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Bill Gurley writes correctly that Google is positioned to take over the world. I am certainly paraphrasing and adding some personal bias - he describes in detail how the company invested great sums of money to assemble a superior turn-by-turn GPS database which includes a street view and in so doing is now able to take marketshare from competing mapping vendors by using advertising to subsidize the cost of acquiring this information.

Advertising revenue in fact will drive the company's operating system, software as a service and just about everything else.

As the company shares part of this revenue with partners you have seen wide adoption of Android by wireless carriers and no doubt hardware vendors installing the Google Chrome OS are next.

Expect the company to continue going after Microsoft products - by giving services away and supporting them through ads.

Any competitor which has an inferior ad network and generates less money from advertising (this is all of them) is pretty much domed.

The only way to stop the onslaught is to build a far superior search engine and hope the world switches. At this point the sheer marketshare Google commands in search allows them to utilize their massive database of user behavior as a massive focus group allowing them to improve by the second.

I just can't see anything stopping this company besides, a scandal, high level departure, illness or something similar. Even then, the company is a monopoly at this point and perhaps momentum will ensure their future success.

Is the company using its power in a way which warrants them being broken up by the DOJ? Possibly, but Google reminds me a heck of a lot of Wal-Mart as the larger it gets, the better consumers do. Giving away free GPS for example is a pro-consumer behavior and as long as the company keeps breaking into new markets and giving things away, it is tough to see how the Google could be considered to be harming customers.

Getting back to the headline of this article -- do I really think Microsoft is doomed? Yes. Immediately? Obviously not. But any time a company with a quality name in the market can make money while giving away good products which you charge for, you are done.

I spent some time analyzing a Blackberry Storm 2 in a Verizon store in Norwalk, CT where I chatted with prospective customers as well as Verizon store employees and management. First the phone itself is improved with WiFi support, a capacitive touchscreen and worldphone support. I think typing on the device is about as good as it is on the iPhone at this point. Although a common feature of smartphones I really like the ability to go back to my last application. As you would expect the device is fine for applications like email where it does a good job of understanding what is typed and autocorrecting text, it still comes up short as a web browser.

Although faster than the previous device, the delay in browsing graphically rich sites and those with JavaScript continue to be its undoing (yes, JavaScript rendering is now faster -- thankfully) and it is evident that the mobile browser is the major Achilles heel for device manufacturers. They should all partner with companies like Opera until they figure out how to do mobile browsing correctly.

Prospective customers I spoke with were not extremely impressed by the device and most I spoke with were in the store to compare the phone with - you guessed it, the iPhone.

By the way, reasons given to me to not buy the iPhone include the AT&T network and the fact that applications like Loopt (the iPhone needs to allow background apps for it to function properly) and Blackberry Messenger don't work on it.

Store employees were eager to volunteer that Droid is coming out in a few weeks and is worth a look. They also mentioned that there was interest in the latest RIM phones and many are selling but unlike the rollout of the first version of this device, they aren't seeing the long lines. Then again, it was a cold and rainy day which could have been part of the problem as nearby Stew Leonard's, that world famous supermarket had half the normal amount of cars in its parking lot.

My take? People have already purchased their iPhones and other smartphones and if they weren't out in force today to see their Storm 2, they aren't coming out in force to see the Droid. Besides I haven't seen much if any consumer promotion for this gadget - could this be a sign of Verizon giving up and hoping for better results from the new Google Powered Motorola phone? If the Droid is the iPhone killer Verizon store representatives say it is, the death will be very slow as word of mouth and advertising get more people to trade up. Time will tell.

As Om Malik points out, turn-by-turn GPS navigation with voice guidance has come to Google Maps and carriers can't be happy about it. Who is even less happy? TomTom and Garmin. According to Google, less than 1% of navigation devices are connected to the cloud and ironically my TomTom Go 740 Live with Google local integration is one of these devices and it is limited - it really only allows you to query Google for local establishments and it does receive real-time traffic data.

As the video above explains, Google Maps navigation was built from the ground up to be internet connected meaning you can get the latest maps and business data automatically over the net without having to download new maps manually. Google touts lots of features which they say most GPS units don't have such as voice recognition, the ability fix spelling errors and of course infinite points of interest. Other benefits touted include the ability to navigate via search meaning you can ask your device to navigate to a museum with a specific exhibit.

