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Thats a wrap for CES 2026! In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn chat about their favorite aspects of the show, as well as Engadgets best of CES awards lineup. Also, Cherlynn chats with Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky about his Pebble smartwatch revival, as well as an intriguing new AI ring thats built entirely around notetaking. Subscribe! iTunes Spotify Pocket Casts Stitcher Google Podcasts Topics TVs at CES 2026: all eyes on Micro RGB and LGs super thin OLED 1:48 L'Oral debuts LED/Infrared f
CES always has its share of attention-grabbing robots. But this year in particular seemed to be a landmark year for robotics. The advancement in AI technology has not only given robots better brains, its enabled new levels of autonomy and given rise to an ambitious, if sometimes questionable, vision for our robot-filled future. From sassy humanoids to AI-powered pets and chore-handling assistants, we sought out as many cute, strange and capable robots as we could find in Las Vegas. These are the
Back in 2024, NASA announced that the Artemis 2 mission was going to be pushed back to April 2026. Now, the agency says it could launch as early as February, with the first flight opportunity being on February 6. NASA is currently making the final preparations for the mission and will soon roll out the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft to their launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft systems four-mile journey from the assembly building to Launch
Chances are that you're here because you've heard a virtual private network (VPN) can change your virtual location, and want to know what that means. If you know already, head over to my best VPN list to learn which services I recommend for changing your location. But if you're clueless, read on. Whenever any device connects to the internet whether it's a laptop, a phone or a smart Lego brick it's assigned a unique IP address that other devices can use to identify it. Think of the name you giv
In October, Apple caved to pressure from the Trump administration and removed ICEBlock and similar apps which crowdsourced the location of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement activity from its App Store . Apple's stated rationale? The apps could e used to harm law enforcement officers. But armed-to-the-teeth ICE officers dont need protection from civilians. Apple had that exactly backward. That became impossible to ignore on Wednesday, when ICE agent Jonathon Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Ni
Amazon is making a return, of sorts, to physical retail via plans to build a big-box retail store in the Chicago suburbs, The Information reports . The 225,000-square foot retail space will open in Orland Park, Illinois, and give the company the opportunity to sell more than just groceries after it closed most of its physical bookstores and gift shops in 2022. The new store will offer in-store shopping, but also act as a fulfillment center for online orders, which could make it similar to compet
A new year is the perfect time to get your spending in order, and if you're not trying to build your own spreadsheet, budgeting apps are one of the best ways to do it. To save yourself some money in the process, you can pick up a year-long subscription to Monarch Money , one of Engadget's favorite budgeting apps , for just $50 if you use code NEWYEAR2026 at checkout and you're a new subscriber. That's a 50 percent discount on the service's normal $100 price. Monarch Money makes for a capable and
Were wrapping up coverage of the biggest tech show in the world. CES 2026 is almost over, and while we have more stories and wrap-ups to come, here are the most interesting products weve spotted, written about and critiqued/praised. That includes our picks for the best of CES. We gave out 15 awards as well as our best of show, and you might be surprised by some of our picks I know I was. Read on for some of the best things to come out of Las Vegas this week, but first up, our Best of the Best w
Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny (and punishment) under the European Commission's Digital Services Act, Reuters reports . Because the app's broadcasting feature WhatsApp Channels grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply. A platform is designated as a very large online platform or VLOP once it has 45 million mo
ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. Weve consistently liked ExpressVPN because its fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN . One of the biggest drawbacks h
Every third booth at CES showed off some new AI product or other. If you wanted to find a robotic lawn mower, throw a rock. Humanoid robots , smart locks and super thin TVs were everywhere. But if you went looking for sustainability products, youre going to have to hunt a bit. Last year, the Sustainability section at the Las Vegas Convention Center had 20 booths. This year, there were 38, but thats in part due to the combination of the energy and sustainability categories. So exhibitors like Sou
Dell's XPS 14 now costs over $2,000. An AMD executive predicts that PC builders will likely make piecemeal upgrades this year, instead of building entirely new systems. And new AI supercomputers from NVIDIA and AMD are gobbling up the RAM market. At CES 2026, it was hard not to notice the dire year ahead for the computing industry, one that will likely lead to higher prices and more limited availability for consumer goods across the board. Really, though, the show just confirmed what was apparen
Clicks is an apologetically gadgety company, making gear that feels charmingly out-of-place in a world where almost every smartphone out there is an all-screen slab. That was obviously two years ago when the company first revealed its keyboard case that brought tactile typing to the iPhone and eventually other Android devices. Rather than that being a one-off curiosity, the company had two new announcements at CES 2026: a magnetic keyboard accessory that also doubles as a battery bank and small,
