• TCL unveils its X11L SQD-Mini LED TVs at CES 2026

    TCL introduced the next entry in its flagship line of televisions during CES. The X11L SQD-Mini LED Series is available for pre-order now in three sizes. But like much of the gear on show in Las Vegas this week, it doesn’t come cheap. The 75-inch model of the X11L costs $7,000, the 85-inch option is $8,000 and the 98-inch model goes for $10,000. That’s more than double the costs of the QD-Mini LED TV the brand unveiled at last year’s CES. The most notable addition in TCL’s latest screen is the company’s new Deep Color System. This tech leverages Super Quantum…

  • LEGO SMART Bricks introduce a new way to build — and they don’t require screens

    LEGO announced its new SMART Play system at CES on Monday, adding interactive, responsive LEGOs to the famously analog franchise. The SMART Play system includes a 2×4 brick, SMART Tag tiles, and SMART Minifigures. The SMART Bricks and Minifigures can sense nearby SMART Tags, which are 2×2 studless tiles with unique digital IDs that tell the Bricks and Minifigures how to act. If the SMART Tag comes in a set for building a helicopter, for example, then the Smart Brick will light up and make propeller sounds that would help bring a helicopter to life. Its built-in accelerometer would make…

  • BMW rebrands Alpina after taking full control

    Alpina is dead, long live BMW Alpina! BMW originally bought Alpina in 2022, but a condition of the sale was for the tuner to continue to operating independently until the end of 2025. Now that all the New Year’s fireworks have been exploded, the BMW Group is taking full control of the tuner, which has been rechristened BMW Alpina, and will live alongside BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce as a standalone brand. 2023 Alpina B5 GT The company has revealed BMW Alpina’s new word mark, which is based on a 1970s design. The work mark will be used in the centre…

  • How to watch the Hyundai CES 2026 press conference live

    CES has long felt like a full-on auto show, but the car-centric energy seems somewhat muted at CES 2026. Sure, the Afeela electric vehicle from the Sony-Honda joint venture is returning to the show floor, but with the Trump administration yanking most EV incentives from the market, the industry isn’t offering a full-court press of new vehicles in Las Vegas this year. That includes Hyundai. While the company’s Mobis subsidiary will present “more than 30 mobility convergence technologies” during CES week — including its Holographic Windshield Display — we’re hearing the Korean auto giant will instead use its press conference…

  • Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live on stage during hacker conference

    A hacktivist remotely wiped three white supremacist websites live on stage during their talk at a hacker conference last week, with the sites yet to return online. The pseudonymous hacker, who goes by Martha Root — dressed as Pink Ranger from the Power Rangers — deleted the servers of WhiteDate, WhiteChild, and WhiteDeal in real-time at the end of a talk at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany.  Root gave the talk alongside journalists Eva Hoffmann and Christian Fuchs, who wrote an article about the hacked sites for the German weekly paper Die Zeit in October.  As of…

  • What are Micro RGB TVs and why are they everywhere at CES 2026?

    Micro RGB TVs first arrived with little fanfare and a confusing name, so you may have mistaken it for other panel tech or not even noticed. That is not likely to be the case this year, though — it’s the hot new “luxury” display technology and is at . So why do we even need these new TVs and how are they different from OLED, Micro LED and Mini LED models? Here’s how it works and how it compares. A brief history of flat panel display tech To better understand Micro RGB, it helps to see how flat panel display…

  • China’s Hesai will double production as lidar sensor industry shakes out

    Chinese lidar maker Hesai announced plans on Monday to double its production capacity from 2 million units to 4 million units this year, as it looks to corner the global market for the laser-based sensors. That would be well up from the 1-million-plus unit mark that Hesai hit in 2025. Hesai’s push to grab more market share comes just one month after leading U.S. lidar-maker Luminar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That company is not expected to continue operating once its bankruptcy plan is approved, though it is looking to sell the lidar business. Hesai has raised hundreds of millions…

  • This Tamagotchi clone is designed to help you keep your plants alive

    Tamagotchi ripoffs are alive and well at CES 2026, and SoildTech’s spin on the idea is to stick a virtual pet in the dirt to help you stop killing your plants. Senso combines a plant health sensor and a Tamagotchi-like device, offering insights into the conditions of a houseplant’s environment and a gamified way of keeping up with them. If a plant is in need of watering or could use some lighting adjustments, little characters will offer you quests to complete those tasks. And by taking care of your plant properly, you’ll also be helping those characters’ virtual home planet…

  • The 2026 BMW iX3 voice assistant will be powered by Alexa+

    BMW is finally getting the next-generation Alexa voice assistant and it’s coming with a generative AI upgrade. Amazon said Monday that the 2026 BMW iX3 will be equipped with Alexa+, the same generative AI tech that launched in millions of the e-commerce giant’s smart devices last year. This will be the first vehicle to come with Amazon’s next-generation voice assistant, the companies announced during the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The launch is one part of Amazon’s effort to bring its LLM-powered voice and digital assistant to every device — whether handheld or in the driver’s seat —…

  • Anker’s new 45W charger from CES is already $10 off

    Anker introduced a nifty little charger at CES 2026, which is a refresh of the pre-existing Nano Charger. It’s already on sale for $30, which is a discount of $10. These are preorders, however, with shipments officially going out on January 20. The 45W charger includes a screen that displays real-time data like power flow, temperature and charging status. It also features “fun animations to keep things cheerful.” Anker says it can recognize what’s being charged and automatically adjust certain metrics to ensure a longer battery lifespan. Anker This product will ship on January 20.  Save $10 with code WS24D5XT3DV9 $30…