SAN JOSE, Calif. — On a recent warm May day, bundles of small sun-kissed-colored fruit droop from a towering tree in Raffy Espiritu’s backyard in Milpitas. They soak in the light and ripen in the heat before suddenly splitting from the branches at the slightest tug of Espiritu’s hand.

At first glance, the harvest looks like a puzzling ...Read more

I really like it when something I write starts more conversations.

A while back I wrote about Windows PCs and antivirus software. In that piece, I included a line that read in part, “If you’re running Windows 11 (and you do need to be running Windows 11)…”

I received more than a few emails from readers asking why I wrote that ...Read more

Electrohome's Montrose record player and McKinley 2.0 stereo-powered bookshelf speakers make an excellent combination for anyone entering the vinyl world or for many like myself to get back in.

Electrohome has a history of making modern high-fidelity audio products with a classic look for over 100 years. With the Montrose two-speed belt-drive...Read more

Jony Ive, a former Apple executive known for designing the iPhone, is joining forces with OpenAI, the San Francisco startup behind popular chatbot ChatGPT.

On Wednesday, OpenAI said it's buying io, an AI devices startup that Ive founded a year ago, for nearly $6.5 billion in an all-stock deal, the largest acquisition in OpenAI's history.

"We ...Read more

Artificial intelligence training company Surge AI has been hit with a lawsuit alleging it has misclassified contractors hired to improve chat responses from AI software for some of the world's leading tech companies.

The proposed class action lawsuit alleges that "data annotators" — hired by Surge AI to ensure that powerful AI systems run by ...Read more

The recent firing of the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is just the latest in a string of blows for the nation’s top disaster-response agency, which has been repeatedly undercut by the Trump administration’s efforts to rein in spending and restructure the federal government.

The dismissal of acting director Cameron Hamilton...Read more

San Jose State University has shot past Stanford and UC Berkeley to a top-10 spot in a ranking of U.S. universities based on a standardized computer coding test.

The school leapt to the No. 9 spot this year in rankings by CodeSignal, a San Francisco company whose General Coding Assessment is widely used by major technology companies to evaluate...Read more

In a rare acceptance of regulations adopted during the Biden administration, the Trump-led Environmental Protection Agency is backing the first national limits on a pair of toxic forever chemicals contaminating the drinking water of most Americans.

But the Trump EPA wants to eliminate standards for a handful of replacement chemicals that appear...Read more

A proposal to regulate the killing of coyotes in California has drawn fierce opposition from ranchers and farmers, who say they need to be able to control the wild canines to protect livestock and pets.

Dozens of people whose livelihoods rely on California’s broad range lands are expected to pack a hearing in Sacramento on Thursday before a ...Read more

Wildfires are burning through thousands of acres of forest in Northern Minnesota, damaging buildings and forcing residents to evacuate their homes.

The yet-to-be-contained Camp House fire, Jenkins Creek fire and Munger Shaw fire have a small accomplice to thank for their continued destruction: spruce budworms, a well-known pest that has ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to accelerate his administration’s plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by short-cutting permitting for the project and limiting avenues for legal challenges.

Newsom urged the Legislature on Wednesday to adopt his plan to “fast-track” the tunnel, ...Read more

Microsoft is laying off more than 6,000 employees in an effort to streamline its corporate ranks.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said Tuesday that the layoffs, which will affect almost 2,000 workers in Washington state, are meant in part to strip away layers of management and create more nimble teams.

Sound familiar?

Microsoft ...Read more

A data center builder and a battery startup have agreed to deploy a novel type of energy storage for the first time at a U.S. data center. It’s the latest example of tech companies’ search for ways to manage the soaring energy needs of artificial intelligence.

Prometheus Hyperscale and XL Batteries will install what’s known as an organic...Read more

SpaceX knocked out another Starlink launch from Florida's Space Coast on Wednesday afternoon.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 of the company’s internet satellites lifted off at 12:38 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

The first-stage booster for the mission made its fourth flight making ...Read more

SpaceX has lined up another Starlink launch from Space Coast for early Wednesday afternoon.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 of the company’s internet satellites is targeting a 12:38 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with backups available until 2:47 p.m. as well as on Thursday beginning at 11:17 a....Read more

“Fatal Fury” has always felt like the Pepsi to the Coca-Cola of “Street Fighter.” SNK’s fighting game series emerged around the same time as Capcom’s iconic franchise but never rose to its iconic heights. At 1990s arcades, when fans huddled around cabinets featuring Ryu and company, the ones showing Terry Bogard were usually open. ...Read more

Pick a color, any color. Once you choose a single color, multiple colors or patterns and effects, you'll have a whole new look for the do-it-yourself Enbrighten outdoor lighting systems.

As far as installation goes, when a company tells me it's easy, it often isn't. But in the case of Enbrighten, it was even easier than I could have imagined....Read more

This week I got an email from a reader who asks, “I have a stand-alone hard drive that cannot be accessed anymore. I've tried different laptops and different cables, but to no avail. The light is still on it (it is a Seagate Free Agent hard drive, probably 10 years old or so), but it no longer makes any noise. Of course, I have all my ...Read more