FlashFeed

Full text

Netflix's abrupt cancellation of the high-profile sci-fi series The Boroughs sent shockwaves through the industry, not only because the cancellation seemed premature, but also because the show hailed from the Duffer Brothers . The brothers are best known for having created one of Netflix's platform-defining hits, Stranger Things . They served as executive producers on The Boroughs , which was marketed as their big return to sci-fi. The show premiered to excellent reviews on May 21, and around a month later, Netflix announced that it wouldn't be producing any more episodes . Coincidentally, the Nielsen ratings for the show's debut week were revealed the following day, and as it turned out, The Boroughs hadn't done as poorly as expected at all.

Full text

There’s no way around it, the Steam Machine is extremely expensive for the level of performance you get out of it. I still think that anyone who’s only looking to play games would probably be better served with a PS5 or an Xbox Series X , especially if you don’t already have a Steam library. In general, the Steam Machine performs very similarly to the PS5, even if it falls short in some of the games I’ve tested.

As a follow up to my review of the Steam Machine , I pulled up four games to test side-by-side with the PS5 in ‘Performance’ mode, which typically locks games to a solid 60 fps, to see exactly how well Valve's mini PC holds up.

And while there are certainly moments where Valve’s little cube falls on its face a bit, I’m still surprised by how much power Valve was able to get into such a tiny package.

Consoles vs PC

It’s so hard to directly compare the PS5 and the Steam Machine. PCs, like the Steam Machine, have way more room for adjusting the way that games look and perform, while consoles will typically have two preset options that don’t really give you a good idea of what's changing.

In general, console games tend to be optimized around specific frame rate targets, changing the internal resolution in order to maintain it. There are some games that’ll let you do that on PC, for sure, but typically it’ll just automatically adjust the upscaling factor for DLSS, FSR, XeSS or whichever other upscaling method the game uses.

For the games that don’t support dynamic resolution, you have to dial in the settings yourself. Typically this means you can scale down the image quality enough to get more than 60 fps in most games – including on the Steam Machine – but particularly busy scenes might cause the frame rate to drop below that target. That doesn’t sound great, but that’s just PC gaming, baby.

Usually, when I’m running weaker hardware, particularly when I’m reviewing something like a handheld gaming PC , I try to target a frame rate higher than 60 when possible, so that when intense effects pop up out of nowhere, I don’t drop to 30 fps. It’s not a perfect solution, and sometimes it straight up doesn’t work, but it’s just a rule of thumb anyways.

How Does The Steam Machine Perform?

To test the Steam Machine against the PS5, I set quality settings to each game’s ‘medium’ preset. Then, I set the outgoing resolution to 4K (3840x2160) with FSR set to ‘Performance’. That’s not a perfect 1:1, but it does give a good baseline of how the Steam Machine performs compared to the PS5. Because while most developers will make finer adjustments to things like shadows or global illumination, generally speaking, the ‘medium’ preset is pretty close to what you’d see on the PS5.

I tested four games; Cyberpunk 2077, 007 First Light, Resident Evil Requiem, and Death Stranding 2. Surprisingly, at least in Cyberpunk and Resident Evil, the Steam Machine had no problem matching the console. However, the other two didn’t quite hold up.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the Steam Machine averaged 68 fps at the medium preset with FSR 3 set to Performance at 4K. There are a couple moments where Valve’s mini PC dips down to 56 fps, but most of the time it’s running at an extremely smooth 60-70 fps instead.

That’s exactly what the PS5 version does, too. CD Projekt Red have put in a ton of work over the last five years and optimized Cyberpunk to run super well on everything. And on the PS5, it runs at a completely locked 60 fps. So it doesn’t quite have the same highs that the Steam Machine version does, but it doesn’t have the same lows either.

However, when I zoom in on Cyberpunk, the PS5 version looks a little bit better than what’s running on the PS5. If I zoom in on Jackie’s earring, you can see much more detail on the PS5 version. Likewise, zooming in on the wallpaper behind him, the little designs are more blurry on the Steam Machine. This is a side effect of the lower texture quality on the Medium preset, and there is probably enough VRAM budget left on the Steam Machine to tweak that.

