Tech/Gear

Traveling abroad used to mean leaving your normal entertainment routine at home. Now, your streaming subscriptions can come with you. However, hotels, airports and cafés often mean unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks and different streaming catalogs.If you want to stream safely while traveling outside the U.S., a VPN, or virtual private network, can help. It creates an encrypted connection between your device and the VPN server. That adds useful protection when you […]

If your Gmail inbox already feels crowded, election season may add another layer of noise. Starting Sept. 8, 2026, Google's new Gmail Verified Sender Program will give qualifying U.S. political committees a more reliable path to personal Gmail accounts. That means qualifying political committees will have a new way to improve the reliability of their email delivery, provided they follow Google's security, authentication and spam requirements.The program applies to eligible […]

A broken pump on an offshore platform, or medical supplies needed after a hurricane can be tough to move quickly. The FAA just tested one possible solution: a hybrid-electric cargo aircraft that can take off vertically and fly without a crew onboard.The FAA announced that Elroy Air and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development conducted a cargo demonstration at Houma-Terrebonne Airport in Louisiana. The agency says it was the […]

If you have ever driven past a construction site and watched an excavator moving huge piles of dirt, you probably figured there was an experienced operator sitting in the cab. On some job sites in Texas and Nevada, there is nobody in that seat.San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics has autonomous excavators doing real commercial earthwork with no operator onboard. The company says the deployments follow a year of testing on active […]

When so much of your financial life lives online, protecting the device you use to access your money deserves some extra thought. Nancy from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently wrote to us asking whether keeping banking and investments on an entirely separate computer could provide another layer of protection."I've had several clients tell me they have bought a computer that is only used for online banking, financial institutions and anything to […]

We've covered home robots that can fold laundry and others designed to become AI companions. Now there's one that wants to remember your family. The OlloNi SS1 is an AI robot pet that can recognize family members and pets as it moves around your home. OlloBot says it can learn your routines, respond to emotional cues and save memorable family moments along the way.Here's where it gets really interesting. OlloNi […]

Identity theft can start quietly. You may not see a drained bank account or a maxed-out credit card. The first warning could be a strange letter in the mail, an unfamiliar inquiry on your credit report or a password-reset alert you never requested.Those little clues are easy to brush off, but catching them early can give you more time to protect your money, credit and accounts. One unusual message does […]

We've covered robot dogs patrolling with police and training to handle terrain that could someday take them to the moon. We've even watched wheeled versions tackle some pretty wild ground. And whenever we show these machines, one question keeps coming up: What happens when they reach a flight of stairs? Well, Robot.com may have an answer.Its new four-legged R-dog is built to carry packages where traditional wheeled delivery robots can […]

If you have ever checked a lab result or sent your doctor a message online, you may already know MyChart. It is a widely used patient portal from Epic that hospitals and medical practices use to give patients online access to health information and care teams.That growing reliance on patient portals caught the attention of Mary M. She recently wrote to us after hearing from her primary care physician, or […]