CES is home to some of the coolest, cutting-edge, and most innovative technology around. But within this sea of tech are always some pretty strange gadgets. This year’s conference was no different, packed with a whole bunch of wacky devices, some of which might have a chance of taking off, and others... maybe not so much.

Here’s a roundup of all the weird tech we spotted on the CES show floor and beyond.

1. Mirumi, the shy sloth-like robot

Image: Yukai Engineering

Mirumi is a furry little robot that latches onto your purse or backpack strap. It turns its head to look curiously around the room using built-in sensors. But much like an infant, Mirumi is designed to be a bit shy, so it might bury its face if it’s touched or approached by strangers. The company behind Mirumi, Yukai Engineering, plans to launch the bot through a crowdfunding campaign this year with an expected price of $70.

2. A phone battery charger that resembles a toaster

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

No, my colleague Allison Johnson isn’t sticking her phone in a toaster — that white box is actually a charging hub made by Swippitt. It’s designed to power up a series of external batteries that go into Swippitt’s Link phone case, giving your device a little extra charge. When your battery is on the verge of dying, insert your phone into the hub, and it will automatically swap out the external battery for one that’s fully charged, no cords or wireless charging stations needed.

3. This retractable keyboard

I never even thought I needed a keyboard that retracts to reveal a trackpad and number pad, and after seeing my colleague Sean Hollister use it... I still don’t think I need it. The AutoKeybo uses a built-in camera to detect the position of your hands and will automatically switch between setups when you raise them slightly. It’s supposed to help you “boost productivity” by saving you from moving your hands between your mouse and keyboard, and it comes with a pretty hefty $700 price tag.

4. An even more portable LG StanbyME display

LG is back with a second version of its portable StanbyME monitor. But this time, you can add a shoulder strap to the 27-inch monitor, letting you haul it around while on the go (or hang it up in a room). There’s even a new folio case that makes it look like an absurdly large tablet. Aside from the new accessories, the StanbyME comes with other upgrades over its predecessor, including a higher 1440p resolution, a longer four-hour battery life, and two USB-C ports.

5. SwitchBot’s modular, multitasking robot

SwitchBot made a modular robot capable of completing many different types of chores. Built on a version of SwitchBot’s mini robot vacuum, the Multitasking Household Robot K20 Plus Pro comes with a wheeled “FusionPlatform” that you can equip with various devices, like the company’s air purifier, fan, security camera, and more, allowing it to roll around your house while completing all kinds of tasks. It will be able to do even more in the future with the in-development robotic arms you can see in the video above.

6. An 18-karat gold smart ring

Image: Ultrahuman

Forget your traditional engagement ring. What about presenting your partner with an 18-karat gold smart ring? Well, Ultrahuman made just that, with its “artisanal” Rare ring, costing $1,900 in gold (or $2,200 in platinum). Aside from full access to all of Ultrahuman’s features and lifetime membership to its warranty program, this device has the same specs as the far cheaper $349 Ultrahuman Ring Air — just in a far more expensive package.

7. LG’s air purifier your cat can sit on

The LG AeroCatTower is exactly what it sounds like: an air purifier that doubles as a cat tree. In addition to providing a heated spot for your feline friend, it filters out pet dander and even weighs your cat, too. The AeroCatTower connects to the LG ThinQ app, where you can see information about your cat’s weight and track how long your cat was asleep.

8. The “world’s first wearable solar panel”

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

This jacket from Anker is still just a concept for now, but it gives off real Cyberpunk 2077 vibes with its LED light strips and perovskite solar cells wrapped around the outside of the cloak. It offers a 30W maximum input, along with a USB-C output you can use to charge your phone.

9. LG’s indoor gardening side table

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Like LG’s AeroCatTower, the company’s latest take on indoor gardening combines multiple functions in a single package. The device looks similar to your typical side table, but it features a lamp you can grow plants beneath. It also automatically waters your plants using its built-in tank and has a built-in speaker. LG made a taller, lamp-style garden as well.

10. Encapsulated anime girls that talk to you

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

This is exactly what it looks like: a pod containing 3D models of dancing anime girls. But it doesn’t have to house anime girls; you can upload any character to Character Livehouse’s 1200p display, and it will use AI to interact with you. The capsule comes equipped with cameras and microphones with sound recognition, allowing the character to detect your presence. Code 27, the company behind Character Livehouse, says the model can cheer you on in games and even “gently” wake you up. It’s headed to Kickstarter soon with a price range of $400 to $500.

The European Union is reportedly close to deciding whether X’s attempts to combat illegal or harmful content are compliant with the bloc’s digital service rulebook. A probe into X’s risk management and content moderation will be concluded “as early as legally possible,” according to a letter to EU lawmakers seen by Bloomberg. It comes a day after Meta announced sweeping moderation changes on its own platforms inspired by X.

