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CES 2020: more show than substance at this year’s concept-heavy event

The 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has come to a close, and we have all you need to know about the good, bad, and weird gadgets and tech this year’s event had to offer. The overall theme was concepts, our staff determined when deliberating the annual Verge Awards at CES 2020, which meant a lot of show without a lot of substance:

This year, the things that stole attention at the show were not early looks at products that you and I will be able to actually use and buy over the next 12 months. Sure, there’s the occasional laptop and meat substitute that will be available for purchase in 2020. But for every one of those, there’s a rolling ball robot, virtual personal attendant, or entire vehicle that is never likely to ship.

Our Best in Show award went to Lenovo’s Thinkpad X1 Fold, which — even though it’s on the expensive side and left us with a few questions — was the only foldable laptop with a confirmed shipping window and price tag. Most of the other laptops at this year’s CES were pretty boring, however, with little more than incremental updates on display. But there may be hope for the future with 5G modems and new screen technologies on the horizon.

We doled out awards for the most triumphant CES comeback (Lora DiCarlo), the most overhyped thing at this year’s show (Samsung’s Neon digital avatars), and the most concept (Sony’s Vision-S) as well. Of course, the best non-CES news that everyone at the show was talking about was Sonos’ lawsuit against Google, in which, it accuses the tech giant of patent infringement.

You can find the full list of the best of CES 2020 here.

  • Jan 8, 2020

    Dani Deahl

    Noise-canceling DJ headphones are here

    Image: Korg

    This week, Korg and JBL debuted new pro DJ headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC), Bluetooth, and a host of other smart options. These are not normal features to include with pro DJ headphones, but both companies bet that they’re things touring musicians want.

    Most pro DJ headphones focus on performance needs: closed-ear comfort, durability, frequency response, sound isolation, and, in Pioneer DJ’s instance, wicking away sweat. But when it comes to ANC, most DJs opt for a separate pair of specialized headphones. The Bose QC35s are a particular favorite, with their ANC favored by Rüfüs Du Sol, R3HAB, Peking Duk, Jon Hopkins, and more to relax on long-haul flights, as The Verge discovered through What’s In Your Bag.

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  • Justine Calma

    Jan 8, 2020

    Justine Calma

    Delta is offsetting emissions for flights to Las Vegas for CES

    US-AVIATION-TRANSPORT
    Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images

    Delta will spend more than $100,000 to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of every flight to and from Las Vegas, Nevada, this week. It’s an effort to reduce the environmental impact of people flying in for the Consumer Electronics Show that’s taking place, which is expected to bring in 170,000 people from 160 countries between January 7th and 10th.

    To make those flights carbon neutral, Delta will put that money toward planting trees and helping farmers grow their crops more sustainably in Kenya and Uganda. It’s investing in an initiative called The International Small Group & Tree Planting Program, which says it has planted more than 19 million trees since 1999. 

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  • Nicole Wetsman

    Jan 8, 2020

    Nicole Wetsman

    Voiceitt aims to help stroke survivors talk to smart homes

    Waveform by Michael Altemark (Flickr)

    Smart home tech could someday be updated with software that makes it easier for people with speech-related medical conditions to communicate with their devices. At CES, the Israeli startup Voiceitt said that it was incorporating its nonstandard speech recognition program into voice-activated devices. The addition could allow people who struggle to communicate to direct and use those systems. 

    “All indicators are pointing towards voice technology continuing to grow, so the accessibility component would not just be nice to have, but really important,” Sara Smolley, Voiceitt co-founder, told The Verge.

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  • Jon Porter

    Jan 8, 2020

    Jon Porter

    At CES 2020, the AirPods Pro competitors arrived in droves

    Image: 1More

    Whether it’s Audio-Technica, 1More, Panasonic, or Klipsch, at times, it felt like every headphone manufacturer at CES 2020 had a pair of wireless earbuds to announce. It’s not been long since most of these companies were getting into true wireless in the first place, but many of this year’s models arrived with a new feature: active noise cancellation, which is quickly becoming impossible to leave out of a pair of premium earbuds, just months after Apple added the feature to its true wireless lineup with the AirPods Pro.

