Alana Semuels

The nation's bellwether technology sector is kicking into gear as businesses and consumers boost their spending on computers and electronics.

The digital switch is the end of one TV era, but broadcasters and device companies hope it's opening up another. Their vision for the future: a world in which we access live television not just on big screens in our living rooms, but also on cellphones and computers and in cars.

When three major brands engaged with their Web-savvy fans and critics in separate incidents last week, their responses demonstrated how corporations are still learning how to control their messages -- and reputations -- in a fast-twitch online world.

For a monthly fee, customers can view their letters, bills and catalogs on their computers.

Roman Catholic bishops are urging people to give up technology such as iPods and behavior such as text messaging until Easter. "It's a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships," one diocese said.

The airwaves are getting more grown-up, and it's not just the shows. The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night's Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations.

Twenty-five years ago, during a media event at Chicago's Soldier Field, the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications made the nation's first commercial cellphone connection. He rang up Alexander Graham Bell's grandson on a Motorola DynaTAC handset that weighed 2 1/2 pounds and retailed for $3,995.

People want to use their phones for more than just talking. CTIA-the Wireless Assn., said this week that revenue from wireless data services rose 40% in the first half of 2008, to $14.8 billion.

Technology is helping eliminate some of the guesswork about what happens after kids climb onto the bus. Increasingly common Web programs let parents track lunch-money spending, schoolwork habits and tardiness.

According to a J.D. Power & Associates study released Thursday, the average wait time customers endured before being connected to representatives at their wireless phone companies in early 2008 was 4.4 minutes, up 34% from the none-too-brief 3.3 minutes they waited in 2003.