Likewise, in Resident Evil Requiem , the Steam Machine averages 60 fps, well, 59.74 if you want to be exact. I tested in the first part the game, where you’re walking through a rainy street, leading to the Wrenwood Hotel. There are a couple moments where the Steam Machine drops to the low 50s, like when Grace is talking to the cop in a cutscene, but for the most part the Steam Machine has no problem staying locked between 58 and 63 fps.

The PS5 version, just like with Cyberpunk, is just locked at 60 fps on its performance mode. But while the console version technically doesn’t have the same lows, you probably wouldn’t notice the difference when you’re actually sitting down and playing the game.

The Steam Machine really starts to struggle with 007 First Light , though. I talked about this game a little bit in my review, but the new James Bond game averages 53 fps at 4K, with FSR set to ‘performance’ and a mixture of medium and low settings. However, the base PS5 stays locked at 60 fps on its performance mode. That seems pretty close at first glance, but there are moments where, for instance, lots of explosions go off, where the Steam Machine drops to about 35 fps for a moment.

That’s a lot worse than the PS5, but by dropping the final resolution to 1800p on the Steam Machine, the frame rate goes up to around a 70 fps average, without the same drops. And, even with that lower resolution, the Steam Machine version actually looks a bit better.

For instance, here if you zoom into the explosive barrels and crates in the scene I tested, they actually look cleaner and less fuzzy on the Steam Machine than the PS5. After all, rather than allowing for a lower frame rate, the PS5 drops the internal resolution as low as 720p to keep the frame rate as high as possible.

But even when 007 First Light isn’t pushing either system super hard, the Steam Machine still has a sharper image. At the beginning of my sample, when Bond is walking through the woods, zooming in on his character model shows some extreme aliasing, particularly on his left arm. Then, next to him, vegetation has more robust shadows on the PS5, but at the cost of resolution.

You can make that same trade off on the Steam Machine too, but I, for one, wouldn’t take slightly better shadows at the cost of a fuzzier presentation. Then again, being able to make that choice in the first place is what PC gaming is all about.

The Steam Machine fares its worst in Death Stranding 2. I set the resolution for 2160p, with FSR set to performance and the Medium preset, and only got an average of 35 fps. Some of that boils down to the scene I tested, what with it being night time and having a lot of vegetation and water. But in that same scene, the PS5 is again locked at a steady 60 fps.

But unlike 007 First Light, where it was just a question of tweaking with the resolution to get it to run at the same level as the PS5, I straight up could not get this game running at a steady 60 fps. Dropping the resolution down to 1440p and lowering the settings to the ‘Low’ preset, the game still sat around 45-50 fps.

It wasn’t until I lowered the output resolution to 1080p at the ‘Medium’ preset and enabled Dynamic Resolution Scaling that I was able to get a stable 60 fps in Death Stranding 2. And, that was while I was still playing on a 4K display – that never bodes well.

Looking at this tweaked version of Death Stranding 2 next to the base PS5 on performance mode, it’s a night and day difference. While staying at a locked 60 fps, the PS5 has more dense vegetation and better global illumination and shadows. Meanwhile, the Steam Machine makes Death Stranding look like something from the PS4 era – if not earlier.

It’s still a functional way to play the game, but it looks like what you’d expect from a handheld gaming PC, rather than a desktop machine, no matter how small it is. Keep in mind, though, that Death Stranding 2 was one of the biggest PS5 games last year , so it’s not crazy to assume Kojima Productions put in a bunch of extra work really making it look great on the base PS5. But even then, that gap is still hard to look at.

Still, for the most part, the Steam Machine and the PS5 typically perform at around the same level, plus or minus a few percentage points in Sony’s favor. Even after this testing, I still recommend anyone that just wants a pure gaming machine to stick with consoles for now. The Steam Machine still is, at its core, a mini gaming PC.

