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You never know when you’re going to have to bug out on short notice. The politics of the moment are less than predictable. Disasters never strike on schedule, and few stores stay open for a wildfire or an insurrection. As of early 2026, wildfires and the resulting chaos look especially likely in the American West after record-low snowpack levels in the winter will mean less water in the spring and summer.That’s why it’s important to make plans well in advance and put together gear for an emergency kit, say experts on disaster preparedness—and to stock up on the essentials that…

Each year, advertisers commit billions of dollars through the TV upfront, and measurement giant Nielsen is looking to help guide those budgets even more.Today, Nielsen released a new upfront planning guide, which takes a more granular view of ad-supported TV viewership trends across key audience demos and sports. According to Brian Hughes, Nielsen data communications director, the hope is that companies can use the insights to help strategize and allocate their upfront budgets.Hughes has first-hand knowledge of the upfront trenches, spending nearly two decades at MAGNA, where he helped co-develop upfront strategy. He noted that the data and insights are…

Google announced on Thursday that Google Maps is introducing a Gemini-powered conversational “Ask Maps” feature along with an updated “Immersive Navigation” experience that brings a 3D view, road details, natural voice guidance, and more to the app. The new “Ask Maps” feature lets users ask complex, real-world questions using natural language, such as “My phone is dying, where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?” or “Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?” The tech giant says the feature can also be used to quickly…

There’s a new button in Google Maps: “Ask Maps.” Google started rolling out this new generative AI feature today, a conversational, in-app tool that combines data from Maps with a user experience similar to the company’s Gemini chatbot. It’s designed to answer questions about locations and schedule routes in the navigation app.This is part of Google’s overall strategy of adding Gemini to all its products. (Like that Portlandia sketch where the duo visits a boutique and puts bird decals on everything in sight.) Earlier this week, Google added Gemini-powered tools to its Workspace suite, including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.…

Electric vehicle drivers and smartphone power users have been salivating over the prospect of silicon anode batteries, which promise to dramatically boost energy density and lower charging times. Several companies have been working on silicon anodes over the last decade or so, and the tech has started creeping into consumer electronics. Wearable maker Whoop, for example, uses materials from Sila, while Group14‘s batteries can be found in a range of smartphones. But the real prize is the EV market, which dwarfs consumer electronics by an order of magnitude, according to Benchmark Minerals. To break into this space, however, startups need…

Frequently Asked QuestionsAre Meal Delivery Services Worth It?AccordionItemContainerButtonIf you’re talking raw materials by the pound—meat, zucchini, rice, noodles—meal kits will of course cost more than buying food at grocery stores. It’s a service, after all, with added value above simple ingredient cost. Unless you’ve got quite expensive taste, you’ll easily be able to make delicious meals at home for less than the $7 to $14 a serving that a meal kit will cost. But this said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that meal kits are expensive for what they offer. I conducted an experiment, trying to re-create four different meal-kit meals…

Delta Air Lines CMO Alicia Tillman is leaving after three years to pursue “broader leadership opportunities.”“Leading the transformation of Delta’s marketing organization alongside an extraordinary team has been one of the most rewarding chapters of my career,” Tillman said in a statement to ADWEEK. “As I look ahead, I’m excited to pursue broader leadership opportunities where I can continue shaping world-class brands and driving growth and transformation at enterprise scale.”ADWEEK understands she will exit at the end of June.In a corporate blog post, Delta also announced that 18-year company veteran Ranjan Goswami will take on the new role of chief…

Flash floods are among the deadliest weather events in the world, killing more than 5,000 people each year. They’re also among the most difficult to predict. But Google thinks it has cracked that problem in an unlikely way — by reading the news. While humans have assembled a lot of weather data, flash floods are too short-lived and localized to be measured comprehensively, the way the temperature or even river flows are monitored over time. That data gap means that deep learning models, which are increasingly capable of forecasting the weather, aren’t able to predict flash floods. To solve that…