    At CES this year, there were over half a dozen companies with active noise-canceling headphones to show off. From Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC300TW to Nuheara’s IQbuds2 Max, they all have pretty awful names but are set to release at a diverse range of price points in the coming months, ranging from a budget friendly-ish $120 through $649.

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  • Jay Peters

    Jan 8, 2020

    Jay Peters

    American Airlines is testing Google Assistant’s interpreter mode for customer service

    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    Last year, at CES 2019, Google introduced interpreter mode for Google Assistant, which lets you say something in one language and have it translated in another. At CES 2020, American Airlines announced what could be a very practical application of the feature: the airline is testing interpreter mode in airport lounges to help American Airlines employees better communicate with travelers who speak a different language.

    American Airlines says that its Premium Customer Service representatives will be able to use interpreter mode on Google Nest Hubs. However, the airline will only use interpreter mode when a multilingual employee isn’t available, which is probably a good thing. There’s always the chance interpreter mode won’t perfectly translate each side of the conversation back and forth, like we saw in a stilted demo from CES 2019.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Jan 8, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Twitter will put options to limit replies directly on the compose screen

    Twitter’s blue bird silhouette logo is seen on a black background.
    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    Speaking today at a CES event in Las Vegas, Twitter’s director of product management, Suzanne Xie, unveiled some new changes that are coming to the platform this year, focusing specifically on conversations.

    Xie says Twitter is adding a new setting for “conversation participants” right on the compose screen. It has four options: “Global, Group, Panel, and Statement.” Global lets anybody reply, Group is for people you follow and mention, Panel is people you specifically mention in the tweet, and Statement simply allows you to post a tweet and receive no replies. (No word on whether Statement also automatically formats your tweet as a classic iPhone Notes app apology, but it should.)

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  • Ashley Carman

    Jan 8, 2020

    Ashley Carman

    Quibi versus the world

    Jeffrey Katzenberg insists that his new video-streaming service Quibi isn’t competing against Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, or any of the other streaming services that have launched or are launching soon. You’ve got it all wrong. You’re not even asking the right questions.

    “We don’t think we’re in the streaming wars,” Katzenberg, the former boss of Walt Disney Studios and founder of DreamWorks, tells The Verge in a closed-door meeting the day before the company’s grand reveal at a CES keynote. “They’re all battling for this,” he says as he thrusts his arm toward a TV in the room. “We’re going for this,” he says, gesturing toward his phone. “Don’t tell them!”

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  • Ashley Carman

    Jan 8, 2020

    Ashley Carman

    Spotify will use everything it knows about you to target podcast ads

    Spotify

    Spotify is going to start using its copious amounts of user data to run targeted ads inside its exclusive podcasts. Targeted advertising remains new ground for podcasts, and the announcement sets Spotify up to potentially branch out beyond its own shows and begin placing ads in other networks’ content. If it catches on, Spotify could become a full-blown podcast ad network.

    With technology it’s calling Streaming Ad Insertion, Spotify says it’ll begin inserting ads into its shows in real-time, based on what it knows about its users, like where they’re located, what type of device they use, and their age, similarly to how the broader web operates. Spotify already automates dynamic ad insertion on the music side of its business, it’s now expanding and improving that tech for podcasts.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Jan 8, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Yale’s new smart delivery box prevents package-pilfering porch pirates

    August has a new, smaller smart lock for the US market, and its parent company Yale is also releasing a few other new products. There’s a home safe, a tiny latch that can be used for cabinets or delivery boxes, and a new smart door lock for Europe and a few other parts of the world.

    Let’s start with the door lock, because it actually solves the most interesting problem of the bunch. It’s named after Yale’s founder, so it’s called the Linus Smart Lock and looks like a beefed-up, professionalized version of the regular August Smart Lock. Its chief innovation has little to do with the circuits or motors inside it.

