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Making AI companions and assistants feel more real, more physically present, has become one of the defining themes of CES this year. Razer is leaning into the moment by showcasing a more tangible version of Project Ava at CES 2026.

For those who need a refresher, Project Ava is Razer’s real-time gaming co-pilot: an AI assistant that essentially acts as a backseat gamer for you. While you’re playing, Ava — represented here by a character named Kira — offers live advice, tips, and commentary, overlaid directly on your screen as the game unfolds. It’s coaching, but with a personality and a face.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

Razer technically showed off Project Ava at last year's CES, but that early demo was almost aggressively abstract. Instead of a character, it was mostly lines of code and system diagrams, with Razer walking through how the AI processed gameplay data and generated commands in real-time. Useful, sure, but not exactly something you could imagine sitting next to you during a late-night gaming session.

This year's version is clearly about making the concept feel less like a backend experiment and more like a presence. Whether that makes having an AI critique your gameplay more helpful or more annoying is another question entirely.

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The new Project Ava hardware is a cylindrical desktop device with a transparent outer shell that displays a full-body, animated character inside. A camera is mounted at the top of the unit, facing outward, while the base features a perforated, patterned platform that gives the character a sense of depth. The bottom ring glows in Razer’s signature green and is branded with the company logo. Designed to sit next to a laptop or monitor, the device functions as a dedicated display for the AI assistant, keeping it separate from the game screen rather than overlaying it on gameplay.

Credit: Chance Townsend / Mashable

The character Razer demoed is called Kira, though she's far from the only option. Other presets include Zane, a sharply dressed, extremely large man with a massive snake tattoo running down his arm. Very much the kind of character that feels ripped straight from something you’d find on BookTok. According to Razer, these avatars will be customizable, including the ability to create your own from scratch. The company has also partnered with influencers to offer character likenesses, including esports pro Faker, signaling that Project Ava is as much about personality and fandom as it is about utility.

As with most CES demos, the room was aggressively loud, which made it hard for the AI to consistently pick up voice commands. We spent most of the demo parked in the Battlefield 6 loadout customization screen, asking Kira for advice on which guns and gadgets would make the most sense for the next round. Given the circumstances, it worked well enough, and the recommendations were solid for what they were (and yes, running frag grenades over stuns for the assault class is the correct call).

Outside of gaming, Razer says it has expanded Project Ava's capabilities beyond just backseat coaching. The company claims the AI can now offer advice on non-gaming tasks as well, with Ava still appearing as an on-screen overlay while you work. In practice, that means Project Ava is inching closer to the same general-purpose assistance other AI tools promise, but with gamer branding now.

There's still no release date for Project Ava, though Razer says it's targeting sometime this year.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

I love a free drink. I also love the premise of asking an AI to invent a cocktail based on a vague flavor profile and a dream. For the truly rudderless among us, the kind of people who walk up to a bar and say "surprise me" with full confidence, the AI Barmen might be your new best friend.

The AI-powered bartender is being showcased at CES 2026, and at first glance, it appears to be yet another piece of liquor-filled kitchen technology. But the pitch is a little more ambitious than that. According to its founders, the AI Barmen is meant to behave like an actual bartender that sees you, talks to you, remembers you, and adjusts accordingly.

That starts before you even order a drink.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

As demonstrated on the CES show floor, the "ritual" for getting served begins with the machine scanning your face and attempting to estimate your age. You don't hand over an ID at first. You just…stare into the camera. The system estimates your age within a broad range, and if it believes you're under 21, it automatically switches into a non-alcoholic mode, offering zero-proof cocktails and juices.

For the record, it guessed I was 30. I'm 27. Talking to other attendees, early-to-mid-30s seemed to be the most common range it landed on.

Once you pass that check, you're prompted to either talk to the AI directly or select from a list of pre-made cocktails. The company says AI Barmen can theoretically generate thousands of drink combinations based on mood, taste preferences, and conversation, but for CES, the menu was limited to tequila- and whiskey-based drinks only.

Voila! This is the Peach Boom. Credit: Mark Stetson / Mashable

This is where the concept is supposed to shine. AI Barmen is designed for "convo bartending," meaning you can tell it how you're feeling, what kind of night you're having, or what flavors you want, and it will craft a drink while explaining its choices in real-time. It also claims to recognize returning guests, remember preferences, and even slow things down if it thinks you're ordering too quickly, with a built-in sobriety check that will cut you off.

In theory, it's thoughtful. In practice, CES is very loud.

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A recurring theme at tech events like this is that the environments are almost hostile to anything involving voice recognition, and AI Barmen was no exception. Not realizing there was no gin in the machine (rookie mistake), I asked for "a gin base that's sweet but not too sweet." Somewhere, my coworkers at the bar I work at are absolutely laughing at me — and that's why I'm just a barback.

The machine couldn’t hear me properly, got confused, reset the flow, and asked for age authentication again. Moments later, a staff member politely asked to see my ID because the system now thought I might be underage.

Honestly? Thank you. I'll take the compliment.

