Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, including Lily Gladstone’s historic win, may have piqued your interest in Killers of the Flower Moon, and later this week the drama will start streaming on Apple TV Plus.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, the 1920s-set film “depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror,” as an Apple TV Plus press release puts it. The movie is based on David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name and, along with Gladstone, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons. The movie received seven Golden Globe nominations and can be found on lists of predicted Oscar nominees.

The nearly three-and-a-half-hour film impressed critics, sitting at a score of 89 on Metacritic. Here’s when it hits Apple’s streamer, plus why you may want to consider using a VPN to watch it.

When to watch Killers of the Flower Moon on Apple TV Plus

The movie hits Apple TV Plus on Friday, Jan. 12. It’ll stream in more than 100 countries, according to the service.

A subscription to Apple TV Plus is currently $10 a month (up from $7 a month after a 2023 price increase). The series Lessons in Chemistry, Ted Lasso and The Morning Show are among the streamer’s offerings. You can also get Apple TV Plus bundled with other services as part of an Apple One subscription.

How to watch Killers of the Flower Moon with a VPN

Perhaps you’re traveling abroad and want to stream Apple TV Plus while away from home. With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the movie from anywhere in the world. There are other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming, too.

A VPN is the best way to encrypt your traffic to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds. Using a VPN is also a great idea if you’re traveling, find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins. Streaming TV can be a bit smoother with a reliable, quality VPN that’s passed our tests and security standards.

You can use a VPN to stream content legally as long as VPNs are allowed in your country and you have a valid subscription to the streaming service you’re using. The US and Canada are among the countries where VPNs are legal, but we advise against streaming or downloading content on illegal torrent sites. We recommend ExpressVPN, but you may opt for another provider from our best list, such as Surfshark or NordVPN.

Follow the VPN provider’s instructions for installation, and choose a country where Killers of the Flower Moon will be streaming on Apple TV Plus. Before opening the streaming app, make sure you’re connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream Killers of the Flower Moon on more than one device, it’s possible you’ll need to configure each one to ensure you’re signed in. Go to settings and check your network connections to verify you’re logged in and connected to your VPN account. Now you’re ready to open Apple TV Plus to stream.

If you encounter issues with streaming, first make sure your VPN is up and running on its encrypted IP address. Double-check that you’ve followed installation instructions correctly and have picked the right geographical area for viewing. If you still encounter connection problems, you may need to reboot your device. Close all apps and windows, restart your device and connect to your VPN first. Note that some streaming services have restrictions on VPN access.

Walmart is expanding its drone delivery program from one pocket of the Dallas-Fort Worth area to millions of people in 30 municipalities in the region, CEO Doug McMillon announced Tuesday at CES 2024.

The retailer will use drone delivery systems operated by startup Zipline and by Alphabet subsidiary Wing, companies that have made hundreds of thousands of deliveries in recent years. They each recently obtained clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly their drones beyond visual line of sight, aka BVLOS — in other words, out of the eyesight of a human operator — which makes large-scale drone delivery operations more practical and economical.

Delivery drones offer fast service, with Walmart packages arriving between 10 and 30 minutes after an order is placed from stores up to 10 miles away. Walmart touts the technology for people who need missing cooking ingredients, last-second birthday gifts, over-the-counter medications or movie night snacks.

Drone delivery is a potentially revolutionary technology for when people need relatively small packages swiftly. It’s not economical in rural areas, and finding a place to deliver a package can be tough in dense cities, but expect it to spread across the suburbs as retailers seek a technology that satisfies consumer spending urges while keeping delivery trucks off the road. That can, in principle, ease traffic congestion and lower the carbon footprint of deliveries.

People like the technology, with regular customers placing an average of two orders per week and the more enthusiastic averaging three orders per week, Walmart said.

Drone delivery noise has been a concern, but both Wing and Zipline keep their deliveries quiet by keeping drones high in the sky and lowering or dropping packages. Zipline is testing a new drone design with Walmart that can plop a package onto a table or walkway.

Customers can order over the web by visiting wing.com/Walmart or flyzipline.com/get-delivery. Wing and Zipline have already been Walmart partners in testing drone delivery programs. Zipline has made more than 900,000 deliveries worldwide.

Asus always shows up at CES with some interesting new devices and the 2024 show is no different. The company has already announced a new gaming phone and a slew of gaming laptops, and now it’s added new premium Zenbooks and mainstream Vivobooks to the roster of announcements.

The highlight is the company’s latest Zenbook Duo dual-screen laptop. While earlier models had one full display and one smaller screen, this is the first with two full 14-inch OLED touchscreens, save for a concept it made back in 2018.