In the letter, the EU’s justice chief Michael McGrath and tech policy leader Henna Virkkunen vowed to “energetically” push the investigation forward. Bloomberg reports that the letter was prompted by a complaint from center-right German lawmakers over concerns regarding Elon Musk’s promotion of Germany’s far-right party leader on X.

The probe was launched under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) in December 2023, with a focus on “the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel,” and how effective X’s Community Notes system is at tackling information manipulation. Additionally, the same investigation yielded preliminary findings that found X to be in breach of DSA regarding advertising transparency, dark patterns, and its “blue check” user verification system. Platforms deemed to have breached the DSA risk fines of up to six percent of their global yearly revenue.

Since purchasing X (previously known as Twitter) in 2022, Elon Musk has transformed its verification system into a subscription service and cut back its trust and safety team to focus on community-driven moderation. The EU criticized X over rising levels of disinformation on the platform, something that Musk himself actively engaged in promoting, following these changes. More recently, Musk has landed himself a position on President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, which has issued threats over perceived biases in moderation.

US tech giants are already heeding to Republicans’ complaints regarding online speech rules. Yesterday, Meta announced it was inspired by X to scrap its third-party fact-checkers in favor of implementing its own Community Notes program, alongside removing restrictions around topics like immigration and gender identity. While these changes will initially be rolled out in the US, both Meta and X operate on a global stage — and the eyes of EU regulators are ever watchful.

One of the key changes Matter is bringing to the smart home is a standardized way to enable local control of smart devices. This means your light bulb doesn’t have to talk to the cloud when you ask your voice assistant to turn it off. While some smart home ecosystems already offer local control, Matter should make implementing it easier for every smart home platform.

This week, Google announced it has added full local control of Matter devices to its Google Home hubs by integrating Home Runtime. Now, Google Nest hubs and speakers, Chromecasts, Google TV devices on Android 14, and some LG TVs can connect to and control Matter devices locally.

“This means when a user who has a hub for Google Home device (at home) is viewing or controlling their Matter devices (at home), they can do so with higher reliability, privacy, and lower latency,” Jeannie Zhang, product manager for Google Home, told The Verge.

This is a significant change for the platform, which has historically relied on cloud connectivity for device control. Now, if the internet is down and you ask Google Assistant to turn on the lights, it should actually be able to follow through.

Google also shared details on its recent efforts to help developers make more products that work with Matter. These include working with the Connectivity Standards Alliance to make certifying Matter devices easier and partnering with MediaTek to build a new chip that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and Thread. This should make it “easier and more affordable for device OEMs to build Thread into all their new products,” Google Home senior engineering director Matt Van Der Staay writes.

Finally, Google is opening its Home APIs to all developers. This allows developers to integrate Google Home devices and automations into their own apps, allowing them to focus their resources on building devices rather than integrations.

Google announced the Home APIs at I/O, but they weren’t available to all developers. The program had been in an early access phase with companies such as Eve, Nanoleaf, LG, ADT, Cync, Yale, and Aqara. Now, any company can access the Android version of the Home APIs in public developer beta, with the iOS version coming soon. Google says the Home APIs consist of:

Device and Structure APIs: With one single integration, get access to over 600M devices already connected to Google Home and a single unified interface to manage and control both cloud-connected and Matter devices across Google Home, enabling local control, broad device reach, and support for Matter custom clusters.

Commissioning API: Simplifies device set up with Fast Pair on 3 billion Android devices, commission Matter devices directly within your app, enabling seamless onboarding, voice control via Google Assistant, and compatibility with the Google Home ecosystem.

Automation API: Empower your users with all the tools needed to create and manage home automations directly in your app, leveraging extensive signals, commands, and Google specific AI-driven capabilities for personalized and intelligent home experiences.

Essentially, all of this allows developers to use the Google Home platform to power their app’s automations and integrations with other devices. While this can significantly speed up development — it helped Eve finally launch an app for Android — the downside is if Google ever pulled the API access (as it did when it shut down its Works with Nest program), developers would be left high and dry.

However, despite its history here, the likelihood of that happening seems slim. From what I’ve seen, the company does seem to be taking a more thoughtful, thorough approach to the smart home.

It looks like Samsung is finally ready to roll out a paid subscription for its AI-powered smartphones, but it might not look like what we were expecting.

According to ETNews, Samsung Electronics vice chair Han Jong-hee has confirmed that the company’s AI Subscription Club, which launched last December for some of Samsung’s home appliances in South Korea, will soon roll out to both Galaxy phones and the upcoming Ballie AI robot.