Other benefits include real-time traffic data and the ability to choose alternate routes. The software also allows you to search for POIs on your route and you can also leverage satellite and street view as you navigate. By the way, I bet you didn't know some Google Street View data comes from a tricycle (pictured and courtesy of AP/MSNBC)

The video above also references the new Droid phone which has an available car dock which when connected goes into car mode which makes it easier to access features you need while driving.

Om is right that carriers are likely not happy about this new and free service from Google but I wonder if at the moment carriers aren't just more frenzied about not having the iPhone which includes tens of thousands of applications in its device ecosystem.

From Verizon's point of view, this new relationship with Google is a defensive land grab and will slow down the onslaught of the iPhone by making their devices more attractive and simultaneously cutting the legs off of Garmin and TomTom. It should be noted that TomTom does have a $99 iPhone GPS app which is pretty slick but can they keep this price point when the competition has a lot more features and is free?

Google's challenge remains, do they ignore the iPhone when they come out with leading edge applications like this one so they can artificially boost their Android OS sales or do they try to get all apps they produce to work on as many devices as possible so they can boost ad revenue? It has to be a constant debate for the search leader and for now, if you have an Android 2.0 device you can get a real nifty GPS app for free. What's not to like about that?

Oh, and one other point. If we have known mobile search is coming and will be he and Microsoft and Yahoo! are trying to take on Google in this space and finally have an opportunity to become a leader in at least one niche of search, why haven't either of these companies jumped on this opportunity? Why is it that Google is the only company to take advantage of an opportunity we all saw coming. I realize Yahoo is trying and so is Microsoft but Google seems to be in a position to have even greater marketshare in mobile search than they do in PC search. And it seems unacceptable that the competition just let them take it so easily.

I really excited to speak at the Illinois Institute of Technology Rice Campus for the VoIP Conference and Expo 2009. This will be my first time to this event and interestingly the third time in recent weeks in which I am in Chicago instead of Vegas for a show. Maybe the city didn't get the Olympics but they certainly seem to have gotten all the shows - WiMAX World, Supercomm and now this event.

Getting back to my talk - I am moderating a Keynote Panel titled: Are the "Bells" ringing for Carrier VoIP? And my panelists include Carl Ford, Crossfire Media; Anne Lee, ALU; Gaston Ormazabal, Verizon and Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University at 4:00 pm this Thursday 10/29/2009. I hope to see you there. Here is the schedule with my panel in yellow at the bottom.

Here is the website for details.

