Bluesky is the latest social media platform to throw its hat into the AI chatbot ring. Bluesky, but specifically its chief innovation officer Jay Graber and her new Exploration team, built a new AI assistant called Attie that’s designed to help users create custom feeds. Graber called Attie an “agentic social app” that’s built on its its open-source framework called the AT Protocol.

To use Attie, users can punch in prompts in natural language to generate social feeds without having to know how to code. On the Attie website, examples include prompts like, “Show me electronic music and experimental sound from people in my network” or “Builders working on agent infrastructure and open protocol design.”

“It feels more like having a conversation than configuring software,” Graber described Attie in a blog post. “You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described.”

Graber added that Attie is a separate app from Bluesky and users don’t have to use the new AI assistant if they don’t want to. However, since Attie and Bluesky were built on the same framework, it could mean there will be some cross-app implementation between the two or any other app built on the AT Protocol. Attie is currently available on an invite-only closed beta, but anyone interested can sign up for the waitlist on its website in the meantime.

It’s a sad day for the dozens of players still grinding The Elder Scrolls: Blades. Bethesda announced that it’s permanently shutting down the servers for its free-to-play mobile spinoff on June 30. First spotted on Reddit, The Elder Scrolls: Blades has already been delisted from the App Store and Google Play store, and is currently unavailable on the Nintendo Store.

In the meantime, players will receive a free bundle of Gems and Sigils, while all items in the in-game store are available for just one Gem or Sigil each. With a server shutdown imminent, The Elder Scrolls: Blades‘ will at least cross its six-year mark since its official release was in 2020 for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch. The dungeon-crawling spinoff did see early success when more than one million iOS users downloaded the game during the first week of its early access period, but it never amounted to the commercial success of Bethesda’s mainline titles.

In the end, The Elder Scrolls: Blades ended up with a “Generally Unfavorable” score on Metacritic, with critics calling it “repetitive” and filled with microtransactions. The shutdown doesn’t come as a total surprise, since Bethesda also killed off its other spinoff, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, by halting development in 2019 and ultimately taking the game’s servers offline in January 2025. For anyone who still wants to play a mobile spinoff of Bethesda’s fantasy world, there’s still The Elder Scrolls: Castles.

BGIS Grand Finals just wrapped up, and we’ve had a nail-biting competition that went down to the wire. In the end, there were just two rivals, Soul and Genesis. Soul had a horrible last match, which meant all hopes rested on Genesis, and, as you may have guessed from the title, they messed up. Soul ended the day by being crowned BGMIS Grand Finals champions, with Genesis and OG completing the podium. Here’s what the standings look like after day three of BGIS Grand Finals.

BGIS Grand Finals Standings After Day 3

The action, the thrill, and the fun were all just amazing in the day of action. Lots of tournaments await us in the next couple of months, but Soul does look like the team to beat if anyone else wants to clinch the title. If you missed the games, check out our highlights for both the first and second day.

“What happens when you can describe the social experience you want and have it built for you…?” asks Bluesky? “We’ve just started experimenting, but we’re sharing it now because we want you to build alongside us.”

Called “Attie” — because it’s built with Bluesky’s decentralized publishing framework, AT Protocol (which is open source) — the new assistant turns natural language prompts into social feeds, without users having to know how to code. (It’s part of Bluesky’s mission to “develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.”)

Engadget reports:

On the Attie website, examples include prompts like, “Show me electronic music and experimental sound from people in my network” or “Builders working on agent infrastructure and open protocol design.”

“It feels more like having a conversation than configuring software,” [writes Bluesky’s former CEO/current chief innovation officer, Jay Graber, in a blog post]. “You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described.”

Graber added that Attie is a separate app from Bluesky and users don’t have to use the new AI assistant if they don’t want to. However, since Attie and Bluesky were built on the same framework, it could mean there will be some cross-app implementation between the two or any other app built on the AT Protocol.
“Attie is open for beta signups today, and we’ll be sharing what we learn along the way,” Graber writes in the blog post. “To learn more about Attie, visit: Attie.AI. Come help us find out what this can be.”

The blog post warns that “Right now, AI is undermining human agency at the same time it’s enhancing it,” since “The proliferation of low-quality AI-generated content is making public social networks noisier and less trustworthy…” And in a world where “signal is getting harder to find… The major platforms aren’t trying to fix this problem.”

They’re using AI to increase the time users spend on-platform, to harvest training data, and to shape what users see and believe through systems they can’t inspect and didn’t choose. We think AI should serve people, not platforms…

An open protocol puts this power directly in users’ hands. You can use it to build your own feeds, create software that works the way you want it to, and find signal in the noise. We built the AT Protocol so anyone could build any app they imagine on top of it, but until recently “anyone” really meant “anyone who can code.” Agentic coding tools change that. For the first time, an open protocol can be genuinely open to everyone…

The Atmosphere [Bluesky’s interoperable ecosystem] is an open data layer with a clearly defined schema for applications, which makes it uniquely well-suited for coding agents to build on… Bluesky will continue to evolve as a social app millions of people rely on. Attie will be where we experiment with agentic social.

