Welcome to Episode 252 of Tech Rant.
This week Jay and Karl dive into one of the busiest weeks in gaming and technology. Valve appears to be gearing up for new VR hardware while finally bringing Steam Machine back to life, Rockstar finally puts a price on Grand Theft Auto VI, and a teardown of the Trump Phone raises questions about its origins.
Elsewhere, Fox makes a huge move into streaming with its acquisition of Roku, SpaceX expands into AI development with the reported purchase of Cursor, Anthropic faces legal scrutiny over Claude Max, and Apple finds itself under investigation in Italy over its iCloud services.
News
- Valve just imported 13 tons of VR headsets in one day
New shipping records suggest Valve is preparing for a major VR hardware launch. - Steam Machine is here, starts at $1,049 with 512 GB and 2 TB models
Valve returns to the living room PC market with a premium gaming console built around SteamOS. - GTA VI finally gets a price tag
Rockstar confirms pricing for one of the most anticipated games ever released. - Teardown finds that the Trump Phone is practically the same as an HTC handset
A hardware teardown suggests the device may be a rebadged smartphone rather than an entirely new design. - Fox is buying Roku for $22B to become the third-largest TV player in the US
The acquisition reshapes the US streaming and connected TV landscape. - SpaceX purchases Cursor, a Claude Code and OpenAI Codex competitor
Elon Musk's space company makes an unexpected move into AI developer tools. - Anthropic hit with lawsuit over its Claude Max usage limits
Anthropic faces legal action over how its premium AI subscription service is marketed. - Italy is probing Apple over iCloud services like iPhone backups
Italian regulators are investigating Apple's cloud services over potential competition concerns.
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