Meta has announced three new agreements to purchase nuclear power for its AI infrastructure as well as the Prometheus supercluster , a 1-gigawatt data center being built in Ohio. The social media giant is partnering with power companies Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to deliver an expected 6.6 gigawatts of generation to its projects by 2035. The company's agreement with TerraPower will fund the development of two new reactors capable of delivering up to 690 megawatts of power as early as 2032. The
LG opened CES 2026 by outlining its vision to reduce the physical effort and mental burden of life. Buy enough of the devices its presently working on and youll exist in an environment of ambient care, coddled by the machinery in your home. It sounds positively utopian: When the sensors in your bed know youve not slept well and are getting a cold, a robot will wake you with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. When youre in a rush to get to work, the robot will make you a sandwich for you t
If you want a wireless charger for your iPhone and prefer to stick with Apple, Amazon has a sale that may pique your interest. The retailer is selling the one meter Apple Magsafe charger for $30 , saving you $10 off the regular price, while also selling the two meter model for $40 ($10 off). If you have an iPhone 16, iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, this cable can charge your device at 25W as long as it's connected to a 30W power adapter on the other end. While you'll need a more recent iPhone to get th
There were no idle hands at Sharpa's CES booth. The company's humanoid may have been the busiest bot at show, autonomously playing ping-pong, dealing blackjack games and taking selfies with passersby. On display wasn't just the robot and its smarts, but also SharpaWave, a highly dexterous 1:1 scale human hand. The hand has 22 active degrees of freedom, according to the company, allowing for precise and intricate finger movements. It mirrored my gestures as I wiggled my hand in front of its camer
Anker rolled out a bunch of new chargers and other gear at CES 2026 , including a cute one that's already on sale. The new Nano charger with smart display, which is an upgrade to the existing Nano charger in Anker's lineup, is on sale for $30 right now while you can pre-order it. That's $10 off the regular MSRP, and shipments will start going out on January 20. The 45W charger includes a smart display that shows real-time data like power flow, temperature and charging status. It also features fu
Apple keeps most of its product pricing on a tight leash, but we do see the company's AirTags go on sale pretty frequently. Another cost cut has come around for this item just in time for the holidays. Amazon is currently selling a four-pack of AirTags for $65. At a third off the regular cost, that price is pretty close to the record low discount of $63 we've seen for these Bluetooth trackers. AirTags can be useful for people who travel frequently, helping you to keep track of essentials like yo
Dolby may have announced Dolby Vision 2 a few months ago, but the company gave the new platform its first big reveal at CES 2026. I got the chance to see the improvements in person for the first time, thanks to a variety of demos and Q&A sessions. Dolby Vision 2 will be available this year, but initially, it will be limited. As such, Ive compiled the info on where the image engine will be available first, and whats likely to come next in terms of where and how you can use it. But first, lets qui
NASA has decided to bring the Crew-11 astronauts home a month earlier than originally planned due to a medical concern with one of them. This is the first time in its history that the space agency is cutting a mission short due to a medical issue, but it didnt identify the crew member or divulge the exact situation and its severity. The astronauts will be heading back to Earth in the coming days. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency will be releasing more details about their fligh
If you're one of the many who made a New Year's resolution to read more, an ereader can help by putting your whole library (and more) at your fingertips wherever you are. While not as expensive as an iPad or another flagship tablet, these e-paper devices can be more expensive than you think, but right now you can save on one of our favorites. Amazon's base Kindle is on sale for $90 that's $20 less than usual and only $10 more than its record-low price. This made our list of the best ereaders ,
Even as CES 2026 wraps up soon, theres no shortage of standout hardware hiding in plain sight. From genuinely quieter yard tools to ultra-light EVs and companion robots that want to remember your family, Day 3 was all about tech that felt a little more considered and in some cases, refreshingly practical. If you cant get enough of CES, be sure to check out our picks for best of CES 2026 , which highlights the most impressive new tech weve seen in Las Vegas. Weve also rounded up the CES gadgets
The Apple Watch Series 11 is on sale for the lowest price we've ever seen. You can pick up the smartwatch for $299, which is 25 percent off its regular price, a discount of $100. Discounts tend to increase as we get closer to September, when the next generation of Apple Watch is typically announced. The Series 11 is our best overall smartwatch pick, and we gave it a score of 90 out of 100 in our hands-on review . We were impressed with the battery life, which lasted longer than the 24 hours it's
Kia has unveiled its new entry level electric vehicle, the EV2. The boxy model strongly resembles the company's Soul (Kia did make an electric Soul at one point) and has very similar dimensions, though it's slightly shorter in height and length. It's not exactly a range monster and will charge a bit slower than the competition. The EV2 launched at the Brussels Motor Show and the company said it has no plans for US availability at this point. The EV2 uses Kia/Hyundai's E-GMP platform and slots in
