Hello and happy new year! Once again, team Engadget has set up shop in Las Vegas for CES, living out of suitcases so that we can scour the massive show floor and occasionally injure ourselves in the process. For CES 2024, we expected to see AI everywhere, and we were not disappointed. 

We saw more than a few laptops with AI-powered chips inside, not to mention multiple references to Microsoft's Copilot assistant. Volkswagen built ChatGPT into its in-car system, while BMW teamed up with Amazon to improve its own in-car assistant. Qualcomm announced an AI Snapdragon chip. Walmart came to CES for the first time to announce its building generative AI into its online shopping experience. Even SAG-AFTRA struck a deal for AI and voice acting at CES (not that the actors themselves consider it a good deal).

Meanwhile, The Rabbit R1, a device co-designed by Teenage Engineering, was the surprise hit at this year's show — so hot we haven't been able to see it in person ourselves as of this writing. And then there were the oddballs: a grill that uses AI to help cook a steak in 90 seconds, and a cat door that automatically locks when it knows your pet is about to drag in a mouse.

Then there were not one, but two transparent TVs: one from Samsung and one from LG. Remember when rollable TVs were the thing? Oh, and GE kindly fed us beef tenderloin cooked with an indoor smoker. It was delicious.

Notably, too, there was a lot less pee on the show floor this year. (But we did find some.)

Today is our team's last day on the ground, which means it's also time for us to announce our annual Best of CES award winners. You may notice an obvious difference this year, which is that we've gotten rid of categories. From our point of view, we still attempted to see as broad a range of products as possible: laptops, mobile devices, gaming gear, smart home stuff, cars and items meant for people with disabilities. When it came to choosing winners, though, we saved time not having to debate amongst ourselves whether something was a laptop or a gaming device, a wearable or an accessibility device. A good product is just a good product.

Without further ado, we present our winners for CES 2024. But don't mistake this for the last of our coverage: We have other stories, recaps and roundups in the pipeline for you to read over the coming days. Keep following along. — Dana Wollman, Editor-in-Chief

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

Engadget

Not only is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 powerful enough to run the latest blockbuster video games, but it's also incredibly sleek. The ROG Zephyrus G14 has an aluminum chassis with clean lines, crisp edges and a thinner, lighter design than previous models. A simple LED slash runs across the lid and can be programmed to glow in gray or white, rather than the garish rainbow favored by other gaming laptops. The ROG Zephyrus G14 looks sophisticated, and it can also run any title on the market, thanks to its AMD Ryzen 8000 series processors and optional NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU at the high end. Top-of-the-line specs and a minimalist design make the latest ASUS line stand out in a sea of other game-focused devices at CES. This is what gaming laptops look like when they're all grown up. — Jessica Conditt, senior reporter

Samsung Music Frame

Samsung

Samsung's line of Frame TVs, first introduced back in 2017, do a great job of disguising a large-screen TV as a piece of art. The Samsung Music Frame does the same thing, but for wireless speakers. Instead of a screen, there's a place to display art or album covers that you swap pretty easily.

This wouldn't be noteworthy if the Music Frame didn't sound good — but in our demo, it did. The Music Frame includes two woofers, two tweeters and two mid-range drivers and supports Dolby Atmos. It's also quite the flexible speaker, working on its own, in a stereo pair or connected to a TV as part of a bigger home theater setup. It's even wall-mountable. We have no price or release date, but given Samsung's success with the Frame TVs, we imagine they won't wait long to get the Music Frame on the market. — Nathan Ingraham, deputy editor

LG Signature OLED T

LG

OLED TVs are great. An OLED TV you can see through — well, that’s just wild. The LG Signature OLED T isn’t the first transparent display we’ve seen at CES, but it is the first that will actually be sold to consumers (unlike Samsung’s similar transparent MicroLED concept).

This is a 77-inch set with an retractable contrast screen. Keep the filter up, and it looks like one of LGs standard, excellent OLED sets. Bring it down, and the image almost looks like it’s floating in mid-air. Like Samsung’s Frame TVs, the Signature OLED T is designed for ambience — when you’re not watching a show or movie, it can display little animations (a digital fish tank, for instance). To help it feel less obtrusive, the TV also uses LG’s wireless Zero Connect tech, which relegates most of the set’s I/O (and thus cables) to a separate box that can be tucked away elsewhere.

