Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a tablelike form factor that several guests can use simultaneously. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information in a more natural and familiar way, by using their hands and gestures. Sheraton will unveil Surface today at five hotels: Sheraton Boston Hotel, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel and Sheraton Seattle Hotel.

With each unit, Sheraton is offering a customized version of the Microsoft Surface developed suite of applications to provide entertainment and information about local attractions. Surface, and these unique applications, are designed to serve the needs of guests who are social individuals seeking to share the travel experience with one another. Some of the applications guests will be able to enjoy are:

CityTips - 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services, such as banks and pharmacies.

Sounds of Sheraton - A lobby-based digital jukebox, enabling guests to create personal music playlists by choosing selections from Sheraton’s exclusive offering of Sony BMG artists, including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill.

Sheraton Snapshots - Guests can explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library of Sheraton resorts and hotel properties to help them plan for future trips.

“Sheraton is redefining the hospitality experience by offering our guests technology that will allow them to interact with each other and our hotel in a revolutionary way,” said Hoyt H. Harper II, senior vice president for Sheraton. “We are proud to partner with Microsoft to offer the groundbreaking Microsoft Surface product, which will enable our guests to stay informed, connected and entertained while traveling.”

“We’re excited to be working with Sheraton in its efforts to feature innovation and redefine the guest experience in its hotel properties,” said Pete Thompson, general manager, Microsoft Surface. “Surface takes a common activity, such as looking up information about a local city, and transforms it into an intuitive and social way for hotel guests to plan their visit. We believe this is just the beginning of how Surface will completely change the hotel guest experience.”

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Delta is joining with Aircell, a 17-year leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation, to install the company’s Mobile Broadband Network on the carrier’s domestic fleet. The system, Gogo, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for a flat fee of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.

“Delta remains committed to providing a travel experience that maximizes the time our customers spend with us onboard by offering them even more productivity options,” said Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer. ”Our customers asked for in-flight connectivity, and we’re responding by rolling out the most extensive Wi-Fi network in the sky. Beginning this fall, our passengers will have the ability to stay connected when they travel with us throughout the continental U.S.”

The initial deployment of 50 Blockbuster-branded kiosks should begin in the third quarter of 2008 with all units expected to be installed by year-end. The pilot vending kiosks will initially offer DVD rentals, but the machines will allow for future applications, including digital downloads, and other services, such as sales of DVDs and video games. The companies have not announced the markets or site locations for the first units.

"With NCR's advanced technology, these machines will dispense a wide array of DVDs and could offer digital downloading in the future, all under the Blockbuster brand," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and CEO. "This initial rollout provides consumers increasingly convenient access to their favorite movies and is one more step in the fulfillment of our mission to transform Blockbuster into a multi-channel provider of media entertainment."

"This alliance with Blockbuster is an exciting step for NCR as we pursue our mission of becoming the leader in the market for entertainment self-service solutions," said Bill Nuti, NCR chairman and CEO. "Looking beyond this initial deployment, our mutual goal is to have 10,000 kiosks installed within 18 months. We are energized and thrilled to be such an integral part of Blockbuster's strategy for providing consumers with greater choice and convenience."

“We’re driving ‘green’ into every aspect of our global business,” said Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell. “This includes setting new standards for energy efficiency and green power, delivering environmental and cost savings for customers and aligning key growth priorities with our focus on preserving our shared Earth. Every company can join Dell and the ReGeneration in this long-term commitment.”

Dell met its goal early by implementing an aggressive global energy-efficiency campaign and increasing purchases of green power, verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates. Since 2004, the company’s annual investment in green electricity from utility providers, including wind, solar and methane-gas capture, has grown from 12 million kWh to 116 million kWh, an increase of nearly 870 percent. Earlier this year, the company announced that its global headquarters campus is powered by 100 percent green energy.

Dell also announced that it is making additional investments in wind power in the U.S., China and India. Combined with green electricity purchases from utility providers, this equates to 645 million kWh and the avoidance of more than 400,000 metric tons of CO2e.

The company is already saving more than $3 million annually and avoiding nearly 20,000 tons of CO2 through facilities improvements and a global power-management initiative.

Dell is also partnering with Conservation International on a habitat and forest preservation initiative in the Republic of Madagascar. The company will help protect more than 591,000 acres of tropical forestland threatened with destruction, preventing more than 500,000 tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere over the next five years.

“We commend Dell on its climate leadership and for showing how well-designed forest protection projects can generate such compelling environmental and social benefits,” said Peter Seligmann, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation International. “By reducing its own environmental footprint and protecting forests, Dell is addressing the major drivers of climate change – energy use and deforestation - while also delivering significant biodiversity and community benefits.”

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."