Welcome to Boost Mode, my weekly PCWorld newsletter focused on PC gaming, enthusiast hardware, and other geeky stuff centered around your desk and desktop. Fortuitously, my Steam Machine just came in last week, giving me the perfect topic for this inaugural column. I spent my own money to buy it… and I kind of wish I hadn’t. It cost a lot of money, for not a lot of hardware.
The Steam Machine…
Bethesda chief Todd Howard has issued a rare post on Reddit, telling gamers that the developer is “constantly listening” to fans on the website. And so, unsurprisingly, fans have responded with requests.
Howard posted in the r/games subreddit in the wake of Bethesda’s…
It is an old story – told to me nearly a decade ago by those who lived it – but it bears repeating now. Fallout was invented only because its paymasters weren’t paying attention. Developed in the bowels of Interplay during the publisher’s 90s heyday, the classic RPG…
'Please Play Us When GTA 6 Comes Out': Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Developer Teases Post-Game Support
July 21, 2026
The director of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has told fans to keep playing — even when GTA 6 launches.
Of course, the hugely-anticipated GTA 6 arrives on November 19, and is expected to gobble up gaming time and attention away from pretty much every major release — so much so that many other developers are steering well clear and launching their games en masse in September and early…
Strategy Says Bitcoin Reserve Provides 31 Years of Dividend Coverage as Cash Buffer Reaches $3.2 Billion
July 21, 2026
Strategy says its bitcoin treasury provides 31 years of dividend coverage, while its U.S. dollar reserve provides 1.8 years of near-term coverage. The figures shift attention from bitcoin purchases to the company’s ability to sustain preferred-share obligations.
Key…
Grayscale to Pay Quarterly Cash From ETH and SOL Staking Rewards: A Look at The Mechanics
July 21, 2026
Grayscale plans to amend its Ethereum Staking exchange-traded fund (ETHE) and Solana Staking ETF (GSOL) to convert staking rewards into cash and distribute them to shareholders at least once a quarter.
Key Takeaways
Grayscale filing seeks to convert ETHE and GSOL staking…
When Bitcoin traffic gets heavy, a full block does not stop the network; it turns the next available space into a live auction where urgency has a price.
Key Takeaways
Bitcoin blocks cap at 4 million weight units, forcing lower-fee payments to wait.
Bitcoin Core 31.0 can evict weak packages when a node’s 300 MB mempool fills.
Bitcoin users have 3 fee-bump paths, RBF, CPFP, and mining…
The costs of space launch have fallen 96% in the past six decades and have the potential to plummet by nearly as much by 2040, a new study finds.
However, such an improvement might get hampered by a number of challenges, such as the rise of space debris in orbit or a single…
In looking back and commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Viking missions to Mars, one is struck by the bold and audacious undertaking.
Twin spacecraft missions — each consisting of a lander and an orbiter — made their way to Mars and into the history books. The…
A bright “Saturn’s ring” of satellites could circle the night sky if plans to launch a million data center spacecraft and tens of thousands of space mirrors come to pass. This ring, traversing the sky for hours after dusk and before dawn, would outshine every star and planet, and be visible from every spot on Earth.
Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics at the University of Birmingham in…
