I've been reading an article in USA Today that extols the virtues of replacement insurance for BlackBerrys and other mobile devices.

Good idea. I've never lost a BlackBerry but I did lose a cell phone once. Man, was I glad I had been forking over $4 a month!

Additionally, the article points out the advisability of unique identification labels for mobile computing devices. One company called Trackitback sells a $9.99 identification label that is marked on the device. Kind of like an electronic dog tag.

The owner registers the label on the Trackitback Web site. If someone finds your BlackBerry, they can contact you via the Trackitback site. You thank him or her a lot.

I think replacement insurance and idenification labels are important ideas for BlackBerry owners. I'd like to find out how many of you are on board with these services. Post a TalkBack and let me know.

Nortel and 3Com are going to develop SIP-based voice over IP support to the BlackBerry 7270 to make phone calls using campus area wireless LANs. The Nortel client software will integrate with their own Multimedia Communications Server while the 3Com client will integrate into RIM's server product. The fact that this is SIP-based could mean the VoIP protocols will be open to multiple manufacturers devices on a network. But using a central server and new client software may mean higher costs to implement.

Well, the BlackBerry 7270 isn’t quite here yet, but that doesn’t mean new apps are popping out.

Such as today’s announcement that 3Com and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion are working on a Session Initiation Protocol capability that will tie in 7270’s to 3Com’s PBX-compliant Convergence Application Suite.

Sweet, because as some of you already know, the 7270 will be 802.11b-enabled. And with this tie-in, enterprise BlackBerry users will obtain more flexible and more secure access to their data communications - even across PBX networks.

Can’t wait.