Facebook said it will expand Facebook Connect, its universal log-in service, to integrate functionalities with more third-party Web sites. Originally announced at the social network's f8 conference in July, Facebook Connect is part of the next iteration of Facebook Platform and allows users to bring their Facebook account information, friends and privacy to other third-party sites.

A variety of retail-watching experts are churning out Black Friday sales facts, figures and customer inclinations, and while it wasn't a rip-roaring Black Friday compared to previous years, it wasn't all that bad -- particularly for the hot-selling consumer electronics sector.

In the contest to dominate the video gaming landscape, there are three powerful players, each with a magic weapon: Microsoft with its Xbox 360, Nintendo with its Wii, and Sony with its PlayStation 3. Like any great heroes, they each have their strengths and weaknesses, though none, it turns out, has a fatal flaw.

When the reality of the world gets to be too much for Jana Ogletree, a waitress from Elgin, Idaho, she turns to -- puppies. Six puppies, to be precise -- romping, rolling, sleeping, yelping and playing. Ogletree doesn't own the six furry shiba inu puppies. And she has never touched them.

Author Seth Godin is all about change. In "Tribes," as he has in his previous books such as "Purple Cow" and "The Dip," he challenges the status quo with a straight-on, get-with-it kind of attitude, and you got to love him for it. His books are sweetly short, and they manage to be breezy and thought-provoking at the same time.

"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" demonstrates the potential of the iPhone as a gaming platform, but it leaves much to be desired in execution. While LucasArts generated much fanfare around the release of the game for various video game consoles, the mobile version feels like an afterthought.

With the touchscreen Storm, Research In Motion offers a response to Apple's iPhone. Unfortunately, the Storm is more like a flurry, failing to add much more than a trace of innovation. If you use a BlackBerry, you quickly will grasp the basics of how to work this phone. But if you're a smartphone newbie -- the kind of person RIM wants to lure -- who's looking for a touchscreen model, there are better choices.

Blockbuster on Tuesday threw its hat into the increasingly crowded ring of set-top boxes with the announcement of a deal with hardware maker 2Wire. Blockbuster's system will bring video directly to viewers' televisions on demand via a broadband Internet connection. The move follows similar offerings from competitors.

The Utah-based SCO Group has been cleared to appeal a court ruling that might lead to a revival of its dispute with IBM over copyright claims to the freely distributed Linux operating system. Utah Federal Judge Dale A. Kimball has signed a final judgment in a case involving Novell, in which he had awarded Novell $2.5 million for some of the revenues SCO obtained in licensing the Unix computer operating system.

Justin Roberts has wildly curious young fans, the type who might lean into a live monitor during one of his concerts just to see what it sounds like. But the popular children's entertainer knows a blast of loud music isn't the only risk to a child's hearing. What parents and kids really need to watch is the everyday use of earbuds that come with iPods and other MP3 players, said Roberts.

The National Institute on Media and the Family released its 13th annual video game report card Tuesday. The report's findings this year are relatively upbeat, with improved grades for retailers and the ESRB for making changes that the institute thinks will decreased the chances that inappropriate games will make their way into the hands of young children.

You might not think you have robots in your house, but think again. There's your dishwasher, for instance; you put dishes in it, walk away, and a half hour later they're clean. Same thing with your washing machine. Or your programmable coffeemaker. Though these everyday mechanical devices aren't humanoid, they are on the robotic spectrum, in the sense that they perform functions with minimal human involvement.

Bethesda Softworks announced Tuesday that it will software tools to allow gamers and developers to tinker with the publisher's recent PC and console release, "Fallout 3." Dubbed the "Garden of Eden Creation Kit," or G.E.C.K., the editor will enable gamers to create mods, or personal modifications of the PC version of the game.

The smoked turkey resembles sliced deli meat but stiffer, the candied yams are bland inside, the green beans taste like they've been microwaved to death and the corn bread stuffing has a broth-heavy, institutional flavor. Grandma's home cooking, it's not. Then again, Grandma's Thanksgiving dinners were never irradiated, freeze-dried, vacuum-packed into plastic pouches and then launched into space.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- with the help of green friends like "Wicked" witch Elphaba -- launched the "Broadway Goes Green" initiative Tuesday that includes plans to use energy-saving bulbs and recycle stage sets. The aim of the campaign is to reduce Broadway's carbon footprint, a measure of greenhouse gases produced by human activity.

Daredevil Eric Scott broke the world distance record for a jet pack Monday by flying over the Royal Gorge, almost doubling the old record, which he also held. Scott, 45, a former stunt man, flew a 130-pound, 800 horsepower jet pack 1,500 feet across the precipitous canyon in 21 seconds, barreling at over 70 mph before touching down light as a feather on the other side.

Last Wednesday, a troubled teenager went home, logged onto the Internet, and discussed his unhappiness with strangers at a discussion board he liked to frequent. He wanted to kill himself, he said. And then Abraham Biggs Jr. did just that -- on live videocam. The camera stopped running approximately 12 hours later when the police came to the door.

Breathless, my body trilling with excitement, I hold the small, sleek box in my hand. The sun breaks through the clouds and a choir of angels seems to sing as I open it. Behold! In the hands of this mere mortal -- an iPhone! No mere telephone this. It is an MP3 player, digital camera, text messager, calendar, GPS, voice recorder, tiny TV, and cell phone.

Virus writers are likely to unleash increasingly sophisticated strains of malware next year in an attempt to bounce back from some high-profile botnet shutdowns in 2008, according to new predictions from managed security provider MessageLabs. The company predicted that hackers will launch new attacks in which malware will exist as a virtualization layer running directly on the hardware.

