They lined up at midnight by the thousands and attended party launches across the country. But they weren't dressed up like Harry Potter. They were fans of Halo 3, the third installment of the Halo video game series starring Master Chief. Microsoft Corp. announced today that the hot game raked in sales of $170 million on its first day--about $50 million more than its predecessor in 2004. Microsoft is counting on the success of Halo 3, the final chapter in the trilogy, to ramp up the company's declining entertainment unit. But experts aren't so sure this one event will save Microsoft in the long run. "This is an event thing around Halo 3 and that will eventually run out, while the Wii continues as an ongoing engaging platform," said Rob Enderle of Enderle Associates.

If you consider yourself an accident-prone entrepreneur, this laptop's for you. The latest version of the Sony VAIO G-Series offers something no other laptop on the market does: protection from spills. Sound impossible? The water-proofing measures involve discharging water from a "water pit" in the back of the laptop. The laptop will even shut down when there's simply too much water for it to handle. Right now, the laptop's only available in Japan, where it sells for between $1,350 and $2,400.

For more cool technologies found abroad not yet available in the U.S., check out this list.

In July, AOL co-founder Steve Case hinted to us about the possibility of his new business venture, Revolution LLC, launching a credit operating platform. Now, The Wall Street Journal reports it's happening. The internet-based payment system would cut merchants' costs by about 75 percent. Revolution Money will provide an online money-transfer service and a credit card (RevolutionCard) with lower interchange fees. According to Revolution, merchants pay about 1.9 percent per transaction. The company says with its new payment system, those merchants could slash fees to 0.5 percent.

Revolution also is launching Revolution MoneyExchange--a payment platform for social and instant messaging networks. With it, consumers can safely transfer funds to anyone, even merchants, for free. So far, the program is only available in beta form to an invitation-only list, but it should be available to the masses before 2008.