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The best soundbars are designed primarily to be heard, not seen. This new aluminum-clad behemoth from Bang & Olufsen, however, demands to be heard and seen, and it arrives with a price tag as lofty as its eye-catching “sculptural” design.   Slated to go on sale next month for a whopping $5,800, the Beosound Premiere from Bang & Olufsen arrives packed with speaker drivers—10 of them—as well as support for immersive Dolby Atmos audio.  Among the Beosound Premiere’s internal speakers are a quartet of 4 x 3-inch “racetrack”-style woofers to supply the bass, a pair of two-inch front-firing speakers, two more side-firing drivers for surround effects, and an up-firing driver sitting beneath 1,925 milled perforations, which pay “tribute to B&O’s 100-year heritage,” according to the company.  In all, those 10 drivers serve up seven channels of audio, ideal for streaming Dolby Atmos soundtracks, while Bang & Olufsen’s “Wide Stage” technology employs “driver-specific acoustic data” to help to boost the perceived width and height of the Premiere’s soundstage, and an Advanced Bass management system is designed to add oomph to the built-in woofers.  Bang & Olufsen’s $5,800 Beosound Premiere soundbar boasts an upfiring driver that sits beneath 1,925 milled perforations.Bang & Olufsen As far as ports go, the Beosound Premiere offers a single HDMI eARC connector that can handle lossless audio piped from a TV-connected Blu-ray player, along with a three-port gigabit ethernet switch (a premium connectivity feature for a soundbar), and dual-band Wi-Fi. You can stream music to the soundbar via Bluetooth as well as Apple’s AirPlay protocol, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Deezer Connect.  Finally, there’s the Beosound Premiere’s “pure” aluminum shell, with the whole package adding up to a “sculptural masterpiece and bold expression of acoustic artistry,” boasts Bang & Olufsen CEO Kristian Teär.  The nearly 19-pound soundbar will be available in three variants: Natural Aluminum, Gold Tone, and Black Anthracite, while an included stand allows for either placing the unit on a tabletop or mounting it on a wall.  You’ll also be able to add an optional speaker cover, with a fabric cover in grey mélange available for $325, or a pair of wooden covers (oak and dark oak) crafted from single pieces of wood selling for a budget-busting $1,650 each.  If the standard $5,800 configuration of the Beosound Premiere isn’t premium enough for you, Bang & Olufsen is also offering a “Haute Edition” of the soundbar with “precision-milled grooves achieved through an intricate milling process” that takes 17 hours to complete, the company says.   B&O says it’s only manufacturing 25 units of the $15,700 “Haute Edition” soundbars, which will be individually numbered and arrive with their own certificates of authenticity.  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media-streaming devices. Read...

Microsoft has quietly begun to challenge Ninite with an interesting addition to the Microsoft Store: multi-app installations that are as simple as a few clicks. Interestingly, the new option doesn’t seem to be available via the Microsoft Store application within Windows. Instead, Windows Central found it tucked away on the Microsoft Store website, Ninite has been around practically forever: PCWorld reviewed Ninite years ago in 2012, and we recently highlighted it again this year as a superb tool for resetting your PC and quickly getting it back up and running with common apps after a fresh start. In short, Ninite allows you to pick from a suite of third-party apps and combine them into a single batch installer that steps through and installs all of them in one go. The winget command within Windows is vaguely similar, though that’s more for users who want to avoid the Microsoft Store entirely and grab an a-la-carte app via the command line. Microsoft’s multi-app installation challenges Ninite in their format, though they still cater to the Store’s suite of apps. Microsoft carves out six categories of eight apps apiece, divided into “personalization,” “social,” “creativity,” and the like. Apps include everything from Adobe Acrobat to EarTrumpet to Lively Wallpaper, with an emphasis on apps (not games) that you’d probably like to add to your PC. The multi-app downloads page on the Microsoft Store.Mark Hachman / Foundry The multi-app installation page allows you to select apps via checkboxes, where they’ll collect in a “selected apps” column to the right. Once you’re happy with your selections, you can choose to download the installer, which will show up in the Downloads section of File Explorer. Oddly, there’s no way to click through and see what each app actually does or how much space it’ll take up on your PC. Don’t expect too much magic here. The “installer” is essentially a macro that tells the Microsoft Store to download the apps you’ve selected. It’s not much different than actually going to the Microsoft Store, looking up the app, and then clicking the “Download” button multiple times. As you can see in the screenshot below, the Microsoft Store does check for dependencies this way, but that’s something it always does anyway: Downloading and installing the apps is pretty straightforward. What the multi-app installation page does, however, is curate quality apps Microsoft thinks you’ll like, which is always a useful thing. I’ve been told that Microsoft was sensitive to users ditching Windows in favor of the Apple Mac ecosystem, especially in the waning days of Windows 10 support. That’s one reason Microsoft has been pushing its Windows backup and restore strategy so hard: backing up your files to the cloud helps keep you in the Windows ecosystem. (Backing up your files also earns you an additional year of Windows 10 support.) For now, Microsoft doesn’t have a way of “saving” your multi-app bundle to the Store itself. Microsoft’s Restore functionality will automatically “restore” apps on your PC that you downloaded from the Store, but doesn’t offer that third-party capability that Ninite does. It seems unlikely that Microsoft will point you to “untrusted” third-party apps that it can’t vet, meaning Ninite may retain an advantage there. Read...

