Priced at $1,049, Valve’s new Steam Machine costs nearly double a PlayStation 5, positioning itself less as a traditional console and more as a miniaturized PC. While Valve claims to sell the hardware at cost, the unique engineering of its custom components makes a direct DIY replica impossible to assemble.
The $99 Fitbit Air succeeds as a lightweight, no-nonsense fitness tracker, but its true ambition lies in a Gemini-powered health coach. While the hardware offers a welcome return to simplicity, the AI experience demands significant user effort and constant manual guidance to provide anything beyond basic common sense.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(837x347:839x349)/Amazon-Delivery-Driver-Tip-121223-58a8eb2be39c45ceaf86c9514cf29862.jpg)
Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale is officially underway, offering four days of discounts that run through June 27th at 3:01AM ET. While the sheer volume of items can be overwhelming, we have sifted through the noise to highlight the most reliable gear and significant price drops across categories ranging from high-end laptops to smart home essentials.
Priced at $59.99 and available for preorder, the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 introduces tunneling magneto-resistance joysticks to the company's flagship lineup. By moving beyond standard Hall effect sensors, the hardware promises superior durability and reduced power consumption, directly addressing the stick-drift issues that have long frustrated console players.
A $21.50 discount brings the Hoto 3.6V Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro to $28.49 at Amazon and Walmart, marking one of the lowest prices ever recorded for the compact tool. The kit, usually priced at nearly $50, is currently seeing a 40 percent price cut during the Prime Day sales event.
Sony’s latest attempt at computational photography on the Xperia 1 VIII has arrived, and the results are as jarring as the initial marketing samples suggested. The new AI Camera Assistant, intended to guide users toward better composition and exposure, disrupts the shooting experience rather than enhancing the final image.
Amazon has slashed prices on its most popular e-readers, with the Kindle Paperwhite dropping to $124.99 and the Signature Edition falling to $144.99. These discounts arrive as part of the retailer's Prime Day event, marking the best opportunity this year to secure the company’s flagship reading hardware.
After years of erratic expansion into MMOs and streaming, Amazon is narrowing its gaming focus. The tech giant is now anchoring its strategy on the Luna cloud platform and a revamped development wing, betting that accessible mobile-controlled party games—including an AI-driven experience featuring Snoop Dogg—will finally find a mass audience.
Meta is decoupling its smart glasses from the Ray-Ban brand, unveiling a new lineup starting at $299. By moving to a lower price point, the company aims to broaden its user base, even as it grapples with mounting public scrutiny regarding privacy and the potential for device misuse in public spaces.
The MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus promises next-generation performance, but a few hours of testing against the Steam Deck OLED reveal a device caught in a tug-of-war between raw graphical capability and the clunky reality of Windows-based handheld gaming, leaving the question of its value—and its $1,799 price tag—wide open.
Prime Day has arrived with a deluge of discounts on connected home gear, but sorting through the noise is essential to finding genuine value. I have filtered hundreds of offers to highlight the most significant price drops on high-performing routers, security devices, and smart appliances worth your investment.
A smoldering heap of wreckage at Cape Canaveral serves as a grim metaphor for the $42.45 billion BEAD program. Designed to bridge the digital divide through the 2021 Build Back Better initiative, the massive federal effort has stalled, leaving rural communities waiting while billions flow toward the satellite ambitions of tech moguls.
Meta has begun tracking keystrokes, mouse movements, and screen captures on the computers of its US-based staff. This internal surveillance initiative, dubbed the Model Capability Initiative, aims to harvest behavioral data to train AI models that can autonomously navigate software interfaces and perform complex workplace tasks.
As public scrutiny over the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence intensifies, Nvidia is positioning its new Rubin generation reference design as a solution to the industry's water crisis, claiming the system can achieve near-zero water usage by allowing AI servers to operate at significantly higher temperatures.
After years of clunky navigation and sluggish performance, Amazon is finally rolling out a substantial redesign for its Fire TV operating system. The update shifts away from rigid, rectangular tiles toward a more intuitive, tab-based layout that prioritizes content discovery and user-defined app organization across its streaming ecosystem.