The TV does lack the microlens array tech found in LG’s absolute best OLED TVs and LG isn’t sure if it will come with the furniture you see in the image above. The company says it will ship sometime in 2024, though there’s no firm release date yet. But whenever it does arrive, it will almost certainly be prohibitively expensive for most people. — Jeff Dunn, senior commerce writer

TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro

TCL

With its third-generation NXTPAPER display, TCL’s latest 14-inch tablet combines the best things about LCD displays and e-readers. You get a sharp 2.8K-resolution panel with bright colors plus a special nano-coating that not only reduces glare, but also cuts down excess blue light while providing a lovely matte texture. And for those who prefer a more traditional newspaper-like reading experience, there’s a monochrome mode that makes the NXTPAPER 14 Pro look like it has an e-ink screen. So while its specs aren’t all that impressive (MediaTek Dimensity 8020, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage), TCL’s new tablet is one of those rare gadgets that appeals to both hardcore tech nerds and traditionalists that still remember a time before everything went digital. — Sam Rutherford, senior reporter

ASUS ZenBook Duo

Engadget

ASUS has been chasing the dream of dual-screen notebooks for a while, but this year's ZenBook Duo appears to be its best attempt yet. It consists of two separate components: a dual-screen display unit and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. You can use the ZenBook Duo in a typical clamshell mode, with the keyboard in front of one of its displays. But when you have more room, you can open up the display to have two screens sitting on top of each other (balanced on a built-in kickstand).

The ZenBook Duo also feels incredibly polished, and it has high-end hardware like Intel's Core Ultra chips and gorgeous OLED screens. It also starts at a reasonable $1,500, making it a dual-screen laptop for the masses. — Devindra Hardawar, senior reporter

Withings BeamO

Withings

There’s never a shortage of health and fitness tech at CES. This year Withings stood out with its $250 BeamO “multiscope.” It combines a body temperature sensor, an electrocardiogram, an oximeter and a digital stethoscope into one surprisingly light consumer device that promises to make it easier to collect basic health metrics at home. The company's Health Mate app collects all of that data, which can then be sent to doctors with a few taps. Withings is also seeking FDA approvals for the BeamO to be able to detect atrial fibrillation. 

BeamO impressed us not only with its versatility and fairly affordable price, but also for the potential impact it could have on telemedicine. Providing your doctor with key metrics ahead of a call or visit could make it easier for them to give you sound medical advice. And those with chronic conditions could use BeamO to keep track of health data over the long term. — Valentina Palladino, senior commerce editor

EcoFlow Delta Ultra

EcoFlow

A whole-home battery and inverter system is far from the funkiest bit of hardware we saw at CES, but it’s likely one of the more useful. The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Ultra can take in and store power from your rooftop solar panels then use the stored energy to power your home. The DELTA Pro Ultra can even suck up juice from the grid when it's cheaper, and feed it back when energy prices surge.

A base configuration goes for $5,800 and includes one 6kWh battery and inverter, but you can stack up to five batteries per inverter and chain up to three inverter-and-battery stacks, amounting to a 90kWh capacity. That’s a beastly amount of power that could keep a McMansion humming at full tilt for a few days — or run essential appliances in a more moderately sized home for a month or longer.

The DELTA Pro Ultra can also hook into an existing transfer switch if you have one, but for deeper integration with your home’s power system, the subpanel-like Smart Home Panel 2 gives you features like app control, weather and power grid monitoring, and instant switchover to backup when the power goes out. As more solar panels are installed on rooftops, a sleek and powerful all-in-one battery solution like this can give people more control over how their power is used. If you’re intrigued, you don’t have to wait — it’s one of many CES 2024 gadgets already on the market. — Amy Skorheim, commerce writer

GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker

GE

When it comes to smoking meat at home, your options are usually limited to outdoor grills that burn charcoal, pellets or wood. If you live at a place where your landlord doesn't allow open flames, like apartments, then you're pretty much out of luck. The GE Profile Smoker ditches the flames for electric heating elements and brings low-and-slow smoking indoors.

The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker is no gimmick either. It’s capable of infusing significant smoke flavor via wood pellets as we experienced first hand this week. There won't be any smoke wafting around your kitchen as the unit captures all of that with its filtration system. If you need to cook while you're away, a unique feature does that and then holds your food at a safe temperature until you're ready to serve. Toss in Wi-Fi for remote cooking and monitoring, cooking profiles and guidance, plus the Clear Smoke tool for when you need to open the door, and the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker has a lot to offer a range of skill levels. — Billy Steele, senior reporter

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4

Sennheiser

Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless series has consistently earned the accolade of the best-sounding earbuds in our best of list for a while now. However, the company never really had the complete package to knock Sony's 1000X series off the top spot. At CES this year, Sennheiser debuted the fourth-gen version of its flagship earbuds, which bring a host of upgrades. They still sound excellent, ANC and transparency mode are also improved.

