Gear News of the Week: Google’s Pixel 10a Arrives Soon, and Valve Delays Its Steam Hardware
In an update on its blog, Valve says its goal is still to ship the Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in the “first half of the year.” But it also indicates that details regarding pricing and launch dates are evolving, saying that “limited availability and increasing prices” of storage and memory are forcing Valve to “reexamine” these issues. This sounds a lot like a price increase, something almost all PC makers have already warned about with new products coming in 2026. Companies like Dell and HP are doing everything they can to secure supply, including working with Chinese memory makers for the first time.
The memory shortage is due to a surge in demand for AI in data centers. The world’s top three memory makers, Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix, have all but abandoned the consumer market in favor of supporting AI data centers. Prices of commercially available PC memory began to rise in September and October, and really increased over the following months, now reaching four times the retail price (especially with DDR5 RAM). We are now seeing the consequences in almost every product imaginable. There’s no clear path to fixing this, but we’re still waiting to see what the real impact will be on PCs and new products like the Steam Frame and Steam Machine. —Luc Larsen
Fitbit founders launch Luffu, a family care app
Courtesy of Luffu
Yes, it’s true, it’s pronounced “loo-foo”, like “love”. After founding (and selling) Fitbit, James Park and Eric Friedman realized that in addition to protecting their personal health, they also took care of the health of others. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the National Alliance for Caregiving estimate that by 2025, nearly one in four adults were caring for school-age children or older parents. Luffu is a new platform that allows caregivers to easily access all the health information they need (prescriptions, lab tests, etc.) without having to sort through different devices, calendars, or portals.
Luffu is powered by AI (because of course it is), but the founders insist that the AI experience will go much deeper than just being a simple health chatbot. Luffu’s AI will explore your family’s data, learn patterns, and proactively offer personalized advice and easy-to-understand advice. It will also allow all your family members to register their medicines, diets or other health information on a single platform for sharing on health portals with doctors. Luffu assures us that the privacy and security of your data will be the top priority and that users can control the amount of information shared.
We’ll need to keep privacy at the top of our priorities, because as befits the founders of the hugely popular wearable, Luffu will start as an app experience before expanding to hardware. I’m very curious to see what a fitness tracker will look like that keeps track of your family as a unit, not just you. —Adrienne So
Dexcom redesigns its app with AI-driven features
Monitoring your blood sugar spikes is one of the easiest (well, cheapest) ways to nudge yourself toward healthier behaviors without having to take medication. Dexcom, which makes one of the two most popular continuous glucose monitors commercially available, continues to improve its own proprietary experience within the Dexcom app.
Last year, Dexcom launched smart food logging in the Dexcom app, where you can simply take a photo of what you’re eating and the app will record what it is. This year, the company is expanding that functionality by breaking down the calories, carbs, protein, fat, and dietary fiber in your meals and including text search and barcode scanning. The app will also offer daily insights with three personalized, actionable recommendation cards and contextual understanding.
I used to worry that monitoring your blood sugar was part of a larger trend (along with protein powders and GLP-1) that reflected a broader shift in body ideals and could lead to eating disorders. However, as Dr. Diane Stadler, a registered dietitian and professor at Oregon Health & Science University, pointed out, patients with eating disorders have a disorder. There are far worse ways to lose weight than prioritizing lean protein and fiber and taking a walk after every meal. —Adrienne So
Blink’s outdoor security camera goes 2K
Courtesy of Blink
The latest security camera from Amazon’s budget brand is the Blink Outdoor 2K+. The main advantage of this fifth generation camera over the Blink Outdoor 4 is a higher resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Support for 2K is quickly becoming the norm, and we’ve seen Google’s Nest cameras, among others, ramp up recently. This is good news for home security enthusiasts, as sharper images make it easier to recognize subjects, packages, animals and vehicles.
