Cisco is about to help China network up to half a million cameras in the city of Chongqing. Ostensibly it's a crime-prevention maneuver, but given China's record, this, and plenty of other tech, could help spy on the populace.

"There's a lot to like about urban poverty," writes Edward Glaeser in this provocative new book. When the Harvard economist looks at the poorest cities -- Kinshasa, Rio -- he sees not just deprivation but opportunity. People in slums are better off than their poor rural neighbors -- happier, more likely to find a job, and with more means of advancement. And poverty is higher for new arrivals than for established residents, suggesting the benefits over time of urban living. Read More »

The next frontier for big-box retailers is teeny-tiny.

Airborne lasers shooting at the streets of New York. I know: Putting those phrases together in a sentence makes it sound like a plot for an Austin Powers movie, but take a chill pill--it's for your safety and convenience, New York.

Times Square will get a temporary make-over as a stopgap before the pedestrian plaza there is permanently redesigned in 2012.

So far in the Undead Tech series, I've traced back the roots of some pretty rich items: a $75,000 car Audi, a $200,000 spaceflight, and thousands of dollars in laptops, phones, mountain bikes, and e-readers. This installment will poke around in one colossally important everyday technology--one that buys us geographical freedom for the price of a hot dog. It's winter, in a crippling economic recession. Read More »