TL;DR
Windows 11 can now search with two characters instead of three. Local files also rank higher than web results and Copilot suggestions. June Patch Tuesday.
Windows 11 can now search with two characters instead of three. Local files also rank higher than web results and Copilot suggestions. June Patch Tuesday.
Microsoft’s June 2026 Patch Tuesday update quietly fixes one of Windows Search’s longest-standing irritations. The search box now finds files with as few as two characters, down from the previous three-character minimum. Files named Q3, V2, or any other short label are no longer invisible.
The update also changes how results are ranked. Local files now surface near the top instead of getting buried beneath web results, app suggestions, and Copilot prompts. For anyone who names files with short, practical labels, the improvement removes a small friction that compounded every time they searched.
Windows Latest called the June release the biggest Patch Tuesday of the year. Beyond the search fix, it includes the record 200 security patches that addressed 33 critical vulnerabilities and three publicly disclosed zero-days.
Dropping one character from the search minimum sounds trivial. It is not. Most people who work with dozens of files daily use two-character naming conventions without thinking about it. The old three-character floor meant those files required a third keystroke before Windows would even start looking, and when it did, the actual file often appeared below web links and AI suggestions that nobody asked for.
The fix is the kind of usability improvement that feels obvious only after it ships. Microsoft’s AI-first restructuring has dominated the company’s public messaging this year. But the most useful change it shipped in June was not an AI feature. It was letting you find a file called Q3.
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I came to this Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini with admitted baggage. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it; I did not like Bluesound’s original Pulse Soundbar. It had an awkward design, it sounded cold and clinical, and it was very expensive when compared to alternative products.
The Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini is company’s latest model, and is still on the pricey side, but where its predecessor disappointed, the Cinema Mini impresses. There’s powerful, rich, and detailed sound, an elegant design that will complement most rooms, and a wealth of features you won’t find from brands like Sonos and Bose.
Like any Dolby Atmos soundbar that tries to do immersive, 3D sound with only two channels, the Pulse Cinema Mini can’t quite deliver on the promise of overhead height channel effects, but it makes up for it with a surprisingly wide soundstage that brings Atmos and 5.1 movies to life, and does wonders for stereo.
Though physically wider than most “mini” soundbars, that’s clearly enabling its biggest strength: it gives the speaker room to house a set of woofers that deliver much bolder low-end bass than the compact category is known for.
This puts the Pulse Cinema Mini in a tricky spot for buyers. It’s priced higher than many full-sized soundbars, yet it can’t quite match the performance of those larger speakers. It’s highly versatile, yet it may be too big for truly small setups.
These contradictions mean the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini isn’t a no-brainer-just-buy-it product, but there’s also no doubt in my mind that if you put a high value on the things it well, you’ll be thrilled with it in your home.
Bluesound sells the Pulse Cinema Mini in many international markets, including the US, UK, and Canada. However, it hasn’t yet released the soundbar in Australia.
At $999 / £799, the Pulse Cinema Mini is considerably more expensive than its closest direct competitors, like the Bose Smart Soundbar at $499 / £499.95, and Sonos Beam Gen 2 at $499 / £499.
However, it boasts better performance and has several features that set it apart. The Pulse Cinema Mini includes a wall-mount bracket; it’s larger and more powerful than the Bose and Sonos models, and it includes an analog input, wired subwoofer output, USB storage access, and two-way Bluetooth with aptX Adaptive, all of which are absent on the Smart Soundbar and Beam Gen 2.
|
Dimensions (W x H x D) |
(W x H x D): 33.34 x 2.91 x 5.51 inches |
|
Speaker channels |
2.0 (2.1 with planned update) |
|
Connections: |
1x HDMI out (with eARC), optical in, RCA stereo in, USB-A, Gigabit Ethernet, RCA subwoofer-out, Wi-Fi (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.2 (two-way, with aptX Adaptive support) |
|
Dolby Atmos/DTS:X |
Yes/No |
|
Sub included |
No |
|
Rear speakers included |
No |
|
Features |
AirPlay 2, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect, Roon Ready, multiroom audio, expandable channel layout, hi-res audio |
|
File formats |
MP3, AAC, WMA, WMA-L, OGG, OPUS, FLAC, MQA, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, MPEG-4 SLS, DSD256 |
As is the case for a lot of small-footprint soundbars, the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini doesn’t has only one HDMI port, so you won’t be able to connect devices like streaming video players, Blu-ray players, or game consoles and pass through their video to your TV.
However, it also offers connections that are rarely found in this class of speaker, such as dedicated analog inputs (as well as optical digital), a wired subwoofer output, and a USB port that provides access to music stored on a hard drive.
Even its Bluetooth capability exceeds standard soundbar fare, with its support for Qualcomm’s high-quality aptX Adaptive codec and the ability to stream in two directions: from a phone or computer to the soundbar, or from the soundbar to a set of wireless headphones or a Bluetooth speaker.
Bluesound gets compared to Sonos a lot. Bluesound’s BluOS apps for phones and computers perform many of the same multi-room and music management functions as Sonos’ software.
