The Verge

Oshkosh's all-electric firefighting vehicle for airports. | Image: Oshkosh 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.Trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home"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."

From left to right: a pair of Reolink's new Altas cameras, the Home Hub, and Reolink's solar panels. | Image: Reolink Reolink's new Altas series of consumer-oriented surveillance cameras can continuously record video to a local SD card 24 hours a day for up to seven days off of battery - or almost two years when recording based on motion.The company's cameras can also be connected to Reolink's new Home Hub to store video footage in a central location on your home network - not in the cloud - so no subscription fees are required. Reolink cameras connected to the Home Hub will also continue to record footage, even when the internet goes down.The endurance of Reolink's Altas cameras can be attributed to their very large (for a camera) 20,000mAh battery paired with a new ultra-low power chipset. It's also believable based on my own experience with Reolink's Argus 4 Pro camera (review coming). Runtime for Reolink's Altas cameras can even be extended indefinitely when connected to Reolink's 6W or 12W compact solar chargers. Image: Reolink The new Altas series includes an updated version of the Altas PT Ultra that goes by the same name but includes a more power-efficient chipset that supports 24/7 recording. The Altas series consists of three cameras capable of 24/7 continuous recording: the Altas Go PT with a 360-degree blindspot-free view and 4G connectivity, the bullet-style 2K Altas with Wi-Fi connectivity, and - confusingly - a new version of the 4K Altas PT Ultra that already launched in September, only now with a more power-friendly chipset.Each camera is fitted with a mic and speaker for two-way audio and a 1/1.8-inch image sensor that can record color footage even at night thanks to a large F1.0 aperture. The cams also capture a 10-second prerecording of events to make sure you don't miss anything when operating in longer-lasting motion-triggered modes. Video can be recorded locally to an SD card up to 512GB or sent to one of Reolink's hub solutions. Image: Reolink A Reolink Altas paired with a Reolink solar charger. The new Reolink Home Hub is billed as a beginner-friendly solution (compared to the Home Hub Pro) for homeowners to manage video footage, create security routines, and receive detailed security reports. It supports up to eight of Reolink's Wi-Fi cameras with up to 1TB (two 512GB SD cards) of locally encrypted storage for recordings - it ships with a single 64GB SD card. The Home Hub also supports RTSP and NAS storage and is compatible with Home Assistant, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. The hub connects to your Wi-Fi router and communicates with Reolink's cameras over 868MHz in Europe and 915MHz in the US.The Altas cameras with 24/7 continuous recording are set to launch in Q3 for unknown prices, while the Home Hub is available now for $99.

The Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV. | Image: Honda The vehicles will be underpinned by a new in-house-developed operating system named after Honda's iconic Asimo robot. At CES in Las Vegas today, Honda showed off its promised new battery-electric Honda Zero prototypes. The first is an SUV based on its Space-Hub concept, called the Honda 0 SUV. The second is a sedan based on its Saloon concept, called the Honda 0 Saloon.Honda says the two new EVs will go into production sometime in 2026. And as if that weren't enough, the new vehicles will be the first to feature the automaker's new in-house-developed Asimo operating system.Zero looks Concepts and prototypes are hard to judge because they are typically more design-focused than what consumers will eventually see at their local dealers.That being said, the Honda 0 SUV looks a bit like an '80s-era dustbuster got together with a Volvo EX30, while the Honda 0 Saloon looks somewhat akin to an anteater. But in person, both look much better than I expected.The SUV, in particular, appears much closer to a final production version and offers a unique rear cargo opening that includes two fold-down tables on either side. The Honda 0 Saloon is much swoopier, while still appearing similar to the Saloon concept that Honda showed off in 2024. Still, Honda toned it down, replacing the gull wing-style doors on the concept with more normal ones. A set of retro-style headlights blink open and look similar to Lamborghini Countach designs of the '80s. There's something noticeably nostalgic about the design. When the doors of the Saloon are open, the yoke-style steering wheel rotates so that the driver can slide into the low-slung seat without getting snagged. And when the doors are closed, the yoke rotates back down. That's possible because the Zero platform is drive-by-wire. (In the SUV, the yoke remains stationary.)Both interiors still look highly prototyped, with a dash-sized screen stretching from pillar to pillar. It's reminiscent of the forthcoming Afeela EV from Honda's joint venture with Sony. (The Afeela also got a proper rollout this week.)The Honda 0 SUV looks a bit like an '80s-era dustbuster got together with a Volvo EX30The exterior designs also have an element of the luxury automaker Lagonda, a brand owned by Aston Martin that has dipped in and out of existence over the years. One of the more polarizing designs that Aston brought to the market, the Aston Martin Lagonda Shooting Brake, looks very similar to the designs that Honda showed off at the show.The Honda 0 SUV will be the first to go into production for the North American market in 2026 that Honda said it will build at its factory in Ohio. And it will likely drive similarly to the Honda Zero prototype CR-V that I drove in Japan in October.The new operating system Honda says Honda Zero embodies three principles: thin, light, and wise." At CES, Honda executives said they were focused on showing off the wise" principle.That includes a new, in-house-developed operating system called Asimo OS, named after the company's Asimo humanoid robot from the early 2000s that was designed for people's daily lives."Honda retired Asimo in 2018 to focus on more practical" applications. But the company retained a lot of information from the more than 33.26 million steps the robot took over its lifetime about some of the stumbling blocks and safety issues a fully autonomous robot would have to overcome. When Honda unveiled Asimo in 2000, it was widely heralded as both a beloved friend (which once played soccer with President Barack Obama and could autonomously recognize a human wave as well as moving objects) and a symbol of Japanese technological advancement. As an icon of robotics, Honda decided to name its new operating system after Asimo. The new OS will allow for things like ultra-personal optimization" of the digital experience as well as automated driving. Honda also said it plans to integrate the management of its electronic control units (ECUs) for the vehicle for better control of functions like suspension, braking, and handling.Honda's Zero vehicles will be equipped with Level 3 automated driving, which allows the driver to take their hands, feet, and attention off the road ahead, depending on the conditions. Currently, Honda only offers this feature on its Honda Legend sedan equipped with the company's Sensing Elite tech, which is only available to lease in Japan.Honda says Honda Zero embodies three principles: thin, light, and wise"Honda says that it will leverage its relationship with Helm.AI (a company that Honda invested more than $30 million in in 2022) as well as its own AI development to learn from smaller amounts of data" so that its automated driving system can rapidly expand the range of conditions in which it can be used. Honda said it wants to offer Level 3 autonomy in heavy traffic situations and expand the offerings from there via over-the-air updates. All Zero vehicles will have the option for this technology at an affordable" price.Honda did not give further details about pricing but did say that the system will allow occupants to watch videos or remotely join a meeting in the car when the Level 3 system is engaged.All Honda Zero vehicles will come with this new OS and be updatable over the air. The system will also learn" from and adapt to each user." Because, in the era of software-defined vehicles, there are no longer drivers and passengers, but users to enhance the joy of driving."A new partner for Honda's system-on-a-chip Honda also announced a new partnership with Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas to create a system-on-a-chip to cut down on the number of ECUs and handle more processing demand.Most vehicles today have multiple ECUs handling different systems. Each one has to communicate to the other in milliseconds, which requires a lot of compute power. The more ECUs in a vehicle, the more wiring, the more code, and the more lag, so Honda is partnering with Renesas to create a single ECU for future Zero vehicles.Honda says that its ECU will handle everything from ADAS to powertrain and comfort features as well as AI - and that this will require a chip that can handle all of that processing demand at once.Honda's move to bring this development more in-house is part of a wider trend of automakers moving away from off-the-shelf, plug-and-play-style options for their software needs. Instead, they're developing bespoke ECUs, chips, and other components to handle the increasing demands of the software-defined vehicle, especially in light of AI adoption and autonomous driving systems.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images As part of Meta's sweeping changes to content moderation announced today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will also be moving its content moderation teams from California to Texas to help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content," he wrote on Threads.We're going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas," Zuckerberg says in a video about the changes. As we work to promote free expression, I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there's less concern about the bias of our teams."

