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I did go someplace warm to write and edit this story.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When you're on the go (or mired in snow, as I am here along the frozen shore of Lake Erie), today's road warrior is ever dependent on mobile communication to stay in touch.

That's why this week's e-mail outage for BlackBerry users was a most unwelcome turn of events.

Research in Motion, BlackBerry's parent company, says it was updating its systems to accomodate more users Monday afternoon when something went wrong—sending an unspecfied number of subscribers across North America fumbling for messages that just weren't there.

RIM says no mail was lost; it just didn't arrive in a very timely fashion.

This is the second major outage for the BlackBerry service in less than a year.

Yahoo (you know, the company that Microsoft is keen to take over) is doing something that I think is very smart: It's trying to cement its own brand on cell phones to establish itself as a leader in the field—while making it easier for ordinary folks to do more than yak on their mobile handset.

We showed you Yahoo's first stab at this, Yahoo Go, in a Computer Corner report last August. It puts news, sports, weather, stocks, photos, e-mail and other functions on your screen using what it calls a "carousel" interface.

Yahoo Go 2.0 is currently available for a wide variety of phones.

Yahoo Go 3.0 , just released, - takes that flexibility a step further by adding "mobile widgets" to the mix. They are small software programs that add functionality to Yahoo Go by providing access to new content, like eBay online auctions, MySpace social networking and music news from MTV.

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Yahoo announced plans to take all this one step further with its new oneConnect service.

Available starting this spring, oneConnect will integrate instant messaging, text messaging and what Yahoo calls a "socially-connected address book."

All this activity is important for Yahoo, because rival Google also has designs on your cell phone (well, your next cell phone).

It is developing a whole new operating system called Android that will only work on new handset models designed for it, several of which are being shown at the Mobile World Congress.

The beauty for users is that any Android-powered phone can run any Android application—no matter who made the phone and no matter who your carrier is.

Such a platform could encourage an explosion of software applications, in much the same way the IBM PC led to a revolution in personal computing. Imagine loading in an Android application that gives your handset an entirely different look and feel, while adding functions along the way!

But while Android phones are in the future, Yahoo is plowing ahead to launch its services on a wider variety of existing phones. Their widget technology is likely to benefit consumers sooner, especially if Yahoo encourages independent developers to join in.

And that may be one big reason why Microsoft is eager to see what a combination of Microsoft and Yahoo (Micro-Hoo?) could generate in the palm of your hand.

For the time being, Yahoo has rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid and is weighing its options.

Because I've had to spend some extended time away from home, this is the third consecutive week that Computer Corner has been manufactured in Northern Ohio.

Text and pictures are not a big problem, but video is a little more of a challenge, especially when you're using a borrowed, bottom-of-the-line notebook computer as your editing machine. You see, I did bring my own notebook, but—oops—I forgot to pack the power supply,and (as you may have already learned from personal experience, those things are not interchangable and replacement models are pricey.

Fortunately, the marginal 256 megabyte memory of my borrowed computer could be swapped out for the more ample (but still not overwhelming) 512 M in my notebook.

Now I needed some software to edit the pieces. The first week, I used Windows Movie Maker, which is built in to Windows, but I found it somewhat limiting.

I was reluctant to part with $50 or more for a premier editing package, so I paid a visit to the local bookstore and found a British computer magazine that bundled a free copy of Cyberlink Power Director. While it's not the current version, and its usefulness is crippled because it can't burn DVDs, it had most of what I needed to put a couple of minutes of television together.

The final part of the puzzle was a camera. My Samsung Blackjack cell phone has a video camera that's fine in a pinch, but it has a fairly low-resolution sensor that doesn't work well at all in low light levels.

I settled on Flip Video, a pocket-size camera that runs on a couple of AA batteries. It makes surprisingly good quality pictures for a $100 device, and it's extremely easy and unobtrusive to use. Plus, it worked flawlessly in 4 degree temperatures (with a wind chill in the negative teens!).

All that's left to do is send in the final product. I mainly used a DSL connection where I'm staying, but there are lots of options for the mobile traveler.

I'm writing these words to you using a free wireless Wi-Fi connection at a bagel shop in Westlake, Ohio. In a pinch, I can also lash up my mobile handset to my notebook and work wherever there's a cell phone signal.

If only everything were faster!

Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon (usually seen on Wednesdays), or online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com