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The Steam Machine is here / Valve’s game console arrives with a big vision and a big price tag.

Valve explains why it isn’t subsidizing the Steam MachineValve explains why it isn’t subsidizing the Steam Machine

‘It doesn’t align with our beliefs about how healthy ecosystems are built.’

Jay Peters
Here’s how you can reserve a Steam Machine

Valve’s unique preorder process requires you to sign up in advance to enter a lottery for reserving each configuration.

Stevie Bonifield
Valve prices the Steam Machine at $1,049

You can register your interest starting today, and the first emails letting people buy one will go out on June 29th.

Jay Peters
I’m not giving up my Steam Deck for MSI’s new Claw

Games play better on the Claw, but the Windows handheld software experience still has too many issues.

Jay Peters

Review roulette / Catch up on some of our latest reviews, from games to gadgets.

Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fansSony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans

6

Verge Score

A new look and an upgraded telephoto aren’t enough to make this a mainstream contender.

Dominic Preston
Moves of the Diamond Hand is an unfinished, irresistibly weird dice-based RPG

A hardboiled world of sinister corporations, animal-human hybrids, and master sandwich-makers is both clever and absurd.

Adi Robertson
SwitchBot’s Standing Circulator Fan is worth fighting for

It’s quiet, battery powered, smart, and moves a decent amount of air for its size.

Thomas Ricker
In a big year for horror, Widow’s Bay still stands apart

The Apple TV series just wrapped up its hilariously dark first season.

Andrew Webster

Prime time / Follow along for The Verge’s favorite picks for Prime Day.

The best Prime Day deals we found on our favorite gearThe best Prime Day deals we found on our favorite gear
Updated

Prime Day has begun, and here we’ve included dozens of our favorite picks across a range of categories.

Cameron Faulkner
These are the best smart home deals this Prime Day

Prime Day is offering big discounts on my favorite smart locks, smart lighting, and more.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
The Apple Watch SE 3 is just $199 for Prime Day

The SE 3 was a massive upgrade, and now it’s at an all-time low price.

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

Update: sold out, unfortunately.

Cameron Faulkner

Game over? / The gaming industry has been hit hard by global price hikes.

The Steam Machine is the start of an even more expensive future for game consolesThe Steam Machine is the start of an even more expensive future for game consoles

Valve’s living room PC isn’t cheap, which doesn’t bode well for the next Xbox and PlayStation.

Andrew Webster
RAMageddon is here

The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about.

Sean Hollister
Xbox exploring ‘radically different’ console business models

Microsoft is reevaluating its plans for Project Helix and considering new ways to lower Xbox console costs.

Tom Warren
The golden age of handheld gaming is already over

A $789 Steam Deck changes everything.

Sean Hollister
The Oura Ring 4 is as low as $226 for Prime DayThe Oura Ring 4 is as low as $226 for Prime Day

If you don’t mind a slightly thicker smart ring than the new Oura Ring 5, this is a good opportunity to save.

Victoria Song
Sony’s AI Camera Assistant is exactly as bad as it looksSony’s AI Camera Assistant is exactly as bad as it looks

Ugly Instagram filters, powered by AI.

Dominic Preston
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Amazon’s next AI-powered courtroom game stars Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Courtroom Chaos — Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger follows the Snoop Dogg-themed courtroom game that launched last year on Luna, and they’re both part of Amazon’s new plan for games.

This new game adds a single-player mode and a mode where AI Arnold can help you settle bets with friends.

A screenshot from Courtroom Chaos - Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Image: Amazon
I’m not giving up my Steam Deck for MSI’s new ClawI’m not giving up my Steam Deck for MSI’s new Claw

Games play better on the Claw, but the Windows handheld software experience still has too many issues.

Jay Peters
Valve confirms it’s working with Intel and Nvidia on SteamOS for more GPUsValve confirms it’s working with Intel and Nvidia on SteamOS for more GPUs

Some people have already gotten SteamOS running on Intel.

Jay Peters
My go-to Kindle is back at its best price yet for Prime DayMy go-to Kindle is back at its best price yet for Prime Day

The Kindle Paperwhite offers a waterproof design, months-long battery life, and enough storage for thousands of books.

Sheena Vasani
The best Prime Day deals we found on our favorite gearThe best Prime Day deals we found on our favorite gear
Updated

Prime Day has begun, and here we’ve included dozens of our favorite picks across a range of categories.

Cameron Faulkner
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Jsaux’s over-achieving travel dock can charge the Switch 2 plus four more Joy-Cons.

