Tech/Gear

The cost of a Super Bowl commercial has officially entered jaw-dropping territory. For Super Bowl LX, some 30-second ad slots have reportedly sold for as much as $10 million. That figure marks a new high for the Big Game. Even the average price this year sits closer to $8 million. As a result, Super Bowl airtime has become one of the most valuable buys in advertising, especially for brands chasing massive […]

A woman named Abigail believed she was in a romantic relationship with a famous actor. The messages felt real. The voice sounded right. The video looked authentic. And the love felt personal. By the time her family realized what was happening, more than $81,000 was gone — and so was the paid-off home she planned to retire in.We spoke with Vivian Ruvalcaba on my "Beyond Connected" podcast about what happened to […]

For years, we've been told that encryption is the gold standard for digital privacy. If data is encrypted, it is supposed to be locked away from hackers, companies and governments alike. That assumption just took a hit. In a federal investigation tied to alleged COVID-19 unemployment fraud in Guam, a U.S. territory where federal law applies, Microsoft confirmed it provided law enforcement with BitLocker recovery keys. Those keys allowed investigators to […]

A popular mobile app called Chat & Ask AI has more than 50 million users across the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Now, an independent security researcher says the app exposed hundreds of millions of private chatbot conversations online. The exposed messages reportedly included deeply personal and disturbing requests. Users asked questions like how to painlessly kill themselves, how to write suicide notes, how to make meth and how […]

Federal safety regulators are once again taking a hard look at self-driving cars after a serious incident involving Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Alphabet.This time, the investigation centers on a Waymo vehicle that struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, during morning drop-off hours. The crash happened Jan. 23 and raised immediate questions about how autonomous vehicles behave around children, school zones and unpredictable […]

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing from her home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson after she failed to appear for church and could not be reached by family. When deputies arrived, several things stood out. Her phone, wallet and car keys were inside the home. The daily medication she relies on was left behind. Given her age and mobility challenges, […]

It has been a rough start to the year for password security. A massive database containing 149 million stolen logins and passwords was found publicly exposed online. The data included credentials tied to an estimated 48 million Gmail accounts, along with millions more from popular services. Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler, who discovered the database, confirmed it was not password-protected or encrypted. Anyone who found it could have accessed the data. Here is […]

If your smartphone stays on your bedside table overnight, it stays busy long after you fall asleep. Even while it appears idle, your phone continues to send and receive data in the background. Some of that activity is expected. Your device checks for security patches, syncs system settings and keeps essential services running. Other data transfers are far less obvious and far less necessary.Experts warn that smartphones routinely transmit tracking and […]

Artificial Intelligence and data centers have been blamed for rising electricity costs across the U.S. In December 2025, American consumers paid 42% more to power their homes than ten years ago. "When you have increased demand and inadequate supply, costs are going to go up. And that's what we're experiencing right now," Exelon CEO Calvin Butler said. TRUMP SAYS EVERY AI PLANT BEING BUILT IN US WILL BE SELF-SUSTAINING WITH THEIR OWN […]