Each of the Duo’s 16:10 displays has a 3K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, and with its 180-degree hinge, you get 19.8 inches of workspace in a package that weighs just under 3 pounds or 1.4 kilograms. It isn’t a two-in-one like Lenovo’s Yoga Book from last year, but it does lay flat and can be used with Asus’ active pen.

The body has a wide kickstand that’s built into the base of the laptop. It keeps it more stable than the origami stand Lenovo used for the Yoga Book 9i, and it works with the laptop positioned horizontally or vertically. And since the kickstand folds out from the bottom, you don’t see it when you’re using it as a laptop.

Since the laptop is all displays, there’s no built-in keyboard. Instead, you get a slim Bluetooth keyboard to connect wirelessly for use on a desk or table to take full advantage for the extra workspace. Or, it can be used on top of the base display to use it like a true laptop. And the keyboard can be stored between the screens when it’s time to get up and go.

As for what’s inside, you’ll be able to get the new Zenbook Duo with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 H-series CPU, up to 32GB of memory and up to 1TB of storage. Ports include two Thunderbolt 4, a USB Type-A, HDMI out and a headphone jack.

Asus says it’ll be available sometime in Q1 and it’s still working out pricing for it, but I wouldn’t expect it to be cheap.

Our phones are great at many things, like snapping vacation photos, entertaining us with an endless stream of bite-sized videos and acting as our personal planners. But that’s actually problematic, according to Jesse Lyu, founder and CEO of AI tech startup Rabbit. He thinks the myriad apps and functions available on our phones have stripped away their simplicity, and he’s trying to change that with a new gadget called the R1.

The R1, which debuted at CES 2024, is a mobile device designed to answer requests and handle tasks rather than run apps. There are no actual apps on the R1; instead you press a physical push-to-talk button to launch a music playlist or book a taxi as if you were speaking into a walkie-talkie. The phone’s software is powered by a large action model, or an algorithm that can learn from how humans use apps and interfaces so that it can replicate and automate those processes. Lyu likens it to handing your phone to a friend to order takeout rather than doing so yourself. The R1 ships in late March for $199.

Read more: Your Next Phone Will Likely Be Smarter, Faster and More Bendy

There’s no shortage of virtual assistants capable of doing almost exactly what Rabbit’s R1 claims to do. Google and Amazon are also injecting their own virtual helpers with generative AI smarts to make them even better at handling complex requests more easily. But Lyu sees the need for a purpose-built device for getting things done that’s separate from your phone and therefore less distracting. He argues that just because your phone can do the same thing doesn’t mean it’s the superior experience.

That argument will take a lot of convincing, especially considering how glued to our phones we’ve become. A survey from Reviews.org found that 89% of Americans check their phone within the first 10 minutes of waking up, and 60% sleep with their phone at night. Still, the Rabbit R1, along with startup Humane’s recently announced AI pin, is another sign that tech companies are increasingly looking to build new gadgets around AI.

The R1 has a simple look

The R1’s bright orange hue, relatively small screen and scroll wheel give it a nostalgic and almost retro look. The R1 physically shares some similarities with smartphones, such as a touchscreen display and a camera, but those parts are put to use in different ways.

The R1 doesn’t have a traditional phone operating system, for example, but instead uses that 2.88-inch screen to display cards in response to your requests. The camera isn’t really meant for documenting your days on Instagram, but rather is intended to assist with visual queries like snapping photos of what’s in your fridge to generate recipe ideas.

Although it’s not being positioned as a phone, you can certainly make phone calls with it since it has a SIM card slot along with WiFi and cellular connectivity. It runs on a 2.3Ghz MediaTek Helios P35 processor and has 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM.

It doesn’t run apps, but it can connect to your apps

The R1 doesn’t have apps in the traditional sense, but it connects to services to carry out requests. Playing a playlist in Spotify or calling an Uber requires you to link those apps to your Rabbit account through an online portal. That could end up being a cumbersome process considering you’d have to manually connect any service you’d want Rabbit to factor into your usage. Rabbit says it doesn’t store any login data and authentication methods happen on the app’s system.

With the R1, Rabbit is taking on an ambitious goal by trying to carve out a place for a new gadget in our lives in a world that’s already overrun with screens and sensors. But it’s interesting nonetheless to see new hardware developed in response to the increased interest in AI we’ve seen over the past year. Still, Rabbit’s software experience has to be compelling enough to convince you to buy a new device rather than continuing to use ChatGPT, Google Bard and other AI helpers on the devices you already own.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

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, our longing for the past and the ways that AI — especially in the form of ChatGPT and similar generative AI chatbots — is becoming more integrated into our lives.

Here’s what’s captivating us at CES 2024. We’ll bring you more news on the best tech highlights as we come across them this week in Las Vegas.