“We will apply the subscription service to Galaxy smartphones starting next month,” he says. “Ballie will be introduced first in Korea and the US, and we plan to supply it as a subscription in Korea.”

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The AI Subscription Club isn’t a requirement to access the Galaxy AI features on Samsung’s phones and other devices, which the company has previously said will remain free to users at least until the end of 2025, with plans beyond that point unconfirmed.

The model currently gives Korean consumers the ability to sign up for a monthly subscription of their AI-powered TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and more, including optional repair and maintenance services, for the sake of a lower upfront cost.

It’s not clear if the subscription model will expand beyond South Korea, but there’s a chance we’ll find out more soon. Samsung has a Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose, California, scheduled for January 22nd, when it is expected to unveil the Galaxy S25 series.

Home appliance manufacturer Bosch is showing off its first Matter-enabled appliance on the show floor at CES this week. The 100 Series French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator launched in November and should be available to buy in the US this spring.

The fridge retails for $2,500 and has a chip on board that supports Matter. A firmware update to the smart home standard will come this summer, says Eelco Lammertink of BSH, which owns Bosch, Siemens, Thermador, and Gaggenau.

The 100 Series is the sister product to the Matter-enabled Siemens XXL fridge I spotted at IFA in Berlin last November. That built-in model will come to the European market on a similar timeline. Lammertink tells me BSH plans to bring Matter to all of its appliances across its Bosch, Siemens, and Thermador lines, starting with refrigerators this year, one more appliance category next year, and three in 2026.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The 100 Series will support Matter 1.3, allowing you to control the temperature remotely and receive notifications from the fridge on your smart home platform of choice. That way, a smart speaker can announce when the door has been left open.

While many smart fridges already have these features, with Matter, the connection between the appliance and the ecosystem becomes local — making it faster and more secure. Currently, only Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant support appliances in Matter, but Lammertink tells me that Amazon will support them this year. There is no word on Google Home or Apple Home yet.

Lammertink says the plan is to bring energy reporting and energy management capabilities to the fridge. This would enable it to be part of a Matter-enabled whole home energy management system. Sadly, he said they won’t be updating existing appliances to Matter (bad news for my Thermador range and dishwasher). “The challenges are too big,” he said. “We just can’t risk bricking your fridge.”

Washington state is suing T-Mobile for allegedly failing to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities that enabled a hacker to expose the personal data of 79 million people nationwide. The consumer protection lawsuit filed by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday stems from a cyberattack that began in March 2021 and went unnoticed until T-Mobile disclosed the breach in August.

The filing asserts that T-Mobile failed to address certain security vulnerabilities that the company was aware of “for years,” and did not properly notify more than two million Washington residents who were impacted by the breach. The lawsuit accuses T-Mobile of downplaying the severity of the breach, which exposed the personal information of current, former, and prospective customers — including their names, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license / ID numbers.

The notifications that T-Mobile issued about the data breach violated the Consumer Protections Act by omitting key information that made it difficult for people to assess if they were at risk of identity theft or fraud, according to the filing. The lawsuit also says that T-Mobile “did not meet industry standards for cybersecurity” for years prior to the hack, and used “obvious passwords” to protect accounts that could access consumer information.

“This significant data breach was entirely avoidable,” Ferguson said in a statement. “T-Mobile had years to fix key vulnerabilities in its cybersecurity systems — and it failed.”

This isn’t the first time that Washington state has taken action against T-Mobile, with Ferguson having successfully persuaded the company to make clear the limitations of its “no-contract” wireless service plan back in 2013.

Ferguson’s latest lawsuit is seeking compensation for customers impacted by the 2021 breach and a court order that would force T-Mobile to bring its cybersecurity practices in line with industry standards, alongside improving transparency and communication around future data breaches. This follows T-Mobile paying $350 million in 2022 to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the 2021 hack, and a further $15.75 million fine last year over an FCC investigation into its repeated cybersecurity incidents.

It’s long been rumored that Nvidia is planning to break into the consumer CPU market in 2025, and we may have already had our first look at its new processor.

On Monday at CES, the company unveiled Project Digits, a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer powered by a new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip. Reuters reports that yesterday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hinted to investors and analysts that there are bigger plans for the Arm-based CPU within that chip, codeveloped with MediaTek.

“You know, obviously we have plans,” Huang said during an investor presentation, referring to the new 20-core desktop CPU but said that he would “wait to tell you” what they are.

Codeveloper MediaTek has its own ambitions, though, and Huang suggested that it may also bring the CPU to market, independent of Nvidia. “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win,” Huang said.