VoIP Conference and Expo 2009 Illinois Institute of Technology Rice Campus
Day 1 Wednesday October 28
	Room 163	Room 166	Room 103
7:30 to 8:30 AM               Registration - Breakfast  - Exhibit Booths
8:30 to 8:50	Conference Greetings: Carol Davids, IIT: Bridging the Islands of VoIP Room 166
9:00 to 10:30 AM	Over the Top  VoIP Co-chairs:  Warren Bent, Maureen Stillman	E911 VoIP Emergency Services Miniconference Co-Chairs:  Chuck Hunnicutt, Barbara Kemp	VoIP in the Enterprise Co-chairs: Maureen Stillman, Anup Manchanda
	9:00 to 9:45 AM Cloud Telephony Irv Shapiro, IfByPhone	9:00 to 9:30AM Bridging the Islands for Emergency Service Jeff Robertson,  Principal, Robertson and Associates	9:00 - 9:30 AM Unifying Communications: A 360-Degree Approach Speaker:Matt McGillen, Microsoft
	9:45 to 10:30 AM The Rise of Telecom Development Frameworks Greg Bond and Eric Cheung, AT&T	9:30 to 10:00 AM The i3 specifications - Blueprint for Bridging Brian Rosen, NENA	9:30 to 10:00 AM  Implementing Unified Communications Solutions Huzefa Mustaly, Tellabs
		10:00 to 10:30 AM Title: NG911 Interoperability Testing Bill Mertka, RedSky	10:00 to 10:30 AM SIP Trunking - Ready for Prime Time Joel Maloff, BandTel
10:30 to 11:00 AM  Break / Exhibitor booths
11:00 to 12:30 PM	Over-the-Top Applications - VoIP2.0 Co-chairs:  Warren Bent, Maureen Stillman	E911 VoIP Emergency Services Miniconference Co-Chairs:  Chuck Hunnicutt, Barbara Kemp	VoIP in the Enterprise Co-chairs: Maureen Stillman, Anup Manchanda
	11:00 to 11:30 AM Emerging 2.0 Communications Jose De Francisco Lopez, Alcatel-Lucent	11:00 to 11:30AM Telematics John Kimmins, Telcordia	11:00 to 11:30 AM  The NEC Unified Communications Solution Greg Nemec, NEC
	11:30 to12:00 AM Deploying VoIP over Wimax Peisong Huang, Motorola	11:30 to 12:00 AM i3 - The US DOT Trial Chris Norton, TAMU	11:30 to 12:00 PM SIP Trunking Service Interoperability Update Bob Blair-Smith, Cbeyond
	12:00 to12:30 PM Title: TBA Brian West, FreeSWITCH	12:00 to 12:30 PM i3 - Demonstrations Chris Norton, TAMU	12:00 to 12:30 PM Avaya Technical Roadmap Jane Montemayor, Avaya
12:30 - 1:30 PM   Lunch
1:30 to 2:15PM	Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University Scaling up VoIP  - Congestion Control for SIP Room 166
2:15 to 3:00PM	Jim Argiropoulos: NG911 and the Chicago PSAP First Deputy, Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications Room 166
3:00 to 3:30 PM Break / Exhibitor Booths  and  City of Chicago's OEMC Unified Command Vehicles - 911 Satellite Trucks
3:30 to 5:00 PM	VoIP Challenges Chair:  Carol Davids	E911 VoIP Emergency Services Miniconference Co-Chairs:  Chuck Hunnicutt, Barbara Kemp	Bridging SIP communities Co-chairs: Warren Bent, Carol Davids
	3:30 to 4:00 PM  Keeping SIP Adaptable: Specifications for the Digital Age Ken Krechmer, SIIT09	3:30 to 4:00 PM Location Devices and the LoST Server Mark Grady, InDigital	3:30 to 4:00 PM   Inter-Carrier Wideband Communications John Butz, Neutral Tandem
	4:00 to 4:30 PM  VoIP: Voice Only Instigates Problems Steven Fair, Phybridge	4:00 to 4:30 PM The Story of the Jackson County, IL PSAPS Pat Lustig, Jackson County Ken Smith, Williamson County 9-1-1 Coordinator	4:00 to 4:30 PM Building SIP Communities with IMS Brett Brock, Cox Communications
	4:30to 5:00 PM  SIP Flooding Detection Jin Tang, PhD Candidate, IIT	4:30 to 5:00 PM Designing and Building the City of Chicago's Unified Command System David Beering, Morgan Franklin	4:30 to 5:00 PM Voice Services through HD Networks Rich Poole , Dialogic
5:00 to 6:00 PM	Happy Hour Beer, Wine, Hors D'ouevres