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  • Sean O'Kane

    Jan 8, 2020

    Sean O'Kane

    Sony’s electric car is the best surprise of CES

    To answer your question: no, you won’t be able to buy the Sony car. Not any time soon, at least. The company has no plans to mass-produce the Vision-S, the car it surprise-announced at the end of its press conference at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, nor does it plan to do a limited run.

    Instead, the Sony Vision-S really exists somewhere between a concept and a prototype. Like a concept, it’s meant to showcase the ideas Sony has for the world of cars. But like a prototype, the car actually works.

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  • Dan Seifert

    Jan 8, 2020

    Dan Seifert

    August’s latest smart lock is smaller, sleeker, and doesn’t need a hub

    Image: August

    August has announced the latest addition to its line of retrofit smart door locks: the Wi-Fi Smart Lock. The new lock is similar in appearance to the Smart Lock Pro, but it has a 45 percent smaller volume and is 20 percent slimmer than before. In addition, the new model doesn’t need a separate hub to connect to a Wi-Fi network, as it has the necessary hardware built right into it. It will be available this summer for a similar price as the Smart Lock Pro.

    August partnered with famed industrial designer Yves Béhar for this latest lock, though it has a very similar appearance to the company’s prior models. Unlike other smart door locks, which require you to replace the entire deadbolt, the August lock bolts onto the back half of the lock, which allows you to keep the same design and keys on the front of the door as you already have. The new model is roughly the size of a standard doorknob, according to the company.

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  • Justine Calma

    Jan 8, 2020

    Justine Calma

    Smart tech is coming for your last safe space: the bathroom

    There’s no shortage of gadgets at CES ready to invade the last bastion of privacy at home: the bathroom. The intruders aren’t just startups hoping to revolutionize the way we use the bathroom or even companies that manufacture the fixtures we need to get ready each morning. Brands that make personal hygiene products — like Bic, Oral-B, and Charmin — also want in on the action. 

    These brands want to start collecting data as they get closer to our crevices. In exchange, they offer detailed information about how much grime is on our teeth — or even how much our poop stinks. In theory, users can have more personalized personal time, and the companies can get some more information as they start building their next iteration of devices. But do we really need any of this? Probably not.

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  • Tom Warren

    Jan 8, 2020

    Tom Warren

    Foldable and dual-screen laptops desperately need Windows 10X

    Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 10X last year, alongside its Surface Neo dual-screen device. Windows 10X is an ambitious effort to redesign the operating system for devices that have dual screens and even foldable displays. We’ve started to see some of this hardware at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, but it’s all lacking the key software element: Windows 10X.

    While Microsoft has promised Windows 10X devices from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Asus, most of the PC makers aren’t ready to show what they’re planning just yet. Lenovo unveiled its ThinkPad X1 Fold this week — a $2,499 PC with a folding OLED screen — but it will crucially ship this year with Windows 10 Pro instead of Windows 10X. Lenovo is promising a Windows 10X version later, but it’s unclear when exactly that will happen.

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  • Sean O'Kane

    Jan 8, 2020

    Sean O'Kane

    Segway’s S-Pod looks weird, but it’s a lot of fun to drive

    Segway’s newest self-balancing vehicle looks strange, but what’s new? Segways have always made riders look like technological fools. At least in Segway’s newest vehicle, the egg-shaped S-Pod wheelchair thing, you can wave at your haters from a comfortably seated position as you roll on by.

    And I’ll tell you what: looking cool was the last thing on my mind when I got to drive the S-Pod around at Segway-Ninebot’s booth at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, because this thing is actually a lot of fun.

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  • Sam Byford

    Jan 8, 2020

    Sam Byford

    Neon CEO explains the tech behind his overhyped ‘artificial humans’

    The most buzzed-about company at CES 2020 doesn’t make a gadget you can see or touch. It doesn’t even have a product yet. But for reasons I’m still not entirely sure I grasp, the lead-up to this week’s show in Las Vegas was dominated by discussion of a project called Neon, which has emerged from a previously unknown Samsung subsidiary known as STAR Labs. 

    What Neon has been promising is so ambitious that it’s easy to swing your expectations around full circle and assume the mundane. The project’s Twitter bio simply reads “Artificial Human,” which could mean anything from an AI chatbot to a full-on android. Promotional videos posted in the run-up to CES, however, suggested that Neon would very much be closer to the former.

