For its latest Tour Series true wireless earbuds, JBL is taking an interesting approach to the wireless charging case. The Tour Pro 2 comes with what the company calls "the world's first smart charging case," thanks to a 1.45-inch LED touchscreen display on the outside. This panel offers controls for both music and calls in addition to notifications for messages and social apps. The company touts the convenience of not having to look at your phone for said items, but you will have to keep the case within reach.

Aside from the case, the Tour Pro 2 is a set of flagship earbuds. They're equipped with adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) and ambient sound mode with 10mm drivers, spatial audio and JBL's Pro sound inside. Personi-fi 2.0 allows you to customize the audio profile to suit your listening habit and an ear tip fit test can ensure a proper fit. JBL says you can expect up to eight hours of use with ANC on (10 with it off) and three additional charges in the case, plus a quick-charge feature will give you four hours of use in 15 minutes. For calls, a collection of six microphones are onboard with the company's VoiceAware tech. And lastly, the earbuds are IPX5 rated so they should withstand workouts just fine. 

The Tour Pro 2 will arrive in this spring in black and champagne color options for $249.95. 

JBL

JBL is also expanding the Tour Series with a new set of noise-canceling headphones. The Tour One M2 is an over-ear model that offers both the company's True Adaptive ANC and JBL Pro drivers. The noise-canceling tech monitors and adapts to your surroundings in real time. The company is also debuting a feature similar to Sony's Speak-to-Chat tool that automatically pauses audio and activates ambient sound mode when you talk. JBL calls it Smart Talk and the feature resumes your previous ANC setting when you're done speaking. The company's Personi-Fi 2.0 is on these as well, giving you customized audio to meet your sonic sensibilities. JBL Spatial Sound is here too, as is a low volume EQ that keeps audio quality consistent when the content isn't as loud. 

In terms of battery life, the company says you can expect up to 30 hours with active noise cancellation on or up to 50 hours with it off. If you find yourself in a pinch, a quick-charge tool will give you five hours of listening in 10 minutes. JBL says four VoiceAware-equipped microphones help with calls, so on paper these should be suitable for any chats that might arise.  

The Tour One M2 will arrive this spring in black and champagne color options for $299.95. JBL says a forthcoming over-the-air update will deliver Bluetooth 5.3 and LE Audio to both the Tour Pro 2 and Tour One M2.

Google has been working on giving its Pixel phone users access to spatial audio since at least September last year. Now, the tech giant is finally rolling out the feature with the rest of the January 2023 security updates for its flagship devices. In the list of changes arriving with the package, Google included spatial audio support for all Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices running Android 13. 

Spatial audio simulates an environment that makes users feel as if sounds are coming at them from different directions, sort of like the surround sound effect in movie theaters. As Android Police notes, it mostly became popular in mobile after Apple brought the feature to the AirPods Pro. Google started introducing code for it with the Android 13 beta released in September 2022 but disabled it upon that beta's stable release. Now, the feature has officially been enabled. 

According to 9to5Google, the company previously said that users can take advantage of spatial audio on the "Pixel phone with movies from Netflix, YouTube, Google TV, and HBOMax that have 5.1 or higher audio tracks." Users, however, "must wear headphones or earbuds" to be able to enjoy the immersive experience. 

In addition to activating the feature on Pixel devices, Google is also working on bringing head tracked spatial audio to the Pixel Buds Pro that will provide users with another layer of immersion, so long as the earbuds are connected to any of the aforementioned Pixel phones. The company says it will release another update for the earbuds that will enable head tracking in the coming weeks.

Samsung’s apparently tired of mobile displays that only fold in on themselves. At CES 2023 this week, the company revealed the Flex Hybrid OLED mobile screen. It folds from one side and slides out the other. This combination not only increases the size but alters the aspect ratio, too.

Starting off at a relatively compact 4.2-inch device, it folds out to a 10.5-inch 4:3 display. Then, because it’s not done, the right side slides and expands out to create a 12.4-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which seems like it’d be ideal for watching TV and movies. Samsung’s folding phones won me over in 2022, even if they could do with longer battery life. With a screen this big, that has to be a major consideration for any real-world devices.