The Momentum True Wireless 4 did a great job blocking out the noisy Las Vegas suite, allowing us to focus on the selection of jazz we used to demo the earbuds. Transparency mode also sounded more natural, which will be a big help for calls and tuning into your surroundings. What's more, Sennheiser figured out a way for active noise cancellation to not drain the battery nearly as much as it typically does; the ANC here only cuts listening time by half an hour. — B.S.

Gyrogear GyroGlove

Engadget

The number of accessibility and aging-related products that were good enough for us to consider for awards at CES 2024 was encouragingly high. We saw a tongue-operated touchpad, a hearing aid-like system that can isolate individual speakers in a noisy crowd and a visual radar for gamers with hearing loss. But GyroGlove stood out for a few reasons. 

The device uses a sophisticated gyroscope to help those with hand tremors (say, Parkinson's patients) stabilize their movement, but one of the deciding factors in picking it as a winner is the fact that it's actually available. The company said it's already in talks with the chief medical officers of several insurance providers in the US, and has registered the GyroGlove as a medical device with the FDA and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration. It's certified by various international standards organizations, to boot. — Cherlynn Low, deputy editor

Kia Platform Beyond Vehicles (PBV)

KIA

Kia’s PBV, or Platform Beyond Vehicles, concept is the rare car concept (or concepts, plural) that seems like it might actually be a real thing in the relatively near future. The PV5 is likely to be the first to make the leap. It’s a small modular van that can be equipped with a taller roof for extra headroom, or turned into a pickup by swapping out the back two-thirds. It can also be turned into a taxi with extra seating for passengers.

One of the more interesting things is how the members of the PBV family, including the larger PV7 and the smaller PV1 are expected to work together. For instance, Kia imagines a rail system that can connect a PV7 directly to a PV1, transferring cargo to the smaller vehicle for last mile deliveries.

Most importantly, PBV isn’t some fantastical dream vehicle that will never be heard from again: Kia is already building a dedicated factory in Korea that’s expected to be ready to pump out 150,000 vehicles in 2025. — Terrence O’Brien, managing editor

Samsung Ballie

Samsung

CES was a little light on notable robots this year, but Samsung revived one we loved when we first saw it way back in 2020. Ballie is an adorable, bowling ball-sized robot that rolls around your home, following you around like a robotic pet that's eager to please. Ballie is a lot bigger than it was when we saw it in 2020, and it now has a built-in 1080p projector so it can both show you things and speak to you when you ask it for help. Think of it like a Nest Hub on wheels.

We only got to see Ballie in a tightly-plotted demo at Samsung's booth, but it was simply delightful to watch Ballie roll around projecting workout routines, calendar updates and recipe videos on the walls. As with most smart home gadgets, there's a little bit of "solution searching for a problem" here. But it feels like Samsung nailed the form factor judging by how smoothly Ballie navigated its way around the demo area. And while many companies show off products like this that have no chance of actually reaching people in the real world, Samsung says Ballie will go on sale this year. — N.I.

Micron LPCAMM2 laptop RAM modules

Micron

If you've ever been annoyed that you couldn't upgrade your RAM in an ultraportable laptop, Micron has a potential solution: LPCAMM2 memory. It's a new form factor that's 64 percent smaller than standard SODIMM RAM sticks, and it's also potentially far faster and more efficient. Best of all is that it's a self-contained unit that can easily be removed and upgraded down the line.

LPCAMM2 RAM won't get as much hype as AI PCs, but it's something that could transform what's possible with future laptop designs. And if it means laptop makers stop soldering RAM directly onto motherboards, we'll call it a win. — D.H., senior reporter

Best in show: GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker

GE

CES 2024 is often described as a TV show or car show, but sometimes it’s more niche products that capture our imagination. GE Profile’s Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop device that makes proper barbecue in your kitchen without filling your home with smoke. It’s designed to move air around the food to impart maximum smokiness inside, 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.

Typically smoking food requires constant adjustments and vigilance, but the Smart Indoor Smoker has six preset cooking modes, while you’re able to adjust the degree of smokiness between five different levels. The wood pellets’ only function is to add flavor and not fuel the actual cooking process, so only a handful are needed per smoke session.

