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Valve Steam Frame review

Part Steam Deck, part VR headset and, yes, it plays Half-Life Alyx. Here’s everything I’ve discovered so far.

Read more about the Valve Steam and the latest gaming news:
Xbox Game Pass imposes strict monthly hour limits on cloud gaming
Valve suffers massive 12TB leak, revealing a decade of Steam game files
Valve's Steam Machine officially has a price, and it's a doozy

Timecode chapters
00:00 Valve Steam frame
00:33 A portable Steam Deck for your face
00:57 Design
01:17 Ergonomic pack
01:47 A challenge for glasses wearers
02:19 Viewing experience
03:09 Foveated streaming
03:41 Standalone features
04:11 VR and processor
05:11 Half-Life: Alyx
05:54 Controller covered in sensors
06:43 Pass-through cameras
07:28 Modular design
08:00 Linux and customizability
08:18 Not all games will work
08:50 How is it as a Steam Deck
10:13 Early products and valve
11:00 Expect more later
11:26 The future of VR, headsets and the Steam Frame

Video credits
Host: Scott Stein
Scripted by: Scott Stein
Producer: Numi Prasarn
Camera: Numi Prasarn
Video editor: Mitch Chang
Thumbnail designer: Cole Kan



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aerial view of Golden Gate Bridge during foggy weather

Apple officially released macOS 27 Golden Gate on Sept. 14, and the operating system update finally brings the new Siri AI experience to Mac devices.

Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate at WWDC in June, and the developer beta has been available for months. So, while the new OS doesn't come with any huge surprises, it does bring users upgrades both large and small.

If you have a Mac device that supports the new macOS and Siri AI, then here are the top features we'd recommend trying after you update.

Siri AI

siri ai writing suggestions on macos 27 golden gate
Credit: Apple

We have to start with the headline news: You can finally try the new and improved Siri AI, powered by Google Gemini. Apple explained how the new Siri will work at WWDC, and the company has emphasized that its new cloud-based private cloud compute platform will provide high levels of privacy.

Siri now comes in a standalone app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, and the smart assistant will be integrated across the user experience.

The new Siri can:

  • Generate text, make writing and editing suggestions, and write and send emails

  • Analyze what your camera sees to identify objects or provide context using visual intelligence

  • Answer questions or take action based on the user’s screen using on-screen awareness

  • Access a wide range of apps to find information, take action, and answer user questions

  • Remember your conversations and prompts in the new dedicated Siri app

Users can also customize Siri's voice to be more expressive and can change the pitch, tone, and pacing of the assistant's voice.

siri voice customization on iphone
Change the Siri voice's pitch, speed, tone, and accent. Credit: Apple
siri actions in various apps
Siri can now take actions across a wide range of apps Credit: Apple

New photo editing tools, including Spatial Reframing

Spatial Reframing is one of the cooler new AI tools revealed at WWDC. This tool allows users to adjust the angle of photos after they've been taken. It's just one of the new AI photo editing capabilities that arrive with macOS 27.

In the Photos app, users can also clean up and extend photos in new ways.

ai photo editing tools on macos 27
Credit: Apple

New child safety and parental controls

Do any kids or teenagers in your house use a Mac, or maybe a MacBook Neo? Apple has added new parental controls to macOS 27 Golden Gate.

parental controls in macos 27
Credit: Apple

For example, by going to "Family" in the "Settings" menu, parents can now set a screen-time schedule. And to help make informed decisions, parents can also access a quick view of their kids’ average device usage and the top apps they use.

Parents can also get automatic messages when their kids want to access a new website via a new tool called Ask to Browse.

Learn more at Apple's parent safety website.

Group tabs in Safari

group of tabs in safari
Credit: Apple

Are you the type of person who always has about 30 different tabs going at once? Now, there's a better way to organize all those tabs.

You can now organize your tabs into groups such as "Vacation planning" or "Work stuff."

Describe a Shortcut

Shortcuts is probably one of the most underappreciated Apple software tools. Using a Shortcut, you can automate certain workflows and actions. For example, you can set up a shortcut that automatically edits and resizes photos once they're added to a specific folder.

