More from CES 2024: all the TVs, laptops, smart home gear, and more from the show floor
The concept at CES shown in this video looks to mix an earbuds case with a round OLED screen and a smartwatch-like interface. I’m not totally sold on earbuds cases with screens, but this seems pretty clever.
10,000-plus people are already sold on the big AI hit of CES 2024, but I’m not there yet. My Android homescreen layout can tell you that I’m left-handed, which is just one of the issues raised by comments like this one.
The size probably isn’t bad (David Pierce has seen the R1, and says it’s not that much thicker than an iPhone), but the keynote didn’t convince me that this voice assistant is worth my time, or that allowing a “Large Action Model” access to my accounts is a good idea in terms of privacy or security.
TikTok might be the trendsetter these days, but we’ve been at this a while.
Nvidia’s Chat with RTX lets you train your own local chatbot with your own files for free, no cloud required. Seconds after I fed it the Epic v. Google legal complaint PDF, I got decent answers to questions like “What does Epic Games want” and “Which laws does Epic allege Google violated?”
But it also confidently hallucinated that Framework’s Nirav Patel is The Verge’s CEO after ingesting this YouTube transcript, LOL. Maybe I’ll just use it as memory aid for reams of old notepad files?
Phone makers keep experimenting with ways to incorporate E Ink, from secondary displays to relying on it as the only display, but its lower refresh rate can make experiences feel hampered compared to LED and OLED.
But Infinix put E Ink’s Prism tech on the back of a phone, leading to something very customizable and very pretty.
Kohler’s got an E Ink version of its Numi 2.0 smart toilet on the show floor — and it’s got the whole Verge crew in a tizzy. Jen has all the deets, which you can check out in this video! Rumor has it, that whooshing sound you hear in the distance is a rogue Alex Cranz making a beeline toward the E Ink toilet as we speak.
I’m in Samsung’s CES booth this morning, where I finally got to see the new Ballie robot in action. It was cool! Helping with workouts, tracking air quality, making calls. And then… it got very confused about how its projector screen worked, and eventually stopped showing anything at all.
Poor Ballie might need a nap after all this work this week.
New to buy are Ubiquiti’s UniFi U7 Pro PoE+ access point and several of TP-Link’s new (and some not so new) routers. Coming later are MSI’s Roamii mesh and Acer’s new 5G and mesh gaming routers. And that’s about it for CES 2024 routers. Read our Wi-Fi 7 guide before you buy one.
“Disrupt the bathroom faucet” was not on my CES bingo card, but on giant orange plinths in the middle of Kohler’s booth was the most bizarre-looking bathroom tap I’ve ever seen.
Kohler’s new angular, very orange, limited-edition Formation 01 faucet is a “revolutionary” new bathroom fixture, according to Wallpaper Magazine.
That’s a stretch; it’s just a tap — it doesn’t do anything fancy, it’s not even smart. But full points for trying something new, Kohler!
The show floor only just opened yesterday, but we got a glimpse at a ton of cool new products, prototypes, and features:
• Asus made a portable monitor — and a laptop — with two screens.
• Sony and Honda showed off an Afeela EV prototype that puts Fortnite on your bumper.
• Amazon announced Matter casting support for Prime Video.
• Google and Samsung teamed up to combine Quick Share and Nearby Share into a single sharing solution.
• This AI startup made a little gadget that’s supposed to use your apps for you.
There’s still more to come! Stay tuned to our coverage, and make sure to check out The Verge’s TikTok and Instagram where we go hands-on with new devices.
I love bending nature to my will, but the Bon Voyage concept trailer is... something. LG’s experimental Labs group has fitted this beast with a bed and bathroom as usual, but also a wine bar, outdoor beer fridge, karaoke machine, an external TV revealed behind a fold-down table, a second pull-out table with integrated induction cooktop, that stupid Duobo coffee creature, and one of those clothing sanitizers LG has been bringing to CES for years but I’ll never understand.
I’ve included a few of DJI’s photos of the drone, called the FlyCart 30, below. It can carry as much 30kg as far as 16km when utilizing its dual-battery configuration, according to a press release.
The drone has already been released in China, but it’s now going to be coming out globally, DJI says. The company anticipates that it will be available by the end of Q1, spokesperson Regina Lin tells The Verge.
Jackery tells the The Bearded Tesla Guy that the center solar panel of that expandable 1000W array will be capable of 400W when the rooftop tent ships in Q4. It will feature a removable power station (with optional battery expansion) integrated into the tent that’s “sleekly designed” to maximize interior sleeping space. There’s also an optional AC inverter to quickly charge those batteries off the vehicle’s alternator.
This is the Scosche Strikeline Cobra. Tiny magnetic strips woven into its thin braided jacket let it coil into a single solid object in your bag. Sadly, it’s a slow 480Mbps USB 2.0 cable, with 60W charging. Come on!
A firm called Supercalla pioneered magnetic coiling cables, and I owe the founders an apology — in the time since I wrote this story, I discovered they sell a 100W / 10Gbps cable that’s actually awesome, with strong magnets. Just wish it were longer than three feet!
We ran into her at Samsung’s booth, where she was doing... a SmartThings cooking show, I suppose you’d call it? Somehow I doubt Martha’s using a ton of Bluetooth appliances and smart ovens, but hey, you never know.
Hard to tell, by the way, who drew the bigger crowd: Stewart, or Ballie. It was close.