Like Sonos, Bluesound makes a range of wireless audio devices from speakers to subwoofers to streamers that can all work seamlessly together in one household. The Cinema Mini can be bonded with various combinations of these speakers for a true surround sound experience, or it can simply play the same music at the same time for a synchronized house party.
Thanks to its compatibility with multiple hi-res audio formats and sample rates, many audiophiles feel that Bluesound is superior to Sonos.
Still, there are a few things Bluesound can’t do. You can stream Apple Music via AirPlay or Bluetooth, but neither of these gives you lossless quality, and the BluOS app doesn’t have native support for Apple Music, YouTube Music, or Spotify. Unlike Sonos, there’s no easy in-app room correction here.
It also doesn’t support support DTS, it doesn’t support Google Cast, it’s not compatible with Google Home — but Sonos also lacks these.
Currently, despite its Dolby Atmos certification, native support of Amazon Music, and Tidal Connect compatibility, there’s no way to stream Dolby Atmos Music to the Pulse Cinema Mini without the help of an HDMI-connected third-party device, such as an Apple TV 4K. Since the Mini only has one HDMI eARC port, that device will need to use your TV as a go-between.
Before we get into sound quality, a quick note on the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini’s stated specifications. Bluesound says it’s a 2.1-channel system, but this isn’t entirely accurate.
According to the company, the soundbar will be capable of processing low-frequency effects (or LFE — the subwoofer part of a soundtrack) without any help from a standalone subwoofer; it’s just that, as of the time of reviewing, it doesn’t actually do so.
For now, if you want true, 2.1 sound from the Cinema Mini, you’ll need to connect a powered sub via the soundbar’s sub output, or buy the Bluesound Plus Sub+ wireless subwoofer.
Having said that, even with only two discrete channels, this is a very capable soundbar for both multichannel and stereo sound. Thanks to a pair of dedicated woofers and passive bass radiators, it pumps out surprisingly deep and resonant bass, which leads me to believe that it will have no problem with LFE channel content when and if Bluesound adds it.
For music, the Cinema Mini’s bass is powerful enough to get by without a subwoofer in smaller rooms.
My experience with two-channel soundbars, even those that can process Dolby Atmos, has been less than stellar. So I have to give Bluesound a lot of credit for the Cinema Mini’s acoustic design and digital signal processing (DSP). With an angled tweeter and midrange driver located at each end of the bar, it projects sound both outward and to the sides, creating a soundstage with remarkable width and detail.
It reminds me a lot of Sennheiser’s Ambeo Soundbar Mini, which also uses just six powered drivers to achieve its virtualized surround sound. Unlike the Ambeo Soundbar Mini, which suffers from a lack of low-end, the Pulse Cinema Mini has a full-range sound that won’t disappoint.
Still, when it comes to Dolby Atmos, you’ll need to temper your expectations. The Cinema Mini’s DSP has to do a lot of heavy lifting to get its two discrete channels to virtualize surround and height content. It does a decent job with the surrounds, but height effects aren’t especially distinct.
During the Aston Martin chase scene from No Time To Die, there’s a moment when the camera passes beneath a set of church bells. Well-executed height systems let you hear the bells move overhead, but the Cinema Mini’s processing just makes the sound bigger, not taller or dynamic.
I find this to be true of nearly all Atmos systems that lack up-firing drivers. The Sonos Beam Gen 2, for instance, doesn’t perform any better in the height department. But the Beam Gen 2 is half the price of the Pulse Cinema Mini. Sonos’ Arc Ultra, by contrast, is basically the same price as the Cinema Mini, and will win any Dolby Atmos competition, hands down.
The same is true when it comes to the Cinema Mini’s lack of an LFE channel. In that same No Time To Die scene, James Bond’s ride is riddled with machine gun fire. When you’re inside the car with Bond, the Sonos Arc Ultra renders each bullet impact viscerally — its built-in subwoofer lets you feel the concussion. It’s still an enjoyable scene via the Cinema Mini (it captures the bullet ricochets nicely), but you’ll definitely need to add a sub if you want deeper cinematic immersion.
For its wide soundstage, the Cinema Mini pays a small price in terms of dialogue clarity. I don’t want to overstate this — I had no problem making out speech — but with no central tweeter or midrange, voices don’t have the same laser-like focus that you’ll get from the Ambeo Soundbar Mini, or even the Bose Smart Soundbar.
As good as TV sound is on the Pulse Cinema Mini, the real reason for dropping a thousand dollars on this speaker is its music performance. I seldom heap praise on soundbars for music listening, but the Cinema Mini is truly superb for its class.
Stereo rendering is where Bluesound’s decision to use a two-channel architecture pays big dividends. Whether you listen with or without the optional Surround Upmixer and Virtualizer modes turned on (inside the BluOS app), the Cinema Mini produces a beautifully balanced, smooth, and detailed sound.
Sitting front and center lets you hear strong stereo imaging and a perfectly placed phantom center channel. But do yourself a favor and turn on the Surround Upmixer and Virtualizer. The purists among you may scoff, but I love the extended width these DSP filters create. The Cinema Mini grows to twice its length — maybe more — and panned stereo sounds seem to float ethereally in the upper front corners of my room.
The bass response, which I’ve come to think of as the Mini’s secret weapon, is well-managed from low to high volumes, musically anchoring tracks with its resonance and weight. Distortion is almost non-existent, and the Cinema Mini effortlessly plays at very loud levels.