Media rating and misinformation-tracking firm NewsGuard is trying to stop the spread of AI-generated misinformation and slop in the news ecosystem with a new project—that also relies on AI.On Thursday, NewsGuard launched an AI content farm detection tool designed to identify when news and information sites host a significant portion of content that appears to be created by large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. The project was launched in collaboration with the AI content detection startup Pangram Labs.The system uses Pangram’s proprietary AI models, which are specifically trained to identify AI-generated content, to evaluate not just individual webpages but…

AltStore PAL, an alternative app store for iOS, made possible by new regulations in markets like the EU and Japan, is integrating with the open social web. The company on Wednesday announced support for the fediverse, the open social web that runs on ActivityPub, which underpins apps like Mastodon, Flipboard, PeerTube, Threads, and others. Known broadly as the “fediverse,” users on the open social web join independent servers that interoperate with one another, or “federate,” allowing people to communicate, view, and respond to posts with those on other social platforms. With AltStore PAL’s launch of its own Mastodon server, it’s…

One of my favorite features of my preferred coffee brewer is how you can chuck it in a suitcase or a backpack and take it on a trip. When you get where you’re going, be that a Chicago hotel room, a mountaintop campsite, or your mother-in-law’s house, as long as you’ve brought beans and have access to hot water, you’ll have what you need for an excellent cup of Joe.Coffee lovers might already recognize this as the AeroPress, a brewer invented by Alan Adler, the same guy who came up with—of all things—the Aerobie flying disc. The AeroPress, which debuted…

Lovable crossed $400 million in annual recurring revenue in February, the Stockholm company confirmed to TechCrunch. But it declined to say whether it is still projecting to reach $1 billion ARR by year’s end, saying its focus is on “helping builders scale their impact with our platform.” Alongside Cursor, Mercor, and others, Lovable is part of a wave of tools that make it easier to create websites and apps using natural language, a practice known as vibe coding. This initially resonated with individuals and startups, but the three-year-old company has been pushing hard to secure enterprise clients, which already include…

The front of the grip has a cover that hides away the USB-C charging port and microSD card slot. There is built-in memory, but I would strongly suggest using a microSD card, because it’s difficult to fully extract your images from the built-in memory. You have to use the app to first download the image, but then it’s hard to save them on your phone outside of the app. Just throw a tiny microSD card in there and you’ll avoid all that hassle.The images are tiny. The 5-MP, 1/5-inch sensor records photos at 1920 x 2560 pixels and videos at…

Last week, Netflix announced the acquisition of InterPositive, an AI company co-founded by Ben Affleck that helps filmmakers edit footage in post-production. This deal could be worth up to $600 million, according to Bloomberg, potentially ranking it among the streaming giant’s largest acquisitions ever. The most Netflix has ever paid for a single acquisition was approximately $700 million for the Roald Dahl Story Company.  While Netflix has not publicly confirmed the details, sources tell Bloomberg that the actual cash payment may be lower, with the owners of InterPositive eligible for additional payouts tied to specific performance targets.  InterPositive makes tools…

If you think you’re seeing more birds around your neighborhood right now, it’s not a coincidence. Spring is one of the busiest times of the year for bird activity. Not only are migratory birds returning to their nesting sites, but local birds are building nests, looking for mates, defending territories, and hunting for prey that’s just starting to emerge post-winter. If you’re interested in seeing all this activity up close, there’s no better way than with a smart bird feeder. I test these devices year-round for WIRED, and Birdfy’s models are consistently among my top picks for hitting the sweet…

Zendesk is acquiring Forethought, a company that builds software to automate customer service interactions, the companies announced on Wednesday. The deal is expected to close by the end of March. While AI agents, particularly for customer service, may be all the rage now, Forethought was years ahead of its time. In fact, it was the 2018 winner of TechCrunch Battlefield, our iconic startup pitch competition. For context, ChatGPT didn’t launch until late 2022. Following its Battlefield win, Forethought landed marquee customers like Upwork, Grammarly, Airtable, and Datadog, it said, and by 2025 was supporting more than a billion monthly customer…