If you’re looking for a compact Switch 2 travel dock, go with GuliKit’s new $30 option. If you want more functionality, Jsaux’s new $60 6-in-1 solution can connect the Switch 2 to a TV, access the internet over ethernet, charge four additional Joy-Cons plus Nintendo’s Pro controller, and fold up for travel.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

1/2Image: Jsaux
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Cyber breach exposes confidential Apple and Tesla files.

Tata Electronics, an India-based manufacturing partner for both companies, says it’s investigating a “cybersecurity incident” after the World Leaks ransomware group posted more than 200,000 component and specification documents on the dark web. The files reportedly include inspection ⁠standards for iPhone ​circuit board components, and drawings for the Model 3 revamp that Tesla launched in 2023.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
I can break down just fine on my own.

Sure, you could buy a smart scale for a body composition breakdown, but why bother?

Hoto:

I don’t need some fancy two-bit scale to give myself a breakdown about my body composition

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

Elon Musk and the plot to hijack America’s broadband
Karl Bode and Sean Gonsalves
These are the best smart home deals this Prime DayThese are the best smart home deals this Prime Day

Prime Day is offering big discounts on my favorite smart locks, smart lighting, and more.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Europeans will soon pay more for cheap imports.

Starting July 1st, small parcels valued at less than €150 (about $171) that enter the EU will be subject to a fixed €3 (about $3.42) customs duty. This temporary measure aims to protect local businesses by reducing competition from foreign low-cost retailers like Temu and Shein, while the EU works out a permanent solution.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Oversight Board is demanding Meta take down an “AI-generated sexualized video” of a woman on Instagram.

Meta said it didn’t have indicators of the post being nonconsensual, but in addition to arguing that was incorrect, the board says Meta should determine that “AI-generated impersonation is non-consensual by default.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
These colors exist, but not on most screens.

If you’ve ever wondered why colors look different in digital photographs compared to the real world, then boy do I have a fun deep-dive for you. Read this article to find out why green traffic lights aren’t really green, and why it’s “totally implausible” for a T-Rex’s vision to be based on movement.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Meta pauses employee tracking tool after internal leak.

Screenshots seen by Business Insider showed that data from Meta’s controversial AI training program — including employees’ private conversations, performance data, and transcriptions — could be accessed across the entire company. In a statement to the publication, Meta said:

“We have carefully designed this program with privacy safeguards, and while we have no indication at this time that any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees, we’re pausing it while we investigate.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
What Is A Photo: souvenir edition.

Yup, that about sums up where we are right now in the world of AI editing tools and content authenticity.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Oracle cut 21,000 jobs because of AI.

That’s a workforce reduction of about 13 percent over the last 12 months, according to a disclosure filed Monday. And Oracle is hardly alone in at least partially attributing the cuts to AI advancements:

Worries are quickly mounting over job losses due to AI disruption, as 196 ‌tech ⁠companies laid off more than 119,800 employees so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi.

Amflow’s TL e-bike is ready for baby’s first mountain adventureAmflow’s TL e-bike is ready for baby’s first mountain adventure

The DJI spinoff is back with an all-terrain utility bike for weekend play and daily commutes.

Thomas Ricker
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Sakana Fugu Ultra promises to deliver “the very best frontier-level performance” by... using frontier AI models.

Japanese AI startup Sakana has posted benchmark results and beta tester impressions saying that its Fugu models compare favorably with or beat the likes of Fable 5, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and GPT-5.5.

The company says Fugu carefully chooses when to use other frontier AI models like Claude and Gemini on specific tasks, although it doesn’t tell users which model was used for what. “Over time, Sakana Fugu will naturally grow by incorporating newer, more efficient models, including our own.”

Grid of AI benchmarks comparing Sakana’s Fugu AI to other models
Image: Sakana
Mia Sato
Mia Sato
Those DoorDash and T-Pain World Cup tweets were a “partnership.”

Over the weekend, the DoorDash X account posted repeatedly about the World Cup, but instead of tagging New Zealand soccer player Tim Payne, the account tagged musician T-Pain — who responded accordingly. The posts had no indication that they were an ad (as the Federal Trade Commission requires).

I asked DoorDash if this was a coordinated effort and whether T-Pain was paid for his posts. Head of social Zaria Parvez said in an email that the company noticed Payne was a fan favorite and happened to share a nearly identical name with T-Pain. “So, in partnership with T-Pain, we executed a fun campaign to connect fans from around the world and remind people that DoorDash has whatever they need throughout the World Cup.”