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  • Dieter Bohn

    Jan 8, 2020

    Dieter Bohn

    Sonos said what every smaller tech company was thinking: working with big tech sucks

    Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in August 2019, showing the then-new Sonos Move speaker.
    Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in August 2019, showing the then-new Sonos Move speaker.
    Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

    It’s the first “official” day of CES, when glitzy keynotes are replaced with grungy, sweaty crowds shuffling from booth to booth set up on the hideous carpets of the Las Vegas show floor. I love it.

    I intentionally kept my calendar as open as possible so I could go experience the full spectrum of what’s on tap here this year. I saw everything from the neon-lit horde in Samsung City (what we call its massive booth) to the locker-room-smelling funk of “Eureka Park,” where the tiniest of businesses rent the tiniest of kiosks, all crammed together by the thousands.

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  • Jon Porter

    Jan 8, 2020

    Jon Porter

    MSI’s Creator 17 is the ‘world’s very first’ Mini LED laptop

    Image: MSI

    MSI is showing off its Creator 17 laptop at CES 2020, which it says is the “world’s very first” laptop to feature a Mini LED display. By using much smaller LEDs as a backlight, the laptop’s 17-inch 4K display can dim and brighten with much more accuracy than LCD displays with a traditional LED backlight. CNET reports that Mini LED screens typically use LEDs that are smaller than 2mm in size.

    The technology should be especially helpful for displaying HDR content, which benefits from a sharp level of contrast between light and dark areas of an image. The technology means that the display has 240 local dimming zones, according to MSI, which is a lot considering its 17-inch size. For comparison, Apple’s 6K $6,000 XDR display has 576 dimming zones, but it’s almost double the size at 32 inches.

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  • Thomas Ricker

    Jan 8, 2020

    Thomas Ricker

    Linksys Wi-Fi will soon monitor your breathing as well as movement

    Linksys Wellness Pods next to a Velop mesh router.
    Linksys Wellness Pods next to a Velop mesh router.
    Image: Linksys

    Linksys Velop mesh routers can already sense movement inside homes, now they’re adding the ability to monitor the health of human inhabitants with the introduction of new Wellness Pods.

    Created in collaboration with AI company Origin Wireless, Wellness Pods work together with Linksys Velop Tri-Band nodes and Linksys Aware software to track breathing patterns and sleep quality, according to Linksys. They can also be used to detect falls of elderly family members. It does all this without the use of wearables or cameras, which could alleviate some privacy concerns.

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  • Jay Peters

    Jan 7, 2020

    Jay Peters

    Filmmaker Mode is coming to Samsung and Philips TVs to cure motion smoothing

    Image: UHD Alliance

    At CES 2020, the UHD Alliance, a coalition that helps define display standards, announced that Filmmaker Mode, which is designed to show films with as little motion smoothing or post-processing as possible, will be coming to TVs released in 2020 from Samsung, TP Vision (which makes Philips-branded TVs internationally), and Kaleidescape (via Hollywood Reporter). LG, Panasonic, and Vizio, which previously expressed interest in bringing Filmmaker Mode to TVs, also shared details about their implementations of the setting.

    According to Variety, LG said it will have Filmmaker Mode in “every new 4K and 8K TV that we introduce in 2020.” Panasonic said its 2020 OLED HD 2000 series will include the Filmmaker Mode, with more on the way. And LG, Panasonic, and Vizio all confirmed that their TVs with Filmmaker Mode will be able to automatically turn it on, according to FlatpanelsHD (a feature I will explain a bit later).

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  • Samsung copied Apple’s Face ID logo in its CES keynote

    It’s not the worst press conference mistake we’ve seen at CES this year, but Samsung revisited a classic during its keynote last night: copying Apple’s work, continuing a seemingly endless pattern of Samsung (and other companies) cloning Apple, intentionally or otherwise.

