Q. Noah, I was extremmely close to buying the iPhone until I saw the Samsung Omnia in your video. looks tight. how cool is it and is it up to par with the beast made by Apple?

A. I've only had a little bit of hands-on time with Omnia but it definitely looks great.  Omnia's a Windows Mobile device, so it should be somewhat similar to the HTC Touch Diamond in that you've got Windows Mobile 6 running underneath with a nicer layer of user interface on top.  On the one hand that's too bad because I'm really NOT a fan of WinMo and, as the saying goes, "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig" (i.e. Adding a pretty interface onto Windows Mobile doesn't change the code base running underneath).  On the other hand, lots of people rely on WinMo to connect to their work Email and Outlook accounts, and there are tons of WinMo apps out there for installation.

Beyond that, the device itself looks really good.  Great specs, good form factor, lots of connectivity options.  Just today Samsung told me I should have a review sample by the end of this week, so look for a longer video and more coverage on PhoneDog.

Cheers,
Noah