The reason Shortcuts are underutilized? They're tricky to set up if you're not a tech person. However, now you can let Siri AI and macOS set up the shortcut for you with Describe a Shortcut. Simply describe the kind of Shortcut you have in mind, and let the OS do the rest.

An improved Maps experience

According to Apple, you'll be able to see even more details and information in Maps. For example, "Flyover now uses aerial imagery combined with Visual Intelligence models to render everything from architectural fixtures to the shapes of individual trees in stunning, sharp detail."

General system improvements

visual intelligence in macos 27
Visual Intelligence with Siri AI in macOS 27 Golden Gate Credit: Apple

This one's a bit tricky to appreciate right away, but all new operating systems bring little refinements and improvements to the overall user experience — at least, in theory. Apple promises that macOS 27 Golden Gate will provide users with faster AirDrop transfers, faster file browsing, and faster loading times for apps and websites.

Refinements to Liquid Glass should also fix some of the visibility problems that sometimes occurred in iOS 26 and macOS 26.

Future updates coming to macOS 27

Apple has also announced some features that will be released in later versions of the OS, such as:

  • Suggestions: Messages and Mail will soon offer suggestions to take quick actions based on context clues, such as attaching a photo or pulling in flight information.

  • Fix passwords with a click: "The Passwords app alerts you to weak or compromised passwords and can update them on your behalf without the hassle."

What devices support macOS 27?

Apple says macOS 27 Golden Gate is available for the following devices:

  • MacBook Neo (2026)

  • MacBook Air with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

  • MacBook Pro with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

  • iMac with Apple silicon (2021 and later)

  • Mac mini with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

  • Mac Studio (2022 and later)

  • Mac Pro with Apple silicon (2023)

Preorder the new Apple products

Along with iOS 27, Apple also released new AirPods, Apple Watches, and iPhones. Except for the iPhone Duo, all of these devices are available for preorder now.

Apple AirPods 5 earbuds
Apple AirPods 5 earbuds
$129 at Amazon
 
apple watch series 12 in black
Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB
Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB
Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
 
iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB
iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB
Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
 


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Victoria Hinks holds a locket with a picture of her 16-year old daughter Alexandra,

Meta's $17 billion settlement is a fence around a mile-deep hole at a playground. Fewer kids fall in on the way to the swings, but the hole is still there.

Full wins are rare in the fight for online child safety. What families mostly get are half-wins like a settlement instead of a verdict, a design mandate not turned on by default, or a check that is a rounding error relative to a company's annual revenue. Half-wins are still worth having. But they carry a cost that clean victories don't: because a half-win is contestable, advocates don't get to just win it. They have to keep re-arguing that it counts, in public, indefinitely, using the same personal cost that got them into the fight in the first place.

I watched that cost get paid in real-time outside the federal courthouse in Oakland when survivor parents — Lori Schott, Shannon Heacock, Erin Popolo, Julianna Arnold, Mary Rodee, Victoria Hinks, Paul Hinks — stood in front of a wall of cameras and talked about the worst moment of their lives, again, for an audience that will mostly remember a 10-second clip and a dollar figure. Joining them were young people who didn't have to be there, standing beside them in solidarity.

SEE ALSO: Is Meta finally backing a federal kids safety bill, or is it all PR?

None of that shows up in a settlement figure. It's not a line item. It's not even really visible in most coverage of the case, because the story is "Meta settles," not "here is what it takes to make Meta settle."

I grew up in front of cameras, and I know the instinct they train into you: get small, get careful, hand over the version of yourself that's easiest to broadcast. What that experience taught me is that visibility is not a neutral cost. Every time a parent goes back on camera to describe how their kid died, or a young survivor stands in a plaza holding a photo instead of being anywhere else, they're paying something the settlement itself will never account for.

Meta's $17 billion figure has line items for age-assurance systems and independent auditors. It has no line item for what it costs a parent to relive their child's death on a stranger's studio couch, but they do it anyway because that's what it takes to get airtime.

