Much of the auto news out of CES 2024 has focused on EVs, and Google is no exception. The company has announced that Android Auto will share real-time battery updates with Google Maps. The update should initially roll out to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning in the coming months before expanding to other Android Auto-compatible EVs in the future.

With this new feature, Google Maps will give you suggestions of charging stations along the route without you having to pull over and search. It should also update you on the car's battery level once you arrive at a destination (something your EV should already do) and provide an estimate of how long it will take to charge. The latter is more novel and could help when you're in a rush.

Google also announced the expansion of Google built-in to additional car brands, such as Nissan and Ford, after first launching in Honda's 2023 Accord sedan's high-end Touring trim. The Chrome browser is now rolling out in beta to select models from Volvo and Polestar (of which Volvo is a part-owner) and should be more widely available later this year. Plus, Google built-in now has The Weather Channel app to track the forecast as you travel.

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.

The long, cold winter days of January are meant for shutting out the world, and to properly do so, you need a great pair of headphones. Fortunately, Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are currently on sale for £300, down from $400 — a 25 percent discount. If you've considered them in the past, now is the time to pick up a pair: Our favorite wireless headphones are about $30 less than their typical sale price and have very rarely dropped lower. The only slight caveat of this deal: It's only available on the classic Black Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones.

We have been rightfully obsessed with Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones since they first came on the scene in May 2022. They earned a 95 in our review thanks to features like their 30-hour battery life and improved noise canceling with double the number of processors and microphones for ANC compared to its predecessor, the M4.  

The WH-1000XM5's sound quality has improved with the help of new 30mm carbon drivers, providing more clarity and a punchier bass. Even using the DSEE extreme has almost no impact on the condition of what comes through the speakers. Sony also cut the headphone's weight by a minimal 0.14 ounces, yet it has a much lighter feel and better weight distribution overall. Even the synthetic leather ear cushions are snug and comfortable.

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Getting into your home could get a lot more hands-free shortly. Lockly, a company with a name that gives away its focus on smart locks, unveiled a face recognition lock at CES 2024. The lock, known as Visage, only needs to scan your face in order to unlock the door — no fingerprint, keys or other devices required.

Lockly's Visage works with Wi-Fi and the Matter smart home standard to seamlessly integrate into your existing smart home — Matter's official certification is still pending. Visage uses a pair of 2MP-resolution infrared sensors to detect your face within a range of 2.6 feet from the device. It can store up to 100 profiles (how you would use that many unless it's an AirBnB is hard to fathom) and should unlock the door within a second and a half.

While Visage can operate with your face alone, it's also equipped with a 3D biometric fingerprint reader and is compatible with Apple's Home Key, iPhone and Watch. In fact, it's the first in Lockly's Zeno series, which focuses on Apple device integration. Visage should also work with Apple Home, along with technology like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Visage also uses existing Lockly technology like Air Transfer and the PIN Genie. Visage should launch this summer for the price of $350.

Lockly also announced the $80 Matter Link Hub at CES 2024 after claiming at last year's event that the device was coming. It should tell you who opened the Visage lock and allow you also to manage older Lockly devices from your Apple Home. Lockly plans to release the Matter Link Hub sometime this year.

Lockly

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.

For some companies, CES 2024 has started in earnest which means we'll soon get to see major car manufacturers show off what they've been working on. One of those is Honda, with its event live streaming on YouTube on June 9 at 1:30PM ET and features Honda's global CEO and EVP Toshihiro Mibe and Shinji Aoyama, respectively.

What we expect

Honda announced back in December that its new EV series would make its worldwide debut at CES 2024. "Honda will showcase the global EV series models and several key technologies that illustrate the significant transformation Honda is currently undergoing," the company stated at the time. What's unclear is how many new cars will be on display or what types of vehicles they will be.

The upcoming reveal builds on past promises from Honda to shift toward a more environmentally friendly lineup. In 2021, Honda stated its plans to have all car sales be electric or fuel cell models by 2040. The following year, it announced an investment of five trillion yen (about $35 million) into electrification efforts over the next decade. Honda also shared its aim that, by 2030, it will have launched 30 more EV models, and EVs will make up 40 percent of its models.

Tune in to Honda's live stream below to see its new EV series for yourself. 

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.

Brands are sharing new health tech all over CES 2024, and Garmin is no exception. Once known solely for its GPS systems, the company has introduced a few new wearables this year, including the HRM-Fit. The chest strap heart rate monitor retails for $150. 

Garmin claims the device is the "first of its kind," thanks to its placement: the sports bra. "Whether you're going for a run or taking a HIIT class, it easily attaches to the bottom band of a sports bra and provides accurate heart rate and training data to help you know your body better by tracking the ways you move," Susan Lyman, vice president of global consumer marketing at Garmin, said in a release. It's compatible with medium and high-support sports bras, including select models from Adidas, Under Armour and more. 

The HRM-Fit also works with compatible Garmin smartwatches to report your pace, distance and stride length. If you leave your watch at home, the clip-on device can store workout data like calories burned and intensity, then load it to your watch once it's back in range. 

Other new Garmin products include the Lily 2 smartwatches with a 35mm metal case. The Lily 2 retails for $250, while the Lily 2 Classic is available for $280. They both come with heart rate monitoring, sleep quality ratings and a connected GPS. The Lily 2 smartwatches also have move alerts with suggested activities, fitness tracking and a sports app. Only the Lily 2 Classic offers Garmin Pay contactless payments. 

