steam

It takes a while to learn the ins and outs of cooking. That goes to for gaining familiarity with the equipment. Yet after a while--and trials and errors--one learns to navigate through any given kitchen with ease. And then just add water and everything changes.

The Wolf CSO24 Convection Steam Oven encourages a new level of cooking, combining wet and dry cooking with evenly distributed heat. Exploring this frontier doesn't require a learning curve; the oven includes fully automatic modes for easy and delicious results. In addition to a couple of different cleaning modes (descale and cleanse), as well … Read more

First it was Microsoft to release an Xbox Live companion app onto the App Store, and now Valve is following suit with a similar piece of software--the Steam app--though it seems to be much more functional than Microsoft's.

The app allows users on the platform to keep in touch with their Steam friends via Steam Chat and also provides access to the entire Steam store. Like the Xbox Live app, players can browse their friends list and see who is online and playing what.

Of course the Steam app doesn't deliver mobile games to iOS and … Read more

Sacramento, Calif. is going to get a little steamy this weekend as the International Association for the Advancement of Steam Power and the Steam Automobile Club of America kick off a conference on the latest developments in steam power technology.

Ten steam-powered cars will be on display at the first-ever IAASP conference, to be held January 13, 14, and 15 at the California Automobile Museum. Conference participants will include steam automobile owners and developers, modern steam locomotive experts, small steam power plant developers and manufacturers, engineers, and enthusiasts.

Cyclone Power Technologies, the company that created the engine for a Cyclone-Williams LSR streamliner, … Read more

Hackers broke into a database with customer information at the Steam online gaming site, accessed user forum accounts and defaced a forum site, the company said.

"Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums," Gabe Newell, co-founder of Steam developer Valve Corp., said in a statement posted to the Steam site.

"We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums," he added. "This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted … Read more

I love the "Back to the Future" movies, so I was tickled when Telltale Games released an eponymous PC game late last year. (An iPad version followed shortly.)

This five-episode adventure normally sells for $24.99. But from now until 7 p.m. ET, you can get Back to the Future: The Game (Windows/Mac) via Steam for just $10. Great Scott!

This unofficial sequel takes place six months after the events of the third movie. Christopher Lloyd returns to voice Doc Brown, and a fairly decent voice actor fills in for Michael J. Fox--until … Read more

Well here's some interesting timing. Just days after I finished playing Portal for the very first time (more on that in a bit), Steam is offering the game absolutely free.

Specifically, from now until September 20, you can download Portal (PC and Mac) absolutely free. Yesterday, it would have cost you $10.

Update: Many readers have reported difficulty signing up for a Steam account. My only suggestion is to keep trying, as I'm sure Steam's servers are overloaded. I'll update further if I learn anything more.

Update #2: Steam tech support just tweeted this fix: "… Read more

The sun's energy will replace natural gas as the fuel for drawing more oil from the ground in Oman.

GlassPoint Solar yesterday announced that it has signed a deal to install a 7-megawatt solar power system for Petroleum Development Oman to aid oil extraction. The solar system, which is essentially a glass house with solar concentrators, will generate the steam needed to pump oil from existing fields.

In many existing oil wells, there is a substantial amount of oil underground, but it has become more expensive to pull out. In an enhanced oil recovery field, steam is pumped into … Read more

Apple's Mac App Store is now on virtually every Intel-based Mac out there. It's come preinstalled on new systems since January, including the brand-new MacBook Air and Mac Mini desktops, and it was pushed to owners of prior systems (who have at least OS X v10.6.6) via a downloadable update.

While you're not locked into it for buying new software as you are with the App Store for the iPad, iPhone, and other iOS devices (jailbreaking aside), it's so convenient and easy to use that it's probably your first stop when looking for … Read more

The war of words over usage-based pricing on Internet service continues to heat up.

AT&T General Counsel Wayne Watts fired off a response to an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) by Netflix General Counsel David Hyman criticizing the need to charge consumers a different price based on the amount of data they consume at home.

The piece, which ran on Friday, said bandwidth pricing was "bad news for consumers and threatens to slow down the innovation powering today's Internet economy."

Watts, however, argued that the continued need to invest capital in … Read more