CES 2024 updates: The most interesting news and gadgets from tech’s big show
LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES 2024 kicks off in Las Vegas this week. The multi-day trade event put on by the Consumer Technology Association is set to feature swaths of the latest advances and gadgets across personal tech, transportation, health care, sustainability and more — with burgeoning uses of artificial intelligence almost everywhere you look.
The Associated Press will be keeping a running report of everything we find interesting from the floor of CES, from the most interesting developments in vehicle tech, to wearables designed to improve accessibility to the newest smart home gadgets.
Your own personal bartender
Ryan Close loves a good cocktail, but he’s the first to admit that he is a terrible bartender.
That’s why, he said, he created Bartesian, a cocktail-making machine small enough to sit on your kitchen counter. Its newest iteration, the Premier, can hold up to four different types of spirits. It retails for $369 and will be available later this year.
On a small screen, you pick from 60 recipes — like a cosmopolitan or a white sangria — drop the cocktail capsule into the machine, and in seconds you have a cocktail over ice.
Lemon drop is Bartesian’s most popular recipe, according to Close.
Letting the right ones in
It can be tricky to keep track of your furry friends in and out of the house — but a new pet door might make it a little easier.
Tech startup Pawport has unveiled a motorized pet door that will let your pet come and go as they please — while keeping other critters out. An accompanying collar tag that will open the door when your pet is near. But there’s also customizable guardrails.
The product, which can slide directly onto existing pet door frames, can be temporarily locked for specific pets or set to “curfews” using the Pawport app or with remote-control through compatible virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.
Pawport’s pet door and app are currently available for preorder and are set to make their ways into homes during the second quarter of 2024.
A ‘pawfect’ companion for your pet?
Busy families with dogs may want to be on the lookout for a new AI-powered robot that promises to play with, feed and even give medicine to your furry best friend.
Consumer robotics firm Ogmen was at CES 2024 to show its new ORo pet companion, an autonomous robot designed to assist with pet care by feeding, providing medicine and even playing with your dog using a ball launcher built into its chest.
Smart locks go biometric
It’s 2024, of course your face can unlock your phone. And your front door is next.
Lockly, a tech company that specializes in smart locks, is showcasing a new lock with facial recognition technology that allows consumers to open doors without any keys. The new smart lock, dubbed “Visage,” is set to hit the market this summer. In addition to facial recognition, this lock will feature a biometric fingerprint sensor and secure digital keypad for alternative ways of entry — similar to past Lockly products. Visage is also compatible with Apple HomeKey and Apple Home.
AI twinsies
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a twin? Rex Wong, CEO of Hollo AI, says his company has created “AI personalization technology” that can create your digital twin in mere minutes after uploading a selfie and voice memos in a phone app expected to launch later this month.
Wong said he wanted to create a technology that could help digital creators and celebrities connect with their fans in a new way.
Standing next to a television screen projecting her AI clone, Los Angeles-based content creator McKenzi Brooke told AP that her digital twin will allow her to interact 24 hours a day with her followers across various social media platforms – and make money off of it.
“It’s not a 9-to-5 job. It’s a 24-hour job. There’s no break,” she said, noting that she posts more than 100 times a day just on Snapchat, a photo-sharing social media platform. “Now I have my AI twin who is able to talk to my audience, but it talks the way I would talk.”
Transparent TVs are here
Consumer electronics giants LG and Samsung have unveiled transparent TVs at the show, with LG having just announced its OLED-powered display will go on sale later this year.
Almost invisible when turned off, LG’s 77-inch transparent OLED screen can switch between transparent mode and a more traditional black background for regular TV mode.
