CES 2024’s Cutting-Edge Tech: Here Are Our Early Favorites

New laptops, TVs and smart speakers are the usual suspects at CES 2024, the largest consumer electronics show in the world. But this year’s show also underscores how people are increasingly craving more niche devices, how we long for the past even in the era of ChatGPT and similar chatbots, and ofcourse how AI is becoming more integrated in our lives.

Here’s what’s captivating us at CES 2024. We’ll bring you more news on the best tech highlights we come across.

Must see-through TV

TVs are getting bigger every year, which means there’s a bigger slab of black plastic taking up a significant port of the living room wall when not in use. But what if we could make it disappear, without actually pulling it off the wall?

Samsung has apparently done just that. The company is showing off first transparent version of its Micro-LED display tech at CES 2024, and while transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, look the best, especially in terms of brightness and color, according to CNET’s David Katzmaier.

Samsung says its Micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the going tech. But Samsung says its transparent Micro-LED tech isn’t available in the market, so what Katzmaier saw (or didn’t see?) is essentially a concept. 

Robot stain fighter

We’ll kick things off with a product sure to clean up — literally. The new Bespoke Jet Bot AI Plus smart robot vacuum does more than just sweep up dust bunnies and dog hair; it’s designed to roam your rooms scouting for stains as they happen and scrub them out so you don’t have to.

And as the name suggests, the robot taps AI-powered object recognition to identify stains on rugs, carpets and hard flooring. And yes, it can tell the difference between the surfaces, presumably making adjustments to its clean technique accordingly. You can also tell this $1,000-plus household helper where it can and can’t go as it attacks stains as bad puppy piddle or a zinfandel spill with a spinning mop that hits 170 rpm.

Teeth tech

AI isn’t just helping keep your floors clean, it’s also being used to make sure your teeth are as clean as they can be. The Oclean X Ultra Wi-Fi Digital Toothbrush features an algorithm-controlled motor, five brush modes tailored to specific needs, an interactive touchscreen that shows you areas you missed and an AI voice guide to help you improve your technique.

It also features Wi-Fi connectivity so you can pair it with your home network, and it will store information about your brushing history until you can download it to your app. It also offers 40 days of battery life through wireless charging. It will go sale in the US in the fall for $130. (International prices weren’t immediately available, but that converts to roughly £100 or AU$190.)

What’s old is new

If you consider yourself an old-school smartphone user, you may yearn for the physical keyboards that used to accompany phones of yesteryear. The iPhone’s on-screen keyboard ushered out the full physical keyboards that were popular on BlackBerry devices.

The Clicks keyboard, from Clicks Technology, will transform your iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, adding a keyboard that’s actually integrated into a wraparound case. This $139 wraparound slides onto your device and runs off the phone’s battery, so no charging required.

It’s all in the wristwatch remote

Imagine using your wrist to control everything around you. A flick this way, and you can turn off the lights or scroll through the offerings on Netflix. Finnish startup Doublepoint has developed software that can turn an Android watch into a general purpose controller for any device via a Bluetooth connection.

The software will come to developers in the first half of this year, but it’s up to developers and app-makers to decide what a small gesture, such as tapping fingers or rotating your wrist, will actually do.