Be it virtual, in-person or some mix of the two, CES is a beast. How could you keep up with all of the news flooding out of the show? You can’t, really. The big outlets each put a small army on CES coverage and only really scratch the surface.
With that in mind, and with CES 2022 now wrapped, we figured it was worthwhile to bring it all together in one neat little box — a recap of our top stories of the week, the trends we noticed and some of our favorite bits. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’ll give you a good sense of the show if you were too busy to pay attention in real time.
The top stories
We wrote up many, many, manynews items from CES. Can’t read them all? Here’s some of the stuff that folks read and shared the most:
It’s like something out of a sci-fi flick: push a button, and your car changes color. Based on E Ink tech along the same lines as a Kindle screen, it’ll only flip between black/white/shades of grey… but still — wow. Don’t go looking for a preorder page, though… for now, it’s just a tech demo.
Between crypto miners, resellers and chip shortages, good graphics cards are hard to come by right now — especially if you don’t want to pay a huge markup. So it makes sense that a great card meant to ship at a budget-friendly price would grab a lot of eyes… but will resellers just gobble up all of these, too?
Nvidia had a good bit of news around its game streaming service, GeForce Now: new games, free subscriptions for select AT&T customers and plans to build it right into Samsung TVs.
Nvidia had quite the CES; while it didn’t break the top stories list, its announcement that it is opening up its Omniverse tech to more creators also pulled a ton of eyes.
Want a dishwasher, but dont have space and/or don’t want to deal with ripping out cabinets or installing water lines? Bob lives on your counter and you add the water with a pitcher. Plus you can use its water-free UV-C mode to disinfect things like phones, or keys, or other things that can’t get wet. Plus it’s hella cute.
“How sweet is your blood?” writes Haje in a wonderfully Haje headline. It’s early days, but AI company Scanbo is aiming to do glucose monitoring without the painful, exhausting, never-ending finger pricks
We’ve known for a while that Sony has been working on a new VR headset for the PS5, but now we know a lot more… like that it’s called PS VR 2, has a much improved display, supports foveated rendering and more.
“GAF Energy, a division of the roofing giant, claims its new solar shingles are simple enough to install that no special equipment or knowledge is required, making home renewable energy that much more accessible,” writes Devin Coldewey.
Ever wished you could just cram your AirPods right into your iPhone instead of carrying around an extra little widget? This case makes it happen. Brian Heater goes hands-on with a prototype.
“By connecting robots to the metaverse, we will be able to move freely between both the real world and virtual reality,” says Hyundai Motor Group President Chang Song in a sentence that explodes my brain a little. Will traveling the planet — or, as Hyundai’s promo video suggests, Mars — in a robot avatar be a totally normal thing at some point?
Sony has been experimenting with cars for a few years now, showing new prototypes at each of the last two CES events. Now they’ve announced the formation of a new company, Sony Mobility Inc., just to figure out how to commercialize their EV efforts.
The Trends
Image Credits: Schlage / Schlage Encode Plus Smart WiFi Deadbolt
Smart home devices can be great… once you get them up and running. But for most people, just figuring out what works together is a chore. A lot of the biggest tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.) have banded together to build a protocol called Matter, and Christine Hall has a look at how those efforts are going so far.
Are we close to having Rosie the robot roaming our homes? Or are we forever stuck with puck-shaped robo-vacuums that eat our socks? In last week’s Actuator newsletter, Brian Heater gave us a look at where consumer robotics are today, and how it has moved forward over the years. Plus there’s a robot cat that nibbles on your finger for some reason?
Electric vehicles tend to grab most of the headlines… but what about the boxes that you plug them into to give’m juice? There’s growing competition in the space, and Rebecca Bellan has the overview about what each team is doing differently.
What’s left to build in the world of e-bikes and scooters? How can one fancy electric scooter differentiate itself from another? Our mobility team took us on a ride through all of the micro-vehicle news from the show.
Rather than any one headset or “killer app” making VR an overnight ubiquitous thing, its story so far has been one of incremental progression — and CES this year moved it a few more steps down the road.
The organization behind CES might not want anyone to call it “Consumer Electronics Show” anymore (as it aims to broaden its scope to all of technology, not just the electronic bits), but there are still lots, and lots, and lots gizmos and gadgets to be found. Heater took a look at some of the most interesting ones.
As much as we’d love to pretend otherwise, we all get old. Before we know it, we’ll have a generation of seniors that grew up from day one with the internet always within reach. How can tech evolve to help older people live more comfortably? From robot companions to lightbulbs that might help detect falls, Catherine Shu rounded up the latest advancements in elder tech.
Our favorite bits
We spent the last week with our heads buried in CES news — and, for much of the CES team, it was our seventh or eight or zillionth time doing so. What stood out to us? Here’s some of the stuff we’re still thinking about.
The average age of the American farmer is 57.5 years. Field work is backbreaking, intensive and increasingly difficult to staff. Farming is one of those roles that makes a lot of sense to automate, something John Deere has been working for several years to perfect. Available later this year in select U.S. Markets, the 8R finally brings full autonomy to the company’s popular tractor line, with a number of features currently in the works.
