Diann Daniel

The Child Bot

The Best Hotels for Traveling Techies

Must-Have Tech of the 1990s

Blinged-Out Mice You'll Love

Geek Wallets

The wunderkinds at MIT's Media Lab (Fluid Interfaces Group) have developed a gesture-controlled wearable computing device that feeds you relevant information and turns any surface into an interactive display. Called the Sixth Sense, the gadget relies on certain gestures and on object recognition to call up virtual gadgets and Web-based information, in a way that conjures up the movie Minority Report.

Sixth Sense aims to integrate information and tech into everyday life.

Let's face it: You can kill a lot of time with Google Earth 5,0. With this highly-visual, recently-released tool, you can fly anywhere on Earth for free, from your neighborhood to your upcoming fishing spots. You can check out terrain and 3D buildings, plot your ideal vacation tour, explore the ocean floor and even see Mars up close. It's a rich application that can take plenty of time to fully explore-both in terms of places and functionality. To make it easier for you, we've outlined five ways to get a small taste for what Google Earth 5.0 can do.

(See our other favorites in two slide shows, "Strangest Sights in Google Earth" and "Getting Your Feet Wet With Google Ocean")

Twitter and to a lesser extent Facebook are like ghetto art communities on the verge of gentrification: Hipsters are loving the first-there, build-something-from-scratch feeling, and hungry capitalists are eyeing the goods and trying to figure out how to get in on the action and make a profit. But few companies have figured out how to capitalize on all that coveted word-of-mouth and networking.

Part of the problem lies in the very nature of social networks: People just want to talk with their friends. And part of the problem is that outside of Facebook's stray ads, the two most talked about social networks (Facebook and Twitter) don't really offer businesses clear-cut entry points because they don't yet need to--Twitter, for example, is flush with US$35 million in VC funding--but eventually a sustainable business model will be necessary. Just how that profit will be made and which social networks will reign supreme is a matter of opinion.

Today life without a cell phone, a laptop, or an Internet connection seems unthinkable. Tech has infiltrated daily life in so many ways that it's hard to remember entire generations found ways to reach others, stay up-to-date, and do their jobs without the technology innovations we take for granted.

PBS Nightly Business News took a close look at tech innovations and innovations from other fields. To celebrate its 30th year on television, the news show partnered with Knowledge@Wharton to select the top 30 innovations in the past 30 years -- innovations that may seem standard now, but whose creation changed the way business is conducted, directly affected quality of life, broke new ground, and more.

Fisker Karma: Where Eco Meets Sexy

Mini E: Giving Life to the Electric Car

Artwork: Chip TaylorGrowing up, you probably loved Halloween: Dressing up as your favorite superhero or princess, telling ghost stories, eating so much candy that your mom warned you your teeth were going to fall out. Of course, there was the trick side of the equation--the eggs you'd see slimed across some streets the morning after or the paper in someone's front-yard tree. Aahh, those were the days.

Revisit that feeling just a little (albeit the grownup version) by celebrating the terrifying tricks and delectable treats of 2008.

Hotels are increasingly becoming high-tech. And with good reason: People want their 24/7 connectivity and other techie requirements even when they're away from home. So hotels that want to become (or stay) successful are making sure they offer amenities like wireless or even the latest video games.

That's where our nine Geek Hotels come in. These hotels have found a way to go above and beyond standard hotel niceties. Some offer both luxurious surroundings and futuristic tech conveniences, some have found a way to offer tech amenities at a reasonable rate, and some are using technology to bring people together.