or an s60 phone such as the nokia e71

Thanks! Something running s60 is interesting to me since it seems like it would be easier to program. My current phone is a treo 650 (palm), and I am disappointed at how high the barrier to programming it is.

I want to be writing blog entries like this one: http://blog.danielwinter.de/archives/13

I have spoken to a member of google maps mobile team (they program for all platforms) and asked him how blackberry compares in difficulty to android or windows. He said that blackaberry is pretty bad, but the most painful ever is Symbian. 2 cents here.

Interesting. My goals are to write home automation and GPS tracking apps, ideally in python. Stuff like that open-garage-door-when-phone-gets-home project. Any UI work would be web pages, so I guess I want a good web browser.

I'd suspect that problems with implementing gmaps wouldn't affect me. My issues are more like "can I code and deploy from linux?" and "do I get access to the camera, network, speaker, etc?"

Just a reminder that it still won't solve your power problem. I don't actually know that many people who have a car charger for their phone.