Day 2 Thursday October 29
	Room 163	Room 166	Room 103
8:00 to 8:30 AM           Breakfast and Exhibitors Booths
8:30 to 10:00 AM	Architectures, Operations and Test Co-Chairs: Dave Staub, Maureen Stillman	VoIP and NGN Networks Mini-conference Chair:  Suresh Borkar	N11 and VoIP Networks Chair: Rick Jones **Free Webinar to NENA Associates**
	8:30 to 9:00 AM Distributed monitoring of residential and mobile VoIP and IPTV services Alan Clark, Telchemy	8:30 to 9:15 AM  Verizon's Integrated Vision for Next Generation Services and Deployment Gaston Ormazabal, Verizon	8:30 AM - 9:15 AM The Technical side of N11 Brian Rosen, NENA Long Term Definition Working Group, Neustar
	9:00 to 9:30 AM  NGN Networks - Transitions and operations Manuel Vexler, Huawei	9:15 to 10:00 AM Convergence!  LTE, SAE, and IMS enabling Applications & VoIP Anne Lee, Alcatel-Lucent	9:15 - 10 AM Policy and Implementation Rick Jones Walt Magnusen
	9:30 to 10:00 AM The Impact of Various HFC Noise Types on Upstream VoIP Traffic Ayham Al-Banna, Arris
10:00 to 10:30 AM                  Break / Exhibitors booths
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM	Architectures, Operations and Test Co-chairs:Dave Staub, Maureen Stillman	VoIP and NGN Networks Mini-conference Chair:  Suresh Borkar	VoIP and Security Co-chairs:  Warren Bent, Paul Sand
	10:30 to 11:00 AM The Common Log File (CLF) Format for SIP Vijay Gurbani, Alcatel-Lucent	10:30 AM to 12:00 PM Panel Discussion: Moderator Ken Zdunek, IIT Speakers: Mario DeRango, Motorola Barlow Keener, Keener Law Group Mike Khalilian, IMS/NGN Forum	10:30 to 11:30  AM  Panel Discussion: The Practical Side of VoIP Security Moderator: Paul Sand, Salare Security Speakers: Tom Grill, Verisign Paul Salva, HSBC Peter Thermos, Palindrome Carl Herberger, IPevolve
	11:00 to 11:30 AM  Connecting the SIP Islands: The SIPForum Experience Richard Shockey, SIPForum
	11:30 to 12:00 Noon Leveraging a VoIP Infrastructure - Going beyond the Dial-Tone Bill Wolfe, Cisco		11:30 to 12:00 Noon Authenticated Identities within SIP Call Control: Interoperability Test Results John Nix, InCharge Systems
12:00 to 1:00 PM        Lunch  / Exhibitor booths
1:00 to 2:00 PM	Keynote Address: Henry Sinnreich, Adobe Applications on the Web vs. Network Application Protocols: RIA and SIP Room 166
2:00 to 2:30PM        Break  / Exhibitor booths
2:30 to 4:00 PM	Architectures, Operations and Test Chair: David Staub	VoIP and NGN Networks Mini-conference 4G and VoIP Chair:  Carl Ford, IMHO	VoIP and Security Co-chairs:  Warren Bent, Paul Sand
	2:30 PM - 3:00 PM Holistic Testing of IMS Networks: SIP and Diameter Thomas Maufer, Mu Dynamics	2:30 PM - 3:00 PM 4G and Voice - When worlds divide Carl Ford, IMHO	2:30 to 3:00 PM  VoIP-UC Security - Best Practices Ravi Varanasi, Sipera
	3:00 PM - 3:30 PM Voice Quality Enhancements for VoIP Networks Rafid Sukkar, Tellabs	3:00 PM - 3:30 PM 4G Security - The truth is out there Ed Guy, Truphone	3:00 to 3:30  PM Mobile Secure and Private Communications Thomas Gluzinski, IDRank Security
	3:30 PM - 4:00 PM SMS over LTE - Integrating Old and New Yigang Cai, Alcatel-Lucent	3:30 PM - 4:00 PM E-commerce, VoIP and NGN TMCNet	3:30 to 4:00 PM  Automated tools to support VoIP Networks Paul Sand, Salare Security
4:00 to 5:00 PM	Keynote Panel: Are the "Bells"  ringing for Carrier  VoIP? Moderator: Rich Tehrani, TMCNet Panelists include: Carl Ford,  IMHO; Anne Lee, ALU; Gaston Ormazabal, Verizon; Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University
5:00 to 6:00 PM	Happy Hour - Drawing - Prizes Beer, Wine, Hors D'ouevres