We’ve seen roll-out displays on concept phones before. TCL teased such a device in 2021, but it never showed off a working prototype. If Samsung has one at CES, we’ll check it out when the show floor opens. Already, we’ve been barraged by PC and TV announcements. Keep track of all the news from CES 2023 right here. What are you hoping to see this year?

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to federal fraud charges

• Finally, a fruit scanner to tell you if your avocados are ripe

• Pixel 7a hands-on leak appears to show 90Hz display and a familiar design

• 'Hitman 3' owners will get the previous two games for free

• Nintendo Switch Online deal brings a one-year family plan and a 256GB microSD card down to $50

• L’Oréal created a motorized lipstick applicator for people with limited mobility

• GE made a $1,000 stand mixer

• Alienware reveals its first 500Hz gaming monitor

• Intel's 13th-gen laptop CPUs offer up to 24 cores

• Alienware's new gaming laptops include an 18-inch beast

• Samsung's 2023 QD-OLED TVs will reach up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness

• Dell's Concept Nyx gamepad sure is... something

NVIDIA unveils the pricey mid-range RTX 4070 Ti GPU

Even at $799, it’s better value than the 4080.

NVIDIA finally unveiled its latest midrange GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti. Starting at $799, it's a slightly more reasonable alternative to NVIDIA's $1,199 RTX 4090 and $1,599 4090. But yes, it's still pretty costly. Is this the new GPU midrange? NVIDIA is positioning the RTX 4070 Ti as the pinnacle of 1,440p gaming beyond 120 fps. DLSS 3 is a big reason for that – just like with the other 4000-series cards, it uses machine learning to generate entire frames, rather than the pixels DLSS 2 created. That means it should be able to deliver better overall frame rates. The RTX 4070 Ti will be available on January 5th.

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Apple is raising the price of battery replacements for older iPhones

It already costs more to give newer iPhones a fresh battery.

Apple is adding $20 to the price of battery replacements for pre-iPhone 14 models on March 1st. For notched iPhones (iPhone X through iPhone 13), this will bump the price from $69 to $89. If you have an iPhone SE or iPhone 8, the price will climb from $49 to $69. It's not clear if self-repair prices will increase at the same time. However, part prices roughly equal the cost of asking Apple to perform a battery swap. The company didn’t elaborate on the reasoning, but last year said inflation had affected business, and it raised iPhone prices in several international markets.

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Hugging this pulsating cushion could help with anxiety

The Fufuly's movements can guide your breathing pattern.

Engadget

Yukai Engineering, the team behind the strangely adorable cat tail pillow, is back. The Fufuly is yet another anxiety-reducing cushion from the Japanese company, with a gentle rhythmical pulsation as the main therapeutic tool. The idea is hugging a Fufuly stimulates your belly to induce slower and deeper breathing, thanks to the cushion’s lifelike behavior. The Fufuly will launch in Japan this year, through crowdfunding.

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Dell’s revamped G-series: Surprisingly compelling budget gaming laptops

With retro sci-fi designs and fun colors.

Engadget

Dell’s latest G-series gaming notebooks seem to draw inspiration from gadgets in ‘80s sci-fi movies. You get simple lines with hard edges and bold two-tone paint jobs with neon/pastel accents. Color options may eventually change when these laptops go on sale, but Dell is even painting small details like the radiator fins inside each laptop’s vents. In short, they’re not as… extra as the Alienware laptop family.

The G15 will start at $849 for a 13th-gen Intel Core i5, with a 1,920 x 1,080 screen and a choice of RTX 40-series GPUs from NVIDIA. The larger G16 will start at $1,499 with the same Core i5 chip but a higher-res 165Hz 2,560 x 1,600 screen. Both should go on sale early this year.

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Test your pee where you pee with this oversized toilet clip-on

Not a fitness tracker.