If there’s one hitch in an otherwise excellent sound system, it’s that Bluesound is a bit too confident you’ll like its tuning. There are no bass/treble tone controls and no traditional equalizer, or EQ presets — with the exception of three optional listening “modes”: Movie, Music, and Late Night.
I’m familiar with this approach — the Cinema Mini isn’t the first Bluesound speaker I’ve reviewed — but it continues to surprise me, especially given that the company is highly regarded by audiophiles, who tend to have strong feelings about how things should sound.
Would I change much if I actually had access to these settings? Apart from de-emphasizing the highs just a tad, no, I wouldn’t make any other modifications. I really love the way the Cinema Mini sounds.
All-plastic construction is the norm for compact soundbars. This doesn’t necessarily mean they look bad — I’d argue the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is quite handsome — but the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini’s fabric-wrapped and gently curved shape looks a little more upscale, and a little less speaker-ish.
At 33.3 inches wide, the Cinema Mini is bigger than most compact soundbars. By contrast, the Beam Gen 2 is 25.6 inches, and the Bose Smart Soundbar is 27.3. The Cinema Mini is also slightly taller and deeper. Still, despite this larger footprint, it won’t look out of place under any TV from 32- to 55-inches, and as I noted in the Sound Quality section, this extra size pays dividends.
Under that soft grille lies the Pulse Cinema Mini’s unusual driver arrangement: the midrange drivers and tweeters are placed at the ends, each slightly angled up and out — no front-firing units and no centrally mounted high-frequency driver for dialogue. Meanwhile, the central body is occupied by the two woofers and their matching passive radiators.
This design (plus built-in, automatically triggered EQ changes) lets the Pulse Cinema Mini sound more or less the same whether you place it on a tabletop or mount it to a wall. Unlike the Beam Gen 2 and Smart Soundbar, whose optional wall mount brackets amount to small shelves, the Pulse Cinema Mini’s included hardware lets it cling to the wall without sticking out into the room.
Like Sonos’ speakers, Bluesound doesn’t ship its products with remote controls, but the Pulse Cinema Mini has a built-in IR receiver and can be operated with any IR remote you already own by teaching the soundbar (via the BluOS app) what to do when you press certain remote buttons. Sonos can do this, too, but only when using its soundbars for TV audio.
On the top surface, you’ll find a glass panel that houses the soundbar’s touch controls. Only the central play/pause icon remains lit — the presets and volume icons light up when you approach. There’s no independent volume level indicator, something I wish more companies would offer; however, your TV will likely display an on-screen indicator when the Pulse Cinema Mini is playing TV audio via HDMI.
Like most soundbars, getting the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini set up at a basic level is super easy: Plug it into your TV using the included HDMI cable, and then plug it into the wall with one of the included power cables (Bluesound puts both North American and E.U. versions in the box). You’ll immediately get great TV sound.
However, TV sound is only half of the experience with the Pulse Cinema Mini. To enjoy its awesome music capabilities, you need the BluOS app for iOS or Android. The app gets the soundbar connected to your Wi-Fi network and enables Apple AirPlay, plus it downloads and installs any available software updates, and gives you all of the deeper controls needed to customize the Pulse Cinema Mini to your liking.
The BluOS app also enables you to access multiple streaming services from a single interface and control playback across all BluOS compatible devices (which includes models from NAD, Dali, PSB Speakers, and Monitor Audio).
The BluOS app is fast and responsive, though, as with any platform that has as many features and options as BluOS, there’s a learning curve. Some things are straightforward, such as browsing music from available services, while others take some getting used to.
For instance, some of the Pulse Cinema Mini’s settings are available from the Now Playing screen or the Players tab, but others are only accessible via the Settings icon on the Home tab, and only if the soundbar is first selected in the Players tab.
There are loads of handy features like alarms, sleep timers, and smart playlists; however, BluOS hasn’t mastered one trick that makes Sonos, Wiim, and Denon/HEOS so appealing for those with multiple sources of music: universal search and favorites management.
If you decide to expand the Pulse Cinema Mini with Bluesound’s Pulse Sub+ and/or Pulse M/Pulse Flex speakers, these can easily be added and configured in the BluOS app.
Bluesound doesn’t integrate either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant into its products, but if you’ve already got an Alexa smart speaker, there’s a Bluesound skill that will let Alexa control your Pulse Cinema Mini (and any other Bluesound products you add later).
Look, there’s no way to justify the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini’s price based purely on its performance as a Dolby Atmos soundbar. It’s got great sound, but it can’t hold a candle to bigger, more powerful models such as the Sonos Arc Ultra, Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar, or Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8, which are the same price (give or take $100).
However, there are several other attributes that set the Cinema Mini apart, and these may tip the value balance if you want them. Want to hook up a turntable? Do you have an existing wired subwoofer you’d like to use? Is your room just too small for a full-size soundbar, but you don’t want to compromise on audio quality — especially when it comes to music listening? Do you like the idea of connecting a set of Bluetooth headphones? And are you looking for ultimate flexibility when it comes to expanding both your home theater as well as your whole-home audio?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini starts to look like it’s worth its nearly $1,000 asking price.