Despite the hiccups, the AI Barmen did make me a drink — a Peach Boom, a sweet peachy cocktail with Jack Daniels and grenadine. It was served quickly and tasted good, although a bit diluted for my liking. The company envisions it handling up to 180 drinks a night while also remembering guests across locations. I'm curious to know how the machine will function in environments where it will be loud.

But as someone who loves a free drink, vague instructions, and the chaos of a CES demo barely holding together, I have to admit: I was intrigued.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

The day before CES officially starts, Mashable got the chance to preview a trio of new products from Jackery, including two surprising firsts for the brand — a solar-powered gazebo for the home and an autonomous robot that harvests solar power. Jackery helped popularize portable power stations, and the brand is also celebrating its 10-year anniversary at CES.

Jackery is showing three new products at CES 2026, the annual tech conference in Las Vegas. The first is an ultra-rugged version of the brand's flagship power station, dubbed the Jackery Explorer 1500 Ultra. The company is also introducing the Jackery Solar Gazebo and the Solar Mars Bot.

Mashable got the chance to demo the new products ahead of their official launch at CES.

The Jackery Solar Mars Bot

The Solar Mars Bot is Jackery's first robot, and it's essentially a power station on wheels. The autonomous rover will move around your home or campground to seek out optimal sunlight, and the upper body houses retractable 300W solar panels that can tilt to follow the sun. In a demo at CES, the bot sought out a UV light and angled its panels directly in the beam of light.

The Solar Mars Bot also has a follow-me mode, and it successfully followed me around the CES showroom floor. A Jackery representative said that you could bring the bot camping, and it could follow you around to provide instant power wherever and whenever you need it. At home, the bot can periodically roam your yard to recharge, so it's always ready to provide power.

I don't know that it's the most practical product, but the idea of owning my own rover is appealing, I have to admit. A Jackery rep said the Solar Mars Bot will be available later this year, with pricing to be announced later.

The Jackery Solar Gazebo Credit: Jackery

The upcoming Solar Gazebo features a solar roof that harvests power that can be stored in a Jackery power station or home battery. It's meant to be a permanent outdoor structure for the home, not a portable camping gazebo. It features retractable screens to provide some protection from the elements, and Jackery says one of the screens can function as a projector screen.

"The Jackery Solar Gazebo reengineers what an outdoor living structure can be," states a Jackery press release.

"Equipped with industrial-grade, high-efficiency solar panels delivering 2,000 watts of capacity and generating up to 10 kilowatt-hours per day, the Jackery Solar Gazebo supports a wide range of lifestyles, from those seeking fresh air to self-professed homebodies who want comfort without compromise. Its ultra-durable 6063 T5 aluminum frame and louvered roof provide long-lasting shade and comfort that can transform the space into a multi-purpose outdoor hub. Use it as a space for relaxation and entertainment with its pull-down projector screen and built-in IP5-rated dual-AC solar power outlet, or even repurpose it as a sheltered storage space for hobbies, like keeping and charging a golf cart, while protecting your gear from the sun."

The Solar Gazebo passes what I call the Malibu Dreamhouse test. As a New Yorker who lives in a 1-bedroom apartment, a lot of the gadgets at CES 2026 would never fit inside my home — or my budget. But if I owned a Malibu beachhouse, would I consider buying this product? Absolutely.

Now, is it a problem that a lot of CES products seem designed for the One Percent? Yes, but that's another story entirely.

The Jackery Explorer 1500 Ultra Credit: Jackery

Finally, Jackery is also introducing a more traditional product for CES. The Explorer 1500 Ultra is a more rugged, heavy-duty version of the popular Explorer 1500 V2 power station. A company spokesperson told Mashable that it's designed for serious camping environments, and it's the most rugged power station the brand has ever made. Jackery says it's the "lightest and most compact IP65 all-weather power station in its class," and it's capable of operating in a wide temperature range.

Additionally, Jackery is releasing a limited-edition orange collection to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. These new power stations come in a high-visibility orange.

The new Jackery Explorer 1500 Ultra Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable The new Orange Collection from Jackery Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable

Jackery says that all of the new CES 2026 products will be available in 2026, and we'll update this post as soon as we know more about pricing and availability.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

No matter what I do, I always seem to find myself in a peculiar situation at CES. That’s how I ended up at Lepro's booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center this year, staring at Lepro Ami, a device the Chinese company openly markets not just as an AI companion, but an AI soulmate. There was no live demo as the show floor was too loud, according to staff, which felt oddly fitting for a product meant to simulate emotional intimacy. Even silent, Ami drew a crowd.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

Unlike the flood of AI companion apps already on the market, Lepro Ami is a physical device: a small, curved OLED screen meant to sit on your desk, track your eyes, and simulate the feeling that something is actually there with you. Lepro says users often describe it as feeling "in the room," not tucked away behind a phone screen or buried in a chat interface.

Personally, I remain deeply unconvinced that anyone needs an AI friend or, worse yet, a soulmate. The entire category still feels, at best, awkward and, at worst, like a shortcut around real human connection. But standing there at CES 2026, watching people linger longer than expected in front of a device that wasn’t even fully operational, I understood the hook.