The Evie Ring first debuted at last year's CES. Since then, it's launched a second ring and is now introducing an AI chatbot. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge AI is the big buzzword in health tech at CES 2025. Everywhere you look, there are AI algorithms, AI health recommendations, and AI chatbots. The thing is, AI's got a reputation for making things up - and when it comes to health, the stakes for accuracy and privacy are high.That's why smart ring maker Movano wants to make one thing abundantly clear about its new chatbot, EvieAI: this one has been post-trained exclusively on peer-reviewed medical journals.EvieAI was designed to be a more accurate alternative to something like ChatGPT. The difference is, unlike ChatGPT and other similar generative AI assistants, EvieAI theoretically won't be pulling from vast repositories of public data where health and wellness misinformation runs rife. According to Movano CEO John Mastrototaro, it's been trained on and will be constrained to over 100,000 medical journals written by medical professionals.All the data the LLM has access to comes from accredited sources that have been referred to by a medical advisory board, Mastrototaro says. That includes FDA-approved journals, practices, and procedures. EvieAI is a bounded LLM, which means it will only speak to data from the post-training" phase after it's been initially created. In this case, that means medical data. The data is then cross-referenced with organizations like the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and UCLA. The LLM does this by referencing this outside data before answering and making sure there isn't a conflict.The result, according to Movano, is 99 percent accuracy, though we weren't able to test EvieAI for ourselves before CES. The company says this is possible because anytime you query EvieAI, the LLM is tracking to see if the information given in the conversation is consistent and accurate compared to the data it's been trained on.Achieving that level of accuracy is a tall order and a bold claim. Most chatbots don't make reliably accurate statements, and some specifically steer clear of health and medicine precisely because the stakes are so high. When I ask about AI's tendency to hallucinate, however, I'm firmly told that Movano isn't afraid for EvieAI to tell users it doesn't have an answer.If you ask it What do you think about the election?', it's not going to respond," says Mastrototaro. It's not going to tell you because it doesn't have any information about that."I think that it's okay to say no if you don't know the answer to something," he adds. And I think sometimes, with the other tools out there, they're gonna answer one way or another, whether it's right or wrong. We're just only gonna give an answer if it's right."EvieAI is meant to be a conversational resource that gives clear and concise answers to health and wellness questions, with an emphasis on women's health (much like the company's Evie Ring).Even so, health, wellness, and medicine are an ever-shifting landscape. Even peer-reviewed studies can present contradictory findings. Doctors don't always agree on emerging science. By and large, health tech has also steered clear of anything that could be considered diagnostic or medical advice - something that would require FDA oversight. Image: Movano Here's what a conversation with EvieAI is meant to look like. To that end, Mastrototaro says the LLM is updated monthly with new approved documents such as medical journals and articles detailing breakthroughs. He also emphasizes that EvieAI is steering clear of anything diagnostic. The AI will not get into treatment but act more as a guide that asks clarifying questions to steer you in the right direction. For example, if you suspect that you might have diabetes, it may ask clarifying questions about whether you have experienced low vision or weight gain as well as inquire about your diet. But if you tell it you've chopped your finger off, or express that you're experiencing suicidal ideation, it'll direct you to the ER or to the number to call an appropriate hotline. The hope is that EvieAI can help people better research and prepare for a doctor's visit in a way that's more natural and supportive than, say, falling down a WebMD rabbit hole.As for privacy, Movano says EvieAI will follow industry-standard encryption standards in storage and transmission and that any chats can't be traced back to individuals. Mastrototaro also says conversation data will be periodically deleted and won't be used for targeted ads, either.It can be easy to roll one's eyes at promises of privacy and accuracy in health tech. Movano has thus far shown a dogged dedication to adhering to medical industry best practices and standards. It recently gained FDA clearance for its EvieMED ring, an enterprise version of its ring aimed at remote patient monitoring and clinical trials. Movano also recently relaunched the consumer version of its Evie Ring to better address initial feedback from customers, like improved sleep and heart rate accuracy.In the future, Movano hopes to eventually further incorporate individual health data collected by its smart rings. But for now, a beta version will roll out starting on January 8th to existing Evie Ring users within the Evie app at no extra cost.