Probably my favorite thing about the Lego Smart Play system unveiled this week at CES is that it was designed for kids, first and foremost. In the past 10 years or so, Lego has increasingly courted an older audience with more expensive and elaborate sets. But when it was time to bring more advanced technology to Lego, the idea right from the beginning was more social and interactive play. If you havent heard about Smart Play yet, its a way for Lego to make its sets more interactive. A Smart Bric
There are no recruitment ads for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) running on Spotify at the moment, the streaming service has told Variety . A spokesperson has confirmed the news after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, but they also clarified that the ads stopped running in late 2025. The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms, they explained. Spotify caught flak back in October for play
Another first-party Xbox game is making the leap to PlayStation 5. This time around, Obsidians Avowed one of our favorite games of last year is crossing the great divide. The fantasy action RPG will hit Sonys console on February 17 , one day shy of the games first anniversary. As it happens, an anniversary update is set to go live on all platforms at the same time. This includes a new game+ mode (allowing those who have beaten the RPG to replay it with all their gear and upgrades from their pr
Old-school, upright vacuums left a lot to be desired, and cordless models are here to right many of those wrongs. These types of vacuums tend to be thinner, lighter and easy to maneuver around a home, and you dont really have to sacrifice suction power anymore to get those benefits. Dyson isnt your only option anymore either like the robot vacuum space, there are dozens of cordless vacuums to choose from today. Variety is great, but it can also lead to decision fatigue and confusion. We at Enga
Lumus got a major boost in brand recognition when one of its waveguides was selected for use in the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses . But that already feels like old tech now because at CES 2026, the company brought some of its latest components to the show and based on what I saw, they seem poised to seriously elevate the optical quality of the next wave of high-end smartglasses. When the Meta Ray-Ban Displays glasses came out, they wowed users as they were (and still are) one of a handful of smar
When Meta first announced its display-enabled smart glasses last year, it teased a handwriting feature that allows users to send messages by tracing letters with their hands. Now, the company is starting to roll it out , with people enrolled in its early access program getting it first, I got a chance to try the feature at CES and it made me want to start wearing my Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses more often. When I reviewed the glasses last year, I wrote about how one of my favorite tings about th
While wave upon wave of smartglasses and face-based wearables crash on the shores of CES, traditional glasses really havent changed much over the hundreds of years weve been using them. The last innovation, arguably, was progressive multifocals that blended near and farsighted lenses and that was back in the 1950s. It makes sense that autofocusing glasses maker IXI thinks its time to modernize glasses. After recently announcing a 22-gram (0.7-ounce) prototype frame, the startup is here in Las V
Last year Razer showed off Project Ava as a digital assistant that lived inside your computer to help adjust settings or provide gaming tips. But now at CES 2026, the companys AI companion platform has gotten a major glow-up while moving into some new digs. Now, in lieu of being constrained entirely to your PCs screen, Razer has given Project Ava a real home in the form of a small tube that can display a 5.5-inch animated hologram of the AIs avatar. Youll still need to connect it to your compute
YouTube introduced some new filters to its advanced search tools today. Possibly the most exciting change is that Shorts are now listed as a content type, so the three-minute-or-less videos can be excluded as results in your searches. This is a welcome update for any of us who have been on the hunt for a long-form explainer only to wade through dozens of ten-second clips before finding anything close to our goal. Especially with the addition of even more AI slop last year thanks to the Google Ve
Fender Audio may have announced its new headphones and speakers right before CES, but Las Vegas afforded us the first opportunity to see the brands new lineup in person. Fender Audio is a Fender-owned brand from Riffsound thats designing and making new devices after licensing the name. Its been a while since the guitar and amplifier company made any general-use speakers of its own, and this new arrangement is similar to what Zound was doing with Marshall for a spell . Logistics out of the way, l
TVs are a staple of CES, and so far, manufacturers have not disappointed with their announcements at CES 2026 . Companies including Samsung, LG and others came to the event ready to show off updates to existing display tech and some genuinely new technologies. OLED and Mini LED remain central to most lineups, while Micro RGB has emerged as one of the most talked-about developments at the show so far, especially at the higher end of the TV market. Below are the TV announcements that stood out mos
Perhaps you like the idea of controlling your home appliances with your voice, but arent super keen on a data center processing recordings of you. Fair enough. The trade-off for most smart home conveniences is relinquishing at least some of your privacy. Today at CES, I saw a line of voice-controlled home appliances from Emerson Smart that adjust power and setting via voice commands. But commands are recognized on the devices themselves, not carried through Wi-Fi and processed elsewhere. The hug
This year, over 4,000 exhibitors descended on Las Vegas, Nevada to showcase their wares at CES, and the Engadget team was out in full force . The week started with press conferences from the biggest companies at the show, which were often a flurry of AI buzzwords, vague promises and very little in the way of hard news. More than one company even decided to forgo announcing things during their conferences to make way for more AI chatter, only to publish press releases later quietly admitting that