The company has also refreshed the app and webpage of Garmin Connect, its online fitness community. Its homepage now features customizable sections like Today's Activity, Training Plans and In Focus. This update is now available to beta testers and should fully roll out later this year. 

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're a Google Pixel fan, this week is starting off well for you. A range of Google Pixel phones are currently on sale. For starters, the Google Pixel 8 is back down to its Black Friday price of $549, dropping from $699. The 21 percent discount is the lowest price we've seen the phone at since it launched.

The Google Pixel 8 is a great, cheaper alternative to the Google Pixel 8 Pro. We gave it a 90 in our review due to features like a Tensor G3 chip, faster Face Unlock and 20 hours and 16 minutes of battery life. The Google Pixel 8 also has a 50MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera. Plus, there's the Magic Editor, which combines the capabilities of content-aware fill and lasso. Then there's the new Actua display and an overall more compact design than its predecessor. 

The Google Pixel 7a is also available at a solid discount, with a 20 percent off sale dropping its price to $399 from $499. This is only $25 more than its all-time low price, so it's a good option. The Google Pixel 7a also earned a 90 in our review thanks to its ability to deliver a quality phone for much less money than the flagship option. It offers a 90Hz display, Tensor G2 chip and wireless charging. The phone also has a high-res 64MP main camera in the back and a 13MP selfie camera with 4K video recording. In our video running test, the battery lasted 17 hours and 41 minutes. Some of our quips were that the speakers sounded a bit shallow and it didn't have a dedicated zoom lens. 

You can pick up a new smartwatch while you're at it, with the Google Pixel Watch 2 with Wi-Fi on sale alongside the phones. It's down to an Amazon all-time low of $300, dropping from $350 — a 14 percent discount. The Google Pixel Watch 2 has sensors for stress management, heart rate and skin temperature. It also has an always-on display and a 24-hour battery that fully charges in an hour and 15 minutes. The screen is 41mm and features all the Google apps like Calendar and Maps. 

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The 2024 Golden Globes represented a return to normalcy after a year dominated by strikes in the entertainment industry. Streamers continued to get recognition for their shows, with Netflix, Hulu and Max picking up a combined 12 television awards.

Max (formerly HBO Max) won the most awards, garnering four for the final season of Succession, including best drama television series. Best performance by an actress and actor in that category went to Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, who played siblings Roman and Shiv Roy on the series. Matthew Macfayden rounded out Succession's wins by taking home the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role on television. Succession is available to stream through Max but was viewable direct on TV through HBO.

Netflix won for a range of shows, such as The Crown, which premiered its final season at the end of the year. The Crown actress Elizabeth Debecki took home the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role on television for her portrayal of Princess Diana. Ricky Gervais won best performance in standup comedy on television for Ricky Gervais: Armageddon. Beef took home three awards, winning for best performances by an actress (Ali Wong) and actor (Steven Yeun) in a limited series, anthology series or series made for television. It also won for best overall in that category. The show was mired in controversy due to the casting of (and silence around) actor David Choe, who previously shared stories describing alleged sexual assaults.

Hulu's three awards came courtesy of FX-produced The Bear, which won for best musical or comedy television series. The show's lead actors, Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White, took home the best performance in a musical or comedy television series by an actress and actor awards, respectively.

AMD always brings something interesting to CES — hopefully CES 2024 is no different. The company will livestream its press conference on January 8 at 10AM ET. It will feature AMD's chair and CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, and the company's senior vice president and GM of computing and graphics, Jack Huynh.

What we expect

Like many companies, AMD says its focus for the press conference on AI — in this case, as it pertains to personal computers. The livestream's landing page says that "AMD is powering the end-to-end infrastructure that will define the AI era, from cloud installations to enterprise clusters, AI-enabled intelligent embedded devices and PCs."

If all of that sounds very vague and boring, don't fret: While we don't know exactly what AMD plans to unveil at CES 2024, it's usually the time that the company unveils the CPUs and GPUs that will be in laptops through the coming year. We're hoping to see more of the same, and there's a high chance we'll get some desktop chips as well, in the form of new CPUs with high-end integrated graphics. 

AMD unveiled a range of gear at CES 2023, including the Ryzen 9 7945HX processor, the RX 7700S and RX 7600S for thin and light notebooks and the Radeon RX 7600M XT and 7600M for high fps 1080p gaming. 

Tune in to AMD's live stream here to see what new offerings it has this year.

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.

Google Bard Advanced is coming, and it may represent the company's first attempt to charge for an AI chatbot. The code on Bard's website shows the opportunity to get three months free of Bard Advanced — implying that it will be at a cost after that. X (formerly Twitter) user Bedros Pamboukian shared the discovered code, which also includes a defunct Google One link. This could mean that users will be required to get a Google One subscription to access Bard Advanced.

Google first announced Bard Advanced in December 2023 alongside the new AI large language model Gemini and an AI hypercomputer from Google Cloud. Gemini is Google's most capable model to date, with the ability to "seamlessly understand and reason about all kinds of inputs from the ground up, far better than existing multimodal models," Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained in a blog post. Gemini has three sizes: Gemini Ultra, Gemini Nano and Gemini Pro, with Bard using the latter. Gemini Ultra isn't publicly available yet, but Google has stated that it will be the force behind Bard Advanced.

As for Bard Advanced's availability, the aforementioned code suggests it could be tied to Google One (although it's unclear what subscription tier would be required) but no details have been confirmed at this time. Google is currently testing its capabilities with a small group (which also might be why the code is visible). There's no exact release date for Bard Advanced yet, but Google said in December that it would be available "early next year" so it could launch at any time.