New laptops, TVs and smart speakers are the usual suspects at CES 2024, the largest consumer electronics show in the world. But this year’s show also underscores how people are increasingly craving more niche devices, our longing for the past and the ways that AI — especially in the form of ChatGPT and similar generative AI chatbots — is becoming more integrated into our lives.
Here’s what’s captivating us at CES 2024. We’ll bring you more news on the best tech highlights as we come across them this week in Las Vegas.
This phone bends over backward for you
This transparent display, currently showing fish, can transform into a 77-inch TV.
Tara Brown/CNET
TVs are getting bigger every year, which means there’s a bigger slab of black plastic taking up a significant portion of the living room wall when it’s not in use. But what if we could make it disappear, without actually pulling it off the wall?
LG has apparently done just that with a transparent OLED screen that converts from a “fish tank” to a 77-inch television (pictured above). Unlike Samsung’s competing technology this will apparently be a real product, shipping later in 2024.
Meanwhile Samsung is showing off the first transparent version of its Micro-LED display tech at CES 2024. While transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, Samsung says its Micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the current tech. But Samsung says its transparent Micro-LED tech isn’t available in the market, so what Katzmaier saw (or didn’t see?) is essentially a concept.
A 2-minute ice cream maker
Watch this: ColdSnap Makes Flavored Ice Cream in Minutes
03:55
Robot stain fighter
What if your smartwatch could also control your lamps, your Netflix programs and more?
Nick Wolny/CNET
Imagine using your wrist to control everything around you. A flick this way, and you can turn off the lights or scroll through the offerings on Netflix. Finnish startup Doublepoint has developed software that can turn an Android watch into a general-purpose controller for any device via a Bluetooth connection.
The software will come to developers in the first half of this year, but it’s up to developers and app-makers to decide what a small gesture, such as tapping fingers or rotating your wrist, will actually do.