TechCrunch has tantalized users for months with the idea that Google is building a desktop client of its Google Voice phone management application using its Gizmo5 assets. Reports that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are shelving the product have given rise to a grass-roots petition for people who desire a desktop VOIP client for Google Voice. - Google just made free phone management application Google Voice available to the general public June 22 While that release is a Web-based program that lets users route calls to home, work and mobile phones through a special number provided by Google, TechCrunch has tantalized users for months wit...

Skype is rolling out a Skype 5.0 beta for Windows that lets up to five people join a single video conference call. Other vendors such as Cisco Systems and Polycom are looking to expand their video collaboration capabilities. - Skype is expanding the capabilities of its video communications technology by enabling users to hold a conference with up to five people. The Skype 5.0 beta for Windows, which offers the group video calling capability, became available May 13. It is being offered as a free download. Currently, ...

Skype the week of May 10 will introduce a group video chat feature that will help it better compete with video collaboration offerings from the likes of Cisco, Polycom and LifeSize. The new Skype feature will first go into a free beta program, but the company will begin charging for it in the next three or four months, Skype officials said. - Skype reportedly will be rolling out a new function that will let up to five people participate in a video call at the same time, a capability that will let it counter the video conferencing capabilities of such vendors as Cisco Systems and Polycom. In an interview with the Associated Press, Nei...

The new patent focuses on its Session Initiation Protocol-based network to allow more customers to establish virtual numbers outside a Vonage customer's local calling area to call for the price of a local call. - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Vonage Holdings a second patent for virtual telephone numbers. Vonage's first patent involving virtual phone numbers No. 7,386,111 was granted on June 10, 2008. Virtual phone numbers allow people outside a Vonage customer's local calling area to...

Consumers in North America pay more by far for mobile applications than people in all other regions of the world, according to a new study by wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. Released on March 17, the study was commissioned by Getjar, a company that sells downloadable software for mobile phones.

Last year, North American consumers paid an average $1.09 per application, compared with less than 20 cents in many other regions, according to Sharma. As a result, U.S. app purchasers accounted for more than 50% of total global app revenue, even though Asians downloaded more applications. To come up with his estimates, Sharma interviewed 20 large industry players, including carriers, content providers and handset makers.

The upshot is that for now, the U.S. remains the land of plenty for app developers, according to Sharma. At $1.09, North America has the highest average price per application in the world. Average purchase price in many other regions stands at below 20 cents, according to Sharma.

Consumers in North America pay more by far for mobile applications than people in all other regions of the world, according to a new study by wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. Released on March 17, the study was commissioned by Getjar, a company that sells downloadable software for mobile phones.

Last year, North American consumers paid an average $1.09 per application, compared with less than 20 cents in many other regions, according to Sharma. As a result, U.S. app purchasers accounted for more than 50% of total global app revenue, even though Asians downloaded more applications. To come up with his estimates, Sharma interviewed 20 large industry players, including carriers, content providers and handset makers.

The upshot is that for now, the U.S. remains the land of plenty for app developers, according to Sharma. At $1.09, North America has the highest average price per application in the world. Average purchase price in many other regions stands at below 20 cents, according to Sharma.

Listen up, wireless industry. If you promise users high-speed mobile Web access — and your network actually delivers — subscribers will flock to your product.

Ask Clearwire. An average Clear service user consumes more than 7 Gigabytes of data per month, says Clearwire, which delivers access at speeds, it claims, that are up to four times faster than those available for laptops from cellular service companies. Clear allows people to plug a tiny card into a laptop's USB port to surf the Web.

That's equivalent to an average user streaming a couple of movies onto his or her laptop a month. While that might not sound like much, it's a lot more usage than what most people are getting out of their mobile laptops and smartphones today. An average iPhone owner only uses up about 500 Megabytes of data a month, estimates independent wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. An average laptop owner likely consumes about double that amount.

Clearwire customers likely use the service more because it's faster. It can deliver a faster speed because Clearwire's network runs on a different technology, called WiMax.

Still, it's an important lesson for other providers, such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. They are investing billions to beef up their networks, and they will eventually see as much per-user broadband use. They'd better plan for it – or, else, cap the amount of bandwidth their customers can use up in order to prevent their networks from being overwhelmed with traffic.

Listen up, wireless industry. If you promise users high-speed mobile Web access — and your network actually delivers — subscribers will flock to your product.

Ask Clearwire. An average Clear service user consumes more than 7 Gigabytes of data per month, says Clearwire, which delivers access at speeds, it claims, that are up to four times faster than those available for laptops from cellular service companies. Clear allows people to plug a tiny card into a laptop's USB port to surf the Web.

That's equivalent to an average user streaming a couple of movies onto his or her laptop a month. While that might not sound like much, it's a lot more usage than what most people are getting out of their mobile laptops and smartphones today. An average iPhone owner only uses up about 500 Megabytes of data a month, estimates independent wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. An average laptop owner likely consumes about double that amount.

Clearwire customers likely use the service more because it's faster. It can deliver a faster speed because Clearwire's network runs on a different technology, called WiMax.

Still, it's an important lesson for other providers, such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. They are investing billions to beef up their networks, and they will eventually see as much per-user broadband use. They'd better plan for it – or, else, cap the amount of bandwidth their customers can use up in order to prevent their networks from being overwhelmed with traffic.

Google's Nexus One is being promoted on a piece of prime online search real estate that no advertiser normally has access to. U.S. users going to Google.com today can see a promotion for Nexus One right underneath the search box. Next to a tiny icon of the phone, are the words, "Experience Nexus One, the new Android phone from Google."