Image: Nvidia

Project Digits itself isn’t a mass-market product, costing $3,000 and running on a custom Linux system designed specifically for AI developers. But Nvidia’s consumer CPU ambitions have been rumored since October 2023, when Reuters reported that the company, alongside rival AMD, was working on Arm-based chips to launch in 2025.

Qualcomm has currently cornered the market on Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs, boosted by last year’s launch of the Snapdragon X Elite processors. Those chips provided the sort of performance and power efficiency previously only available with Apple’s MacBooks — and put real pressure on Intel and AMD’s x86 systems.

2024 was the year that Windows on Arm finally achieved its potential, and with increased competition from Nvidia and others, 2025 could mark a turning point in the battle between x86 and Arm.

Nearly a week after a New Year’s Day explosion in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, local law enforcement released more information about their investigation, including what they know so far about the role of generative AI in the incident.

They confirmed that the suspect, an active duty soldier in the US Army named Matthew Livelsberger, had a “possible manifesto” saved on his phone, in addition to an email to a podcaster and other letters. They also showed video evidence of him preparing for the explosion by pouring fuel onto the truck while stopped before driving to the hotel. He’d also kept a log of supposed surveillance, although the officials said he did not have a criminal record and was not being surveilled or investigated.

The Las Vegas Metro Police also released several slides showing questions he’d posed to ChatGPT several days before the explosion, asking about explosives, how to detonate them, and how to detonate them with a gunshot, as well as information about where to buy guns, explosive material, and fireworks legally along his route.

Asked about the queries, OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said:

We are saddened by this incident and committed to seeing AI tools used responsibly. Our models are designed to refuse harmful instructions and minimize harmful content. In this case, ChatGPT responded with information already publicly available on the internet and provided warnings against harmful or illegal activities. We’re working with law enforcement to support their investigation.

The officials say they are still examining possible sources for the explosion, described as a deflagration that traveled rather slowly as opposed to a high explosives detonation that would’ve moved faster and caused more damage. While investigators say they haven’t ruled out other possibilities like an electrical short yet, an explanation that matches some of the queries and the available evidence is that the muzzle flash of a gunshot ignited fuel vapor/fireworks fuses inside the truck, which then caused a larger explosion of fireworks and other explosive materials.

Trying the queries in ChatGPT today still works, however, the information he requested doesn’t appear to be restricted and could be obtained by most search methods. Still, the suspect’s use of a generative AI tool and the investigators’ ability to track those requests and present them as evidence take questions about AI chatbot guardrails, safety, and privacy out of the hypothetical realm and into our reality.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has been dropping hints about an Xbox handheld for months, but what about Windows handheld gaming PCs? Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of “Next Generation,” tells The Verge that we should expect to see the Windows handheld gaming experience change within this calendar year.

Ronald was a roundtable panelist this evening at an AMD and Lenovo event titled “The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” which was mostly a coming-out party for Lenovo’s new Legion Go S. But he did hint onstage that Microsoft plans to bring the Xbox experience to Windows PCs, rather than the other way around — and expanded on that considerably after we caught up with him later.

“We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and as we partner across the industry it’s really about how do we bring those innovations that we’ve incubated and developed in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space,” Ronald said.

When we caught up with him after the event, he confirmed that Microsoft is looking at combining Xbox and Windows experiences together — and that we should see changes this very year, rather than needing to wait for an Xbox handheld that might still be years away.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” says Ronald. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”

Right now, Windows sucks on handhelds, to put it rather bluntly, to the point that a community-created fork of Valve’s SteamOS experience can be a far better way to pick up and play games. Ronald is clearly aware of the issues. “We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience. Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”

Microsoft has done compact modes for Xbox apps on Windows that are focused on improving the handheld experience, but it’s a lot like putting lipstick on a pig instead of addressing the core experience. “I think we’ll have a lot more to share later this year,” teases Ronald. “I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see a lot of investments over time that you’re starting to see already, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year.”

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

How Microsoft goes about this merging of Xbox and Windows will be key, but it doesn’t sound like the company is suddenly going to port a custom Xbox operating system to Windows. It sounds more like Microsoft wants to make Windows better at gaming all up with an Xbox experience on top so the pesky desktop, notifications, and legacy of Windows is hidden away.

“I think, at the end of the day, our goal is to make Windows great for gaming on any device,” says Ronald. “The reality is the Xbox operating system is built on top of Windows. So there’s a lot of infrastructure that we built in the console space that we can bring to the PC space and really deliver that premium gaming experience on any device.”

Specifically, Microsoft has to tackle a lot of the very basics of making Windows more friendly to controllers and getting that Xbox experience to really drive things instead of the taskbar, Start menu, and other elements. “There’s just certain things in Windows that were not designed for if you don’t have a keyboard and mouse, like thumbstick support or joypads and stuff like that,” Ronald admits.