I wanted to alert my readers to some exciting news happening at TMC. As you likely know TMC is among a handful of media companies growing at a time when the media landscape is in dramatic decline. As you might imagine this growth is primarily online. Over the last decade and especially in the last few years we have focused on building online communities (Channels and GOCs) for customers who sponsor these areas as they rapidly attract focused decision-makers from around the world.

The visitors who come to these communities benefit from a massive amount of free content which helps them make informed purchasing decisions. For example people looking for products in Call Recording, Smart Data Centers, IP communications, HD Voice, Fixed Mobile Convergence or Next Generation Communications can come to the respective communities focused on these topics and have access to hundreds and in most cases thousands of TMC written articles detailing the news in their specific area of interest. Our business model is straightforward; aggregate massive amounts of focused and quality content using custom-built content targeting technology - make it relevant and pertinent so as to attract the right readers who need this information as they research the products and services they are looking to buy.

For our sponsors, these communities allow them to rank high organically on search engines to get their message out to a focused audience while simultaneously being able to measure the traffic to ensure they can justify their spend to the sales and executive management teams.

Basically, this suite of communities replicates the trade show model online and just like a trade show that attracts more attendees as the exhibitor base grows; the 120 monthly sponsored communities on TMCnet attract a massive audience which in turn attracts more sponsors.

In short, I am very confident we can continue to provide free quality content in all the areas we enter. Meaning while other media companies are beginning to charge for their once free content and many others are reducing their editorial teams, TMC is adding to its editorial, sales and marketing teams as we have a model which works exceptionally well for our readers and sponsors.

We are growing our team as we enter a slew of new markets with our business model of providing laser-focused content - backed by over a decade of proprietary content targeting technology; essentially building targeted online communities which rank high on search engines as they attract large amounts of focused traffic.

Here is my quote from a press release we put out today mentioning the hire of a brand new position - VP of Business Development. Matt Weiner is filling this position and his background of working for Penton and Yahoo! make him a good fit for the position."Over the last decade, TMC has invested in the technology and people necessary to build a next-generation media company which creates communities online, in-print and in-person," Tehrani continued. "By providing our audience with top quality news, training and information, we have attracted global purchasing decision-makers to our communities. As TMC's global communities have increased in size and quality, they have attracted hundreds of advertisers and sponsors who receive regular measurable results for their marketing and SEO budgets. Our future strategy involves continuing to build communities which draw large amounts of targeted traffic as we continue to connect buyers and sellers -- and adding Matt to the team is an integral element of that strategy."

Aside from Matt, we have added a number of other positions and just as importantly we continue to ink partnership after new partnership as we enter new spaces where we leverage our community building engine in combination with the thought leadership of individuals and/or corporations in new markets.

Thank you for continuing to support our rapid growth - thanks to our readers and existing and news sponsors - we look forward to helping all of your companies grow with ours.

In the last two weeks I drove (well I was in the car anyway) for more than 1,500 miles meeting with tech companies in Montreal, Ontario, Massachusetts, Rochester, NY, Los Angeles and San Diego. The last stop on my latest trip was at CTIA where I saw dozens of companies from around the globe.

Most of my travels involve learning about companies in the communications and technology space and often advising them on how they can be more successful. Sometimes I get to see some very innovative solutions which I can't share at the time for a multitude of reasons (embargos, etc) and other times I get a firsthand look at things which I share as soon as I can. In many cases, companies ask me about TMC's experience in helping companies with their thought leadership, branding and lead generation activities.

As CEO of a media company which builds online, in-person and print communities for millions of global purchasing decision-makers each month, I have an unusual role of also writing about many of the companies, products and services I see. What is fun for me is finding new ways to bring buyers and sellers together. Buyers want to quickly learn about which products they should consider before purchasing and sellers are looking to sell as much as they can while spending the least amount in doing so.

It is an amazing place to sit because extremely often I see industry-changing technology which languishes because an engineer sets the marketing budget and has the corporate communications skills of sheetrock. Remember, I have an engineering degree so I feel I am uniquely qualified to beat up my brethren. Then there are the companies I visit where their products shouldn't be accepted for free, yet they sell in volume and make massive margins because they are able to communicate the benefits properly.

Then there are a slew of "Hail Mary" companies which have really cool products but no business model to speak of. Sometimes I can convince the founder of such a company to modify their offerings to actually make money but other times the companies die on the vine because they think they know best - after all, I just meet a thousand companies plus like them a year - what do I know?. Sometimes though the amazing happens and they  get purchased by a Google, Cisco or Oracle and thus the "Hail Mary" designation.

I am thrilled to act as a trusted advisor on PR and marketing issues and I figured it is unfair for me to only share information with people I choose to visit and subsequently I spoke on a webinar a month or so ago about hosted SEO which was well-attended and generated lot buzz in the industry. So many companies wonder about search engine optimization and what the trick is to ranking high. While there are lots of factors to consider, the basic premise is to write lots of content which people want to read and share with others.