In a sense, this was AI, right in front of me, not a chatbot.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026: Do AI companions need jobs? Ludens AI's Cocomo and INU don't think so.

AI companionship isn’t new, and it's certainly no longer niche. According to a report from Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz, companion apps have been downloaded more than 220 million times globally as of mid-2025, with teens and young adults leading the adoption. Platforms like Character.AI, Replika, Nomi, and Kindroid are explicitly designed for emotional intimacy, not productivity. Experts interviewed by Mashable describe AI companions as "always-on relationships," which is both the appeal and the risk.

Critics worry about dependency, social atrophy, and what happens when people choose an endlessly agreeable machine over the messy complexities of human relationships. All valid concerns — and ones that feel especially relevant as loneliness continues to shape how people interact with technology.

Which is why I didn’t expect Lepro Ami to land differently. To be fair, Ami isn't trying to live inside your phone. The company describes Ami as empathetic, emotionally aware, and capable of forming lasting connections with its users.

Lepro says Ami will one day be fully customizable. Credit: Chance Townsend / Mashable

The hardware handles a significant amount of that work. Ami uses a curved 8-inch OLED display, dual front-facing cameras for eye tracking, and a rear camera to visually anchor its avatar within your real environment. The result is designed to create depth without the need for VR headsets or glasses, giving the illusion that the character occupies physical space.

There are also visible privacy controls — physical shutters for cameras and microphones — which feel like a quiet acknowledgment of how uneasy people are about emotionally intimate tech that's always watching. It should be noted that one of the spokespersons for Lepro told us that all data collected from your interactions with Ami is stored locally on the device.

Is it still strange? Absolutely. But it’s a different kind of strange.

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Most AI companions today live where everything else already lives: your phone, your browser, your notifications. They blur into the same infinite scroll that's already exhausting us. Lepro Ami, by contrast, asks for a dedicated spot on your desk. It doesn’t follow you everywhere. You have to choose to keep it around.

If AI soulmates are slowly growing mainstream, the least deceptive version might be the one that doesn't hide what it is.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

Most gadgets we've encountered so far at CES 2026 aim to excite and dazzle, but Ambient's Dreamie succeeds if it helps you snooze.

Not to be confused with the robot vacuum brand Dreame, the Dreamie is a sunrise alarm clock that can serve as a flashlight and play music, podcasts, or ambient sounds. It aims to replace your phone at your bedside, eliminating the temptation to doomscroll while you're trying to wind down. It doesn't even require an app for setup.

It kind of reminds me of a chic electric pencil sharpener. Anyone else? Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable

The Dreamie made an appearance at the Pepcom media showcase Monday, where I checked it out and chatted with Ambient CEO and co-founder Adrian Canoso. He told me that he came up with the idea for the Dreamie during a particularly stressful point in his life a couple years ago. He was suffering from insomnia while working an intense robotics job amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and he happened to become a dad around the same time.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

While researching sleep tech for his son, Canso thought some of the devices he encountered might help him deal with his own sleep problems. His idea for the Dreamie arose out of a particular desire for one that kept him off his phone while he was trying to get his brain to settle down for a good night's rest.

The Dreamie has a circular touchscreen on one end of it where you can schedule alarms and play your choice of calming audio. It comes with its own sleep content library that includes environmental noises and guided relaxation — no subscription required. It has a built-in speaker, but it also works with Bluetooth headphones. That way, you're not disturbing anyone you're sharing a room or bed with.

The colorful LED light surrounding the Dreamie's screen can brighten gradually in warm tones to simulate sunrises for gentle wake-ups. You can adjust it via touch controls. And if you need a more intense glow to find something in the dark, you can concentrate its illumination to one side of the device.

The Dreamie's built-in speaker gives it a little bit of heft. Credit: Haley Henschel

Canso said the Dreamie will add support for contactless sleep tracking at the end of Q1 2026. Its data will stay encrypted right on the device, not in the cloud.

The Dreamie is now available for purchase following a successful Kickstarter campaign that wrapped up in November. It retails for $249.99 on helloambient.com.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ambient Dreamie $249.99 at helloambient.com
  Shop Now

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

In the beginning, not all amateur galaxies were winners. Scientists have now found one of the duds that just couldn't hack it in the wild early days of the universe. 

Near the spindly spiral galaxy Messier-94, about 14 million light-years away in space, astronomers have found a small, spherical ghost town. For years, scientists have looked for evidence of such a phantom, proposed by theory. It wasn’t until they pointed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope at the cloud that they discovered the first example of a primitive galaxy that never had the gumption to form stars. 

Radio telescopes first picked up its faint signal of neutral hydrogen in 2023. Scientists gave it a name, Cloud-9 — and it was indeed the ninth cloud detected around M94 — then wondered what exactly held this thing together.

Before Hubble, researchers could rationalize that the object was merely a tiny dim galaxy whose stars were just too faint to see through the eyes of ground-based telescopes, said Gagandeep Anand, a staff scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. 