Any PC that’s as small as the Steam Machine is – and it’s really small – is going to have some kind of trade off. It’s worth remembering that the Steam Machine is nearly a third of the PS5’s size, and doesn’t get anywhere near as loud under load. That’s still not going to be enough to make the $1,049 price tag worth it for a lot of people, but if you’re in that niche, you’re really not losing that much performance by buying a Steam Machine – at least if you’re not playing Death Stranding 2.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Full text

Scientists uncovered a link between mild heart trouble and microscopic signs of brain damage that may raise the risk of memory problems down the line.

The new study, published Monday (July 6) in The Journal of Neuroscience , did not prove that the heart issues directly caused memory problems. But it "adds to the overall picture that preserving healthy brain-heart communication is key for healthy aging," said Dr. Jan Scheitz , a consultant stroke neurologist and head of the Brain-Heart Lab at the Charité University Hospital in Germany, who was not involved in the study.

"A healthy lifestyle that protects the cardiovascular system will not only benefit the heart but also the brain," he told Live Science in an email.

The work could one day help doctors identify patients at risk of memory problems early on through routine heart-function tests, said study co-author Dr. Xia Zhang , a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany.

"The broader implication is that the brain may show subtle tissue-level changes related to cardiac dysfunction before we see obvious brain shrinkage or clinical dementia," Zhang told Live Science in an email.

Early warning signs

Researchers already knew that heart and brain function are closely interconnected . Heart diseases such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation and heart attack impair communication between the heart and the brain. This can contribute to thinking problems and dementia by restricting blood flow to the brain and causing chronic inflammation.

So far, though, scientists have only studied changes in the brain in people already diagnosed with heart conditions. They haven't necessarily assessed the changes that take place earlier on.

In the new study, researchers followed 73 patients who had sought care for heart-related symptoms at the Heart Center Leipzig in Germany, some of whom had confirmed coronary artery disease and/or heart failure. They also assessed 95 people without any heart-related symptoms. The researchers measured heart function at the start of the study. Then, about 3.5 years later, they performed cognitive testing and an MRI scan of the brain to take a snapshot of its structure.

Among all 168 study participants, those whose hearts pumped blood less efficiently at the start of the study showed greater signs of tissue damage in their gray matter years later. This was true regardless of whether or not they had diagnosed heart failure.

The cognitive tests were given only to the heart-disease patients, and they assessed attention, executive function, learning and memory. Only memory showed a link to weaker heart pumping. The participants with weaker heart pumping showed more microscopic damage in memory-related brain regions, and those brain changes correlated with worse memory scores.

The degree of brain damage also correlated with the levels of stress hormones released by the heart, but this link was only seen in patients who already had heart failure.

"What surprised us most" was that subtle reductions in the heart's ability to pump were tied to later brain changes, even in patients who did not meet clinical criteria for heart failure, Zhang said.

One limitation of the study is that the researchers didn't take MRI scans at the start. That means "we do not know whether some changes were already present at the beginning of the study period," Scheitz noted. This is something that Zhang and her colleagues plan to test in future studies.

"The next step for the field is replication in larger cohorts with multiple time points, so that cardiac function, brain microstructure, and cognition can be followed more precisely over time," she said.

Related stories

'Love hormone' oxytocin may help mend broken hearts (literally), lab study suggests

These patients' hearts stopped a dozen times a day. An innovative procedure has transformed their lives.

Lab-made mouse embryos grew brains and beating hearts, just like the real thing

The brain damage flagged in the 73 patients happened in parts of the brain that are important for memory and are vulnerable in Alzheimer's disease. "These regions helped identify a possible brain pathway through which poorer cardiac function may contribute to later memory problems," Zhang said.

However, until this idea is tested directly in future studies, it is too soon to say if the heart function-related brain changes seen on the MRI scans point to a higher risk of Alzheimer's, Zhang cautioned. The team did not measure proteins related to Alzheimer's, so they cannot conclude that the patients with measurable brain changes are developing Alzheimer's disease.