The mask costs $150, and features multiple colors for addressing different skincare concerns. | Image: Nanoleaf Nanoleaf is best known for its colorful smart home lighting. But at CES 2025, it's expanding into new territory: beauty tech. Specifically, a $149.99 LED face mask.The Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask is made of medical-grade materials and has received FDA Class II device certification. (This doesn't mean the FDA has given Nanoleaf's mask a stamp of approval; it just means this is a moderate-risk device that meets FDA safety standards.) It has seven different modes for specific concerns, based on color. Those include white, red, blue, purple, yellow, cyan, and green. Image: Nanoleaf The mask is an FDA Class II device. This isn't anything we haven't seen before. These types of at-home masks are massively popular among skincare enthusiasts to address a range of issues like acne, fine lines, and uneven skin tone, as well as boost collagen production. LED light therapy is also a treatment offered by dermatologists and estheticians.That said, you should keep in mind there's a definite difference between the light therapy you get at the dermatologist and at-home gadgets like this. The ones used by medical professionals are usually stronger. Plus, while red, blue, and near-infrared light therapy has been cleared by the FDA, other colors haven't. In this case, the Nanoleaf mask's Class II certification is more of a sign that the company has put in the effort to ensure a degree of safety.In any case, when you think about it, it makes sense that Nanoleaf might be interested in this market. After all, what's an LED Light therapy mask but a smart bulb by another name?The LED Light Therapy Face Mask is available now for preorders.

After several attempts, OnePlus made a great high-end phone. Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge I have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan on their timing. It's not hugely surprising that, as the pair announced early today, Meta is giving up on professional third-party fact-checking. The operator of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing off moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been contentious. But it's probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office - and nominates a Federal Communications Commission head who's threatened the company over it.Trump's FCC chairman pick (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech defender with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies' fact-checking programs.The letter was primarily focused on NewsGuard, a conservative bete noire that Meta doesn't actually work with. But it also demanded information about the use of any media monitor or fact checking service," and it left no doubt about Carr's position on them. You participated in a... Read the full story at The Verge.

Those are 14-inch OLED displays now. | Image: Lenovo Lenovo is updating its Yoga device lineup to 10th-generation versions, including a new lightweight Yoga Slim 9i, a fresh Yoga Book 9i dual-screen laptop with larger displays, and a Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition convertible notebook.The first is the Yoga Slim 9i, now powered by NPU-packing Intel Core Ultra chips that earn it Windows 11 Copilot Plus PC designation. The laptop also has Lenovo's AI Core system, which does some AI stuff like dynamically adjusting settings in creative apps to help improve battery life (up to 17 hours on a 75Wh battery, according to the company). Image: Lenovo The Yoga Slim 9i has the world's first camera-under-display technology in a laptop," according to Lenovo. The Slim 9i has a 98 percent screen-to-body ratio and features a no-notch webcam for an attractive, bezel-free design. The Slim carries a 14-inch PureSight Pro OLED with a 4K resolution at 120Hz, two Thunderbolt 4 ports (one per side), a quartet of Dolby Atmos-capable speakers, and Wi-Fi 7 in a 2.26-pound package. Image: Lenovo The many modes of Yoga Book 9i. Lenovo's dual-screen Yoga Book 9i also gets 14-inch screens, which catch it up in size to the Asus ZenBook Duo. The Yoga Book screens have a 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800) at 120Hz per display, and they're also brighter now at 750 nits versus 400 nits on the previous model.Intel is also updating the Yoga Book with the latest Arrow Lake 255H processor. You can max out the Yoga Book with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of internal storage. Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, four speakers, and Wi-Fi 7 are also on board. It also has a bigger battery and an improved folio case / stand design.Lenovo promises a healthy slathering of AI-powered applications in the Yoga Book, including its own Smart Note note-taking app, a book synopsis-generating eReader app called Smart Reader, and a hand gesture feature called Air Gestures to move windows and scroll. Image: Lenovo The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 in cosmic blue with included Yoga Pen. The shiny-finished Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, meanwhile, gets a new, brighter 14-inch OLED display with a peak brightness of 1,100 nits. There's also a new Yoga Slim 7i (Aura Edition) and new 16- and 14-inch 2-in-1 7i models that now feature Intel processors.The Yoga Slim 9i starts at $1,849, while the 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition starts at $1,599. Both will ship starting in February. Meanwhile, the Yoga Book 9i dual-screen will set you back at least $1,999 and will ship beginning in May. Lenovo offers a free two-month Adobe Creative Cloud membership if you buy select 2025 Yoga models.

