Category: Technology

The best part about CES 2024 has been all of the cool product announcements. Many of these products are early in development, so not available for purchase. Some, however, are already on store shelves, allowing tech-crazed consumers to see what all the fuss is about. Here are some of the niftier items displayed at this year’s CES that are ready, willing and able to empty your bank account. These products range from cool smartphone accessories to gaming laptops and some items that simply defy description.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/25-gadgets-from-ces-2024-that-you-can-buy-right-now-202332730.html?src=rss 

When I’m away from home and don’t have access to my big desktop displays, it feels like I’m missing a limb. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to how big a portable monitor can really be. After a certain point, it’s not going to fit in a reasonably sized bag. ASUS’s ZenScreen Fold solves that problem through the use of a bendy OLED panel.

Measuring 17.3 inches across, the ZenScreen Fold is still a far cry from the 27-inch monitors I have at home, but it’s a huge step up from typical 14 or 15-inch portable displays. And thanks to the fact that you can bend it in half, it can collapse down to something not much larger than a hardcover book and just 0.38 inches thick. Though it is a bit heavier at two and a half pounds. It also comes with a handy travel case and, because its display is protected when closed, you should be able to toss it in a bag without worrying about damaging its soft plastic panel.

The display’s specs are more than decent too, as it boasts a QHD+ resolution (2,560 x 1,920), a gamut that covers 100 percent of DCI-P3 and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 compliance. That said, this shouldn’t come as a complete surprise as the ZenScreen Fold is based on the same basic panel as what ASUS used in the Zenbook 17 Fold.

The difference this time is that the panel is a slightly newer revision, so it’s a bit more durable. And, thanks to a redesigned hinge that creates a waterdrop-shaped fold, there’s even less of a crease — you have to look hard to see it. Even its kickstand is better than the one on ASUS’ bendy laptop, as it offers solid stability in either portrait or landscape. And for a portable monitor, there’s more than enough connectivity including mini HDMI, two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Sadly, while ASUS may have made a big travel display that’s easy to carry around, this thing is really expensive at a cool $2,000. But if you want a portable monitor that gives you the most screen space in the smallest physical size, the ZenScreen may be it.

The ZenScreen Fold is expected to go on sale sometime in Q2. 

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-2000-asus-zenscreen-fold-solves-the-biggest-issue-with-portable-monitors-ces-2024-204009822.html?src=rss 

Earlier this week, Volkswagen announced plans to augment its in-car voice assistant IDA with ChatGPT. I’ll admit that I initially didn’t quite understand the point, but I got a chance here at CES 2024 in Las Vegas to hear about the vision for this integration from Cerence, the company that already powers the back-end of VW’s voice assistant. As usual, it’s a bit of a rough demo, because it’s hard to exactly see how ChatGPT will help you out when you’re on the road when you’re instead sitting in a stationary car inside of a convention center. 

But conceptually, the idea behind bringing ChatGPT into a car is all about avoiding a “dead end” when you as IDA something, Cerence told us. Drivers don’t need to do anything different — you just say “Hello IDA” or press the voice assistant button on the driver’s wheel and start talking. And if there’s something that IDA doesn’t know, it’ll check with ChatGPT. When the voice assistant hits ChatGPT, you’ll only know because the response says “According to ChatGPT” at the beginning of it.

I wasn’t able to get a great sense yet of what things ChatGPT is good for. One of the demos we saw involved asking the car to tell us a story about dinosaurs, as a theoretical way to entertain kids in the back seat. ChatGPT quickly came back and started spinning a cute yarn — a good proof of concept but probably not something you’ll need to do in the car a lot. I asked the car to tell me about Sphere, the massive new concert / entertainment venue in Las Vegas, and it started responding with details about it “opening soon.” That’s because the version of ChatGPT in the car didn’t have the absolute latest details about it. I was expecting more of a Google-like experience, where I could ask things like “who won the Celtics game last night?” but that’s not really what ChatGPT is for.