The study also did not directly test the effect of exercise on heart and brain health, but the findings may help explain why regular exercise is often linked to better brain health and cognitive aging, Zhang said.

"Regular exercise supports cardiovascular function, vascular health, and cerebral blood-flow regulation," she said, "all of which may help protect brain tissue over time."

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

What do you know about the body's hardest-working muscle? Find out with our heart quiz!

Full text

SpaceX will launch a passel of satellites to orbit early Tuesday morning (July 7), and you can watch the action live.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 81 payloads is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday, during a 95-minute window that opens at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT; 12:10 a.m. local California time).

You can watch the mission, which is called Transporter-17, live via SpaceX . Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.

As its name suggests, Transporter-17 will be the 17th mission of SpaceX 's Transporter rideshare program. The company operates another rideshare series as well, called Bandwagon, which has launched four missions to date .

The 20 Transporter and Bandwagon missions that have flown to date sent more than 1,800 payloads to Earth orbit. Transporter-1 lofted 143 of those back in January 2021 , which remains the global single-launch record.

The 81 payloads going up on Transporter-17 include "cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads and orbital transfer vehicles carrying eight of those payloads to be deployed at a later time," SpaceX wrote in a mission description .

Perhaps the biggest satellite riding the Falcon 9 on Tuesday is CAS500-4, a South Korean Earth-observation craft that tips the scales at about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms).

The satellite, whose name is short for "Compact Advanced Satellite 500-4," will be the fourth member of a planned five-satellite CAS500 fleet in low Earth orbit (LEO). CAS500-4 will help the South Korean government monitor crops and forests , among other tasks.

A long-exposure view of the Transporter-16 launch on March 30, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX) If all goes according to plan on Tuesday morning, the Falcon 9's first stage will land about 8.5 minutes after launch on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean. It will be the 11th flight for this particular booster, according to the company's Transporter-17 mission description.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will haul the 81 payloads to LEO, where they'll be deployed starting about 50.5 minutes after launch. CAS500-4 won't be released until nearly 2.5 hours after liftoff.

Transporter-17 will be the 79th Falcon 9 launch of 2026. Nearly 80% of this year's missions have been devoted to building out Starlink , SpaceX's giant broadband constellation in LEO.

Full text

World of Hyatt offers 500 bonus points per night on qualifying stays at new hotels. Although 500 bonus points might not sound like a lot, they are worth $8 based on TPG's July 2026 valuations .

Hyatt doesn't require members to register for this promotion, so you may have forgotten (or never known) about it. Here's a quick look at the World of Hyatt promotion that allows you to earn 500 bonus points per night at new hotels.

How to earn 500 bonus Hyatt points per night

The promotion is simple: World of Hyatt members receive 500 bonus points per night for qualifying stays at select hotels new to the Hyatt portfolio. You must stay within a set time frame to earn the bonus points, typically in the first few months after the property opens. Specifically, you'll earn bonus points only if your checkout date falls within the offer period for your hotel.

To earn bonus points, you must provide your World of Hyatt number when checking in. You must also pay an eligible rate or redeem a Hyatt free night certificate (including Hyatt points), but groups, conventions, other promotional offers, tour packages and special rate programs aren't eligible. You'll only earn bonus points for one room per night.

The terms of this promotion note that it may take three to four weeks for the bonus points to appear in your account. In practice, though, Hyatt typically posts the new-hotel bonus with the other points you earned during your stay.

Related: Best Hyatt hotels in the world to book with points

Eligible new Hyatt hotels

Hyatt regularly updates a list of participating properties . Here's a quick overview of where you can currently earn 500 extra points per night.