Nvidia says its AI data center design runs hotter to use a lot less waterNvidia says its AI data center design runs hotter to use a lot less water

By switching to 100 percent liquid cooling and running servers hotter, Nvidia claims it can cut water use to “near zero.”

Stevie Bonifield
John Higgins
John Higgins
Amazon’s updated Fire TV OS is now available on all current-gen Fire TV sticks.

The redesign, which is a huge improvement, was announced at CES this past January and has been slowly rolling out across devices. It’s now on Ember TVs, the Fire TV 4K Select, and Fire TV Cube. Partner TVs from Hisense recently got the update, with additional manufacturers’ TVs being added later this summer.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
A judge has formally set aside the entry of default against Apple leaker Jon Prosser.

That entry of default had indicated that Prosser hadn’t responded to Apple’s lawsuit against him. But Prosser’s (recently obtained) counsel and Apple’s counsel asked for the judge in the case to set it aside, which he did.

Prosser now has 10 days to respond to Apple’s complaint.

Valve describes just how brutal RAM negotiations are in 2026Valve describes just how brutal RAM negotiations are in 2026

‘If we say no, then they never talk to us again.’

Jay Peters
AI is cursing renters with the promise of impossible homesAI is cursing renters with the promise of impossible homes

“Virtual staging” might be able to cram a six-seater dining table into a studio apartment, but tenants can’t.

Gaby Del Valle
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
SpaceX is leasing AI compute to Reflection, too.

The open-source AI startup has a deal through 2029, similar to Anthropic and Google, to rent compute capacity from SpaceX’s Colossus 2 data center for $150 million per month (up to $6.3 billion), reports the Wall Street Journal.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Meet Artificial Friend Jenna Ortega in this trailer for Klara and the Sun.

One way that Sony Pictures’ Klara and the Sun (due in theaters on October 23rd) sticks out among the crowded field of dystopian AI companion flicks is that it’s an adaptation of a book from Never Let Me Go author Kazuo Ishiguro. Waititi is writing the screenplay and directing, with a cast including Natasha Lyonne, Amy Adams, and Steve Buscemi.

David Pierce
David Pierce
Today’s Vergecast: Is the Steam Machine worth the wait?

Valve has been trying to crack the living room for more than a decade, and the new Steam Machine is its best attempt yet. It’s a little bit PC, a little bit console, and a lot pricy — starting at $1,049, it had a lot to live up to. The Verge’s Sean Hollister has been testing the device, and shares his findings on whether the Steam Machine can hang with PlayStation and Xbox. He also explains why, despite a never-ending list of challenges, Valve is still trying to make this device work.

The Steam Machine is the start of an even more expensive future for game consolesThe Steam Machine is the start of an even more expensive future for game consoles

Valve’s living room PC isn’t cheap, which doesn’t bode well for the next Xbox and PlayStation.

Andrew Webster
The Apple Watch SE 3 is just $199 for Prime DayThe Apple Watch SE 3 is just $199 for Prime Day

The SE 3 was a massive upgrade, and now it’s at an all-time low price.

Victoria Song
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Here’s roughly how much Valve originally wanted Steam Machine to cost:

According to Aftermath’s Chris Person, Valve pointed to the Steam Deck’s recent price increase as an indicator. Following those changes, the PC handheld costs $789 for the 512GB version and $949 for the 1TB version. The Steam Machine, on the other hand, starts at $1,049.

Google invests in A24 to build AI movie toolsGoogle invests in A24 to build AI movie tools

The AI ‘research partnership’ aims to bridge the gap ‘between cutting-edge technology and next generation entertainment.’

Jess Weatherbed
Valve is working with AMD to bring FSR 4 to the Steam MachineValve is working with AMD to bring FSR 4 to the Steam Machine

That’s good news because the $1,049 console could use a boost to make games look much better than the six-year-old PS5.

Cameron Faulkner
Here’s how you can reserve a Steam MachineHere’s how you can reserve a Steam Machine

Valve’s unique preorder process requires you to sign up in advance to enter a lottery for reserving each configuration.

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

Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais says his team is “collaborating with Nvidia very closely” on SteamOS support for Nvidia hardware.

Stevie Bonifield
Valve explains why it isn’t subsidizing the Steam MachineValve explains why it isn’t subsidizing the Steam Machine

‘It doesn’t align with our beliefs about how healthy ecosystems are built.’

Jay Peters
Valve prices the Steam Machine at $1,049Valve prices the Steam Machine at $1,049

You can register your interest starting today, and the first emails letting people buy one will go out on June 29th.

Jay Peters
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