ISSUE № 219 · JUN 12, 2026
NEW · 75 films added with full TMDB metadata PLAY · 51 browser games — chess, 2048, snake, more BEST · Hand-picked AI tools updated weekly COMPARE · Phones, laptops, headphones — side by side SWAP · 600+ apps with free open-source alternatives NEW · 75 films added with full TMDB metadata PLAY · 51 browser games — chess, 2048, snake, more BEST · Hand-picked AI tools updated weekly COMPARE · Phones, laptops, headphones — side by side SWAP · 600+ apps with free open-source alternatives
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GPT-5.5 ships native long-form video reasoning — OpenAI dev day kickoff iPhone 17 Pro hands-on leaks: titanium chassis, no notch, periscope 5× Sony confirms PS6 dated for Q4 2026 — backwards compatible with PS5 Nvidia RTX 6090 announced — 96GB VRAM, $2,499 MSRP, June ship Suno raises $250M Series C at $4B valuation — music gen heats up Claude 4.7 tops Aider coding bench at 87.4% — first Anthropic lead since Nov Elden Ring Nightreign — early review embargo lifts at 9.2/10 Gemini Veo 3 adds native audio sync to text-to-video pipeline GPT-5.5 ships native long-form video reasoning — OpenAI dev day kickoff iPhone 17 Pro hands-on leaks: titanium chassis, no notch, periscope 5× Sony confirms PS6 dated for Q4 2026 — backwards compatible with PS5 Nvidia RTX 6090 announced — 96GB VRAM, $2,499 MSRP, June ship Suno raises $250M Series C at $4B valuation — music gen heats up Claude 4.7 tops Aider coding bench at 87.4% — first Anthropic lead since Nov
Good afternoon. 4 stories in the last hour

Tech, decoded.
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at a time.

The independent take on AI tools, gadgets that earn their place, games worth the time, and the swaps that save you a subscription. Written by people who actually use this stuff.

Your Time Live
14:32:18
Saturday, April 18
PixlRun pick
Wordtune
Tested · scored
Next Big Release
Deer & Boy
Jun 23
11d
Prices Today Live
Apple Watch Ultra 2 $799 ↓$60
ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro $899 ↓$20
Apple Pro Display XDR $4,999 ↑$100
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 247 reading now
Just in
Review

The Verdicts Are In on RGB Mini-LED: Hisense's UR9 Is Dazzling, but OLED Is Safe

Jun 12 · 2 min read
Smartphone · Review

Google Pixel 11 Pro review.

May 8 · 8 min read
Games · Preview

Deer & Boy — what we know so far.

Jun 12 · 6 min read
AI · Tool

v0 by Vercel — first look.

Apr 14 · 5 min read
The Compare tool 5 min to a verdict

Side-by-side,
scored.

Drop in any two phones, laptops, or headphones — get a spec-by-spec breakdown of where each one actually lands.

Browse 1,840 gadgets
Apple · score 9.4 ★ PixlRun pick

iPhone 17 Pro Max

Camera 9.6
Performance 9.8
Battery 9.2
Display 9.6
VS
Apple · score 9.4 Runner-up

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

Camera 9.4
Performance 9.6
Battery 9.0
Display 9.5
PixlRun Verdict iPhone 17 Pro Max and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max are effectively tied — pick by ecosystem.
Full comparison
AI Intelligence Hub Updated weekly

This week
in AI.

Curated stacks, a leaderboard that updates Mondays, and head-to-head comparisons between the tools devs actually ship with.

Open the Hub
Frontier model leaderboard
Updated Mon WEEK 16

Who tops Aider's coding bench this week.

Claude 4.7 takes the lead by 1.6 points — first time Anthropic has held the top slot since November. Pricing notes inside.

Model Score Trend
01
AClaude 4.7 Opus
87.4
 02
GGPT-5 Turbo
85.8
 03
GGemini 2.5 Pro
82.1
 04
XGrok 4
79.3
Pulse · latest stories Updated 7h ago

What changed in the AI ecosystem

The Verdicts Are In on RGB Mini-LED: Hisense's… 7h Sony Marks 10 Years of the 1000X With… 7h Alien: Isolation 2 Returns After 12 Years, and… 8h Final Fantasy VII Revelation Names the Trilogy's End,… 8h
Best-for guides

Which tool, when, and why.

For developers
Claude 4.7 + Cursor 2.0 + Linear
For writers
Claude + Notion AI + Grammarly
For creators
Midjourney + Suno + CapCut
Editor's picks Refreshed weekly

The picks across
every beat.

A mixed bag of what's actually worth your attention this week — products, tools, reads, and games. No algorithm in sight.

See all picks
Games Calendar 48 releases tracked

The 2026
release calendar.

A live calendar of major drops, indie sleepers, and the date-shifts. Filter by quarter, platform, or buzz.