Just keep in mind that Bluesound’s other components often carry similarly high prices. Unless you get a bundle discount, adding the Pulse Sub+ will cost $899, and a pair of Pulse M surrounds adds another $998. You’re now up to $2,896, and your resulting 4.1-channel Dolby Atmos home theater system still lacks a center and height channels. Meanwhile, the same investment can get you a Sonos Arc Ultra + Sub 4 + 2x Era 300, with 9.1.4-channel sound.
|
Section |
Notes |
Score |
|
Features |
Some great rare features, including analog, subwoofer, and 2-way Bluetooth connections. But it’s also lacking some core soundbar features you get in the competition. |
3.5 / 5 |
|
Sound quality |
Impressive low end and virtual surround given its size. Best in class when it comes to music, as well. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Design |
It has an elegant, fabric-wrapped, rounded shape. Larger than some smaller room soundbars. You can mount it with auto-orientation detection. |
4 / 5 |
|
Setup & usability |
Easy setup here and the app support is great, although using the app does come with a learning curve. |
3.5 / 5 |
|
Value |
There’s no getting around the fact it’s expensive but it is excellent for music and the value grows if you’re planning to expand. |
3 / 5 |
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini |
Sonos Beam Gen 2 |
Bose Smart Soundbar |
Sonos Arc Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price (May 2026) |
$999 / £799 |
$499 / £499 / $699 |
$499 / £499 / AU$799 |
$999 / £799 / AU$1,799 |
|
Dimensions |
33.34 x 2.91 x 5.51 inches (W x H x D) |
25.6 x 2.3 x 3.9 inches (W x H x D) |
27.34 x 2.21 x 4.01 inches (W x H x D) |
2.95 x 46.38 x 4.35 inches (75 x 1178 x 110.6mm) |
|
Speaker channels |
2.0 (2.1 with planned update) with virtual Atmos |
3.0 with virtual Atmos |
3.0.2 with virtual Atmos |
9.1.4 (including virtual Atmos) |
|
Connections |
1x HDMI out (with eARC), optical in, RCA stereo in, USB-A, Gigabit Ethernet, RCA subwoofer-out, Wi-Fi (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.2 (two-way, with aptX Adaptive support) |
HDMI (with eARC), Ethernet. 802.11b/g/n/ac, 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2 |
HDMI, Optical, Bluetooth, USB, sub out, IR |
1x HDMI with eARC, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth |
|
Dolby Atmos/DTS:X |
Yes/No |
Yes/No |
Yes/No |
Yes/No |
|
Sub included |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Rear speakers included |
No |
No |
No |
No |
I spent a full week with the Bluesound Pulse Cinema Mini as my main audio system for watching movies, shows, and music in my basement media room.
During that time, I played a variety of Dolby Atmos test clips from movies like No Time To Die, Ford v Ferrari, Mad Max: Fury Road, Dune, and Unbroken, paying special attention to details like dialogue clarity, surround sound, and height channel impact.
I streamed most content from an Apple TV 4K connected via an LG OLED TV, which fed the MK2 from its HDMI eARC output, but I also connected an Nvidia Shield TV to an eARC extractor so I could hear the Cinema Mini’s treatment of Dolby Atmos in Dolby TrueHD.
For music, I used a variety of apps, including Tidal, Qobuz, and Amazon Music, listening to a wide range of genres. Some were played from apps on the Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Shield, while others were streamed wirelessly using AirPlay, Bluetooth, Tidal Connect, and Qobuz Connect. I tested several of these within the BluOS app as well.
If you’ve grown tired of relentless price hikes from your favorite streaming platforms, it’s nice to know that free TV streaming services such as Tubi, Kanopy and Pluto TV can be counted on for all kinds of great shows and movies. New films and TV shows arrive on these platforms every month, making them fantastic options if you don’t want to pay for another service.
This June, Tubi debuts the fun new thriller Night Shift, about a museum guard who is forced to participate in a heist to save her husband’s life. The streamer also has a few other great titles to catch up on this month, including Challengers, Independence Day and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. You should get right on top of that, Rose. (IYKYK.)
A couple of other big blockbusters are also arriving this month: you can catch Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem on Pluto TV, as well as a batch of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen flicks.
Kanopy has some great new releases this month too, from old favorites like Spaceballs to new indie films like Pools, Tow and Hot Milk. There are also lots of great A24 films dropping this month across Kanopy, Pluto, Plex and more, including The Whale, Uncut Gems, Aftersun and more.
Here’s a look at the best films arriving on free streaming platforms this June.
Former Love & Hip-Hop Hollywood cast member Apryl Jones stars in the newest Tubi original thriller, Night Shift. In the movie, Jones plays a security guard at an art gallery who encounters a group of thieves who give her an ultimatum: help them with their heist, or else her husband will be killed. The film arrives on June 5.
Other movies arriving on June 1 (unless otherwise noted):
Technics is Japanese. Fritz Hansen is Danish. The SL-40CBT is a Bluetooth direct drive turntable built for modern living rooms, not your local audio society’s hidden listening room. The new Fritz Hansen Special Edition keeps the same wireless-ready platform but adds a deep burgundy finish and a stronger dose of Scandinavian design.