It's why these types of wins are exhausting. A settlement requires the people who fought for it to keep proving, publicly, that it was worth fighting for. If we're serious about accountability, the fix isn't asking survivor parents to keep showing up to press conferences until Meta gets embarrassed enough to throw better-looking Band-Aids at the problem. It's changing the business model in the first place to ensure these companies are required to fix what took these kids too soon: a business structure that relies on addictive features.

SEE ALSO: Lawsuits allege ChatGPT use led to suicide, psychosis

In California, AB 1709, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 10, does that by making these companies stop deploying addictive features to users under 16. Not a content ban, but a design restriction. A platform can keep operating exactly as it does now for everyone else, but it doesn't get to hand a 12-year-old the same engagement-optimized product it hands an adult.

AB 2, also authored by Lowenthal, makes large platforms liable for real money — up to $1 million per child, or three times actual damages — when ordinary negligence in the design of the product injures a minor. That's not a number Meta can negotiate down to a lump sum once and move on from, the way it did with this settlement. It scales with every child harmed, case by case, indefinitely — which is exactly the kind of exposure a company can't absorb as a cost of doing business, because there's no ceiling on it to absorb.

Together, these bills do what a $17 billion settlement can't: they change the incentive before the harm happens, instead of paying for it after the fact.

That's the difference between managing a story and fixing a product. A settlement is Meta agreeing, after years of litigation, to adjust some defaults under supervision it can eventually age out of — a 10-year consent decree that ends, after which Meta negotiates the next one from scratch. AB 1709 doesn't ask Meta to behave better under supervision that expires. It removes the option to keep operating the way it currently does and call it compliance, permanently, the same way any other law stays on the books after the fight to pass it is over. The parents testifying in Sacramento are doing the same kind of labor they did outside that courthouse, but they're doing it once, for a law that outlives the news cycle, instead of doing it every time a consent decree comes up for renewal.

SEE ALSO: 5 of the biggest changes coming to Instagram, Facebook

While those parents were in Sacramento testifying about their kids, Meta's lobbyists were in a different room asking for a way out. Politico reported that Meta approached Senate Judiciary Chair Tom Umberg with draft language that would let platforms apply for an exemption from AB 2 entirely. Meta spent $4.6 million lobbying Sacramento last year, more than any year since it started lobbying the state in 2010, and launched a new political committee to back candidates who favor lighter tech regulation. So the next time you see Meta's PR machine discussing how much they want to show up for parents, remember: they spent a lot trying to shut those same parents up in state legislatures.

The fence is up. The hole is still there. And the people who keep pointing at the hole, publicly, at their own expense, deserve better than another way for Meta to fool the masses while it keeps deploying the same business model that brought these parents to their child's gravesite instead of their high school graduation.

This article represents the opinions of its author.

Lennon Torres is a former Dance Moms performer now fighting for young people’s safety online. A trans activist and University of Southern California alum, she uses her pop‑culture fluency and lived experience to power her work at the Heat Initiative, taking on tech giants and demanding platforms to protect and empower the next generation.



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iOS 27 logo

iOS 27 is here! The newest iPhone operating system has just been rolled out by Apple today.

Here are a few of the must-try features that you should check out as soon as your iPhone is finished updating to the new OS.

Siri AI

This is the big one. Apple has completely reimagined its voice assistant Siri as a full-fledged AI assistant.

Siri AI can now perform tasks and answer questions just like other AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. But, of course, Siri AI is integrated directly into the iOS experience. Siri AI even has its very own app now.

The new Siri AI can take actions across a wide variety of apps, such as a user's email, phone, photos, and Shortcuts. Siri AI can even create a new Shortcut based on a simple description. Users simply vocalize the workflow they want to automate in plain English, and Siri AI will take over and set the whole thing up.

So, be sure to check out Siri AI both via the standalone app (and the custom voice controls) to see what the brand new Siri can do.

siri ai custom voice options
Change Siri's voice speed, pitch, tone, and accent. Credit: Apple

Weather app updates

The Weather app has some big new updates in iOS 27 to take a look at.

There are new tabs for the day's weather that provide users with information about conditions, precipitation, and Wind. Each tab will provide more in-depth details about the current day's temperature, rain or snow, and the wind conditions over the next few hours.