The placement is significant, as many analysts have had doubts about Google's ability to sell many units of the Nexus online. Today, most Americans buy their phones directly from carriers. The carriers spend millions to advertise the phones in TV, radio and newspaper ads. Google, meanwhile, announced it will promote Nexus One online only.

If, however, Nexus One gets promoted on the Google.com page, that could be more effective that even the TV ads in driving traffic to the new Google phone store. The page accounts for more than 71% of all U.S. online searches, according to consultant Hitwise. Several hundred million people access Google properties daily. If even a small percentage of them checks Nexus One out and buys the device, Google could beat all cell-phone sales records.

More people are accessing Wi-Fi hotspots at cafes and airports via handheld devices, according to a new study from In-Stat. While, last year, devices like smartphones accounted for 20% of total connects to Wi-Fi hotspots, in 2009 that number jumped to 35%. And by 2011, smartphones should account for half of hotspot connects -- and challenge laptops' dominance of Wi-Fi hotspots, In-Stat estimates.

It's clear why this is happening: More smartphones feature built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. More carriers are promoting these features. More places, such as bookseller Borders, have recently made Wi-Fi access available for free. All that is contributing to increased use of hotspots with all devices. Hotspot usage has increased by 47%, to 1.2 billion connects in 2009, In-Stat estimates.

The findings may also indicate that people increasingly use their smartphones to do many of the things they used to reserve for their netbooks and laptops. The handsets are now larger than they were only several years ago, with easier-to-use keyboards and screens. So consumers increasingly find they can use them for everything from surfing the Web to typing e-mails to gaming. When tablets debut some time next year, they could further accelerate this shift from laptops and netbooks to handheld devices.

Early this morning, Google is launching a new feature that lets you view what data is being stored on a range of Google services. Google Dashboard also will let you control at least some of that data and how it's used by Google and even delete it.

Dashboard provides a summary of the data in Google products you use while signed in (if you're not signed in, that data isn't associated with you). For now, Dashboard aggregates Gmail, the photo service Picasa, Calendar, Google Docs, Alerts, YouTube, Web history, and some others. As early as next week, Google will start adding more services, such as Checkout, Google Groups, and SideWiki.

Google says Dashboard wasn't prompted by rising concerns about corporate use of people's data. But I don't doubt that Dashboard is intended to blunt complaints that Google collects so much data. In fact, Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for trust and safety, made a point of telling me that the company had briefed some regulators around the world on Dashboard.

Before television there was radio. Before radio there were books. And before books there were storytellers. No matter what the medium–stone tablets, movies, grocery store tabloids, the internet–the story is central.

A good story stays with people and compels them to share it with others. It’s as true today as it was 2000 years ago–and it’s especially true of success stories. Everyone likes to hear them; everyone likes to have one. Do you see how this aligns perfectly with word-of-mouth marketing, where referrals are based on thousands of individual success stories? You see, every time one networker passes a referral to another, she is telling a story about a need fulfilled successfully or a problem solved effectively.

You can empower your network by writing down success stories about your business so that they won’t be forgotten and they can be told to other people. You also want to encourage your networking partners to swap stories with you so you can each keep the stories on file and use them to help find and refer great business opportunities to each other.

The key is to capture a truly compelling story–one that practically begs to be shared, one that the people in your network would actually have trouble keeping to themselves. The anatomy of a successful word-of-mouth story about your business is quite simple. It has a captivating beginning, an action-packed middle and a happy ending (and, conveniently, it will in most cases naturally outline for your referral partners what your perfect customer looks like). If you’re expecting other people to act on your story and share it, it must be a compelling story–and must have a positive outcome.

Chances are you have several great success stories about your business but, if not several, I’m sure you have at least one. So to start with, I’d like to challenge you to write down your business’s most compelling success story, ask at least one person on your word-of-mouth marketing team to do the same, and then share your stories with each other.

The more stories you share with other people, the more high-quality referrals you’ll get and the more success stories you’ll generate as you continue to network your business.

A year ago, most U.S. ebook publishers predicted a bright future for ebook reading on mobile phones -- in other countries. The going assumption had been that, in the U.S., people will buy special ebook readers, like the Amazon Kindle, instead, while mobile ebooks will become a hit in emerging markets, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, where people don't have the money to buy specialized devices. Well, it looks like the publishers had been wrong.

According to Oct. 27 report from Wattpad, the maker of the world's most popular software for ebook reading on mobile phones, the "US replaced Indonesia as the leading country in mobile ebook consumption in [the third] quarter."

What gives? Apparently, ebook reading is super-popular on the Apple iPhone, and neither Indonesia nor Vietnam offer the device, according to Wattpad. "In the non-iPhone market, Indonesia and Vietnam together contribute to more than two third of the market," according to the report. Currently, iPhone owners consume 42.1% of all mobile ebooks served up via Wattpad, which tracks ebook usage in 160 countries. And 78% of all iPhone ebook usage comes from North America.

Today, blogs tracker Technorati released a new report on the state of blogging, and it appears that a respectable number of bloggers out there manage to eke out a living.

According to a survey of 2,828 bloggers nationwide, 13% of the respondents do blogging full time. Another 15% blog to supplement their income. Basically, 28% of the people who blog get paid for it -- which is a staggering number, if you think about it. Every fourth blogger out there is getting paid for promoting brands or driving new leads to their businesses. That -- at a time when most advertising- and marketing-dependent businesses, such as traditional media, suffer. Clearly, bloggers are doing something right.