For example, the venerable Russ Beattie has been talking up (and why not, they make sense in the USA) things like Avvenu, Orb, SoonR and, of course, Yahoo! Go. Yes, yes, it's great to have so much over-the-air interoperability between your smartphone and your home PC or with a web based service, it's all a nice alternative to the traditional sync-when-you-get-home system.
BUT - On this side of the Pond, many people (including me) are on pay-as-you-go GPRS network tariffs, with each kilobyte costing 0.7p or thereabouts. Even on typical monthly contracts, you've only got a Megabyte or two before you start getting shafted. Using any of these new breed of services, however carefully, is going to cost real money.
Of course, full marks to these innovators, it's not their fault. But it highlights again, more than ever, the desperate need in this country for sensibly-priced flat rate GPRS and 3G contracts. I don't want to have to count the kilobytes and flinch every time I do something online on my smartphone - I simply want to do it and not have an unexpected surprise at the end of the month.
Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange - are you listening? And no, I don't call £40 a month a sensible price. Please try again....