• A return to hi-fi headphones at CES 2026

    Klipsch hasn’t debuted new headphones in years, but that’s going to change in 2026. At CES, Klipsch announced the upcoming Atlas hi-fi series that includes wireless and both closed and semi-open back models. All three are expected to arrive this summer, but the company hasn’t announced pricing or many details on any of them just yet. However, I was able to listen to the Atlas HP-1, the wireless model with active noise cancelation (ANC). Without going into specifics, Klipsch says the HP-1 is designed for both daily wear and travel. This is thanks to the combination of light weight, comfort…

  • Intel spinout Articul8 raises more than half of $70M round at $500M valuation

    Articul8, an enterprise AI company spun out of Intel in early 2024, has secured more than half of a planned $70 million funding round at a $500 million pre-money valuation, according to its CEO, as it looks to capitalize on growing demand for AI systems in regulated industries. The Series B funding round is structured in two installments, with the first led by Spain’s Adara Ventures, Articul8 founder and CEO Arun K. Subramaniyan (pictured above, center) said in an interview. He declined to disclose the size of the initial installment, but said the company expects to close the round in…

  • MTV Rewind is a developer’s tribute to 24/7 music video channels

    MTV shut down its remaining 24/7 music channels in several countries, including the UK and Australia, at the end of 2025. The main MTV network shifted its focus to reality shows long ago and it occasionally dips back into music with things like the Video Music Awards, but this shutdown felt like the end of an era. If you yearn for the days when MTV actually played music videos, though, you might be in luck. A developer who goes by the name of Flexasaurus Rex has paid tribute to the MTV of old with a web app that has several…

  • Philips Hue ‘SpatialAware’ feature harmonizes all the lights in a room

    Philips Hue has introduced a new software feature called SpatialAware at CES 2026 designed to ensure that all the lights in a space are in harmony with each other. Available exclusively for the Hue Bridge Pro, it takes into account each light point in a room and tailors the colors to ensure a natural representation. “In a sunset scene, for example, the lights on one side of the room emit warm yellow tones to mimic the setting sun, while the ceiling lights on the opposite side reflect darker shades,” the company wrote on its blog. The new feature is set…

  • Motorola expands its Moto Things lineup with a new Bluetooth tracker, stylus and smartwatch

    After kicking off its Moto Things accessory line with wireless earbuds, a Bluetooth tracker and a cheap smartwatch in 2024, Motorola is doubling down. At CES 2026, the company is announcing a sequel to its tracker, the Moto Tag 2, a stylus for its new folding phone, the Moto Pen Ultra and a more premium smartwatch called the Moto Watch. The Moto Watch has a 47mm round face with a stainless steel crown and an aluminum frame. The smartwatch comes with a PANTONE “Volcanic Ash” silicone band, but is designed to support third-party 22mm bands, too, which greatly expands its…

  • How World Cup champion Mario Götze built a parallel career as an angel investor

    Mario Götze will go down in soccer history as the player who scored the winning goal that made Germany the 2014 FIFA World Cup champion. But he is also an increasingly seasoned angel investor. Companion M, Götze’s personal investment vehicle, now has a portfolio of more than 70 companies, two of which became unicorns in 2025 — Danish fintech Flatpay and German AI startup Parloa. But the athlete also learned some lessons along the way about vetting opportunities. “I only agree to invest if the startup and its founders check all the boxes,” he told TechCrunch. The boxes can be…

  • Lenovo goes sci-fi with its wild XD Rollable Concept at CES 2026

    Lenovo has experimented more with laptops featuring rollable displays than pretty much any other PC maker and at CES 2026 it’s keeping that trend going with the XD Rollable Concept. Equipped with a 180-degree Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover, the XD Rollable concept features a very futuristic design. However, underneath, it has the same basic engineering as last year’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. That means with the touch of a button, its 13.3-inch flexible OLED display can expand to 16 inches, which gives you around 50 percent extra screen space in just a few seconds. The main difference with Lenovo’s…

  • LMArena lands $1.7B valuation four months after launching its product

    LMArena, a startup that originally launched as a UC Berkeley research project in 2023, announced on Tuesday that it raised a $150 million Series A at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion. The round was led by Felicis and the university’s fund, UC Investments. The startup bolted out of the gate as a commercial venture with a $100 million seed round in May at a $600 million valuation. This new round means it raised $250 million in about seven months. LMArena is best known for its crowdsourced AI model performance leaderboards. Its consumer website lets a user type a prompt…

  • Hyundai Kona Electric prices slashed by $13,000

    New drive-away deals for the popular Hyundai Kona lineup are headlined by discounts of more than $13,000 for all-electric versions of the small SUV. For the first quarter of 2026, Hyundai Australia is offering national drive-away pricing across entry-level versions of the Kona and Kona Hybrid (HEV), as well as more substantial discounts across the Kona Electric range. The Kona Electric Standard Range now starts from $45,990 drive-away, representing a massive $13,157 saving based on a NSW postcode. With the Kona HEV now starting from $39,990 drive-away, the gap between hybrid and EV power has shrunk to just $6000. After…

  • Lenovo and Motorola are releasing their own on-device AI assistant

    If the world didn’t already have one too many digital assistants, Lenovo is adding another one to the pile. On Tuesday evening, the company announced Qira, a cross-device AI for both its own computers and Motorola smartphones. Set to arrive later this quarter, it will live at the system level of Lenovo devices. Users won’t need to open or switch to the assistant. Instead, “it’s always present,” says Lenovo. Of course, you can ignore Qira, and it will stay quiet if you don’t need the software to do anything for you. Occasionally, Lenovo says Qira will surface proactive suggestions, and…