After several days without luck, astronauts finally ran a successful test on equipment that turns urine into drinking water -- a necessity for supporting the international space station's crew, which will soon double. "Not to spoil anything, but I think up here the appropriate words are 'Yippee!'" space station commander Mike Fincke told Mission Control early Tuesday morning, shortly before bedtime.

As many industries focus on green technologies like hardware and devices that use less energy, a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council suggests that makers of video game consoles could do more to cut their hardware's hunger for electricity. In the U.S., video game consoles consume roughly the same amount of electricity that it takes to power every home in San Diego, according to the NRDC.

President-Elect Barack Obama didn't show (previous commitment), but Obama Girl was there. So was Obama's unofficial Web troubadour, will.i.am. A real politician, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, presented an award to a real member of royalty, Queen Raina of Jordan, while Chad Vader, the unambitious, not-so-real brother of a member of pseudo-royalty, Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader, looked on.

Sony Pictures Entertainment's online video network, Crackle.com, has announced its upcoming season of online programming, which will start airing next month. Unlike much of the pro content accessible on the Internet, Crackle's shows are primarily made for distribution exclusively over the Web, not regular TV.

Google has released a new search editing tool that gives users more control over their results. SearchWiki enables users to customize their searches by re-ranking, deleting, adding and even commenting on their search results. Users will also be able to see how others have edited their searches; however, the edits will only apply to their personal searches.

Fed up with ugly routers and clunky hard drives, a growing number of consumers are looking for well-designed gadgets that complement decor instead of cluttering desktops and clashing with furniture. Many credit Apple's iPhone, with its strikingly simple forms, for raising the bar on expectations for good design in consumer electronics.

It has never been easier to get in trouble while catching up with friends. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are great ways to reconnect with old acquaintances and meet new ones. But posts can be problems -- the work rant you didn't expect the boss to see or the photos your old roommate posted that document your familiarity with keg stands.

TV shows like "The Hills" focus on the petty squabbles that go on in the world of spoiled, vapid socialites. I can't think of a program that gets into the catfights that go on in the IT world, and I don't know whether there'd really be a huge audience for something like that, but they do happen, and court documents in an ongoing lawsuit have revealed some juicy tidbits.

There's a lot of great Apple-focused news hitting the blogosphere this week, including rumors that Apple's next OS X version, Snow Leopard, could hit in the first quarter of 2009 -- and that Apple may be waiting on Intel to deliver Core 2 Quad processors for its next revision to the iMac line.

Some might call it unproductive. Or maybe a bad habit. Or just a frivolous distraction. Or even dangerous. Julianne Howell, a freshman at St. Joseph's Academy in St. Louis, calls her daily Facebook routine time well spent. "It's like a social connection," she said. "It's not a waste of time. It's like talking on the phone -- that isn't a waste of time."

Microsoft sought to bring a quick end Thursday to the lawsuit that has produced a steady flow of sometimes embarrassing internal e-mails about Windows Vista, a product whose reputation in the marketplace was already tarnished before it launched nearly two years ago. The company asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss the remaining claims in the class-action suit brought by PC buyers.

The history of James Bond films is the history of our fascination with technology: booby-trapped briefcases, jetpacks, cars with machine guns and ejector seats, super-magnet watches, cars driven by remote control, acid-filled fountain pens, cars that become invisible, sharks with frickin' lasers...

IBM and five universities are receiving funding from a government agency to build a supercomputer -- but not just any supercomputer. They've been tasked with building hardware and software that mimics the human brain. "There are no computers today that can even remotely approach the robust and versatile functionality of the brain," said Dharmendra Modha of IBM Research.

Samsung announced Thursday it has begun mass production of a 256 gigabyte solid state drive designed for use in notebook an desktop PCs. The drives round out Samsung's line of SSDs, which includes 8, 16, and 32 GB SSD models for low-density designs and 64 and 128 GB for higher densities, the company said.

NASA has announced it has successfully tested the first deep-space communications network. The new network, modeled on the Internet, was able to transmit scores of space images between Earth and a NASA science spacecraft located more than 20 million miles away. Dubbed the "Interplanetary Internet," the software protocol was a joint venture between NASA and Vint Cerf, a vice president at Google, that began in 1998.

Nokia and IBM are teaming up to bring corporate e-mail, calendar, address book and messaging functions to mobile workers. Nokia's move is its latest attempt to compete with Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device. The Finland-based phonemaker signed a similar deal with Microsoft in September.

The much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm goes on sale Friday through Verizon Wireless, threatening to create some serious waves for what has been smooth sailing for the popular Apple iPhone. I've been testing an evaluation unit for the better part of a week and can say that the sleek new Storm is the most compelling rival yet.

Microsoft is giving an early holiday gift to people who pay for all-you-can-listen access to the Zune digital music store: 10 songs to keep each month, included in the $14.99 monthly subscription fee. The decision may appeal to people who have been reluctant to test out the subscription model.

Intel's latest high-end desktop processor series, the new Core i7 lineup, has officially hit the sales channels with offerings from computer makers like Dell, Gateway and others. The processors, which were codenamed "Nehalem" by Intel, are based on a new microarchitecture designed to deliver high performance and energy efficiency.

In the past, network management mainly consisted of monitoring whether routers and switches were up or down -- as long as the power light was on, it was available, and the network administrator could proclaim, "It's not the network." With pervasive wireless connectivity and handheld devices capable of accessing the Internet from nearly anywhere, networks have become more advanced.

Over the last several days I've attended two conferences that are focused on predicting and changing the future of technology and technology companies. The first was put on by Digital River, a firm that specializes in setting up or improving profitable online stores like Apple and Dell have, and we were focused on strategies for increasing company revenues and profits in these troubling times.