author_name|Mat Smith

After canceling our CES plans in 2022 (and there wasn’t even a show in 2021), the Engadget team sent a dozen staffers to this year’s CES. The show wasn’t as busy as in pre-pandemic years, but many events were packed, and companies had plenty of announcements to dig into. So, what was the best of CES? You can check out all the award winners right here.

Our Best of the Best winner wasn’t a car or a TV that sticks to the wall. No, it’s Project Leonardo. This is Sony’s first piece of gaming hardware designed specifically for people with limited motor control – and it’s rather eye-catching.

Sony

This controller kit works out of the box with the PlayStation 5, offering two circular gamepads lined with swappable buttons, third-party accessory ports and other customizable inputs. The controllers sit flat on a table or mounted on a standard tripod. They can also pair with a DualSense to turn all three devices into a single gamepad, offering plenty of flexibility.

To make sure it delivered on its accessibility promises, Sony partnered with advocacy organizations including AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up, much like Microsoft did with the revolutionary Xbox Adaptive Controller. Though there’s no release date or price for Project Leonardo yet, Sony is finally seizing an opportunity to expand the PS5 player base.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset could finally debut this spring

The launch could come at the expense of the company’s other products.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple plans to announce its first mixed reality headset this spring, ahead of its annual WWDC conference in June. In a sign that a launch is finally on the horizon, Apple has reportedly shared the headset with a handful of high-profile software developers, giving them a first look at its new xrOS software. A focus on its newest hardware line will allegedly affect its heavy hitters, however.

The next version of the company’s iOS operating system will likely ship with “fewer major changes than originally planned” due to Apple reassigning software engineers to the xrOS team. “The same goes for macOS 14,” Gurman adds. The company apparently has no updates “of note” for its iPad, Apple Watch and audio product lines.

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Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano has flying speaker drones

Ridiculous but beautiful.

Engadget

Roland’s 50th-anniversary celebration included a gorgeous Anniversary Concept Piano, built in collaboration with Japanese furniture maker Karimoku. The outside is one piece molded from Japanese Nara oak that hides a 360-degree 14-speaker system. Roland also built speakers into drones that hover above the piano, controlled by the player. Unfortunately, those couldn’t be flown on the showfloor at CES, because safety, so Roland dangled a pair of them from wires. Boo.

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Samsung might unveil the Galaxy S23 series on February 1st

A Galaxy Unpacked event is scheduled that day.

Samsung may have inadvertently confirmed it’ll unveil its next flagship phones early next month. The company’s Colombian website published a page revealing its next Galaxy Unpacked event is scheduled for February 1st, 2023. “Epic moments are approaching,” it read before the page was pulled offline. Samsung’s showcase for its flagship devices has crept earlier in the calendar over the years: For the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung held an event on February 9th, 2022.

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HTC’s Vive XR Elite is its portable answer to the Meta Quest Pro

The features that matter, in a lighter package.

HTC is hitting back at Meta’s Pro VR headset with the Vive XR Elite. The XR Elite matches plenty of the Quest Pro’s highlight specs, including support for 2K resolution to each eye, a 90Hz refresh rate and full standalone operation. However, weighing 625 grams (versus 722 for the Quest Pro) and with a more comfortable headband, the XR Elite does an even better job of delivering a breezy portable VR/AR experience. Despite its high points, the XR Elite also shares a lot of the same flaws as the Quest Pro. Starting at $1,099, it’s a bit cheaper than Meta’s $1,500 rival, but still pretty expensive. We put it to the test on the showfloor at CES 2023.

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There was a lot of pee on the CES 2023 showfloor

Trend alert: Urine analysis tech.

While none claimed a Best of CES award from Engadget, there was a boom in toilet-bowl technology. You could pitch this as a natural evolution of the fitness tracker, testing your pee for many easy-to-identify maladies. But is this truly the next frontier of consumer health tracking? These devices might never have the popularity of a Fitbit, but for medical facilities and assisted living complexes, they could be game-changing.

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We’re moving on from washing machines. As part of its refreshed Bespoke smart home appliances lineup, Samsung has revealed a new high-tech oven. The new range also includes a washer and dryer, so maybe we haven’t quite moved on.

The highlight is its Bespoke AI Oven. It has a seven-inch screen and touch controls, and features air sous-vide, air frying, and steam cooking methods. The most intriguing element is the AI Camera inside. The camera can detect what you’re making and suggest optimal cooking settings if it recognizes the cuisine. You can even monitor the cooking using the screen or the SmartThings app (which you can use to control the oven remotely).

There’s also the option to take photos of your creation or even livestream the video feed. To someone. Anyone.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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German Bionic debuts its lightest powered exosuit to date at CES 2023

I’m more intrigued by its ergonomics-monitoring safety vest.

