Also think the example is bogus - the Android style for popovers, menus etc in ICS just isn't very rounded. The Android app matches the android style...

I think the point is that flourishes like rounded corners and smooth transitions are objectively better, in the same sense that fonts with subpixel rendering and progress bars for long operations (as opposed to a looping animation) are objectively better.

Rounded corners have always bugged me because they're always, always aliased in some way. The 'line' just isn't optically smooth, it's approximated. I personally prefer a clean corner to an approximated curve.

Similarly, in the first example, while I like the transparency effect (probably not for a map), I hate the current trend to have everything 'shine' when it shouldn't. Much as I'm not particularly keen on Win 8, I do like their idea of being 'authentically digital'. In the first example, I'd much prefer to use the UI on the right - even the text looks clearer (it's just not "whoah, cool, printed in glass!")

On 'retina displays' -- iPhone 4/4S and iPad 3 -- a curved line is, for all practical purposes, smooth. And it's not as if Android is made of only straight lines.

Always aliased? I often make 1-pixel or 3-pixel cut off corners. It's not strictly round since I'm not aliasing it, but it looks nice.