Incredibly, where I live, ATT is by far the best data/voice network (I have both an iPhone and a Verizon backup phone, the iPhone works where the VZ phone won't. Sprint and TMobile don't work at all).

That said, I'm really liking the direction of the Android hardware and apps, and I'm really thinking about making the next phone an Android phone. If - and this is a big if - I get control over the os updates as I see fit.

The carriers control the updates, and they will always make them mandatory so as to be able to add or remove functionality at their discretion. One option is to simply root the phone (gain Administrator access). You will void your warranty and you won't get the benefit of automatic future updates, but if you are tech savvy you can control your own updates and even unlock features your carrier doesn't want you to have.

i was going to say root as well, I rooted and updated and can prevent the carrier update if I want.

Rootinf doesn't necessiarialy void your warranty, they would have to proove rooting caused the issue, if you ever had an issue then just restore your backup.

I was looking into that too. According to articles like this one, Motorola has installed something called eFuse that detects user rooting and forces the phone into recovery mode. This is not as bad as bricking the phone, but still makes it almost useless.

I am sure, though, that there are Droid hackers... um, 'enthusiasts' who are working on defeating eFuse as we speak...

Absolutely; and it's only a matter of time until they do. Note that this is a problem only on some of the newer devices. I have the original Droid, which is well-compromised at this point. I haven't rooted mine yet, but only because I haven't come across anything I want to do that calls for it. Yet.

I seem to recall there was even a recent court ruling to the effect that it is not illegal to root, jailbreak, or otherwise crack a smartphone's software, so the only real risk is damaging your phone in a way that the carrier will refuse to repair.

And so far its only the Motorola Droid X that has somehting to attempt to prevent root, part of the reason to switch to somehting like Android is the openness and Moto is getting a backlash of complaints due to it so they have reasons to not continue that practice. Other brands such as HTC/Samsung/etc so far haven't tried to prevent it.