The standard SL-40CBT already made sense. It gave Technics a more lifestyle-friendly entry point into the modern turntable market with Bluetooth streaming, a built-in moving magnet phono stage, direct drive engineering, and a cleaner, more compact MDF chassis. It was not designed to replace an SL-1200GR2 or SL-1500C in a high-end system.
It was designed for people who want a real Technics turntable that can work with active speakers, headphones, wireless systems, or a traditional amplifier without demanding three more boxes and a mess of cables.
The Fritz Hansen edition does not appear to change the SL-40CBT mechanically. Same Bluetooth direct drive platform, different visual language, and a much smaller production run.

The biggest change is visual. Technics has taken the SL-40CBT and given it Fritz Hansen’s signature deep burgundy finish, replacing the standard light grey, charcoal, and terracotta options with something more deliberate and less “we found this color in a Scandinavian coffee shop.”
There are also two Fritz Hansen-specific details: a branded metal plaque on the plinth and a Fritz Hansen-branded platter mat. Those are not sonic upgrades, but nobody buying this version is pretending a logo on a mat lowers the noise floor.
The collaboration also includes a matching limited-edition Kaiser Idell Luxus lamp in the same deep burgundy finish. The turntable and lamp are not sold as a pair, but they were clearly designed to share a room and make your IKEA KALLAX feel like Sweden just lost the design argument.

Underneath the new finish, Technics’ core direct drive engineering is still the headline feature. The table uses an iron coreless direct drive motor, which is the kind of thing Technics has been refining for decades while everyone else argued about whether Bluetooth and vinyl should be allowed in the same sentence.
The SL-40CBT also includes a switchable built-in moving magnet phono stage. That makes it easy to connect the turntable directly to powered loudspeakers, a line-level input, or a more conventional integrated amplifier. If you already own a better external phono preamp, you can bypass the internal one and upgrade the signal path later. That flexibility is the point.
Bluetooth is the other key feature. The SL-40CBT supports SBC and aptX Adaptive, allowing users to stream vinyl wirelessly to compatible speakers or headphones. Analog purists will roll their eyes hard enough to require medical assistance, but the use case is obvious. Not everyone wants a full rack of gear, and not everyone has the space, patience, or domestic approval for one.
The standard SL-40CBT was clearly aimed at newer vinyl buyers and people moving up from entry-level decks. That does not make it less desirable. It just means Technics understands that the next generation of vinyl listeners may want a turntable that can connect to active loudspeakers, stream to headphones, and still offer a real upgrade path.
The deck uses an MDF chassis rather than the traditional die-cast aluminum construction found higher up the Technics range. That choice helps keep the cost down and gives the table a more minimalist furniture-friendly profile. It also makes the SL-40CBT feel less like a DJ tool and more like a modern home audio product.
The 1.26 kg die-cast aluminum platter, reinforced rib structure, electronic speed control for 33 1/3 and 45 RPM, compact tonearm base, S-shaped tonearm, removable headshell, and newly tuned insulators still give the table a legitimate Technics foundation.


The Fritz Hansen collaboration also lands at a time when Danish audio and design feel impossible to avoid. Denmark has always punched above its weight in hi-fi, but lately it feels like the entire country held a quiet meeting and decided to colonize the listening room.
Dynaudio, Gryphon Audio Designs, Bang & Olufsen, DALI, Audiovector, Lyngdorf Audio, Steinway Lyngdorf, Ortofon, Raidho, System Audio, Buchardt Audio, Gato Audio, Vitus Audio, Ansuz, Aavik, Børresen, and CANVAS HiFi all reinforce the point. For a country with fewer people than some American metro areas, Denmark’s footprint in high-end audio is remarkable.
And it is not just about sound. Danish brands have been better than most at understanding that hi-fi equipment lives in actual rooms with furniture, lighting, kids, dogs, spouses, and the occasional guest who thinks your monoblocks are humidifiers. The best Danish audio products usually don’t scream for attention. They sit there looking calm, precise, and vastly superior.
Technics may be one of Japan’s most important hi-fi names, but this collaboration proves that Danish design is everywhere right now. Even the Japanese are borrowing the furniture language.

Only 300 units of the Technics SL-40CBT Fritz Hansen Special Edition will be made, with availability expected in October 2026. Pricing has not been announced, but it would be shocking if it did not cost more than the standard SL-40CBT.
That raises the obvious question: should anyone pay more for a color, a plaque, and a branded platter mat?
For most people, probably not. The standard SL-40CBT remains the smarter buy if the goal is sound quality, convenience, and value. The Fritz Hansen edition is for a narrower audience: design-conscious vinyl listeners, collectors, Fritz Hansen devotees, and people who want a Technics turntable that looks less like hi-fi hardware and more like part of the room.
That is not a criticism. Hi-Fi has spent too many years pretending that industrial design does not matter, which is absurd when most systems live in shared domestic spaces. The Fritz Hansen SL-40CBT is not technically more ambitious than the regular version, but it may be more desirable to the kind of buyer Technics wants to reach with this table.