Vivoo has unveiled a smart toilet device that can test your urine and send the results to your phone. The tech is in a device that clips to existing toilets. Vivoo, which has offered at-home urine tests for the last few years, designed the system with the elderly, residential care and healthcare service providers in mind. The device will automatically align a testing strip with a person's urine stream, which should reduce the risk of, well, mess. It analyzes the urine sample for four wellness parameters. The company suggests the results can offer "indications of certain deficiencies or abnormalities" and help with early detection of some conditions.

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The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has unveiled Qi2, the wireless charging successor to Qi that borrows some tricks from Apple's MagSafe charging. The idea is to create a unified system that (should) work with both Android and Apple devices, the WPC wrote in a press release

Qi2 will replace the current Qi standard that has been around for over 13 years. It'll be built off of Apple's MagSafe technology that came along with the iPhone 12, using a similar system of magnets and a wireless charging coil. However, it will introduce something called the Magnetic Power Profile that ensures phones and other devices are perfectly aligned to maximum charging speed and efficiency. It also assures compatibility among brands. 

"Qi2’s perfect alignment improves energy efficiency by reducing the energy loss that can happen when the phone or the charger is not aligned," said WPC's executive director Paul Struhsaker in a statement. "Just as important, Qi2 will greatly reduce the landfill waste associated with wired charger replacement due to plugs breaking and the stress placed on cords from daily connecting and disconnecting."

The first Qi2.0 version will launch this year, with support for 15 watt charging, foreign object detection and more. It'll also provide faster charging for some devices, improve safety and prevent device damage or battery life shortening. 

The Magnetic Power Profile standard also makes improvements easier down the road. Future iterations will "significantly" raise charging levels past 15 watts, WPC told The Verge. It could also allow wireless charging for unusually-shaped accessories that aren't compatible with the current crop of flat charging pads.

There are still some question marks, like whether Qi2 will be backwards-compatible with the current Qi standard or Apple's MagSafe. It will reportedly also require authentication, which may allow manufacturers to refuse charging from non-certified devices.  

Hopefully, device and charger manufacturers will strive to main compatibility. The Qi2 spec should be ready by this summer, and products are set to arrive by the holidays in 2023. 

OnePlus has officially launched its new flagship phone and earbuds in China, more than a month before their global debut. The OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will be available in the company's home country starting on January 9th before their worldwide release on February 7th. OnePlus had already revealed most of the new phone's features back in December, and its most notable offerings include the Alert Slider, which was absent from the OnePlus 10T. True to its name, the slider makes it easy to shift from alert mode to silent or vibrate and vice versa. 

The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that promises AI, camera and 5G speed upgrades and comes with support for ray tracing. In addition, it uses Oppo's SuperVOOC charging technology to be able to quickly charge its 5000 mAh dual-cell battery, has 16GB of RAM and has a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has three camera sensors, with the main one being a 50-megapixel lens, and it marks the return of Hasselblad camera tuning on the brand's phones. 

As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, they feature MelodyBoost Dual Drivers, which is what the company calls the "technology derived from premium speakers" that it had developed with Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Dynaudio. They also come with one default equalizer (EQ) and three customized EQs. OnePlus says it will reveal more information about the earbuds during its February 7th event in New Delhi, India. 

We asked the company for information regarding pricing in China and will update this post when we hear back.

I’ve written before about the benefits of a good, cheap kitchen scale, especially for baking. But there’s still something especially tedious about weighing out all your ingredients one-by-one in separate bowls and containers.

GE’s new stand mixer solves that issue in a clever, if expensive, way. The new $999 Profile Smart Mixer, which the company is showing off at CES, has all the features of a typical stand mixer, but has a digital scale and voice controls built in to help streamline your bakes,

The scale is integrated into the base of the mixer. A button on top controls the tare function, so you can just dump your ingredients straight into the bowl without measuring out each item separately in its own container. Or, you could remove the 7-quart bowl and weigh the ingredients in a different vessel.

