Logging tools I don't mind; developers use them to diagnose problems [and fix] all the time. The ones that phone home like ET; that's the ones you have to be worried about. Saw the loggers you are referring to on the US Cellular stock; not so much on VM USA; and I haven't been able to peep the MetroPCS version yet. I suppose with the CarrierIQ media [security problems], its easy to lose sight of the usefullness of a basic logcat [which is also a logger]. I'll give you that manufacturers and carriers alike like to load phones down [even this memory-challenged one] with meaningless horsecrap, but that can all be remedied with about any phone as well. Honestly, if I weren't being a tightwad, I'd still be using my G2 or Incredible 2. I just didn't want a contract, and I have some familiarity with HTC phones; so, I went with the only HTC VM offers. Yes, its got an old arm6 processor, yes if you are a poweruser you'll run out of memory the first 2-3 days you have the device, yes I'm not so familiar with cdma or nand devices [so development is slow], but it's an android so I'll give it what I know, try to learn more, then move on. If I hit the lottery and didn't care about money, I'd buy a developer phone [mostly Samsung] with ics aosp, but I'm in a dinghy so I'll keep it floating along.