Another cool thing about the "ring USM" motors is the full time manual focus. Once the camera gets a focus lock, I can grab the focus ring on the camera and refocus and shoot the picture. This requires half an inch of movement from the zoom ring, and as soon as I let the shutter release button up all the way it's back to autofucusing. (I have no idea if Nikon has an equivalent tech, I assume they call it something else)

I havn't used any of the recent prosumer all in ones recently, but the ones I have tried out have all had some of the worst ergonomics and ease of use around. You need two hands to control all the inputs a camera needs while holding it steady. Withh my D60, I never navigate menus when I'd like to be shooting something, everything has a hard button and wheel that adjusts it. The SLR form factor just works so much better than a camera with external dimensions dictated by how well it'll fit in a jacket or shirt pocket.

Matthew