GE included a smart probe with the Smart Indoor Smoker too, so you can monitor the cooking process from a companion app and its Smoke and Hold feature can cook and smoke foods and keep them at food-safe temperatures for up to 24 hours. It’s not small (it's around the size of a mini fridge), but it’s stylish and simple to use, with a low barrier to entry for anyone tempted to try smoking their own foods. The device was also able to impart an impressive level of smokiness in only a few hours — we can’t wait to see what low-and-slow smoking could do. — Mat Smith, UK bureau chief

If you thought Big Tech’s dreadful year of layoffs would be confined to 2023, you’re (sadly) mistaken. Audible laid off around five percent of its employees on Thursday, which Variety reports is “just over 100 staffers.” The cuts in the audiobook division are part of parent company Amazon’s most recent round of layoffs, also affecting Prime Video, MGM, and Twitch.

“We did not take this route without considerable thought,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan reportedly said in an audio memo delivered to staff. “But getting leaner and more efficient is the way we will need to operate now — and in the foreseeable future — in order to continue delivering best-in-class audio storytelling to our customers around the world.”

For those keeping score, “leaner and more efficient” echoes the language in numerous recent Big Tech layoff announcements. Variations of “In these uncertain times...” have also been popular.

Carrigan ironically began by talking about Audible's strong performance last year. “I want to acknowledge the strong year we had in 2023, in which we delivered amazing listening experiences for our customers thanks to outstanding collaboration with creators and partners,” he reportedly said. “Our business is in good shape, and that is because of the hard work of each and every one of you.”

The CEO extolled how much the company values its workers. “A big part of what makes working at Audible so special is our many talented and dedicated employees who bring their passion to work each and every day. It’s also what makes it even harder to say goodbye to people we care about,” he said. “I recognize the impact this will have on those transitioning out of Audible as well as all of you who remain. Thanks to all who are leaving us for their valuable contributions.”

Years ago, some genius decided to build Las Vegas in the middle of a desert, so for me, any sight of unique humidifying tech at CES is a much welcomed sight. It just so happened that a Korean company showcased a device dubbed Moss Air which, as the name implies, uses real moss to purify air. It's also built with a humidifying feature that can shoot outwards or rehydrate the plant internally. In short, you're getting an air-purifying humidifier that doubles as a mesmerizing miniature foggy terrarium on your desktop.

According to Mosslab, the startup behind this device, not only does the moss convert carbon dioxide back into oxygen, but it's also effective at removing fine dust from the air. Better yet, the plant can apparently break harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) down into sugars as food. Strictly speaking, though, it's actually the bacteria in the moss that's responsible for this process, according to a research conducted by the University of Toronto.

Photo by Richard Lai / Engadget

The Moss Air consists of an LED-lit compartment under a removable transparent cover, which lets you easily install or replace the moss panel. At the top, you can block the exhaust port with the included magnetic ball to toggle terrarium mode, in which it fogs up the moss over 60-second periods every three hours. If you need to humidify your surroundings, simply slide the ball across to let it mist outwards. 

With its 1,600mAh battery, the Moss Air can run for up to about eight hours on a single charge, or until it runs out of water in its 400ml tank — you can pull it out from the bottom to refill, or to replace the paper filter (three included). Of course, you can also use this device while its plugged in (via USB-C), but having a built-in battery means you get to carry your pet moss around.

Moss Air will be launching on Amazon by the end of January 2024, and you'll get to pick between black and white. This product is asking for $99 which seems a little steep for what it does, but at least there was a demand for it when it was priced at $79 on Kickstarter and Indiegogo earlier.

The US attorney's office in Massachusetts says eBay will pay a $3 million penalty to resolve criminal charges following a harassment campaign conducted by several former executives. Several ex-employees targeted a couple who wrote a newsletter that was critical of the company.

The Justice Department charged eBay with two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through electronic communications services, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of justice. The $3 million fine was the statutory maximum for the felonies. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement with authorities, eBay also needs to improve its compliance program and retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years.

The US attorney's office says eBay "admitted to a detailed recitation of all the relevant facts about its conduct." In August 2019, the company's former senior director of safety and security Jim Baugh and six others carried out a harassment campaign against Ina and David Steiner of Massachusetts. The couple wrote about litigation involving eBay and higher-ups at the company were said to have been frustrated about the negative coverage.