Where to order: $1,199 at us.technics.com

Stefan spent more than a month testing different ways to connect Claude Code to Unreal Engine 5. Most attempts produced fragile setups that broke quickly or required constant manual fixes. The video he released on June 10 walks through the exact combination of tools and habits that finally produced something playable. Two free plugins made the difference. UnrealClaude gives the AI direct access to the viewport so it can capture screenshots and move objects around. VibeUE handles blueprint edits and Python commands inside the editor. Both connect through the Model Context Protocol, which lets Claude issue structured commands without constant copy-paste work.
The installation process begins with Unreal Engine 5.7 and the Claude Code desktop software, which are launched from the project folder. Stefan then advises Claude to get the plugins from GitHub and the website files, install the necessary libraries, and connect everything with some basic checks. A free VibeUE API key unlocks the blueprint tools, and a CLAUDE.md file in the root of your project preserves the setup information, letting you to pick up where you left off when you return. Git tracks every change here, which is really handy when the AI begins meddling with your concepts.
The test project starts out as a third-person template. Stefan installs a custom fox model from another AI tool and just adds some reference assets to the content folder. From then, he keeps the prompts concise and accurate. No generic “create a game” – he wants specific actions such as “I need a route of tiles that just keeps moving ahead of the player and disappearing behind, auto-forward movement, switching lanes left and right with the A and D keys, obstacles that block the lanes, and coins that only appear in safe areas.”

Claude starts working on a blueprint called BP_Runner_Tile to fix the repeated path problem, adding variables for tile length and path length and fine-tuning the logic so that new bits arrive at the right time while old ones are cleared up. Lane switching becomes more difficult as you need to check for collisions while keeping the camera moving smoothly, which various Python commands help with. The AI generates simple UI elements for the score, collected coins, and a game over screen with a retry button to begin.
Next, Stefan sends along some meshes for a stone bridge, spiky roller obstacles, and collected coins. The prompts direct Claude to replace the placeholder shapes with the real thing, to use proper PBR materials rather than the default shader, and to make sure that everything is in the proper spot so that nothing sticks out or clips through the railings or bridge. When things go wrong, Stefan just takes a screenshot and sends it to Claude, who uses line traces to detect geometry issues and nudges the items into a better position. We have one pass to sort through the coins that appear on top of obstacles, and another to clear up the bridge’s holes.

Iteration followed a constant pattern, but whenever there were significant changes to the project, Stefan would direct Claude to open the play-in-editor, take a new screenshot to check for any faults that had snuck in, and then assess what needed to be rectified. The AI would identify issues, such as the game terminating prematurely when the fox changed lanes or speed boosts that felt strange. So the AI would go in, modify the required blueprint nodes or variables, test again, and repeat the process. Blueprint-wise, things got a little complicated with the twisted node graphs, as you’d expect from AI tools, but the logic worked. Fortunately, human eyes intervened and prevented the situation from devolving into an unrecognizable tangle, called spaghetti code.
The finished prototype is a clean, endless runner. The fox figure merely plods on autopilot across this lovely stone bridge in a mountain landscape, while players try to avoid hazards and gather coins to boost their score and speed significantly. A simple user interface logs your progress and allows you to restart if you encounter any problems. Maintaining a focused and simplified project scope was critical to keeping things manageable and development time low. This, in turn, helped to keep token consumption from becoming out of control. To give you a flavor of how reasonable things were, even a very complex feature like randomly dropping safe coins somewhere in the game took about 15 minutes and 14,000 tokens on the Opus model.
I studied physics in college, and I’m always surprised how fundamental some of the concepts are. Take waves for example. You really wouldn’t expect the same underlying concept to be at work on surface of a pond, the string of a guitar, light passing through two slits, and then in the probabilistic behavior of electrons orbiting inside nuclei. But here we are, in a world filled with wave-like phenomena.
What little control theory I know, I’ve learned in the school of hard knocks. But it’s equally amazing that the same basic concepts govern the tuning of car shock absorbers, PID controllers, active audio filters, and other more complex systems where feedback matters. Crucial in all of these systems is the judicious balance of amplification and damping.
And last week on vacation, learning to drive a covered wagon pulled by a heavy draft horse, I saw the same patterns again. The horse likes to pull, and when the wagon comes over the crest of the top of a hill, it starts to roll forward into his harness, pushing him from behind. This makes the horse uneasy, and he slows down, the wagon pushes him harder, and positive feedback gets out of control.
The man who was teaching me to drive the wagon said, “it’s not like a car” in that you don’t tap the brakes to slow down and then let go. Rather, you hold on the brakes for a lot longer than you think is necessary – until the horse tells you that he feels like pulling again – and then you let up only a tiny bit at a time. Otherwise, you end up in the under-damped case, where you let the wagon go too much, it slows the horse, you slam the brakes, the horse pulls hard, and you let up on the brakes, and the cycle continues anew.
What he meant by “not like a car” was that the brakes aren’t just slowing down the wagon, they’re adding damping to keep the horse-wagon system from oscillating. Once that clicked in my mind, everything was smooth sailing. After a couple of days, I even started adding some feed-forward to my mental PID controller, letting the brakes go a little bit more when the horse was approaching the bottom of a hill, and he obviously wanted to pick up a little more speed before the grade ahead.
