[Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GoodDayToDie:
The WP7 software keyboard is much nicer than I expected, expecially on a largish phone (I have an HD7) but it's true that there's currently no Swype or equivalent available.

There are lots of Google Reader apps available, some quite good.

Gmail integrates pretty well with the phone when you add a Google account. My phone is the primary way I access my Gmail now.

You might be able to access Google Docs through the web browser; I haven't tried. For actually reading and editing Microsoft Office documents, Office Mobile wors very well indeed.

Google Maps is available (via apps, or somewhat awkwardly via the web); Bing Maps is built into the phone and works well for me.

There are IM clients that support GTalk on the phone, but the only messenger network currently built into the phone is Live. That said, IM+ handles my GTalk-using friends very well.

There are a multitude of YouTube apps. You can also use HTML5 on YouTube via the browser just fine.

I don't know Any.do. There are a lot of task management apps on WP7, but I don't know how they compare.

Not sure how good Dropbox access is on the phone (obviously, you can download via the browser, and there are apps which use it as a way to transfer data, but I've never looked for a real DropBox client).

I would be quite shocked if Polaris Office is more full-fledged than Office on WP7. It's not impossible, but for a phone-based office suite it would be very impressive.

I don't know IMO, but there are a number of multi-network IM clients on WP7. My preferred choice is IM+ but that's just personal preference.

Skype is (finally) coming to WP7. The current app is actually pretty good, and it's still in beta. Considering MS now owns Skype, the future for Skype on WP7 should be very good.

I don't know if TeamViewer is available for WP7 yet. Remote Desktop (as in, Terminal Services Client, the built-in Windows feature) is, though... Also, SSH clients.

T-Mobile provides an app for tracking usage for my phone. I don't know what's availble for whatever carrier you'd be on.

There are a couple of cool apps that provide wallpapers and ringtones, with frequent updates (weekly or more). Never heard of Zedge, though.

There's a SoundHound-like feature built into WP7. Shazam is also available. SoundHound might be; I'm not sure.

Facebook is definitely available (both as OS integration, and through a now very good app).

Responses to a few select questions:

3. The homebrew and custom ROM scene is smaller than Android (though growing) but the Focus (gen1 phone, not the Focus S or Focus Flash) does support "interop-unlock" hacks through WindowBreak, can run WP7 Root Tools (run any app with full privileges, under your control though), and has custom ROMs.

4. If for some reason you get a branded Focus, yes, it can be de-branded. I'm not convinced that it's a good idea to do so (without just installing a custom ROM or some such anyhow) but it's possible. The update story on WP7 is generally much better than on Android, and you can force updates anyhow if the carrier is taking too long. Not many other reasons to debrand are coming to mind...

5. I can't answer the first part, but as for the second, yes you will completely erase the phone when installing a custom ROM. If you want to do so, I suggest making it one of the first things you do (this will save on trying to back up and later restore things, which - aside from contacts and media files - sadly is not automatic on WP7).

6. No. There are a number of technical reasons, but the simple fact is that a single-core 1GHz WP7 device has a significantly smoother UI than a (for example) 1.5GHz Android device. Since apps are *extremely* limited on what they can do in the background (by default), there's no risk of them slowing the phone's UI down no matter how many you install.

7. Not really. It's much closer to Apple's approach. The advantages are better battery life and no lag. The disadvantages are that apps pretty much can't do anything real-time while backgrounded, and need to resume (although it's very fast on apps built for Mango or later) when returned to the foreground. You can switch between apps quickly, though.

8. SD cards don't work the same as on Android. They are used for permanent increases to device storage. You can't use them to transfer data onto or off of the phone, and if you want to add or remove/replace one, you'll need to hard-reset the phone. That's the main thing not already mentioned that an Android user might find odd. Oh, and stock ROMs don't allow replacing things like the dialer and such (you can install alternates, you just can't replace the built-in one completely).

9. Faster, and smoother UI (even with theoretically slower hardware). Essentially no risk of malware from the Marketplace (apps are checked before approval). Timely updates, even for older phones (of course, "older" for WP7 only means about 18 months so far). Xbox Live games. Zune Pass streaming (costs money but it's awesome). Great integration with Facebook (pretty good with Twitter and can pull LinkedIn contacts, too). Excellent email and calendar, especially if you use any Exchange servers. Hardware-accelerated rendering in the browser. Consistent UI style in apps. All phones have very similar hardware specs, so fragmentation is not a problem. Live Tiles are great for at-a-glance info, and the app list is (for me) much clearer to use than the "grid of icons". Dedicated double-action camera button and dedicated rocker buttons. Local Scout is a pretty cool built-in feature. Really good developer tools make writing apps very easy and quick.

I'm sure there's a lot more, but it's 5AM and I need to sleep.