Threads is exploring games in chats, beginning with a basketball game. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is internally prototyping the game and that it’s not available to the public. The game was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who often finds unreleased features while they’re still under development. Paluzzi shared a screenshot of the basketball game, which appears to let users virtually shoot hoops by swiping their finger. The idea behind the game is likely to allow friends to compete to see who can score the most baskets, similar to other mobile basketball games. Launching…

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) said on Tuesday at CES 2026 that it had installed the first magnet in its Sparc fusion reactor, the demonstration device that it hopes to turn on next year. The magnet is the first of 18 that, when the reactor is complete, will create a doughnut-like shape that will produce a powerful magnetic field to confine and compress superheated plasma. If all goes well, that plasma will release more energy than it takes to heat and compress it. After decades of promise and delay, fusion power appears to be just around the corner — CFS and…

Meta is pausing its plans to sell its Ray-Ban Display glasses outside the U.S. due to “unprecedented demand and limited supply,” the company said on Tuesday. Meta had originally planned to launch the glasses in France, Italy, Canada, and the U.K. in early 2026. “Since launching last fall, we’ve seen an overwhelming amount of interest, and as a result, product waitlists now extend well into 2026,” the company said. “Because of this unprecedented demand and limited inventory, we’ve decided to pause our planned international expansion.” Meta says it will continue focusing on fulfilling U.S. orders while it re-evaluates its approach…

Amazon’s augmenting its Ring smart doorbells with new features, including new fire alerts, an app store, and a new set of Ring Sensors. The company said the new Ring Sensors can detect motion, openings, glass breakage, and smoke, and can also monitor carbon monoxide levels, leaks, temperature changes, and air quality. They also let you control lighting and appliances that are connected to your smart home network. Amazon is also adding a new app store to the Ring app to allow users to use its cameras with third-party apps. The store is currently available in the U.S. only, and users…

Google believes AI can improve the TV-watching experience, which is why it brought its Gemini AI to Google TV devices in November. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, the company is now showing off a series of new Gemini features that will soon arrive on the TV, making it possible for viewers to deep-dive into topics, search for and “reimagine” their personal photos and videos with AI, and, perhaps best of all, tell the TV what to do instead of having to navigate through complicated settings. The company is first bringing these Gemini features and others to select TCL televisions…

Lucid Motors built twice as many electric vehicles in 2025 as it did in the prior year, a sign that the company has bounced back from early production struggles with its new Gravity SUV. The company announced Monday that it finished the year having built 18,378 EVs, with 8,412 of those coming in the fourth quarter alone. That’s more than Lucid built at its Casa Grande, Arizona factory in the first half of the year. Lucid also said it delivered — meaning sold — 15,841 vehicles across the whole year, a 55% increase over 2024’s figures. The stronger finish to…

Robot vacuum maker Narwal unveiled its new set of smart vacuum cleaners at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with AI-powered features such as monitoring pets, finding valuable objects, and notifying users about misplaced toys. The company said that its new flagship Flow 2 robot vacuum has a rounded design and easy-lift tanks for better cleaning. The device uses two 1080p RGB cameras with a 136-degree field of view to map out the area and recognize different kinds of objects using AI models. Narwal said that through this tech stack, the vacuum cleaner has the ability to identify an unlimited number…

At CES 2026, Nvidia launched Alpamayo, a new family of open source AI models, simulation tools, and datasets for training physical robots and vehicles that are designed to help autonomous vehicles reason through complex driving situations. “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here – when machines begin to understand, reason, and act in the real world,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. “Alpamayo brings reasoning to autonomous vehicles, allowing them to think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions.”  At the core of Nvidia’s new family is Alpamayo 1, a 10…

Robotics company Boston Dynamics has struck a partnership with Google’s AI research lab to speed up the development of its next-generation humanoid robot Atlas — and make it act more human around people. The partnership, which was announced Monday during the Hyundai press conference at CES 2026, is centered on robotics research that will use Google DeepMind’s AI foundation models. Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas will be the first test case, according to Carolina Parada, senior director of robotics at Google DeepMind. “We’re looking to integrate our cutting-edge AI foundation models with Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas robots, and we’ll aim…

AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su kicked off her keynote at CES 2026 with a message about what compute could deliver: AI for everyone. As part of that promise, AMD announced a new line of AI processors as the company thinks AI-powered personal computers are the way of the future. The semiconductor giant revealed AMD Ryzen AI 400 Series processor, its latest version of its AI-powered PC chips, at the yearly CES conference on Monday. The company says the latest version of its Ryzen processor series allows for 1.3x faster multitasking than its competitors and are 1.7x times faster at…