"But with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, we're able to nail down that there's nothing there," he said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: A planet as hefty as Saturn wanders the galaxy in exile

Neutral hydrogen — that's ordinary hydrogen whose electrons haven't been stripped away — could not hold Cloud-9 together. The mysterious object, about 4,900 light-years wide, contains about 1 million suns' worth of hydrogen — not nearly enough to keep the cloud from scattering. 

That means something unseen must provide the weight. The simplest answer, according to the research team, is dark matter, the invisible scaffolding thought to manage nearly all cosmic construction. Their findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Left: Swipe the slider bar to the left to reveal Cloud-9 amid this blank field of space. Credit: NASA / ESA / VLA / Gagandeep Anand / Alejandro Benitez-Llambay / Joseph DePasquale Right: The Very Large Array telescope detected radio emissions from Cloud-9, indicated here in magenta. The circled area, where scientists found peak radio data, contained no stars. The specks of light in this image come from background galaxies. Credit: NASA / ESA / VLA / Gagandeep Anand / Alejandro Benitez-Llambay / Joseph DePasquale

Because studies strongly indicate that Cloud-9 is a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter halo, it provides precious insight into the mysterious-yet-pervasive substance in the universe, said Andrew Fox, a co-author affiliated with the European Space Agency. 

"This cloud is a window into the dark universe," Fox said in a statement. "We know from theory that most of the mass in the universe is expected to be dark matter, but it’s difficult to detect this dark material because it doesn’t emit light."

Scientists have theorized that dark matter clumps exist in staggering numbers, far more than the galaxies we see. Only clumps that exceed a certain threshold in mass should hold onto gas and ignite stars. Below it, gravity loses its tug-of-war with heat and radiation, and star formation can't occur. 

Based on this prediction, many galaxy failures — gassy spheres devoid of stars — should exist. Astronomers have hunted for proof for years. Most candidates reveal themselves, sooner or later, as ordinary gas clouds in the Milky Way or as faint galaxies hiding their stars. 

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But Cloud-9 is different. Its gas moves serenely through space. It shows no sign of spinning into a disk, which usually means stars are around. Its mass places it close to that theoretical boundary where a galaxy should either eke out — or not form at all.

The team did not stop at Hubble. They ran many computer simulations, planting fictitious galaxies of varying sizes into the data to test whether the observatory could have detected them. If Cloud-9 contained even a paucity of stars, the telescope would have seen it, according to the study.

No glittering swarm. No smear of light. Researchers calculated that Cloud-9’s dark matter must be equal to about 5 billion suns in mass. It appears to stand at the very precipice of galaxyhood, said Alejandro Benitez-Llambay, the study's principal investigator. 

"In science, we usually learn more from the failures than from the successes," said Benitez-Llambay, a scientist at Milano-Bicocca University in Italy, in a statement. "In this case, seeing no stars is what proves the theory right." 

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And don't give up. Despite the burnout, apps are still one of the main ways people connect. A 2025 SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus found that 65 percent of people aged 18 to 29 have used a dating app, and a 2023 Pew Research Center report found that one in 10 partnered adults met their significant other on one.

You just need the right tool. That's why I've put in the hours, the swipes, and the subscription fees to find the best options for every kind of single person. To help you find your match, these are the best dating apps worth downloading in 2026.

If you need even more personalized advice, check out our guides to the best dating apps for men, women, and the LGBTQ community.

The dating apps I'd skip (and why)

You'll probably notice a few popular apps are missing from my list. That’s intentional. Part of my job is to filter out the platforms that aren't worth your time, money, or sanity. An app doesn't get my recommendation just because it's well-known — it has to be effective and safe.

Here are a few popular dating apps I'd skip:

• Plenty of Fish (POF): I know this one shows up on a lot of lists, but in my opinion, it's a dating app ghost town. POF launched as a dating site back in 2003, and it shows. In my experience (and based on widespread user feedback), the platform is filled with bots and scams, and the odds of finding a quality connection are stacked against you. Unless you enjoy sifting through fake profiles, I think your time is better spent elsewhere.

• Raya: Raya is basically the Soho House of dating apps. It's exclusive, expensive, and not for the average person. You have to fill out an application to use it, and the vetting process can take anywhere from a few days to a few years. While it might be great for networking or bagging an influencer, it's just not a practical recommendation for most people who are simply looking for a date. (See also: The League.)

• Niche "hookup" sites (like BeNaughty, Fling, etc.): There's a chance you've seen ads for sites like these, which promise quick, no-strings-attached fun. Based on my research and countless user reviews, I'd advise you to steer clear. These platforms are notorious for being overrun with bots and having questionable billing practices, with users reporting unexpected and hard-to-cancel subscription charges.

Stranger Things may be over, but the theories and speculation live on. And while the show itself leaves the question of whether Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is alive or dead at the end open to interpretation, Sadie Sink is pretty clear which side she lands on.

"I think she's dead, I don't know," Sink, who plays Max in the Netflix series, says in The Tonight Show clip above. And the audience groans. "Is that like a hot take or something? I think Mike's story is just one last story, and then they say goodbye to childhood. But that's just one final tale. And that's it. I think it's just like a coping thing."