James Trew / Engadget

The mixer gets even smarter if you use the companion SmartHQ app, which can guide you through specific recipes, step-by-step. It also allows you to take advantage of something GE calls “Auto Sense,” which it claims can detect subtle changes in texture in order to prevent over or under-mixing for recipes in its app. While the app has a relatively small selection of recipes for now, it could be useful for more novice bakers or anyone intimidated by a more complicated recipe. The company notes that it expects to regularly refresh the app with new content.

Even if you prefer to use your own recipes, there are other handy features. The mixer has voice controls, compatible with Google and Amazon’s smart speakers, so you can start and stop mixing, or change up the speed with just your voice. GE also notes that the mixer speed goes up to 11, which it says is closer to the speed of a blender than a typical stand mixer, which may offer more flexibility with certain recipes.

With a starting “suggested” price of $999, it’s spendier than even most high-end stand mixers, but the added convenience could be worth the splurge.

Shiftall is a Panasonic company dedicated to building equipment to plunge people deeper into their virtual worlds. That includes the Mutalk (pictured), a mouth-worn Bluetooth microphone designed to prevent your speech from being heard by people in the same room. Here at CES, however, the company has unveiled two new versions of its VR headset as well as some gadgets designed to improve your immersion in the virtual world.

First up, a new version of the MeganeX VR headset, a SteamVR-compatible unit with a 2,560 x 2,560 micro-OLED display. The company says that the screens, combined with Panasonic-branded pancake lenses, offer the “highest level of viewing experience.” In addition, the frame is lightweight, and offers six degrees of freedom, as well as enough comfort to ensure it can be worn without fatigue for hours at a time. But you’ll also need to cough up if you want to use one, since it’ll cost you $1,699 when it launches at some point between March and April.

In addition, the company is showing off two new accessories that’ll offer great benefits for the VTubers amongst you. The first is Haritora X Wireless, a full body tracking solution for SteamVR that enables you to have fully controllable torso and legs in a virtual space. The setup uses four bands, one around your chest, hips, knees and ankles, which give your digital avatar the ability to dance and high kick their way around. This is similar to Sony's Mocopi motion-tracking setup which add bands to your wrists, ankles and back and head. 

Andrew Tarantola

The other new innovation is Flip VR, a hand controller for SteamVR which uses lighthouse tracking to monitor the position of your hands. But, unlike most normal hand controllers, these are held to the hand by a strap across the palm, rather than being gripped. The top plate, where you’ll find the joystick and action buttons, can be flipped out of the way to free your hand up for other things. In the demo, a user can stop playing, flip the joystick over to the other side of their hand and drink from a can without having to remove their VR gear, or put it down on the floor.

As for pricing, Haritoria X Wireless will set you back $350, although there’s no word yet on when it’ll be available either in Japan or Stateside. As for FlipVR, we’re waiting to hear back on how much it’ll cost, and when we can expect to be able to drink, while in character as a VTuber, without having to drop our controller and ruin the illusion.

As ever, Samsung has a ton of news up its sleeve for CES, including some updates about its Freestyle portable projector. It looks pretty similar to the company's previous Freestyle model, but this one includes Samsung's smart TV platform and features its Gaming Hub, as well. This also provides access to services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna and NVIDIA GeForce Now for cloud gaming.

However, the real magic with this year's version of Freestyle may become apparent when you have two units. When projections from the two become one, as the Spice Girls might have once sang, Edge Blending tech can combine them into a single ultra-wide display with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Samsung says the patented technology can automatically keystone the picture and make adjustments for "an even more immersive cinematic experience." So, if you have a living room with an enormous wall or happen to know a friend with an art gallery, you may be able to set up two Freestyle projectors and play Fortnite on a massive display.

Engadget

Developing...

Four years after introducing The Wall at CES 2018, Samsung is poised to take its MicroLED technology mainstream. At CES 2023, the company announced it would offer 50-, 63-, 76-, 89-, 101-, 114- and 140-inch MicroLED models, greatly expanding the amount of choice consumers have when it comes to the new display technology. Samsung didn’t provide pricing and availability information for the expanded line, but the company claims the new models are its most affordable MicroLED TVs to date. Since a few of the sets are smaller than any of the MicroLED TVs Samsung has offered in the past, you also won’t need to pay for a professional to install them in your home.