Baugh and his co-conspirators harassed the couple by, among other things, sending them a fetal pig, a funeral wreath and live spiders and cockroaches. According to prosecutors, three of the former eBay employees traveled to the Steiners' home in the aim of planting a GPS tracking device on their car. The campaign also involved sending harassing messages via Twitter (now X).

Baugh and several others were convicted and sent to prison. One other has admitted to their part in the campaign but has yet to be sentenced.

In a victim impact statement published on their website, the Steiners wrote that "eBay's actions against us had a damaging and permanent impact on us — emotionally, psychologically, physically, reputationally, and financially — and we strongly pushed federal prosecutors for further indictments to deter corporate executives and board members from creating a culture where stalking and harassment is tolerated or encouraged."

The pair and Steiner Associates, the publisher of their EcommerceBytes newsletter, have filed a civil lawsuit against eBay and the former employees. A trial has been scheduled for March next year.

Leaders at Discord have decided to cut its staff by 17 percent, according to an internal memo first reported on by the Verge. Concerns over how the chat app has yet to become profitable have played a role in the decision. CEO Jason Citron said that staff across departments will be impacted once the layoffs begin.

According to the memo, Citron believes the company hired too many people since 2020. This, he wrote, led the workforce to take on projects that made Discord “less efficient.” He added that the company needs to sharpen its focus, however, he did not give any insight about any particular strategies moving forward except that the cuts “put us in the best position to continue building a strong and profitable business."

Discord will continue to provide short term pay and benefits to the 170 staffers it is letting go. This also isn't the first time the company has resorted to staff cuts. The company recently laid off four percent of its staff at the end of last year and before that, it made an undisclosed number of staffing cuts 2019.

The company has notably endured some internal struggles lately. Discord refused to have its CEO testify about its children protection policies when called upon by the US Senate Judiciary Committee. That came after a damning NBC News report on the issue, which claimed that children on the platform were being groomed and extorted. It also faced backlash for a small data breach that exposed the personal information of some users last year.

Discord is far from alone among tech companies which have recently initiated layoffs. Just one month into the new year, Duolingo and Unity announced they would be trimming staff. In big tech, Meta, Amazon and Google also have also announced plans to lay off hundreds of workers.

Google has officially voiced support for Right to Repair (R2R) legislation. Specifically, the company supports Oregon’s SB 542, championed by State Senator Janeen Sollman (D). Although Google’s motives could be less about newfound altruism and more about shaping regulatory action that seems increasingly inevitable, “a win’s a win,” as they say in sports.

The company expressed its new R2R stance in a blog post and white paper published Thursday. “Today, we’re excited to reaffirm our support for the Right to Repair movement by releasing our first white paper on repair while endorsing proposed Oregon Right to Repair legislation that offers a compelling model for other states to follow,” the company wrote.

Google lobbied against Right to Repair legislation as recently as March 2021 when it opposed the HB21-1199 R2R bill in Colorado. It’s also on record opposing AB1163 in California. The company’s stance had already shifted before today, in line with the direction of regulatory winds. (It partnered with iFixit for self-repairs starting in 2022.) But Google suggesting its announcement today is merely “reaffirming” a value it’s always stood behind (while ignoring documented evidence to the contrary) appears disingenuous.

Google’s suggestions for regulators

Google’s language in the white paper reveals a legislation-shaping tactic. An entire section titled “Policy Perspective” breaks down the language and boundaries the company believes R2R regulations should contain.

Within this policy section of the paper is a passage about “design flexibility,” urging lawmakers not to hamstring device makers by implementing strict design codes. “Well-intentioned regulations that set specific design requirements and standards in an effort to improve repairability may have unintended consequences that inhibit innovation and inadvertently lead to bad outcomes, such as more e-waste,” Google wrote in its white paper. “Design-related policies for repair should focus on defining repairability outcomes rather than setting strict design standards.”

Another item in the policy section, “reasonable implementation period,” calls for regulations that won’t disrupt existing manufacturing schedules. “Consumer electronics operate with lengthy product development timelines, often spanning years,” Google wrote. “New regulatory measures should phase in on a sensible timeline that ensures manufacturers can meet new requirements without undue burden. Regulations should not apply to products that are already designed and launched as such measures are problematic and may have negative unintended consequences, such as creating more e-waste.”

Neither of those requests seems egregiously unreasonable — and the points about e-waste could be taken at face value — but, coincidentally or not, they do also align with Google’s business interests.

An Apple dig and... Project Ara?

