Valve’s Steam Machine is finally here! But while it lives up to much of the hype, its high price makes us wonder who it’s really for. In this episode, Senior Writer Jessica Conditt joins to talk about her experience with the Steam Machine and how it compares to consoles (which have also gotten very expensive). Also, we discuss Sony’s bombshell announcement about killing physical PlayStation discs in 2028 and Xbox’s confusing array of layoffs.

Topics

• The base price for the Steam Machine is $1,049, who’s interested at that amount? – 1:09
• Sony is giving up on physical discs come 2028 – 23:08 
• Xbox layoffs could cut Arkane, Double Fine, and other marquee studios – 32:02
• A slow drip of news on Apple’s touchscreen laptop, the MacBook Ultra, is leaking – 45:24
• Cherlynn Low’s hands-on with the new Meta Glasses – 47:07 
• Pop culture picks – 52:09

With SpaceX planning to go public on June 12th, we brought on Slate’s Nitish Pahwa to dive into what it all means. How can an unprofitable company justify an IPO, and what does it plan to do with all that money? And how can we square the tech and finance world’s excitement over this IPO when Elon Musk spent this week inciting the Belfast race riots?

SpaceX may have the largest IPO ever, how will it change the tech investment landscape? – 1:13

A few stray thoughts on WWDC 2026 – 38:33 

Meta silently adds, then deletes facial recognition code from its smart glasses – 44:08

Anthropic’s Fable AI brings Mythos’ coding power to consumers – 45:47 

Around Engadget: Rivian R2 first drive and a review of the Logitech Mobi Fold – 51:50

Pop culture picks – 52:20

Executive editor Cherlynn Low is joined by Yahoo Finance tech editor Daniel Howley, Wirecutter senior staff writer Brenda Stolyar and Judner Aura (also known as uravgconsumer) on this special episode of the Engadget Podcast. The four talk about what really mattered at WWDC 2026, the delayed gratification of Siri AI as well as what it all means for Tim Cook's legacy.

In this bonus episode, Devindra and Nathan Ingraham recap all of the major announcements from Apple's WWDC keynote. Siri AI was the star of the show, of course, and we chat about how it differs from all of the other AI tools out there. Also, we dive into Apple's progress around child safety, as well as speed improvements coming to all of its platforms.

Between Computex and Microsoft Build, it’s been a pretty busy week. In this episode, Senior Editor Daniel Cooper joins to discuss NVIDIA’s new RTX Spark chip, which will power a new generation of Windows laptop. Is it really a big deal for the PC world, or yet another bit of overhyped AI fluff from NVIDIA? Get ready for some serious chip talk.

NVIDIA RTX Spark could be Windows’ M1 moment – 1:04

Microsoft Build highlights: Project Solara is likely a vaporware AI agent platform and an AI wearable that doubles as your employee badge – 40:50 

Google’s data center water replenishment pledge sure does seem like a response to Microsoft’s promises at Build – 48:14

Working on – 52:19 

Pop culture picks – 55:07

This week, Cherlynn dives into her review of the new screen-less FitbIt Air, Google's new wearable meant to take on Whoop's popular bands. Also, we dive into Pope Leo's first Encyclical, which is focused on reining in AI and Big Tech's dominance and prioritizing humanity instead. We also chat with "Padre" Fr. Robert Ballecer, who's seen the Encyclical and the ideas around it take shape for years at the Vatican.

Cherlynn’s Fitbit Air Review: health tracking for the AI generation with a form that competes with Whoop – 1:31 

Pope Leo criticizes AI in his first Encyclical – 26:45

We asked Jesuit Priest (and huge techie) Father Robert Ballecer to break down Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence – 38:38

Steam Deck price goes up by $300 (almost 50%) for the 1TB model – 54:50 

Trump Mobile finally releases phones, immediately leaks customer data – 1:01:10 

Meta has paid tiers for Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp Now – 1:05:48 

Around Engadget – 1:09:39 

Working on – 1:11:11 

Pop culture picks – 1:11:29 

It’s a good weekend to think about buying a new TV! In this episode, Devindra is joined by Dipin Sehdev, the founder of CECritic, to discuss the new RGB TVs and how they compare to OLED, the previous high-end TV technology of choice. Is RGB tech actually worth the premium, especially when OLED TVs have come way down in price? We also offer up a few tips for choosing the best TV today.

RGB gets added to the TV alphabet soup, Dipin Sehdev from CECritic explains where it sits in the landscape – 1:10  

Elon Musk loses OpenAI lawsuit, plus he owes a lot of xAI employees $420 for their tax returns – 30:50 

SpaceX IPO date set for June 12 – 35:02 

Alexa+ now makes “”podcasts”” – 37:26 

Firefox lets you turn off all AI features with one tap on mobile – 41:32

Around Engadget – 49:06

Working on – 50:41 

Pop culture picks – 50:51

In this bonus episode, Devindra and Executive Editor Cherlynn Low break down all of the major news from Google's I/O 2026 developer conference. And yes, you guessed it, it's pretty much all about AI. We dive into the new Gemini Omni model, the massive AI integration with Google Search, the usefulness of agentic personal assistants like Spark and our impressions of the first Android XR glasses.

As usual, Google delivered much of its consumer-focused news this week during the Android Show, ahead of its I/O developer conference next week. We've gotten a closer look at Android 17, which will sport a slew of new Gemini AI integrations, including some new agentic upgrades. The company also officially announced Googlebooks, its latest line of laptops built around AI features and Android interoperability. It looks like a major evolution on the concept of Chromebooks, though Google says those won't be going anywhere. 

What’s new at The Android Show: Googlebooks, Gemini Intelligence, and file sharing with iOS – 1:25

eBay rejects Gamestop’s offer as “not credible or attractive” – 32:18 

U.S. cell carriers form a joint venture to fix service dead spots – 33:41 

OpenAI sued by spouse of FSU shooting victim, who used ChatGPT to plan shooting spree – 38:44

Apple is making the iOS Camera app more customizable – 44:06 

RIP Rufus, we hardly knew ye: Amazon dubs Alexa its new shopping assistant – 44:58

Around Engadget – 47:14 

Working on – 49:26 

Pop culture picks – 51:15

Can a meme stock buy a real company? This week, Gamestop proposed a $56 billion takeover of eBay, despite seemingly not being able to afford such a deal. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget's Daniel Cooper discuss what the heck is going on (and why this deal most likely won't happen). Also, Dan chats about his review of the reMarkable Paper Pure, the company's latest stab at a relatively affordable e-paper tablet.

Gamestop submits an unsolicited $56 billion offer to buy eBay. How serious are they? – 1:33

Dan Cooper’s reMarkable Paper Pure review: beautiful, but missing a few crucial features – 21:15 

Fitbit’s Air band takes aim at Whoop for no-screen fitness tracker dominance – 39:49 

Apple ordered to pay $250M to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 users over smarter Siri misfire – 40:33  

Anthropic makes a deal with SpaceX’s mega-polluting Memphis data center to increase Claude rate limit – 44:05 

Pornhub unblocks UK users who verify ID with Apple – 46:51

Starfox 64 remake coming to the Switch 2 – 50:42 

Working on – 52:28 

Pop culture picks – 53:06

We're still waiting for Valve's Steam Machine to arrive, but until then, the company has finally given us a full look at its new Steam Controller. At $100, it sure is steep, but it looks like a solid way to enjoy games on Steam. In this episode, Engadget's Jessica Conditt joins to chat about her experience with the Steam Controller, and where Valve could be going next with the Steam Machine. And we'll also take some time to chat about the games we're currently playing.