The horse seemed happy that I was finally getting it, but I don’t think he had any understanding of tuning PID loops. He did have me pondering, on a long stretch of rolling hills on a summer morning, if there were a good minimal set of patterns that explained a maximal breadth of phenomena. I’m starting with the physics of waves and the control of feedback systems, but what’s next?
Good news! (Maybe?) Federal legislators have introduced a bill that, if passed, would finally guarantee the right to record law enforcement officers. Here’s Reason’s CJ Ciaramella with the details:
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.) and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D–Fla.) introduced the “Right to Record Act of 2026,” which they say would create new consequences for individual federal officers who violate a person’s First Amendment right to document and record police.
The legislation would create a right to sue a federal law enforcement or immigration officers who engage in wide range of retaliatory behavior, including threatening and harassing videographers, surveilling them, and seizing and destroying their equipment.
So, there’s a lot to discuss here. First off, the only reason a bill like this is necessary is the current iteration of the Supreme Court. This court has repeatedly shrugged off cases that may have finally established the right to record law enforcement officers (and other public officials). Most (but not all!) lower courts have already established this right.
The Supreme Court is the holdout. Maybe that’s just because it doesn’t feel it’s necessary to step in when the issue seems to have been pretty much settled at the district level. If that’s the case, the excuse is lazy and convenient. It takes the Supreme Court to fully settle an issue when there are outliers bucking against the trend. So far, it has refused to do so.
Next up is the caveat in the introduced law: it only affects federal law enforcement officers.
While it would be nice for the proposed law [PDF] to codify the right to record any law enforcement officer, there are good reasons for introducing the bill with this specific wording.
One of the compelling reasons has been created by federal officers, especially those engaged in Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Not content to simply overreact to protests and friction with violence and actual murders, officers have been witnessed deliberately targeting journalists and observers for the obvious reason of deterring further recordings and seizing/destroying what’s already been captured.
The lawmakers cited recent allegations of federal officers targeting videographers in New Jersey, Memphis, and elsewhere across the country, as well as the importance of video evidence in refuting the false government narratives of several shootings of U.S. citizens by immigration agents.
[…]
[D]epartment of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have repeatedly suggested that [recording officers] is doxing and obstruction of justice. Over the past two years, videos from around the country—from Oregon to Maine to the Florida Keys—have shown federal immigration agents arresting or threatening to arrest people for filming them.
This right needs to be recognized if it’s going to mean anything when federal officers violate it. That brings us back to this same Supreme Court, which in recent years has made it impossible to successfully sue federal officers for violating rights. Part of this is due to this version of court steadily narrowing the Supreme Court’s 1971 Bivens ruling to allow lower courts to immediately reject anything that doesn’t exactly match the facts of the original case.
The rest of it is due to this court’s conservative majority having almost no interest in establishing rights, while being more than happy to eliminate rights that have been recognized for decades.
That’s the other meaningful part of this bill: it creates a cause of action the courts can’t just shrug off. If it is shown the “right to record” has been violated, individual officers and their employer (the US government itself) can be held liable for these violations. The bill’s text also eliminates the federal government’s “sovereign immunity” option, which means it has to take the loss if its employees are ruled to have violated this right.
This is Congress beating the Supreme Court at its own game. The nation’s top court loves to tell citizens whose rights have been violated that if they don’t like the fact federal officers are 99.9% immune from civil suits they should take it up with Congress. Well, Congress is taking it up. And if the bill becomes law (which seems extremely unlikely), the Supreme Court (and lower courts) can’t talk their way around the rights violations by pretending (1) the right isn’t established or (2) the remedy lies elsewhere.
The bill provides a long list of actions that are presumptive violations of the right to record. This includes everything from merely trying to deter recordings to threatening observers, pursuing them to other locations, placing them under surveillance, or demanding to see their identification. That’s not the entire list either. It also covers attempts to seize or destroy recordings and engaging in any actions that appear to be retaliatory.
In the current climate under the current administration, there’s almost zero chance this will be passed by Congress. But this administration won’t last forever (assuming this Republic can be kept). And this effort needs to be made, even if it results in little more than more congressional reps and federal officials going on record expressing their disdain for the public and their rights. As long as this Supreme Court retains its current makeup, the best option may be legislation, rather than litigation. This puts the administration on the defensive and calls the Supreme Court’s bluff.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, bivens, free speech, maxwell frost, police misconduct, richard blumenthal, right to record, rights violations
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SpaceX shares started trading on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026. The long-private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company priced its initial public offering at $135 per share. When markets opened, the stock jumped to $150 and climbed as high as $176.50 during the session before closing near $161. That performance gave Elon Musk’s SpaceX a market value above $2 trillion by the end of the day.
The initial public offering generated $75 billion in new capital, a record for a single IPO. Elon Musk’s personal income, aided by his ownership stake in the company, had a big influence in boosting that high figure. According to sources, he has more than 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and 350 million stock options. At closing prices, the holdings were already valued more than $820 billion. Trackers put his net worth at $1.1 trillion, which includes his massive Tesla shareholding and other assets. This individual not only crossed the trillion-dollar mark for the first time, but also confirmed that he was the first person to accomplish so.
