One of the things I love about covering technology is that people are always creating different names for the same things. Some even create unique verbs to describe the latest and greatest tool.

This popped into my head while reading about yet another 'storage in the cloud' company, that lets users store everything from music files to work documents online.

Michael Robertson (who started MP3.com, Linspire, and Gizmo5) is launching SyncWizard, a free service that grabs "most valuable personal data" and offers encrypted storage on a Web site.

As 'online storage' isn't too sexy a phrase, we got 'storage in the cloud.'

And now Robertson says people can 'cloud up.'

But I think what he means is back-up (again not very sexy), but yet not accurate since 'clouding up' isn't an actual verb action, and back-up is taking a snapshot of what's on a server or workstation at a particular moment and housing that snapshot somewhere else.

In my view, 'clouding up' means copying documents and files to a Web site.

I'm not picking on Mr. Robertson, or his technology.

The idea of 'clouding up' intrigued me so much I figured I'd try SyncWizard out.

It's clearly still in beta, and since Zoho (you need an account there) wouldn't let me create an account even after doing its authentication process eight times, I didn't get too far.

I do plan to 'cloud up' as soon as possible though.

If you think your users are frustrated with the cell service in play, don't take it personally.

The aggravation of using a cell phone has reached all the way to the hallowed halls of our legislative bodies where a house subcommittee focused on telecom issues held a hearing this week on user rights while Congress considers a consumer rights bill.

My take? What the heck took them so long? It's not like cell service just started tanking. It's been tanking for years.

But I can guess why it's taken so long. The lobbyist group for the telecom industry is likely quite powerful and I'm assuming it has worked very hard to avoid even whispers about enacting such a law.

My hope? That this bill moves fast and furious into fruition.

I'm tired of the poor cell service, the lock down on contracts, the fees. I'm guessing more than a few other business mobile device users are as well.

News of a startup in the ever-competitive storage market is as common as vendors claiming they have "industry-leading" technology. But one new player isn't taking this route as it introduces its offering of efficient data access for high-performance computing.

Atrato, a Colorado-based company once known as Sherwood Information Services, is staying quiet about its technology though it's letting people know who's funding the effort.

While Atrato CEO and co-founder Dan McCormick offered only general information when I asked him about his products, he was more willing to talk about how Atrato has grabbed $18 million in venture capital in six months and who's raising money for the company.

The venture capital roster includes former StorageTek CEO and founder Jesse Aweida; Tom Porter, an ex-Seagate CTO and IBM leader; Dick Blaschke, an IBM and EMC veteran; and Gary Gentry, former Seagate senior vice president.

The company's product, Atrato, is a high-performance storage platform designed to solve issues with high-speed, high-volume data access.

The startup's lone press release issued a week ago offered insight on the venture capital roster but is generic in terms of technology specifics. And McCormick isn't eager to provide further detail.

"We've come out of stealth mode to execute on our vision that data storage isn't about how to store information but how to efficiently access that information," McCormick said.

One industry analyst said a close look at the company's management team and its expertise could provide some insight on the company's technology.

Along with McCormick, the team includes a second former executive from Xiotech and Seagate, Atrato's co-founder Jonathan Hall.

Another member, Tom Ruwart, is chief scientist at HPC solutions and an expert on individual disk drives for peta-scale supercomputer-class storage systems.

Also on the team is principal software architect Sam Siewert, who currently teaches a program in real-time embedded systems at the University of Colorado and has several patents related to ASIC debug and CPU scheduling.

Karl Whiting, principal hardware architect, co-founded Idealogy and served as the president, principal engineer and engineering manager. He has helped customers such as Cisco and Nortel with their ASIC developments.

"From what I can see is that Atrato might have created some kind of flash technology or similar technology that they're tweaking for their customer needs," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. King said Atrato's quiet announcement is interesting given the timing.

"This is following EMC's news about its own flash drive technology and other HPC I/O announcements," King said, adding that Atrato's technology seems to be aimed at a "corner" of the storage market.

"It's not something everyone needs," he said. "Companies with extremely high performing database-enabled applications are likely looking for this kind of solution."

McCormick didn't comment on specific inquiries about the Atrato device but said the company has 150 patent claims on its "innovative" application that lets users cut connectivity costs by 90 percent and reduce rack and cooling costs by 80 percent.