There's also a new Highlights feature in the Weather app that provides users with a written summary of what to expect weather-wise throughout the day.

AirPods custom EQ

custom eq settings in ios 27 with airpods
Credit: Apple

Surprisingly, AirPods have been missing custom EQ settings, a standard feature for most headphones and earbuds. Well, no longer.

iOS 27 adds a three-band equalizer to the AirPods settings screen, allowing users to control the audio frequency spectrum of their earbuds. 

Users can adjust EQ in real-time, changing how they hear the bassy lows, vocal mids, treble detail in the highs, and more.

Other headphones have this capability and Apple previously allowed AirPods users to customize EQ within Apple Music. Now, however, AIrPods owners can have this greater audio control regardless of where they listen to their music.

Liquid Glass updates

new liquid glass slider in ios 27
Credit: Apple

If you had some problems with the way Apple's new Liquid Glass design for iPhone looked, you may want to go directly to this new feature.

Apple has updated the Liquid Glass design with "more uniform refraction and improved contrast." The iPhone-maker has even added controls in the form of a new slider that allows users to change just how clear or tinted the Liquid Glass design appears.

Disable the dictation button in Messages

This is another fix to an issue that has long-annoyed some iPhone users.

There's a dictation button next to the text box in Messages. That dictation button becomes the "Send" button when you've already typed out some text in your message. However, the placement of both buttons makes for some accidental taps, which sometimes activate the dictation feature when it isn't wanted. 

Now, in iOS 27, users can change that in the iPhone settings. Simply open the Settings app, select Apps, then Messages, followed by the new Show Text in Field option. Users can pick if there's a Record Audio button, Start Dictation button, or no button at all in that spot. The Send button will obviously still appear as normal after a user starts typing.

Bill splitting

If you're tired of trying to figure out the math of who pays what when going out for a meal with friends, this new iOS 27 feature is a must-try.

Using Apple Wallet or the Messages app, simply point your iPhone camera at a receipt, iOS 27's new bill splitting feature will read the information and then provide an itemized list on your iPhone. From there, you can pick which items you're paying for and then use Apple Cash to just pay for what they ordered. The bill-splitting feature even adds the relevant tax and tip portion as users select what items they are paying for.

Photo app updates

By now, you've probably heard about the big iOS 27 updates to the Photos app. Clean Up, Extend, and Spatial Reframing utilize generative AI in order to completely transform your photos, remove unwanted objects, and change angles and perspectives.

But there are other lesser talked about new features to check out too.

For example, iPhone users can now share albums with their friends who own Android and Windows phones with the new iOS 27. In addition, users can now select stills from videos and save them as standalone pictures instead of having to take screenshots.

iPhone Handoff

This is probably the most undercovered feature, especially if you're someone who can't choose between your classic iPhone or the new foldable iPhone Duo.

iPhone Handoff lets you have both.

With iOS 27's new iPhone Handoff feature, Apple smartphone owners can use one number with two separate devices. Users can swap back and forth and pick which device will receive phone calls and messages, and then switch it back at any time.

For now, this feature is only available for T-Mobile users, and the carrier is charging an extra $5 per month to use it.

There's even more to check out with the new iOS 27, so be sure to explore the latest updates to your iPhone.

Preorder the new Apple products

Along with iOS 27, Apple also released new AirPods, Apple Watches, and iPhones. Except for the iPhone Duo, all of these devices are available for preorder now.

Apple AirPods 5 earbuds
Apple AirPods 5 earbuds
$129 at Amazon
 
apple watch series 12
Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB
Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB
Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
 
iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB
iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB
Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
 


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Aaron Pierre in

If you need to take a breather after Lanterns' fifth episode, I don't blame you.

Episode 5 saw Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) face off with Manhunter Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) in a battle that left Rushville in ruins. On top of that, it also pitted Hal and John against one another, leaving the role of Green Lantern in flux.

SEE ALSO: 'Lanterns' finally reveals its Manhunter. Here were the biggest hints at the truth.

