This is not aimed at you personally, it's just my views on these gawd awful device and the effect they've had on society... 
While i see why you use one from your post, to me that just sums up society today and the lack of real communication between people these days...
Im mean in 47 years I've never got so lost that I would need something like GPS just to find my way home or to a destination where I was heading... 
Why folk feel the urge to be on the internet when they're out and about or in others company is beyond belief and just plain ignorant...
Playing games on a train or plain journeys or any kind of transport where there are other human beings around you to talk to and interact with is again a sad reflection on society these days and just adding to the ever increasing spiral of a society where folk would be better of just staying at home on their own and never venturing out into the real world to experience what life is all about...
So your recommendation of everyone buying such a device is really just another sad reflection of the lack of understanding these days that most folk think on what life is all about... sad but unfortunately very true...
PS:all this talk of jailbreaking & hacking phones is nothing new, when I was a kid and there were public phone boxes everywhere, we broke/hacked them to get the money out of the coin box... 
You know what I completely 101% agree with you!
Where I work the amount of time I sit in the canteen having my break with friends but I'm the only one talking, they all wip out their phones and do texting, update facebook profiles and loads of other daft stupid things.
The funniest thing I find is how some relationships seem to be completely done over Facebook or texting now, my friend who date this girl who completely into this stuff keeps wondering what she means and misunderstand text and they dump each other and then get back together all though text without even speaking to each other not EVEN calling. I just find it all very amusing.
Like I say the main feature of my phone is really, taking pictures and using the GPS I'd admit it my sense of direction is not brill.
But here is a perfect example of the power of the phone, I went to help a friend move to a flat, didn't know exactly where his place was but he gave me his postcode, used GPS found his place help him move in, now his phone line was disconnected so went on the internet via 3G found the right number to call, phoned them sorted it out, took a few picture of the place to show to his worried mom to show what the place was like, and left and realised at the end of the day just how god dam useful a smart phone is. See if you use it as a tool it the best electronic tool you can have. This is not even touching all them crazy apps you have now like to work out currency conversion, to translate foreign language, find local local restaurants, check the prices of things etc etc. The thing is to remember to use it just as a tool and not to replace your social life with, which is is what unfortunately a lot of people do.
PS: anyone seen this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs its translate text on pictures and stuff its crasy, so this means I go to a foreign restaurant and know what I'm ordering..amazing!