German Bionic

German Bionic, the robotic exoskeleton startup behind the Cray X, will show off two new posture-protecting products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada this week. The Apogee is the company’s latest and lightest powered exosuit built for commercial and industrial use. The company’s new SafetyVest, on the other hand, doesn’t actively help the user pick up heavy stuff but it does monitor their movements and body positioning as they work and offers “data-based, personalized ergonomic insights, as well as assessments and recommended actions.”

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LG’s 2023 OLED TVs are up to 70 percent brighter

With a revamped interface and better sound options.

LG’s new TVs should be even brighter. They will include a per-pixel Brightness Booster Max feature that, on certain G3 series TVs, promises up to a 70 percent brighter picture, meaning less time squinting during daytime viewing. The G3, C3 and 8K-capable Z3 all use a new processor that offers AI upscaling, HDR tone mapping and object-based picture sharpening. The chip also helps deliver 9.1.2-channel surround sound from the built-in speakers. As is often the case when LG reveals its latest screens, you’ll have to wait a little longer for pricing and availability.

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Tesla set a new company record for vehicle deliveries

Over 405,000 Teslas shipped in Q4 2022.

Tesla delivered 405,278 electric vehicles over the final three months of 2022. It’s a new record for the company, but it still fell short of estimates from analysts. According to Tesla, the Model 3 and Model Y made up most of the company’s deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2022, with 388,131 of those vehicles making their way to consumers before the end of the year. Tesla faced macroeconomic and logistical challenges multiple times in 2022/ COVID-19 restrictions in China forced Tesla to suspend and reduce production at its Shanghai Gigafactory. Tesla also closed the facility during the last week of December.

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German researchers who purchased biometric capture devices on eBay found sensitive US military data stored on the machine’s memory cards. According to The New York Times, that included fingerprints, iris scans, even photographs, names and descriptions of the individuals, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many individuals worked with the US army and could be targeted if the devices fell into the wrong hands, according to the report. One device was purchased at a military auction, and the seller said they were unaware that it contained sensitive data. There was an easy solution too: The US military could have eliminated the risk by simply removing or destroying the memory cards before selling them.

– Mat Smith

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A third Blizzard studio pushes to unionize

The campaign involves all non-management workers.

Workers at Proletariat, a Boston-based studio Blizzard bought earlier this year, announced they recently filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Proletariat is the third Activision Blizzard studio to announce a union drive in 2022. However, past campaigns at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany involved the quality assurance workers at those studios – the effort at Proletariat includes all non-management workers. The employees at Proletariat say they aim to preserve the studio’s “progressive, human-first” benefits, including its flexible paid time off policy and robust healthcare options. Additionally, they want to protect the studio from crunch – compulsory overtime during game development.

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LG’s new minimalistic appliances have upgradeable features and fewer controls

Upgradeable, to an extent.

LG

LG is taking a more minimalist approach to its kitchen appliances in 2023, with less showy profiles, colors and, seemingly, controls. While we’re not getting a close-up look at all the dials and buttons yet, the appliances look restrained compared to previous years’ models. In the past, we’ve seen a washing machine whose flagship feature was an entire extra washing machine. There was also a dryer that had two doors. Just because. LG says it’s used recycled materials across multiple machine parts, adding that its latest appliances also require fewer total parts and less energy than typical kitchen appliances. This would dovetail with the company’s announcements at the start of the year, where LG said it would offer upgradability for its home appliances. So far, that’s included new filters for certain use cases and software upgrades with new washing programs for laundry machines.

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US House of Representatives bans TikTok on its devices

Lawmakers and staff members who have TikTok on their phones would have to delete it.

TikTok is now banned on any device owned and managed by the US House of Representatives, according to Reuters. The House’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) reportedly told all lawmakers and their staff in an email that they must delete the app from their devices, because it’s considered “high risk due to a number of security issues.” Further still, everyone detected to have the social networking application on their phones would be contacted to make sure it’s deleted.

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LG teases a smaller smartphone camera module with true optical telephoto zoom

It could lead to smaller smartphone camera bumps.

LG may not make smartphones anymore, but it’s still building components for them. The company’s LG Innotek arm just unveiled a periscope-style true optical zoom camera module with a 4-9 times telephoto range. Most smartphone cameras use hybrid zoom setups that combine certain zoom ranges (typically 2x, 3x, 10x, etc.) with a digital zoom to fill in between those (2.5x, 4.5x, etc.), leading to reduced detail. LG’s “Optical Zoom Camera,” however, contains a zoom actuator with movable components, like a mirrorless or DSLR camera. That would help retain full image quality through the entire zoom range, while potentially reducing the size and number of modules required. Could this mean the death of the camera bump?

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