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Steam Deck has a new challenger

After years of near misses such as the Steam Machine, the Steam Deck was an unexpected success for Valve, and the console is the current standard for mobile PC gaming. While the competing Asus ROG Ally looked cool, using Windows on it was apparently pretty clunky. Now that situation might change with the help of Intel — the company has a lot of experience making Windows machines. MSI’s Claw handheld obviously owes a debt to the Steam Deck, but it has Intel’s new Meteor Lake chips onboard instead of AMD chips. CNET’s Scott Stein says this development means more manufacturers will have the opportunity to design their own Steam Deck-alikes that can also run Windows.

This phone bends over backward for you

As phones with screens that fold in half get more consumer attention, Samsung appears to be poised to flip the market again. The electronics giant showcased a concept handset at CES 2024 called the Flex In & Out Flip that can fold in both directions and completely backward, allowing you to use the phone’s 6.7-inch screen even when the device is shut.

When bent backward, one side is slightly shorter than the other, to avoid covering the camera, while the larger side was big enough to show several icons in the phone’s quick settings menu, media playback controls and the time and battery level. Although the handset is only a concept design right now, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco points out that it might offer a hint at the future of devices that roll, flex, bend, fold and otherwise contort to adapt tech to our unique needs.

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Get to work with this gaming laptop

More and more, we’re asking our laptops to do double duty. In addition to strong gaming performance, we want to be able to use these thinner, lightweight devices for work or school. The HP Omen Transcend 14, which made its debut at CES 2024, is light enough for a daily commute but sports a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 48-120Hz variable refresh rate backed up by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.

The 14-inch laptop weighs only 3.6 pounds (1.6 kilograms) — light for a gaming laptop and has battery life good for up to 11.5 hours with the integrated graphics and an Eco mode. The new 14-inch size starts at $1,500. A 16-inch version will also be available with the option for a 4K 240Hz OLED starting at $1,900.

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This thermometer also checks your heart and lungs

If you ever wanted to hold up a single device to your head for a quick health checkup, the Beamo might be just what the doctor ordered. The BeamO, which looks like a game stick, is a four-in-one thermometer,electrocardiogram, oximeter and stethoscope made by Withings and it wasunveiled this week at CES 2024. Depending on where on your body you “beam it,” the device can give you clues about your health.

The device, which Withings describes as being “portable and smaller than a smartphone,”combines the simplicity of taking your temperature at home with some ofthe wellness metrics newer-grade wearables and smartwatches carry, likeblood oxygen and heart rate readings, as well as chest sounds when usedas a “digital stethoscope.”

Following expected clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration this June, you can get one for $250.

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Forget a projector, get a huge TCL instead

CNET’s projector reviewer Geoff Morrison has been extolling the benefits of projectors for many years, but even he has come around to technologies like OLED and Mini-LED of late. What would he think of the new TCL 115QM891G? This is a 115-inch 4K LCD TV that’s up to five times brighter than most TVs, and with better blacks too, according to TV reviewer David Katzmaier.

As TV reviewers ourselves we’ve seen large TVs, but in the old days they were stuck at HD. The pixels on Panasonic’s 103-inch 1080p, for instance, were huge and easily noticeable. This is why 4K technology is so great — it means you can install a TV as big as a wall, and not see black lines between the pixels. The TCL also going to be a lot cheaper than that $100,000 Panasonic too, at under $20,000.

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Stained glass gets a new lease on lifelong power

Solar panels are great — they produce electricity from one of the most abundant resources we have, and they pay for themselves in quick order — but no one has ever called them pretty. Fear not! Japanese company inQs has worked out a way to make solar cells out of colored glass. The company is exhibiting a number of objects at CES 2024, including a stained glass pane that generates electricity. The devices are small, and one was able to power only a desk fan, but we like how they point to a rethink of how solar panels should look and work.

Disguising weird-looking things has been a perpetual trend at CES, as with LG’s ArtCool air conditioners. And this year the Samsung Music Frame lets you put art inside a smart speaker.

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Hey, Ida, which is better: Alexa or Siri?

AI is already everywhere here at CES 2024 — and adding to the list of products it’ll be appearing in is cars. Volkswagen has announced a deal with ChatGPT that enables users to ask all sorts of questions of their car, in the same way they would of a traditional digital assistant. At the moment, VW’s voice assistant lets users say, “Hey, Ida,” to ask a question about something basic, like requesting tire pressure. But the automaker’s cars are incapable of answering more advanced questions like, “When did the New York Jets last win the Super Bowl?” Under the new deal, if the car’s assistant can’t answer the question, it’ll hand off the query to ChatGPT. (Yes, the Jets did win one. But it was a very, very long time ago.)

It’s worth noting that competitors like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri have been completing these queries natively for many years, so teaming with ChatGPT is an easier way for VW’s Ida to catch up.

