange servers don’t actually get more, though.

I’ve been leery of putting anything on GOOG for sometime, but the interoperability of their services might just be the final touch to consider hosting everything with them. There’s no BES solution for *nix, as far as I know, and as an individual it’s not worth the pain (or cost) to consider running exchange.

Apps are secondary to seamless, integrated functionality in my mind. How does it deliver there?

Yeah, I know what you want. Me too

The problem is – and I’m still not sold on it – is that more and more apps are assuming 100% always-on connectivity. Gears is a solution for some stuff, but not everything. I think the assumption is just off base, but it really limits devices without a cellular connection. I *think* Apple wants it that way, too.

I envision a dockable device that could turn into a netbook at home (using existing displays).. Does everyone need to be connected all the time, or would a dockable droid suffice and potentially replace both a netbook and camera as well? Side benefit.. you could actually look up data while still talking on the phone. I’m sure that once I get fully connected, I’ll never want to go back!!

The iPod Touch is a great device, but with the base assumption made by smartphones of always being connected, WiFi might not be enough. I don’t think that it’s “old school,” but I do think that devices like the Touch will be marginalized by cellular-equipped devices just for connectivity.