AnythingLLM, demostrated by Better Stack below, offers a single self-hosted platform that consolidates the capabilities of Ollama, LangChain and custom UIs into a unified environment. Designed for developers working with large language models (LLMs), it supports tasks like document processing, codebase interaction and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). With features such as a drag-and-drop interface, a visual […]
A small city balcony has a way of making every square meter feel personal, just barely. There’s room for a folding chair, maybe a potted plant, and the occasional optimistic thought about al fresco breakfast. What there usually isn’t, though, is any real surface. Designer Michael Hilgers noticed this particular gap, and the balKonzept is his answer: a railing-mounted table that hooks onto the balcony railing with no tools, no hardware, and no permanent commitment.
The form is immediately legible. A wedge-shaped body in recyclable polyethylene curves at the rear into a smooth hook, looping over the railing and gripping it via an adjusting screw underneath. That single mechanical gesture is the entire installation. The raised trough at the back sits above the railing line and acts as a windbreak for objects resting on the work surface below. The unit comes in at 60 cm wide and roughly 40 cm deep on the interior side.
The material choice is worth pausing on. Polyethylene, produced in a Brandenburg plastics factory through rotational molding, is not a glamorous option. It won’t feel precious the way powder-coated steel does. What it does do is survive outdoor life without complaint: frost-resistant, UV-stable, and recyclable at its end of life. Rotational molding also produces hollow, seamless shells with consistent wall thickness, which matters for something exposed to seasonal temperature extremes.
The table height is a fixed function of whatever railing it’s hanging on; subtract 21 cm from the railing height, and that’s the surface level. That means the balKonzept works very differently on a low French-style balcony versus a taller contemporary glass railing, with no way to adjust it beyond moving the piece. For anyone wanting to sit and work at a comfortable height, the railing geometry will decide the experience before any other consideration does.
Where the design earns its keep is in the planter box. Filling it with soil and roots is one option, but the trough is deep enough to function as an improvised cooler, and Rephorm’s own description cheekily acknowledges this, noting it works just as well with ice cubes and sparkling wine as it does with geraniums. That kind of built-in flexibility is the whole point; the balKonzept doesn’t commit to being one thing, which is probably what a small balcony needs most.
The growing adoption of artificial intelligence in customer support has sparked a wave of reevaluation among CEOs, as highlighted by Logically Answered. While AI systems were initially embraced for their potential to streamline operations and cut costs, their shortcomings are becoming harder to ignore. For instance, studies show that 75% of customers prefer human agents […]
It takes around 30 hours to experience everything Resident Evil Requiem has to offer. If you've already enjoyed all the thrills and spills and you're itching for more, there's some positive news. Capcom has some updates on the way. The biggest of those is a story expansion, which is now in development. Just don't expect it to arrive imminently.
"In this story, we will delve deeper into the world of Requiem," game director Koshi Nakanishi said in a short video message. "We’re hard at work on it now. It will take some time, so we ask for your patience and hope you’ll look forward to it."
Nakanishi noted that on top of the story expansion and fixing bugs and performance issues, the development team is cooking up some other features. A photo mode is on the way to help you capture all the horrors that Grace and Leon encounter. There's also a "surprise coming around May," Nakanishi said. "We’re planning to add a mini-game."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-resident-evil-requiem-story-expansion-is-in-the-works-140512827.html?src=rss
Apple’s MacBook Neo and MacBook Air represent two distinct offerings within the company’s laptop lineup, each tailored to meet specific user needs. The MacBook Neo, priced at $599, serves as an affordable entry point into Apple’s ecosystem, while the MacBook Air, starting at $1,099, is designed for professionals and power users seeking higher performance and […]
Turning an Excel spreadsheet into a functional app is achievable with platforms like Glide, which simplify the process for non-coders. According to My Online Training Hub, Glide enables users to import spreadsheet data, define relationships between tables and perform calculations directly within the app. For instance, an inventory management scenario can involve structuring data into […]
Sonos has just announced its first new products since 2024, when the company’s plans went sideways after a disastrous update to its app. First up is the Sonos Play, the company’s latest portable speaker. Long-time Sonos watchers will recognize the name from the old Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5 speakers, but this new model has little to do with those products of the past. The $299 Play is a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker that sits between the $179 Roam 2 and $499 Move 2 and could be the “goldilocks” speaker in the company’s portable lineup, at least based on what I know so far.