Google squeezed in a dig at Apple, too. “Policies should constrain OEMs from imposing unfair anti-repair practices,” the paper reads. “For example, parts-pairing, the practice of using software barriers to obstruct consumers and independent repair shops from replacing components, or other restrictive impediments to repair should be discouraged.”

Of course, Apple is notorious for parts-pairing, the practice of digitally linking part serial numbers to the device serial, locking out third-party repair services (and leaving the people who paid them with obnoxious incompatibility warnings).

Google

Google’s paper highlights examples from its history of supporting R2R and similar initiatives, even calling out the (cancelled) Project Ara modular phone from a decade ago as an example of projects that “push the boundaries and better understand our users’ needs for repair.” (If it had only made it to consumers.)

The paper also touts Google’s buildouts of its repair capabilities, seven years of software support for Pixels and seven years of support for hardware parts. All of this can be seen as a resounding victory for the R2R movement, even if corporations’ motives continue to be less noble than they like to let on.

Even though Apple didn't have an official presence at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, the trade show still had a whole area dominated by mixed reality tech. One of the most popular booths there was none other than Xreal (formerly Nreal), which decided to ride on the Apple Vision Pro hype train and unveil its latest AR glasses, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, in Las Vegas. The Chinese firm claims that its latest headset makes "an affordable alternative to" the likes of the $3,499 Vision Pro, though it's currently priced at $699 — a tad more than the $499 Meta Quest 3 — as Xreal attempts to lure developers into its ecosystem.

Unlike the rest of the Xreal Air 2 series, the Air 2 Ultra finally brings back 6DoF (six-degree-of-freedom) tracking — a first since the Nreal Light. In other words, you can physically walk around a virtual space, rather than being stuck in one spot. The 6DoF tracking is mainly handled by the two front-facing 3D environment sensors which, according to Xreal founder and CEO Chi Xu, are an advancement over prior models, and are less physically obtrusive compared to the ones on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. As with the Light, the Air 2 Ultra also supports hand tracking for interacting with virtual objects directly.

There's also a slight upgrade in the display department, featuring a wider 52-degree field of view — up from 46 degrees on the Air 2 and Air 2 Pro. It should otherwise be the same Sony micro OLED panels with a crisp 1080p resolution for each eye, along with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a brightness of up to 500 nits. Likewise, the Air 2 Ultra inherited the electrochromic dimming feature from the Pro, which offers two shade levels to minimize distraction from the outside world.

Given the extra hardware for 6DoF and hand tracking, it's no surprise that the Air 2 Ultra weighs slightly more than the Air 2 Pro — 80 grams versus 75 grams, but it still looks like a pair of regular sunglasses, and I definitely wouldn't mind wearing them in public. Xreal did its best to minimize the weight gain using a titanium frame, and obviously, these glasses still require an external power source — a smartphone or a PC — via USB-C. I had a total hands-on time of around 20 minutes, and at no point did I feel any discomfort, though there's no telling if that would be the case if I kept on going for the rest of the day.

Photo by Joel Chokkattu / Engadget

Given the lack of third-party apps at the moment (I do miss the Angry Birds demo on the Nreal Light), Xreal could only offer a concept demo to show off the Air 2 Ultra's 6DoF experience. This mainly involved a massive virtual desktop showing multimedia players, or a social media window showing the latest messages from my made-up friends, or a personal 3D cinema with a library of three movies. To the left, there was a vertical slider for changing colors on a smart light bar in the real world. I was also given three AR hexagonal discs: one for toggling between work profile and casual profile, one for switching between the casual modes (contacts, social and movie) and one for displaying a virtual pet.

The overall room tracking worked smoothly, even as I walked up to the large 3D avatars on my right, but things got a little trickier when it came to hand interaction. The hand tracking alone seemed fine (at least according to the skeletons rendered over my hands), but I struggled to pinch the light bar's color slider — it ended up at the wrong hue on several occasions. The interaction with the AR cardboard discs was also laggy at times, though I did enjoy being able to bring my virtual pet on one of the discs up close — I couldn't pick a favorite between the dung beetle and the fiddler crab.

Photo by Joel Chokkattu / Engadget

In response to the technical issues I ran into, Xreal's Xu pointed out that his team had been experiencing the same since the show floor opened. Our demo unit also crashed once, but it was fine after a reboot on the smartphone — an Oppo Find X5, which got worryingly warm right before it gave up. This goes to show that the Air 2 Ultra performance is only as good as the computational device it's attached to.