What McCormick would talk about is his market strategy, saying that the company is targeting "two main buckets" of users. The first are content delivery service providers, which includes cable companies, Web 2.0 operations and cellular and television services providers.

The second "user" bucket comprises HPC environments in the government and oil and gas industries.

Although McCormick declined to provide pricing information, he explained that Atratro's value proposition is competitive pricing in what's clearly becoming a very crowded vendor space. He would only describe pricing as "on par" with mid-tier storage vendor products.

But analyst King found that description difficult to believe given that flash technology, while declining about 50 percent in price every 18 months, is still expensive for the intended marketplaces.

"If this is flash-based then it's going to be a very expensive system. Flash cost will come down but it will never reach parity with disk costs as those costs continue to come down as well," says King, noting that even EMC, which has clearly embraced flash technology, doesn't intend to plug it into its Centera line anytime soon due to cost issues.

If you think you paid alot for that smartphone in your pocket you likely didn't pay what the snazziest iPhone is going for these days. It only costs $180K.

The Apple iPhone Princess Plus boasts 138 princess-cut diamonds and 180 brilliant-cut diamonds...combining for 17.75 carats.

BlackBerry users went without email for three hours Monday and by some news account you'd think Armageddon had it North America. Really, how big a deal is it to go without email?

Just imagine being told by your boss not to launch your email application for a full day. Instead you're told to rely on that shiny black instrument to the left of your monitor, and those two things tucked under your desk, for communication purposes.

Yes, I mean the phone and your feet. You can pick them both up to interact with people who can give you information in what's typically a quicker fashion and much more efficient fashion. Walking over to another's office to get information is actually mobility in its truest form isn't it ;)

I mean, realistically, if someone emails you and you don't respond, and it's truly important they don't usually give up right? You'll get pinged on IM or a text on your phone, or your phone will actually ring.

After all, it's not like we're ever completely out of reach these days.

Yes. You read that right. Dell and smartphone development. That's just one of the many rumors swirling around the smartphone industry these days. Another is that Google's going to come clean about what it's up with its mobile platform Android. (Meanwhile it's Google that Dell is supposedly working with on a cell phone product.)

Given next week is Mobile World Congress (with Robert Redford headlining..) you gotta hope something big gets pushed out. With Apple grabbing a spot among the top three popular smartphones, you know Google has to be panting hard to push the iPhone off its lofty perch.

Luxurious and sweet, chic, sleek and pink, and of course elegant and worldly. All espouse the virtues of women, or possibly even one woman. Think again.

Those phrases and words are being used to describe the virtues of Verizon's wireless devices in its marketing gimmick for lover's day, February 14th.

"From fun and flirty, to chic and sophisticated, Verizon Wireless has an assortment of wireless treats in an array of say-it-with-love colors this Valentine's Day."

Color me azalea blue, or green with nausea but I just think marketing stretches a bit too far sometimes.

Ok, I admit I could use GPS tracking and location technology pretty much on a daily basis.

I do forget where I've parked my car after three hours in the mall with my 15-year-old daughter. Heck, I probably couldn't even tell you what kind of car I own after one those mother-daughter experiences so yes, having GPS on my phone would be handy.

The thing is I'd have to remember to take the phone out of the car dock before heading into the mall.

That's how Garmin's first, and surely not last, smartphone works. As Cliff Pemble, Garmin's president and COO describes it, the Nuvifone is "an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device." 

Whew, say that three times fast.

But really folks, where does a smartphone start and end?

As one very smart analyst shared with me this week you can't be good at everything--(he meant a smartphone not 'me' per se ;)  )

There is just so little room to fit components, and so little battery power to suck on,  so jamming everything into one device typically means mediocrity all around, he said.

My friend the analyst has got an incredibly valid point. Given the competitive landscape and more phones hitting market every day I think it's going to be those who astound at one or two features that grab marketshare. Don't you?

I mean face it, if there was one phone and one carrier who could provide crystal clear transmission of just voice and connectivity on a 99.99.99% SLA basis at any given moment in a 50-mile radius of our homes or work we'd all dump our phones and buy that one, wouldn't we? Even if it wasn't pretty or sparkly or quirky.

Ok, yes maybe we'd want a little push email and a browser. And, well a camera can come in handy (having a photo of my car would be useful at times while I'm roaming the parking lot looking for it).