OAK PARK, Ill. -- Before Frank Lloyd Wright became the most famous architect in the world, he was a struggling employee who had to borrow money from his boss to build his own house.

That house, and the adjoining professional studio, make up the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in this posh suburb of Chicago. I got a chance for a behind-the-scenes tour Monday as part of Road Trip 2013, and as a Wright fan who has toured other favorites like Taliesin West in Arizona, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, and the Marin County Civic Center in California, this was a … Read more

Colin Giles, Nokia's former senior vice president of sales, has a new gig.

The executive, who left Nokia in April 2012 to spend more time with his family, has been appointed executive vice president of Huawei's Consumer Business Group. In his new position, Giles will head up the Chinese firm's global marketing, retail, and open channel development.

One of Giles' first tasks will be to promote the company's Ascend P6 smartphone. Huawei argues that the handset, which launched just a few weeks ago, is the slimmest in the world, making it an appealing option to international … Read more

Over the past year or so we've seen a new product category emerge: the portable digital converter/headphone amplifier. Of course, no one "needs" such a device -- phones and iPods already have converters and amps built-in -- and sound perfectly fine with average headphones. The sound is good enough, but your phone's converter and amp share space and battery power with the phone's electronics. A separate converter and amp, about the size of a phone, has only one mission: improved sound quality. So if you upgraded to a high-end in-ear headphone, like the $399 … Read more

I'm a devotee of the Yacht Rock school of sailing, which means smooth music from the late 1970s with plenty of cocktails. Worrying about winds, sandbars, and fuel supplies is someone else's job.

I'm nearly useless as a crew member, but at least I can provide some ballast. That's why I'm hoping to sail the seas aboard a superyacht one day.

These ultra-luxurious vessels are enormous and enormously expensive. They're private mini cruise ships with the amenities of five-star hotels, and although the market for these floating gin palaces took a serious beating with the 2008 financial crisis, there are signs it's cruising back to life. … Read more

Global IT spend will likely hit $3.7 trillion this year, inching up just 2 percent from 2012's $3.6 trillion, research firm Gartner said Tuesday.

The latest forecast for 2013 spending is down from the 4.1 percent growth predicted by Gartner last quarter. The decline is based primarily on recent changes to exchange rates for the U.S. dollar. However, spending on technology devices is also projected to take a nosedive.

Gartner now expects spending on IT devices to grow just 2.8 percent, a hefty fall from the prior forecast of 7.9 percent. The first … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system might soon support 1080p resolution, leaked file information in Visual Studio 2013 suggests.

Former Nokia and Microsoft engineer Justin Angel tweeted out on Monday an image of Visual Studio 2013. The image showed Windows Phone 8 emulator files containing 1080p resolution of 1,920 x 1,080.

Microsoft's mobile operating system supports 720p resolution, as well as WVGA and WXGA. Full 1080p support, however, has been sorely lacking from the operating system. The resolution is available on several Android handsets.

For its part, Microsoft hasn't confirmed that 1080p support is coming … Read more

Spotify gives iPhone users a cluster of new features in its latest update for iOS, including the addition of a Discover tab.

The music-streaming service's app update also creates a Now Playing view with an Up Next queue, as well as the ability to edit playlists on Apple's smartphone. It also freshens up with Spotify's new logo.

With the exception of the logo, the new features are iPhone only for now, though the company says Discover and Now Playing will be "coming soon" to more devices.

Discover, which is you can find by tapping a … Read more

Update (Tuesday, 8:33 p.m. PT): The answer to today's challenge -- which 161 people got right -- is Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, in Chicago. Thanks to all who played, and to everyone, please come back for tomorrow's challenge.

Welcome to the Road Trip Picture of the Day contest. This is your chance to win some cool prizes as you test your skills at recognizing pictures.

Each day, I'll be posting a new photograph from my various travels, and your job is to try to correctly identify it using any means at your … Read more

School may only have ended recently, but Apple is already offering deals to student shoppers.

The company on Tuesday announced that students who buy a Mac through the Apple Online Store for Education will receive a $100 App Store Gift Card. Students who buy an iPad or iPhone will receive a $50 gift card.

Apple's education pricing is available to students at accredited colleges and universities, as well as parents buying products for students or a faculty or staff members at any grade level. The company cuts pricing on certain devices. Macs, for example, are discounted up to $200 … Read more