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Must-see-through TV

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

LG has apparently done just that with a transparent OLED screen that converts from a “fish tank” to a 77-inch television (pictured above). Unlike Samsung’s competing technology this will apparently be a real product, shipping later in 2024.

Meanwhile Samsung is showing off the first transparent version of its Micro-LED display tech at CES 2024. While transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, Samsung says its Micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the current 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.

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A 2-minute ice cream maker

Coming soon to a restaurant near you: freshly made ice cream, ready from start to finish in just 2 minutes.

We’ve loved trying the vanilla ice cream churned out by the speedy ColdSnap — first in 2021 and then again this year. We’re still a year away from being able to buy one of these innovative ice cream makers for our homes, but the company came to CES this year with the news that its restaurant partners will have hold of the machines much sooner.

The countertop ice cream maker uses Keurig-like pods to make a bowl of the cold stuff in less than 2 minutes. The finished result has a gelato-like consistency that had us coming back for more every time we passed the ColdSnap booth.

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Robot stain fighter

Here’s a product sure to clean up — literally. Samsung’s new Bespoke Jet Bot Combo, a smart robot vacuum with a mop, does more than just get rid of dust bunnies and dog hair. It’s designed to roam your rooms scouting for stains on hard flooring and scrub them out so you don’t have to.

The robot taps AI-powered object recognition to identify stains on hard flooring. Yes, it can tell the difference between the surfaces, presumably making adjustments to its cleaning technique accordingly. You can also tell this likely $1,000-plus household helper where it can and can’t go as it attacks stains as bad as a puppy piddle or a zinfandel spill with a spinning mop that hits 170 rpm. (Pricing details aren’t yet available.)

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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.

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What’s old is new

If you consider yourself an old-school smartphone user, you may yearn for the physical keyboards that used to be a mainstay of the 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.

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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.

Steven Musil, Sareena Dayaram, Katie Collins and Ty Pendlebury contributed to this article.

Lenovo released its dual-display Yoga Book 9i last year and has now updated it with Core Ultra processors at CES 2024. It still features two 13-inch, 2.8K OLED displays and comes equipped with a detachable Bluetooth keyboard, a pen, a mouse and an origami stand that lets you set up the displays either side by side or one on top of the other. We previewed the first version last year and appreciated the overall design, but felt it was more useful as a portable all-in-one than a day-to-day laptop.

The updated Yoga Book 9i will feature Intel Core processors, up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. A big, 80-watt-hour battery is on board to power both displays. The new models are expected to be out in April 2024 starting at $2,000.

New flagship Yoga gets the mini-LED treatment

Another update from Lenovo that caught my eye is the new top-end Yoga two-in-one. The 16-inch Yoga Pro 9i Gen 9 features a 3.2K (3200 x 2000) mini-LED display powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and RTX 4070 GPU. Media creators are sure to appreciate the roomy, mini-LED display and powerful CPU/GPU combo, and media consumers will also enjoy the big, bright (up to 1,200 nits) display and six-speaker array.

The Yoga Pro 9i Gen 9 is expected to ship in April starting at $1,700.

Among Lenovo’s many laptop announcements at CES is one that stands out from the rest, although you wouldn’t know it at first glance. The unassuming-looking ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is a detachable two-in-one that can act as both a tablet and laptop, but it’s also a two-in-one on the software side, too. Instead of the usual two-in-one that runs Windows in both hardware modes, it runs Android when you detach the display to use it as a tablet and switches back to Windows when you reconnect it to the keyboard/base.

With its small icons and variety of right-click menus, I’ve always felt that Windows is much easier to navigate with a touchpad or mouse rather than tapping on a touchscreen, so I like the idea of marrying a fully functioning Android tablet and Windows 11 laptop. Both sides can be used independently; the display/tablet features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU, 12GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The keyboard/base features an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The hybrid system shares what looks to be a good display: a 14-inch, 2.8K OLED panel.

I’ll be curious to see how you can share files across the dual-OS divide but will need to wait a few months to check it out, although my colleague Lisa Eadicicco got to spend some time with this curious hybrid at CES.

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid is expected in Q2 with a starting price of $1,999.

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, our longing for the past and the ways that AI — especially in the form of ChatGPT and similar generative AI chatbots — is becoming more integrated into our lives.

Here’s what’s captivating us at CES 2024. We’ll bring you more news on the best tech highlights as we come across them this week in Las Vegas.

---

This phone bends over backward for you

As phones with screens that fold in half seem to be getting more consumer attention, Samsung appears to be poised to flip the market again, so to speak. The electronics giant showcased a concept handset at CES 2024 called the Flex In & Out Flip that can fold in both directions and completely backward, allowing you to use the phone’s 6.7-inch screen even when the device is shut.