Maybe the upcoming Netflix documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, will give us some clearer answers.

CES 2026 was AMD's moment to shine in the light of the ongoing AI boom, offering more chips to drive AI compute and bringing industry luminaries on stage to talk about the future.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker has already surpassed local rival Intel in revenue. But if it's ever going to catch its other local rival, Nvidia — now the world's most valuable company, thanks to its data center-friendly GPU chips — AMD has to prove it is just as relevant to big tech's big moment, if not more so.

The world's largest tech show was a chance to prove that. After all, Nvidia didn't unveil any new GPU chips, just a forthcoming family of chips named Rubin. Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO, was given the spotlight of the show's main keynote. As she noted, AMD products — the Helios rack introduced in 2025, the Epyc CPU chips — are used by every major AI company already. And she had some new PC-level AI-friendly processors, the Ryzen AI 400, waiting in the wings.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

But as we've seen over the past three years, elbowing your way into the AI boom isn't just about new product. It's about making bombastic predictions, and showing lots of charts where the line goes up. And in this respect, Su delivered.

"You ain't seen nothing yet" when it comes to AI, Su said — showing off a graph that predicted AI would go from 1 billion active users to 5 billion active users within 5 years. She didn't explain where either figure came from (expert estimates vary wildly, with at least one 2030 estimate coming in below one billion users).

OpenAI makes a cameo appearance

Of course, no company can make huge hopeful predictions like OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT. Su brought an OpenAI luminary up on stage before she announced any brand-new chips. Not its CEO Sam Altman (who isn't at CES, but did offer an endorsement of Nvidia's Rubin), but co-founder Greg Brockman. "I would love to have a GPU running in the background for every single person in the world," Brockman says, explaining why he's constantly asking Su for "more compute."

More compute is what Su had to offer, along with multiple attempts to make strips of silicon seem exciting. "Helios is a monster of a rack," she said, showing off a "double-wide design" developed in collaboration with Meta. She noted it weighed 7,000 pounds, or "more than two compact cars."

The announcement follows an October 2025 report that OpenAI is making an investment worth "tens of billions of dollars in revenue" in AMD, relying on the company to provide six gigawatts of AI infrastructure in the years ahead as part of a deal that could see the AI giant owning up to 10 percent of AMD.

SEE ALSO: At CES 2026, Samsung’s AI Living vision leaves no device un-AI’d

On the "bigger is better" front, Su invited White House science advisor Michael Kratsios on stage to talk about how AMD was helping the U.S. "win" the "AI race" via the Genesis Mission, a public-private partnership that aims to use AI for scientific discoveries. Kratsios was short on specifics on what exactly an AI race is and how any country can win it.

And then there was "AI for everyone," AMD's tagline for its PC processors. The Ryzen AI 400 is an upgrade to the Ryzen AI 300, announced in 2024 and finally arriving in on-sale PCs this quarter. AMD says the new chip will allow for 1.3x faster multitasking and is 1.7x faster at "content creation" than its competitors.

What that means exactly, we'll have to wait and see. But in the meantime, Su offered a dizzying array of guest CEOs to talk up how AI will transform everything from healthcare to spaceflight. None of that seems to have made much difference to investors, at least. They drove AMD stock down slightly earlier in the day; it flatlined in after-hours trading.

Seth Meyers has weighed in on the U.S.' attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, theorising about what President Donald Trump's motivations could possibly be.

"Even the most astute observers remain perplexed as to what could have possibly motivated this attack given that the Trump administration has played its cards so close to the vest," Meyers said.

He then immediately launched into a supercut of Trump and his supporters blatantly stating their desire to seize Venezuela's significant oil reserves.

"Dammit, I just wish there were clues," quipped Meyers.

The Late Night host also aired a montage of Trump claiming to be against foreign wars and regime changes, an assertion which seems at odds with his actions as of late.

"I still can't actually believe anyone thought Trump was telling the truth about being anti-war," said Meyers. "You really thought Donald Trump, the most thin-skinned, impulsive man on the planet, would suddenly discover the concept of restraint once he gained control of the world's most powerful military? Giving Donald Trump control of the U.S. military is like giving the cast of The Real Housewives an open bar and a 'one free slap' coupon."

Open earbuds are having a moment at CES 2026. First came a batch of releases from JBL, then Anker Soundcore's dual-form open earbuds. Shokz, one of the biggest players in the open earbuds space, is no exception, bringing a new release aimed at improving the open earbud listening experience.

Meet: the Shokz OpenFit Pro. The earbuds are the first from Shokz to feature open-ear noise reduction, which lowers the volume of the environment so users can hear audio with more clarity. As of Jan. 6, they're available for preorder in two colorways — black and white — from Shokz's website and Best Buy for $249.95. According to Shokz, they'll be available for purchase from Amazon starting in March.

Now that CES 2026 has kicked off, brands like Shokz are unveiling a ton of new products, so head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news.

