CES kicked off Sunday evening with Unveiled, a press-only showcase of a subset of gadgets that I found a little underwhelming. It’s not that there hasn’t been interesting tech announced at the event, but it’s buried under strata of hype, over-the-top marketing, and a sea of buzzwords.
Most of all, though, every gadget is burdened with a fixation on artificial intelligence. I’ve seen a few interesting AI use cases so far, but most of what is described as AI simply isn’t. It’s just that in the speed-dating atmosphere between the press and gadget company PR, companies feel like they need an AI story in order to get attention. It also doesn’t help that gadgets are swallowed up by the cavernous, warehouse-sized spaces where they’re being shown off. The scale of CES (and Las Vegas for that matter) is huge and makes everything else seem small.
Still, there’s something undeniably fun about CES. Breathless announcements about answering your phone from your washer/dryer deserve the eye rolls they get, but the challenge is in the hunt to find the gems of CES. There is a signal underlying all the marketing noise, which is what Brendon and I will be on the lookout for today as the show floor opens for the first time. With so many products pre-announced, though, I thought I’d compile a roundup of what has caught my eye that I will be on the lookout for on the CES show floor.
LG UltraFine 6K Monitor
The bezel-less design of this upcoming 32” 6K IPS display from LG is as striking as its specs. The display is also one of the first to be announced to support Thunderbolt 5, which could make it a great fit for the M4 Mac mini and MacBook Pro. Not all of the specs have been announced yet, but I’m hoping to learn more on the show floor.
Swippitt
On the surface, the Swippitt is intriguing. Using a combination of a dedicated iPhone battery case and a device that looks vaguely like a toaster, the Swippitt swaps the case’s spent battery packs with fresh ones when you insert your iPhone. The company says that it has a solution for changes in the design of future iPhones, which I hope is the case because otherwise, the Swippitt is an expensive short-term charging convenience.
A Robot Vacuum That Picks Up After You
The Roborock Saros Z70 has a retractable robotic arm emerging from its center that Roborock says can pick up dirty laundry and other obstacles as it vacuums – as long as they weigh less than 300 grams. This strikes me as a good idea that will be hard to pull off in practice, so I’m looking forward to seeing a demo.
OWC’s Fiber Optic USB-4 Cable
If you’ve heard Federico talk about the King Kable he uses to connect an eGPU to his Legion Go, this announcement from OWC will sound familiar. In fact, OWC’s cable, which comes in lengths up to 4.5 meters, looks a lot like a rebranded King Kable with its identical design and connectors. Whether or not that’s correct, it’s great to see longer USB-4 cables becoming easier to find.
A Better-Looking Smart Lock
I’ve held off on buying a smart home lock for a couple of years now because I didn’t like the look of any of the models that reportedly work well; I also wanted a lock that would work hands-free. The Schlage Sense Pro that was announced at CES looks like it might be what I’ve been looking for. It’s a simple rounded rectangle with no buttons or other adornments, which I like a lot. It also supports Matter-over-Thread and ultra wideband for hands-free use.
Anker Solar-Powered Beach Umbrella
According to TechCrunch, Anker is releasing a solar-powered beach umbrella later this year that can deliver 80W of power. There aren’t a lot of other details about the device yet, but I could see this finding its way onto Federico’s summertime shopping list.
Weird CES
As always, I’m on the lookout for weird and wonderful gadgets too. Here are a couple of early contenders I’ll be looking to find on the CES floor:
Acer Nitro Blaze 11
Countless people have sent me this image of Acer’s new 11” Windows “portable” game console. It’s not the first 11” gaming tablet I’ve seen, but something about Acer’s promotional photo makes it seem especially huge. I desperately hope to get a picture of Brendon with this thing.
A Fluffy Robot Companion
On the silly side is a fluffy little robot creature that hangs out on a purse interacting with people around it. Long-time readers of my CES roundups will know that I love “Weird CES,” and Yukai Engineering, the creator of the Mirumi creature, never disappoints, having debuted a headless cat pillow and a stuffed animal that nibbles on your fingers in previous years.
You can follow along with our CES coverage here on MacStories.net under the tag ‘CES 2025’ and this dedicated RSS feed. You’ll also find two playlists on our YouTube channel: ‘NPC @ CES’ for handheld gaming news and ‘MacStories @ CES’ for everything else.
