The holiday season has barely begun, but some of us are already getting ready for CES 2025. Shortly after New Year’s Day, many from the Engadget team will be packing our bags to fly to Las Vegas, where we’ll be covering tech’s biggest annual conference. As usual, our inboxes are already flooded with pitches from companies that are planning to be there, and our calendars are filling up with appointments for briefings and demos.

Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trends, it’s fairly easy to make educated predictions about what we might see in January. Over the years, the focus of the conference has spanned areas like TVs, cars, smart home products and personal health, with a smattering of laptops and accessories thrown in. At CES 2025, we expect to see AI get even more pervasive in all areas of the show floor. But we are also likely to get the usual slew of new processors and subsequent laptops, as well as all manner of wearables, trackers, bathroom appliances and massage chairs. Oh, the massage chairs.

There's already a lot we know is coming, just by a cursory glance at the lineup published by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). In addition to numerous panels and talks, there will be keynotes by NVIDIA's founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Delta CEO Ed Bastian as well as C-suite executives from companies like Panasonic, SiriusXM, Waymo and Volvo group. That gives us a taste of who might make big announcements at the show.

In fact, some companies didn't even wait till January to make their news known. LG, for example, continues its annual tradition of sharing its upcoming CES launches weeks ahead of the show by unveiling the 2025 refresh for its QNED evo line of LCD TVs. Hyundai Mobis, meanwhile, has said it will be giving us a look at its "Holographic Windshield Display," something it's claiming is a world's first. Hyundai Mobis even shared a picture of what its booth at CES 2025 will look like, in case pictures of convention center booths get you excited.

Hyundai Mobis

If you’re already looking ahead to 2025 and are studiously researching what might be coming in January, here’s a taste of what our team expects to see at the show.

New video cards from AMD and NVIDIA

There’s no doubt 2025 is going to be a momentous year for PC gamers. NVIDIA is expected to debut its long-awaited RTX 5000 video cards at CES, while AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed we’ll see next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs early next year. Of the two companies, AMD could use the upgrade more. Its last batch of Radeon 7000 cards were decent mid-range performers, but they lagged far behind NVIDIA’s hardware when it came to ray tracing, and AMD’s FSR 3 upscaling also couldn’t compete with NVIDIA’s AI-powered DLSS 3.

"In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray-tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in an October earnings call.

As for NVIDIA’s new hardware, a rumor from the leaker OneRaichu (via DigitalTrends) suggested that the RTX 5090 could be up to 70 percent faster than the RTX 4090. (That’s a GPU that I previously described as having “unholy power.”) They also note that other “high level” cards could see 30 to 40 percent performance bumps. Those gains might be enough to tempt wealthy RTX 4090 owners to upgrade, but RTX 4070 and 4080 owners might want to skip this generation. For NVIDIA holdouts with RTX 3000 and earlier GPUs, though, next year may be the perfect time to upgrade. — Devindra Hardawar, senior reporter

AI PCs round 2

Last year, I predicted that AI PCs would dominate CES, and that mostly turned out to be true. As 2024 rolled on, we saw even more powerful NPUs in chips from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. Microsoft also doubled down on AI PCs with its Copilot+ initiative, which gave a big marketing push for artificial intelligence features and premium specifications (like having at least 16GB of RAM).

Expect more of the same going into CES 2025, alongside even more AI being stuffed into every category of product imaginable. This year, in particular, PC makers are likely to gear up to take advantage of Windows 10 support ending next year. Instead of just upgrading your old computer to Windows 11, the likes of Dell and HP would rather you buy a whole new AI PC with the new OS pre-installed.

While 2024 was a year of endless AI PC hype, 2025 might end up being a year of reckoning. Microsoft’s long-delayed Recall feature is slowly trickling out to more users, but it’s already showing some glaring security holes, like failing to scrub social security and credit card numbers from screenshots. We’ve also been mostly underwhelmed with Apple Intelligence’s image generation capabilities. PC makers have been eager to talk up the potential of AI-powered features until now, but in 2025 they’ll have to actually prove they can live up to their fantastical claims. — D.H.

Earbuds that follow Apple’s lead on hearing health

I’m fully aware not every audio company has the ability to build out a clinical-grade hearing test and hearing aid features in their apps. However, Apple’s recent update for the AirPods Pro 2 should inspire the competition to offer some form of hearing health tools on their flagship products. Jabra was probably the best equipped to do this since parent company GN has extensive hearing aid experience. Sadly, the company announced earlier this year that it wouldn’t make earbuds anymore.