Image: The Verge Getty Images and Shutterstock are joining forces in a merger valued at around $3.7 billion, the companies announced on Tuesday. The merger will allow the companies to expand their stock photo libraries as they face increasing competition from AI-powered image creation tools.Getty Images CEO Craig Peters will remain the head of the combined companies when the merger closes, while a reworked board of directors will consist of members from both Getty Images and Shutterstock, including Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy. In the press release, Peters said the merger will bolster the companies by enhancing our content offerings, expanding event coverage, and delivering new technologies to better serve our customers."Shutterstock will remain a separate website following the merger, Getty Images spokesperson Anne Flanagan confirmed to The Verge.The merger comes amid the rise of text-to-image AI tools from companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. In 2023, Getty Images responded to the trend by launching an image generator trained on its vast library of licensed photos. It rolled out a similar tool on iStock, which Getty also owns, and partnered with online image editor Picsart to create a responsible, commercially-safe" AI image generator.Meanwhile, Shutterstock struck an AI training deal with OpenAI, and has agreements with Meta, Google, and Amazon, according to Reuters.The decision to combine two stock photo powerhouses may also spur antitrust scrutiny, but it's unclear how a more merger-friendly Trump administration will respond.

Ultrahuman's Rare smart ring in dune starts at 1500, roughly $1,900. | Image: Ultrahuman CES 2025 is officially underway, and the adrenaline of a day of running around Las Vegas is fading fast. Yet I cannot fall asleep. Probably because I've been replaying the same three product teaser videos over and over and over. One opens with the familiar frenetic strains of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concerto, panning to a CGI desert, where grains of sand blow in undulating wisps. The words Rare by Ultrahuman" emerge on a stark black background. Then, from the depths of a CGI dune, emerges a smart ring.The other two videos are carbon copies, except in one, the desert is a golden pink. In the other, a wintry silver.I have watched this video so many times.I check the press release. The rings range from 1500 to 1800. I immediately pull up Google. That's roughly $1,900 to $2,200. I rack my brain. The most expensive smart ring I can remember is Oura's collaboration with Gucci, which I described in my writeup as an eye-watering $950. I double-check that my tired brain hasn't goofed the conversion. It hasn't. My eye twitches.Rare, the Ultrahuman press release says, is meant to be a luxury smart ring. It will come in three colors: desert rose, dune, and desert snow. Or, you know, rose gold, gold, and silver. They are apparently thusly named because the collection captures the essence of nature's most captivating phenomena. From the intricate fluid elegance of wind-sculpted dunes, each piece embodies the harmonious blend of beauty and resilience found in these arid landscapes."The desert rose and dune rings are made of 18-karat gold sourced from London Bullion Market Association." These will cost $1,900. Meanwhile, the desert snow ring is meticulously crafted from pt950 platinum, a metal of exceptional purity and prestige." It will cost $2,200. While I think of how that's around my monthly mortgage payment, I read more purple prose about the symbolism of harmony between nature and technology, the wind's gentle caress of a dune, and the rarity of snow blanketing the desert.I squint at the press renders of these rings. They look like ordinary smart rings.Spec-wise, Rare is the same as the Ultrahuman Ring Air. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is a great smart ring and came this close to beating the Oura Ring in my smart ring battle royale last year. That ring costs $350 - a standard, reasonable price for a smart ring. The Rare series is roughly five to six times that price. According to Ultrahuman, this is the price of the artisanal craftsmanship and complex engineering - and a lifetime membership to UltrahumanX, the smart ring maker's extended warranty subscription. You also get access to all of Ultrahuman's PowerPlugs, features that you buy a la carte on Ultrahuman's platform such as period tracking, vitamin D tracking, and smart alarms. That includes any future PowerPlugs. Is that worth $1,900 to $2,200?I go back to my inbox and reread the FAQ Ultrahuman sent me for the billionth time. Under the question, Is there demand for this" and who is the target buyer?" there's an impassioned plea. People have been using the Ultrahuman Ring Air - which I vehemently maintain is a great smart ring - for engagements and gifts for loved ones. Rare, the FAQ says, is a natural evolution toward jewelry becoming smart like everything else. The ideal buyer? Rare speaks to those who seek exclusivity and purpose in the choices they make."The more I read, the more this feels like a fever-dream pitch from Jony Ive, because it's the same doomed approach Apple took for its Watch Edition.I don't know what time is anymore, but I look at the Oura Ring 4 in brushed silver on my finger. Then I look at the desert snow ring render on my laptop screen. My eyes dart back and forth several times. Hm. Hmm. Image: Ultrahuman I'm trying to understand. There are no gems or crystals. This is $1,900. At some point, I don't know when, I realize I have become The Verge's very own Gollum. I am sleep-deprived, dark circles forming under my eyes. My reflection in the hotel mirror as I grab some water scares me. But I can think of nothing else. We must see our precious $2,000 smart rings in person. Yes. We wants it. We must seek it on the show floor because Rare will only launch in London and Paris at select premium retail locations" to start. Yes, we must see this, we must feel it on our finger if only to answer the one burning question: what would make a $2,000 smart ring worth it?

