Stardock has launched a new application for Windows called Connection Explorer, a beta tool designed to reveal and visualize every network connection made by a PC. Aimed at improving data transparency, it allows users to monitor, understand, and control how their devices communicate online. The software maps out every connection a computer makes, transforming complex background activity into a readable visual interface. Stardock says the goal is to give users direct insight into how data flows between their systems and the internet, removing the guesswork from identifying unfamiliar or unwanted activity. SEE ALSO: New year, new Microsoft OS -- the… [Continue Reading]

Valve is about to launch a new virtual reality headset, and with it, a comprehensive new approach to what a VR device should be. Most VR headsets I've tried have ended up collecting dust after the novelty wore off, and I thought I had sworn off VR for good. But after trying Valve's new headset for myself at the company's headquarters, I was nearly ready to put down my credit card before I walked out the door.

The new headset is called the Steam Frame, and it's trying to do several things at once. It's a standalone VR headset with a smartphone-caliber Arm chip inside that lets you play flat-screen Windows games locally off the onboard storag …

Read the full story at The Verge.

On the 15th floor of an upscale office building in Bellevue, Washington, security guards line the halls. They're here to make sure we don't stray - because I'm visiting Valve's headquarters, a place few journalists ever get to go. The guards help escort me to a tiny demo room, where a pair of Valve engineers show me their pride and joy: a glowing 6-inch cube, barely bigger than a box of Kleenex, that they hope might be the future of video game consoles.

For a moment, I feel like I'm watching history repeat itself. Twelve years ago, in a different Valve office half a mile away, the maker of Half-Life and Portal showed me what ultimately bec …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple is launching Digital IDs, a feature that allows you to create and store an ID in Apple Wallet using your US passport. In the announcement, Apple says Digital ID acceptance will begin to “roll out first”at TSA checkpoints for domestic travel in over 250 airports across the US.

You can present your Digital ID in place of a REAL ID at TSA checkpoints using your iPhone or Apple Watch. But Apple notes that it isn’t a replacement for your physical passport, and that you can’t use it for international travel or border crossings.

Apple already allows you to store your driver’s license in Apple Wallet in 12 states and Puerto Rico, but the new Digital ID option offers an alternative for people whose home state doesn’t support digital driver’s licenses or don’t already have a REAL ID or state ID. Apple first announced Digital IDs during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the feature was supposed to arrive with iOS 26 before Apple quietly delayed it.

To create a Digital ID, tap the “plus” button at the top right corner of the Wallet app, and then select Digital ID. From there, Apple will ask you to scan the photo page of your physical passport, as well as the chip embedded on the back of it “to ensure the data’s authenticity.” You’ll then have to take a selfie for verification, as well as complete facial and head movements to confirm that it’s really you.

You can present your Digital ID by double-clicking your iPhone’s side or Home button to open Apple Wallet, choosing your Digital ID, and then holding your phone or Apple Watch near an identity reader.

Apple says the feature is encrypted, meaning Apple can’t see when you display your ID, or the data you presented. You also won’t need “to unlock, show, or hand over” your device to present your ID — something you shouldn’t do with digital driver’s licenses, either. 

It’s still not clear which airports will accept Digital IDs. Apple also notes that users will soon be able to present their Digital ID at “additional select businesses and organizations” in the future.

Valve has just announced its biggest hardware push that it’s arguably ever made — a living room game console called the Steam Machine, a headset called the Steam Frame, and the long-awaited sequel to its Steam Controller it hinted about three years back.

But Valve won’t say the first word about its next gaming handheld, the Steam Deck 2.

“Steam Deck is not what we’re here to talk about today,” Valve software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais told us at the very beginning of our briefing. “It’s sort of related but not really,” he said, before launching into a discussion of how the Steam Deck’s learnings underpinned every new product that it’s announcing today.

The company wouldn’t tell us if the new drift-resistant TMR joysticks it’s introducing in the Steam Controller and Steam Frame’s wands will make it into a future Steam Deck, either. “We’re always thinking about Steam Deck and ways to improve it in the future,” says Valve hardware engineer Steve Cardinali when I ask. (He also says Valve currently has no plans to offer the TMR joysticks as a drop-in module for the original Deck.)

While Valve has repeatedly confirmed that the Steam Deck will have sequels, the company’s also repeatedly been clear that it’s in no hurry to bring them to market. Since 2022, Griffais has consistently told us that Valve wants to see a significant leap in performance and efficiency before it takes the plunge. “We really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck,” is how Valve’s Lawrence Yang concisely reiterated it to Reviews.org in 2024.

The question now is: will Valve find that leap in performance and efficiency from x86? Because while Valve initially thought its standalone VR headset might run on the existing Steam Deck’s chip, the company just announced the Steam Frame with an Arm processor instead — using emulation to let it play some Windows games locally on the headset. Griffais tells me he thinks Arm has “a lot of potential” in future handhelds someday.

Valve tells us the Frame has a lower performance target than the nearly four-year-old Steam Deck, so it would need a far more potent Arm chip to power such a handheld. Qualcomm, in particular, has been working on Arm chips for handhelds, though, and one of its customers for the latest was even interested in discussing a possible SteamOS handheld with Valve.

It’s also possible Valve already found its next Steam Deck chip in AMD’s future roadmaps — like it did with the original Steam Deck — and is simply waiting for it to arrive.

None of that necessarily means you should expect an Arm-based Steam Deck 2 just yet, though.

Melinda French Gates today announced the funding recipients of her $250 million open call supporting organizations worldwide that are working to address women’s physical and mental health.

The Action for Women’s Health grantees include 83 organizations based in 22 countries. Recipients will receive between $1 million and $5 million, and many have previously been excluded from major funding opportunities.

“In the 25 years I’ve worked on women’s health, I’ve been struck by a grim reality that connects women across contexts and continents: No matter where you are in the world, if you live in a woman’s body, you are likely to face a unique set of barriers to receiving the care you need to live a full and healthy life,” French Gates wrote in a blog post.

Those barriers, she continued, include policies such as restrictive abortion laws that caused a woman in Louisiana to twice get turned away from emergency rooms when struggling through a miscarriage, and a lack of proximity to care for a pregnant woman in Malawi who lived hours from delivery services.

The key focus areas for the Action for Women’s Health grantees are: care for pregnant women and mothers and babies; community health and healthcare access; reproductive health and rights; public health; and mental health. Roughly one-third of the organizations receiving funding are focused on maternal and perinatal health, while one-quarter address community health.

Pacific Northwest-based recipients include Open Arms Perinatal Services, an organization helping mothers with doula services, lactation assistance and other support for families, and Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center serving Native people.

Action for Women’s Health is part of a $1 billion initiative centered on women’s and family issues that French Gates announced in May 2024, shortly after her resignation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She left the Seattle-based philanthropy, now called the Gates Foundation, with $12.5 billion for her own initiatives as part of her divorce agreement with Bill Gates.

Pivotal Ventures, French Gates’ independent company, is overseeing her billion-dollar effort and Lever for Change managed the open call.

Pivotal previously shared more details on two of its other components: the awarding of $200 million to U.S. groups focused on women’s rights, and $20 million grants issued to 12 individuals globally whose work French Gates admires.