Samsung and Google could probably integrate something like what Apple made for the AirPods, given both companies’ existing health platforms. If they did, those announcements are unlikely to be made at CES, as both companies prefer to host their own standalone hardware events throughout the year.

That leaves Sennheiser as the biggest audio company that consistently launches earbuds and headphones at CES. Last year, it showcased multiple new models, including one with heart-rate tracking for workouts. Plus, it already offers hearing assistance with dedicated devices like the true wireless Conversation Clear Plus. Those earbuds are more hearing focused than for general content consumption, so it would be great to see Sennheiser bring some features from that product to its flagship Momentum line of earbuds. Perhaps a Momentum True Wireless 4 Pro or Plus is in the cards, but the current model is just nine months old.

Of course, there’s plenty of room for other companies to innovate here, and there will be no shortage of new earbuds in Vegas next month. We also tend to see a ton of assistive devices and technology launch at CES, from major accessibility companies like OrCam and all manner of smaller brands. I just hope some of the new tech includes more general hearing tools on the models most people will want to use. — Billy Steele, senior editor

Vehicle electrification goes sky high

As the growth of electric cars nears 10 percent of new models sold in the US, it’s easy to forget that wheeled vehicles aren’t the only kind of transportation seeing the shift to battery-powered propulsion. Flying taxis have been a mainstay of CES for the past few years, with concept vehicles from brands as large as Hyundai dotting the show floor in Vegas.

Granted, these contraptions look more like giant drones with cockpits than anything the Jetsons ever dreamed up. But with companies like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation pledging to actually launch eVTOL services (electric vertical take-off and landing) in 2025, the era of air taxis may have landed for real this time. — Sam Rutherford, senior reporter

Expanded dialog improvement features on soundbars

When it comes to the main aspects of soundbars, there really isn’t a ton of innovation from year to year. Heck, Samsung’s biggest update last year was the addition of HDMI 2.1 support to its flagship model, which should’ve been there already. Companies have also been focused on the transition to cable-free everything, whether that’s wireless Dolby Atmos or wireless transmission boxes. Audio enhancement features are a place where companies can really rise above the fray, and tools like Sonos’ TV Audio Swap and Bose’s Personal Surround Sound are great examples of this. A key area nearly every company can improve is dialog boost, a feature that raises the volume or separates spoken word from background noise and music for better clarity.

Sonos made a huge leap in this regard on the Arc Ultra, offering two additional settings for its so-called Speech Enhancement. Previously, this was just an all-or-nothing toggle, which is how most companies handle their versions of this tool. Not only is the Sonos update customizable to a degree, it’s also just better, thanks in part to the redesigned architecture of its new premium soundbar. This is an obvious area where other companies can improve.

LG and Samsung typically announce new soundbars at CES, and there are plenty of smaller companies that will debut some too. I’d love to see all of them take dialog enhancements a step further and at the very least give multiple options for how it’s applied. LG has been using AI Sound Pro from its TVs since 2021 and Samsung offers something called Adaptive Sound on its home theater speakers. I would expect them both to generally improve the quality of their features, but I’m hoping they’ll expand the capabilities too. — B.S.

Update, December 17 2024, 12:40PM ET: This story has been updated to include the companies and CEOs that will be making keynotes at the show.

Update, December 20 2024, 11:55AM ET: This story has been updated to include LG and Hyundai Mobis' announcements ahead of CES 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ces-2025-the-new-tech-were-expecting-to-see-in-las-vegas-from-amd-nvidia-hyundai-and-more-200052730.html?src=rss

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© AP Photo/John Locher

My hand is cramping. It’s not carpal tunnel or some other dubious reason that’s causing the pain. It’s an analog ache that is oddly satisfying in a nostalgic way. In the last few days, I’ve held a pen and written more words for a much longer time than I have ever done in years. As I pushed myself to handwrite large parts of this review to spend more time with the 2024 Kindle Scribe’s stylus and note-taking tools, I started to feel a sensation I hadn’t remembered since my teens.

I often feel the urge to jot down thoughts and lists, but I never really wanted to spend longer than 15 minutes writing. And yet, Amazon’s new AI features for the Kindle Scribe seem to cater more to those who labor over essays or missives that they ultimately need to share with others. The Summarize and Refine tools for your notebooks, for example, can shorten and neaten up your scrawl so, I guess, you can send it to another person to read. That’s it, really. The other improvements to the Scribe’s writing experience are for scribbling on books, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Editor’s note: Due to the Thanksgiving holidays in the US, we haven't had the time to test every element of the Kindle Scribe 2, so we won't be assigning a review score. With that said, the product is already on sale, so we wanted to give our initial impressions and are publishing a review in progress. We will update the story with a score and more impressions once we're satisfied that we've understood all of its strengths and weaknesses.