“There’s fundamental interaction models that we’re working on to make sure that regardless of the operating system details it feels very natively like a gaming-centric device and a gaming-centric experience.”

Ronald says the goal is to put an Xbox experience at the center — “not the Windows desktop that you have today.”

Ann Altman has filed a lawsuit against her brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alleging that he sexually abused her throughout childhood over a period of nearly a decade.

The rest of the Altman family immediately pushed back on the lawsuit, saying the allegations are “utterly untrue” and stem from “mental health challenges” that Ann has faced for years.

“Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam,” writes Sam, his mother, and his two brothers, in a statement that Sam released on X.

Ann’s lawsuit alleges that Sam abused her from 1997 through 2006, beginning when Ann was three and Sam was 12 and continuing until Sam was a legal adult. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Missouri, says that Ann suffered “severe emotional distress” and has been unable to live a “normal life” as a result of Sam’s alleged abuse.

An attorney for Ann described the Altman family’s statement as an attempt to “divert attention away from the harm that they caused.” The attorney, Ryan J. Mahoney, said that sexual abuse can cause “mental health outcomes such as, persistent PTSD, depression, and anxiety.” He also said of Ann specifically that there is “no evidence that her own mental health has contributed to her allegations.”

The Altman family’s statement alleges that Ann has made conspiratorial claims over the years about various family members while demanding money from them. The family members say they have offered financial support and asked her to receive medical help but that she “refuses conventional treatment.”

“This situation causes immense pain to our entire family,” the family statement says. The family says they have “chosen not to respond publicly” when Ann has made similar claims in the past, but that they “feel we have no choice but to address this” now that she has filed a lawsuit.

Delta Air Lines announced plans to install new 4K HDR QLED screens in its commercial airplanes, so passengers can experience ultra high-definition entertainment at ultra-high altitudes.

The news came as part of Delta’s CES keynote at the Sphere in Las Vegas, where it also planned to celebrate its centennial with a musical performance by Lenny Kravitz. The airline announced a raft of new features for air travelers, including new partnerships with YouTube and Uber as well as a new AI-powered chatbot for customer service.

But the decision to add 4K screens to its airplanes is one that’s sure to tickle the fancy of any air traveler who’s ever balked at the middling quality of the current crop of seat-back displays.

Delta says it’s working with Thales Avionics, an in-flight technology company that is also helping to install high-definition screens in Emirates’ Airbus A350-900s. But don’t go looking for the new screens just yet: Delta says it won’t start delivering the upgrades in aircraft until 2026.

Who actually gets access to the screens, though, will answer the question of whether Delta sees this as technology for all passengers or just the ones in first class. A spokesperson for Delta did not immediately respond to questions about access.

Delta has also been testing out Bluetooth connectivity for its in-flight entertainment for several years and has even started quietly rolling it out to some planes, as discovered by a TikTok user. Now, the airline says it plans to offer Bluetooth “in all cabins so travelers can pair their personal wireless devices” — though it didn’t offer any specifics beyond that.

Delta’s in-flight entertainment will also feature “an advanced recommendation engine” tailored to each passenger’s unique taste. Again, we’re lacking details about what’s powering this engine and how it will know your particular taste. But in late 2025, we’re getting improved “connectivity” through a partnership with Wi-Fi provider Hughes, which replaced Intelsat in 2023. Delta says this will allow for “multi-network connectivity” for more “reliable” and “stable” in-flight internet.

That surely will help when streaming YouTube, which SkyMiles members will be able to do ad-free, thanks to the platform’s new partnership with Delta. And a new “Do Not Disturb” mode for their seat-back screen will ensure passengers can sleep without disturbance.

Delta is revamping its app to include an AI-powered “Concierge” chatbot as well as a “multi-modal” feature that will include Uber and, eventually, air taxis from Joby.

The Concierge feature will use the traveler’s location and arrival and departure information to suggest more efficient routes and will notify users about upcoming passport expirations or visa requirements. And “in the years to come,” Delta says the feature will be able to make more specific recommendations around packing and weather planning.

Delta is also offering SkyMiles customers the ability to link their Uber account to earn miles and other perks. These include:

SkyMiles Members can earn 1 mile per dollar spent on UberX rides to and from airports, 2 miles per dollar on premium rides and 3 miles per dollar on Uber Reserve rides. Plus, 1 mile per dollar spent on eligible restaurant and grocery orders.

And lastly, Delta says it’s working with Airbus to design more fuel-efficient airplanes. Delta has said its goal is for sustainable aviation fuel to make up at least 95 percent of its fuel consumption by 2050. But achieving net-zero emissions will be a tall task for an airline and will require rethinking every part of the business.