AI is an accelerant on whatever it’s applied to. I want it to accelerate decentralizing social and putting power back in users’ hands. But I don’t think the most interesting things built on AT Protocol will come from us. They’re going to come from everyone who picks up these tools and starts building.

I’ve had access to Alexa+ for a few days now, so not enough for a full review, but enough time to start getting a sense of what the new smart assistant is capable of. While I sort out the final review, here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Gone is Alexa Speak, replaced by the ability to phrase questions and requests more naturally, putting words in the order I see fit.

Alexa+ generally picks up the right context and remembers enough that it’s easy to add follow-up questions. If Alexa+ doesn’t understand, I can just rephrase the question or add a bit more information to try to get the result I want. 

It’s a big improvement over the old Alexa+, which felt a lot more transactional, able only to deal with specific requests.

Smart home control is better, with the odd caveat

Go beyond the basic of asking Alexa+ to turn on a light, and the system is surprisingly powerful. Take the little cold spell that we’ve just had. Rather than asking Alexa+ what the temperature currently is in the office, and then asking to set the heating to some level above that, I could just say, “Alexa, it’s cold in here.”

My heating turned on, above the target temperature and my office was given a little boost. 

I can also make a command temporary, asking Alexa+ to turn a device off after a specific period. I did find that this required a bit of specific wording: “Alexa, turn the heating off after 10 minutes” didn’t work, but, “Alexa, turn the heating off in ten minutes’ time”, did.

Alexa+ then created a temporary Routine that did what I wanted. It’s possible even to string together something more complicated: “Alexa, turn the heating on. Set the temperature to 21°C and turn the heating off in 30 minutes’ time.”. 

Impressively, that mostly worked, although Alexa did decide to set the Bathroom thermostat to 21°C, which was a bit odd. Small issues aside, it’s actually very easy to achieve something quite complex without going anywhere near the app.

The local business search is sub-par

“Alexa, what’s the nearest French restaurant?” I asked. The answer was Le Marmiton, Wanstead. Not only is that restaurant an eight-minute walk from my house, but, the main issue is that Le Marmiton shut down in 2023. 

Amazon has said that it’s looking to improve the real-time information, and it needs to do this urgently. This is just one example, but being almost three years out of date isn’t great.

Booking restaurants is good, even if it’s a bit limited

If a restaurant is on OpenTable, then you can get Alexa+ to book the table for you. It’s a neat way of interacting and getting Alexa+ to do the hard work of finding when there’s space free on the date and time you want.

There are some limitations, outside of only supporting OpenTable, with the main one that Alexa+ can’t currently reserve a table at a restaurant that requires a credit card for the booking. It’s a known issue, and Amazon is looking to fix this.

Alexa+ is great at disseminating data

One thing that AI is good at is making sense of data, and that applies with Alexa+, which can scan photos, documents and emails, and can then summarise the information and look for to-do items and calendar dates.

The information can be emailed to Amazon ([email protected]), provided you’re sending from a linked email address. At least, in my experience, that’s in theory. Despite my personal email address being linked, I’ve not had any success when emailing data over.

I can use the app, and that’s impressive. Adding a document for my daughter’s upcoming dance competition, Alexa+ added some checklist items for things that need to be done (costume, etc), and then found the date of the competition and added it to my calendar.

I also took a photo of the school’s term dates page (a hideous, messy table), and Alexa+ found all of the term dates and the inset dates, letting me add them to my calendar.

There’s no support for work calendars

If you’ve got a work Gmail or Exchange account, then you can’t link this to Alexa+. Amazon is working on it, but for now it’s a bit frustrating. I pay for email hosting for my personal account, but I can’t add this to Alexa+. Instead, I’ve had to find a third-party tool that synchronises a free Gmail calendar with my paid-for Exchange one. Amazon needs to fix this one fast.

Alexa+ is the best voice assistant

It’s early days, but my initial impressions are that Alexa+ is the best voice assistant: it understands more, is easier to talk to, and can do more complicated things than its rivals.

Shanling has officially unveiled the SM90, a compact network player that does more than just stream music. Priced just under $1,000, the SM90 integrates HDMI ARC, dual AKM DACs, and a modern Android-based platform into a single chassis designed to anchor both hi-fi and TV audio systems. That HDMI ARC input is the headline feature and not just for spec sheet bragging rights. It signals a shift in how companies like Shanling are positioning streamers in 2026: not as standalone music devices, but as central hubs for everything from Qobuz playlists to Netflix dialogue.