Image: Sony You can finally make your PS5 gaming set up all black everything. Sony has announced that it will soon release the rest of the PS5 suite of accessories in the midnight black colorway.Sony's offering the Dual Sense Edge Controller, the Pulse wireless headphones and earbuds, and the PlayStation Portal in sleek and sexy midnight black to match the PS5 cover and Dual Sense controller it released back in 2021.Though the announcement wasn't specifically apart of the CES celebrations, it did neatly coincide with the news that Sony's giving Helldivers the Sonic and Mario treatment. The company also announced that its Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation is no longer a TV show produced by Netflix but a full-fledged movie that'll cover Aloy's exploits in the first game, and that the second season of The Last of Us is coming to HBO in April.PlayStation's website has the details on pricing for the electronics with pre-orders starting on January 16th.If you'd rather wait, the accessories will hit retailers on February 20th.

The BPM Vision is another way to track your heart health - and there's a new way to make sense of the data, too. | Image: Withings If you're a Withings device owner and a Withings Plus subscriber, there's a new feature coming to your health tracking system. It's a telemedicine service called Cardio Check-Up, designed to make it easy to check in on your heart health with a professional.Any Withings device that collects electrocardiogram data (which is most of them at this point) can be used in Cardio Check-Up. The Withings Plus subscription, which costs $99.95 per year, will now include four checkups annually, though they're not live appointments - a cardiologist will instead review your data and deliver you a heart health report. It works through a provider called Heartbeat Health, which has been working with Withings on EKG features for the last few years.Cardio Check-Up gives Withings an answer to one of the most pressing challenges facing any health wearable, which is how to help users make sense of this mountain of complex data they're suddenly collecting. Companies like Oura and Whoop are working on ways to collate your data into actual, actionable feedback, so you can know what's going on and how to do better without needing a medical degree of your own.Withings is doing lots of that automated... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Razer has announced some new handheld gaming goodies, including remote PC streaming capabilities for the Kishi Ultra mobile controller and a folding multiplatform RGB dock for the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and more.Razer says its Handheld Dock Chroma is a 6-in-1" docking station that transforms phones, tablets, or handheld gaming devices into powerful gaming consoles" with 100W power passthrough support for charging. It's priced at $79.99 and will be available on January 30th, with preorders starting on January 7th.The Handheld Dock Chroma is a similar concept to the official docking stations provided by Valve or Nintendo, allowing users to hook handheld devices up to external displays with expanded connections to complement big-screen gaming setups. The Handheld Dock Chroma uses a USB-C cable to connect supported devices, including Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones with USB-C ports, Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and Razer's own Edge Android gaming handheld. Image: Razer Here are the port options in the rear, plus the USB-C cable to connect to your device. Devices like the Nintendo Switch, with the port on the base, will have to go upside down. Image: Razer When folded closed, the Handheld Dock Chroma just looks like a funky streaming box. The cable is located on the rear of the docking station, alongside a USB-C power port, an HDMI output to connect to a TV or gaming monitor, a gigabit ethernet port, and three USB-A ports to connect things like controllers or keyboards. Given the cable placement, certain handhelds like the Switch that have their ports on the underside will need to be positioned upside down in the dock.The dock itself is constructed from aluminum and folds down into a box shape to make it easier to transport without damaging it. And given this is a Razer product, there's naturally a Chroma-enabled RGB bar located at the front, which users can customize with various lighting effects. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge There's plenty of ports to hook up things like mice, keyboards, and controllers - providing they use a USB-A connection. Razer is also introducing a PC Remote Play feature for the Kishi Ultra mobile controller, among other controllers, allowing users to stream games directly from PCs to smartphones and tablets. The feature also makes use of the Kishi Ultra's Sensa HD support, which converts audio output into haptic feedback on supported Android devices (but sadly isn't available for iOS). PC Remote Play allows games to be streamed at full resolution without compromising visual quality or game speed," according to Razer, and can be accessed via the Razer Nexus app on iOS or Android. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Razer's new PC Remote Play feature provides PC-to-Phone streaming capabilities similar to the Steam Link mobile app. Razer tells us the PC Remote Play feature is built on top of the popular Moonlight streaming client, and is particularly proud of how it can automatically run your game at your phone's native resolution and refresh rate.