This isn’t just a concept car that will never see the light of day. Mercedes tapped the expertise of its R&D department, Formula 1 and Formula E teams to develop advanced components for this concept that will show up in future models, starting in 2024.
Of note, they improved the energy density of the battery by making “significant progress” in the chemistry of the anodes, which has higher silicon content and advanced composition that allow it to hold considerably more energy than commonly used anodes. Translation: More range packed into a tinier package. Another item that will show up in 2024 includes ultra-thin roof panels that feed the battery system for some extra range.
Will you be able to buy BMW’s color-shifting car any time soon? Probably not. Is it super practical? Nope! Who knows how much it’ll cost to replace a door panel when someone bumps this thing with a full grocery cart. But one thing I dearly miss about in-person CES is the absurd, “we made this mostly just to flex” aspect of it all, and this one fits squarely in that category.
We hear a lot about the promise of robotics, but the most useful robots for people aren’t going to look like us.
They’re going to be things like Labrador, which is essentially a mobile table. It’s intended for elderly folks and those who may have trouble with everyday tasks, for example, carrying a plate and a drink from the kitchen to the dining room, or bringing the laundry hamper to the washer. With built-in voice controls you should be able to tell it “wait in the bedroom” or “come to me.” It’s the kind of thing that could make a lot of people’s lives easier, and something I hope we see more of in robotics.
One of the more interesting smart home devices at CES was the Mui Labs Matter-ready “muiPlatform” that turns smart home devices into “calmer ones.”
The more devices we add to our home, the more we have cluttering up our furniture. Mui Labs lets you embrace a minimalist lifestyle while also enabling your Amazon Alexa to function more like a piece of art on your wall with a visual interface.
To me, some of the most interesting technologies at CES are about how we can use our limited resources better. With California being in perma-drought, Bob caught my eye.
Bob is a tiny dishwasher aimed at households of 1-2 people, and uses a lot less water than washing dishes by hand. It even has a UV mode to clean items without using any water at all.
Apple has announced their annual developers conference will take place June 10 through June 14.
The big summer event will be live-streamed, but some select developers have been invited to attend in-person events at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10.
The company typically showcases their latest software and product updates — including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV and Vision Pro headset — during a keynote address on the first day.
Contributing to a drop in Apple’s stock price this year is concern it lags behind Microsoft and Google in the push to develop products powered by artificial intelligence technology. While Apple tends to keep its product development close to the vest, CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been making big investments in generative AI and plans to disclose more later this year.
The week-long conference will have opportunities for developers to connect with Apple designers and engineers to gain insight into new tools, frameworks and features, according to the company’s announcement.
The upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are still months away from their expected launch this fall, but a new set of images published online may give us a better sense of their potential features. Among the revelations, the iPhone 16 may include an action button, similar to the one on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, and it may have redesigned cameras in a vertical stack.
AppleInsider published a series of photos it says show dummy 3D prints of the upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro from an unnamed leaker. Aside from the action button and reworked cameras on the iPhone 16, AppleInsider also said its source found the iPhone 16 Pro to be “slightly larger” than its predecessor. Analysts had earlier said they expect the Pro model screens will grow somewhat.
The new details suggest that a series of expected hardware updates are likely for this year’s new iPhones. Apple typically announces new iPhones around September, and the company tends to offer incremental upgrades to each new phone, introducing, over the period of several years, better cameras, screens and battery life, features that end up seeming like major upgrades when people get around to buying a new phone.
Though AppleInsider’s leaks appear to confirm many previous rumors, not all renders and 3D prints are accurate, something the rumor blog notes itself in its report. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the veracity of the leaks.
Watch this: What Google Gemini AI on the iPhone Could Look Like
08:16
I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites
The iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a 6.7-inch screen (Image credit: Future)
We’re already counting down to the arrival of the iPhone 16 series – most probably sometime in September – and a leak showing dummy units of the upcoming phones has revealed a few of the changes we can expect to see later this year.
These dummy units are usually based on supply chain information, and have various business uses – like helping case manufacturers get their wares ready for new phones before they’re launched, for example. In this case, the images were posted to Chinese social network Weibo, as spotted by MacRumors.
Perhaps the most interesting reveal from these blocks of plastic and metal is that they show the previously rumored increase in size for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays – up to 6.3 inches (from 6.1 inches) and 6.9 inches (from 6.7 inches) respectively.
That’s not a huge jump of course, but it does mean more screen space for apps and media. The bezels are apparently shrinking down to accommodate the larger screens, which means the increase in the physical size of these handsets is only a slight one.
On the button
Further reveals from this leak match up with what we’ve heard before: that all four models are going to get the Action button that replaced the Ring/Silent switch on the 2023 Pro models, as well as a brand-new Capture button for getting more creative with photos.
Also of note is the redesigned rear camera module that we think is coming to the back of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. The new vertical, pill-shaped look has been leaked already, but this is more evidence that it’s on the way – taking us back to a design that’s more reminiscent of the iPhone 12, which came out in 2020.
As always with such rumors, be somewhat cautious about reading too much into the look of these dummy units. That said, as more and more similar leaks pile up, it becomes more likely that they’re based on accurate information.
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons