Most investors would like a "do over."

They look back on certain investments and wish they'd never heard of, much less put money in them. Sure things like your good friend's invention that would make beer in one day from water and weeds. Or your brother's idea of selling real estate on Saturn. Everyone has their own stories. Mine are usually related to private investments in the medical device field or biotech, though I did have one out of Florida that made a "pig" that ran through oil pipelines to check on their safety. After meeting the founder who looked more like a used car salesman that caught a great sale on polyester suits, I should have known better right then. But I didn't.

There are a lot of upset people today following Google's announcement that Kansas City was the company's choice for its blistering fast 1 Gbps broadband Internet.

When Google (GOOG) announced its desire to find a place to test the development of a 1 gigabit fiber to the home network last February, cities and towns all across the nation started working on their presentations to get Google to come to their area. Google received 1,100 applications, but in the end, it is Kansas City that got the nod.

American Express (AXP) announced "Serve" yesterday, an all-new digital payment platform set to rival eBay's (EBAY) PayPal system. Consumers can use Serve to make digital purchases, pay off bills, transfer funds and send money via Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and Google's (GOOG) Android phones.

Serve is also available via the web and Facebook, and users are provided a debit card as a traditional way for a consumer to access their accounts. The card can be used at any ATM machine or vendor that accepts American Express.

A new business model is springing up right under our noses. The big players like Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) have put together a one-stop shop in their app stores.

First off, an app store is just that, a place where you can pick and choose the apps you want to download. The app store is also a place where entrepreneurs can develop an app and with permission place it on the iPhone, iPad or Android device.

The fast moving world of investing can turn on a dime, especially if you own technology stocks. Research In Motion (RIMM) was a smartphone darling. But then came the iPhone and now the iPad. Then we have Google's (GOOG) Android following on Apple's (AAPL) heels.

RIM suddenly woke up a found that it had fallen off its perch. Now the company is scrambling to do catch up. BlackBerry is losing North American market share and the company expects to ship only 13.5 to 14.5 million Blackberry's this quarter, down from 14.9 million last quarter, according to Reuters.

Bookseller Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) has been hoping to find a potential buyer, but it appears as though its search will end with no buyer.

The book seller has been searching for months for a potential buyer, and the search will likely continue for a couple more weeks, but people close to the bidding process have stated that it looks unlikely that the company will be able to find a buyer.

U.S. stock futures are higher this morning, after AT&T (T) announced its plans to buy T-Mobile USA for around $39 billion.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 105 points to 11,904.00, while those for the S&P 500 stock index climbed 13.60 points to 1,287.80. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 24.25 points to 2,245.75.

Pay-by-phone technology may be making big moves with Google Inc. (GOOG).

According to rumors, Google plans to begin testing its new mobile phone-based payment service in New York and San Francisco in the next four months. The system, developed by VeriFone Systems (PAY), will allow mobile phones equipped with near-field-communication (NFC) technology to simply tap the phone against the register to complete the transaction.

The past few years have been brutal for small businesses but it looks like things are starting to improve. A report from the National Federation of Independent Business shows that confidence is at a three-year high. There are even more plans to hire employees.

Well, top companies and investors are seeing opportunity. For example, Google (GOOG) Ventures, Salesforce.com (CRM) and Sequoia Capital have announced a $32 million round for HubSpot.

Research In Motion (RIMM), which designs and develops the BlackBerry line of smartphones, is also expected to launch its PlayBook tablet in the first quarter of 2011. RIM, which competes with Apple (AAPL), Motorola Mobility (MMI) and Nokia (NOK) in the mobile phone market, is expected to face stiff competition from Apple's iPad and Google's (GOOG) Android-based tablets.

RIM lacks the apps ecosystem strength enjoyed by Apple and Google, one reason why RIM has been slowly losing its share in the smartphone market. Without a conscious effort to improve its app platform, RIM's PlayBook may not gain much traction in the tablet market.

See our full analysis and $74.28 price estimate for RIM.

Google's (GOOG) mobile operating system, Android, is an example of how acquisitions have made a big difference. This technology came from a deal struck in 2005. Then, after lots of internal development, Google launched Android in 2007. Since then, the growth has been sizzling.

In fact, according to the most recent report from comScore, Android's market share hit 31.2%. Yes, it is now the number one mobile operating system.

Once the master of the game, Nintendo (NTDOY) has fallen behind in the gaming industry. It reported a 46% drop in profits in its recent quarter, as reported in Reuters. Nintendo is trying to do "catch up" with rivals Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and Google's (GOOG) Android, both or which have strong gaming platforms.

Nintendo is launching the first handheld 3D gaming system without glasses later this month. Nintendo of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aime, expects that the 3DS will sell even faster than its original DS device, which sold 150 million units to date.

We recently launched coverage of Kayak with a roughly $800 million valuation. Unlike online travel agencies like Expedia (EXPE) or Priceline (PCLN), Kayak does not provide online bookings directly but provides consumers a one-stop research solution to best fares along with other value-added services like flight status updates and pricing alerts.

We believe advertising revenues make up over 60% of Kayak's valuation while referral fees from hotel queries and air ticket queries constitute 21% and 14% respectively.

Fortune has released its list of the world's 50 most respected companies and once again Apple Inc. (AAPL) tops the list.

This is the fourth year in a row that the Cupertino based company has grabbed the top slot. Apple's respect comes mainly due to the company's ability to release new products at an amazingly quick pace, often updating its main product lines at least once a year.

Analyst Upgrades

• SINA (SINA) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Texas Instruments (TXN), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Xilinx (XLNX) and Valassis (VCI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Salesforce.com (CRM) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Peet's Coffee (PEET) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Invesco Mortgage (IVR) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• BTU International (BTUI) to buy from hold at Wunderlich.
• Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF) to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Chipotle (CMG) to market perform from underperform at Morgan Keegan.