When bent backward, one side is slightly shorter than the other, to avoid covering the camera, while the larger side was big enough to show several icons in the phone’s quick settings menu, media playback controls and the time and battery level. Although the handset is only a concept design right now, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco points out that it might offer a hint at the future of devices that roll, flex, bend, fold and otherwise contort to adapt tech to our unique needs.

---

Get to work with this gaming laptop

More and more, we’re asking our laptops to do double duty. In addition to strong gaming performance, we want to be able to use these thinner, lightweight devices for work or school. The HP Omen Transcend 14, which made its debut at CES 2024, is light enough for a daily commute but sports a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 48-120Hz variable refresh rate backed up by an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.

The 14-inch laptop weighs only 3.6 pounds (1.6 kilograms) — light for a gaming laptop and has battery life good for up to 11.5 hours with the integrated graphics and an Eco mode. The new 14-inch size starts at $1,500. A 16-inch version will also be available with the option for a 4K 240Hz OLED starting at $1,900.

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This thermometer also checks heart and lungs

If you ever wanted to hold up a single device to your head for a quick health checkup, the Beamo might be just what the doctor ordered. The BeamO, which looks like a game stick, is a four-in-one thermometer,electrocardiogram, oximeter and stethoscope made by Withings and it wasunveiled this week at CES 2024. Depending on where on your body you “beam it,” the device can give you clues about your health.

The device, which Withings describes as being “portable and smaller than a smartphone,”combines the simplicity of taking your temperature at home with some ofthe wellness metrics newer-grade wearables and smartwatches carry, likeblood oxygen and heart rate readings, as well as chest sounds when usedas a “digital stethoscope.”

Following expected clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration this June, you can get one for $250.

---

Forget a projector, get a huge TCL instead

CNET’s projector reviewer Geoff Morrison has been extolling the benefits of projectors for many years, but even he has come around to technologies like OLED and Mini-LED of late. What would he think of the new TCL 115QM891G? This is a 115-inch 4K LCD TV that’s up to five times brighter than most TVs, and with better blacks too, according to TV reviewer David Katzmaier.

As TV reviewers ourselves we’ve seen large TVs, but in the old days they were stuck at HD. The pixels on Panasonic’s 103-inch 1080p, for instance, were huge and easily noticeable. This is why 4K technology is so great — it means you can install a TV as big as a wall, and not see black lines between the pixels. The TCL also going to be a lot cheaper than that $100,000 Panasonic too, at under $20,000.

---

Stained glass gets a new lease on lifelong power

Solar panels are great — they produce electricity from one of the most abundant resources we have, and they pay for themselves in quick order — but no one has ever called them pretty. Fear not! Japanese company inQs has worked out a way to make solar cells out of colored glass. The company is exhibiting a number of objects at CES 2024, including a stained glass pane that generates electricity. The devices are small, and one was able to power only a desk fan, but we like how they point to a rethink of how solar panels should look and work.

Disguising weird-looking things has been a perpetual trend at CES, as with LG’s ArtCool air conditioners. And this year the Samsung Music Frame lets you put art inside a smart speaker.

---

Hey, Ida, which is better: Alexa or Siri?

AI is already everywhere here at CES 2024 — and adding to the list of products it’ll be appearing in is cars. Volkswagen has announced a deal with ChatGPT that enables users to ask all sorts of questions of their car, in the same way they would of a traditional digital assistant. At the moment, VW’s voice assistant lets users say, “Hey, Ida,” to ask a question about something basic, like requesting tire pressure. But the automaker’s cars are incapable of answering more advanced questions like, “When did the New York Jets last win the Super Bowl?” Under the new deal, if the car’s assistant can’t answer the question, it’ll hand off the query to ChatGPT. (Yes, the Jets did win one. But it was a very, very long time ago.)

It’s worth noting that competitors like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri have been completing these queries natively for many years, so teaming with ChatGPT is an easier way for VW’s Ida to catch up.

---

Must-see-through TV

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

LG has apparently done just that with a transparent OLED screen that converts from a “fish tank” to a 77-inch television (pictured above). Unlike Samsung’s competing technology this will apparently be a real product, shipping later in 2024.

Meanwhile Samsung is showing off the first transparent version of its Micro-LED display tech at CES 2024. While transparent OLED and even LCD-based screens have been around for a while, Samsung says its Micro-LED display technology produces brighter, clearer images and is more transparent than the current 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.

---

A 2-minute ice cream maker

Coming soon to a restaurant near you: freshly made ice cream, ready from start to finish in just two minutes.

