**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Today is the Super Bowl of politics — in a way. Election Day 2010.

Every major event like this presents brilliant minds with an opportunity to come up with something truly awesome that takes mobile to the next level. And I always come away wanting more.

The only interesting thing I found this time around, albeit more fun (perhaps pointless?) than meaningful, is Foursquare’s “I Voted” badge. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: any one of Foursquare’s 4 million users that votes (or fake votes via check-in) today can get the badge. Read more

**As published at RCR Wireless News**

Twitter Inc. just did the inevitable. Twice.

First it launched a geolocation-based service called Places. Then a few hours later, the entire service crashed and stayed down into the late hours of Monday night out on the West Coast.

The fourth day of matches at the World Cup was still hours away when the infamous fail whale appeared, so it would be hard to blame the world’s most unifying event for Twitter’s downtime. It’s also worth noting that Apple Inc. could take some of the blame since the impending onslaught of iPhone 4 pre-orders was due to begin any minute (or hour) when the site’s servers overloaded. Read more

**As published at digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: SocialScope, Inc  Price: Free  Platform: BlackBerry OS, iPhone and limited Android devices Advertising: None

Functionality: A+
Fun Factor: A
Overall: A+

Just when I think I’ve found my all-time favorite client for Twitter on my BlackBerry, an alternative jumps into my radar and I begin the evaluation process anew once more.

I can’t remember how long it’s been since I requested an invite to check out the beta for SocialScope, but I finally got a code via e-mail last week and was downloading the app on my BlackBerry minutes later. The company has seemingly made an early commitment to developing for the BlackBerry, as it lists a number of compatible RIM devices on its site; there’s also support for the Android-based G1 and the iPhone. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LOS ANGELES – Kicking off the final day of the cable industry’s big soiree, Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski tried to dampen obvious concerns in the room over his latest regulatory plans. After duly applauding the cable industry for the massive investment it put into building broadband infrastructure, even going so far as to call it a “great American success story,” he pointed out how badly the country is lagging on rate of innovative change.

Whether or not those in the audience shared his sentiment, Genachowski said his core goal is to drive faster connections and reap the rewards that will flow from greater broadband deployments and innovation. He believes broadband capacity, penetration and the nation’s access to the Internet as a whole will be one of, if not the, largest driving factor in job growth and social change for the country at large. Read more

**As published in digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Research in Motion Limited Price: Free Platform: BlackBerry
Advertising: None that we’ve come across yet
Functionality: A
Fun Factor: A
Overall: A-

After being a committed UberTwitter user for at least a year, I’m almost ready to move over to the official Twitter for BlackBerry app. But like so many other apps that have come out of Reasearch in Motion, Ltd (BlackBerry’s parent company), the just-launched app is late in the game, and still missing a few key features.

First and foremost, the app only allows access for one account at a time. This is a feature that came late to UberTwitter as well, but it should be considered a must-have for every Twitter-centric app. I’m hopeful it will be added soon in an update, but I’m not holding my breath.

Another great feature that’s missing from this app is the ability to start typing a user’s handle and automatically narrowing down by your following list who you intend to tweet. Anytime I can avoid drilling into a menu system to access what I’m after is a bonus. UberTwitter does this. The RIM Twitter app doesn’t. Read more

I’ve had the pleasure of attending a handful of 49ers home games in San Francisco this season and it’s not just my team that’s gone through ups and downs over the past four months. Using a cellphone at these games has been hit or miss at best.

Slouching against a car, tailgating way out deep in the parking lot there were never any problems. But as we approached the pearly gates with thousands of football fans in top form, the problems began to emerge.

Things were especially bad last Monday night. A group of us got split up in the mad dash from the parking lot to the gates and we had to rely on ancient forms of communication (sight and sound) to find each other. No big deal. It’s a football game. There’s no crying in football.

If you’ve ever tried to place a call or send a text message in the midst of Monday Night Madness at Candlestick you know what I’m talking about. Right when we arguably needed our phones most (tickets had to be distributed, before yours truly could enter), all of our non-working smartphones made us look pretty dumb. Luckily, we all made it inside without incident and with even more luck the 49ers beat the Cardinals with many incidents on the field. Read more

** As published in RCR Wireless News **

SAN FRANCISCO – The spark that led Motorola Inc. Co-CEO Sanjay Jha to reinvigorate his company’s relationship with Google Inc. was similar to two drunks finding each other in a bar, or at least that is what Jha half-jokingly explained at this week’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco.

As was widely expected, Jha took the stage to announce Motorola’s plan for a new lineup of devices that run on Google’s Android operating system. Read more