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We didn’t have to wait long to get more details about Sony's new mixed reality headset. Just after Sony teased the “spatial content creation” device onstage at CES 2024, we got a fresh look, and a few more details about the headset during Siemens’ keynote in Las Vegas.

The two companies are teaming up on the device as part of a broader vision to enable an “industrial metaverse” where mixed reality plays a central role in businesses’ manufacturing and design processes. It’s still not clear what the device is actually called — Siemens’ press release refers to it only as “Sony’s new spatial content creation system,” — but the company shared that the headset will be available beginning “later in 2024.”

We also got a new look at the headset itself which, according to Siemens, is equipped with “4K OLED microdisplays.” And, as we noted during Sony’s keynote, the device will be enabled with some unusual-looking controllers. It appears there’s one worn on the finger and another, larger controller that looks more like a typical VR controller.

The two companies also showed off a number of potential use cases for the tech. For example, Red Bull Racing’s engineering and design teams will use the headset to visualize the cockpit of a Formula One car (the Red Bull rep onstage said it was still “early days for us at the moment” regarding the tech).

Siemens is pitching the headset as a tool to enable what the company has dubbed the “industrial metaverse,” which CEO Dr. Roland Busch defined as “an immersive space where people and AI can collaborate in real time to solve real world problems.”

The keynote seemed to confirm that the headset is intended to be used in industrial and professional settings rather than consumer ones. As expected, this is not an Apple Vision Pro competitor. But it could still open up some interesting new possibilities for mixed reality that may be more appealing than VR workstations.

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.

MSI has introduced a handheld gaming device called Claw at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. And unlike its biggest rivals the Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally, it's powered by Intel's processors instead of AMD's. The Claw runs on Intel's new Core Ultra chips and comes integrated with Intel's XeSS technology, which uses advanced AI upscaling algorithms to boost FPS for a smooth gaming experience. MSI says that will allow users to enjoy even resource-intensive AAA games on a handheld device. 

The device also uses MSI's thermal technology design called the Cooler Boost Hyperflow that redirects airflow to cool internal components so that it doesn't overheat even after extended gaming sessions. Its battery lasts for two hours under full workload conditions, same as ROG Ally's. In fact, the Claw looks pretty similar to its ASUS counterpart, even its curvatures at the bottom for better grip. 

It has a 7-inch full HD display, as well, with a 120Hz refresh rate. MSI's system enables users to fully customize personal macros for certain games, and it gives them access to Android games in addition to Windows titles on the handheld. We'll be taking the Claw for a spin at CES, so keep an eye out for a hands-on where we'll be talking about its performance. 

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.

Following last year's smart toilet which debuted at CES 2023, Vivoo is at it again for CES 2024 with another urine analysis product. The company has unveiled an at-home digital urinary tract infection (UTI) testing kit that provides what it calls "gold standard accuracy results" via a two-minute test. 

To use it, just pee on the provided UTI test strip and scan it to obtain results via Vivoo's app in "seconds," the company says. If the result is positive, customers can then connect with a doctor to obtain a prescription if required. The company says the product "saves customers time, prevents confusion in readings, and digitalizes the data so customers can share results with healthcare providers via the app, if instant treatment is desired." From the looks of it, the results are obtained via the strip, then deciphered by the app.

Vivoo notes that UTIs are the most common type of outpatient infection, with six in ten women experiencing them in their lifetimes. Normally, you'd send your urine off to a lab for analysis, or use an existing at-home test kit. The company says that the new product spares users the bureaucracy of lab testing while also keeping the relevant data for users who might need that, unlike regular testing kits. 

In fact, many women experience recurrent UTIs, which have become resistant to at least one or even multiple types of antibiotics. By keeping a record of past infections, Vivoo's app could help patients and medical professionals track the problem and treat it appropriately. 

Last year, the company unveiled a smart toilet device that clips onto existing toilets and provides data like your body's water, magnesium, PH, protein and sodium levels. Later on, it released strips for vaginal PH levels. The new home UTI test will come to market in Q2 2024, but pricing isn't yet available. 

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.

