CES, the annual commerce present packing a number of the newest – and infrequently strangest – new applied sciences, returned to Las Vegas this week for its 2025 iteration.
Dominated by the continued rise of synthetic intelligence and a few fascinating visions for client electronics, the occasion supplied a glimpse of what we will count on to see available on the market later this yr.
From a rollable laptop computer display to an umbrella with photo voltaic panels and even a “personal AI supercomputer” that matches in your desk — right here’s a take a look at the tech which captured our consideration probably the most.
Robotic vacuums get arms (and legs)
Not content material with merely zooming round, robotic vacuums are rising additional appendages left, proper, and centre.
On the left and proper sides we’ve the Dreame X50 Extremely, which has two small legs which the corporate says can push it up a step as excessive as 6cm.
Some robotic vacuums have already been capable of tilt up barely to recover from small rises and thick rugs, however a 6cm climb is (actually) an enormous step up for vacuum tech.
Beforehand solely an idea design, Dreame’s new flagship mannequin received the CES 2025 Worldwide Breakthrough Award and is predicted to go on sale later this yr.
The Dreame X50 Extremely robotic vacuum. Picture: Dreame / Provided
When it got here to central appendages, Roborock’s new Saros Z70 vacuum — additionally coming this yr — impressed onlookers with its means to select up objects corresponding to socks whereas driving round cleansing the ground.
The vacuum’s five-axis robotic arm, referred to as the OmniGrip, might choose up issues weighing as much as 300 grams, Roborock mentioned, and will establish different objects corresponding to beanies, items of paper, and small towels.
The corporate confirmed the characteristic may very well be disabled if essential, and there may be an emergency button and youngster lock to stop an I, Robotic Vacuum scenario.
Lenovo’s rollable laptop computer display
First displayed as an idea design two years in the past, Lenovo’s laptop computer with a versatile and retractable show is now going into manufacturing because the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6.
The machine can roll out vertically from a 14-inch OLED show to a 16.7-inch show after urgent a devoted button or making a gesture to the pc’s digicam.
The laptop computer is designed primarily for enterprise professionals and would assist folks get extra work performed, Lenovo mentioned.
It may be fairly helpful for watching vertical video (à la TikTok) or streaming an additional window of content material when you work — however you didn’t get that concept from us!
The laptop computer is predicted to start out at round $5,500 ($US3,499).
Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. Picture: Lenovo / Provided
Nvidia’s ‘personal AI supercomputer’ and online game helpers
Nvidia, which dominates the AI chip market and has grown to be one of many world‘s most beneficial firms, confirmed off some fascinating makes use of of its newest tech.
Founder and CEO Jensen Huang unveiled “a personal AI supercomputer” referred to as Undertaking Digits, which seemed to be very highly effective regardless of its comparatively small dimension.
The product would supply a petaflop of AI computing efficiency “for prototyping, fine-tuning and running large AI models”, Nvidia mentioned, that means it might perform a thousand trillion calculations per second.
“Placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher, and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI,” Huang mentioned.
Undertaking Digits is predicted to be obtainable in Might, beginning at round $5,000 ($US3,000).
Nvidia’s Undertaking Digits AI supercomputer. Picture: Nvidia / Provided
Nvidia additionally confirmed off some fascinating purposes of AI for players, together with an improve to the standard non-playable characters (NPCs) we’re used to seeing in video video games.
The corporate says it’s increasing the autonomous recreation characters it first launched in 2023, which it calls ACE, into “autonomous game characters that use AI to perceive, plan, and act like human players”.
These characters would be capable of make selections whereas utilizing visible and audio information to understand their in-game environments, Nvidia mentioned.
Right here’s an instance the corporate shared of how it could work within the widespread recreation PUBG: Battlegrounds.
In the event you suppose you would possibly want much more assist, gaming {hardware} firm Razer touted an “AI gaming copilot” which it mentioned was designed to make its customers higher at video video games.
The corporate mentioned its Undertaking AVA system would run by way of “millions of game simulations within seconds” to assist customers get prompt skilled recommendation “without ever having to tab out”.
A beta launch is within the works for “later in 2025”.
This ‘phone toaster’ swaps batteries
Again on the quirkier aspect of CES, an organization referred to as Swippitt drew consideration with its battery-swapping Swippitt Hub, which some reporters agreed appeared like “a phone toaster”.
When a telephone in a particular Swippitt battery case is positioned contained in the machine, it mechanically replaces the drained battery with a charged one in simply two seconds, the corporate mentioned.
The Hub holds 5 charged batteries internally, which it then pulls out and in of the case on the consumer’s telephone.
“This technology will change how people think about battery management and help lead the way towards a smarter, simpler path to power cellphones,” Swippitt founder and CEO Padraic Connolly mentioned.
The machine is predicted to ship in June for iPhone fashions, with help for Android telephones later in 2025.
The Swippitt Hub. Picture: Swippitt / Provided
A photo voltaic panel umbrella
Charging firm Anker used CES 2025 to unveil what it referred to as “the first solar-powered umbrella”, which might cost gadgets on the go.
The Anker SOLIX options photo voltaic cells made with perovskite, a complicated and versatile materials which has additionally been utilized by Australia’s CSIRO.
The Anker SOLIX Picture: Anker / Provided
The tech permits the umbrella to be foldable and have some water and dirt resistance.
Anker claims it additionally improves energy technology in each vibrant and low-light situations.
The umbrella is predicted to be launched in mid-2025 — and if it involves Australia, simply take into consideration all the daylight you can flip into screentime.
This story first appeared on Info Age. You possibly can learn the unique right here.