Segway's Xafari and Xyber e-bikes. | Image: Segway For CES this year, Segway ditched the goofy self-balancing pods and paintball-shooting go-karts and got back to basics.The Ninebot-owned brand, once known for its pioneering self-balancing scooters, is reintroducing a pair of e-bikes (both first announced last year) with additional information on pricing and ordering. And it's also rolling out its next-generation lineup of kick scooters, with more powerful drivetrains and rugged, all-terrain features. And because it's CES, it's also giving us new details about the robot mower it introduced last year.The e-bikes Segway announced last year, the powerful Xyber and the more approachable Xafari, are scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2025. Presales for both start on January 7th, with open sales kicking off on February 3rd.The Xyber is the more imposing of the two, with a motorcycle-like design that skirts the limits of what can be defined as an e-bike. With a starting price of $2,999.99, the Xyber looks like it packs a wallop - because it does. A rear-mounted 750W torquey direct-drive motor helps propel riders from zero to 20mph in just 2.7 seconds.It still has pedals and caps out at 20mph, which may leave some riders feeling short-changed. After all, the Xyber looks like it's meant to go as fast as some of Segway's unruly e-scooters (we'll get to those in a second), but alas, the e-bike classification in the US is what it is. Segway says there is an off-road mode that goes beyond Class 3" - which means speeds faster than 28mph - but only in areas where it's legally allowed.A rear-mounted 750W torquey direct-drive motor helps propel riders from zero to 20mph in just 2.7 secondsThe Xyber can go up to 112 miles between charging in its 2,880Wh dual-battery configuration and 56 miles for the single-battery with 1,440Wh - though those ranges are likely only good for the lowest power setting. Still, that's a staggering range for any modern e-bike and a good sign that Segway is trying to give its customers what they want.But despite its futuristic, moto-inspired aesthetic and cast aluminum, double-cradle frame, there are actual pedals and 12 - yes, 12 - different levels of pedal assist, as well as three ride modes (Eco, Sport, and Race) of throttle-only operation. There's 110mm of suspension in the front and 100mm in the rear. A 1,330-lumen headlight comes equipped with smart light features. And the 2.4-inch TFT display shows real-time information like speed and battery charge as well as navigation.While the Xyber is designed to compete with popular high-powered mini-bikes from Juiced and Super73, the Xafari is for customers with more traditional tastes. With a low-step frame and wide tires for maximum comfort, the Xafari is for long rides and endless exploration," Segway says.Starting at $2,399.99, the Segway Xafari rocks a 750W motor with 80nm of torque and a 936Wh removable battery for up to 88 miles of range (in the lowest power setting). Front and rear suspension, as well as big 26 x 3.0-inch all-terrain tires, will help maximize comfort for anyone looking for a less bumpy ride.Both bikes sport Segway's Intelligent Ride System, which includes automated features like headlights, bike locking, and adaptive pedal assist. The AirLock system, in particular, is pretty innovative. Using the app, owners only need to throw down their kickstand and walk away from the bike. After they get 10 meters, the AirLock system locks the handlebars and rear motor and sets an alarm automatically, without any need to fumble with a bike lock.This is the stack of technologies that we've integrated into these bikes to allow the bicycles to act more like the automobiles that we're used to driving," said Nick Howe, who heads Segway's business division. But as much as Segway wants to become a known brand for e-bikes, its true DNA is scooters. The company is releasing its third-generation kick scooters this year, ranging from entry-level to high-performance super-scooters.Segway is replacing its popular GT1 and GT1 with the all-new GT3 Pro and GT3 scooters with a spec list not for the fainthearted. The GT3 Pro - which is the only vehicle announced today not to have a price attached - leads the pack with acceleration of zero to 30mph in just 3.9 seconds in Ultra Boost Mode, a stinging top speed of 49.7mph (!!), and a range of up to 86 miles on a single charge thanks to its dual 3,500-watt motors (with a total max output of 7,000W) and 2,160Wh battery.The GT3 is also great for hill climbingThe GT3 is also great for hill climbing, with the ability to tackle slopes up to 38 degrees. It also features a very advanced suspension system with coil-sprung, hydraulically damped shocks in the front and rear. And everything is customizable to your exact riding specifications, which ensures maximum comfort.Segway is also highlighting something it calls SegRide," which is the company's ride enhancement system. That includes the geometry of the scooter, things like stem angle, trailing distance, ergonomics, and the angle and curvature of the handlebars.Segway is also releasing its F and E series e-scooters for commuters as well as its Max G3, which the company describes as the luxury sedan in its lineup of scooters. And lastly, Segway is upgrading its lineup of robot lawn mowers with the Navimow X3, which will go on sale in spring 2025. The new robots are designed to cover a lot more ground than the previous generation: 2.5 acres versus just a quarter-acre for the company's i Series of robot mowers.The X3 also combines mowing and trimming for a more well-rounded piece of equipment. It can climb slopes of up to 27 degrees, has IP6-rated waterproofing, and improved AI capabilities that can recognize pets and other wildlife. It can also integrate with your smart home, so you can activate it using Google Home or Amazon Alexa.Segway didn't reveal any pricing details, so we'll have to wait to find out how it compares to the i Series ($999) and H series ($1,899) mowers.

Image: May Mobility May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle operator that mainly focuses on long-term transportation contracts, is expanding its fleet of vehicles to include an electric mini-bus that can carry up to 30 passengers.The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company struck a deal with Tecnobus to acquire several of the Italian company's mini-buses. With enough capacity for 30 people, as well as wheelchair accessibility, May Mobility hopes to expand it self-driving mobility service to new customers and new markets, including urban transit, corporate campuses, airports, planned communities, and more.May Mobility currently operates a fleet of autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans retrofitted with the company's autonomous hardware and software. The company operates ride-share services in geofenced, easily mapped business districts, college campuses, and closed residential communities, such as Sun City, a retirement community outside of Phoenix. May Mobility also has a partnership with Lyft to deploy autonomous vehicles on its ridehail platform.The new minibuses can carry far more passengers than the company's current crop of vehicles, while still being restricted to speeds of up to 45 mph. They will be targeted at markets in the US, as well as Canada and Europe, where May Mobility hopes to eventually expand. And the batteries powering the electric motor are fully swappable, meaning more uptime and less time spent charging.May Mobility aims to have them road-ready in the first half of 2026. Of course, autonomous driving operations are in a state of flux right now. Some robotaxi companies are growing, albeit slowly, while others are out of time and money.May Mobility has set itself apart by focusing on transportation contracts with businesses and governments, rather than try to be the Uber for autonomous vehicles. And while some robotaxis have clashed with cities, May Mobility is incentivized to address municipal concerns or risk having its contract terminated.

