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These are dangerous times for people with chronic health conditions. They often need to visit hospitals for treatment or to collect medication, but during the pandemic that means increased risk of exposure to coronavirus. In Africa, a US startup says it is reducing that risk by using drones to deliver medical supplies to local clinics,

Apple’s Siri will soon stop defaulting to a female-sounding voice. The company said Wednesday that its mobile devices will ask users to pick from a range of voices when they set up the virtual assistant. Apple currently allows users to pick between a male and female voice as well as six different accents including American,

Some of the nation’s most prominent Black business leaders are calling out their Fortune 500 peers for their muted response to new laws that restrict voting across the country. Merck chief executive Ken Frazier and Berkshire Hathaway director Kenneth Chenault were among the 72 Black executives who signed a letter released Wednesday challenging other corporate

After years of building huge modern offices and a work culture that many industries have emulated, Silicon Valley was among the first to shutter those offices and go fully remote when the coronavirus pandemic began. Now, many of the tech industry’s biggest companies are slowly making plans to bring workers back, offering a potential road

Grab the tissues. The internet is freaking out over a rumor about the possible impending death of Mario, the famous, red-wearing, Italian plumber who changed the world of video games with the release of “Super Mario Bros” 35 years ago. Let’s back up: In September, the “Super Mario Bros” franchise celebrated its 35th anniversary with

You may not be traveling or hanging out in malls much these days, but Google Maps is preparing for a return to such places in the not-so-distant future: It’s rolling out a new feature that uses augmented reality to navigate malls, airports, and train stations. On Tuesday, Google unveiled the feature, called Indoor Live View,

Shoppers, take note: You could soon pay more for Huggies, Pull-Ups and Scott toilet paper. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of such products, said Wednesday that it’s notifying retail customers in the United States and Canada that it will increase prices on some products by mid-to-high single-digit percentages in June. The increases “are necessary to help offset

Robinhood is getting rid of the confetti animation that appears on users’ screens after they conduct their first trade and achieve other milestones. The change comes as the app faces growing scrutiny over what critics say is a gamification of trading that masks the potential for real losses in the financial markets. The design changes,

When Jerry Callahan had his first bite of a Sumo Citrus fruit about nine years ago, he knew he’d tried something special. “This is going to go crazy,” he thought. As the group vice president of produce and floral at the grocery store chain Albertsons, Callahan is essentially a produce trend-spotter by trade — and

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield knows he screwed up. Wednesday morning, Slack rolled out a feature to let customers message Slack users at other companies. After a host of complaints, Slack made changes Wednesday afternoon. Customers noted that the new system, called Slack Slack Connect Direct Messages, could be used to send unsolicited DMs and perhaps

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism firm that hopes to send its first customers to space next year, unveiled a new spacecraft design on Tuesday. The sleek new space plane has a reflective coating that the company calls “mirror-like,” and says will add to space tourists’ experience. Flight tests of the new vehicle are expected to

In India, the country with the world’s second-highest number of Covid-19 cases, a handful of hospitals has started to use robots to connect patients with their loved ones, and assist healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. Bangalore-based Invento Robotics has designed three robots to carry out tasks ranging from disinfecting surfaces to answering

Goldman Sachs will reportedly soon offer its private wealth management clients avenues to invest in bitcoin and other digital currencies. Mary Rich, who is about to become the new global head of digital assets for Goldman Sach’s private wealth management division, said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday that Goldman will begin offering cryptocurrencies to

Shares in Deliveroo fell as much as 30% in its highly anticipated London IPO on Wednesday, wiping about £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion) off the company’s value, and dealing a blow to the city’s renewed efforts to attract tech company listings. The stock was last trading at around £2.86 ($3.94), about 27% below the price at

In recent months, investors haven’t been able to pile quickly enough into the fast-growing companies hitting public markets. But the mood was different Wednesday in London, where shares of Amazon-backed food delivery service Deliveroo dropped as much as 30% in their first day of trading. The plunge wiped out roughly £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion) in

The empty middle seat on airplanes, one of the few advantages of pandemic, is about to disappear. Delta Air Lines, the last remaining US airline to keep middle seats unbooked, has lifted that prohibition as of May 1, the company announced Wednesday. It is another sign of a rebound in demand for air travel and

Just eight months ago, Huawei reached its longtime goal of becoming the world’s biggest smartphone maker. Now, it is not even in the top three. On Wednesday, the Chinese tech giant acknowledged that its smartphone business was suffering as US sanctions continue to stifle its growth, cutting off the company’s ability to obtain critical components

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan is no joke. The huge — more than $2 trillion — proposal he will unveil Wednesday covers an expansive and vital policy area that became a Washington punch line in the Trump administration and resulted in painful dashed hopes for previous presidents. For Biden, infrastructure is about far more than

Nike is suing the art collective behind the Lil Nas X “Satan Shoes” that have sparked a social media backlash. In a lawsuit filed Monday, Nike accuses MSCHF Product Studio, Inc. of trademark infringement over the designer’s 666 pairs of modified Nike sneakers made in collaboration with the “Old Town Road” singer. All 666 pairs