Now, Delta says it will work with Airbus to scale the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which is mostly biofuels made from plant or animal material. And the two companies will collaborate on hydrogen-powered flight projects as well as new designs, like more fuel-efficient wings or new formations to drive “wake energy retrieval,” Delta says.

Google has announced that it is shipping an unexpected update to Pixel 4A phones this week. According to Ars Technica, the company emailed Pixel 4A owners to tell them the update will address battery performance stability but that their batteries may not last as long after it’s applied.

Google repeats that in a new help page titled “Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program,” where it writes that it had noticed issues with “some” Pixel 4A phones.

From January 8, 2025, Pixel 4a devices will receive an automatic software update to Android 13. After the software update is downloaded, your device will restart automatically to apply the update. For some devices (“Impacted Devices”), the update includes new battery management features to improve the stability of your battery’s performance, so the battery may last for shorter periods between charges. Users of Impacted Devices may also notice other changes, like reduced charging performance or changes to how the battery-level indicator on your phone shows your battery capacity.

We want our customers to have the best possible experience with their products, so users of these Impacted Devices are eligible for an appeasement from Google.

Not all Pixel 4a devices are impacted by the reduction in battery capacity and charging performance, therefore if your device is not impacted the battery will perform the same as before, and you will not be eligible for an appeasement.

Besides having less runtime, the update could mean “reduced charging performance” or change how the phone shows battery capacity. Google hasn’t been specific about what’s behind the issue, but the circumstances are similar to Apple’s iPhone “batterygate” mess in 2017. Apple said its software slowed down iPhones with aging batteries to prevent accidental shutdowns, but it didn’t inform customers about why their devices had reduced performance and ended up with hundreds of millions in court settlement payments.

In this case, Google is also offering owners with affected 4A devices their choice of compensation: They can opt for a free battery swap, a $50 payday, or a $100 credit toward a new Pixel phone from its online store. 4A owners can enter their IMEI number on this page to find out if theirs is affected.

Google didn’t immediately respond to our questions about why the 4A, which hasn’t been updated since late 2023, needs this attention now.

Meta overhauled its approach to US moderation on Tuesday, ditching fact-checking, announcing a plan to move its trust and safety teams, and perhaps most impactfully, updating its Hateful Conduct policy. As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added, or removed, but here are some of the changes that jumped out at us.

These two sections outlining speech (written or visual) are new additions:

We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird.”

We do allow content arguing for gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs. We also allow the same content based on sexual orientation, when the content is based on religious beliefs.

Another section that specifically banned making dehumanizing references to transgender or non-binary people as “it” or referring to women “as household objects or property or objects in general” has been removed entirely.

The opening statement about what the policies are “designed to allow room for” that previously listed only health or positive support groups has changed too (new additions marked in bold):

People sometimes use sex- or gender-exclusive language when discussing access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement, or teaching roles, and health or support groups. Other times, they call for exclusion or use insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality. Finally, sometimes people curse at a gender in the context of a romantic break-up. Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.

The section that specifically banned targeting people or groups “with claims that they have or spread the novel coronavirus” has also been removed.

A link to this 2017 blog post about the “hard questions” Meta faces dealing with hate speech has been removed, and some references to hate speech are now changed to “hateful conduct.”

The policy still says that content about denying access to spaces and social services “on the basis of their protected characteristics” is not allowed, but there’s also a new exception (the added text is in bold):

...except for sex or gender-based exclusion from spaces commonly limited by sex or gender, such as restrooms, sports and sports leagues, health and support groups, and specific schools

Even before these changes, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD reported last year that Meta often failed to remove posts violating its hate speech policies. Now, even those guardrails that had been established to protect people from internet harassment are disappearing.

“Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives. With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement responding to the changes.

Meta’s Oversight Board says it will be monitoring the situation given the potential for new harms. “We’re very concerned about gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, trans people’s rights on the platforms,” said co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt in an interview with the BBC, “because we are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully.”

A note from Meta’s new policy chief Joel Kaplan said, “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate. It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.” Wired also reports that the changes “blindsided” organizations that have been partnering with Meta on its now-discarded moderation efforts, with one unnamed editor at a fact-checking organization saying the effect of the decision “is going to eventually drain us out.”

Update, January 8th: Added quote from Helle Thorning-Schmidt, co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board.

Experts warn that Meta’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program could allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.

The company announced today that it’s phasing out a program launched in 2016 where it partners with independent fact-checkers around the world to identify and review misinformation across its social media platforms. Meta is replacing the program with a crowdsourced approach to content moderation similar to X’s Community Notes.

Meta is essentially shifting responsibility to users to weed out lies on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, raising fears that it’ll be easier to spread misleading information about climate change, clean energy, public health risks, and communities often targeted with violence.