Speaking of which, Xreal says these glasses are also compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S23, along with Apple's iPhone 15 and any Windows or Mac machine that can run the company's Nebula environment. Xreal is also developing a dedicated companion device to go with the Air 2 Ultra, though there's no word on specs nor time frame.

Photo by Richard Lai / Engadget

Considering the show floor hiccups, it's only fair to revisit the Xreal Air 2 Ultra in a less chaotic environment later — especially when more developers are on board after it starts shipping in March. Still, we wouldn't go as far as agreeing with Xreal's implication that its AR glasses can totally replace Apple's Vision Pro, as only the latter — and any VR headset, for that matter — is able to offer a completely immersive experience. It'll ultimately boil down to the range of apps on each platform, but if you're looking for something that you wouldn't mind wearing for prolonged periods, then the Air 2 Ultra would most likely be the better choice.

Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown launches next week, but players are likely to encounter an amusing bug as they make their way through the game, as reported by IGN. One of the game’s NPCs is voiced by a text-to-speech program, complete with the slightly robotic tones we’ve come to associate with these services. 

It’s not quite Siri or Alexa, but it’s close and certainly doesn’t fit the game’s Persian-inspired setting. The NPC-in-question is a tree spirit named Kalux and seems to be voiced by a TTS program that’s available online for free and typically used by streamers.

This isn’t an “AI is coming for your jobs” type thing, but rather a mistake on Ubisoft’s part, as each and every other NPC is attached to a voice actor. IGN notes that Kalux doesn’t have a voice actor in the credits. Additionally, Kalux only has a few lines, so it likely won’t be a tough fix to assign an actor to deliver that dialogue. Ubisoft has readied a day-one patch, but it won’t handle the Kalux issue. Look for another patch in late January or early February that replaces the bot with a human.

Ubisoft confirmed the error and said that the “English version of these eight lines of text for this character were not properly implemented," going on to note that the game has more than 12,000 lines of dialogue across multiple languages. Game developers often use TTS services and AI voices to create placeholder dialogue, which is eventually replaced by human actors. The company just forgot to handle this one character.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown releases on January 15 for just about every platform out there, including the Nintendo Switch and PC. It’s the first franchise installment since 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. This is a Metroidvania-style platformer that brings the series back to its 2D roots. Reviews are mostly positive, with many praising it for offering a true AAA Metroidvania experience in the spirit of Nintendo’s recent-ish Metroid Dread.

However, just because this particular instance was a mistake, doesn’t mean that AI-enhanced TTS services aren’t going to radically change the industry. CD Projekt Red recently used AI to include a deceased actor's voice in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and SAG-AFTRA recently struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform to make it easier for actors to license their voice as a digital replica for use in games.

Credential stuffing, or using compromised login information to take over accounts, has been around as long as we’ve used passwords to secure our accounts. But, perhaps in part because it's gotten easier for hackers to perform this type of attack, credential stuffing made headlines in recent months.

Look at the 23andMe breach affecting nearly 7 million users. While not every account was compromised via credential stuffing, it was how the hackers initially got in, and then they used a social feature called DNA Relatives to keep going. Hackers gained access to sensitive information like full names and locations, specifically targeting groups like Ashkenazi people, offering the data for sale in bulk online.

Hacking conjures an image of sophisticated, high tech break-ins, but what makes credential stuffing so lucrative is that it's surprisingly “pretty unsophisticated,” Rob Shavell, CEO of online personal information removal service DeleteMe, told Engadget. Hackers will use educated guesses to figure out your password, or just buy old passwords from leaks online to see if they work for different accounts. Tactics used by hackers include using personal information found online to guess passwords or asking a generative AI program to come up with usable variations on a password to get into an account.

Companies frequently fail to protect your data, sticking you with the burden of preventing credential stuffing accounts to the best of your ability. In fact, credential stuffing has become so prevalent, that you’ve likely already fallen victim. Nearly a quarter of all login attempts last year met the criteria for credential stuffing, according to security company Okta’s 2023 State of Secure Identity Report that surveyed more than 800 IT and security decision-makers across fields. Verizon's 2023 analysis of data breaches found that about half of breaches involved stolen credentials. Checking an email address on sites like Have I Been Pwned can show you which passwords may have been compromised, meaning if you’ve reused it on another account, it could be a matter of time until hackers try to use it to get in.