Between these game-changing confrontations and a number of key character deaths, episode 5 truly felt like a season finale. What do you mean, we still have three episodes left? How could Lanterns possibly top this? Let's take a look at what the show still needs to wrap up, and what it's already resolved in its biggest episode to date.

What happened in the Rushville fight?

A better question might be, what didn't happen? Zoe healed John from the wounds he sustained from Hal crashing their car. She then announced a town-wide kill order on Hal, causing the citizens of Rushville to gear up to protect the Manhunter in their midst. She also began obliterating chunks of Rushville with the laser satellite introduced in episode 4.

Meanwhile, Hal went Manhunter hunting in the hopes of delivering Zoe to the Guardians himself. First, he sent Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) and his vengeful alien crew on a wild goose chase to William Macon's (Garret Dillahunt) compound, claiming Macon was the Manhunter. While Macon put on a convincing performance thanks to some language and backstory coaching from Zoe, Antaan figured out the ruse and killed him. (RIP to Lanterns' resident exhibitionist wife guy.) He tried to go after Zoe next, but Hal tossed him away from her, leaving him to blow up in mid-air. (RIP to the "Antaan is Atrocitus" theory.)

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' showrunner Graham Yost teases what to expect from Season 4 — including one key character's fate

All this is just the prelude to the heart of the Rushville battle: the knock-down, drag-out fight between Hal and John at the motel. The two duke it out over the power ring, unleashing months' worth of resentment before Zoe blows the motel to smithereens. (In a sweet move, or maybe just a practical one, Hal manages to bubble John along with him for protection.) In the aftermath, John uses Hal's prone body as bait for Zoe before sniping her, therefore wiping out the second-greatest threat Hal is facing.

John, Hal's greatest threat, remains alive, and he takes both the ring and the lantern from Hal. But instead of reciting the Oath and taking over as Green Lantern, he tells Guardian Lianna (Laura Linney) he wants no more part of this. After all his traumatic childhood training, all his discipline, all his sacrifice — in the end, putting on the ring feels like nothing. To answer the question Hal poses after their fight: No, it wasn't worth it.

Now, Lanterns is both Lantern-less and Manhunter-less. With these two key elements wiped off the board, what's next for the series?

What comes next in Lanterns?

Now that Lanterns has gotten its Manhunter mystery out of the way, it can focus on its next big mystery: Who killed Hal Jordan?

Remember, episode 1 ended with John and Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) examining Hal's corpse at the football field in Rushville, right back where all the Manhunter shenanigans began. Episode 6 will likely pick up in the 2026 timeline, examining what John's life has been like post-Green Lantern training — please let him be an architect now! — and his quest to solve Hal's murder. Hopefully, we'll also find out what Hal was up to in the last decade. Did he stay in Rushville? Did he continue to woo the very married Kerry? Did he remember to feed Earl?

Since Lanterns takes place in 2026, that means that Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), first introduced in Superman, is now this sector's Green Lantern. Fillion is confirmed to be starring in Lanterns, but will he be appearing in a goofy cameo, or as an active participant in the investigation of Hal's murder? Plus, will we get more time with Lanterns' more extraterrestrial characters, like Lianna or Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen)? Or any face time at all with the cosmic fear parasite Parallax, a Green Lantern franchise staple?

The answers to those questions await in Lanterns' last three episodes, but until then, I think we all need to take a nice, relaxing nap to decompress from the madness of episode 5.

Lanterns is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.



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Jane Curtin and Christopher Walken co-star in

Though many have tried, no one delivers a line like Christopher Walken. In Back in Black, Walken's distinctive diction turns "Shut up" into a moving "I love you." And that's just a taste of what makes this off-kilter comedy such a treat.

SEE ALSO: TIFF 2026 preview: 18 films (and shows) you'll want to see (and how)

Written by Ron Murphy and Nick Torokvei, and helmed by the former, Back in Black stars Walken as Clyde Mortimer, an undertaker in a long line of undertakers. He runs Mortimer's Family Funeral Home with his chipper wife Autumn (a pleasant Jane Curtin), and their orphaned granddaughter Sam (Ella Ballentine of 2016's Anne of Green Gables and The Vampire Lestat). But things are rough in the death business, as no one in their charming small town is dying lately.

