An Obama administration policy allowing U.S. border officials to seize and search laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices for any reason is being challenged as unconstitutional.

Clearly, some of us make bad decisions with our gadgets. But even without having to live down a mobile phone-fueled tirade of Mel Gibson proportions, many of us have sought forgiveness for our gadget-enabled sins through a ritual purge: a day without gadgets.

You live your life at 2.4 GHz. Your router, your cordless phone, your Bluetooth earpiece, your baby monitor and your garage opener all love and live on this radio frequency, and no others. Why? The answer is in your kitchen.

The Neuromancer author digs deep into the vertigo-inducing machinations of modern life to spin a story about militarism, marketing and "gear queers." He also calls Twitter "the most powerful novelty aggregator that has ever existed."

Get a look at the sci-fi writer's latest future-present story, in which a detail-obsessed Russian translator named Milgrim, a postmodern marketing mogul known as Hubertus Bigend and a taste-making detective called Hollis Henry tussle with technology and its far-reaching tentacles.

LONDON — Every so often, in cities across the world, a group of digital music professionals get together for a Hack Day, where they'll cobble together hardware, software and anything else they can get their hands on into innovative musical mashups. London's event took place last weekend, and it was an orgy of creativity. Here are 10 of our favorites.

Google is now allowing any Yahoo user to sign in to Google using OpenID, the company announced Tuesday. Anyone with a Yahoo account can start using Google's web apps with a new one-click sign up process.

A new survey has caught several distant galaxies ripping up their dwarfish galactic neighbors and devouring them whole.

The online lending service is thriving by making loans to struggling small companies. Its founder wants to turn it into a matchmaking system for business borrowers and lenders

President Barack Obama is proposing to expand tax cuts for businesses and boost federal spending on the nation’s transportation system to help bolster an economy that’s losing jobs heading into the November congressional elections.

The mobile software company's 25-year-old co-founder and chief executive talks about Facebook Places, Apple's iPad, and the challenges of persuading small businesses to advertise

Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham, an 18-year-old from Las Vegas, recently pulled off the world's first wheelchair double backflip, after several failed (and painful-looking) attempts at Camp Woodward, just east of State College, Pennsylvania.

Steve Jobs wasn't kidding when he called the iPod Touch the "iPhone without a phone." We have been calling it that for years, of course, but with each iteration the two iOS devices get closer and closer in terms of features. Now a vibrating alert has been added to the Touch.

BERLIN - Google gave a live demonstration of Google TV at Berlin’s IFA Tuesday, and CEO Eric Schmidt promised it would be a couch potato’s dream come true. 'Once you have Google television, you’re going to be very busy, he said. 'It’s going to ruin your evening.'

"I totally freeze when I am in an interview," a job candidate recently told me. "I have no idea what happens to me when I am in an interview, my mind goes blank, and I can't think of a good way to describe my skills. I can't even remember my skills." While her comments may sound extreme, a...



Psychology - Social Science - Business - Employment - Cognitive Science

A new technique may one day lead to solar cells that bring themselves together like a molecular flash mob and repair damage they sustain during the rough business of turning light into electricity.

Some jerk has fired a heat-seeking missile at your Black Hawk. You've got a few options. You can try to dodge the thing, but good luck with that. You can fire off a flare in order to fool the missile into no longer following you as you maneuver. Or you can shoot off a laser from on board your bird to do the same thing. Not really a choice, is it?

Hewlett-Packard's recently departed CEO will serve alongside President Safra Catz and report to Larry Ellison as Oracle expands into server sales