Oh please

If you're going to snipe, at least try to be accurate with your cynicism, or you appear ill-informed;

"But at least developers can now create applications making use of features exclusive to the Nexus One - applications that won't run on lesser Android handsets from Motorola, Samsung and everyone else who signed up to Google's promise of a level playing field"

The other manufacturers can use these features if they build and deploy Android 2.1 for their hardware, which they typically will do in due course.

Google haven't really played fair by releasing the Nexus One with a new Android O/S before releasing that SDK to developers, but that's not a situation which will last long. It's a properly open O/S. Motorola/Samsung etc create their own UIs to run on top of Android, and no'one complains they don't share those with other manufacturers. At least Google are sharing 2.1 around, as they should.

re: last paragraph.

"But at least developers can now create applications making use of features exclusive to the Nexus One - applications that won't run on lesser Android handsets from Motorola, Samsung and everyone else who signed up to Google's promise of a level playing field."

this seems to imply that Google has made Android 2.1 (or certain features of it) Nexus One-exclusive, which is not true at all. there's nothing special about the Nexus One (aside from its branding), and nothing stopping other manufacturers from releasing 2.1 updates for their own handsets. if they don't give enough of a fuck to support their existing products after release, that's their own problem. they probably do have good reason to be pissed off at google's marketing of this phone, but there's no reason they can't compete with it on a technical level.