The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has just gone into the consumer electronics business — as the new majority owner of Framingham audio equipment maker Bose Corp.

This weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo, also known as PAX East, could elevate Boston’s reputation as a major center for video game development while providing three days of thrills for more than 60,000 fans of video, card, and board games.

Telecommunications equipment maker 3Com Corp. is based in Marlborough, Mass.

Despite slower-than-expected sales and tough competition from commercial rivals, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation of Cambridge is enjoying a surge of new orders.

The dream of a laptop computer cheap enough to distribute to millions of poor children is finally coming true — but not quite in the way its backers imagined.

In a major strategy shift, the Cambridge, Mass. foundation that plans to provide laptop computers to poor children around the globe is asking wealthy individuals and corporations to help pick up the tab by purchasing hundreds or thousands of the machines.