OK, interesting discovery which may explain why folks seem to have differing experiences with the soft keyboard. I did some experimenting and the keyboard has a feature which I find very cool, but which may explain why some don't see the MT (or psuedo-MT, if you prefer) capabilities. As I mentioned above, you could hit two keys in sequence and both keys can be down at the same time and they will register in order. But, the keyboard won't do this if the keys are close together, probably to prevent accidental double key hits. So, if the keys are more than a couple of keys away, you can press one, then the other, then when you release the first, both register in order (which is what you need to type smoothly). But, if the keys are right next to each other, it will not register the second key unless it is pressed after the first key is released (which Josh noted).

While you can call this a feature or you can call it a weak spot, it does seem to be intentional, and I think may explain things a bit.

It depends entirely on how you define multi-touch for a keyboard. Josh is simply wrong when he said that you have to release one key before pressing another. While you can't do what Nilay was showing in his video (hold one key while pressing a series of others which all register), you definitely can press one key and then another before releasing the first and they both register. It is not one peck at a time. To my mind, this is what MT is all about, being able to roll through a sequence of letters without having to raise off of one before hitting the next.

The bottom line is that, from my experience, the Droid soft keyboard is much easier to use, and more accurate, than the Touch keyboard. So, no matter whether you want to say it has multitouch, depending on your definition, whatever it does works.

I have the Droid, and an iPod Touch, and I agree that the capabilities of the Touch are different than the Droid regarding the keyboard. But whether it has "multi-touch" depends entirely on how you define it. So, the boys insistence (including requisite sarcastic comments) about it NOT having it is based entirely on their own definition of what multi-touch is.

For example, one thing Josh said is simply 100% wrong. He said that the Droid did not have multitouch because you had to release one key before touching the next one, making typing very difficult. Not so. Here is what the Droid can do:

If you press one key and hold it while pressing another then release the first key, both keys are registered on the screen. You don't have to release the first key before pressing the second. I do this all the time and it makes typing very easy and even fun.

And THAT is what is incredibly important about any "multi-touch", the ability to roll through a bunch of keys in sequence rather than "peck and release" one at a time. Now, Nilay showed in his video that you can not hold down one key and then press a series of others as you can on the Touch, but really, how useful is that extra ability?

So, I guess it is all about how you define multi-touch. If you insist that it is the ability to hold one key down and type a bunch of other letters, then no, the Droid does not have multitouch. If you define it (as Josh seems to) as the ability to press keys in sequence without having to release one before pressing the other, then it DOES have multi-touch. And that is why Verizon described the keyboard as having multi-touch in the manual. Because for all *useful* intents and purposes, it does.

But, semantics aside, the point is that the on-screen keyboard works GREAT! I have the Touch and find the Droid's keyboard to be much, much better and the predictive text is dramatically better as well since it gives you a number of choices, not just one pop-up. And, I am not merely a Droid fanboy, I have many, many gripes about this phone and if the iPhone was on Verizon I might have that instead. Hardware keyboard = useless. D-Pad = useless. Weak on apps. No compatible headphones with inline remote.

Overall a great phone, and I am very happy, and I think the boys here are simply wrong about the keyboard when viewed correctly.

Just saw Nilay's comment above mine on this point. Rob over at Phandroid also has a Droid and he insists that multitouch works fine on the keyboard and he shows it in a video.

Not sure if it was mentioned above (didn't read every post), but the Phandroid site points out that multi-touch for the keyboard DOES exist in the native apps. He even demonstrates in one of his videos.

The only thing missing is pinch to zoom in the browser. Seems like much ado about nothing, considering that you can zoom with the little zoom button on the screen.

Silly question: is this the unsubsidized price? I already have a Verizon plan and just want to buy and use this phone with my current plan.

Have you heard that the new John Woo movie, Red Cliff, is going to be released in VOD and on XBox a full month before the theatrical release.

And, I swear, the podcast is much easier to listen to in double-speed! While Richard is sometimes hard to follow, Ben's voice sounds perfectly normal.

The problem with 3D, from what some filmmakers were saying, is that it entirely changes how you shoot video. The long "following" shots can make people sick in 3D, and you end up doing a lot more static camera stuff. Think about this in sports. Those wonderful cameras on the wires that follow the action around would, it seems, never be workable in 3D. Too much movement. Our brains don't mind it in 2D, but combining a moving camera and 3D messes our equilibrium up.

If this is all true, then I might actually prefer 2D with all the cool camera movement than a static 3D.

Hey, I just discovered something very useful for this podcast! You guys have great content, but very often the show runs very slowly with a lot of long pauses, whether due to the three of you not wanting to talk over each other, or because of the slight lag on long distance calls. This makes the show a bit plodding sometimes.

The solution? The new double speed play option on my iPod Touch! I just put you guys at 2X and things are a lot better, and I get the content in half the time! Steve talks slowly enough that 2X sounds normal, whereas Richard is the only one that gets a bit garbled at times since he speaks more quickly.

On the content of the show, I can say that I am loving my BD390 more and more. I occasionally have problems maintaining my network connection, but that could be on my router. Overall, a great experience and definitely the money.

Ben,

Regarding the LG BD390, I think it has gotten some pretty decent love in the online press. CNET has it rated the best overall Bluray player and HD Nation's Robert Heron gave it a huge thumbs up as well. But you are right, even more would be better!

It is also continuing to add new features. In addition to the Netflix and CinemaNow (and YouTube), it looks like it is getting Vudu support soon.

And, in addition to being DNLA certified, it also just added (via a firmware upgrade), the ability to stream content from your computer simply by "sharing" that file or folder using Windows! No need to use server software.

It does have very fast load times for Bluray, but with the Netflix Watch Instantly and the ability watch mkv, mp4, ts, etc, etc, the BR is almost a secondary use for us!!