SEO consultants get paid to help companies rank higher and in some cases they can boost a company's search rank for a while. But in the end, steady and relatively large amounts of content are what companies need to generate to rank high on various terms.

I could go on about building communities and improving SEO for hours - I am truly passionate about figuring out how to instantly bring a group of people with similar interests together on a single web portal. Coming from the world of magazines, it used to take TMC six months to build a mailing list and in many cases you really needed 18 months to do it right. Oh and did I mention you had to mail at least half a million subscription offers and it would cost you about $400,000 at a minimum to rent lists, print and mail your subscription forms? To show you how much things have changed, TMC has been involved in projects in the past few months where we built communities on new topics which are up and running and attracting hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of a few weeks. It is truly amazing to see how media has evolved through the use of news-generated, laser focused community building.

Again, these topics are a major passion of mine and something my team at TMC has gotten great at focusing on. The next webinar I will speak on takes place Thursday of this week, October 15^th at 12:00 PST and on it I will discuss how you can partner to boost your search engine marketing. I look forward to seeing you there. Be sure to register now so you don't miss it. As a reminder, you can view the archive if you aren't around at this exact time. Just be sure to register. Also, be sure to bring any questions you have. I look forward to answering them this week.

In just over a week I will be hosting a webinar on search engine optimization (SEO) as it specifically relates to click ad fatigue. Many companies are spending more on pay-per-click ads than they would like and have no idea how to duplicate or even exceed the success of PPC using other methods such as hosted SEO which offers a coveted high organic search result. Improving search rank is a moving target, part art and part science. TMC has spent years building communities in the business-to-business space which rank high on most every search engine. On October 15th at 12:00 EST I will be sharing some knowledge and experience my company has gained over the past 15 or so years on the web while discussing some of the important challenges of web marketing you need to be aware of. There is no cost for this information and you are free to bring your questions... I will try to answer them all. Updated link: Details.

Here are a few suggested titles of who should attend. Please feel free to forward this entry to the appropriate people in your organization and beyond:

• CXOs, VPs, Directors and Managers of Marketing
• SEO & SEM strategists
• Public Relations, Corporate Communications executives
• Brand Managers

I have been meaning to thank my tech vendors for a while - the companies which allow me to be as productive as possible on the road. I am going to be brutally honest and not sugar coat so brace yourselves.

Verizon EVDO - without this gem of a service I am not sure where I would be. I am able to upload 30Mb files in rapid-fire fashion as I perform video interviews worldwide. Moreover I am almost always connected to this service when there is no WiFi alternative. Amazingly, it is often faster than hotel broadband!

iPhone - Thank you Steve Jobs for reinventing the way a wireless phone works and in the process producing an environment where developers flourish providing applications which make the world a better place. In the interest of being honest, the lack of Flash support and multitasking for non-Apple apps is upsetting.

Verizon MiFi 2200 - All that you love about Verizon with the benefit of WiFi access.

Boingo* - A lifesaver when you have a few minutes to log onto a foreign WiFi network and don't want to establish an account. I have tested it worldwide and am happy with the service.

Dell Latitude E6500 - What an amazing laptop when it comes to battery life - but when it comes to Dell's ControlPoint Connection Manager which manages the wireless connections, this is the buggiest piece of crap I have ever used.

iGo AC power Adapter - they make a small and light adapter allowing me to power-up in the car and plane but it has lots of problems when it stops working from time to time. This is my third one in about five years and I am pretty fed up with its finickyness (Yes, I know that's not a word).

Plantronics** - I use this company's headsets in my office, on the go and even a stereo Bluetooth headset when I am in the need for great sound without wires. The company has solid products that are a pleasure to use. This was not always the case. They have evolved nicely over the last eight years.

CellPoint Flamingo Headphones* - Flamingos are the best wired headphones I have used from the perspective of staying in the ears. They are virtually impossible to shake out regardless of what you do.

Brookstone NXT flat-panel speaker - just plug it into a laptop or phone and play music from this device the size of stack of 25 postcards. It chews through batteries fast but packs the most sound for its weight and space.

Macbook Air - Great for presentations - people love this thing. The downside is it is finicky and I still haven't figured out how its keychain works.