If you’ve ever wanted to turn your car into a DJ, with the sound controlled by how you drive, then you need to buy a Benz, stat. Mercedes-AMG and will.i.am have turned up at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with what they’re calling MBUX SOUND DRIVE (all caps, as if to be bellowed). Sadly, it’s hard to talk about what it is and what it does without robbing it of its mystery, so apologies in advance: It’s essentially a system that pulls data from the car’s suite of sensors, which then helps control a specially-deconstructed music file. But, as joyless as that description sounds, once you’ve experienced it, you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been done before. Not to mention that, at the risk of gushing, it really does deepen the emotional connection between driving and the music you’re listening to.

The announcement came as part of Mercedes’ CES push, which this year is focused on the power of its audio setup. Alongside the announcement of MBUX SOUND DRIVE, it’s boasting of a new partnership with Amazon Music and Audible. That’ll see Dolby Atmos versions of its exclusive audio dramas, podcasts and books come to compatible vehicles. (The highlight of the event was when legendary British audio producer Dirk Maggs took to the stage, the figure responsible for the latter radio versions of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.)

MBUX SOUND DRIVE works by pairing musical elements in a song with ten inputs taken from the car. Start the car and all you get is the track’s bed, so to speak, looping in the background waiting for you to get moving. Push on the accelerator at low speeds and it’ll add some bass reverb to the song, while turning the steering wheel gets you extra effects or the chorus loop kicking in. It’s only when you open the car up on a clear highway and the main music and lyrics will start blasting, rewarding you for moving along. And then, when you’re coasting toward a stop light, the lead vocal and melody will peel away, returning you to the far less intrusive backing track.

If nothing else, it’s a spectacular piece of hardware and software development, given the fact even the fanciest in-car platform wasn’t designed to do this. It’s worth pointing out the extent of the achievement that’s enabled something like this to happen on an existing system. And there are plans to extend it further so, for instance, if the windshield wipers detect rain, the music will change to reflect the mood.

The demo I experienced had 16 tracks pre-loaded, including The Black Eyed Peas’ I Got A Feeling and Le French’s Night Drive. These songs have all been broken down and rebuilt to take advantage of MBUX SOUND DRIVE’s separated format. When you’re just cruising around a Las Vegas parking lot, it’s all pretty restrained, even if you do put some heavy reverb on while you’re parked. In fact, the whole experience at slow speeds could almost be described as teasing, offering you hints of the song you know and love, but never giving you the whole thing.

It’s only when you (or in this case, your qualified driver) puts their foot down and you suddenly start screaming down the road that the whole song kicks in. Even a song like I Got A Feeling, hardly the most bombastic, suddenly feels epic in this format. The closest thing I can compare it to is those moments in Grand Theft Auto when you’re opening it up on the highway and a great track kicks in. Of course, the best example of that would be cruising down the road while David Bowie’s Somebody Up There Likes Me plays. But, despite will.i.am’s promises that when the system arrives halfway through 2024 all genres will be well-represented, I’m not so sure. After all, it’s clear that tracks primarily based on discrete loops are going to be the easiest to translate and the most well-suited to the environment.

In terms of the future, will.i.am shared his hopes that tracks could be hard-coded to reflect a geography. He used the example of a car going through a tunnel, which would prompt a gas car driver to put their foot down to fill the space with engine noise. But in our electric future, where there is no engine noise, users will instead have to content themselves with the jolt from their favourite song. He added that he also dreams of building in easter eggs for songs, which would only start playing when the car reaches a specific location. On one hand, I’m curious how many musicians would take the time to remix their existing songs for the size of the addressable market. Which, in this case, is only Mercedes-Benz vehicles equipped with a second-generation MBUX system. Then again, money talks.

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.

CES 2024 is here, and we're seeing all manner of new gaming gear and accessories. One notable mention is Razer's Project Esther, the world's first HD haptics gaming chair cushion. Yes, that's right, you can get one step closer to feeling like you're in the game — especially if you combine it with a VR headset. 