For the first time, SpaceX was responsible for the majority of his fortune. Previously, his Tesla stock was the source of large returns, following the massive increases recorded during the 2010 IPO. However, the public listing has turned this around. Despite his economic ownership of approximately 40%, Musk wields tremendous power thanks to a dual-class share structure that gives him between 82 and 85 percent of the vote. The company has yet to turn a profit, citing losses of more than $8.7 billion in the most recent reporting period despite investing on Starlink satellite expansion, rocket development, and AI work for other ventures. The additional funds from the public offering will enable it to continue spending on these fronts without having to repay private investors.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, after selling his prior internet and payment companies for around $200 million. He invested the money in Tesla’s reusable rocket technology and electric car development. A string of successful launches, landings, and satellite deployments boosted their operating record and valuation. Around 4,400 of their current and former employees stood to benefit immediately, since years of equity grants resulted in massive paper gains once the shares began trading.
The sheer enormity of one person’s fortune has undoubtedly drawn some interest. Some lawmakers have often proposed raising taxes on vast riches, comparing them to entire countries’ annual GDPs. Others have mentioned job prospects, contracts, and technological breakthroughs related with Musk’s companies. The demand for shares was enormous, with orders reaching more than $250 billion, and they ensured that at least 20% of the offering went to ordinary retail investors. The stock’s first-day performance demonstrated investors’ confidence in the current launch business, as well as their aspirations for future projects like orbital infrastructure (data centers, etc.) and longer-range space transportation.
Musk has always claimed that his main goal is to make life multiplanetary. The funds raised will allow them to pursue more rocket capacity, satellite networks, and, eventually, crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. How they carry out these plans will influence whether the valuation remains stable or shifts when new data becomes available. Quarterly reports will show how they use the new capital and how investors evaluate the company as private updates give way to standard disclosures.
[Source]
Next time you visit your grandparents, you might want to put your headphones away. Cardiologists have long warned about the risks smartphones, headphones and other consumer devices pose towards cardiovascular implantable devices (CIDs). Concerns revolve around the magnetic fields these devices emit, which can inadvertently trigger a magnet-safe mode on defibrillators and pacemakers that potentially prevents them from detecting tachycardia or other cardiovascular irregularities.
Modern CIDs are designed to automatically switch into this mode when near strong magnetic fields to ensure patient safety during magnet-intensive medical procedures like MRIs. And while CIDs are designed to return to normal after the magnetic field is removed, even a temporary disruption can have major consequences.
For those whose hearts have yet to become bionic, CIDs typically switch into magnet mode when they encounter a magnetic induction field of 10 Gauss or more. For reference, your aunt’s souvenir fridge magnet from her trip to Palm Beach likely emits a magnetic field of 100 Gauss. A relatively manageable problem when CIDs were first designed, the mass proliferation of small rare-earth magnets across consumer electronics has begun to pose unique risks to medical implants.
Scientists have begun to quantify the effects smart devices can have on CIDs. One 2022 study found that the magnetic fields of Apple’s AirPods are strong enough to trigger magnetic modes in implanted cardiovascular devices. Published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, the study found that the magnetic fields of devices like AirPods, iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple Pencil and Microsoft Surface Pen disrupt defibrillators, pacemakers and other CIDs. These results mirror those found in similar electronics, including cell phones, smart watches and electronic cigarettes.
It’s important to note that these reports don’t necessarily preclude those with heart conditions from using AirPods. While patients are always advised to prioritize the suggestions of their cardiologist, Apple’s support page recommends that customers keep AirPods and other electronic devices at least 6 inches away from their cardiovascular device. And while this means you probably can’t blast Childish Gambino while listening to your grandmother’s heartbeat, it also isn’t a death knell for seniors who rock AirPods, either.
The FDA, for its part, offers several suggestions for consumers with CIDs when they’re handling electronic devices. First, always keep electronic devices at least six inches from a CID. This unfortunately means those with heart conditions will need to refrain from carrying their smartphones and AirPods in their front shirt pockets. Although “substitute teacher chic” is in vogue, nixing such fashion choices from your wardrobe could ensure you don’t accidentally disrupt your pacemaker’s settings. If concerned, the FDA suggests consulting your home monitoring system to ensure your CID is operating properly. Those experiencing dizziness, loss of consciousness, or any other heart-related symptoms should consult with their physician immediately.
We were excited to see [Z0hn]’s project about 3D printing a custom watch from scratch — both because it was an exciting idea, and because the pictures looked great. While we still liked the project, we quickly realized it wasn’t really printing a watch so much as it was printing a case that holds an off-the-shelf movement. But it still looked great.
Many homebrew watches are cool and fine to wear to your next hackerspace board meeting. But this watch wouldn’t raise an eyebrow out among the normal public. Conventional watches use press-fit backs, tiny screws, or make the back screw into the housing. None of those are great for 3D printing, so this watch uses a bayonet connector, which is easy to create, robust, and reliable.
The watch looks easy to modify, so if you don’t like, for example, the unusual crown placement, you can change it. The movement is a Miyota 8N24 and, of course, the crystal is off-the-shelf, too.
While not exactly a printed watch, it was still pretty cool, and there are lessons to be learned here if you want to pull off the same feat. Or just go full on hacker. You could, too, try your hand with an open source movement.
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