Opens in a new window Credit: Shokz Shokz OpenFit Pro $249.95 at Shokz and Best buy
  Pre-order Here Shokz OpenFit Pro noise reduction tech

The headline news of the OpenFit Pro is an upgraded listening experience. This starts with the Open-Ear Noise Reduction technology, which quiets external noises for a better listening experience. The feature must be manually enabled via the on-ear controls or through the app, and can be adjusted by levels from within the app. At its default setting of 50 percent power, Shokz estimates it reduces noise by about 12 to 16dB — roughly the same as a pair of Loop Engage 2 earplugs.

SEE ALSO: Open earbuds guide: What they are, who should buy them, and why they're popping up everywhere

This feature is designed to give wearers more flexibility in which environments they can use their earbuds in, whether it be the gym, an office, or a noisy cafe. It should be noted that this is not the same as noise cancellation, which aims to quiet the world around you. The OpenFit Pros are designed to maintain situational awareness, provided by open earbuds, while utilizing a quieter environment to help music come through clearer for the listener.

Alongside the noise reduction, these Shokz earbuds are also optimized for Dolby Atmos to provide a spatial audio listening experience, and feature two speakers per ear (as compared to one on other Shokz models) for an improved audio quality.

Shokz OpenFit Pro specs

In addition to the noise-reduction tech, here's what users will find in the OpenFit Pro specs:

• Ultra large 11 × 20 mm synchronized dual-diaphragm driver

• 10-band custom equalizer

• Five preset equalizer modes (standard, vocal, bass boost, treble boost, privacy mode) and two custom equalizer slots

• Bluetooth 6.1

• 12 hours of listening per charge (50 hours with case) or six hours with noise reduction (and 24 hours with the case)

• 10-minute quick charge for four-hour listening time

• IP55 rating

• Triple microphone system with AI voice recognition and custom wind-control technology

• Multipoint pairing for two devices

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

A stench.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

SMELL

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To frown.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 6, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

SCOWL

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Vulgar.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 6 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 6, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

CRUDE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A small sweet fruit.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for January 6 Hurdle Word 4 answer

BERRY

Final Hurdle hint

An art stand.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

EASEL

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

For CES 2026, HP is debuting the EliteBoard G1a, a keyboard with a modular business Copilot+ PC inside. And this isn't just vaporware; HP says the keyboard PC will hit the market this spring. The all-new HP EliteBoard G1a Next Gen AI PC houses an AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processor, fans, and dual stereo mics and speakers.

Keyboard computers have been around since the late 1970s, though they were far less advanced and geared toward education or 8-bit gaming (see: the Apple II, the BBC Micro, the Commodore 64, and the ZX Spectrum). More recently, the $70 Raspberry Pi 400 hit the market as an affordable home computer.

However, the EliteBoard G1a marks a fresh form factor for modern all-in-one (AIO) PCs, which are usually monitors with integrated components. (The Apple iMac is one popular example.) Unlike traditional all-in-ones, the EliteBoard contains all the necessary hardware within the keyboard itself. Portable and minimalist, it measures 0.7 inches thin and starts at less than 1.5 pounds, fitting nicely inside a backpack.

It's a keyboard. It's a computer. It's the HP EliteBoard G1a. Credit: HP

The EliteBoard G1a is also designed to be easily serviceable, with modular components that IT departments or users themselves can swap in minutes. You can remove the bottom cover to replace its RAM, SSD, speakers, battery, fans, or WiFi module. The top keyboard itself can also be switched out.

HP promises that it doesn't sacrifice performance, either. The EliteBoard G1a can be configured with up to an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 PRO chip for enterprise purposes, offering up to 50 TOPS of AI processing power. (That stands for Trillions of Operations Per Second, an AI performance metric.) It'll have an integrated AMD Radeon 800 Series graphics, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of SSD storage. And it supports two daisy-chained 4K external displays.

The HP EliteBoard G1a weighs as little as 1.49 pounds without a built-in battery. Credit: HP

For everyday users with lesser needs, the EliteBoard G1a will start with an entry-level AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 processor and a mere 32GB of eMMC storage.

The EliteBoard G1a's fans pull air into the device from a vent that covers most of its bottom case and push it out through a rear slit above its function row. HP says its thermal management system has been thoroughly tested to make sure the user never feels the heat of its internals on their fingertips. Its spec sheet notes that it has TUV certification for low noise, so it should run pretty quietly, too.

Credit: HP

The EliteBoard G1a can be configured with or without a built-in battery and an attached cable that plugs into an external monitor. The version with no battery and a detached cable weighs in at just 1.49 pounds. Adding both components increases its weight to 1.69 pounds, which makes it just over a pound lighter than a 13-inch MacBook Air.

The battery models are rated to last for over 3.5 hours of active use, but they can go more than two days in idle mode before dying.

The HP EliteBoard G1a comes with a pre-paired wireless mouse. Credit: HP

The keyboard itself features a lattice-free design (meaning it lacks spaces between its keys), plus a full numpad, backlighting, and an optional fingerprint reader. It's spill-resistant and meets the U.S. MIL-STD 810 standard for military-grade durability.

