MarketWatch's top 10 stories: Sept. 3-7 - MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) â€" It was a busy week for wireless-gizmo news.

A parade of heavyweights, including Google’s (US:GOOG) Motorola Mobility, Nokia (US:NOK) and Microsoft (US:MSFT), and Amazon (US:AMZN), unveiled new devices for communicating, surfing the Web, shopping and playing games.

The announcements all preceded next Wednesday’s Apple (US:AAPL) event, at which the maker of the iPhone is expected to show off the latest version of its wildly popular smartphone. Millions watched this week’s events, and millions will no doubt tune in when the iPhone 5 makes its anticipated debut.

Then, millions will line up to spend $200, plus $50 a month for years, so they can avoid speaking to strangers while standing in line at the post office or spending one single minute of their day with their own, undirected musings or daydreams. Plus, maybe, make the occasional phone call.

Speaking of daydreams, another piece of technology news caught my attention, thanks to a report in the Economist. It turns out that last month the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded prizes in its “Reinventing the Toilet Challenge.” The contest was an attempt to cut the number of children â€" about 1.5 million each year â€" who die from diarrhea caused by unsanitary toilet facilities.

The winner, from the California Institute of Technology, was a toilet that uses solar power to turn waste into a sanitary fluid to flush the toilet, hydrogen that can be used as fuel, and fertilizer. The device, along with the second- and third-place finishers, will now be field tested and, perhaps, deployed in two years or so.

Unlike this week’s smartphone announcement, the Gates Foundation challenge didn’t make the front page.

It was a good week for U.S. stocks, with all three major indexes hitting multiyear highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (US:DJIA) rose 1.7% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite Index (US:COMP) gained 2.3%. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (US:SPX) picked up 2.2%. See Market Snapshot for more details on Friday and weekly performances.

Check out MarketWatch this weekend, where we’ll have all the news you need to keep track of your life and your portfolio. We’ll have breaking coverage of Chinese economic data on Sunday, too.

To get ready for the coming week, please take a moment to watch our weekly videos:

U.S. Week Ahead: Get ready for iPhone 5.

Europe’s Week Ahead: Fed QE3 question dominates.

â€" Christopher Noble , assistant managing editor

Are you better off?

As the Democrats and Republicans attempt to spin data about jobs to their advantage, the truth looms uncomfortably for both: U.S. employment has made substantial progress in the last few years after a devastating recession, but there’s still a long way to go. Read a story that digs into the August payrolls report.

Over to you, Mariano