17 new Hyatt hotels in the US

Chesapeake, Virginia : Hyatt Studios Chesapeake until Sept. 30

Destin, Florida : Hyatt House Destin until Aug. 31

Ewa Beach, Hawaii : Hyatt House at Hoopili until Aug. 31 and Hyatt Place at Hoopili until Aug. 31

Galveston, Texas : Hyatt Select Galveston — Beachfront until Aug. 31

Harrisonburg, Virginia : Hyatt Studios Harrisonburg until July 31

Jacksonville, Florida : Hyatt Studios Jacksonville / St. Johns Town Center until July 31

Mesa, Arizona : The 233 Suites until Aug. 31

Monroe Township, New Jersey : Hyatt House Monroe / Cranbury / South Brunswick until Sept. 30

Ontario, California : Hyatt Place Ontario Airport from July 22 to Oct. 31 and Hyatt House Ontario Airport from July 22 to Oct. 31

Portland, Oregon : Hyatt House Portland Airport from July 23 to Oct. 31

Santa Monica, California : The Georgian until July 31

Scottsdale, Arizona : Hotel Solaya until July 31

St. Louis : Hyatt Select St. Louis Airport until July 31

Texarkana, Texas : Hyatt Studios Texarkana until Sept. 30

Woburn, Massachusetts : Hyatt Select Boston / Woburn / Burlington until Sept. 30

Related: Hyatt just launched a new brand geared toward efficient, affordable stays around the country

The Georgian. MAE HAMILTON/THE POINTS GUY 6 new Hyatt hotels in China

Beijing : UrCove Beijing Wangjing 798 Art Zone until Sept. 30

Hangzhou : DC Hotel Hangzhou CBD until Aug. 31

Jiaxing : Hyatt Place Jiaxing Nanhu until Sept. 30

Nanjing : Hyatt Place Nanjing Xuanwu until July 31 and UrCove Nanjing Confucius Temple Xinanli Resort until Sept. 30

Tianjin : Hyatt Place Tianjin South Railway Station until Sept. 30

13 new Hyatt hotels in other regions

Beldersoy, Uzbekistan : Beldersoy Resort & Spa until July 31

Brussels : The Standard, Brussels until Aug. 31

Burnaby, British Columbia : Hyatt Place Vancouver / Metrotown until Aug. 31

Heredia, Costa Rica : Hyatt Place Cariari / Convention Center until Aug. 31

Hua Hin, Thailand : The Barai Hua Hin until Sept. 30

Kochi, India : Hyatt Regency Kochi Malayattoor until Sept. 30

Leipzig, Germany : Me and All Hotel Leipzig from July 20 to Oct. 31

London : Hyatt Regency London Olympia until Oct. 30

Niagara Falls, Ontario : Hyatt Regency Niagara Falls Fallsview until July 31

Piedras Negras, Mexico : Hyatt Place Piedras Negras from July 14 to Oct. 31

Seongnam, South Korea : Hyatt Place Seoul Pangyo until Sept. 30

Toulouse, France : FirstName Toulouse Residence until Aug. 31

Umluj, Saudi Arabia : Miraval The Red Sea until July 31

Related: A data analysis of Hyatt award chart changes across 1,078 properties

Bottom line

On top of earning 500 extra points per night, staying at a new Hyatt hotel can also be fun since you'll likely get to be in a room with new furnishings. However, new hotels may still be resolving some issues, and not all on-site facilities may be fully operational.

The current list includes six Category 1 hotels and 12 Category 2 hotels. So, if you want to redeem World of Hyatt points for your stay, you can find several low-category options on this list.

Related reading:

How to transfer Chase points to Hyatt: A step-by-step guide

Best time to apply for World of Hyatt Chase cards based on offer history

World of Hyatt elite status: What it is and how to earn it

Which credit card should you use for Hyatt stays?

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Full text

TL;DR

Atlas Arcade and Animated Subtitles have recreated a Mario Kart-like experience within YouTube.

The creators were able to create the experience by using YouTube’s 360-degree spherical video feature.

You can change your character by selecting different subtitles.