The closest comparison for the Play is the excellent Era 100, which Sonos released back in 2023. At 7.6” tall, 4.4” wide and 3” deep, it’s much thinner than the Era 100 which is over 5 inches deep. And compared to the Move 2 (9.5” x 6.3 x 5”) it’s much more portable. That goes for weight, too — the Play is less than 3 pounds, compared to over 6.5 pounds for the Move 2. It’s not the kind of speaker you’ll throw in your bag and forget about, like the tiny Roam 2, but it’s far more portable than the Move 2. Finally, the Play is IP67 rated, just like the Roam 2. That means it can be submerged in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes; it’s also dustproof.
The grab handle on the back of the Sonos Play.
Sonos
From a speaker component perspective, it’s again quite similar to the Era 100. It has two tweeters positioned at a 90-degree angle for stereo separation paired with one midwoofer; it also has two additional passive radiators to increase the bass response in its relatively small case. The Era 100 lacks those passive radiators but is otherwise identical. Obviously, we’ll have to listen to the Play before saying how closely it compares to the Era 100, but this speaker should significantly outperform the Roam 2 simply due to the increased size of its components. The Move 2, on the other hand, is extremely loud and will likely still be the best choice for people who want a speaker to cover a large outdoor space.
You’ll find familiar controls on the Sonos Play, which comes in black or white. (Fingers crossed for future color options like the lovely trio that Sonos offers on the Roam.) On the top surface are buttons for play/pause, volume up and down and a microphone toggle. On the back is a power button, a Bluetooth button and a physical switch that disconnects the microphone for increased security. Finally, there’s a new feature here: a removable plastic grab loop.
Sonos was keen to note that the Play is a full-featured member of the Sonos ecosystem. Like all of its other speakers, that means you’ll see all Sonos speakers in the app and can group them as you see fit, or have different music playing on different speakers throughout the house. You can also pair two of these in stereo. If you remove one from your network (say you’re outside and away from Wi-Fi), you’ll need to re-pair them though. In addition to controlling playback via the Sonos app (which, in my testing, is functioning fine and recovered from the 2024 debacle), you can stream music via AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect. The Sonos Voice Assistant as well as Amazon Alexa are also on board here for anyone who likes to shout at their speakers.
The Sonos Play on its wireless charging base.
Sonos
There’s a new trick here for both the Play and Move 2, as well. For the first time, you can group Sonos speakers together through Bluetooth. After pairing a Play to your phone via Bluetooth, you can press and hold the play/pause button on three more Play or Move 2 speakers to add them to the group. If you want to cover a larger outdoor space with multiple speakers, this sounds like a pretty handy way to do so.
The Play also has line-in via its USB-C port, and you can use it for Ethernet as well; both features require a separate adapter. You can even use the USB-C port to top up your phone if you’re so inclined. And while you can also charge via the USB-C port, the Play comes with a wireless charging dock which makes for a nice home base for the speaker’s primary location. Annoyingly, Sonos did not include a charger, so you’ll need to provide your own USB-C brick.
A pair of Sonos Era 100 SL speakers with a turntable.
Sonos
Sonos is also adding a second, much simpler speaker to its lineup today: the Era 100 SL. Like the One SL before it, the Era 100 SL is identical to the Era 100 with one key difference. There are no microphones on it at all. As such, the Era 100 SL is also a bit cheaper, coming in at $189 compared to $219 for the standard model.
Otherwise, there are no differences in acoustic architecture or feature set here. As its most affordable speaker besides the portable Roam 2, Sonos is positioning the Era 100 SL as the ideal entry point into its products. I can’t really argue with that, as the Era 100 still sounds outstanding and is also quite flexible with features like line-in and Bluetooth as well as all the standard streaming options. Both versions of the Era 100 are compatible with each other, too — so if you get an SL and then decide you want a stereo pair, a standard Era 100 with a mic will work there and bring voice control to your system as well.