Although Shanling isn’t the first to build a capable streamer, the SM90 is among the first in its class to take HDMI ARC seriously. That single connection allows users to route TV audio directly into a two-channel system without needing an AVR or soundbar. It’s a practical move. More listeners are consolidating their systems, and the idea of separate music and TV setups feels increasingly outdated. The SM90 leans into that reality, even if purists might roll their eyes.

Familiar Hardware, More Focused Execution

Under the hood, Shanling sticks with a familiar and proven formula. Dual AKM AK4493S DACs handle conversion duties, paired with a closed Android 12 system running on a platform with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. A 4.96-inch 1080p touchscreen anchors the user experience. Nothing here reinvents the category, but that seems intentional. Shanling appears more focused on stability and refinement than chasing novelty this time around.

Streaming support covers most of what buyers expect at this level. Qobuz Connect, TIDAL Connect, AirPlay 2, DLNA, and access to major streaming apps are all included, alongside Wi-Fi 6, Ethernet, and Bluetooth 5.2 with LDAC. Roon Ready status is still pending, which may give some buyers pause. In this segment, that box usually needs to be checked on day one.

Connectivity is where the SM90 starts to separate itself from a crowded field. In addition to HDMI ARC, it offers USB DAC functionality, optical and coaxial inputs and outputs, balanced XLR and single-ended RCA outputs, and support for internal storage via SSD. That’s a broader and more flexible I/O set than many competitors, reinforcing the idea that Shanling wants this to be the center of a system rather than just another endpoint.

The timing, however, is not exactly forgiving. The sub-$1,000 streamer category is now one of the most competitive in hi-fi, with strong options from WiiM, Eversolo, Cambridge Audio, and HiFi Rose already entrenched. Shanling’s approach leans more traditional, but with a modern twist in the form of HDMI ARC. Whether that combination is enough will come down to execution, particularly on the software side, where stability and responsiveness matter more than another feature checkbox.

The SM90 is less about breaking new ground and more about acknowledging where the category is headed. By adding HDMI ARC and expanding connectivity, it positions itself as a true system hub rather than just another streamer. What remains uncertain is how well it all works in the real world.

There are no meaningful third-party reviews yet, Roon certification is still pending, and Shanling’s software track record is not spotless. But if those pieces fall into place, the SM90 could land exactly where a lot of systems are heading—right between your speakers and your TV, whether audiophiles like it or not.

Features

• Compact dimensions at 28 x 23 x 8.5 cm
• Reduced weight at just 3.3kg
• Dual AKM AK4493s DAC Section
• OPA1612 Analog Output
• 4.96-Inch 1080p Touch Screen
• Closed Android 12 platform, Rockchip CPU
• Qobuz Connect, Tidal Connect, Roon Ready (in process)
• Built-in Streaming Apps
• (Apple, Apple Classical, Amazon, Spotify, KKBox, Presto, Radio Paradise)
• NAS, DLNA, AirPlay 2 Playback
• Internal SSD Slot & USB Drive Playback
• Bluetooth 5.2 Input support LDAC, AAC, SBC
• Digital Inputs: Coaxial / Optical / USB DAC / HDMI ARC
• Digital Outputs: Coaxial / Optical / USB
• Analog Outputs: RCA & XLR

The Bottom Line

The Shanling SM90 is less about breaking new ground and more about acknowledging where the category is headed. By adding HDMI ARC and expanding connectivity, it positions itself as a true system hub rather than just another streamer, one clearly designed to sit between your TV and a modern two channel system without forcing you into an AVR or soundbar ecosystem.

What’s still missing is clarity where it matters. U.S. pricing appears to land somewhere around $900 to $1,000, but nothing feels fully locked, and that matters in a segment where even a modest price shift can change the conversation. There’s also no real world performance data yet, Roon certification remains pending, and Shanling’s software track record, while improving, has not been flawless. Past issues with app stability and gapless playback are still fresh enough to raise concern, and those are the kinds of problems that undermine an otherwise strong product.

It is also worth noting what is not here. There is no indication of built in room correction or system optimization tools, which feels like a missed opportunity in 2026, especially for buyers pairing a streamer with active speakers and expecting a more complete and flexible setup. At the same time, the competition is well established. WiiM, Cambridge Audio, Bluesound, Eversolo, and others already offer mature platforms, stable apps, and in some cases deeper ecosystem integration.

Shanling has been on a solid run lately with its higher end CD and SACD players and a steady stream of well received portable gear, so the SM90 is not arriving from a position of weakness. But this category does not reward potential, it rewards execution. If Shanling delivers stable software and consistent performance, the SM90 could be a serious contender. If not, it risks becoming just another well specified box in a segment that already has plenty of proven alternatives.

Where to buy: $969 (available April 2026)

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