Even if you can’t afford a Nintendo Switch 2 , you can still play Mario Kart, kind of. A pair of YouTube creators has put their brains together to make a Mario Kart-like experience playable on the video streaming service.

In one of the more creative endeavors on the platform, Atlas Arcade and Animated Subtitles have put together a fan-made interactive YouTube video that lets you control Mario and friends as you drive down Rainbow Road. If you’re on desktop, you’ll be able to swerve left and right, avoiding obstacles in your path, using keyboard controls. It’s a fairly pared-down experience compared to the real thing, but it’s an interesting experiment all the same.

Full text

McLaren rebuilt the forgotten M6GT using original moulds and intensive archive research.

Bruce McLaren envisioned the road car decades before F1 transformed supercar expectations.

Restored one-off debuts at Goodwood where McLaren founder lost his life testing in 1970.

Ask most enthusiasts about McLaren’s first road car and they’ll point to the legendary three-seat F1 . They’re only about 25 years too late. Long before Gordon Murray rewrote the supercar rulebook, company founder Bruce McLaren had already dreamed up a road going machine of his own called the M6GT.

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]};

adpushup.que.push(function() {

if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){

adpushup.triggerAd("0f7e3106-c4d6-4db4-8135-c508879a76f8");

} else {

adpushup.triggerAd("82503191-e1d1-435a-874f-9c78a2a54a2f");

}

});

The original M6GT grew directly from McLaren’s dominant M6A Can Am racer and was intended to prove the company’s racing know-how could work just as well on the road. Bruce hoped to build 50 examples, but the project never got beyond three prototypes before fate intervened.

Related: A 1-Of-765 McLaren Died In A Michigan Fire, And Bidders Smell A Deal

Now McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has finished what its founder started. The company has painstakingly recreated the M6GT using original body moulds, historic drawings and archive photographs, along with a period correct small block Chevrolet V8 and gearbox. Rather than modernizing the car, the brief was to recreate Bruce’s original vision as faithfully as possible. It even had help from some of the mechanics who worked on the original.

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]};

adpushup.que.push(function() {

if (adpushup.config.platform === "DESKTOP"){

adpushup.triggerAd("ea4d4b5a-f8e5-4d5d-9d9a-53a3b956b6cd");

} else{

adpushup.triggerAd("44c0a4dc-e25b-4ba5-ac64-2c510461b92a");

}

});

That attention to detail extends everywhere. The chassis comes from a period M6A racecar, the suspension uses restored original hardware, and even the aluminum rivets were installed by aerospace craftspeople. Inside, there’s a hand turned walnut gear knob, groovy 1970s green carpet, custom vinyl upholstery and a cream white exterior called Colnbrook, named after the factory where Bruce developed his road car ideas.

Headed For Goodwood

The one-off will make its public debut at this month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, a venue which carries extra significance because Bruce McLaren was killed in 1970 while testing an M8D Can Am racer at the Goodwood circuit. He was just 32 years old. Today, that same circuit hosts the Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed’s sister event, making the M6GT’s return especially poignant.

MSO director Jon Simms called the project “a labor of craft and care,” adding that it serves as “a living reminder of Bruce’s ambition to take McLaren beyond the racetrack.” Looking at the finished product, it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if the M6GT had reached production. The F1 may still have become an icon, but perhaps it wouldn’t have carried quite so much responsibility for starting McLaren ‘s road car story.

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]};

adpushup.que.push(function() {

if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){

adpushup.triggerAd("bb7964e9-07de-4b06-a83e-ead35079d53c");

} else {

adpushup.triggerAd("9b1169d9-7a89-4971-a77f-1397f7588751");

}

});

McLaren

var adpushup = window.adpushup = window.adpushup || {que:[]};

adpushup.que.push(function() {

if (adpushup.config.platform !== "DESKTOP"){

adpushup.triggerAd("bb7964e9-07de-4b06-a83e-ead35079d53c");

} else {

adpushup.triggerAd("9b1169d9-7a89-4971-a77f-1397f7588751");

}

});