The Project Esther concept includes 16 haptic actuators and has ultra-low latency. You can control the haptics' directionality, multiple-device integration and multi-actuator experiences. It also had automatic audio-to-HD haptics conversion, allowing for a plug-and-play solution. Razer claims the cushion is compatible with most gaming and office chairs, so you won't have to get a whole new setup to use it. 

Razer's Project Esther gaming chair cushion is the result of years of haptics development. In 2018, the company unveiled Razer HyperSense haptics in its new Nari Ultimate headphones. They used advanced digital signal processing and wideband voice-coil actuators to produce the haptics for PC gaming — expanding it into Xbox headphones the following year. 

CES 2019 brought Razer's Hypersense high-resolution vibration system, which it programmed into keyboard rests, mice, and a chair. In 2022, Razer took another big step, buying Interhaptics, a company specializing in, as the name suggests, haptics. Project Esther functions using Interhaptics technology. 

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.

Razer’s new accessories at CES 2024 are every bit as lavish as you’d expect. At this year’s convention, the company has a follow-up to its first gaming chair, an 11-port USB-C dock, a gaming cushion with HD haptics and a monitor-mounted light bar with Chroma RGB illumination.

Razer Iskur V2 gaming chair

The Razer Iskur V2 Gaming Chair is the successor to the 2020 original. The new model’s highlight is its “6D Adjustable and Adaptive Lumbar Support System.” Described as the only one of its kind, the lumbar support has a spring-loaded mechanism to adjust to the body’s weight and posture, alongside manual controls for the lumbar area’s protrusion and height.

Razer

Razer says it gathered feedback from ergonomics experts and esports communities in designing the Iskur V2. The chair can recline up to 152 degrees and lets you control its tilt. It includes high-density foam cushions and is made of EPU-grade synthetic leather. The company describes it as offering “extensive customization in height, position, and angle,” and it has a memory foam head cushion.

The Iskur V2 costs $650 and is available to order today from Razer’s website.

Razer USB C Dock

Razer

Razer also has a new 11-port dock compatible with Windows PCs, Macs, iPads and Chromebooks. On the port front, the Razer USB C Dock has four USB-A, two USB-C, a gigabit ethernet, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio combo jack and slots for UHS-I SD and microSD.

The dock’s HDMI port can output up to 4K at 60Hz, and its audio jack supports 7.1 surround sound. The accessory is made from an aluminum alloy, and its USB ports support 85 W laptop charging.

The Razer USB C Dock costs $120 and is available today from Razer.

Project Esther cushion

Following its 2022 acquisition of Interhaptics, Razer is showcasing Project Esther, “the world’s first HD haptics gaming cushion,” which sounds like it could have been made from a CES-themed Mad Lib. The cushion hasn’t been announced as a commercial product (at least not yet), but it’s designed to flaunt Razer Sensa haptics.

Similar to the size and shape of standalone chair massagers, the Project Esther chair mat stretches along where you sit up across the back. Devs can control Sensa’s “directionality, multi-actuator experiences, and multiple-device integration between different platforms and peripherals.” The tech is plug-and-play, automatically converting audio to HD haptics.

The chair offers “wideband, high-definition haptics,” thanks to 16 built-in actuators. It has adjustable straps, and Razer says it’s compatible with most gaming and office chairs. (If it ever makes it to market, it could perhaps help the haptic-obsessed save money on gaming chairs.) It supports low-latency connections to ensure its rumbles stay synced without delay with your gaming or media content.

Aether Monitor Light Bar

Razer

Razer loves RGB lighting, and the company has a new bar to prove it. The Aether Monitor Light Bar is a mountable accessory with front- and rear-facing LEDs.

The light bar has a Color Rendering Index (CRI, a rating of color accuracy) score of 95 and can light a 60cm x 30cm (about 2 x 1 feet) area. Its Chroma RGB lighting supports over 16.8 million colors and “a myriad of lighting effects.”

The bar also includes capacitive touch controls. Its brightness, color temperature and Chroma effects are all user-customizable. It supports the Matter smart home standard, and users can tweak its settings through the Razer Gamer Room app.

The Aether Monitor Light Bar will be available in March for $130.

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.