“It’s going to hurt Meta’s users first because the program worked well at reducing the virality of hoax content and conspiracy theories,” says Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter.

“A lot of people think Community Notes-style moderation doesn’t work at all and it’s merely window dressing so that platforms can say they’re...

Read the full story at The Verge.

The original StanByMe portable TV and the Inspector Gadget-like briefcase follow-up were surprisingly popular, so of course, we’re getting a new one to kick off 2025. I like to imagine LG literally toting the StanbyME 2 to CES by the carrying straps you can affix to it, as the rep did in this video below.

The 27-inch 1440p touchscreen on the StanbyME 2 should offer a sharper picture than the original’s 1080p. It also lasts longer with a four-hour battery life, up from three and a half, but LG has not revealed pricing or availability details.

You can still mount the TV to a floor stand that holds and charges it, but LG is unashamedly emphasizing its portability with the carrying strap, which you can also use to hang from a wall like a picture frame on a sturdy enough hook. It’s also compatible with a folio cover that protects the display during transport and doubles as a tabletop stand, and you can magnetically attach the remote to the top of the TV. It has two USB-C ports that you can use for charging and peripherals like webcams, plus a traditional HDMI input.

These upgrades feel relatively minor, but if you aspire to be a modern-day Radio Raheem with a TV on your shoulder — and, presumably, the matching pill-shaped StanbyME XT7 Bluetooth speaker under your arm — the StanbyME 2 might be the television for you.

Baseus announced a new power bank at CES 2025 that does double duty as a portable charger and a mobile hotspot. The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank is expected to be available sometime in April 2025 for $89.99 and will be compatible with 4G networks in over 100 countries including the US, Canada, and Japan.

Up to 10 devices can be wirelessly connected to the power bank over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Download speeds are expected to be up to 50Mbps, but that will vary depending on the network it’s connected to and signal strength. Pricing for the mobile data hasn’t been announced, but the company says it will offer “flexible network plans with no monthly fees or usage restrictions” that can be customized through a mobile app.

The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank also includes two USB-C ports, a single USB-A port on top, and a short integrated USB-C charging cable that doubles as a carrying strap. It has a 20,000mAh battery inside but its power output maxes out at 67W, so larger devices, like some laptops, will need to fly solo to get enough power to charge. A display subtly integrated into the side of the power bank provides details on its remaining charge, power output, and wireless connectivity.

Image: Baseus

Baseus also debuted a more traditional 20,000mAh power bank today featuring two integrated USB-C charging cables, one of which fully retracts.

It also offers USB-C and USB-A ports for connecting your own cables, up to 100W of power delivery for a single device, and a small screen displaying current power output and the power bank’s remaining charge level. It’s expected to be available sometime in April 2025 priced at $99.99.

Baseus is following Anker’s lead and debuting new charging accessories at CES 2025 that could help ensure you’re never hunting for missing charging cables. The company is expanding its Enercore line with a new $69.99 wall charger, expected as soon as April 2025, featuring a pair of built-in USB-C cables that fully retract and stay out of the way when not in use.

The retractable cables on the Baseus Enercore CJ11 are each a little over 32 inches long and work alongside an additional USB-C port so you can also use cables with different connectors. The charger can deliver up to 67W of power with one device connected, allowing you to charge a power-hungry device like a laptop. With two or three of its ports in use, the total power output drops to 65W.

Image: Baseus

Baseus also announced a new car charger with more functionality than the one Anker released last November. The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max also features two built-in retractable USB-C cables that are just over 31 inches in length, plus an additional USB-C and USB-A port on its base.

Image: Baseus

It connects to a vehicle’s auxiliary power outlet and delivers a total of 240W of power across all four ports and up to a maximum of 105W to a single port. It’s expected to be available in April 2025 priced at $44.99.

Baseus has announced a new version of its solar-powered security camera at CES 2025 that improves video quality from 2K to 4K and extends battery life from 180 to 210 days. But like the previous version, the new Baseus Security S2 camera can potentially run indefinitely using a battery-charging solar panel on top that tilts left and right throughout the day to maximize its exposure to the sun.

The company hasn’t announced when the Baseus Security S2 will be available or what it will cost, but the older S1 model currently sells for $129.99 through retailers like Amazon.

Without the need for connecting it to power, Baseus says the S2 camera can be installed in about five minutes and in places where running a power line could be difficult or expensive. The only installation limitations are finding a place with enough sun exposure if you’re hoping to completely avoid charging the camera yourself and a spot that’s in range of your Wi-Fi network.

The S2 camera doesn’t come with any subscription fees as everything captured by its 4K camera (with a 145-degree field of view and night vision capabilities) is stored locally on the device. Its capacity can be expanded with a microSD card up to 256GB in size, but as with many battery-powered security cameras, the S2 doesn’t support 24/7 continuous recording.

