The Engadget team is on the ground in Las Vegas to cover CES 2024, ready to chase down all the technology news fit for print. We’ve already published over 150 articles about the Las Vegas event, despite the fact that today is, officially, only the second day of tech’s big show.
There is one big press conference on the schedule today: Qualcomm. Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Qualcomm, will likely touch on Meta and Qualcomm’s chip collaboration and how it could improve functionality on new gen VR headsets. Qualcomm has said that the technology has been engineered into a single chip architecture that allows it to support smaller and sleeker headsets. We also expect to hear about generative artificial intelligence and how Snapdragon platforms will integrate AI on devices from smartphones to PCs.
We’ll also be bringing you the best of the best from the show floor. There are over 4,000 exhibitors here at CES, and the Engadget team will be visiting to talk with many of them, evaluating their new products and bringing you their impressions along the way. As we did yesterday, we’ll be running a liveblog through most of the day to bring you the biggest news, some commentary and lots of images and videos, along with some links to our more in-depth coverage.
Live86 updates
-
Clicks is a charming keyboard that’s relying on more than just nostalgia
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Here’s Sam Rutherford on Clicks, a case for iPhones that adds a physical keyboard to your device:
“The original iPhone convinced me (and many others) that typing on touchscreens was the future. So the last thing I expected to test out during CES 2024 here in Las Vegas was a mobile accessory that’s trying to bring back the physical keyboard. And, while I wanted to dismiss Clicks as a thing for people who can’t let go of yesteryear, what I found was a gadget that’s solving some modern problems by taking cues from the past.”
Read the full story here.
-
Don’t call ‘em skates, because they’re Moonwalkers
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget Shift Robotics, a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon, made a splash last year with its Moonwalkers, shoes with built-in wheels that speed up human walking. The company rocked up at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with the existing Moonwalkers and its new model, the Moonwalkers X, for us to have a play with. You can read the full story here, or watch senior reporter Daniel Cooper rolling around for a few minutes in this video:
-
We tried meat from the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker, and it was delicious
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget Here’s Billy Steele on what meat prepared in the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker tastes like:
“After just a couple of hours in the Smart Indoor Smoker, the beef had noticeable flavor from the wood pellets. McGarity was also preparing a pork butt, but it still had several hours to go before it would be ready. Given my experience with outdoor smokers, even just one bite gave me a sense of what the GE Profile model was capable of. My main concern was the amount of smoke flavor it would impart, and it was great to see that the device managed infuse an ample amount in a limited time period. That bodes well for an 8- to12-hour low-and-slow smoke session.”
Read the full story here.
-
The ASUS AirVision M1 is a wearable display for multi-taskers
ASUS ASUS has introduced quite a lengthy list of products at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, including a high-tech eyewear called the AirVision M1. It’s not really a competitor to the upcoming Apple Vision Pro and the mixed reality headgears other companies debuted at the event, though. The AirVision M1 is a wearable display with the ability to generate multiple virtual screens, supposedly so that users can juggle several tasks at once. It’s equipped with an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) Micro OLED display that has a 57-degree vertical perspective field of view.
Read the full story here.
-
This ring lets you whisper to your phone, because sometimes we need to use our inside voices
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget If there’s a problem with the world of ambient computing we’re all expected to live in, it’s that you can’t really be discreet. Most commands to your voice assistant of choice have to be spoken at a volume slightly higher than you would speak to another person. That’s the societal ill VTouch, a South Korean company, has chosen to tackle with its WHSP Ring. It’s a ring with a proximity sensor and microphone that activates when you raise it to your mouth. So when you want to talk to your assistant, you can simply mutter toward your knuckle and have it understand you.
Read the full story here.
-
-
-
The Perfecta grill uses AI to help cook a steak in 90 seconds
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget CES has increasingly become a grilling show, with companies constantly finding ways to bring more tech to your deck or patio. One company that’s added a dash of AI to its spice rack is Seergrills. Its flagship model, the Perfecta, can cook a one-inch-thick ribeye steak in 90 seconds.
Inside, dual vertical infrared burners cook both sides simultaneously, which not only expedites the process, but it also eliminates the need to flip. Seergrills says the burners top out at 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit and the unit can even ensure edges are crisp thanks to 360-degree heating. A built-in AI chef takes the desired doneness and sear level into account, calculating the proper cooking time and temp based on the food. Sensors detect the thickness of things like steak and chicken to prevent over or undercooking and the burners automatically move toward and away from foods as needed during the process.
Read the full story here.
-
Squad Mobility’s tiny solar-powered EV is a dream for crowded cities
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget Senior reporter Daniel Cooper has been wandering around Eureka Park evaluating the many, many startups here at CES, and found this gem of a microcar. Here’s what he has to say about it:
“EVs, like me after the holidays, have a tendency to bloat at the slightest provocation, which is why I can’t fit into those size 34 jeans. The big issue for electric cars is heavy batteries force cars to grow in size to accommodate them. Of course, the heavier the load, the more power is needed to keep going, forcing you into a vicious cycle. Even a small city car like the original Smart has, in its latest electric version, grown into a grotesque parody of its predecessor. Which is why there’s a lot of hope riding on truly small EVs, like Squad Mobility’s solar-powered car that’s designed not to grow too big to fit inside a city.