We’ve loved trying the vanilla ice cream churned out by the speedy ColdSnap — first in 2021 and then again this year. We’re still a year away from being able to buy one of these innovative ice cream makers for our homes, but the company came to CES this year with the news that its restaurant partners will have hold of the machines much sooner.

The countertop ice cream maker uses Keurig-like pods to make a bowl of the cold stuff in less than two minutes. The finished result has a gelato-like consistency that had us coming back for more every time we passed the ColdSnap booth.

---

Robot stain fighter

Here’s 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. Yes, it can tell the difference between the surfaces, presumably making adjustments to its cleaning 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 as a 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.

---

What’s old is new

If you consider yourself an old-school smartphone user, you may yearn for the physical keyboards that used to be a mainstay of the 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.

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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.

Steven Musil, Sareena Dayaram, Katie Collins and Ty Pendlebury contributed to this article.

New Year, new you — right? 2024 is here, and this could be the year you resolve to be healthy or get your financial house in order. But 2024 may also be the year you decide to take control of the personal data you share across the internet.

Your personal data is scattered all over the web. Every time you sign up for a new social media platform or buy something online, you give those companies bits and pieces of your personal data.

Next, these companies and data brokers sell your personal data to other companies that use your info to sell ads that are targeted at you. If you’ve given out your data liberally online, you’re paying for it now with ads that track you across the internet.

The fix to this can be somewhat complicated and confusing. Consumer Reports, however, has an app called Permission Slip that reaches out to companies on your behalf and orders them to stop selling your information.

Read on to find out exactly how to use Permission Slip to reassert some control over your online data. Plus, here are our picks for the best VPNs to protect your privacy online and the best password managers to keep your login information secure.

What is Permission Slip?

To help you claw back a bit of your personal data, some states have passed legislation that allows you to exercise some control over what happens to it. Depending on the state, you can prohibit data brokers from selling your data or delete your online data outright. But the process of controlling your data on websites can be confusing, and it’s often unclear whether you’ve opted in or out of selling your personal data. And due to the nature of how your data is shopped around, it could be nearly impossible to locate all of your online data and protect it.

This is where services like Consumer Reports’ Permission Slip come in. Permission Slip does the legwork of collecting the places that might have your data, including more than 100 companies that use your personal information. All you have to do is submit your request for your info to either be deleted outright or simply not sold any more.

How do I use Permission Slip?

To get started using Permission Slip, sign up for the service with your email address. I decided to sign up with the email address that I frequently use when signing up for rewards programs or making accounts online — that way I would be addressing most of the places that could be selling my data.

After signing up, you’ll be presented with options of popular companies and data brokers that could have your information. If you think that company might have your data, and you want to do something about it, select Learn More & Take Action. If you don’t think this company has your data and you would like to no longer see it as an option, select Hide and it won’t clog up your suggestions.

Once you’ve selected Learn More & Take Action, you will be taken to a screen that shows you what sort of data the company usually collects, and what your options are. Depending on the company and the state that you live in, you could have the option to prohibit companies from selling your data or to delete your account outright. It’s important to note that if you’re deleting your account and you have a rewards program with that company, you will lose those rewards upon deletion.

When you’ve decided whether you want to delete your account with a specific company or simply prohibit it from selling your data, Permission Slip will ask you a couple of questions that can help companies and data brokers correctly identify you and properly take care of your information.

After you input your personal info the first time, the process for continuing to remove your data is pretty simple. You will just scroll through Permission Slip’s suggestions, select companies that might have your info and then delete your account or prohibit the company from using your data.

It’s important to note that while Permission Slip is submitting the request on your behalf, you still might have to confirm the request directly with the company. It also might take a bit of time to have your request processed and your information deleted, so patience will be your friend during this process.

For more, here’s the best tax software for 2024 and here’s when Tax Day is this year.

The Super Bowl is the biggest television event of the year and it’s being played in Las Vegas next month. Right now the biggest televisions are being unveiled in the very same town at CES 2024, which I fondly think of as the Super Bowl of TVs. As CNET’s TV reviewer I’ve been coming to Vegas and checking out the newest TV technology for more than 20 years. And this year the screens are bigger and brighter than ever.

Here are the best and most noteworthy new TVs of CES so far. As usual with CES most don’t have pricing yet, and most will be available to buy this spring or summer.

LG transparent OLED TV

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of see-through displays, so trust me to see through the hype. These screens look cool: They’re basically windows imbued with moving images. I’ve always felt they’re a better fit for stores or digital signage than in the home as actual TVs, but LG’s newest incarnation has me intrigued. It’s the first transparent display that will actually be sold to consumers, as opposed to businesses.