Full calendar
Releasing soon Editor's most-anticipated PS5 · PC · Xbox Series X · Switch
10
Days
01
Hrs
40
Min
18
Sec

Deer & Boy

Deer & Boy is a wordless cinematic platformer from Italian studio Lifeline Entertainment that stakes everything on a single relationship. You guide a young boy…

Jun 23 · 2026 ·Lifeline Entertainment ·Platform / Puzzle
Read preview
2026
JAN
2026
0 releases
FEB
2026
0 releases
MAR
2026
0 releases
APR
2026
4 releases
MAY
2026
7 releases
JUN
2026
5 releases
JUL
2026
3 releases
AUG
2026
4 releases
SEP
2026
6 releases
OCT
2026
5 releases
NOV
2026
8 releases
DEC
2026
3 releases
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
27
28
29
30
1
2
Hades II
3
4
5
Indika
6
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GTA VI
9
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Stellar Blade
13
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Sea of Stars 2
17
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Death Stranding 2
21
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Hollow Knight Silksong
27
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Elden Ring Nightreign
31
Today
Major release · highlight
Indie / smaller release
Showing May 2026 · 7 releases

Coming soon · top 8

23
JUN

Deer & Boy

Platform / Puzzle / Adventure / Indie·Lifeline Entertainment
75
23
JUN

Dimhaven: The Lost Source

Puzzle / Adventure / Indie·Zadbox Entertainment
75
23
JUN

Devil May Cry 5 (Switch 2)

Hack and slash/Beat 'em up / Adventure·Capcom Development Division 1
75
25
JUN

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Switch 2)

Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure / Indie·Jump Over the Age
75
30
JUN

Changer Seven

Hack and slash/Beat 'em up / Adventure / Indie·Gixer Entertainment
75
9
JUL

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Adventure·Ubisoft Montreal
75
15
JUL

Out of Words

Adventure / Psychological Thriller·Syntax Studios
75
4
AUG

Beast of Reincarnation

Role-playing (RPG) / Adventure·Game Freak
75
Entertainment

Films, series &
audiobooks — curated.

A Kinopoisk-style catalogue of films and series we keep returning to. Multi-source ratings, full cast, stills, trivia. Updated weekly.

Browse all
All1513 Films1252 Series6 Audiobooks1 2025 2024 2023
The Silence of the Lambs Film 8.8
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Film
Jonathan Demme
Shoah Film 9.2
Shoah
1985 · Film
Claude Lanzmann
A Separation Film 8.8
A Separation
2011 · Film
Asghar Farhadi
Stop Making Sense Film 9.1
Stop Making Sense
1984 · Film
Jonathan Demme
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Film 8.9
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2002 · Film
Peter Jackson
The Conformist Film 8.9
The Conformist
1971 · Film
Bernardo Bertolucci
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Film 8.7
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · Film
Ratatouille Cartoon 8.7
Ratatouille
2007 · Cartoon
Brad Bird
Accidental Partners Film 8.6
Accidental Partners
2026 · Film
Ihtzi Hurtado
GoodFellas Film 8.9
GoodFellas
1990 · Film
Martin Scorsese
Saving Private Ryan Film 9.2
Saving Private Ryan
1998 · Film
Steven Spielberg
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor Film 8.5
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
2013 · Film
Nick Hurran
Fargo Film 8.5
Fargo
1996 · Film
Joel Coen
Swapped Cartoon 8.4
Swapped
2026 · Cartoon
Nathan Greno
L.A. Confidential Film 9.0
L.A. Confidential
1997 · Film
Curtis Hanson
1513 titles indexed
9339 people profiles
4 rating sources
Browse cast & crew →
App Swap 200+ apps tested

Apps,
swapped.

Drop in any app and see the cheaper, faster, or more private alternative — each one tested over 200+ hours by our team.

Browse all swaps

Type an app.
Find an alternative.

Notion → Obsidian. Spotify → Tidal. Adobe → Affinity. Hundreds of these on file — the catalogue sits in a search box, not behind a paywall.

Popular:
⇄
Notion
Spotify
Slack
Adobe
Dropbox
Obsidian
Tidal
Affinity
Notion AI
Obsidian
Notion AI · $96/yr

Obsidian + Smart Connections

Local-first notes with AI search built on your own files. No subscription, no data leaving your machine.

Local-first No telemetry Free forever
Saves $96/yr Read swap
WhatsApp
Signal
WhatsApp · Meta-owned · ad-funded

Signal Private Messenger

End-to-end encrypted by default, run by a non-profit. Group calls, disappearing messages, no metadata harvested.

E2E by default No metadata Free forever
Free, non-profit Read swap
Adobe Illustrator
Inkscape
Adobe Illustrator · $240/yr

Inkscape

Open-source vector editor with native SVG. Pen, gradient mesh, path effects — all the heavy lifting, none of the rent.

Native SVG Open-source Free forever
Saves $240/yr Read swap
LastPass
Bitwarden
LastPass · $36/yr

Bitwarden

Open-source password manager with a free tier that actually covers most people. Self-host if you want; they will not stop you.

Open-source Self-hostable Free tier
Saves $36/yr Read swap
Google Analytics
Plausible
Google Analytics · You are the product

Plausible Analytics

Cookieless, GDPR-friendly site analytics in one tiny script. Privacy by default, dashboards a normal human can read.

Cookieless GDPR-safe From $9/mo
Privacy + $0 cookies Read swap
Google Chrome
Firefox
Google Chrome · Tracks everything

Firefox

Independent rendering engine, vertical tabs, container profiles, real ad-blocking. The last mainstream browser not built on Chromium.

Non-Chromium Containers Free forever
Independent + free Read swap
200+Apps tested
$340Avg saved/yr
4 hrsPer review
68Live swaps published
The PixlRun Weekly

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Every Tuesday.
That's it.

The five things across AI, gadgets, and games that actually mattered in the last seven days. Hand-picked, no fluff, no AI-summarized rehash.

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Issue · 142 PREVIEW

This week's signal.

Claude 4.7 takes the coding crownAI
iPhone 17 Pro: full reviewGear
Elden Ring Nightreign hands-onGames
Adobe → Affinity, the lifetime caseSwap
Why "AI PCs" still don't matterOp-ed
APR 18 · 2026 5 stories · 12 min