The company was founded by Chris Klok and Robert Hoevers, who met while working on the Lightyear solar car. Klok was chief vehicle engineer of that project, while Hoevers was previously involved with NIO’s Formula E team. But they left Lightyear to help develop a small, solar-powered car that would offer affordable and clean mobility for dense cities. And while it’s just got a few prototypes to show off, like the one here at CES 2024, it’s expecting to begin production in 2025. Even better, many of its existing pre-order customers are based in the US, given the need for a car like this in those communities that exclusively rely on golf carts to get around.”
Read the full story here.
-
Rabbit R1 is an adorable AI-powered assistant co-designed by Teenage Engineering
Rabbit One of the few genuine surprises at CES 2024 isn’t even an official exhibitor. The Rabbit R1 is an adorable little device completely dedicated to running an AI built on what the company calls the Large Action Model (LAM). Where a Large Language Model (LLM) can understand you and reply to you, LAM is able to learn your actions and perform tasks like whipping up recipes, booking a vacations or finding out who sampled a song. It’s definitely interesting and its Teenage Engineering design pedigree and reasonable price of $199 certainly help. Though we’re still waiting to get our hands on one in real life before we get too excited.
Read the full story here.
-
The Spacetop is a laptop that really wants to swap your screen for AR glasses
Photos by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Right now there are a bunch of companies trying to figure out new and better ways to work on the go. Lenovo made a laptop with two displays and a detachable keyboard to help give owners additional screen space without too much added bulk. And there are headsets from Meta, Apple and others that offer a way to create a completely virtual workspace without the need for a tethered PC. But with the Spacetop, startup Sightful has come up with an in-between solution that uses the bottom of a laptop, but instead of a traditional display, it’s attached to a pair of AR glasses.
Read the full story here.
-
-
OrCam Hear hands-on: A surprisingly effective voice isolation platform for those with hearing loss
Photo by Terrence O’Brien / Engadget Imagine being at a crowded convention or noisy bar and trying to have a conversation with someone across from you. It’s tough enough for people with hearing to focus on what the person is saying, not to mention those with hearing loss. Assistive technology company OrCam has rolled into CES 2024 with a host of new products including a set of devices and an iPhone app designed to help those with hearing loss deal with auditory overload. The platform is called OrCam Hear and after a quick hands-on at the show in Las Vegas, Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low came away pleasantly surprised.
OrCam Hear consists of a pair of earbuds and a dongle that plugs into any phone, and you’ll use the app to control who you want to listen to. The system listens to voices for a few seconds (via the dongle) and uses AI to create speaker profiles for each person that then allows you to “selectively isolate specific voices even in noisy environments.” This targets the issue sometimes known as the “cocktail party problem” that’s a challenge for hearing aids.
Read the full story here.
-
Honda debuts two futuristic 0 Series EV concept models at CES 2024
Honda concept EVs (Honda) Today, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Honda revealed two concept EVs — a sedan dubbed the Saloon and the minivan-esque Space-Hub. Honda said it will develop a model based on the Saloon concept car for North American markets in 2026, before it eventually reaches other buyers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America and Africa. Additionally, the carmaker debuted a redesigned H logo that will be exclusive to its EV lineup.
The Saloon, which is its flagship concept EV, has an aerodynamic design and rides low to the ground. While the Space-Hub is quite a bit boxier and renders show it with seating that has passengers facing each other. Besides touting a spacious cabin, Honda did not share much about when or if it plans to actually manufacture a car inspired by the Space-Hub concept.
Read the full story here.
-
Samsung’s Ballie robot didn’t do much at CES 2024, but it sure is cute
Engadget Samsung’s Ballie robot is one of the more delightful things we’ve heard about at CES 2024. The spherical robot was a surprise from Samsung yesterday, though the company first showed off a version of it back in 2020. Ballie’s now a lot bigger, growing from a tennis ball to a bowling ball, and it has a built-in projector.
Unfortunately, Samsung isn’t letting us get any one-on-one time with Ballie here in Las Vegas, but the company did show off a demo at its booth. It was obviously tightly scripted and controlled, but at the very least it gave us an idea of how the company envisions Ballie being used.
Read the full story here.
-
-
-
LG Display’s next-gen OLED panels address the tech’s biggest weakness
Photo by Mat Smith/ This year, LG Display came to CES 2024 with something to prove. It had multiple sizes of transparent OLEDs (the show’s theme appears to be transparent displays) and a gaming monitor capable of 480Hz refresh rates – double what we’re used to seeing. Perhaps the most interesting things at its showroom were LG Display’s most advanced OLED panels yet, featuring its META technology 2.0. While it sounds like promotional fluff (and there’s some of that here), the company is trying to address arguably OLED’s biggest weakness.
While the company revealed its META technology last year, version 2.0 features advanced microlens arrays (now called MLA+). These are micrometer-sized lenses with a Dragonfly eye design that improves the viewing angle of OLED displays up to 160 degrees. These lenses (and there are 42.4 billion of them in LG Display’s 83-inch 4K prototype), combined with new algorithms result in an OLED far more brighter than its predecessors – 42 percent brighter than conventional OLEDs, according to the company.
Read the full story here.
-
-
We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.