Image: Goodyear Under new rules announced last year, all cars sold in the US will need to come with automatic emergency braking by 2029. But automakers are asking for a delay, saying the technology isn't good enough, especially in adverse conditions.Here's Goodyear to the rescue. The tire company teamed up with TNO, an independent research organization based in the Netherlands, to produce a tire embedded with sensors that can detect slick, dangerous road conditions and can also work with a vehicle's advanced driver-assist system. The new technology is being rolled out at CES in Las Vegas this week.The idea is to trigger the vehicle's automatic emergency braking (AEB) system earlier when an obstacle in the road is detected and when road conditions are dangerous. With a safer braking distance, a vehicle is less likely to collide with another stopped vehicle or other object in the road, Goodyear says.Road conditions can determine how likely a vehicle is to successfully brake before the collision. Typical AEB systems are tuned for high-friction surfaces like dry asphalt. But with Goodyear's smart tire technology, named SightLine, the company says it can successfully prevent collisions even in low-friction environments like rain, snow, or ice. The new system can even work at speeds of up to 50mph (80km/h), Goodyear says.The AEB can be assertive way earlier," said Werner Happenhofer, vice president of tire intelligence and e-mobility solutions at Goodyear. They say, oh well, wait a minute, my maximum deceleration potential is probably just half a G because of the lower friction potential. Hence the system would react way earlier if it spots a situation where a crash is imminent."Goodyear first announced SightLine in 2021 as a suite of smart tire" technologies enabling tires to measure their own air pressure, sense the amount of friction between the rubber and the road surface, and detect when the rubber is becoming too worn. Now, the company says it plans on pitching its SightLine-equipped tires and software to automakers as an added safety system for AEB.The AEB can be assertive way earlier"We follow the automotive embedded software standards," Happenhofer said, so we can integrate very easily with any of the OEMs and Tier 1 systems."The new technology has arrived at an opportune moment. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized a new rule requiring all vehicles sold in the US to have AEB by 2029. Around 90 percent of light-duty vehicles on the road today come standard with AEB. But regulators are requiring automakers to adopt a more robust version of the technology that can stop vehicles traveling at higher speeds and detect vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians even at night.The auto industry, though, has asked for a delay in the implementation of the rule, arguing that complying with the new rule would be practically impossible with available technology." But Goodyear says the technology will exist, and it aims to let its automotive partners know about it.The technology is available and it's just an extension of some of the other work we've been doing for a few years now," said Chris Helsel, Goodyear's vice president for global innovation and the company's chief technology officer. Success out of this is [the automakers] reach out [to us] and say, Oh, hey, let's see how you can help us meet that regulation. We didn't really think that the tire could help us to do that.'"When it will be available is still TBD. Goodyear spokesperson Caitlyn Duran said today's announcement is about a technology demonstration showcasing the potential benefits of such an integration, and not an in-market product."

The Shokz OpenFit 2 are $179.95 and available today in black and beige. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge I wanted to love Shokz's OpenFit 2, the company's latest open-ear wireless earbuds debuting here at CES 2025. While Shokz made several improvements to the overall design and function, the sound can still be a tad hollow.I tried the OpenFit Air a few months back, and they ticked off almost everything I was looking for in a pair of open-ear running buds. While not perfect, bass was decent. Volume could also be quite challenging in certain environments - again, something understandable for open-ear design. The problem was the ear hook design didn't fit well if I wore my eyeglasses. (That, and the touch controls were finicky to use.)Shokz sent me a pair of the $179.95 OpenFit 2 ahead of CES. Based on the updates, I was very hopeful. For starters, Shokz added an extra speaker to each bud for a total of two: one dedicated to bass, the other for mids and highs. It's an approach that worked fantastically well with the OpenRun Pro 2 bone conduction headphones that include an air conduction speaker to improve the bass. (My colleague David Pierce and I are diehard OpenRun Pro 2 converts.) Volume has been slightly improved. The ear hook design has also been tweaked so the curved portion over the top of the ear is thinner. Physical buttons were added to each bud for simpler controls. Battery life also improved to 11 hours, up from the seven hours on the original OpenFit and the OpenFit Air's six hours. There are also four EQ presets!And in my testing, I immediately noticed many of these improvements. It's still not ideal, but the thinner ear hook is easier to use with my glasses on days when I don't want to wear contact lenses. Loud highways and super noisy environments were still challenging but outperformed the OpenFit Air. While getting these hands-on pics, the bustle of the Vegas Strip didn't drown out my music or prevent me from hearing my colleague Antonio G. Di Benedetto's photo cues. I got about 10-11 hours on a single charge. When I wanted to pause or skip tracks, the physical buttons were easier to use (though my butterfingers still occasionally struggled, especially when wearing press-on nails.) Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The physical buttons help a lot when trying to skip, pause, or play tracks. Unfortunately, I also couldn't help but notice the sound quality. While better than the Air, it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped. On Unfair" by Stray Kids, what should be rumbly baritone vocals sound muddy. Vocals, in general, can sometimes sound distant even with the vocal EQ. At higher volumes, bass-heavy songs occasionally sounded distorted. My issues were most apparent when I was running outdoors. However, if you're listening to a podcast or in a relatively quiet room at a lower volume, it's much less noticeable.All of this is somewhat expected from open-ear buds. It's more that the effect of having dedicated speakers for bass versus treble and mids wasn't as impressive as the OpenRun Pro 2. When I first tried the latter, my jaw dropped and I said, Oh." With these, it's more of an appreciative nod. This might be because the OpenFit 2 are traditional headphones using air conduction. The OpenRun Pro 2 use air conduction for bass and bone conduction for treble and mids. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Sound quality is an notable improvement over the OpenFit Air, but I find myself preferring the OpenRun Pro 2. Whether the sound quality is a deal-breaker depends on how you intend to use these buds. I mostly use open-ear buds for running and found myself wanting to reach for the OpenRun Pro 2 instead. But while puttering around the house or strength training, the lack of a wraparound neckband makes these infinitely more comfortable, especially for exercises like chest presses or leaning back in my chair.The OpenFit 2 are available starting today for $179.95 in black and beige.

Plenty of lights to go around. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Following a teaser last month, Asus' latest ROG Strix Scar gaming laptops have arrived and they're leaning all the way into the gamer aesthetic. The 2025 Scar 16 and 18 come with RGB lights all the way around the bottom of the chassis as well as a user-programmable LED dot-matrix display on the lid, as seen on other ROG devices like Asus' gaming phones.Beneath the flashy exterior, the Scar 16 and 18 can be maxed out with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. It can also be configured with up to 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. The ROG Nebula HDR display comprises a 16:10 2.5K Mini LED panel with a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and a 240Hz refresh rate. There are two Thunderbolt 5 ports included, and the design allows for easy access to the bottom panel for component upgrades.The Strix Scar 16 and 18 have all the cooling tech you'd expect from a gaming laptop of this caliber, including an end-to-end vapor chamber and sandwiched heatsink. Combined with the Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal treatment on the GPU and CPU, Asus claims that it can keep fan noise levels to a library-like 45dB, even during extended gaming sessions.On top of all that, the ROG Strix Scar comes with the aforementioned light show. Asus calls it AniMe Vision, and you can customize it to display personalized animations and sync it with any other AniMe Vision devices you own. Download some prebaked artwork or cook up your own using Asus' pixel editor - the choice is yours.The ROG Strix Scar starts at $2,599; Asus says its new gaming laptops will begin shipping in February.

The 2025 Asus XG Mobile, now with standard Thunderbolt 5 instead of a proprietary connector. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge This smoky black translucent box isn't a gaming PC - instead, it might be the most powerful single-cable portable docking station ever conceived. When you plug your laptop or handheld into the just-announced 2025 Asus XG Mobile, it promises to add the power of Nvidia's top-flight GeForce RTX 5090 mobile chip, and up to 140 watts of electricity, and two monitors, and a USB and SD-card-reading hub, and 5Gbps ethernet simultaneously.That's because it's the world's first* Thunderbolt 5 external graphics card and one of the first Thunderbolt 5 docks, using the new 80 gigabit per second bidirectional link to do more things with a single cable than we've ever seen before. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The 2025 XG Mobile's ports - and a standard AC power connector, because the power supply lives inside. And if you're keeping score, I'm pretty sure it's also the first standards-based portable eGPU with an Nvidia graphics chip. While Asus' last-gen XG Mobile also boasted up to an Nvidia 4090, you could only tap into that power with a proprietary port found only on a few Asus devices. (Its USB4 and Oculink rivals have mostly featured the AMD Radeon 7600M XT.)None of that makes it the most powerful eGPU out there, as I currently have no performance figures from Asus, and you can definitely go further with bigger docks that can fit desktop graphics cards rather than mobile GPUs. But Asus rep Anthony Spence tells me that the Thunderbolt 5 link does give you up to 64Gbps of bandwidth for its Nvidia graphics - more than USB4 and tied with Oculink - and I'm wowed that Asus managed to fit all this and a 350W power supply (no external brick!) into a sub-2.2-pound package with a fold-out kickstand.Asus says it's even 25 percent lighter and 18 percent smaller than the previous proprietary model. It's got HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 for video output and a pair of 10Gbps USB-A ports, in case you're wondering. Image: Asus Note that it comes with a little vertical stand, too. When it arrives later in Q1, it won't come cheap. Spence says the top-tier XG Mobile with an RTX 5090 laptop chip will cost $2199.99 - meaning you could almost certainly cobble together a more powerful (but stationary) solution yourself. That said, Asus does plan to sell a lower-end $1,199.99 version with Nvidia's mobile RTX 5070 Ti. Again, you're paying for compact power here rather than maximum bang for the buck. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Yes, that Asus ROG logo is light-up, programmable RGB using the company's Aura Sync. You can also make out the top-mounted SD card receptacle. While it should work with any Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 laptop or handheld, including Asus' own ROG Ally X, you'll likely want the still-rare Thunderbolt 5 to get the full GPU bandwidth here. Finding a Thunderbolt 5 computer that doesn't already have a powerful discrete GPU might be tough, but perhaps some of 2025's thin-and-light laptops will seize this opportunity to double as potent travel desktops.*We are aware of one possible Thunderbolt 5 eGPU enclosure, to house a desktop graphics card, but that WinStar has barely even been detailed yet.