    In this case, Samsung presented an icon for facial recognition that is almost indistinguishable from Apple’s Face ID icon. As iMore indicates, they’re not exactly the same — the lines all seem a bit thicker and closer together, and the corners are perhaps a touch less rounded — but we’re basically looking at Apple’s Face ID icon, which is seemingly slightly adjusted to fit in with the art on the rest of the slide.

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  • Watch Mobileye’s self-driving car drive through Jerusalem using only cameras

    Screengrab from Mobileye demonstration.
    Screengrab from Mobileye demonstration.

    When it comes to self-driving cars, the general axiom for sensors is “the more the merrier.” The safest systems are the ones that use a multiplicity of sensors, such as cameras, radar, ultrasonic, and LIDAR. Having these redundant sensors is the whole point: if one fails, the remaining sensor suite can help navigate the car to safety.

    Mobileye, a company that specializes in chips for vision-based autonomous vehicles, believes in redundancy, but it also believes in the power of its camera-based system. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the Intel-owned company demonstrated how one of its autonomous test vehicles navigated the complex streets of Jerusalem using cameras only.

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  • Chris Welch

    Jan 7, 2020

    Chris Welch

    Samsung’s Odyssey G9 is the most extreme ultrawide gaming monitor

    Samsung’s Odyssey G9 gaming monitor is an incredible thing to behold in person. It’s on the show floor at CES 2020, and pretty much everyone who sat in front of the 49-inch 1440p display was dazzled.

    You’re going to have an impossible challenge trying to find a rig that can push the latest PC games at 240Hz. But if you’re a competitive e-sports player who specializes in older titles, this display could be a dream. Those not running it at 240Hz can still take advantage of its sharp resolution and that immersive 1000R curvature that pretty much envelops your whole field of vision.

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  • Jay Peters

    Jan 7, 2020

    Jay Peters

    Cooler Master has a NUC PC case that’s bigger than Intel’s but smaller than Razer’s

    Image: Cooler Master

    Earlier today, Intel announced its new initiative for tiny modular gaming PCs that let you swap out modular CPU cartridges (what Intel calls a “NUC Element”), and some PC component makers are already throwing their support behind the initiative. Razer today announced its new Tomahawk enclosure, and Cooler Master has announced its take, called the NC100.

    The NC100 enclosure comes with the baseboard that’s designed to let you plug in an Intel NUC Element, and Cooler Master is throwing in one of its SFX-sized power supplies as well. Basically, all you’re getting is a computer case, a place for the computer’s brain, and a power supply for the computer. That means if you want to make a full-fledged gaming PC, you’ll have to get the rest of the parts on your own — including that NUC Element.

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  • Andrew Marino

    Jan 7, 2020

    Andrew Marino

    Listen to The Vergecast’s first CES 2020 episode

    The Vergecast live at CES 2020
    The Vergecast live at CES 2020
    Christian Purdie

    The first Vergecast of 2020 is here. The Verge is back in Las Vegas for CES 2020, and we’ve already seen enough new tech to fill an entire episode.

    Recorded in front of a live audience at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Ashley Carman discuss the biggest announcements from the start of the week, including Samsung’s rotating TV, Vizio’s rotating soundbars, and Segway’s rotating... egg chair.

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  • Jan 7, 2020

    Dani Deahl

    Roland’s A-88MKII keyboard is a sign that MIDI 2.0 is on the way

    MIDI 2.0 is close to being finalized, and Roland has announced its first keyboard controller to support the new protocol, as spotted by MusicRadar. Roland’s A-88MKII MIDI keyboard controller is an upscale product with wood components and hammer action keys that mimic an acoustic piano. The 88-note keyboard comes with a bunch of onboard creative tools, like customizable trigger pads and advanced arpeggiator controls. There’s also a control app for iOS and Windows to assign commands and create custom setups for instant recall.

    But, what really separates the A-88MKII from being just another keyboard is support for the upcoming MIDI 2.0 protocol, which the Midi Manufacturers Association has been working on for over 10 years. This next advancement is the biggest update to MIDI since it was first created, and it will allow for increased musical expression, tighter timing, and simplified connections between devices, among other things.

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