Is the Nikon D50 better than the D70?

Based on specifications there are couple of major points:
1) 3D Color Matrix II (D70/D70s 3D Color Matrix I, D100 3D Matrix), similar to the one used in D2H/D2Hs/D2X. Exactly what is the difference between I and II is unknown, Nikon only says it's better.2) USB 2.0 High Speed vs. Full Speed (1.1 compatible) in D70/D70s.
3) A new AF focus mode: AF-A, i.e. camera automatically selects AF-S or AF-C mode for user, probably based on subject movement. Canon has this option before but in Digital Rebel it's not user selectable between single focus or continuous focus. Probably a good feature for beginner users.
4) A new Digital Vari-Program: Child. Documentation is not clear about the difference of this mode vs. the Portrait mode. Again something for the beginners.
And one aspect that D50 is better than D70/D70s not clearly shown in specification:5) Faster continuous shoot mode.
By specifications D50 is not as good as D70: 2.5 fps vs. 2.8 fps in D70s. However, in Phil Askey's D50 preliminary report D50 is actually better than D70s in terms of total number of shots at the full speed and fps after internal buffer is full. For example, D50 can shoot at 2.5 fps for 45 shots whereas D70 is only 15 shots (350D is 21 shots @ 2.8 fps). And after buffer is filled D50 can keep going at 2.2 fps until the SD card is full, whereas D70 is at 2 fps and 350D 1.6 fps.
In Phil's test, pressing shutter for 30 seconds would produce total of 73 shots for D50, 65 shots for D70, and 58 shots for 350D.
It's interesting to see Nikon (and Pentax/Olympus) would bring out new DSLR for lower end customers with better performance/specification in some area than the older and higher end models.

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