What’s changed on the new Kindle Scribe

As I said earlier, most of what’s new on the Kindle Scribe is internal. On the outside, Amazon did tweak the bezels not in actual size but in colors, so that there’s a white rectangle surrounding the screen, within a teal green column on the side. If you opted for the “tungsten” version, then instead of teal green you’ll see dark gray. I love the new color, but it’s a bit confusing and makes me think the grippable area is narrower than before when in fact, it’s about the same. Still, this is a small complaint, if that, and one that is mostly mitigated by how fresh the new version looks.

The other main change is on the Premium Pen, which now has a rubberized top for its faux eraser. I’ve always appreciated how easy this was to use on the original Kindle Scribe, and I’m happy to report that the updated texture doesn’t get in the way of responsiveness. It certainly feels enough like erasers of my youth that every now and then I find myself subconsciously swiping away phantom dust. I will point out, though, that I had to remind myself to use the eraser on a few occasions, since I was more accustomed to simply striking out a mistake with the pen. The new Premium Pen also has a customizable shortcut button so long-pressing it can activate the highlighter, pen, marker, pencil, eraser, canvas or sticky note.

Drawing on books on the new Kindle Scribe

Finally, in addition to the two AI-related tools I already mentioned, Amazon also updated how you can write on ebooks. As I described in my hands-on in October, the new Active Canvas feature makes it so that once you put your pen on the page, a box will appear to contain your writing. Compared to the clunky implementation on the older model, which required you to first go to the floating toolbar on the left of every page, select the sticky note feature and then write in it, this seemed a huge improvement.

In my testing so far, though, this was less impressive. The software was buggy in my experience. On one occasion, I drew a spiral over the words “We had a good yarn about old times” in an Agatha Christie novel. A translucent box appeared, containing my drawing in a layer above the text, with a check mark and cross at the top. You’re supposed to tap the check, which will cause the box to fully solidify and the rest of the page’s words will rearrange themselves to make room. However, when I hit X by accident, the box didn’t go away, and I was able to continue to add doodles all over the screen. When I flipped to a different part of the book and came back, though, it disappeared, only to reappear later when I was trying to underline something.

That’s clearly just a bug, and when executed as intended, Active Canvas does work. You can resize the box, and lines will continue to reflow to make room or snap back into place. The boxes will stay where you left them, instead of disappearing under a little tag the way they did with the original Scribe. It’s a slight improvement, and though I can’t yet imagine how I’d use it in real life, it’s nice to know it’s there.

I do have to point out a couple of caveats, though. This doesn’t work on samples — you can tell whether the Active Canvas is supported by checking if the floating toolbox is present. The other issue, which is a bigger one, is that Active Canvas can sometimes be triggered even when you’re just trying to underline something. Drawing lines under or on text will generate underlines, which will be indexed by Amazon the same way highlights are, so you can easily find them again later on.

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

It’s pretty annoying when you’re trying to underline some text and the words jump away to make room for a box you never wanted to appear. It gets even more frustrating when, due to the lag, you have to wait for seconds for the box to go away after you tap the X on top of it. Worse, that bug I mentioned earlier caused the spiral and other doodles I had drawn to show up where I was trying to underline words. Thankfully, I was able to delete that when it reappeared and had no more phantom boxes.

These little hiccups would be less of a problem if Amazon weren’t already behind its competitors. Similar products from companies like Kobo already offer better support for writing on books, where you can circle specific words and the drawing will stay in place (though this is wonky if you resize the text afterwards). I understand that Amazon has to manage the resizability of its content, to support people who often change up font sizes while reading. There needs to be a better way.

One might be coming. At the Kindle’s launch event, the company did preview a collapsible margins feature, which lets you scribble in the column on either side of every book. Importantly, you’ll be able to resize these columns and the space in them can scroll vertically, giving you plenty of room to cram in your musings. Sadly, this feature is only going to be available in early 2025, so I wasn’t able to test it out. It’s also worth noting that the original Kindle Scribe, which continues to retail for $340, will be getting the Active Canvas and generative AI features, as well as the collapsible margin when that arrives.