Given how capable the IDA voice assistant already seems to be, I’m not yet sure how much ChatGPT will add to the equation. But, the usual caveats apply — this was just a quick demo, not on the road, and it’s not fully ready for release yet. But VW is not alone in seeing benefits for adding LLMs to its cars. BMW is working with Amazon to bring AI-powered vehicle info to its cars, and Mercedes-Benz started testing a ChatGPT integration last year. I wager we’ll hear more about this from other manufacturers in the year ahead.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-volkswagen-with-chatgpt-told-me-a-story-about-dinosaurs-at-ces-2024-185239472.html?src=rss 

There’s a fact, discovered by Scientific American and popularized by Steve Jobs, that a human on a bike is the most efficient animal on Earth. Shift Robotics, a startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon, is hoping to disrupt that wisdom with its Moonwalkers, shoes with built-in wheels that speed up human walking. The company rocked up at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with the existing Moonwalkers and its new model, the Moonwalkers X, for us to have a play with.

Essentially they’re shoes that, when your foot strikes the ground, spin their wheels to push you a little further forward. Each step only offers a small extra distance but the cumulative effect can make your journey up to three times faster. The battery should give you around 7 miles of range, after which point you’ll have to grab a USB-C cable and wait 1.5 hours to recharge. And, if you’d like to own a pair for yourselves, you’ll need to stump up $1,399 for the privilege.

Now, much as the original model is designed to be used on the sidewalks of the United States, that may not be its ideal environment. That’s why the company has developed Moonwalkers X, which shaves a pound off the weight and reduces the number of wheels. These are instead aimed at warehouse and logistics workers who are walking around smooth concrete floors for hours at a time. It seems an ideal way to speed up transit while reducing fatigue in industrial environments where concerns about fashion are less prevalent. Unfortunately, there’s no price for these just yet, but we will expect to learn more before their release date at the midpoint of this year.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dont-call-em-skates-because-theyre-moonwalkers-164737288.html?src=rss 

Amazon is laying off hundreds of people across Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, as reported by Variety. This is for the usual reason. The company found a way to save some money and went for it. You know the drill. Amazon’s entertainment chief Mike Hopkins wrote in an email to staff that it has “identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact.”

Hopkins didn’t give an exact number, but did note that “several hundred” employees would be given walking papers and that most American workers will know by the end of the day, with global employees following suit by the end of the week. He also wrote that “it is hard to say goodbye to talented Amazonians.” 

Amazon says it’ll help laid off workers with benefit packages that will include a separation payment and external job placement support. The company promises “continued investments in programming, marketing and product,” despite the layoffs.

Amazon has been in something of a layoff frenzy of late, even with over 200 million paying Prime subscribers. Most recently, it absolutely gutted Twitch with layoffs amounting to 35 percent of the service’s workforce. The company laid off nearly 200 people from its gaming division back in November, along with a few hundred people from its Alexa division. In January of last year, Amazon laid off an astounding 18,000 people from its retail and recruiting divisions. The company posted record profits in 2023.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-laying-off-several-hundred-employees-at-prime-video-and-mgm-studios-161307199.html?src=rss 

Valve has introduced new rules to abide by that will allow the company to add more games with AI content to its Steam gaming platform. To start with, it’s updating its content survey form for developers so that they can give the company a description of how they use artificial intelligence in their games. If they used AI tools to generate art, code, sound or any other kind of content for their title, developers must ensure that they do not include anything illegal or anything that infringes on someone else’s copyright. Valve says it will evaluate each game and check if the developer has submitted truthful information. 

For live-generated AI content, developers have to tell the company what kind of guardrails they’ve put up to prevent their games from creating anything considered illegal. And since Valve will not be able to review all content games create in real time, it’s launching a new system on Steam that will allow players to easily send in a report. If a player sees anything they believe should’ve been caught by appropriate guardrails, they can use Steam’s new in-game overlay to notify the company.

Valve said it will also be transparent with gamers when it comes with what kind of AI content a developer’s title has by including their disclosure on their Steam store page. The company explained that the new rules are a result of it improving its “understanding of the landscape and risks” in the AI space. Last year, Valve admitted that it was still “working through” how to account for AI content in its review process after developers complained that the company was rejecting their submissions. It needed “some time to learn about the fast-moving and legally murky space of AI technology,” Valve clarified in its new post. The company said it still can’t release games with live-generated adult sexual content right now, but that it will revisit its rules as it learns more about the technology and as the legal issues surrounding it evolves. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valves-new-guidelines-will-allow-for-more-ai-content-in-games-134515623.html?src=rss