Glance Networks* - One of the best services for screen sharing around... It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but is dead easy to use.

Targus Rolling Laptop Case - It works well, and takes a beating - carrying everything in this blog entry and more.

D-Link DWL-G730AP - This little gadget turns any wired connection into a wireless hotspot/access point. It works flawlessly and has been a pleasure to use.

Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones - they work great but are too pricey and should at least let you listen to music when the battery dies.

TomTom Go 740 Live - this GPS unit is not especially small or easy to read in the sun but it does let you connect to Google search and gives you real-time traffic alerts for $10/month. During a massive rainstorm it rerouted me twice in an hour and saved me precious time. It is a good, not great product which has proven to be more and less accurate than an equivalent Garmin unit. Its graphics are far inferior to Garmin. Also the connection with the base unit is flaky and not reliable.

Skype - Lets me talk to and see my family on the go - likewise with coworkers and colleagues. I hate when someone I don't know too well sees I am online and wants to have a lengthy chat discussion. Just because I am online doesn't mean I am not in a meeting, etc. Presence is not always accurate especially for me as I am always online. What I am saying is - hey, how about asking if I have a moment? Pretty please.

Google - Do I need to explain? I must search 100 times a day at least.

Remote Desktop - Microsoft Software which has saved my life allowing me to be as productive as possible on the road by "pretending" to be in the office. It hangs one out of a hundred times or so but otherwise it is great.

There is probably more but this is enough for now. Time to get back and put some of this tech to work.

The FTC has a new rule on disclosure of paid blogs/reviews with an $11,000 fine per offense so * denotes a free product/service and ** denotes some free products.

I applaud the FTC on this great idea which should reduce conflict of interest and wonder if they will move forward to ensure financial rating agencies, other government agencies and elected officials will have to play by the same rules as bloggers. I would love to know which laws are influenced by lobbyists and gifts on corporate jets for example. I am looking forward to seeing this happen but am not holding my breath.

Leveraging Ecosystems Eclipses Developing Products

Widgets for TVs, application stores for wireless phones, applets for the connected home and automobiles... The trend is clear as smart ecosystems have emerged on the scene as a new way to generate revenue while locking in customers to specific hardware/software solutions. For many manufacturers such as Avaya, Cisco, RIM, Nokia, Apple and makers of televisions, it is no longer adequate to focus exclusively on the products your company develops. Now you have to figure out how to build a smart ecosystem around your offerings in order to leverage an able and willing (hardware and software) developer community who will evangelize your platform and develop long-tail applications, services and add-ons which boost the value of your ecosystem.

In order to help educate the emerging smart ecosystem community, TMC has partnered with Crossfire Media and distinguished college professor Mary Cronin PhD to launch a smart ecosystem portal containing news, thought leadership and analysis called SPEC which stands for Smart Product Ecosystems Connection and located at www.specosys.com.

As you may recall, Crossfire Media is home to Carl Ford and together we have already partnered to build online and live communities (4GWE and M2M Summit) in the 4G and M2M spaces.

This partnership also includes Mary Cronin, a professor in the Information Systems Department of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. Mary is a true thought leader in the space and you can expect to hear her prescient thoughts on how ecosystems will take root and evolve. Her first article is titled Five Rules for Smart Product Ecosystems.

The coverage areas will extend into a variety of industries and for now they include Telecom & Mobile; Health & Medical; Automotive & Telematics; Home Automation and Connected Home Entertainment Devices; Energy Monitoring and Personal Energy Management Solutions. We are open to adding new areas so drop us a line with suggestions.

It is evident that as time goes on, companies in all industries will be looking to tie their products and services into more and more ecosystems. They will either develop their own and/or leverage others on the market. In order to stay up to date on the investment, partnering and other opportunities ahead, be sure to bookmark the new SPEC smart ecosystem site and check back often.

PAETEC Chairman and CEO Arunas Chesonis was the final keynote speaker at ITEXPO West 2009 and got things kicked off with some great music and energy. In an energetic opening he shook up the crowd with flash as well as substance.

He described how the market for energy is huge and provides a natural opportunity for many in telecom. I am off to the reception sponsored by Acme Packet now.

Here is a clip: