A Call of Duty game sells. That’s what it does. And it usually tops the sales charts each year. Pretty much every year since 2009. Activision’s warfare simulations (we can just call them first-person shooters, right?) have mostly done just that. Last year’s a bit different: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III landed in second place.

To convey the gravitational pull of CoD, when Microsoft was fighting to buy Activision Blizzard – makers of the game series — the Xbox maker had to make concessions and ensure the games would come to PlayStation and other platforms to make the purchase happen.

This time around, however, Hogwarts Legacy — a game not without its own controversies — beat it to the top spot. It did benefit from being the only Harry Potter game in a decade. In that time, there have been 11 Call of Duty releases. Headlines aside, the series will be fine. Another thing worth noting: 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II still took the number seven spot.

— Mat Smith

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Instagram will start telling night owl teens to close the app and go to sleep

Younger users won’t be able to turn off the Nighttime Nudges.

Instagram’s latest mindfulness feature targets teens. When a younger user scrolls for more than 10 minutes in Reels or their DMs, the app will suggest they close the app and get to bed. Nighttime Nudges will automatically appear on teen accounts, and it won’t be possible to switch them off. Instagram didn’t specify whether the feature will be for all teenagers or just under 18s.

Could we get it for us over 18s too?

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Apple’s Vision Pro won’t have access to YouTube and Spotify apps at launch

Users will have to access them from a browser.

Engadget

According to Bloomberg, Google’s YouTube and Spotify don’t have any plans to develop an application for Apple’s Vision Pro, at the moment. YouTube won’t make its iPad app available for download on the headset, either. For these apps — including Netflix — users will have to watch things through the web browser. In most cases, this will mean losing the ability to watch or listen to content offline. According to MacStories, Meta’s Instagram and Facebook might also be missing from the Vision Pro’s app store. Companies might be waiting to see whether it’s worth dedicating resources for the $3,500 headset — the Apple Watch took time to generate its own app library.

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The Rabbit R1 will offer up-to-date answers powered by Perplexity’s AI

No, I haven’t heard of Perplexity either.

Rabbit

The Rabbit R1 launch left many questions unanswered, with some of us wary of it being the vaporware candidate from this year’s CES. Now, Rabbit has revealed which LLM (large language model) will power the device’s interaction: Perplexity. Fortunately, you won’t need to pay for a subscription. The first 100,000 R1 buyers will receive a year of Perplexity Pro, for free. This advanced service adds file upload support, a daily quota of over 300 complex queries. Perplexity is a San Francisco-based startup with investment from NVIDIA and Jeff Bezos.

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Samsung’s big Unpacked event yesterday unashamedly focused on the company’s annual flagship phone refresh. No smart speakers, no tablets, no wearables (pretty much…) just three more phones, each with entirely different unique features. Just kidding: It’s mostly just changes to cameras and screen size. Same as it’s been since the Galaxy S20.

While introducing the Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra, the company wheeled out streamer and YouTuber Pokimane to cheerlead the even brighter screens, while MrBeast — who Samsung couldn’t afford to have there in person? — showcased some of the camera tricks and specs of the flagship S24 Ultra.

However, beyond the predictable spec bumps, Samsung went to town on AI features this year. And they’re intriguing, inching beyond what Google’s been doing on its Pixel series for years.

Samsung

Sure, there are photography-augmenting features, with the S24 sniffing out unwanted reflections and shadows, but now generative AI will power auto-fill features, extending the background of shots to help recompose wonky photos. With video, a new feature will use AI to generate more frames to create slow-mo clips not actually captured in slow motion.

Samsung’s added AI smarts beyond the camera too, with new features for search, translations, note creation and message composition. New transcription tricks, when you record meetings and other conversations, mean S24 will split audio recordings into separate people talking and reformat it on the fly. You can even share selected parts or get the smartphone to summarize meetings and notes for you. I’m intrigued to see what my smartphone thinks is important during my weekly catchups with the Engadget team.

I’ll dig into the specs for the new flagship S24 below (it’s a Samsung-heavy TMA), but this year, it’s really about the software. And the good news is that many of these features will make their way to selected older Galaxy devices later this year.

— Mat Smith

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hands-on

Titanium phones for power users.

Engadget

The $1,300 Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung’s biggest AI bet yet. Sure, the hardware design doesn’t appear to have changed much, but there’s now a titanium frame (available in colors beyond monochrome shades, Apple), ensuring the biggest flagship should feel lighter and easier to wield than previous iterations. The S24 Ultra’s telephoto camera is now based on a 50-megapixel sensor (up from 10MP on the S23 Ultra) with a 5x optical zoom. If you’re obsessed with specs, you might recall the S23 Ultra packed a 10x optical zoom. The company apparently chose this tweak based on customer feedback and use patterns, which saw 5x as the most frequently used zoom mode. We’ve got first impressions right here.

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Samsung announces the Galaxy Ring

Look, don’t touch.

Samsung

Near the end of its Unpacked event, Samsung started talking about its health-focused software, Samsung Health, and those watching the show fought to maintain concentration. Then, Samsung teased a new tinier piece of health-focused hardware, the Galaxy Ring. It’ll have lots of sensors and hooks into the Health software suite. But that’s all we know.

But if Samsung’s getting involved with smart rings, all we can say is: Watch out, Oura.

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Google admits it could collect data in Chrome’s Incognito mode

The company updated its disclaimer after settling a lawsuit.

When you open an Incognito browser on Chrome, you’ll see a notification warning that other people using your device won’t be able to see your activity, but your downloads, bookmarks and reading items will still be saved. Now, Google has updated that disclaimer in Chrome’s experimental Canary channel, shortly after agreeing to settle a $5 billion lawsuit accusing it of tracking Incognito users. The plaintiffs of the 2020 lawsuit argued that by tracking users on Incognito, Google was giving people the false belief that they could control the information they were willing to share. The new disclaimer in Canary says Incognito mode won’t change how websites collect people’s data.

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Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta’s board

She spent 14 years as COO and 12 as a board member.

Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta’s board of directors after 12 years, her last official role with the company. Sandberg spent 14 years as Meta’s COO and Mark Zuckerberg’s top lieutenant and 12 years on the company’s board. Her role as a board member will officially end in May. In a post on Facebook, she said, “This feels like the right time to step away,” and she would continue to advise the company. Hey, at least she posted it on Facebook.

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With pre-orders opening later this week, Engadget experienced a more in-depth demo of Apple's mixed-reality headset. Editor-in-chief Dana Wollman and deputy editor Cherlynn Low were fitted with the Vision Pro for some more extensive demos, including immersive video, a little bit of Disney+ and attempts to type in thin air on the Vision Pro’s floating keyboard.

Apple

They discuss the fitting process, the attention to detail in Disney+’s viewer app and where there's room for improvement with keyboards, comfort and utility. This is the company’s first new product for a while — and I had strong feelings about its last one. Early impressions suggest Apple seems to have made a fluid, intelligent headset experience — but are you willing to spend $3,499 on it?

— Mat Smith

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The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered review

A new roguelike No Return mode steals the show.

When a PS5 remake of the 2013 title The Last of Us Part I launched, it was hard to stomach the $70 price tag. Yes, the game looked incredible, there were some new modes, but the level design and gameplay were identical. It was, for all intents and purposes, a money grab.

With The Last of Us Part II Remastered, that seems less true. First, it’s a $10 upgrade for people who bought the PS4 versions (or $50 outright). Second, there’s a new roguelike game mode called No Return, which may be worth that upgrade price on its own. Nathan Ingraham, TLOU die-hard, explains.

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Yamaha takes on Teenage Engineering with its own colorful groovebox

The SEQTRAK is an all-in-one production studio.

Yamaha

Yamaha is a pillar of the electronic music-making world, but it’s perhaps best known for its stage synthesizers and studio monitors. Now, it’s taking Teenage Engineering with the SEQTRAK groovebox. Stylistically, it seems heavily inspired by TE.

The SEQTRAK includes a drum machine, sampler, FM and sample-based synthesizers and that semi-eponymous sequencer along with a built-in battery (three to four hours expected playtime) plus a built-in speaker, so it works without plugging in anything else. The SEQTRAK is available to pre-order at retailers for $399, which undercuts the heady pricing of Teenage Engineering’s similar product.

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Apple shipped more smartphones than anyone else last year

It’s the first time Apple has held the top spot.

Both IDC and Canalys’ most recent analysis of smartphone shipments shows Apple has beaten Samsung to roll out more smartphones than any other company. IDC’s preliminary data said Apple shipped 234.6 million units in 2023, equal to 20.1 percent of the market share. In comparison, Samsung shipped 226.6 units for 19.4 percent of the market share. This is the first time Samsung has fallen from the number-one spot since 2010. 

Back then, Nokia was in the lead.

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After a fairly long wait, Apple’s debut mixed reality headset — its first new device since the Apple Watch — is almost here. The Vision Pro launches on February 2, and to ensure it fits as well in demos as it will in real life, you’ll have to put most of an hour aside to play.

Apple

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, customers who ask for a demo will have to go through face scans and the assembly of a custom Vision Pro, before sitting through a walkthrough of the interface, controls and device calibration. Apple Store employees will even scan glasses to figure out lens prescriptions for the Vision Pro. All of that could well burn through any intrigue and excitement for the headset, but at least you’ll get a meaty 25-minute demo.

If you’re planning to buy a Vision Pro in-store without trying, you maverick, you’ll still have to go through the face scans. However, you can jump through the rest of the hoops in your own time back home.

– Mat Smith

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Nikon made an AI imaging camera that detects when cows are about to give birth

It can save farmers from frequently checking mothers.

It’s not what we expected from a camera maker, but if Canon can make an album of music to concentrate to, why can’t Nikon detect when cows are about to give birth?

Its AI monitoring system, which costs 900,000 yen per year ($6,200) for a farm with around 100 cows, consists of a security-style camera married to an AI system. It’ll ping the farmer’s phone when the system detects a calf is due. Apparently, it can detect signs exhibited by pregnant cows about five hours ahead of labor.

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Apple will remove Blood Oxygen app from Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 to evade US import ban

Federal officials said the company can bypass the ban after a redesign.

According to a letter from Masimo, the company in a patent dispute against Apple, to an appeals court judge, the latter’s latest Watches can skirt the recent import ban by removing the Blood Oxygen app from Apple Watch units sold in the US. According to 9to5Mac, this won’t affect those who already have an Apple Watch with pulse oximetry features. Apple will likely roll out a new version of the Blood Oxygen app to affected units once it resolves the patent problem.

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Microsoft introduces Copilot Pro: a $20 monthly subscription for advanced AI

And Copilot GPTs for specialized tasks.

Microsoft

It’s been almost a year since Microsoft launched its ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat — now just called Copilot. So it’s time to make money, of course! Like OpenAI did with ChatGPT as its popularity grew, Microsoft is launching Copilot Pro, a $20 monthly subscription that gives access to the very latest ChatGPT releases, as well as access to Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps and other new features.

What might be more interesting for power users, though, is Copilot GPT, a new feature that lets you tweak the AI chatbot around specific topics, including fitness and cooking. Pro users will also eventually be able to create their own Copilot GPTs.

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It’s the end of our CES coverage, wrapping up the week with more deep dives from the tech show and introducing our Best of CES 2024 winners.

This year, rather than award specific category prizes, possibly in categories lacking competition (or anything good enough), we’ve announced a group of winners across multiple categories. We still attempted to see as many products and devices as possible, whether it was laptops, mobile devices and smart home gear or cars and accessibility innovations.

You should check out the full slate of winners, but our Best of Show went to GE Profile’s Smart Indoor Smoker. I know: CES is more typically a TV show or car show, but sometimes it’s niche products that win us over.

GE Profile

The Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop device that makes proper barbecue in your kitchen without filling your home with smoke. It moves air around the food to impart maximum smokiness, without letting airflow out. When your brisket, chicken or whatever is done, a filtration and catalyst system draws the smoke down, eventually expelling it as warm air. It’s not small, but it’s stylish and simple to use, with a low barrier to entry for anyone tempted to try smoking their own food. The device could also impart an impressive level of smokiness in only a few hours.

Make sure you check out all the winners right here. Expect a few more stories from the team today and over the weekend, but for me, it’s time to leave Las Vegas. Until next year!

— Mat Smith

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The weirdest tech and gadgets at CES 2024

They can't all be winners.

Engadget

A little secret: I love the strange gadgets, services and concepts we unearth at CES, more so than all the premium TVs, car tech and beefed-up laptops. There are thousands of exhibitors peddling their wares, trying to find a market for things no one has dreamed up before. Here are a few favorites from CES 2024. Weird doesn’t mean bad. It just means weird.

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Touring LG’s high-tech camping trailer at CES 2024

LG’s greatest hits, vacuum packed into a trailer.

Engadget

The LG Bon Voyage concept trailer packs so many of LG’s CES greatest hits, retooled and restyled for near-future camping that’s both incredibly comfortable and… unlikely. LG Labs’ inexplicable capsule coffee machine, the Duobo, which looks like a moon lander, nestles inside the trailer, alongside a microwave. The fridge, however, you get into from the outside. A pull-out table, on the other side of the door, has a built-in inductive burner. There’s a giant OLED screen above another pull-out surface, and at the rear of the trailer, there’s a portable karaoke set, with two wireless mics and a speaker. Oh, and cocktail accouterments on either side. Do I have to repeat myself? Glamping.

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It’s a great time to buy a solar generator

CES 2024 showed how the tech is finally getting there.

This year’s CES has shown that the solar power industry has moved beyond its old limitations. Cost for solar panels and batteries has fallen dramatically in the last few years, making it an easier sell.

The new EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra, the company’s flagship whole-home backup, can pump out 7,200W. The company claims the unit is strong enough to power a three-ton central air unit, one of the most demanding appliances in the home. Plus, because it’s modular, you can add up to three units to the same home for a cumulative output of 21.6kW — and, with enough batteries, a total storage capacity of 90kWh.

Solix, Anker’s big battery division, showed off its new F3800 portable power station, which can pump out a peak of 6,000W — enough to juice an EV.

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LG’s Labs department often takes technology and existing products and spins them into lifestyle-heavy ideas and notions. LG Labs was responsible for the Dukebox, a vacuum tube-driven speaker with a transparent OLED screen, an LG Gram with two displays, and several other projects. But the LG Bon Voyage concept trailer is a little more involved, packing so many of LG’s CES “greatest hits,” retooled and restyled for near-future camping that’s both incredibly comfortable and… unlikely.

The trailer is 2 meters by 3.8 meters, measuring up to a height of 2.2 meters. LG’s explanation suggests you’d be able to pick and choose which appliances and features are included.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

This is an upgraded concept trailer from LG, this time it’s taken feedback from customers (though it’s never gone on sale, so it must mean prospective customers). The redesign is aimed at better use of space, and practically every corner has LG tech crammed into it.

A touchscreen panel on the trailer door runs webOS, offering an interface to the trailer alongside pertinent information like weather, charge capacity and more. A spokesperson said the concept trailer here at CES 2024 housed a 10kWh battery.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

LG Labs’ inexplicable capsule coffee machine, the Duobo, which looks like a moon lander, is nestled away inside the trailer, alongside a microwave. The fridge, however, is accessed on the outside. A pull-out table, on the other side of the door includes a built-in inductive burner. This trailer may possibly have more cooking options than your home. Somewhere inside, although I wasn’t able to see it, was a water purifier and a row of detachable light bars can be set up outside the trailer when you actually want to spend time in the great outdoors.

And a blast from CES past, LG included its Styler device — a clothes refresher that jostles and steams clothing, into the trailer too, because you can’t be glamping without glamor. There’s also a shower and toilet, but neither feature any connected technology, as far as I could tell.

LG is considering including solar to power all that technology, but there’s a giant charging port on the rear. It’s going to need a lot of power. Beyond lifestyle devices, the left side of the Bon Voyage features a giant OLED screen above another pull-out surface. Oh, and at the rear of the trailer, there’s a portable karaoke set, with two wireless mics and speaker. Oh and cocktail accouterments on either side. Do I have to repeat myself? Glamping.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

LG plans to continue developing the Bon Voyage. And if Sony can make a car, why can’t LG launch a trailer?

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.

Since Sony Honda Mobility revealed its EV collaboration at last year’s CES, not much has changed externally. The Afeela EV does now have a LIDAR notch above the windshield, and there’s been some design refinements and tweaks, but for CES 2024, the company was trying to express exactly how all of Sony’s entertainment and sensor expertise would combine with Honda’s automotive know-how, and why we should care about its high-tech EV.

The Afeela will create its own noise cancellation bubble, apparently “tailoring the cabin for entertainment” using Sony’s Spatial Audio technology. According to SHM’s renderings, there appear to be roughly 30 speakers. These were put to use in one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had at CES: playing Horizon Forbidden West inside a car.

No, there isn’t a PS5 baked into this concept EV, but a demonstration involving PlayStation’s long-running Remote Play feature. Sure, the Bluetooth connection to the controller was temperamental (CES is just hundreds of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals clashing), but conceptually, it works. I also got to “test-drive” the Afeela through a simulator in a realistic computer-generated city, courtesy of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, with even the digital wing mirrors reflecting what they would see in real life. The simulator’s dash display then offered an AR overlay, showing vehicles, objects and pedestrians, flagging nearby hazards in red.

I’m sure many wonder if SHM’s EV will ever exist as a consumer vehicle, but at CES, it’s found the perfect audience for its gadget-packed car.

— Mat Smith

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‘Teach’ your dog to ‘play’ this ‘piano’

CES is all about pet tech.

Engadget

At CES, a startup showed off TheButter, a four-key instrument with light-up pads your dog can “play.” Your pet has to follow along the sequence of lights, each one triggering another few notes of whatever song you’ve equipped it with. Once done, you should reward their effort with a treat or some other form of encouragement — no, it’s not automated. TheButter is now available to buy in the US for $99, and you’ll also get the companion app to set your dog’s training routine.

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What to expect from Samsung Unpacked 2024, including the Galaxy S24

CES may soon be over, but…

Engadget

Samsung is running its first event of the year a little earlier than usual. It will start on January 17 at 1PM ET. We’re expecting the company to unveil its Galaxy S24 smartphone family and possibly a few more gadgets. Fortunately, thanks to leaks, we have a good idea of what to expect from the company’s latest smartphones.

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Next-gen MEMS ultrasonic solid-state earbud drivers will deliver the bass

We’ve heard the difference at CES 2024.

While MEMS drivers may be the next big thing in true wireless earbuds, the first models with the solid-state components still require a hybrid setup. These products pair a MEMS speaker with a dynamic driver. The current-gen driver from xMEMS, a California-based company that develops audio components, is called Cowell, and it’s already available in earbuds from the likes of Creative. Its new driver will arrive in products in 2025. We’ve tested them out, and you can really hear the difference.

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25 gadgets from CES 2024 that you can buy right now

Available, now.

In a rare twist for anyone that's followed product announcements at tech shows, a lot of the tech at CES 2024 is actually available to buy already. While it may not be a Sony Honda EV or a transparent TV, some of the latest monitors, headphones and more are already up for grabs.

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A year since Sony Honda Mobility (SHM) announced its debut EV concept, the Afeela, the company is back at CES 2024 to offer more details, more collaborations and a driving simulator.

