I wrote a TV guide app for Blackberry many years ago, and for the parts of the grid where the data had not yet downloaded, I drew (in code) a light checkerboard background like this. Got into a long-running argument with my company's UX guy over it because he said it was a visual element that implied transparency when there wasn't actually any transparency. So pointless - it wasn't an app for image manipulation in the first place. I gave the darker squares a light blue tint and he left me alone, and then Blackberry died a quick death anyway.

The moral of the story is one that I took to heart for all my future mobile development: nothing matters, just go home and smoke another bowl.