it depends on what the phone is doing. if it is considered a mobile computing hub, it could be running tethering/routing SW for a user's wi-fi tablet, running an IM/twitter client, handling voice commands for the whole device and maybe even making a phone call. of course, power mgmt to handle all of this at the same time becomes critical. with more cores, voice/video call handling becomes less of a priority and keeping the user connected at all times with background tasks becomes more of the device's function.

Regular soap works just fine to get hands clean and get rid of most of the germs without speeding along the survival of the fittest contest among the bacteria.

Not really. Since an app has to go through Apple's approval process, Hello World apps that don't actually do what the submitter indicates should not make it into the store. Of course, given the opaque approval process and the number of fart apps that made it in to the store, the approval process is not a guaranteed firewall.

Apple could them flush the "empty" apps that do not have approved binaries, or at least binaries in the approval process, if they have been empty for more than 3 months or so.

This is just another thing that Apple, and the Android and Palm folks, will have to deal with. The real fun will be when apps are available on multiple platforms, but have different names because of conflicting approvals processes, squatters, and other things that have not yet surfaced.

in the book, AI evolves as competing programs in a computing environment through natural selection. it was a pretty good book published in the 80's. the robots wind up on the moon (i don't remember how they got there in the first place) and eventually overthrow the humans there. here's an Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Software-Rudy-Rucker/dp/0380701774/

I guess this opens the door for a new Survivor series - Survivor: DTV