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Valve Steam Machine has finally made its way into the hands of the press. And alongside the first wave of reviews, we now know the PC console hybrid's price. We also know that it can't derinkle your clothes, which is a feature I look for in my Steam machine. I'm James Strive. This is TechLink, and unfortunately, the Steam Machine costs more than we had hoped. It starts at $1,49 for the 512 GB model, while the 2 TB version comes in at $13.49 with both configurations costing $79 more if you want a damn Steam controller to COME WITH IT. DAMN The machine releases June 30th with pre-orders beginning June 25th. However,
Valve is using a pre-order raffle system where users sign up before orders open and are chosen at random to actually complete their purchase. Valve itself admits the Gabe Cube costs significantly more than originally envisioned. Yeah, duh. And that launch supply is lower than expected. That stings even more when performance comparisons suggest a system delivering roughly PS5 class gaming at nearly twice the price and also years in the future from when that came out. James, deep breaths. It's this is just, you know, you were the chosen one kind of moment. Yeah. Ultimately, the critical consensus seems to be that this is a pricey QB. Still, with Steam OS central to the console-like PC's identity, it looks
good for PC gamers trying to quit using Windows. Steam might be offering the nicotine patch of operating systems here for over $1,000, but maybe not. Valve has confirmed that starting with the Steam OS 3.8 release, it will let users build their own Steam Machine style desktops with more supported PC parts than ever before. Steam OS can already be installed on your hardware today, but it continues to get updates that improve its compatibility, and apparently support for Nvidia GPUs is in the works. Some of you may have heard of them. Meanwhile, on the performance side of things, while we knew AMD's FSR4 upscaling was coming to a wider range of RDNA GPUs, apparently it's already being tested for the Steam Machine ahead of the Cub's
launch. Of course, FSR support would likely mean a significant boost to the machine's image quality and frame rates. If you need more silver linings in the disappointing Steam Machine pricing news playbook, a developer has demoed the Steam Controller's rumble motors being used to scoot the controller across the desk like a little RC car. So, if you get the Steam Machine bundled with a controller, huh? Double the fun. Worth it. Great value. Now, spend $400 extra on Nintendo or this vibrate this. The Pew Research Center just published a study showing that AI adoption has hit an all-time high, while sentiment around the technology has hit an all-time low.
Why? The study found that half of US adults now use AI chatbots, which is up from just one/3 in 2024. And who can blame them when AI is increasingly baiting people's feeds as shown in another study by Capwing. Evidently, almost 60% of the Tik Tok videos shown to new users are AI slop with certain categories like kids cartoons being way worse offenders at 97%. But who cares about kids? Capwing also noted that feed sloppation gets worse the further you scroll. They lull you into a sense of safety with makeup tutorials and looks maxing content. And once your brain is fully cooked, they drown you in Fruit Love Island and you'll love it.
Even Microsoft Sati Nadella, much like a bag of trash, demonstrating how much beauty there is in the world, has detected that the winds have shifted on public perception of this tech, voicing his concerns on the dangers of AI monopolies. Luckily, you don't need to be concerned about our sponsor, MicroEnter. June is MicroEnter's laptop savings event. So, you better go check out the amazing laptop pricing they got going on. You can save 900 buckaronis on this HP Slim 16 incher that comes with a 5070 and 32 gigs of DDR5 RAM. That's a lot of savings, but that's not all the cool news I've got. Austin, Texas. Not only are all the Californians moving into your city, but so is MicroEnter.
Sign up for a free 128 gig flash drive at the link below and redeem it when the store opens later this year. Meanwhile, Columbus, Ohio, birthplace of Guy Fiery, your microenter is getting a big old remodel and you can also sign up for a free 128 gig flash drive. There, everybody's getting flash drives. Even your mom, tell her to sign up and tell her to also stay up to date on all things MicroEnter and techreated using MicroEnter news. Check out all of that stuff I talked about at the links in the description. The Quickbits don't care about wrinkled shirts. As soon as they get going, their clothes fly right off anyway. That's right, we're recconing things. The Canon is updated. Quickbits
are nudists. Microsoft's most recent patch Tuesday update has evidently caused a ton of problems. And in equally unsurprising news, water is wet. One thing that's unique about this patch Tuesday is that the bugs have impacted all supported Windows versions, not just the masochists who upgraded to Windows 11. Users have reported Bit Locker lockouts, Microsoft Office apps crashing, and files in the recycle bin displaying incorrect names. Much like my college RA said after our dorm was fumigated, then condemned. It seems that some of those bugs were loadbearing. What the is happening?
I went to a bad university. Okay. Chrome is testing an Ask Gemini button that pops up whenever you highlight any text in the browser. The feature, which is currently only in Chrome's experimental Canary build, is meant to make asking Gemini about whatever you're reading easier by automatically opening the Gemini side panel and starting an AI chat. Finally eliminating the cumbersome task of copying and pasting text. Unsurprisingly, people hate it as much as every other helpful widget that gets between them and their work. A lesson the tech industry seems to have consistently refused to learn all the way back to Clippy. Shiny Hunters, the
prolific hacking group, just leaked 45 gigabytes of surveillance data collected by James Dolan, prolific creep and owner of Madison Square Garden. The database of surveillance data includes facial recognition data tied to personal records for 26 million MSG visitors, including their names, addresses, credit scores, and social security numbers. The dump came after Dolan refused to pay Shiny Hunter's ransom. And unfortunately for him, that's triggered a $5 million class action lawsuit accusing MSG of negligence. But fortunately for him, he pisses $5 million. Who cares? Google is investing $75 million clams into film studio A24 to build AI film making tools through Google's AI research division,
DeepMind. Apparently, they're aiming to plug generative AI into production workflows rather than replace filmmakers. The company stressed that the deal is about collaboration and tools, not giving Google access to A24's content for training its own AI models. You're going to have to find your own backroom slop somewhere else, though. Backroom slop seems kind of like something you don't want to Google. You better not ruin A24, Google. And China's Ministry of State Security has accused foreign intelligence agencies of using spy turtles and spy fish to steal sensitive marine data, claiming in a post on WeChat that an unseen covert war of espionage is quietly unfolding beneath the surface.
I love spy turtles. While this sounds like the plot of a straight to DVD National Treasure sequel that I bought at a gas station in Minneapolis in 2007, it might not be as crazy as it sounds. Evidently, there's a pattern of espionage agencies using similar tactics, like in 2023 when Russia used spy dolphins to counter enemy divers in Crimea. Or in 2019 when a beluga was caught collecting intel off the coast of Norway, or in 2003 when a young adventurous clownfish stole the hearts of children all over the world. Oh, come on. A beluga. Like, I'll steal your heart if you don't come back here on Wednesday for more tech news. Now, I have to steam some of my shirts. And I am also tired of standing here looking at naked quick
bits prancing around. Cover your ass, quick bits. No one wants to see your backroom slop.
