Technology news

Valve will finally let you build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS for desktop

If you don't get lucky with Valve's Steam Machine reservation system, you can make your own Steam Machine instead. Valve says that "startin…

The Steam Machine is the most ambitious game console I’ve ever played

My first day with the Steam Machine was a mess. Instead of enjoying a worry-free game console, I spent hours troubleshooting what felt like…

Valve prices the Steam Machine at $1,049

After months of waiting, Valve has finally announced that the Steam Machine, its new living room-friendly PC, will start at $1,049 and go o…

Valve explains why it isn’t subsidizing the Steam Machine

Valve finally announced the price of the Steam Machine, and like a lot of new gadgets these days, it's not cheap: It starts at $1,049 for a…

AMD releases FSR 4.1 upscaling for older graphics cards

AMD is officially launching FSR Upscaling 4.1 for Radeon RX 7000-series GPUs today. The update means that computers with those older graphi…

RingConn’s Lord of the Rings promotion assumes smart ring wearers want to be like Gollum

Smart ring maker RingConn's marketing copy says Lord of the Rings' "enduring narrative highlights a simple but powerful idea: that meaningf…

The Nintendo Switch 2 is up to $50 off for Prime Day

We should have all guessed that Woot might improve on its $15 off sale from last week on the Nintendo Switch 2. Now that Prime Day is upon …

Apple’s latest AirTags are cheaper than ever for Prime Day

Prime Day has brought a number of Apple deals, but one of the most useful if you’re planning to travel over the July 4th weekend or later t…

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart is stepping down after seven years

Will Cathcart, who led WhatsApp for the past seven years, is stepping down from his role as Meta appoints a new leader. On Monday, Meta CEO…

Patreon CEO Jack Conte on supporting artists in the AI slop era

Today, I’m talking with Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon. Jack last joined me on the show almost exactly five years ago, in the summer of 202…

Apple’s AirPods Max 2 are $150 off for the first time

Walmart has the Apple AirPods Max 2 in every color discounted to $399.99 (normally $549) during Walmart Deals, the lowest price we’ve seen …

Wyze’s new smart scale can break down your body composition for less than $80

Seven months after introducing its $119.98 Ultra BodyScan smart scale, Wyze announced a cheaper $79.98 alternative available today that mak…

Read this before you vibe-code another app

Bob Starr was delighted with his vibe-coded website. "Boomberg" showed how much US tax money is going to tech companies, and Starr launched…

Bose thinks it can be a media company for some reason

The history books are littered with the corpses of corporate record labels started by companies that had no business being in the music ind…

Cold Court’s debut EP is an infectious, glitchy genre mashup

Cold Court is a brother-sister duo from Philly that seems to love nothing more than shoving all of their influences together in a messy sou…

That viral clip you saw of someone winning big on Polymarket was probably fake

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Polymarket has been paying people to film themselves placing fake bets and celebrating fa…

How Roomba started a robot revolution

If you had a Roomba, especially in the early days of the robot vacuum, it was in many ways a fairly unsophisticated machine. It would just …

Electric air taxis are stuck in the courtroom

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on aviation, air taxis, and Wi-Fi…