While HP hasn't announced pricing for the EliteBoard G1a yet, the company says it will be available on HP.com sometime this March. All variants will come in an Eclipse Gray finish and ship with a matching pre-paired wireless mouse. The battery models will have an extra canvas case.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you love gambling.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for January 6, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Living space

• Green: A nice voice

• Blue: Card game terms

• Purple: Creature

Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Apartment

• Green: Sonorous

• Blue: Poker hands, familiarly

• Purple: ___ animal

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #940 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Apartment: DIGS, FLAT, PAD, QUARTERS

• Sonorous: CLEAR, DEEP, FLAT, RICH

• Poker hands, familiarly: BOAT, FLUSH, QUADS, STRAIGHT

• ___ animal: BALLOON, PACK, PARTY, STUFFED

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 6, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're not afraid of heights.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 6, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 6, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Look up!

The words are related to flight.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe things that fly.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Defying Gravity.

NYT Strands word list for January 6

• Balloon

• Drone

• Defying Gravity

• Kite

• Bird

• Airplane

• Rocket

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

It’s hard to say whether Nvidia has ever truly been subtle with its announcements. At last year’s CES, CEO and founder Jensen Huang stunned the industry with the debut of the GeForce RTX 50 series alongside Nvidia Cosmos, its ambitious world-model initiative. This year’s show was more restrained on the consumer GPU front, but the message to CES 2026 attendees was still unmistakable: Nvidia wants it all.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026: Dell XPS is back from the dead

"All" isn't hyperbole. Nvidia is now the first company ever to surpass a $5 trillion valuation — an almost inconceivable figure — and Huang and company show no signs of slowing down. The company’s ambitions now span factories, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and nearly any domain that can be trained, tested, or perfected in simulation before ever touching the real world. If something can be modeled, Nvidia wants to power it.

Nvidia’s real obsession is physical AI

The biggest buzzword of the night was “physical AI,” Nvidia’s term for AI systems that don’t just generate content but actually act. These models are trained in virtual environments using synthetic data, then deployed into physical machines once they’ve learned how the world works.

Credit: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Huang showcased Cosmos, a world foundation model capable of simulating environments and predicting movement, alongside Alpamayo, a reasoning model specifically designed for autonomous driving. This is the tech Nvidia says will power robots, industrial automation, and self-driving vehicles, as demonstrated by the Mercedes-Benz CLA, which was shown running AI-defined driving on stage. The company also revealed plans to test its own robotaxi service with a partner as soon as 2027, using Level 4 autonomous vehicles capable of driving without human intervention in limited regions.

Nvidia hasn’t announced where the service will launch or with whom it’s partnering, but the move signals a shift from being a behind-the-scenes supplier to actively participating in the self-driving race. Huang has already described robotics — including autonomous vehicles — as Nvidia’s second-most important growth category after AI itself.

No New GPUs

If you were waiting for new consumer GPUs, you probably noticed very quickly that there weren’t any. Nvidia didn’t announce a single new GeForce card, and that felt entirely intentional. Instead, Huang spent most of the keynote talking about Rubin, Nvidia’s next-generation AI platform that’s already in full production.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026: Asus' ROG Zephyrus Duo is finally a proper dual-screen gaming laptop

Rubin is described as more than just a chip, but an entire system. GPUs, CPUs, networking, and storage, all designed together to handle the immense (and environment-altering) compute demands of modern AI models at data center scale. Nvidia framed this as essential to keeping up with skyrocketing AI demand, where training costs, energy use, and bottlenecks are becoming existential problems.

The absence of gaming hardware shouldn't be considered a snub, but it is clear that Nvidia is no longer driven by gamers. It's kind of been clear that's been the case for a while, but today's conference really drove the nail in the coffin. Instead, the company's ambitions are driven by hyperscalers, governments, and anyone trying to automate everything that moves.

'Open' AI, powered by Nvidia hardware

The third major takeaway was Nvidia’s ongoing push to make itself unavoidable through openness — or at least Nvidia’s version of it. Huang repeatedly emphasized that the company isn’t just selling hardware, but open AI models that developers can actually use, fine-tune, and deploy (not to be confused with ChatGPT developer OpenAI). Nvidia now has open models spanning healthcare, climate science, robotics, embodied intelligence, reasoning AI, and autonomous driving, all trained on Nvidia supercomputers and released as foundational building blocks. They've practically become the corn of tech.

Even personal AI agents got some stage time, with demos of local agents running on Nvidia’s DGX Spark hardware. Nvidia aims to be the platform beneath every AI system, from massive data centers to individual desktops. It’s an elegant strategy — sell openness, but still own the pipes.

Taken together, the keynote felt like a declaration. Nvidia isn’t chasing CES hype cycles any more. It’s positioning itself as the backbone of an AI-powered world, where the most important announcements don’t happen on stage, and the most impactful products aren’t meant to fit under your desk.

Asus' dual-screen gaming laptop is back with more screen than ever. The Taiwanese tech company unveiled a new ROG Zephyrus Duo with twin 16-inch 3K OLED touchscreens at CES 2026 Monday, marking its first update in three years and a major redesign.