Generative AI features on the new Kindle Scribe

Where things feel more finished is in Notebooks, where Amazon has had to contend with fewer limitations. This section contains your lists, jotpads and works of art. Like you could on the original, you can select from a variety of backgrounds like lines, a dot grid or even planner or calendar views.

It’s here that you’ll find the new Summarize and Refine tools, by tapping on the sparkles icon on the top menu bar. Selecting either “Summarize” or “Refine writing” will bring up the option to work Amazon’s magic on the page you’re on or the entire notebook. After you decide, the Kindle will get to work, using cloud-based processing to generate either a summary of your words or a tidied up version of your chicken scratch. This usually took about 10 to 15 seconds, depending on the length of the source material. Once a result is returned, you’ll also get the option to customize the font and line spacing, as well as the ability to add it to the end or beginning of your notebook.

Screenshots / Engadget

I was surprised to see the Scribe make sense of a disorganized plan I made for reviews coverage that involved some lists with three in a row up top, two at the bottom and three lining the right side. The Refine tool accurately laid them out in sequential order, giving me a list of lists starting with the one I had in the top left position and ending with the tiny one titled “OSes” that I had squeezed in below “iPads” at the bottom right.

The summary it returned for this example was also decent, and in all the other notes I tested I saw largely accurate results. Any mistake the system made felt reasonable, since I have horrible handwriting. It’s not really the Scribe’s fault that it thought I wrote “Addly” when really I just had an extremely malformed “n” and a barely legible “g” at the end of “Adding.”

When I did make an effort to write more neatly, the Scribe was more accurate, but that almost feels like it defeats the purpose. If I’m going to try to write better for the AI so it can make my handwriting neater for others to read, then how is that different from making a greater effort for humans?

As competent as the generative AI features here have been, I still remain hesitant to call them useful. I’m not the sort of person that likes writing long enough to need AI summarization (to that end, you’ll need to have at least 25 words on a page to qualify for Summarize). I also don’t generally share my handwritten thoughts with other people, though on the extremely rare occasion that I do, I could see Refine being a good start.

Screenshots / Engadget

The problem is that Refine isn’t always accurate, and its generated result isn’t editable. If I could go in and correct “Addly,” then I might not mind sending that document to my team. Or if that were the only mistake in the refined writing, I could share the note and tell my friends to ignore the one error. But I’d have to write a whole new appendix just to clarify the mistakes, at which point I might as well type up my original thoughts.

Neither Refine nor Summarize are groundbreaking new features in generative AI or even note-taking, either. Apple offers a version of Refine on the new iPadOS, while Summarize is something we’ve seen all over products from Google, Apple, OpenAI, Samsung and more. While I respect that Amazon has largely avoided chasing hype with its adoption of generative AI on the Kindle Scribe, I need more time and testing to better understand how useful it might be in the long run.

What I like about the Kindle Scribe 2 so far

As I did with the original, I do like the Scribe a lot. It offers a smooth, convenient writing experience in a svelte, relatively light package that’s just 0.22 inches thick and weighs 433 grams (0.95 pounds). None of those dimensions have changed in the second-gen model, though the 10.2-inch screen somehow seemed sharper to me, despite having the same brightness and pixel density.

Reading on such a roomy canvas is a joy, although I prefer to take the Paperwhite on the go since it’s a lot easier on my wrist. That expanse can be helpful for those with visual impairments that might need a much larger font, for example.

I’ve also liked doodling on PDFs and “write-on books.” The latter is a category of titles in the Kindle store that are formatted so you can doodle directly on them. I borrowed a couple of these through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, and had a blast solving cryptography and Sudoku puzzles. I did see some promising books in this category, like interactive or hyperlinked planners, but the customer reviews for those put me off.

There is a lot of potential in that space, though, that could make the Kindle Scribe far more useful. I just wish Amazon would invest more in the format and make a notebook you can write on that would also work with your phone’s calendar or reminders app and seamlessly integrate what you write on your planner into your digital universe.

What I don’t like about the Kindle Scribe 2

Alas, that is not a reality. And the reality is that there are quite a lot of things Amazon could stand to improve. While I can understand that finding a way to keep a loose stylus attached to a tablet is challenging, the magnetic edge that the Premium Pen can latch onto is just a precarious approach. I was walking into my apartment with the Kindle Scribe in my hand and jostled the door by accident. Two seconds later, I was wondering where the stylus had gone. It was on the floor, and when I picked it up, I noticed the nib was slanted.

I didn’t know if I had damaged it, and though it still worked well, I eventually saw some scratches on the Scribe’s screen that I suspect might not have been there had the pen not dropped due to a light knock against a doorframe. The company does include some replacement nibs in the box, so fixing this is fairly easy.

