OpenGL support: iPhone 3GS, 3rd generation iPod touch, and iPad all support OpenGL ES 2.0 (e.g. shaders and programmable pipelinehttp://stackoverflow.com/questions/2799371/does-ipad-or-iphone-support-opengl-es-2-0 ^

Development Toolchain: requires a mac

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/28/web-development-for-the-iphone-and-ipad-getting-started/
• open source tools using the gcc toolchain: [need project link]. also note that it requires downgrading to gcc 4.2

C++ Interface: Objective-C is the system language. so, it's not "natural", but it's been done [need source citation]

http://www.harfie.com

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So my only choices for smartphone development are Objective C or Java? Seems like a lose-lose situation to me. Why can't I use native C or C++ on either of them?

You can use native C/C++ for both of them, except in certain places. The UI layer, for instance, has to be done using the native language on either platform (objc or java).

http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2050616&cid=35591432