Sony's partnership with Honda around a new concept EV called the Afeela has been a highlight of CES for several years now. And while we're not any closer to finding out if and when this car will become a reality, Sony had a fun way to show off the latest iteration of the vehicle: they drove it onto the Sony CES 2024 stage with a PlayStation DualSense controller. Sure, it was just a fun gimmick rather than any evidence of a PlayStation-controlled vehicle coming down the road, but CES is all about the spectacle. 

Sony

We'll keep an eye out for more details on the Afeela, but Sony just invited Microsoft on stage to talk about how the in-vehicle experience is going to get smarter thanks to — you guessed it — AI. We're getting close to CES bingo here, folks. 

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.

Sony's CES 2024 presentation didn't have much for the first 25 minutes, then it revealed a new virtual reality creation headset with... no name so far, aimed at "spatial content creation".With a matte grey finish, the headset looks like a stripped-down PSVR2, and there appears to be two cameras facing out from the front. There is also a controller-wand and a smaller peripheral similar in size to a ring. The new hardware is apparently aimed at creators and artists who manipulate and craft products in virtual spaces.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said it would offer a "crisp viewing experience" and "intuitive interaction for 3D design", teasing a device aimed a professionals, similar to its professional-level cameras and devices. 

Sony showed mock-ups of a user tinkering with a bipedal robot while wearing the new headset, manipulating the robot's harm, while two monitors nearby showed things in extra detail. 

It doesn't seem like a Vision Pro rival (or even a next-gen PSVR2) but something possibly more like Hololens. Just more... artistic. 

This is a developing story, please refresh for more details.

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.

Intel is one of the biggest names that's in Las Vegas for CES 2024. The company has several talks and panels lined up, including a keynote from CEO Pat Gelsinger. You'll be able to watch that particular event live at 8pm ET on January 9 at Intel's website, along with the CES 2024 site and app.

What to expect

Intel hasn't divulged too much about what Gelsinger will dig into. However, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that AI is one of the topics at hand. According to Intel, Gelsinger will talk about "the critical roles that silicon and software play in making AI more accessible, providing powerful compute and enabling modern economies." 

Meanwhile, the company has just revealed its full slate of Intel Core 14th-gen processors for desktops and laptops, including HX-series mobile CPUs. Intel says there are more than 60 14th-gen HX-powered systems coming to market from its partners this year. Meanwhile, thin-and-light laptops featuring the new Intel Core U Processor Series 1 lineup will start hitting retailers by the end of March.

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.

Newsletter platform Substack has removed "some" pro-Nazi publications from its platform following weeks of pressure over its content moderation rules.The takedowns include five newsletters flagged to the company by Platformer, which was first to report the news.

The move comes amid growing pressure on the newsletter company after it repeatedly declined to remove publications promoting white nationalist and pro-Nazi views. In November, The Atlantic reported that it found “scores of white-supremacist, neo-Confederate, and explicitly Nazi newsletters on Substack,” some of which were monetized by their authors.

Substack, which has landed in hot water over its refusal to ban Nazis in the past, responded to the article and ensuing controversy by doubling down on its stance. “I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views,” Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie wrote in December. “But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse.”

In the latest, and somewhat confusing twist, Substack now says it has removed “some publications” but hasn’t changed its underlying rules. In a statement to Platformer, Substack’s founders said that an investigation “found that five out of the six publications you reported do indeed violate our existing content guidelines, which prohibit incitements to violence based on protected classes.” The founders said they were working on new moderation tools “so Substack users can set and refine the terms of their own experience on the platform.”

A Substack spokesperson also confirmed to Engadget that the company had removed “some” newsletters, though it wasn’t clear if the company had removed any others besides the ones reported by Platformer. "Substack regularly reviews reports of all potential content violations," the spokesperson said. “Substack did not change its policies."

Meanwhile, some prominent newsletter writers have already left the platform in protest and have reported cancellations among their paid subscribers. And it's unclear whether the company's latest act of moderation will be enough to reassure its critics. As Casey Newton, who runs Platformer noted, “this issue has raised concerns that go beyond the small group of publications that violate the company’s existing policy guidelines.”