Shortcut buttons put common functions like e-mail, search, and news within easy reach.

CNN: Analysis: Are PCs toast? Internet appliances arrive

Not too far into the future, it may become commonplace for people to run common functions in their homes using their smart phones.

FORBES: Microsoft Beats Apple And Google With Home Run

It gives them buying power, lets them centralize common functions, and allows them to adopt and diffuse innovations faster than they could if they were a bunch of small, independent operations.

NEWYORKER: Big Med

The Lib Dems say that they would like the Parliament to control all taxation north of the border, sending a portion south to Westminster to pay for common British functions such as defence.

ECONOMIST: Scottish nationalism

Enhanced operational efficiency through an integrated IT landscape, with a comprehensive and common IT architecture for multiple functions.

FORBES: Analytics May Help Insurers Confront New Risk Environment

The top floor is home to the couple's younger son, 25-year-old Matthias, who works at a bank in a nearby town. (An older son, who recently took over management of the family's dairy farm, lives in the Moosbruggers' previous home next door.) The three apartments share an impressive stairwell, which functions as a multilevel foyer and common room.

WSJ: Inside Story: A Modern Farmhouse in Austria

It is a common refrain from bankers that the euro area no longer functions as a single financial market, although that has the paradoxical advantage of making a break-up less destructive.

ECONOMIST: Europe in limbo

To make it possible to capture the most cherished moments, the PowerShot A1400 digital camera features Digital IS to help reduce the effects of camera shake and subject movement and a help button that gives users answers to common questions they may have about the camera's many high-quality functions.

ENGADGET: Canon PowerShot A2600 and A1400 offer modest feature bumps, little incentive to upgrade