In a new executive order , President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will withdraw from 66 international organizations and bodies, including several focused on tackling climate change. Trump made his disregard for climate change clear when he withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement for a second time in early 2025, but these new withdrawals further confirm the second Trump administration is against global collaboration in general. Among the organizations targeted, the US
Amber Glenn is competing in the 2026 United States Figure Skating Championships this week.(Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Jamie Squire via Getty Images It's been almost two months since Fubo has stopped carrying NBCUniversal-owned channels, and there's still no sign of them coming back to the streaming service. Customers have had to find alternate methods of watching Sunday Night Football , all the latest episodes of the Real Housewives franchise, and so much more because of Fubo and NBCUniversal's
Have a hankering for some audiobooks? Audible is holding one heck of a sale right now, giving users three months of access for $3 . That's a dollar per month. This is something of a winter tradition for the Amazon-owned platform and the promotion ends on January 21. An Audible subscription grants one audiobook per month to keep. This can be selected from a massive catalog of new releases and bestsellers. The collection here has just about everything. However, it's easy to plow through a single b
As an unabashed fan of electric vehicles, even I have to admit that most of them are pretty boring. Their smooth, quiet and calm demeanors don't offer much in the way of intrinsic personality, which has led to many brands slapping on outr designs and fake engine sounds to try and dial up the excitement. To that end, a pair of offerings coming soon from UK-based EV startup Longbow Motors looks to deliver exactly that. The Speedster and Roadster are high-performance electric machines built using a
TikTok and FIFA are teaming up for World Cup matches. On Thursday, FIFA said its media partners will be able to broadcast parts of matches on the social platform. The preferred platform partnership will run through the end of 2026. How long the live clips will be is anyones guess because parts of matches is as specific as the announcement got. We emailed TikTok for clarification and will update this story if we learn more. FIFA said the collaboration is designed to bring fans closer to the actio
Have you ever wanted to save approximately three seconds and two mouse clicks when shopping online? Microsoft has something special just for you. The company just introduced something called Copilot Checkout at the NRF 2026 retail conference. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's a shopping assistant embedded within Copilot. The feature is rolling out now in the US and integrates with PayPal , Shopify, Stripe and Etsy. It lets people complete purchases directly inside of Copilot without havi
Cute, alien-inspired companion robots are a fixture at CES , but have I ever seen one with a furry telescoping neck that's also warm to the touch? No, I can't say I have before this year. OlloBot which had possibly the cutest booth at CES 2026 is a home robot and cyber pet that looks something like if you put ET's head on a penguin's body, plus a splash of fur and color. Its face is essentially a large tablet that displays its expressions, pictures and videos, and allows it to communicate with
Samsung SmartTag 2 trackers are back on sale if you're willing to pick up a bundle. Woot has a four-pack down to just $45 , which undercuts the previous all-time low weve seen on Amazon ($55) by $10. That's a discount of 55 percent from the retail price of $100. It's a compelling opportunity to stock up if you're already in Samsung's ecosystem. We named the SmartTag 2 the best Bluetooth tracker for Samsung devices. The companion SmartThings Find app is easy to use, showing locations on a Google
If youve ever bought a bag of spinach only to come home and realize you already had a bag of spinach, you may appreciate this fridge. I had a chance to check out the GE Profile Smart Fridge with Kitchen Assistant at CES and was surprised to find I kinda wanted one. To be perfectly honest, most attempts Ive seen at the show to stick some AI in it are at best amusing but usually completely unnecessary. Here, though, the AI has a purpose. After seeing how the autofill water dispenser worked, I aske
NASA has postponed an International Space Station (ISS) spacewalk that was scheduled for Thursday. The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex, the agency wrote. On Thursday, NASA added that ending Crew-11's mission early was on the table. The unnamed crew member is stable, according to NASA. Space News notes that Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was heard on an open comms channel on Wednesday
When Dell made the decision to kill off its XPS laptop name last year, it felt like a big mistake. We said so , in fact, multiple times . But at CES 2026 , the company is righting its past wrongs by resurrecting the iconic laptop brand and this time, this decision feels like the right move both for Dell as a whole and its flagship consumer devices. Even more than the words the letters XPS are meant to represent (Extreme Performance Systems), over the last decade, Dells signature laptop brand st
Star Trek is in a weird place right now. Less than three years ago we were living in a golden age with five shows on the air, all with different styles and intended audiences. But the universe rapidly contracted, with Picard ending while four other shows were cut short. Strange New Worlds still has another two seasons left, sure, but even that final season got truncated. As it stands, theres only one project with a firm future right now, and thats a brand-new show, Starfleet Academy , premiering

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