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

I also really wish Amazon’s Notebooks were more versatile. They’re better than they were with the original Scribe, but you still can’t edit them in the mobile Kindle app. You can view your Notebooks there, which is nice, but it’s slightly annoying that they’re listed in alphabetical order instead of based on what’s recently been opened like they are on the Kindle.

Amazon rates the new and original Scribes as having the same battery life — that is, up to three weeks if you write for about half an hour a day, and up to 12 weeks if you read for that same amount of time. In my review of the older model, I saw battery numbers drop 35 percent in about a week with lots of writing and testing. With the new Kindle Scribe, the power level is currently at 21 percent after coming out of the box at 50 percent just a couple of days ago. I have been testing its AI, writing and annotating features pretty relentlessly in that time, and usually see the percentage fall one or two points whenever I generate an AI summary or refinement, too.

I’ll need much more time to get a better sense of how the new Kindle Scribe’s battery holds up under more normalized use, but if it behaves like its predecessor, I shouldn’t need to charge it more than once every couple of months.

Wrap-up

Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe has a lot of competition from companies like Kobo, Boox and reMarkable. And with a price of $399, the new Scribe is a whopping $60 costlier than its predecessor, which will also get a lot of the new software updates. To be fair, the new Scribe comes with a Premium Pen for the price, while the cheaper model only includes a Basic Pen, so you’re partially paying more for a better stylus.

While I do like the new color option and slightly improved annotation capabilities, I’m not sure Amazon has done enough to justify the additional cost here. I’d much rather see the company focus its efforts on improving its Notebook syncing and mobile editing software, as well as investing in innovating on the write-on book format, than chase the generative AI trend. No matter how much restraint it’s exercised in doing so. Still, Kindles, the Scribe 2 included, remain some of the best ereaders around, and are pretty much the most obvious choice for anyone already invested in Amazon's ecosystem.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kindle-scribe-2-review-in-progress-is-slightly-useful-ai-worth-the-extra-cash-140018638.html?src=rss

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It's almost Thanksgiving week here in the US, and that means gift-shopping season is in full swing. As the hardware launches slow down while companies wait for you to buy their wares, so, too, can our reviews team take a tiny breather. That respite will unfortunately be brief, as we begin to prepare for CES 2025 in earnest while getting some year-end retrospectives ready. Many of our team members will be taking meetings all through December ahead of the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, which is officially starting on January 7 this year, and the news will be coming as early as January 5. 

In the meantime, our team's holiday gift guide and Black Friday shopping content have been dominating our site, thanks to the relentless hard work of everyone that works at Engadget. There are many people behind-the-scenes involved in the process, as we try to find the best deals this season to better serve our audience. I myself have gone to CamelCamelCamel to make sure a standing-mirror-shelf was indeed 30 percent off, and not just marked as such while being listed at the same price as during non-sale periods. You've got to be so careful with your money and not falling for deceptive deals, and our commerce team is truly adept at sussing out the good stuff versus the bad. 

Between all the work for our holiday gift guides, planning for CES and taking some well-deserved time off, our team of reviewers has still managed to deliver some great reads, just in time for the holidays.

Apple M4 iMac review 

by Steve Dent

Steve's one of our expert photographers and videographers, and his review of the new iMac as a content creator is super insightful. I've always admired Steve's depth of knowledge, and his background brought a different perspective to our review that I found relevant and helpful. 

One of the biggest takeaways from Steve's review is that Apple is finally offering more RAM in the entry-level model, and that's somehow the most intriguing upgrade here. Though the webcam now has a sharper 12-megapixel sensor, and the display can be configured with a nano-coating, having twice the RAM in the base configuration is the most significant improvement. Steve clearly lays out why.

Fellow Aiden review

by Billy Steele

Whenever Billy files a draft that's for something outside the audio category, I know I have to be prepared. His mouthwatering descriptions of the meats he smokes or pizzas he makes with the cooking appliances he reviews often evoke FOODMO (food-induced FOMO) and, weirdly, so did this review of the Fellow Aiden. It's an automatic coffee maker that promises to replicate the quality of brews you'd get using a pour-over cone. I am a casual coffee lover, in that I know my preference for darker roasts and can kind of tell the difference when a cuppa has been prepared well. But aside from convenience, I couldn't tell you exactly why I prefer my pour-over cone to a French press or drip machine. 

