I think the author makes the mistaken assumption that everyone is cash-rich and time-poor. Plenty of people are the opposite, have plenty of time, but a limited income.
Agreed, isn't <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" /> just for people whose website breaks in IE8, but works in IE7 and they can't be bothered to update it?
What about using a dedicated IM program like Adium? I find it leaps and bounds over using the web gChat client. Also it manages 1x MSN, 2x gChat and IRC in one place for me.
Surely you don't get the same level of organisation (particularly hierarchical) by having everything in one file? And doesn't that mean you are constantly scanning up and down the file?
You know IOS basically is OS X right?
The difference between IOS and WinMobile/CE is that microsoft tried to take the desktop paradigm and shoehorn it onto a phone, whereas apple took the strong core from OS X but started from scratch with the UI to build a touch and mobile friendly OS.