Baseus’ camera only records events detected by its passive infrared and radar-based motion sensors. Nothing is uploaded or stored in the cloud, but recordings are remotely accessible through a mobile app. The S2 also features AI-powered object detection with the ability to differentiate people, pets, and vehicles and provide notifications based on what it spotted. Through the app, you can also define activity zones for specific areas you want the camera to focus on, and it includes both Amazon Alexa and Google home compatibility.

Oshkosh, the 108-year-old American company that makes military vehicles and other specialty equipment, has big plans for your neighborhood.

The company appeared at CES in Las Vegas for the first time to announce a raft of new commercial electric vehicles, including plug-in fire engines and garbage trucks as well as AI-powered technology that it says will make these vehicles safer and more convenient.

You may know Oshkosh, which has a lot of credibility as a defense contractor, from its contract with the United States Postal Service to build the first all-electric postal truck. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the project was mired in delays, with only 93 trucks delivered to the USPS as of November.

But despite these delays, Oshkosh thinks it’s well positioned to help build these next-generation specialty vehicles and says it plans to eventually deliver 165,000 vehicles to USPS, up to 70 percent of which will be electric. The company also announced plans to build a variety of electric and autonomous vehicles for airports, including a robot cargo handler and EVs for construction sites.

But the “neighborhood” EVs, as Oshkosh calls them, stand the chance to be the most visible and impactful — if the company can get them built.

The first vehicle to be announced today is the McNeilus Volterra ZFL, an all-electric front-loader garbage truck with an AI-powered detection system for refuse bins. The sensors detect the location of the garbage cans and communicate with the truck to ensure it’s positioned accurately. Then a robotic arm is deployed to snag the bin and lift it for trash disposal. Oshkosh is also rolling out a new AI-powered, vision-based contamination system to identify and remove items that don’t belong in the waste or recycling streams.

Speaking of robots, Oshkosh has introduced HARR-E, an autonomous electric refuse collection robot that purports to offer on-demand trash and recycling pickup via a smartphone app or virtual home assistant like Amazon Alexa.

The robot “makes trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home,” said Jay Iyengar, Oshkosh’s chief technology officer. HARR-E deploys from a central refuse collection area within the neighborhood and navigates to the resident’s home autonomously for collection before returning to the base to unload and recharge.

For firefighters, Oshkosh is introducing a new Collision Avoidance Mitigation System, or CAMS, that aims to tell emergency workers when it’s safe to get out of their vehicles. According to Iyengar, “CAMS uses an advanced camera and radar sensor suite with AI to accurately detect the trajectory, the speed and proximity of ongoing vehicles relative to a parked emergency vehicle. CAMS can provide up to two to three seconds of advanced notice of an impending collision, giving an extra layer of safety during roadside operations.”

It’s an ambitious suite of technologies. Oshkosh says it’s up to the task. But political headwinds, including President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to eliminate billions of dollars in EV incentives, could make success more difficult.

Despite this, Oshkosh executives tried to project a sunny outlook. “The reviews on the first vehicle are fantastic,” Oshkosh CEO John Pfeifer said of the new USPS delivery truck. “It’s been written up in a lot of publications about the postal carrier’s responses to the first vehicles. But it’s going exceptionally well.”

A lander hasn’t successfully reached the surface of the Moon’s cratered Mare Crisium region since the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed there to collect samples in August 1976. But SpaceX is prepping a launch that’ll send not one, but two landers there on Wednesday January 15th, Firefly Aerospace has announced.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at approximately 1:11 AM EST, and will not only have Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lander on board, but also the Resilience lander from the Japanese robotic spacecraft firm iSpace. It will take 45 days for the craft to journey to the Moon before it spends another 14 days carrying out surface operations. There’s no word on whether we’ll be able to watch it take off.

The Firefly lander will carry 10 NASA payloads to the surface. They’re designed to measure various particulate compositions, thermal properties, and electromagnetic activity of both the Moon and the Earth. It’ll collect data for various applications, from improving landing and takeoff procedures to learning about the Moon’s resources and its history.

The so-called LEXI payload is particularly interesting — it’s an x-ray machine that can read the Earth’s magnetic field. NASA will use the data to see how our magnetosphere interacts with solar winds, which could ultimately help accurately detect and track solar weather patterns that cause power outages on Earth and interfere with satellite and GPS systems.

This would be NASA’s second attempt to deploy such technology. It first launched the device, then known as STORM, into space in 2012. That one didn’t land on the moon, however, and wasn’t able to get the full picture that LEXI’s wide-angle sensors will be able to capture.