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01.01.2026 18:12 Most Apple products are pretty expensive, but some of the most affordable ones are AirTags. The Bluetooth trackers are priced pretty reasonably even when not on sale, but they can be a steal if you can get them on a discount — like right now. A four pack of AirTags is on sale for $65 at Amazon, which is only a few dollars more than the record-low price we saw during Black Friday a couple of months ago. AirTags can be useful for people who travel frequently, helping you to keep track of essentials like your passport as well as a way to keep tabs on luggage while you're on the go. If you do purchase some AirTags, we have some recommendations for useful accessories to go along with them, such as different styles of cases to best attach the trackers to different types of items. These are worth looking over and adding to your shopping cart in order to make the most of the product. AirTags have an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance and their replaceable batteries should last for about a year. They can also support Precision Finding, which gives more exact directions to a lost item, when paired with most models after the iPhone 11. Up to five people can share an AirTag's location, which is helpful for families or large travel groups. If you really only need one AirTag, that configuration is also on sale at Amazon right now — it's 34 percent off and down to just $19 a pop. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/pick-up-a-four-pack-of-airtags-for-only-65-right-now-202333572.html?src=rss

01.01.2026 18:12 One of the many concerns about artificial intelligence these days is how the rush to build data centers is impacting local communities. Data centers can create a drain on resources, and some utility companies have already said customers can expect to see their electricity bills growing as these facilities increase demand. There have been some discussions of what other power sources could support the AI engine, and wind power specialist Airloom is one company that's looking to address the problem. Ahead of the business' upcoming appearance at CES, we've learned a bit about what Airloom has accomplished this year and what it is aiming for next.Rather than the very tall towers typically used for this approach, Airloom's structures are 20 to 30 meters high. They are comprised of a loop of adjustable wings that move along a track, a design that’s akin to a roller coaster. As the wings move, they generate power just like the blades on a regular wind turbine do. Airloom claims that its structures require 40 percent less mass than a traditional one while delivering the same output. It also says the Airloom's towers require 42 percent fewer parts and 96 percent fewer unique parts. In combination, the company says its approach is 85 percent faster to deploy and 47 percent less expensive than horizontal axis wind turbines. Airloom broke ground on a pilot site in June for testing out its approach and confirming how those figures work in practice. It’s not feasible to bring a wind farm, even a small one, into CES, but Airloom will have a booth at the event with materials about its technology and engineering. While the business isn't in a consumer-facing field, the impact of Airloom's work could have a future positive impact on people if the data center boom continues.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/airloom-will-showcase-its-new-approach-to-wind-power-at-ces-160000063.html?src=rss

01.01.2026 18:12 CFOTO via Getty Images During CES 2025, we watched NVIDIA tout its leading position in the artificial intelligence arena for the bulk of the presentation. But it did reveal some new hardware, including its RTX 5000-series GPUs and Project Digits desktop supercomputer . This year, the company's website says it's "lighting up CES 2026 with the power of AI." To that end, NVIDIA is pulling out all the stops at its Vegas installation, promising hands-on demos in its booth at the Fontainebleau, replete with the "latest NVIDIA solutions driving innovation and productivity across industries." But don't worry if you're not on the ground in Vegas. Here's how you can watch the livestream of the company's January 5 press conference, and what to expect from NVIDIA at CES this year. How to watch the NVIDIA CES 2026 keynote NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a 90-minute keynote at CES 2026. The event will be livestreamed on January 5 at 4PM ET via NVIDIA's website . We'll embed the link here once it's available. What to expect NVIDIA's game plan for CES is suitably vague so far, including "cutting-edge AI, robotics, simulation, gaming and content creation at the NVIDIA Showcase." It also notes there will be more than 20 demos. Although we're unsure if all of these will be shown during the keynote, we can at least expect to see them throughout the week of CES. Given NVIDIA's sky-high valuation and the fact that the health of the US and global economy seems increasingly linked to infrastructure spending on AI data centers – largely powered by chips from NVIDIA and its competitors — expect Huang's remarks to be as closely followed by Wall Street investors as technology acolytes, if not more so. Will we get any insight on a successor to the company's Blackwell chip? A more detailed look at how NVIDIA's partners are applying AI to real-world robotics? Time will tell, but you might want to keep your stock portfolio in a split screen while taking in Huang's presentation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/how-to-watch-the-nvidia-ces-2026-press-conference-live-130028668.html?src=rss