Both the $299 Play and $189 Era 100 SL are up for pre-order now, and Sonos says they’ll be shipping on March 31.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/the-sonos-play-puts-the-best-parts-of-the-era-100-in-a-portable-speaker-133000129.html?src=rss
OpenAI’s recent disclosure about ChatGPT 6, as outlined by AI Grid, introduces the Omni model, a unified framework capable of processing text, images, audio and video simultaneously. This approach consolidates functionalities that previously required separate systems, such as analyzing visual content while generating written responses. By integrating these multimodal capabilities, GPT-6 aims to streamline complex […]
The N64 Funtastic series was Nintendo’s most chaotic design decision, and that’s a compliment. Launched in 1999, the translucent controllers and consoles arrived at the tail end of a broader cultural moment: Apple had just cracked open the iMac G3’s candy-colored shell and shown the world that visible circuitry could be beautiful, and the consumer electronics industry was scrambling to catch up. Nintendo’s version came in six flavors, including Ice Blue, a saturated cyan-teal that looked like it had been poured directly from a Jolly Rancher mold. The controllers were transparent all the way through, which meant you could see every lever, spring, and pivot point in the mechanism. That was the whole point. Showing the guts was the product.
Killscreen, the Florida-based controller studio that has built its entire catalog on surgical retro revisionism, has now transplanted that exact aesthetic onto a PS5 DualSense. The Funtastic Ice Blue/Clear is a limited-edition PS5 controller with an Ice Blue translucent front shell and a crystal-clear back exposing the circuit board, wiring, and battery assembly beneath. It is native PS5 hardware, with wireless connectivity, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers all intact. The base price is $139, with optional Omron hair triggers, mechanical face buttons, and GuliKit TMR thumbsticks available as upgrades.
Designer: Killscreen
Killscreen co-founder Erik Consorsha is upfront about the fundamental absurdity here: “There’s something slightly wrong about putting a Funtastic-style translucent controller on modern hardware. That’s exactly why we did it.” That instinct for productive wrongness is the throughline in everything Killscreen has released. The CubeSense put GameCube colorways and C-stick nubs on a DualSense. The 1080-R matched, with forensic precision, the exact gray of a factory-sealed 1995 PS1 controller, cracking one open just to get the color right. Each release is a deliberate category violation: taking an aesthetic that belonged to one console, one era, one design culture, and suturing it onto hardware from a completely different lineage. The Funtastic Ice Blue/Clear does the same thing, except the donor and recipient have never shared a design language in their lives.
The original Ice Blue N64 Funtastic controller sits next to the Killscreen version in the press photos, and the color match is uncomfortably close. What the image also captures is 25 years of ergonomic progress in a single frame: the N64’s trident silhouette, one of the most geometrically baffling controllers ever mass-produced, against the DualSense’s precisely contoured twin-grip body. Same shade, completely different idea of what a human hand needs. The face buttons on the Killscreen controller are bright primary yellow, blue, and green, pulled from the N64’s own candy palette rather than PlayStation’s iconic shape symbols, and on a Sony controller body they read as genuinely disorienting in the best possible way.
The 1999 Nintendo controllers were a single homogeneous translucent color all the way through: same Ice Blue from the front plate to the grip tips to every molded ridge. Killscreen splits the register three ways: Ice Blue translucent on the front half, crystal-clear on the rear panel, and matte gray on the trigger caps, thumbstick tops, and d-pad. That tripartite material logic is more visually considered than anything Nintendo attempted in 1999. The clear back is where the real design confidence lives: you can see the circuit board, the wiring harness in yellow and red, the USB-C port, and a Killscreen “Human Machine Interface” label on the main board. The internals are the display object.
The upgrade options change the character of the controller considerably. The base $139 configuration retains the stock DualSense trigger mechanism with adaptive resistance. Adding Omron hair triggers for $20 converts those into short-travel tactile clicks at around 2mm of travel, eliminating progressive resistance entirely in favor of on/off precision. Mechanical face buttons at another $20 swap the rubber membrane pads for microswitches, producing crisp tactile feedback more commonly associated with high-end mechanical keyboards. The GuliKit TMR thumbsticks at $39 use tunnel magnetoresistance sensors instead of traditional potentiometers, which means no contact wear and no drift. Fully specced, the controller lands at $208.
Killscreen assembles and tests every unit in-house in Florida, and the run is genuinely limited, consistent with how every prior drop has gone. The Funtastic Ice Blue/Clear is compatible with PS5 and PC. If the CubeSense and 1080-R are any indication, this one will be gone before most people finish debating whether they need it.
The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra is generating significant anticipation as it promises to deliver a host of new features. With advancements in display technology, battery performance, camera capabilities, and security, this flagship device could set a new standard for premium smartphones. If these rumored features come to fruition, the S27 Ultra may not only challenge […]
