The world of PC gaming moves fast. New titles are constantly being developed and discovered, game-changing hardware launches that could affect your next PC upgrade, and news breaks that can alter the stakes for some of the biggest PC companies in the world.
We’re so invested in this corner of the tech industry that we’re launching a newsletter, and it’s called ReSpec. Once you sign up, you’ll get your very own weekly breakdown of the tech behind PC gaming — delivered right to your inbox each Friday morning.
The newsletter will include three stories from the week. It could be a breakdown of a recent announcement, a conversation that took place over social media, or something else entirely. The goal is to bring you three stories that are grounded in what’s happening in the world of PC hardware that go beyond a simple product announcement.
But this isn’t just a place to regurgitate the week’s news in your inbox — you can expect my own analysis, opinions, and context, just in a bite-sized package.
In addition to the main stories, we’ll have the Min Max section, which is a place to talk about what I’ve been up to over the past week. It could be an interesting app that you should check out, or maybe a hidden gem on Steam that’s worth picking up. It’s a footnote to turn you on to something you may not have known about or provide short updates on what I’ve been up to.
That’s the setup of the newsletter we’re starting with, but it’s not the final form. We’ll continue working on the format and consider adding more sections, so if there’s something you want to see, you can find my email by clicking my byline above.
So, you might be wondering — what makes me so qualified to write this newsletter? Well, PC gaming is what I live and breathe — I write about the topic day in and day out here at Digital Trends before logging off to go and play games on my PC. I think about it constantly, and I live it constantly, not only understanding the products and dynamics essential to reporting on the topic, but also understanding what it’s like to actually play games on a PC.
This meeting of professional and personal passion is what led to the ReSpec newsletter. It’s also a way to expand our ReSpec column.
If you’re unfamiliar, I already write a biweekly column that goes deeper into the intersection between PC hardware and gaming. We’ve covered such topics as why Xbox’s Quick Resume feature hasn’t come to PC yet, the confusing and misleading marketing for laptop GPUs, how one solo developer changed the Steam Deck forever, and so much more. The goal of a ReSpec column is to go deep by investigating or closely analyzing a topic that isn’t widely covered. Column entries are big, and they take a long time to put together. These are in-depth features, consisting of sourced interviews and my own testing, that tell unique stories about the tech behind PC gaming.
But in the fast-moving world of PC gaming, there’s a lot being left on the cutting room floor. That’s where the ReSpec newsletter comes into play.
You’ll still get a full, fat ReSpec column every two weeks on Sunday mornings. On weeks when I’m publishing a column entry, I’ll take some space in the newsletter to provide a synopsis of what the column covers. You could consider it a sneak peek or a summarized version of the column — regardless, you’ll get the full scope of what ReSpec is covering in the newsletter before new columns go live.
We’re adding to ReSpec, not taking away anything. If nerding out about graphics cards, PC games, and squeezing every last bit of performance out of your rig sounds like your jam, make sure to enter your email and sign up for the newsletter.
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Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.