So the team behind a new decision-making tool hopes it will help clear up some misconceptions surrounding the procedure — and give prospective parents some much-needed insight into the true costs, benefits, and potential pitfalls. Read the full story. —Jessica Hamzelou This story comes from The Checkup, MIT The Tech Warrior’s weekly newsletter that gives … Read more

Walmart recently introduced a new way to shop: via text message. Last month, the retail giant launched its “Text to Shop” experience, which allows mobile consumers on both iOS and Android devices to text Walmart with the items they want to purchase from their local stores or Walmart.com, or simply reorder items. can order for … Read more

Humanity may not exactly be winning the battle to avert climate change, but the electrification of cars is starting to look like a success story. Ten percent of new passenger cars sold around the world last year were electric, powered by batteries rather than gasoline. Yet that revolution has its own dirty side. If the … Read more

Save the date: Disney has blocked the calendar until 2028 and added a bunch of mysterious Marvel movies, cryptic Pixar movies, and a bunch of “Untitled Disney” movies. In fact, Disney has announced that one of these mysterious untitled movies will be released this year. The first “Untitled Disney” will hit theaters on December 1, … Read more

The second-generation HomePod is a follow-up to Apple’s original device from 2018, and while it mimics the design of the original (read: discontinued) model, some major hardware improvements make Apple’s forthcoming automation hub worth a look. The biggest and perhaps most obvious upgrade to the new HomePod is the Thread support and Matter compatibility, which … Read more

This is the current edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that gives a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Brazilians turn to Instagram to identify far-right rioters In the hours after far-right insurgents vandalized government buildings in Brazil’s capital on Sunday, January 8, a new account appeared on Instagram. … Read more

CircleCi, a software company whose products are popular with developers and software engineers, confirmed that some customers’ data was stolen in a data breach last month. The company said in a detailed blog post Friday that it identified the intruder’s first entry point as an employee’s laptop compromised with malware, enabling the theft of session … Read more

Asia experienced its second warmest year on record. On April 30, temperatures hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Jacobabad, Pakistan — unusually early for the region. As summer arrived, heat waves killed 50,000 people in the European Union in July alone, and as vegetation dried out, fires broke out in London and burned large parts of … Read more