Californians fight flames on multiple fronts during wildfire season, but the real enemy is the wind. In the southern part of the state they’re called Santa Anas; in the north, Diablos. Sometimes gusting as hard as a hurricane’s gale, the winds are what turn California’s desiccated autumns into pyrocenic months of smoky skies, electrical blackouts,…

The headline shouted that it was a “shocker.” Last night, The Hollywood Reporter posted a story revealing that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators behind the Game of Thrones television adaptation, were ending their creative partnership with Lucasfilm—effective immediately. A year and half ago, the studio announced it had asked the pair to create…

After months of revelations and apologies, all the major smart assistant makers have revamped how they handle human review of audio snippets. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana were all using third-party contractors to transcribe and vet recorded snippets, adding some human brain power to underlying machine-learning algorithms. But the backlash over…

Transgender athletes are having a moment. At all levels of sport, they’re stepping onto the podium and into the headlines. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard won two gold medals at the Pacific Games, and college senior CeCé Telfer became the NCAA Division II national champion in the 400-meter run. Another senior, June Eastwood, has been…

A year ago, Google introduced one of those time-saving tricks that makes the cold, relentless march of time just a little bit more bearable: You could suddenly create a new Google doc simply by typing doc.new into your URL bar. Ditto spreadsheets, calendar events, and other Google-specific tasks. Now Google’s making that small magic available…

Slack created a new solution for workplace communication, one copied by many, even Microsoft. But the product, which is meant to help individuals and businesses collaborate, has been critiqued for…

AT&T and WarnerMedia just announced the pricing of their HBO Max streaming service, along with sharing more details about the timing and content lineup. The service will cost $14.99 per…

MX Player, a popular video app that offers both local playback and streaming services, said on Wednesday that it has raised $110.8 million in a new financing round led by…

Chan Park feels like “an eternal nomad.” He has since age 12, when he moved from Korea to the U.S., where he attended middle school in Minnesota, followed by high…

“These $250 earbuds are nice.” That’s the first thing I wrote to a co-worker after unboxing and trying on the new AirPods. After wearing them around the New York City…