The OLED T, as the company calls it, can transform between a transparent display showing fish, animations, the weather outside or nothing at all, into something much closer to a normal TV. At the touch of a button, a sheet of black film rises up behind the transparent window and blocks the view of what’s behind, and the resulting image looks like a TV. The OLED T joins a long tradition of TVs that try to be unobtrusive, and it succeeds as well as any. And this beinf a 77-inch OLED, it’ll be expensive when it ships this summer, but the idea is unique enough to make it one of the best TVs of CES.

Read more: This Impressive LG Transparent OLED TV Transforms Into a Fish Tank

Samsung S95D glare-free OLED TV

One of my pet peeves as a TV reviewer and general picture quality snob is reflections. Glare from normal room lighting, windows and even a white shirt or couch can reflect in standard glossy screens, and usually OLED TVs have some of the glossiest. Not the Samsung S95D. This high-end OLED television has a new screen finish that, in the brief eyes-on test I was able to conduct at CES, really does seem to make reflections and glare less noticeable. I won’t be able to test it thoroughly until it ships later this year, when I may discover some tradeoffs in Samsung OLED’s typically awesome image quality, but so far, so impressive.

Read more: Samsung OLED TVs Improve Anti-Glare Screen for Bright Rooms

TCL 115-inch mini-LED TV

If you thought 98-inch TVs were big, well, you thought right. But TCL’s 115-inch TV makes 98-inch screens look downright puny. The 115QM891G is the biggest mass-market TV revealed at CES 2024 and it’s impressively bright. TCL says its mini-LED backlight produces 5,000 nits of peak brightness and 20,000 local dimming zones.

TCL makes my favorite TV for the money, the QM850, and this model is its much, much bigger and brighter brother. The 115QM891G will cost around $20,000 when it comes out later this year, but that’s cheap compared to Micro-LED models this size and larger.

Read more: TCL’s Huge 115-inch TV Is Among the Biggest, Brightest Screens I’ve Seen

Hisense 110-inch mini-LED TV

Welcome to TCL and Hisense’s my-TV-is-bigger-and-brighter arms race. Yes, the TCL is 5 inches larger (win!) but the Hisense 110UX is — according to Hisense — twice as bright. I had to do a double-take when the company told me exactly how bright: 10,000 nits. To put that in perspective, the brightest TVs I’ve ever measured are around a quarter as bright (2,500 nits).

Add to that another even more impressive specification: the 110UX has 40,000 local dimming zones. That’s twice as many as the TCL, if you’re counting, and should amount to an unbelievable level of light output and contrast. Hisense didn’t announce pricing but I bet the 110UX costs even more than the TCL.

Read more: Hisense’s Huge 110-Inch TV Maxes Out Mini-LED Brightness

Roku Pro Series mini-LED TV

Roku makes what continues to be my favorite smart TV system, thanks to its simplicity, constant updates and best-in-class search results. Since TCL switched to the Google TV operating system, Roku has started producing its own TVs, and the Pro series has the most promising specifications yet, with a mini-LED backlight and QLED color. We’ll have to wait for the review to see if it stands up to competitors, however.

Read more: Roku Pro Series TVs Step Up in Size, Image Quality for 2024

Samsung’s transparent Micro-LED display

So this isn’t an actual TV (yet) and it’s not even available in stores, but it makes the list thanks to sheer coolness. Samsung is trying to one-up LG, as usual, and this time it’s over who has the better see-through tech. In the demos Samsung set up, its transparent Micro-LEDs did look brighter and more colorful to me, which isn’t surprising since that tech has always has better brightness than OLED. The issue, as always with Micro-LED, is the cost.

Read more: Samsung’s New Transparent Micro-LED Boosts Picture Quality of See-Through Screens

TCL QM851 series mini-LED TV

I called the predecessor to this TV my favorite for the money last year. The new version should be even better and cost the same. TCL improved the light output by nearly double, jacked up the number of local dimming zones and added a couple more extras, including a 2.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos sound system and a NextGen TV tuner. The company will continue to face stiff competition from Hisense and others for the TV value crown in 2024, but the QM851 looks like a front-runner so far.

Read more: TCL Took My Favorite Value TV, Bumped the Brightness and Kept the Same Price

LG M4 series wireless OLED TV

LG debuted its wireless OLED TV last year in the M3 series, and the new version looks to be better in every way. The new M4 is brighter and it has the same panel tech used on the OLED G3 — which happens to be the best TV I’ve ever tested. It’s also available in a 65-inch size, which should make it less expensive.

The main appeal of this TV is its wireless connectivity: Instead of plugging HDMI devices like game consoles into the back of the TV, you plug them into a separate box. The picture is sent from the box to the TV without wires, although you still need to plug it in for power so it’s not completely wireless.

