Airlines have been charging fees for seats on the emergency aisle, priority boarding, and anything resembling baggage, so it's no surprise that cheap or free Wi-Fi access isn't a typical frill. But with one in three U.S. planes providing wireless Internet access, we looked at the going rates for going online in the clouds.

Cisco's Umi Telepresence (that's "you-me") hopes to bring enterprise-level, 1080p video conferencing to your living room. Free video chatting services abound, but Cisco hopes to one-up the competition by providing a superior, high definition experience, right on your living room TV.

Given the importance of telephone systems, refreshing the technology can be daunting. However, for small and midsized businesses who consider upgrading from a PBX to VoIP, the benefits are clear and, with proper planning, the implementation is not very frightening. Consider these three steps:

IBM announced that it is purchasing Ethernet switch maker Blade Networks. The move is the latest in IBM's 2010 buying frenzy, and continues the consolidation of the tech industry--pitting IBM, Cisco, HP, and Dell head to head in a variety of markets.

Unified communications (UC) as we know it today is flawed. The initial investment is simply too high for the return, partly due to the cost of each component and the fact you need gateway servers and software to tie the disparate systems together. Even then there’s no guarantee the products will play nicely with one another, meaning you have to add an additional line item to the budget for troubleshooting.

The FCC will vote next week to make the white space portion of the television broadcast spectrum publicly available for use in wireless networks. If approved, it could enable a new generation of "Wi-Fi on steroids" devices capable of transmitting data through walls and over much greater distances than current wireless technologies.

Intel has been on a buying binge lately. Just two weeks ago the world's largest chip maker agreed to acquire security vendor McAfee for $7.68 billion, and today it announced plans to buy Infineon Technologies' Wireless Solutions (WLS) division for $1.4 billion.

I find it hilarious that the head of AT&T wireless referred to Google and Verizon's net neutrality proposal as a “reasonable framework,” because for mobile broadband, it isn't much of a framework at all.

With the push for larger mailbox sizes by users and increasing compliance requirements by legal departments, e-mail archiving is no longer optional for most organizations. But thanks to new technologies available in Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2010 SP1, including a bottomless mailbox capability and support for low-cost storage options, the need to deploy third-party archiving solutions is fading fast.

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Argus Machine Company has made custom parts and pipeline threading in Canada for oil and gas fields since 1958. But in three buildings totaling 100,000 square feet, unreliable, piecemeal technology was increasingly frustrating some 100 employees.