In this episode, Chris Cochrane dives into Apple's $599 MacBook Neo - the cheapest Mac laptop ever made - and whether it spells trouble for Chromebook makers. He also covers Samsung's CEO blaming AI for rising phone prices, Framework raising RAM prices for the third time in three months, Meta unveiling four custom AI chips, NVIDIA's GTC 2026 conference preview, a billion-dollar bet against large language models, Microsoft's game-changing Project Helix Xbox with native Steam support, Windows 11's new Xbox Mode, and SpaceX gearing up for a critical Starship Flight 12 test.
In episode 1853 of Geek News Central, Chris speaks about Apple’s pricey new iPhone Pocket accessory, questioning its usefulness and reacting to the internet’s mockery of the product. Chris then shifts gears to tech and gaming, highlighting Steam’s new Steam Machine as a potentially game-changing console-PC hybrid, and wraps up by criticizing Amazon’s failed attempt at AI-generated anime dubbing, arguing that voice acting still needs a human touch.
Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game, according to a notice spotted by Engadget reported. It looks like an attempt by the company together ahead of a new California law coming next year that forces companies to admit that buyers don’t
Valve has made an update to its “What You Shouldn’t Publish on Steam” list. That list includes things that one would hope game creators would know better than to publish in a game. It makes sense for Valve to spell things out very clearly, in order to avoid problems. A new addition to the list disallows “Applications built on blockchain
Steam announced that they have released the new Steam chat features available to all users. Those features have been in beta since June 12, 2018. The new features include an all-new friends list, chat, and voice chat. The friends list has become more organized and flexible. It includes the following: Favorites: Keep your favorite friends, groups, and chats right at the top
Valve posted a blog titled “Who Gets To Be On The Steam Store?” The short answer appears to be: everyone. Steam has decided to opt-out of making decisions about whether or not a specific game should be removed from the Steam Store – except for things they “decide are illegal, or straight up trolling.” In the blog post, Valve says:
Steam Spy announced that it will be shutting down. This decision comes as a result of Steam's new Profile Privacy Settings. The result is that Steam Spy will no longer be able to obtain the information it needs to keep going. Ars Techinca reported that Steam Spy was a sales-estimate service, born from an Ars data project. The service launched