Clyde, who always has plenty to say, is funny in his fury, insisting that no one dying is no way to live! He's especially aggrieved about how the COVID-19 pandemic should have been a boom time for morticians, but the sharp decline in in-person gatherings prevented that. But fret not, Clyde, because Sam has a plan. And it involves her handy screwdriver.

Back in Black is like Dexter with a cozy crime twist.

The opening shot of this dark comedy is Sam using a screwdriver to build a coffin. This becomes a very telling image. With her family facing financial ruin, Sam uses her screwdriver and her engineering know-how to strategically loosen screws about town, leading to one death after another. To the average police officer, this might seem like a string of bad luck, these accidents at grocery stores, construction sites, and motel swimming pools. But a local cop is on to her.

Deputy Donna (a snarling Louise Lambert) is on the case, even if her sheriff (a blustering Tony Nappo) thinks she's way off base. However, the cat-and-mouse element of Back in Black is more a subplot. The main story focuses on Sam's relationship with her grandparents and the budding romances that emerge from the funeral of the first murder victim. When she's not listening lovingly to Clyde's rants or having a glass of wine with her grandma ahead of some embalming, Sam meets Kevin (a quirky Giamo Alfredi) a needy nephew of the deceased, and Charlotte (a whiskey-smooth Watson Rose), a raven-haired beauty who offers to help the Mortimers in their work — meaning putting makeup on the dead.

Through murder, Sam quietly expresses her love and devotion for her family, securing their future by ending that of others. And I do mean quietly. Sam doesn't speak. She is the Teller to her garrulous grandfather's Penn. And Ballentine proves a masterful scene partner, using a coyly comic series of countenances to express Sam's excitement, doubt, consternation, and pleasure. It's to her that Walken will repeatedly say, "Shut up." And far from coming off as a denouncement or diminishment of his onscreen daughter, it comes across as a playful "I see you." Sam doesn't need to speak for her grandfather to know her heart, even if he doesn't know her secrets.

Yet Ballentine is equally enchanting opposite the whole ensemble, whether taking in the awkward requests of Kevin, the surly accusations of Donna, or the silky seduction of Charlotte. The young actress smoothly pulls from a long line of silent but brilliant performances that date back to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. That reflects the playfulness within Back in Black's sense of humor. However, don't get too cozy, because Murphy won't make a joke of murder.

Back in Black dares to challenge its audience.

In Dexter, the eponymous serial killer focuses his homicidal tendencies toward other killers, creating an anti-hero the audience is invited to theoretically root for. Back in Black offers no such comforting compromise. Sam, while she is seemingly sweet, is killing who is convenient. And that means good people will die. In the first instant, all we know about Dale (Stuart Hughes) is that he's a grocery store manager who is kind to his employees and customers alike. So, when he's locked in the walk-in freezer by a sabotaged lock, the audience has no reason to think that he had it coming.

And Murphy doesn't offer a silly depiction of death like one might see in Bryan Fuller's Pushing Daisies, where colorful hues and playful production design softened the blow of mysterious murders. Here, we are witness to Dale not only realizing he's trapped but crashing out as he realizes he is going to die. Other deaths will follow, with loved ones lamenting their losses in front of Sam, with no idea of her role in those demises. Each time, Murphy challenges the audience by bringing laughter and pain simultaneously.

Through a silly story about a failing family business, he creates a dark comedy centered on a morally complicated anti-hero who we might root for even as we are shocked and appalled by her actions. Watching Sam, I thought of Mia Wasikowska in Park Chan-wook's Southern gothic thriller Stoker. There, Wasikowska played a similarly doll-faced killer with familial motivations. But Back in Black is not remotely dark or dry like Stoker or Dexter. Despite its deadly content, Murphy keeps the tone that of a small-town feel-good movie. That makes every kill freshly shocking. And in the end, this collision of wicked and nice makes for a movie that is delightfully odd, unapologetically macabre, and a hell of a good time.

Back in Black was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie's theatrical release date is TBD.



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