Samsung claims its MicroLED line will set the standard for picture quality in 2023. And judging from the 76-inch model’s topline features, that’s not a mere boast from the company. The set sports a 240Hz variable refresh rate and 2-nanosecond response time. It also offers 20-bit black detail for “intense” contrast.

Samsung

Samsung is also promising upgrades for its Neo QLED sets, starting with the line’s new flagship. The QN900C features an 8K Quantum MiniLED-lit panel capable of maxing out at 4,000 nits of brightness. As with Samsung’s 2022 Neo QLED sets, the QN900C features a 14-bit backlight. However, the TV offers even better contrast thanks to a tweak the company made to its 8K Real Depth Enhancer Pro software. Samsung is also promising improved picture quality when viewing older movies and TV shows thanks to the inclusion of its new Auto HDR Remastering algorithm, which can automatically apply HDR effects to standard dynamic range content.

For those who would prefer a 4K set, there’s also the QN935C. Samsung’s new 4K flagship features a redesigned power board that eliminates the need for an external connection box and allows for bezels that are less than 20mm thick. The QN935C also features top-firing speakers, allowing the set to produce Dolby Atmos sound without a dedicated soundbar. You can use both the QN900C and QN935C as a smart home hub thanks to the fact Samsung’s entire 2023 Neo QLED line will feature built-in Zigbee and Matter Thread all-in-one modules.

Engadget

Last year’s CES saw Samsung launch its new QD-OLED technology. This year, the company is expanding the line to offer additional models, including an all-new 77-inch model. As previously announced, the 2023 QD-OLED TV line will offer up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness thanks to the inclusion of Samsung’s new “HyperEfficient EL” OLED material and IntelliSense AI. Samsung says its latest panels are also more energy efficient and support 144Hz refresh rates. Additionally, the company has gone out of its way to get the panels AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certified. Samsung didn’t announce pricing and availability for its QD-OLED line. Expect those details to come in the coming weeks.

CES is typically the place a lot of companies debut new soundbars and this year is no different. Samsung has announced the HW-Q990C and HW-G60C models, both of which offer Dolby Atmos audio but do so in different formats and in different sizes. If you're looking for a robust surround sound setup with multiple speakers or smaller all-in-one option, Samsung's two latest soundbars tick both of those boxes. 

First, the HW-Q990C is a flagship model that comes with two rear speakers and a wireless subwoofer. The 11.1.4-channel setup uses Samsung's Q Symphony 3.0 to "precisely direct individual audio elements" via the soundbar and TV speakers. The company says the Q990C can also "pair acoustically automatically" with its TVs so that the entire system is tuned for its best performance. When paired with a Samsung TV, the soundbar handles the dialogue while surrounding audio comes from the display's speakers. The company says this contributes to improved 3D audio. 

To tailor the entire set to your living room or home theater, Samsung's SpaceFit calibration is onboard. The company explains that this technology leverages AI to adjust individual driver frequencies and gain levels to properly fill a room. A nighttime mode adjusts for low-volume listening, Adaptive Sound 2.0 uses AI to optimize audio and Game Pro 2.0 tweaks the settings for various genres. The HW-Q990C is also a SmartThings hub, offering voice control and the ability to change things inside the SmartThings app. 

For more compact spaces, the HW-G60C is an all-in-one option that uses a combination of beamforming tech and virtualized Dolby Atmos to create a 3D feel. Samsung says this more compact unit can also be used as both computer speakers and a smart speaker thanks to echo-canceling microphones and bi-directional audio. HDMI/ARC, USB, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast connectivity are all here and there's customizable LED lighting and specific sound profiles for gaming. What's more, Samsung says a set of four microphones are tuned for chat by isolating voices, which the company explains will also help when summoning a virtual assistant.