01.01.2026 18:12 For a tech writer, being very offline is sort of like being a marathon coach who doesn’t run. So in 2025, I tried to reverse years of studied avoidance towards the most ubiquitous technological phenomenon on earth — I got back on social media. The change was short-lived. My first exodus from the feeds took some work — disabling notifications, removing apps from my homescreen and then deleting accounts entirely. This time, the phone put itself down. The whole thing has simply lost its luster.I started with Instagram. Every experience went like this: I’d see a single post from one of the rare family members or IRL friends who are active on the platform. Next, I was fed a sponsored post, followed by suggestions to follow randos. After that, a series of influencer videos that, admittedly, appeal to my taste . That was followed up with more sponsored posts, mostly from brands I’d looked up for work. Then it’d circle back to the influencers. My eyes glazed over and I tossed the phone aside. Years back, the platform gave off a jolt of quasi-social connection that I’d spend hours sucking up. I fed on pointless thoughts from an ex-coworker, vacation reels from a college roommate, a half-baked loaf of bread that an old friend dropped on the floor but took a picture of anyway. Now it’s a bare sliver of that stuff, shoehorned between towers of sponsored content and posts from people who make or promote their living on Instagram. The real people have left. The connection is gone. The FOMO is no more. I experienced some variation of the same disappointment on every platform I rejoined. When I got back on TikTok a few months after the ban, it felt like a frenzied shopping mall. Every video seems to be about four seconds long and most are promotional and/or shoppable. YouTube Shorts is drowning in AI-generated videos, and I don’t hit up social media to watch fake footage of desperate wild animal babies clambering onto the boats of helpful humans. My life has no need for simulated toddlers admonishing their pets. Occasionally, I’d hit on something compelling: a clip from late night TV, a stupidly decadent dessert recipe, people from other countries explaining cultural subtleties. But for me, these social media platforms are no longer velcro for the eyes. I remember losing focus, spending long hours on YouTube Shorts and IG. I’d look up bleary-eyed and shame-faced after hours scrolling TikTok’s For You Page. Now, after a few minutes, a bored ickiness sets in. I feel like I’m trapped in a carnival of bots hawking shampoo at me and I just want to go home. It’s not a mystery how or why things feel different; The answer is always money. These billion- and trillion-dollar companies have shareholders who prize year-over-year performance over anything else. So we get more sponsored posts on Instagram. TikTok purposefully, enthusiastically overloads itself with shoppable content . YouTube is obsessed with engagement so it ends up rewarding people who flood the platform with AI slop. These platforms aren’t about human connections and the spread of creativity — the stuff that used to draw me in — they’re thinly varnished ecommerce sites sprinkled with brute-forced AI oddities. I’d be sadder about the whole thing if I thought it could be any different. These companies are among the most valuable in the world. The fact that I can’t connect with my fellow common people using their services is not surprising. The change isn’t even driving everyone away. Instagram reported more users than ever this year, to the tune of 35 percent of the planet. Billions of users still scroll TikTok and watch YouTube Shorts. So maybe it’s just a me thing. And I have options. Over-monetization may have made me not want to engage with a few social media behemoths, but things aren’t so dire everywhere. Bluesky reminds me of Twitter before X. I take comfort in seeing posts that prove most people are as dismayed as I am over a government and wider economic system that are nakedly uninterested in serving the public. The hot takes aren’t quite as funny as they were on Twitter years back — maybe it’s just all been said before or perhaps things have gotten too dire for levity. I still don’t end up spending a lot of time on the platform, however. It’s not as weird as it was before the defection and I get tired of the stream of news headlines contextualized with tut-tutting and handwringing — I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself. It’d be easy to say that social media just isn’t my thing, but that’s not true because I can’t quit Reddit — the shining exception to my social media ennui. It feels filled with actual people. Ads exist, but in a subdued, manageable way. And every contributor, commenter and moderator I’ve come across on the app is militantly vigilant against the onslaught of artificially generated content. I also like the organizational structure. I know my Home tab will only expose me to my chosen subs and I derive great joy from happy cows, greeble-chasing cats, enigmatic night feelings and freaky abandoned spaces. I use my local subreddit r/Albuquerque daily to answer questions and keep tabs on the world around me. Sadly, Reddit is an outlier, a misfit exception to the rule, and now that it’s gone public, it may follow a similar monetization push. Bluesky is tiny, new and not yet profitable, so who knows where its financial journey will lead it . There’s something lamentable about the loss of the connections we gleaned from platforms that were once compelling, engrossing and rife with the creativity of our fellow humans. Ultimately, any public-facing company that prioritizes profits over everything else has no incentive to look out for its users. So I don’t expect any of the larger social platforms to pull back on their monetization marches. For now, I’ve decided I’m comfortable with my admittedly narrow interaction with the world of social media. As a Gen-Xer, online-first wasn’t how my relationship to the world started out. And I’m pretty confident I know enough about other tech-related stuff to be useful to my editors and readers without a black belt in social. Besides, Karissa’s got us covered. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/in-2025-quitting-social-media-felt-easier-than-ever-140000374.html?src=rss

