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For some reason when I hear Sergey Brin wants Google to be the third half of my brain I feel a bit freaked out. Partially because they already know what everyone wants, desires - how often we search for our Exes, how often we check porn, etc. Then again, the next step seems to be logically implanting themselves in our heads so why am I surprised?

I just hope the third brain they put in me is out of Beta.

Then again, I could use some help from the Google guys when keeping track of all the excitement and new events surrounding ITEXPO. The last few days since my most recent post on the show has been intense. ITEXPO is without a doubt the single must-attend conference of the fall and there is tremendous activity taking place such as new major sponsors and some of the most influential new conferees I have seen at live events. Flights are slowly creeping up in cost - As an FYI I just checked and found a few seats left at under $200 from New York to Los Angeles, so you want to act quickly to save money.

The first item of note is a blog post from Peter Radizeski on things you should be aware of at the show - there is a slant here towards presenters but still, it is worth a read for everyone. In addition, the PDF version of the show brochure is essential reading and was just updated.

The collocated LightWave One event has a must-read blog entry discussing some of the speakers at the event.

We have a new list which is admittedly rough in terms of being edited and it shows you many of the companies signed up to come to ITEXPO. We hope you'll agree it is quite impressive and you likely want to come meet with many of the companies on the list.

In terms of new exhibitors, since a few days back, here they are:

• Alcatel-Lucent added as sponsor of StartupCamp
• Tantalus added as a Silver Sponsor to the Smart Grid Summit
• Pishgaman Group Contracts for a Gold Sponsorship at ITEXPO
• NTT Advanced Technologies division contracts for a booth at ITEXPO
• Time Warner Contracts for Gold Sponsorship at the CVx event
• Gridstore added to the MSPworld Exhibitor List
• Esprida Corporation has contracted to be an exhibitor and Silver Sponsor of M2M Evolution
• Sparxent contracts to exhibit at MSP World
• Axacore Contracts for a booth at ITEXPO
• Escene Communication Technology Co.,Limited  added to the ITEXPO
• Global Partners Conference Contracts for a booth at the CVx event

Here are some of the new promotions which have been sent out in the last few days:

Typically I also alert you to news speakers and interviews in these messages but I'll add those in a later post. You have 25 days to register for ITEXPO and related events - I hope to see you in Los Angeles.

Tags: alcatel-lucent, axacore, carl ford, channel vision, cvx, erik linask, escene communication technology, esprida, fonality, ftocc, global partners conference, google, gridstore, itexpo, lee krevat, m2m, m2m evolution, mspworld, neisinger, ntt, peter radizeski, pishgaman group, san diego gas & electric, scott kargman, sergey brin, smart grid, smart grid summit, social crm, sparxent, startupcamp, tantalus, time warner, trixbox

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A few news items caught my eye this morning thanks to a newsletter from Business Insider:

• Apps downloaded in iTunes will exceed music sold through iTunes by year end, according to one estimate.
• Gawker Media is now bigger online than all newspapers except for the New York Times.

Think about this for a moment... Music which is the lowest common denominator of entertainment will be eclipsed soon by applications and when you consider many of the devices used to download music such as PCs don't even run iOS apps, the accomplishment is that much more incredible.

Regarding Gawker, it is amazing to see how a few people with good ideas can compete head-to-head with a slew of newspaper executives who have generations of media experience and win. What this shows is the Internet is the most democratic of all information dissemination mediums. Anyone with an idea can attract followers and build a media empire.

If there was any doubt, the pace of change in the technology world is only increasing and as the wave hits your industry you either ride it or get crushed by it.

Tags: advertising, app store, apple, apps, business insider, comscore, gawker media, ios, itunes, music, new york times, newspaper, web traffic

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Tags: security, technology, tmc, virus

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Tags: obama, recession, stimulus

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The only thing we need now is an open HTML5 store which handles the billing for developers who want the widest audience possible as their creative work is monetized.

In January of 2008 I used a term Splinternet to describe the growing number of areas content providers need to focus on when delivering their services. It seems according to Forrester Research I coined the term as it refers to a splintering of the traditional Internet. At the time I used Facebook as an example of this splintering but over the years, app stores too have also become a major splintered area as media companies and others as they look to optimize their presence in each disparate splinterverse.

More recently, Wired declared the Web dead which reinforces for me that as a society we are going in the wrong direction - one of exponentially more splintered communities. Of course Apple and Facebook have every reason in the world to continue to promote apps which are dependent on their platforms and/or approval process but is this good for users or bad?

Let's explore the good first. I feel more comfortable using a banking app on my iPhone or iPad than I do my PC browser because of keystroke logging and other malicious software which may be on a computer without my knowledge.

On the other hand I resent any company which tells me which programs I can and cannot have access to and Apple not only does its best to guard against malicious apps in its online store it also dictates what applications I can or cannot download and use. Obviously if an app does something illegal it is understandable but the company goes much farther and enforces its moral values via its approval process which is a moving target and at times seems arbitrary and capricious.

Moreover it seems to occasionally deny access to applications which may compete with one of its current or future products or even planned products.

How horrifying (read: terrible for consumers who cherish a free and open Internet) would it be if every company who controls a Splinternet decides to enforce rules in a similar manner to Apple?

Google for its part has argued that the future of the mobile app world is the Web and although it has an app store because it seems like the popular thing to do, it has also made bold steps by improving upon its iPhone YouTube app with a mobile Web site (m.youtube.com) which has better performance than the app which comes bundled on your favorite iOS device.

Carl Ford has some strong comments in support of the Web's future and points out how important HTML5 is and will be. Moreover he mentions how many mobile apps today are basically just Web sites with minor front-end modifications.

While is Carl is correct for many news apps, the Wall Street Journal application on the iPad has richness which would could be difficult to approximate via the traditional mobile Web alone. Still, I am beginning to see more and more HTML5 apps which seem to have the functionality of some of the best standalone App Store apps.

For example if you have an HTML5-enabled browser like Chrome, check out this page flipping demo. Also, remember how positive I was on the new HTML5 Yahoo! Mail? In addition, Google's HTML5 Gmail apps are great and many of my readers profess their love for the service.

Webmonkey had a great article a while back which pointed to a Google-sponsored Chrome experiments site which show the power of JavaScript and HTML5. There are some amazing demos here and sadly, many of them don't work well with an iPad because a mouse and or real keyboard is needed. Hopefully such issues will be resolved over time and while you wait, be sure to check the Asteroids game (pictured below) on the site. Although updated with newer graphics, the game is still highly-addictive and takes me back to my youth when I spent much of my salary on Asteroids and Space Invaders arcade games.

My sense is as concerned as I am about the Splinternet becoming the Internet - and you can argue the transformation has already taken place, there is tremendous hope that HTML5 will force developers to first write apps for the web and worry about the app stores later.

The only thing we need now is an open HTML5 store which handles the billing for developers who want the widest audience possible as their creative work is monetized.

Tags: android, app stores, apple, browser, carl ford, chrome, facebook, google, html, html5, internet, itunes, social network, splinternet, web, wired, youtube

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