Billy's review clearly explains why the Aiden is the best of the coffee makers that claim to bring pour-over quality in an automatic system. While simultaneously making me somehow crave an expertly crafted cup of morning joe. Be warned, if descriptions of beans can make your mouth water, definitely make sure you have a mug of your favorite beverage nearby before reading this.

Loop Switch 2 review 

by Billy Steele

We don't typically review earplugs, but Billy had done fairly deep testing of the Loop Switch 2, and had enough experience to also compare it to some competing products. That's why we felt confident about assigning these noise-filtering earbuds a score. You might notice that the scorecard is smaller than usual — this is something you'll see more of moving forward. It represents reviews that involved first-hand, in-depth testing, but for products that for a variety of reasons may not rise to the level of our full reviews. Rest assured that a scored review on Engadget will always involve thorough first hand testing and thoughtful criticism and evaluation.

Billy's piece on the Switch 2 had me intrigued, especially as I recently went to a concert and was concerned about the loud music and potential damage to my hearing. I never knew earplugs had gotten so advanced, and learned a lot from Billy's description of how you can change between levels of noise-filtering without having to take these buds out of your ears.

Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet review

by Jeff Dunn

Many Amazon tablets fall under the category of products that we would like to review but don't typically have the time or bandwidth to get to. That's why I was excited when Jeff was able to find time to test the Fire HD 8, especially since he is familiar with the Amazon product ecosystem. There are plenty of Android tablets out there, and the Fire series are among the most affordable, making them a popular choice. That's why it's important for us to test them, to get a better sense for what people are using and also to inform our other coverage and reviews. Though Jeff didn't like Fire OS, he did find the HD 8 to be just good enough to be a decent value. As long as you can put up with an ad-heavy interface and a limited app selection, you'll probably find this to be a competent device for, say, your child to use on the go.

Sonos Arc Ultra review

by Billy Steele

Sonos' Arc Ultra manages to deliver better bass and sound than the original, and thanks to Billy's explainer on the company's latest Sound Motion technology, I have a better understanding of how it's different. According to Billy, the acoustic improvement is significant, and the company's improved app makes for a greater overall experience that could be worth the extra $100. Considering the Sonos Arc is now on sale for $699 and the Ultra costs $999, though, the greater difference in cost may be harder to justify.

Sony's PlayStation Portal gets a cloud-streaming upgrade

by Devindra Hardawar

Sony announced this week that it was bringing cloud-streaming to the PlayStation Portal, a handheld gaming console that was previously only capable of playing games that were on the PlayStation in your home. Since this drawback was one of the major complaints Devindra had when he reviewed the Portal last year, he dusted off his Portal and got to testing the new cloud-streaming feature and was generally impressed by the performance and latency. It's nice to see companies deliver features after a product launches, and even nicer when they work well. 

But since Devindra still has some unaddressed griped with the Portal, like some clunkiness and lag in connecting to a PlayStation, the cloud-streaming addition doesn't yet warrant an update to our original review and score. If Sony further updates the Portal and genuinely improves the experience, we will revisit our evaluation. For now, though, Devindra just says he has "started to hate this thing a bit less."

On the horizon: Upcoming reviews

We're still awaiting a review unit of the new Kindle Scribe that Amazon announced in October, and continue to work through our backlog of gadgets that includes a Roku, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. We're also taking some time to revisit some older products so we can review them with some time after launch, which should give us a better view of how the things we test hold up over time. Stay tuned for all that, and feel free to send us your feedback and suggestions on what you'd like to see us review. In the meantime, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it, and we'll see you soon!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-an-imac-a-coffee-maker-and-an-amazon-tablet-150018151.html?src=rss

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Caring for yourself can be as simple as sitting down to do a breathing exercise or curling up under a weighted blanket. Or it can be getting a massage, going for a workout or dressing up for a fancy dinner. There are plenty of things you could get for someone that not only shows how much you care about them, but also remind them that it’s worthwhile to take time for themselves. And while there’s nothing wrong with an aromatherapy candle, it’s more fun to go beyond the obvious choices and look at what tech products could help your loved ones feel their best. Our picks include things like styling gadgets and grooming devices, but also less techy options like a hair turban and face masks.

It’s worth calling out that these beauty tech and personal care suggestions are highly personal, so it’s important that you take time to learn about your giftee’s preferences. What type of hair do they have? What are their skincare concerns? What aches and pains have they been feeling lately? Getting just a few more details from them can better inform your holiday shopping and improve your relationships, too.

The best self-care gifts for 2024

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-self-care-gifts-160025041.html?src=rss

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