Technology

When you think of America’s biggest brands, tech companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon; retailers like Walmart and Target, and food and beverage giants like McDonald’s and Starbucks usually come to mind. But every year, those established brands also face the risk of being upended by smaller, faster-growing upstarts. Now, the crowd-sourced review platform Yelp has published its annual list of the fastest-growing brands in America. Here are the top 10 brands Yelp says are growing the fastest across the country. Starbucks’ competitor 7 Brew leads the list According to Yelp’s data, the fastest-growing brand in America in 2026 is the drive-thru coffee chain and Starbucks competitor 7 Brew.  Yelp says that its data showed that the coffee chain saw “244% growth in consumer interest in 2025” noting that “Americans are increasingly centering their morning routines around caffeinated drive-thru beverages.” Here is the full top 10 list: 7 Brew Smoothie King Boj

Meta and Zelestra are expanding their fast-growing US solar partnership with yet another Texas project as the tech giant’s electricity demand continues to climb. more…

Emmy Award-winning producer Halle Stanford founded 7 Crow Stories with a passion for storytelling and a mission to create meaningful series that enchant and empower audiences. Under her leadership, 7 Crow Stories has developed and sold content to some of the world’s leading networks and studios, including Netflix, Apple TV+, YouTube, Nickelodeon, and the Disney Channel

Apple has announced the latest version of macOS. It’s all about the reintroduction of Siri, which is now accessible from anywhere on the Mac desktop.

Apple took the wraps off iOS 27 at its WWDC event, and the iPhone update is chock-full of smart upgrades, with a big focus on improvements to Siri.

Anthropic is releasing Claude Mythos 5 to trusted organizations and Claude Fable 5 to the public, a version it says can’t be used for cyberattacks.

Delta’s Chief Sustainability Officer Amelia DeLuca focuses on environmental leadership, technology innovation, and organizational change to make Delta’s operations more sustainable while supporting the airline’s long-term growth. This is her truth about leadership.

Denmark has provisionally approved Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (Supervised) system, making it the fourth European country to clear the software in roughly eight weeks. The Danish Road Traffic Authority, Færdselsstyrelsen, confirmed the decision today — notably after Denmark had previously raised concerns about the technology at the EU level. more…

The Mitsubishi Eclipse is finally going electric with a little help from Nissan. Set to go on sale in the next few weeks, Mitsubishi unveiled the new Eclipse Sportback EV for the first time. more…

If you’ve been hearing a lot more about passkeys recently, there’s good reason for it. After becoming more widely available in 2022, passkeys have surged in popularity, driven by ease of use and increased security over the traditional password. The FIDO Alliance, the consortium that drove the development and adoption of passkeys, noted in a 2026 survey that some five billion of them are now in use globally and about 90 percent of people are aware of them. The first Thursday in May, which was once known as World Password Day, has even rebranded to World Passkey Day. The surge in passkey adoption comes even as phishing and sophisticated AI-powered hacks have made protecting yourself online more important than ever. Experts say that switching from passwords to passkeys whenever possible is one way to reduce the risk of remote phishing attacks that target employee login credentials. “The passkey is a key element—not a magic solution—to eliminating that risk,” says Eric Sachs, corpora

Rivian flew us out to beautiful Park City, Utah, to get a first test of the R2, its $45,000 “bet-the-company” mass market SUV that it has promised for years. Today it begins delivering these vehicles, and I can say unequivocally after driving a performance variant for 5 hours, that these early customers are going to be very happy, though with some notable caveats… more…

With a competitive price, winning design, and better performance than the R1, Rivian could be set to break into the big leagues. Just make sure you get the right model with the right tech.

Gazelle has unveiled a completely redesigned Ultimate platform in North America, giving riders a faster take on the company’s signature Dutch-inspired comfort and refinement. more…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. David Sinclair plans to test whole-body rejuvenation drugs in the XPrize competition The outspoken longevity scientist David Sinclair has predicted that, one day, you’ll go to the doctor and get a…

These bird feeders come with cameras and connected apps to let you see and learn about the birds in your neighborhood.