Whether you're navigating a long flight, recording your child’s soccer game or need a charge on the go, keeping your USB-powered devices charged is a constant. Fortunately, there are a lot of new, cool accessories to help you charge at home, work or play. Choosing the right one comes down to understanding capacity, charging speed and the ...Read more

A lot of my columns start with an email from a reader asking about something that’s happening to them, but today I’m reaching into my personal email.

I’ve been noticing an uptick in spam messages getting through to my inbox, which is unusual, because Google usually does a good job in filtering out the garbage before it gets to me.

The ...Read more

It sounds like an illusion from a Las Vegas magic show.

Watch as we pull water out of thin air.

But it’s not a trick. Las Vegas-based WAVR Technologies can actually turn air into water.

The deep tech startup that spun out of UNLV is commercializing atmospheric water harvesting systems that extract water directly from the air — even in ...Read more

Smart door locks are some of the most convenient gadgets I’ve ever installed at my house.

It doesn’t take long to get used to getting into your house without a key. Entering a passcode on a keypad or using an app on your phone to open the door is pretty slick.

Newer smart locks have incorporated biometrics, so you can use a fingerprint or ...Read more

When she went to sleep on July 27, 2022, McKayla wasn’t worried about the storm that was raging outside her trailer in southeastern Kentucky. Intense storms came frequently in summer. While the creek in front of her home would often rise, water never came close enough to be a concern.

But at 6:30 the next morning, one of her ...Read more

Demand for batteries has skyrocketed as electricity use across the U.S. swells, driven by data centers’ booming energy needs and increasing electrification. It’s also getting harder to get them connected to power grids.

Falling prices have made batteries more attractive. But after decades of stagnant investment, grids are racing to make the...Read more

AFTON, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday attempted to end the debate over whether to mine copper and nickel on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A new executive order bars new leasing of state minerals there and throws up roadblocks for existing leaseholders.

“As far as my administration is concerned, the fight for ...Read more

AFTON, Minn. — For a decade, presidential administrations have traded the prospect of a copper-nickel mine on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness like a hot potato: One administration blocks it, the next finds a way to resurrect it.

On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz made clear that for now, the future of the Twin Metals mine ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Forty years ago, North Carolina’s coastal fisheries were nearly overflowing with local species like the Atlantic croaker, spot and weakfish.

But today, experts say the once-abundant coastal waters are nearly empty, after decades of overfishing led to a staggering decline in local fish populations.

That decline is due in ...Read more

Scammers are using the death of a beloved California bald eagle for a get-rich-quick scheme involving sales of bogus merchandise benefiting the raptor center where she died.

Jackie, who gained worldwide fame from a bald eagle cam on her nest at Big Bear Lake, died Aug. 10 at the Ojai Raptor Center, where she had been taken to recover after ...Read more

The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced a formal proposal to rescind a decades-old rule that protects more than 44 million acres of national forestland from road construction and timber harvesting, including about 4.4 million acres in California.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is a 2001 bipartisan measure that established lasting ...Read more

Invasive carp reached just 80 miles from Lake Michigan on the Illinois River last week, marking the closest the fish have gotten to the Great Lake as work was halted on a state-federal project meant to stop the voracious fish from moving farther upstream.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources workers removed several hundred small silver carp...Read more

OpenAI, the maker of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, is rolling out an experience for teens that includes safety and learning features.

The global introduction of "ChatGPT for Teens" comes as OpenAI and other tech companies face lawsuits that allege AI chatbots are harming young people by providing information used to plan mass ...Read more

The Trump administration’s plan for dealing with worsening water shortages along the Colorado River is encountering strong opposition from Arizona’s leaders, who are warning they could sue to challenge mandatory water cutbacks that they say would harm their state.

A legal fight could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court and further ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson faced boos from a crowd of anti-data center activists on the South Side Saturday after not disavowing the massive “Quantum Shore” development, even as he said it will not include a data center.

Fresh off an executive order more strictly regulating the construction of data centers in Chicago, Johnson ...Read more

Consumers from the Los Angeles region who order through Grubhub will soon have some of their orders delivered by four-wheeled robots.

Serve Robotics, which operates 500 robots across 40 neighborhoods in Los Angeles, has partnered with food marketplace Grubhub. Through this partnership, robot delivery is now available to nearly 200 local ...Read more

Meta Platforms Inc. is headed to court Tuesday for a high-stakes showdown with a coalition of state attorneys general over claims that the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among young users.

In a case that carries enormous risk for one of the world’s most valuable tech companies, the top legal ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s third beaver attack this summer was different than the others — as of Monday, officials still haven’t been able to capture a live animal to test it for rabies.

In Montgomery County’s Seneca Creek State Park, where a beaver attacked a 10-year-old girl at summer camp, the environment contains “a stream that is ...Read more

The artificial intelligence boom is driving unprecedented demand for data centers, raising concerns about their growing energy consumption, water use and carbon footprint. These challenges are making companies look beyond traditional land-based data centers.

Some developers are now exploring the ocean as a new location for AI ...Read more