Google has finally begun adding support for its own internal services to Google Gemini, just a month after Microsoft began offering the same capabilities to Windows testers. Google said Wednesday that Gemini Deep Research can now connect to Gmail, Google Drive, and Chat, along with Docs, Slides, Sheets, and PDF files stored within those services. “This powerful new capability is now available for all Gemini users,” Google said in a blog post on Wednesday. “To get started, just select ‘Deep Research’ from the Tools menu in Gemini on desktop and select your sources. This will begin rolling out to mobile users in the coming days.” On October 10, Microsoft announced that its own Copilot AI could begin reading Gmail and your Google Calendar via a technology called Connectors, which allows you to manually give access to Copilot so that it can ingest and analyze that data. (At the time, this was limited to members of the Windows Insiders testing program.) A week later, Microsoft more formally announced that those same connectors would allow Copilot to access OneDrive files and Outlook contacts, emails, and calendar events, as well as connect to Google services like Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts. Microsoft hasn’t formally said when these additional capabilities would be released to users, however, giving Google a first-to-market advantage. Google In an August livestream, OpenAI and ChatGPT also briefly showed off Gmail integration, though ChatGPT’s connections don’t appear to be as deep or significant right now. However, OpenAI’s DevDay 2025 livestream did reveal that ChatGPT can work with apps like Zillow and Canva and query them for more information. For now, the only point in which the two services don’t seem to overlap is in Google Chats, though that may be a capability Microsoft specifically neglected to call out. In any event, both Microsoft and Google now appear to offer similar capabilities to allow its AI services to deeply search and understand what you can your colleagues are talking about. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Incredibly cheap Slightly more effective than other skimmers Remote control is handy for spot cleaning Cons Repeatedly bashed into the pool’s walls No real navigation features Initial setup is confusing Our Verdict This sub-$200 skimmer looks funny and feels flimsy, but it gets the job done better than most, even without having any smarts to speak of. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer Retailer Price $229.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices As a category, pool skimmers aren’t the most effective at cleaning your pool, but they’re better than just letting surface debris sink to the bottom. What makes them potentially more compelling is when they’re inexpensive, and the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer is as cheap as they come. And much to my surprise, it works as well as (or better than) anything else in its class that I’ve tried. Specifications The Ultenic S1 measures 8 x 15 x 19 inches (HxWxL) once it’s assembled, and it weighs just 6 pounds. Like many modern pool skimmers, it features a solar panel on top (this one puts out 9 watts) that keeps its 5200mAh battery charged. If the weather isn’t cooperating, you can charge it manually with the included custom USB cable (power adapter included). The unit offers a 6-liter debris basket, and as its sole bonus feature, it comes with a slim remote control that lets you drive the robot around the surface of the pool on demand. The solar-powered Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer would commonly run all day, even in relatively cloudy weather. The filter basket includes a small chamber that can be used to hold a chlorine tablet, dispensing chemicals as it moves around the pool. This can be removed if you don’t need it. The device does not have any wireless capabilities aside from its remote control, and it does not connect to a mobile app. Installation and setup The Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer comes partially disassembled, and it can be intimidating to put together; fortunately, the user manual guides you as to what goes where.Christopher Null/Foundry The Ultenic S1 comes in a jumble of pieces, and considering how simple the product is, it’s remarkably confusing to set up. You’ll need to attach various components to the core device, including two propellors, guide wheels, anti-stranding bars, and the filter basket, which comes in two parts. Assembly is far from intuitive and even after studying the quick-start guide, I struggled for longer than I care to admit to figure out how the guide