01.01.2026 18:12 You may know Bosch as a home appliance brand , but the German multinational is generally more focused on providing underlying technology and engineering solutions to auto, home and manufacturing partners across the globe. It's fitting, then, that much of what it's showing off at CES 2026 is more intended to be licensed to other companies versus Bosch-branded products you'll be seeing on store shelves. Case in point is Bosch's automotive plans at CES. The company will present "AI in the car," or more specifically, in the cockpit of the car. "Bosch's AI-powered cockpit makes driving more comfortable, intuitive, and safer for all occupants," Bosch board member Markus Heyn said in a press release. We'll get into all the details below, as well as how to tune in to the press conference on Monday. How to watch Bosch's CES 2026 presentation You can livestream the event on Monday, January 5 at 12PM ET via the Bosch press page. What to expect Bosch will be setting up shop in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center , where the company will be focusing on its three big themes — mobility, smart home integrations and manufacturing — all of which will include hardware, software and AI solutions. Like many other CES 2026 exhibitors, look for Bosch to emphasize its partnerships with the big dogs of the AI space at the show. For instance, that AI-powered car cockpit mentioned above will feature integrations with both Microsoft and NVIDIA. For instance, Bosch is touting the ability to use voice commands to join a Teams call, while the car's system will automatically activate adaptive cruise control. And it's noting that NVIDIA's software suites will help manage "real-time sensor processing and vision-language models." Here's a glimpse of what the booth will look like: This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/how-to-watch-the-bosch-ces-2026-press-conference-live-130020898.html?src=rss

01.01.2026 18:12 The start of a new year always feels like a reset button. Everyone’s talking about moving more, eating better, sleeping longer or finally taming their digital chaos. But resolutions rarely survive on willpower alone. The right tools or piece of tech can make those goals easier to keep by turning motivation into a habit. Whether you’re trying to close your rings, track your progress or just build better routines, these smart picks make self-improvement feel a little more achievable, and a lot more enjoyable. Gear that can help you stick to your New Year's resolutions This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-gear-to-help-you-stick-to-your-new-years-resolutions-130000389.html?src=rss