Fast food customers might find themselves talking to an artificial intelligence voice the next time they order tacos or pizza at a drive-through.

Yum Brands Inc., the parent company of Irvine-based Taco Bell and other popular fast food chains such as Pizza Hut, KFC and Habit Burger & Grill, has teamed up with tech juggernaut Nvidia to advance ...Read more

NASA websites have dropped references to landing the first woman on the moon as part of the goals for its Artemis program.

As of Friday, updated pages for the program no longer feature the statement: “NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the moon using innovative technologies to ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The border wall system running through San Diego County has been one of the most fortified stretches in the southwest for decades, beginning with a border security push in the 1990s and continuing with miles of replacement fencing constructed during President Donald Trump’s first administration.

But some spots remain where there...Read more

An endangered gray wolf was found illegally killed in Oregon, wildlife officials said.

Now, a combined reward of $30,500 is being offered to anyone who has “information that leads to an arrest, criminal conviction or civil penalty assessment,” the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said in a March 19 news release and the Center for Biological ...Read more

DENVER — A federal agency killed one of Colorado’s newest collared wolves after the apex predator wandered into Wyoming and was suspected of killing sheep, government officials confirmed Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services shot and killed the wolf on Saturday after connecting it to a report of livestock ...Read more

As device charging becomes more important to our daily lives, I’m drawn to better and smarter chargers.

When I leave town, I’m usually carrying a laptop, my phone, an iPad and my watch. Now add my wife’s laptop and phone and her Fitbit and we have a serious nightly charging requirement.

I’m the kind of person who puts together a ...Read more

BOSTON — Pete Bouchard, the chief meteorologist at Boston's NBC10, has created quite a splash for another comment that’s landed flat on social media.

Bouchard, after the NASA astronauts who were stuck in space for 9 months finally returned to Earth, said the SpaceX splashdown had “strong hints of AI enhancement.”

The meteorologist ...Read more

After the safe return Tuesday of two astronauts left behind for months on the International Space Station, the White House characterized the pair as “stranded” and trumpeted their return as a “rescue.” Those are words that NASA has been resisting for months.

It made for an awkward situation in a post-splashdown press conference, when ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Tuesday blocked the EPA from canceling Biden administration climate grants issued from a $20 billion program, finding that the Trump administration did not provide evidence of waste and fraud.

The case concerns the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, established by the 2022 Democratic climate reconciliation law. ...Read more

Alphabet Inc.’s Google launched a redesigned version of its budget Pixel phone, upgrading the chip and battery life weeks after Apple Inc.’s lower-end iPhone 16e went on sale.

The new Pixel 9a, announced Wednesday, costs $499, in line with the price of last year’s Pixel 8a. That compares with the $599 starting price of the iPhone 16e, ...Read more

Most of the United States’ major climate regulations are underpinned by one important document: It’s called the endangerment finding, and it concludes that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to human health and welfare.

The Trump administration is vowing to eliminate it.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not reconsider its denial to investigate whether the Tijuana River Estuary qualifies as a Superfund site, a designation given to the most contaminated places in the country needing long-term cleanup.

In a Friday letter to Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, Cheree Peterson, acting ...Read more

In mountain ranges around the world, glaciers are melting as global temperatures rise. Europe’s Alps and Pyrenees lost 40% of their glacier volume from 2000 to 2023. These and other icy regions have provided freshwater for people living downstream for centuries – almost 2 billion people rely on glaciers today. But as glaciers melt faster,...Read more

Nvidia Corp., looking to cement its place at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom, laid out plans for more powerful chips, a model for robotics, and “personal AI supercomputers” that will let developers work on desktop machines.

Speaking at the company’s annual GTC event in San Jose, California, Chief Executive Officer Jensen ...Read more

Two heavyweight arch rivals in the world of Bay Area workforce-management startups are locked in a legal battle with one accusing the other of planting a spy within its ranks, and claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that it caught the alleged mole after baiting its rival with a trap.

When the alleged corporate spy was handed a court ...Read more

This week I want to talk about troubleshooting your own tech problems.

I received this email a few days ago, “For the last few days, my iPad, which has worked well in the past on my home Wi-Fi provided by Frontier, has started bouncing from connected to not connected to the internet. It does it within seconds. While on Facebook it will ...Read more

A big thing about our portable charging devices is that they get hot. It's not good for you, and it's most likely not good for the charging device. That's what caught my interest with Aukey's new MagFusion Pro line of portable wireless chargers with active cooling. Their mission is to bring the most innovative mobile accessories to the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The risk of damaging flooding from a major tsunami may be greater than many realized along stretches of California’s renowned coastline, state officials say, further reinforcing the need for residents to take note if they live in or visit hazard areas.

The most recent risk assessment, outlined in maps that were published by ...Read more