wheels clipped into place. The longer, printed manual is, fortunately, more thorough and explanatory, but the process still took longer than I expected to complete, about five minutes. I fully charged the device as the manual suggested via wall power in advance of its initial deployment. At this point I noticed the power port on the underside of the device has no cover to prevent water ingress, though I ultimately did not notice any ill effects of water getting into this part of the device during several days of testing. A front-mounted paddle-wheel impeller pulls debris into the skimmer.Christopher Null/Foundry Lastly, a skimmer blocking system—a slim piece of foam rubber—is included in the box should you find your robot getting stuck in the wall-skimmer intake. I didn’t encounter a problem with this, so I didn’t use it. Using the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer A physical switch on the front of the S1 is all it takes to power up the robot; and in fact, it’s the only onboard control. It’s clear that, much like Ultenic’s Pooleco 10 floor-cleaning robot, there is not a lot of intelligence built into the device. There’s no real rhyme or reason to how it moves, alternately pushing straight ahead or opting to turn. When it comes to a wall, the S1 just plows right into it, and the guide wheels in front of the robot are not soft or padded in any way. Over time I can imagine this might have an impact on your pool’s waterline tiles, possibly leading to cracks or looseness. The device just feels flimsy, almost like a toy. A wireless remote control gives you the option to “drive” the skimmer around your pool. Christopher Null/Foundry Ultenic promises 15 hours of running time on a full charge, and while that’s difficult to properly test given that solar power is constantly recharging the battery—and there is no battery level meter—I did note that the Ultenic S1 would commonly run all day, even in relatively cloudy weather, stopping only for occasional breaks and then starting back up again once it had enough juice. The device can always be charged via cable overnight, but I usually didn’t bother and let the unit pick up where it left off each morning once the battery had enough charge to work with. The remote control works well, and while it’s always difficult to control something that has momentum on water, I was easily able to navigate the skimmer around the pool to pick up debris on demand. Another button can be used to instruct the S1 to “dock” against the side of the pool with a single press, but I found it easier to simply drive it to the wall. The Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer is outfitted with a 6-liter filter basket.Christopher Null/Foundry I had low expectations for the Ultenic S1, but much to my surprise it was more effective than I guessed it would be; in fact, it was better at cleaning than many other much more expensive skimmers I’ve tested. Despite an intake that measures just about 14 inches across and no real sense of direction, the unit gobbled up more than 50 percent of the test material in my test run, after about 5 hours of uninterrupted operation. While most of the remaining debris sank to the bottom of the pool, which might not sound like a great result, it’s because debris won’t float forever. The bottom line is that that’s the best score I’ve seen from a skimmer to date. These ard plastic bumpers on either side of the skimmer constantly slammed into my pool’s walls at the waterline.Christopher Null/Foundry My theory for explaining the Ultenic S1’s unexpected effectiveness is that its very light weight creates less bow wake as it moves across the water. This, in turn, causes fewer leaves to be pushed out to the sides, escaping the skimmer’s “mouth,” as you’ll see with larger skimmers. The front-mounted paddlewheel, meanwhile, is effective at pulling in debris—it even captured small branches. The debris basket’s confusing two-part design, on the other hand, makes cleaning a little more difficult than other skimmers; but once you’ve done the disassembly and reassembly a few times, the hassle eases. Should you buy the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer? I’m still not convinced most pool owners need a robotic skimmer at all, but in times of significant wind and rain, it can be helpful to have something to complement the wall skimmer if the pool gets a heavy dusting of leaves. The price is, of course, what makes this product worthwhile: At less than $200, the Ultenic S1 is an exceptionally low-risk investment to have on hand in case of emergency. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robotic pool cleaners. Read...