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Tech News
Merriam-Webster has officially added roughly 1,400 new words to its dictionary, including AI-era terms like AGI, the noun form of 'compute,' and 'uncanny valley.' The additions reflect how deeply artificial intelligence terminology has entered everyday language.
Apple has refreshed the Mac mini for the first time in nearly two years, keeping its compact design but adding an M6 chip and notable performance gains. The base price has jumped from $599 to $899, a hike attributed largely to rising component costs driven by AI-related demand.
A longtime WIRED writer and editor published a personal essay recounting a 17-year career marked by repeated instances of sexism, including being paid less than a male predecessor, having her parenting fitness questioned by bosses, and working at a publication where men appeared on 70 covers versus four for women. She traces her discomfort with some men in the industry back to her early days interning at WIRED in 2009, when the newsroom lacked female editors and reinforced narratives crediting men as the primary innovators in tech.
A profile piece follows Thinking Machines Lab founder Mira Murati at a black-tie AI-industry gala in San Francisco, where she struggled to be heard over a chattering crowd despite her prominent status as a former OpenAI CTO who now runs a $12 billion startup. The writer uses the scene to explore why, unlike male tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang or Sam Altman, no single woman comes quickly to mind when people are asked who holds the most power in Silicon Valley.
Valve's Steam Frame VR headset, previously expected in early 2026, has shipped now starting at $1,059. The Verge's review found it fun for both VR and flatscreen gaming but noted ongoing instability and bugs, echoing the rocky launch of the original Steam Deck.
Valve's Steam Deck supports a built-in factory reset option accessible through Settings > System > Advanced, without needing a PC or USB drive. The reset process takes about 10-15 minutes and requires an internet connection if reinstalling SteamOS afterward, while microSD cards remain unaffected but should still be removed as a precaution.
Valve has released the source code for Lepton, its Android compatibility layer that lets developers run existing Android games on the Steam Frame VR headset without rebuilding them from scratch. The code, hosted on Valve's GitLab, reveals how Valve customizes an Android environment for VR on SteamOS, including graphics access, developer tools and debugging support. It follows the Steam Frame's launch and Valve's earlier announcement of Lepton alongside Steam Frame Verified certification requirements.
Vals, a startup founded in 2024 by former Palantir intern and Stanford student Rayan Krishnan, has raised a $40 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, following an earlier seed round from 8VC and Bloomberg Beta. The company aims to replace outdated academic AI benchmarks, which it says fail to keep pace with rapidly improving models, with more rigorous evaluation methods.
Tom's Hardware Premium's weekly roundup covered Valve's release of the Steam Frame VR headset with an interview of its engineers, an investigation into worsening DRAM and NAND shortages now hitting SLC and NOR Flash, and PieceMakers' Taiwan stock debut pitching hybrid-bonded chips as an alternative to HBM for AI inference. The issue also detailed a public dispute among AI leaders after a former OpenAI and Anthropic employee warned advanced AI could threaten humanity by 2030, prompting rebuttals from Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang.
Thousands of unionized security guards contracted through firms like Securitas and Allied Universal have walked off the job at Big Tech campuses in California. The strike follows a member vote earlier this month authorizing action after months of stalled contract negotiations with SEIU-United Service Workers West.
Angle Health, a Y Combinator alum from 2020 that helps small businesses manage level-funded health plans, announced a $200 million Series C round plus a $400 million tender offer allowing employees to sell shares. The round, valuing the company at $2.7 billion, was led by Vitruvian Partners with participation from Town Hall Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Portage Ventures, PruVen Capital, and Y Combinator, and is expected to close later this month. Angle says it now serves over 5,000 businesses and is profitable.
Chinese AI startup Manus is reportedly negotiating a $500 million funding round valuing it at $4 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, after resuming operations as an independent company. Prospective backers include IDG Capital, Boyu Capital, CATL, and returning investors Tencent, HSG and Zhenfund, with the company also weighing a restructuring ahead of a possible Hong Kong IPO.