Marketplace Tech Report

This week, the Obama campaign launched an online dashboard for its network of volunteers. It's a bit of technology that tracks all the activity that volunteers have done on behalf of the campaign, including calls made, doors knocked on, money that's been raised. The investment in this type of technology could have a big effect on how the rest of the campaign is conducted and who might win in November.

Customers of Comcast's Xfinity service will soon be able to use a Comcast app to make phone calls from their home number over the Internet on any Wi-Fi network. So if you're out and about, in theory, it just got a lot easier to make calls from, say, an iPod Touch without using a cell phone network. Just find a Wi-Fi signal. It's a system called Voice Over Internet Protocol or VOIP. But is it reliable? Plus, IBM has banned the use of Apple's voice-controlled personal assistant Siri from the company's campus. We chat with Siri about it all.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on setting aside part of the broadcast spectrum for wireless medical devices. The devices could be used to monitor patients with heart conditions and lung problems, and send out data on how the patient is doing. It's like getting an email from your body. The commission's vote could have an enormous effect on the future of medical treatment. Plus, the new partnership between American Express and, yes, Farmville.

A bunch of big cable TV companies have teamed up to give you a present: Free Wi-Fi. If you're a customer of Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision or Bright House, you'll be able to use Wi-Fi hotspots from any of those companies. Fifty thousand hotspots nationwide will show up under the name Cable Wi-Fi. So what's in it for the cable companies? Plus, the most musical cities in America.

It's the first week of a whole new world at Facebook. The social media site is now a public company. Now the pressure is on to make money for its shareholders, which could mean big changes for the way we use Facebook on our cell phones. Facebook, like a lot of other companies, is having a hard time figuring out how to show us ads, on those tiny little screens, without turning us off. Plus, on the Robot Roundup: Robots are helping paralyzed stroke victims drink on their own.