Previous ROG Zephyrus Duos released from 2020 to 2023 had 15- to 16-inch displays that were accompanied by a thinner tilted panel called a "ScreenPad Plus." It was attached to the top of the device's keyboard, which had narrow vertical touchpad on the right-hand side. Reviewers called its overall design "pretty cool" and potentially useful for keeping an eye on Twitch or Discord chats while gaming, but took issue with its "cramped" and "awkward" keyboard and touchpad layout.

In overhauling the ROG Zephyrus Duo for 2026, Asus finally made it a proper dual-screen gaming laptop. The ScreenPad Plus has been replaced with a second full-sized display for 213% more screen real estate, and it now has a larger detachable keyboard with a centered touchpad underneath it.

Bye-bye, ScreenPad Plus. Credit: Asus

Asus also built a kickstand into the base of the ROG Zephyrus Duo and made its hinge capable of rotating 320 degrees. This affords it five different user modes:

1. Dual-Screen Mode, where the two displays are stacked on top of one another.

2. Laptop Mode, where the second display is attached the keyboard. (The keyboard automatically charges itself this way.)

3. Sharing Mode, where the two displays are laid flat on a surface.

4. Book Mode, where the two displays are propped up vertically side by side.

5. Tent Mode, where the two displays fold up in the center like an inverted V, allowing two people to use the device at once.

These changes bring the ROG Zephyrus Duo's design more in line with that of the ZenBook Duo, Asus' dual-screener for everyday productivity. However, the ZenBook Duo's hinge opens to a maximum of 180 degrees, so it lacks Tent Mode support.

The new ROG Zephyrus Duo runs a new Intel Core Ultra chip with up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics, and it maxes out with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Its two 16-inch touchscreens both feature 3K OLED panels with 120Hz refresh rates and up to 1,100 nits of brightness for HDR content.

The 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo supports (clockwise from upper left) Book, Tent, Sharing, Dual-Screen, and Laptop modes. Credit: Asus

To keep the ROG Zephyrus Duo cool, Asus has equipped it with a vapor chamber, liquid metal, two fans, and put a graphite sheet underneath its second display.

The ROG Zephyrus Duo has an aluminum chassis in a new Stellar Gray finish. Its lid features a diagonal "Slash Lighting" RGB LED strip with 35 different lighting zones, but it's otherwise pretty understated. (Well, as understated as a laptop with two bright OLED displays can be.)

The ROG Zephyrus Duo comes with six Dolby Atmos speakers and a good mix of ports, including Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB-A ports, an SD card slot, and an HDMI port. It measures 0.77 inches thin and weighs 6.28 pounds, making it quite heavy even for a 16-inch gaming laptop. For comparison's sake, its 2023 predecessor came in at 0.81 inches and 5.9 pounds.

The ROG Zephyrus Duo's heft will probably be the second-biggest dealbreaker for potential buyers after its price. Asus has yet to reveal its starting cost, but the previous model retailed for $3,499.99 with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage — and it wasn't released amid a RAM and storage shortage.

If someone was to tell you that Hyundai was having a big press conference at CES, the first thing that would come to mind would likely be cars.

But, at CES 2026, Hyundai's big event on Monday was all about Boston Dynamics' robots and the first time its Atlas robot appeared outside the lab and in front of a public audience.

The press conference began with a group of Boston Dynamics' well-known Spot robots doing a dance number before the event's announcements officially kicked off. You've likely seen video of Boston Dynamic's two-legged humanoid robot known as Atlas, but those have always been in the company's lab.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot walked out in front of a public audience for the first time at CES 2026 before the debut of the new product version of the Atlas. Credit: Mashable

However, at CES, Atlas walked out on stage in front of the public for the first time. The robot stands up off the floor in an awkward fashion, but Boston Dynamics explains this as the best way for the robot to get up — because it's not human and doesn't have to conform to the way we need to stand up.

SEE ALSO: CES 2026 live updates: See the latest news, surprises, and strange tech from LG, Samsung, Lego, and new startups

As Atlas walked around the stage, Boston Dynamics announced the new product version of its Atlas robot that will be sent out in the field. The new Atlas robot can lift up to 110lbs and extend its arms up to 7.5 feet. The new Atlas is fully water-resistant and can work in temperatures as low as -4 degrees and as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The Atlas robot can quickly learn new tasks and then share that knowledge instantly with other Atlas robots. The Atlas robots battery pack can last for four hours and, when the charge starts to run out, the Atlas robot can return to its charging station and swap out the battery packs all on its own.

Credit: Mashable

Where does Hyundai come in at their own press conference? Hyundai is partnering with Boston Dynamics to actually create the Atlas robots, supply the actuators and work together to build the supply chain. In addition, Hyundai itself will utilize all of the robots manufactured this year, with the robots scheduled to ship to Hyundai’s Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC). Google DeepMind is also partnering with the two companies in order to further develop Atlas' cognitive abilities with its AI models.

Credit: Mashable

Boston Dynamics and Hyundai hope that once Atlas robots prove themselves in a factory setting, these robots can one day start performing tasks inside the home.