Read more: LG’s Wireless OLED TV Gets More Attainable at 65 Inches

Samsung Premiere 8K wireless projector

Samsung doesn’t make a wireless TV to match LG’s — yet — but it did debut something arguably even cooler. No, it’s not technically even a TV, but the Premiere 8K wireless projector deserves an honorable mention on this list anyway. It’s an ultrashort-throw projector, meaning it’s designed to sit close to the wall and still produce a huge image, such as the 150-inch screen seen in the image below.

Samsung says this is the first 8K-resolution projector to be wireless, with a similar box-across-the-room arrangement as the LG M4 (and yes, you still need to plug in the projector itself). It has a new Lightwarp feature that “turns any object in the room into an interactive display surface,” according to Samsung, using projection-mapping technology.

Read more: Samsung’s The Premiere Projectors Make Your Room a Touchscreen

That’s a look at some of the best TVs of CES 2024. Stay tuned to CNET for more details and full reviews once the new 2024 TVs hit the market.

For the last several years at CES, JBL has unveiled upgrades to its popular Bluetooth speaker lineup. It doesn’t upgrade every speaker in the line, just certain ones, and at CES 2024 we’re getting early looks at the JBL Xtreme 4, JBL Clip 5, JBL Go 4 and two new Party Box boom box speakers: the PartyBox Club 120 and PartyBox Club 320. The portable speakers will ship this June, while the new PartyBox models are set to hit stores in April.

I wouldn’t necessarily call these major upgrades, but JBL says all the new models have improved sound and upgraded Bluetooth capabilities, plus a couple of new features and design tweaks. They’re also made of recycled fabric and plastic, and some now feature replaceable batteries.

Here’s a look at all of JBL’s upcoming Bluetooth speakers for 2024.

JBL Xtreme 4 ($380, June)

JBL says the Xtreme 4 is “now enhanced with AI Sound Boost, which analyzes audio in real-time with an AI algorithm to optimize the acoustic output level, leading to more powerful and crystal-clear sound.” The speaker also includes a replaceable battery and is equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 with LE audio capabilities.

The Xtreme 4 is IP67 waterproof and dustproof, has a USB-out port to charge devices and has multi-speaker connectivity via the JBL Portable app and Auracast. Battery life is rated at 24 hours at moderate volume levels. The speaker will be available in three colors.

JBL Clip 5 ($80, June)

The JBL Clip 5 has a redesigned carabiner with a “bigger and more accessible opening, making it easier to clip on anywhere.” JBL says it also has increased driver power that allows for more “streamlined sound and consistent bass at every volume.”

Battery life is rated at 12 hours at moderate volume levels, and the speaker is equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 with LE audio capabilities. It is IP67 waterproof and dustproof and has JBL Portable app support and multi-speaker connectivity via Auracast. It will be available in six colors.

JBL Go 4 ($50, June)

JBL says it has improved the sound of its smallest speaker, the Go 4, which has “more robust sound and punchier bass than its predecessor.” It also has an “updated silhouette” and a wider and more durable carrying strap.

The Go 4 is rated for 7 hours of playtime at moderate volume levels, is IP67 waterproof and dustproof and comes equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 with LE audio. It also has multi-speaker connectivity via the JBL Portable app and Auracast. There will be six color options.

JBL PartyBox Club 120 ($400, April)

JBL says the successor to the PartyBox 110 features “powerful sound and deeper bass, along with a symmetric and themed light show guaranteed to offer an amazing visual experience with starry lights, cool light trails, and strobe light effects all synced with your music.” It can be linked with an unlimited amount of other JBL PartyBoxes (or paired to another PartyBox Club 120 to create stereo sound) and can connect with other JBL Auracast-enabled portable speakers via Auracast.

Battery life is rated at 12 hours at moderate volume levels, and the speaker has a replaceable battery that’s easy to swap out (you can purchase additional batteries to extend playing time). It’s compatible with the JBL PartyBox App and has two mic inputs and one guitar input. The PartyBox Club 120 is IPX4 splash-proof.

JBL PartyBox Stage 320 ($600, April)

JBL says the successor to the PartyBox 310 has upgraded drivers, with two “high-sensitivity woofers and dual tweeters” that help deliver better clarity at high volumes (its power output is rated at 240W). Equipped with a telescopic handle and wide, sturdy wheels, the PartyBox Stage 320 can be linked with an unlimited amount of other JBL PartyBoxes or paired to another PartyBox Stage 320 to create stereo sound, and it can connect with other JBL Auracast-enabled portable speakers via Auracast.

Battery life is rated at 18 hours at moderate volume levels, and the speaker has a replaceable battery that’s easy to swap out (you can purchase additional batteries to extend playing time). The speaker is compatible with the JBL PartyBox App.

As soon as the new speakers become available, I’ll do some hands-on testing and let you know just how improved these models are and whether I think they’re a good value compared with the competition.