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Microsoft wants to radically change the way you surf the web

Microsoft sees artificial intelligence transforming the internet as fundamentally as mobile phones have over the past two decades. But the technology's limitations could curb Microsoft's grand vision.

Generative AI — which creates content based on a user's request — burst into the zeitgeist in late 2022 when Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nvidia eases concerns about China with upbeat sales forecast

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang soothed investor fears about a China slowdown by delivering a solid sales forecast, saying that the AI computing market is still poised for “exponential growth.”

The company expects revenue of about $45 billion in the second fiscal quarter, which runs through July. New export restrictions ...Read more

California Department of Fish and Wildlife/TNS

Three new wolf packs discovered in Northern California

Continuing a growing trend, three new wolf packs have been confirmed in Northern California, increasing the population of the charismatic and controversial predator to 78 now — up from 44 animals in 2023 and only 7 in 2020.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has named the new packs the Ishi pack in eastern Tehama County, the ...Read more

Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Colorado Parks and Wildlife/TNS

Colorado wolves extend territory toward state's southern border

Colorado wolves’ territory now nears three of the state’s four borders as the apex predators continue to expand their territory across the Western Slope, a new map released by state wildlife officials shows.

At least one of Colorado’s collared wolves for the first time pushed into southwest Colorado, including in watersheds northeast of ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX gets back to work with Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Center

ORLANDO, Fla. — The day after losing another Starship during a test launch, SpaceX was back to its normal routine with a Falcon 9 launch from the Space Coast on Wednesday.

The workhorse rocket sent up another 27 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 9:30 a.m.

The first-stage booster made its 19th flight with a ...Read more

Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Virtual reality has transformed design process for robotic floor-cleaners at Tennant

After Tennant figured out how to keep its plants open during the pandemic, it had a second problem to solve.

The company’s designers aren’t all in the same place. Neither are its customers, and sharing pen-and-paper designs isn’t easy on a video call.

Video game technology gave the company a way to move forward over Zoom, and it worked ...Read more

Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Netflix chairman Reed Hastings joins board of AI giant Anthropic

Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings is joining the board of San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

Anthropic, valued at $61.5 billion after its most recent funding round in March, is known for its AI chatbot model Claude.

"Anthropic is very optimistic about the AI benefits for humanity, but is also very aware of the economic...Read more

Handout/Jim Rossman/TNS

Tech review: Powerbeats Pro 2 are ready for your sweaty workout

I’ve turned into one of those people who wear earbuds all day at work.

We don’t have traditional phones at my office. We use Microsoft Teams as our voice phones, so when the phone rings, I usually answer it on my computer.

And because I work with three other people in one big room, we all use headphones.

I have been wearing Apple’s ...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Pollution from the Tijuana River is ending up in the air near the border, study finds

Researchers have found that pollutants in the Tijuana River, which carries raw sewage and industrial waste from Tijuana, are also turning up in the air along the coast near the U.S.-Mexico border.

After collecting samples from air and water along the coast, scientists from the University of California, San Diego determined that fine particles ...Read more

Katherine Jones/Idaho Statesman/TNS

Rape charge dropped against former Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price

LOS ANGELES — Riverside County prosecutors have dropped a rape charge against Dan Price, the former chief executive of Gravity Payments, who was accused of sexually assaulting a girlfriend at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs in 2021.

The charge against the 41-year-old founder of the Seattle-based tech company was dismissed Tuesday due to a lack ...Read more

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/TNS

Emerging tick species in CT found to carry rare bacteria that can be deadly, officials say

HARTFORD, Conn. — An invasive tick species in Connecticut has been found to carry the bacteria that can cause ehrlichiosis in humans, a discovery that has alarmed state biologists as the tick continues to increase its spread throughout the state.

Longhorned ticks, an emerging invasive species in the state, have now been found to carry the ...Read more

Handout/Bethesda Softworks/TNS

Review: ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ reinvents run-and-gun formula … again

The rebooted “Doom” series has been a masterclass in reinvention. Bucking the trend of military shooters, the id Software team crafted a brilliant gameplay loop that’s the spiritual successor to the run-and-gun action the developers pioneered in 1993.

It relied on movement, herding enemies and creating satisfying combo-based combat ...Read more

Jim Rossman: Alas, there is no easy way to update your email address across websites

I received a question from a reader about getting rid of an old AOL.com email address.

“I started my email journey with an AOL account and set up many logins to sites using that address,” she wrote. “About 10 years ago, I set up my Yahoo account and started using all future logins using that account. I would like to eliminate the logins...Read more

Hands-on with ‘Street Fighter 6’ on the Nintendo Switch 2

Capcom doesn’t have a huge presence for the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, but it is offering two stellar titles that have been released on other platforms. One game is “Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess,” which is a surprisingly good game I reviewed last year, and the other is more well-known — “Street Fighter 6.”

The pre-eminent ...Read more

TNS

Gadgets: Portable TV

If there is just one gift you want to get your dad for Father's Day, it's the Skyworth Companion Portable 24P100 TV. And yes, I said portable. Dad can watch in the garage, on the sofa, in the yard for outdoor movie nights, camping, while grilling -- wherever he wants for on-the-go entertainment.

Everything is built-in, so there is no cable ...Read more

Handout/SCUF/TNS

Review: SCUF Valor Pro offers the best value for elite-style controllers

Although the basic form of the video game controller hasn’t changed much since the Xbox 360, innovations in how players interact with games are still alive. It just comes in the form of elite-style controllers, and the company at the forefront of it is SCUF.

The peripheral maker is responsible for developing paddles on the back of gamepads,...Read more

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Commentary: Why public lands should stay public and protected

Thanks to a recent blizzard of executive orders and late-night congressional maneuvers, the nation’s public lands have become the latest target in the giant sucking vortex of current American politics. The current administration is proposing that we the people sign away our invaluable citizen estate, ostensibly to “create jobs, fuel ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Inside Google's plan to have Hollywood make AI look less doomsday

For decades, Hollywood directors including Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron and Alex Garland have cast artificial intelligence as a villain that can turn into a killing machine.

Even Steven Spielberg's relatively hopeful "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" had a pessimistic edge to its vision of the future.

Now Google — a leading developer in AI ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX Starship avoids explosive fate of last 2 launches, but still suffers demise midflight

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX managed to send its developmental Starship back into space surpassing the explosive fates that befell its last two attempts, while also for the first time flying with a reused Super Heavy booster. But not everything went well with the upper stage, which lost control during its suborbital trip halfway around the Earth.

...Read more

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Groundwater is rapidly declining in the Colorado River Basin, satellite data show

As the Colorado River’s giant reservoirs have declined during the last two decades, even larger amounts of water have been pumped and drained from underground, according to new research based on data from NASA satellites.

Scientists at Arizona State University examined more than two decades of satellite measurements and found that since 2003 ...Read more