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Belkin introduced three new SoundForm audio products at IFA Berlin, all featuring active noise cancellation at lower price points than typical. The lineup includes the $59.99 SoundForm Isolate Buds with up to 45dB of noise cancellation and a secure wing-tip design, the $39.99 SoundForm Dot ANC earbuds, and the $49.99 SoundForm Play ANC headphones aimed at children with a volume limiter and focus-oriented soundscapes.
Miele previewed its new HX3 and HX3 Plus Aqua cordless vacuums at its Manhattan Experience Center ahead of IFA 2026 in Berlin, following criticism of last year's HX2 model for weak carpet performance and awkward handling. The updated design shifts weight distribution toward the base, lets users reposition the motor and bin, and adds push-button controls, easier bin emptying, automatic floor detection, and up to 70 minutes of runtime covering roughly 1,700 square feet per charge.
Roku is entering OLED television territory with two new models: the Roku Pro Series OLED, available in 55- and 65-inch sizes with a 4K 120Hz panel, Dolby Vision, and a slim metal-bezel design, and the higher-end Roku Pro Series LX OLED, which promises a brighter picture, 144Hz refresh rate, and glare-reducing polarizer but has undisclosed sizing details. Both TVs retain Roku's signature software features like Smart Picture Max and Automatic Game Mode, with the LX model including a premium rechargeable remote.
Circleback, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is introducing a free subscription plan offering unlimited meeting transcription with 30-day history access, mobile and Apple Watch apps, and integrations with Linear and Slack. Previously the company had no free option, with paid plans starting at $20.83 monthly; those now start at $14 per month for full features. The move comes as rivals like Granola, Wispr, Calendly, Read AI, and Fireflies crowd the meeting note-taking market.
An Amazon human resources leader detailed in a company blog post how she returned to coding after a 25-year break by using Amazon's AI-powered tool Kiro, eventually writing over 100,000 lines of code. She first built a family calendar app, then created a submission app for an internal contest called 'Everyone Can Build,' which drew more than 1,500 employee participants who built tools ranging from automation scripts to a virtual desktop pet.
An essay examines how Japanese woodblock printmakers since the 1880s have depicted telegraph and power lines as symbols of modernity rather than eyesores, contrasting this with Western social media users who frequently mock utility wires as ugly. It highlights a 2021 Nerima Art Museum exhibition, curated by Yosuke Kato, that gathered roughly 130 works from the 1850s to today under the title 'Densen Kaiga' (Electric Wire Paintings), showing wires as a recurring visual motif in Japanese art and anime.
Analyst Mark Gurman reports Apple plans to release an updated iPad mini with an OLED display by late October, separate from next month's iPhone-focused event. The refreshed tablet is expected to feature a faster A19 Pro or A20 Pro chip, improved water resistance from a redesigned casing, and a new vibration-based speaker system.
Researchers at UCLA's RePL lab are developing Prela, a query language that replaces SQL's multi-column tables with simple binary relations of just two columns. A tutorial shows how a wide table, such as one listing movie IDs, titles and years, can be broken into three binary relations, each pairing a row number with a single column's value, and demonstrates a movie-search query that takes 11 lines in Prela versus more than 20 in equivalent SQL.
Deco Gear has launched the DG49OLED240, a 49-inch curved 32:9 QD-OLED gaming monitor that effectively merges two 27-inch QHD displays into a single seamless screen. The $1,230 monitor runs at 5120x1440 resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate, Adaptive-Sync, HDR400 support, and wide color gamut coverage.
Meta reached an $18 billion settlement with a coalition of U.S. states that accused it of concealing the risks its platforms posed to young users, ending a high-profile trial in California. Under the deal Meta will pay roughly $12.7 billion outright and adopt new safeguards for minors, such as a two-hour daily limit, disabled cosmetic-surgery filters and stricter age checks, while the remaining $5.3 billion depends on rivals like TikTok and YouTube adopting similar protections.
Pydantic has released HTTPX2, a new Python HTTP client library that continues the work of the HTTPX project, offering sync and async APIs, HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 support, and an optional command-line client. The project is positioned as a stewardship effort to keep the library actively maintained after HTTPX saw reduced development activity.
American Airlines is refreshing its main cabin snack offerings, introducing items like Goldfish crackers and Tate's Bake Shop cookies alongside its existing selection. The airline frames the change as an 'elevation' of its inflight menu and is soliciting passenger feedback on the new choices.