With the Steam Machine priced at $1,049 for the base model, Valve is bucking the gaming industry’s standard practice of selling hardware at a loss. While competitors like Sony and Microsoft use low entry prices to lock users into closed ecosystems, Valve insists that such tactics stifle long-term innovation.
When a Manhattan studio appeared online with airy ceilings and a fireplace, Joyce assumed she had found a rare urban gem. Upon arrival, the reality was stark: the fireplace was nonexistent, the stove was stripped of knobs, and the spacious layout had vanished, replaced by a cramped, dilapidated reality.
Amazon has slashed the price of the Apple Watch SE 3 to $199, marking the lowest cost ever for the device. This discount positions the wearable as a compelling entry point for buyers, effectively undercutting its standard $249 retail price by 20 percent as part of the ongoing Prime Day sales event.
Valve has confirmed that its Steam Machine will hit the market on June 29, carrying a starting price of $1,049. To manage initial demand for the living room PC, the company is implementing a randomized reservation queue, with invitations to purchase scheduled to begin rolling out late next month.
PC enthusiasts can now bypass official reservation systems to build their own Steam Machines. With the recent release of SteamOS 3.8.10, Valve has expanded hardware compatibility, signaling a shift toward allowing users to install the Steam Deck’s operating system on a wider array of desktop components.
A $75 million investment marks Google’s first foray into film studio ownership, as its DeepMind lab partners with A24 to build production tools. The collaboration aims to integrate advanced technology into filmmaker workflows, promising to bridge the divide between computational research and the next generation of entertainment.
To prevent bot exploitation and ensure equitable access, Valve has shifted away from the deposit-based Steam Deck model for its new hardware. Prospective buyers must now enter a randomized sign-up window, with the company prioritizing higher-end configurations for users who successfully secure multiple reservation spots.
The Steam Machine is less a traditional game console and more a high-end, living-room-ready PC that demands a premium price. Starting at $1,049, it bridges the gap between hardware flexibility and plug-and-play simplicity, though it currently requires a level of patience that console players are rarely asked to provide.
Owners of Radeon RX 7000-series graphics cards gain access to FSR 4.1 today, as AMD accelerates its rollout of machine-learning-based visual enhancements. This update, arriving ahead of the previously projected July timeline, optimizes image fidelity and frame consistency for hardware built on the RDNA 3 architecture.
A four-pack of second-generation Apple AirTags has dropped to $90 at Amazon and Best Buy, marking the steepest discount since their release. With travel season underway, this price cut brings the individual tracker cost to roughly $22.50, offering a rare opportunity to secure the updated hardware at a significant reduction.
The living room is the latest frontier for Meta’s short-form video strategy as Instagram launches a dedicated television application. Beginning Tuesday in the United States, the pilot program brings a personalized feed of portrait-oriented content to Amazon Fire TV devices, marking a shift from mobile device exclusivity toward home entertainment hardware.
After seven years at the helm of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart is stepping down as Meta pivots toward new leadership. Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that Kunal Shah, the founder of the Indian fintech startup Cred, will take over the messaging platform, backed by a significant $900 million investment from Meta.
Five years after his last appearance on the Decoder podcast, Patreon CEO Jack Conte is shifting his company's strategy. Facing a creator economy flooded by AI-generated content and increasingly closed social platforms, Conte now views Patreon as an essential "index of small business media companies" rather than just a payment processor.
Seven months after launching a premium version, Wyze is pivoting to affordability with a $79.98 smart scale that sacrifices Wi-Fi connectivity to shave $40 off the price. Despite the reduction, the device retains the signature retractable handle and eight-electrode system designed to track muscle and fat distribution across the body.
The boxy silhouette of Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine has found its inevitable destiny in the hands of Dbrand. The accessory maker is crafting a limited-edition Companion Cube skin, turning the hybrid gaming console into a faithful replica of the iconic, heart-stamped block from the Portal series.