The name of the concept vehicle hasn’t changed since last we saw it. What is new, however, is the car's ability to be driven around with a PlayStation controller. I didn’t get to do that — it was a stunt operated by one of the company's employees — but there was a DualSense controller involved in my demo.

So let’s begin where SHM left off. At last year’s CES 2023, it revealed the Afeela Concept EV, which packed in 45 cameras and an expansive “media bar” that spread across the vehicle's dash, showing a mix of car information, navigation, music players and more. The steering wheel was redesigned as a yoke so that the driver can better view that sumptuous dash. The company also further teased some mixed-reality tricks in collaboration with Epic Games.

The Afeela EV itself looks mostly the same as the prototype from last year, although it now has a substantial LiDAR bar above the windscreen that looks like a giant smartphone notch. The company says that the car will be available for pre-order in 2025 before going on sale in the US the following year.

At CES 2024, I got to step inside an Afeela, while an SHM representative gave me a tour of everything that’s so far been crammed into this concept vehicle.

Combining both Sony and Honda’s expertise, the Afeela will create its own noise cancellation bubble, apparently “tailoring the cabin for entertainment” using Sony’s Spatial Audio technology. According to SHM’s renders, there appear to be roughly 30 speakers, although that’s more than likely to change as the concept further evolves. A spokesperson added that over 42 sensors grace the Afeela’s initial spec sheet.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

In one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had at CES, I also got to play Horizon Forbidden West on the Afeela's expansive dashboard display. No, there isn’t a PS5 baked into this concept EV — why not, though? — but a demonstration involving PlayStation’s long-running Remote Play feature. Sure, the Bluetooth connection to the controller was temperamental (CES is just hundreds of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals clashing), but conceptually, you get that it’s possible. The two screens for passengers sitting in the rear would also be able to display games, movies and more; however they were just dummy screens in this demo car.

SHM also announced during Sony’s CES show that it’s already teamed up with Microsoft to use its Azure OpenAI technology to create a “Mobility Personal Agent” — a conversational in-car virtual assistant for drivers and passengers alike.

It’s also working with Polyphony Digital, the company behind Gran Turismo, on a nebulous goal of developing vehicles that “fuse the virtual and the real, mainly in the area of human senses.” For now, that collaboration has resulted in an Afeela you can drive in Gran Turismo.

But it’s the new dash, combined with AR graphics overlays and that LiDAR notch, which intrigues me most. The EV will draw information and imagery from its sensors and create 3D models of the outside world. This can be used for frivolous things, like Godzilla-styled monsters on your dashcam feed and augmented reality games. Or more simply, rich, detailed overlays for navigation to nearby businesses and destinations.

While we weren’t driving the Aveela EV around Las Vegas, SHM tried to offer the next best thing: a car simulator made in collaboration with Epic Games (and what appears to be that Unreal Engine 5 Matrix demo). Steering around the virtual world, in an Aveela cockpit (in a moody black colorway, different to the light-gray showroom car I sat in earlier), the digital wing mirrors also displayed the same highly realistic 3D world. The dash display then offered an AR overlay, showing vehicles, objects and pedestrians, flagging nearby hazards in red.

SHM is still putting a lot of its focus on developing its autonomous driving technology and advanced driver assistance systems, the latter are non-autonomous helper features, similar to Tesla’s Autopilot. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride SoC powering the concept vehicle’s advanced driving features, the Aveela could reach limited Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities. At that point (and we’re not there yet) a vehicle can manage most aspects of driving without any human intervention. A spokesperson added it would be capable of Level 2 Plus autonomous driving in urban settings. SHM also teased traffic monitoring through the sensors, detection for objects like traffic cones, and apparently, using what it calls a Vision Transformer that will work to detect environmental characteristics “in a broader perspective” — this could translate into predicting future traffic jams before you meet them or alternative driving routes.

The car will also utilize all those sensors more frivolously, to detect drivers' approach and open the door for them. The same sensors, including LiDAR and cameras, will guide the Afeela as it parks itself.

Many of us still wonder if SHM’s EV will ever exist as a consumer vehicle. The commitment to getting its car on roads by 2026 is still there, and while CES may be the perfect audience for the hype being served up, will car buyers think the same?

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.

LG Display came to CES 2024 with something to prove. Its showroom in Las Vegas had transparent OLEDs, a 480Hz gaming monitor and the company's most advanced OLED panels yet, featuring its META technology 2.0. While it sounds like promotional fluff (and there is some of that), LG Display is trying to address arguably OLED’s biggest weakness in the face of ever-improving LEDs, MicroLEDs and the rest. Using advanced microlens arrays (now called MLA+) and new algorithms, LG Display says it’s made an OLED 42 percent brighter than the displays that came before it.

At CES 2024, I took a closer look at the prototype panels, headed to TVs later this year.

— Mat Smith

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Rabbit R1 is a very different AI-powered virtual assistant

It’s co-designed by Teenage Engineering.

Rabbit

A new startup called Rabbit seems to think our virtual assistants are less-than-ideal implementations of AI – and they’re not wrong. The dream of Rabbit is you leave your apps behind for conversation and, rather than a distracting device shoving icons in your face, you interact with what amounts to a walkie-talkie for an AI.

The stylish hardware (thanks, TE) is reminiscent of the Playdate handheld-with-a-crank, with an analog scroll wheel and a “360-degree rotational eye,” but the coolest feature — not that we’ve seen it working in real life yet — is its ability to use interfaces rather than APIs or apps. You can train it to use Photoshop to perform simple editing tasks and, apparently, even play Diablo for you. You can then make it repeat those tasks just whenever.

The Rabbit R1 costs $199 and is available for pre-order, with an expected ship date before the end of April.

Continue reading.

OpenAI admits it’s impossible to train generative AI without copyrighted materials

The company has also published a response to a lawsuit filed by The New York Times.

OpenAI and its biggest backer, Microsoft, are facing several lawsuits accusing them of using other people’s copyrighted works without permission to train the former’s large language models (LLMs). OpenAI wrote in its evidence to the UK’s House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee that it would be “impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials.”

In some lawsuits, the plaintiffs accuse the companies of refusing to pay authors for their work while building a billion-dollar industry and enjoying enormous financial gain from copyrighted materials.

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The ASUS Zenbook Duo is a stunning dual-screen laptop with seemingly no compromises

It’s relatively affordable at $1,500.

Engadget

The ASUS Zenbook Duo features two screens and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard that can be stashed inside for traveling. This iteration stands out because the OLED panels are slightly larger than those on rival devices, at 14 inches, while also offering a 3K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and stylus support. Plus, with a starting price of $1,500, it costs $500 less than the Yoga Book.

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Clicks hands-on: An iPhone keyboard for 2024

Whimsy in three colors.

Engadget

The iPhone’s touchscreen killed the physical smartphone keyboard, so why not resurrect it with a case? Clicks’ design couldn’t be simpler. It’s a silicone case with a physical keyboard bolted on the bottom, coming to the iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Read on for our first impressions.

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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.

META 2.0 could address one of the biggest criticisms of OLED compared to rival screens- whether Mini or MicroLED – that it can’t get bright enough. LG Display says its META 2.0 OLEDs can hit 3,000 nits of brightness.

Why would you want an even brighter OLED? Combining MLA+ with a new brightness-optimizing algorithm analyses scenes in even more detail, to enhance both peak and also color brightness. These next-gen OLED displays can reach color brightness of up to 1,500 nits — 114% brighter than conventional OLEDs. A new detail-enhancing algorithm will also attempt to accurately render bright and darker images, where detail is sometimes lost. It’s not just a matter of image quality either — the technology offers power savings too.

LG Display’s 83-inch 4K META 2.0 OLED demonstration display will apparently be joined by 55-, 65- and 77-inch options, as well as 8K OLEDs as big as 88 inches. These will reach consumer TVs, monitors, and the rest – just in time to go head-to-head with the latest, brightest MicroLED rivals.

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.