Credential stuffing works because we tend to stick to certain patterns when creating passwords, like using your mother’s maiden name or a childhood address, with small variations to make them easier to remember. “Because we’re lazy, and because we have 50 passwords now, it is the default to just pick one password and use it many places,” chief information security officer at cloud company Akamai Steve Winterfeld said. “The problem is you then are not taking appropriate risk measures.”

That level of risk varies widely. The one-off account you used to try out World of Warcraft years ago and doesn’t have any personal or financial information attached to it probably doesn’t concern you. But hackers are betting you’ve reused an email, username and password for a more lucrative account, like your bank or social media, and they will use credential stuffing to get in. “I have one username and password that I use for things that I’m okay if they’re compromised … that would not financially or brand impact me,” Winterfeld said.

Minimizing the risks you’re taking online by using strong passwords will make it a lot more manageable to start protecting yourself against credential stuffing. Changing passwords frequently, or making the switch to passkeys, can also help. There are other ways you can protect yourself, too, as companies have made it clear that they’ll do anything in their power to shirk responsibility for protecting your information.

First, understand that once a credential is leaked, it can be used to gain access to other accounts, Frank Teruel, CFO at bot prevention firm Arkose Labs, said. So, change passwords for any accounts where you may have repeated it, especially high-profile targets linked to financial or other sensitive institutions. This is where a password manager comes in handy, because some will even flag if a password has been found in a breach and suggest that you change it to a stronger option.

Taking some time to purge accounts you no longer use will greatly reduce the number of password leaks to worry about, too, Teruel said. In the meantime, make it a habit not to reuse passwords or small variations on them, and to change passwords frequently to limit risk.

You can one day use your tongue as a mouse for your laptop, tablet or phone, thanks to a new product that made its first public appearance at CES 2024. The MouthPad (an obvious spin on the word "mousepad") is what its makers call a tongue-operated touchpad that "sits at the roof of your mouth" and can be connected to your devices just like a standard Bluetooth mouse. I got to see the MouthPad here in Las Vegas, where it's making its first public appearance since its announcement last year, though, to be clear, I did not put it in my mouth to try out for myself. Instead, I watched as the company's co-founder Tomás Vega used the device to navigate an iPhone and open the camera as we took a selfie together. 

The MouthPad is basically like a retainer with a touchpad, battery and Bluetooth radio built in. It's made of a resin that the company says is the same "dental-grade material that is commonly used in dental aligners, bite guards and other oral appliances." The device's battery was made by a company called Varta, which MouthPad's makers also said has "a long track record of producing safe, medical implant-grade batteries." All this is to say that while it can feel strange to put a battery-powered electrical device in your mouth, at least it might be reassuring to know that this uses technology that has existed in the oral health industry for a long time.

I watched Vega place the 7.5-gram mouthpiece right on his palette, where it sat surrounded by his upper teeth. He closed his mouth and the iPhone he held up showed a cursor moving around as he opened apps and menus. I asked him to open up the camera and he obliged, and we took a selfie. This was evidently not a pre-recorded demo paired with good acting. 

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Now, because I didn't try it myself, I can't tell you if it's comfortable or easy to use. But the specs sheet states that the MouthPad is about 0.7mm (0.027 inches) thick, apart from where there are capsules, while the touchpad itself on the roof of the mouth is 5mm (0.19 inches) thick. From what I saw, it didn't look much bulkier than my own retainers, and when Vegas smiled after putting the MouthPad on, I could only really see one small black piece on top of one of his teeth. 

You'll have to take out the MouthPad when you're eating, but you can speak while it's in your mouth. You might have a slight lisp the way you would with regular retainers, but I could understand Vega perfectly. The company said that the device currently lasts about five hours on a charge, though the team is working on improving that to eight hours by March. Recharging the device takes about an hour and a half, though Vega and his team said that, of the 30ish people that currently have a MouthPad, most users tend to charge theirs when they're eating and rarely seem to run out of juice.

The company explained that the MouthPad uses Apple's Assistive Touch feature to navigate iOS, but it can be recognized by other devices as a Bluetooth mouse. It's already on sale for those who sign up for early access, but general availability is coming later this year. Each MouthPad is individually 3D-printed, based on dental impressions sent in by customers as part of the ordering process. Early access users will also receive assistance from the company during setup and calibration, as well as throughout their use of the device.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Tongue-operated controllers are not new, but MouthPad is one of the more elegant and sophisticated options to date. It also works with a wide variety of devices and seems far enough along in the production process to be ready for sale. Whether the human tongue is a suitable organ for computer interactions, however, is something we can only determine after longterm use in the real world. 

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.