The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to open up unused spectrum in the television band to unlicensed wireless broadband devices, a move that will give U.S. residents access to "super Wi-Fi," the agency's chairman said.

Few companies have the research depth to build something like Kinect, Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox add-on that allows a user to control a game through body movements -- in fact, Microsoft itself initially thought it would be impossible, its top research executive said Thursday.

As US President Barack Obama moves to hike spending on research and development in the U.S., two of the people who will help him shape the government's science and technology policies are top executives from Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc.