Category: Technologies

If you’re looking for ways to stick to a budget this year, one way to save some cash on your everyday essentials is buying in bulk. And if you’re looking to save money on a membership to a big box store, StackSocial has a solid deal on annual Costco memberships. Rather than getting a traditional discount on the membership itself, you’ll get back Costco credit that you can use toward a future purchase. That saves you roughly 33% off the cost of membership.

There are two different levels that you can choose from with this StackSocial deal. You can snag a one-year Gold Star Costco membership for $60, and you’ll get back $20 worth of Costco credit. While you still need to shell out the original $60, it essentially means you’ll get the one-year membership for just $40. Or spring for the Executive Gold Star Costco membership for $120 and get back $40 worth of Costco credit, which means the one-year membership at the higher tier will essentially cost you just $80.

StackSocial doesn’t list a specific date for when this deal will end, so we recommend making your purchase sooner rather than later if you want to take advantage of this offer. Keep in mind, this offer is only available only to new customers, or those whose memberships have expired for more than 18 months. If you’ve been thinking of picking up an annual Costco membership, this is a great way to keep more cash in your pocket.

Read more: How to Get the Most Out of Your Costco Membership

With a Costco Gold Star subscription, you’ll get one membership card for your household. It allows you to shop at any Costco warehouse worldwide, as well as online at Costco.com. While Costco is a great place to save on groceries and other everyday essentials, it offers a lot more. A Gold Star membership also means you can use Costco’s gas stations and pharmacies, as well as Costco’s optical and hearing aid centers. And Costco frequently has seasonal plants, decor, furniture, electronics and other products as well.

If you sign up for a Costco Executive Gold Star membership, you’ll can take advantage of all of the features of the regular Gold Star subscription, as well as additional benefits and greater discounts on select Costco services. Plus, you’ll earn an annual 2% reward up to $1,000 on qualified purchases.

After you sign up, you’ll receive your bonus shop card via email. The card can be used both in store and online, so you can use it right away. It’s also worth noting that after you pay for membership through StackSocial, you’ll have until June 30 to redeem the membership, or you may not be able to take advantage of the deal.

AMD launched its high-profile, newest-generation Ryzen 8000-series mobile CPUs less than a month ago, saving the more mainstream (read “less expensive”), meat-and-potatoes announcements for CES. As usual, that means a step-up-from-entry-priced graphics chip, the Radeon RX 7600 XT, for cards starting at about $329, and a new slate of low-power Ryzen desktop CPUs, made up of new 8000 series chips and additions to the old 5000 series.

The $269 Radeon RX 7600 remains at the bottom of AMD’s current-generation pecking order, now joined by the XT version. As is common — Nvidia frequently does the same — they use the same GPU, but AMD kind of unbottlenecks it. That means more memory (16GB vs. 8GB) and higher frequencies, with a concomitant increase in power requirements (25 watts more) to drive it all. That means the XT is bigger and takes two 8 pin power connections rather than one.

Radeon RX 7600 XT

Memory	16GB GDDR6
GPU clock (GHz, game/boost)	2.47/2.76
Memory data rate/Interface	18Gbps/128 bits
Ray accelerators	32
Stream processors	2,048
Compute Units	32
AI accelerators	64
Process	6nm
Total board power (watts)	190
Bus	PCIe 4.0×8
Size	2 slots
Launch price	Starts at $329
Ship date	January 24, 2024

In practice, the XT probably won’t bump you up a resolution class — in other words, it won’t really get you from 1080p to 1440p gaming without sacrifices. But it could conceivably lift you a quality class at the same frame rate, give you a little more headroom for video editing and viewing large 3D models, or give some generative AI calculations a little boost. Those are the types of things that benefit from the extra memory and the slight speed uptick. The larger size and needier power may disqualify it from fitting into your system as a replacement, depending upon how small it is.

AMD won’t offer its own card with the GPU; it will only be available from the company’s typical partners including Acer, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX and others. It’s expected to ship on Jan. 24.

Along with the card, AMD announced some updates to its Adrenalin software, including video upscaling and improvements in streaming video quality.

On the other side of the processing fence, new Ryzen CPUs are on their way. They’re predominantly 65-watt CPUs, lower power for desktops but a power class formerly used for high-power laptops. Now they’re commonly used for entry-level gaming as well as small-form and general-purpose desktop PCs.

The 8000 series incorporates the new technologies that debuted in December, notably more-powerful Radeon 700-series integrated graphics (the “M” designation is for mobile) and generationally improved AI processing with AMD’s XDNA neural processing.

Mainstream Ryzen desktop CPU specs

	Max boost (GHz)	Cores	Threads	NPU	Power class	Integrated graphics	Generation (socket)
Ryzen 7 8700G	5.1	8	16	Yes	65W	Radeon 780M	Zen 4 (AM5)
Ryzen 5 8600G	5.0	6	12	Yes	65W	Radeon 760M	Zen 4 (AM5)
Ryzen 5 8500G	5.0	6	12	Yes	65W	Radeon 740M	Zen 4 (AM5)
Ryzen 3 8300G	4.9	4	8	Yes	65W	Radeon 740M	Zen 4 (AM5)
Ryzen 7 5700X3D	4.1	8	16	No	105W	None	Zen 3 (AM4)
Ryzen 7 5700	4.6	8	16	No	65W	None	Zen 3 (AM4)
Ryzen 5 5600GT	4.6	6	12	No	65W	Radeon Graphics	Zen 3 (AM4)
Ryzen 5 5500GT	4.4	6	12	No	65W	Radeon Graphics	Zen 3 (AM4)

The 8000 series requires AMD’s newest-generation AM5 socket, which makes it suboptimal for DIY upgraders, who probably have older motherboards, or buyers on a really tight budget. Because of this, AMD has also expanded its last-gen 5000 series with new CPUs that can fit into the older AM4 socket, but they have inferior integrated graphics and lack any sort of dedicated AI acceleration.

Most notable among them is the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which uses AMD’s stacked-chip design (denoted by “X3D”) for faster-than-usual performance; it’s typically for gaming PCs with standalone graphics cards in them, and in this case, for midpriced systems.

Previously, the company’s AMD Advantage badging program denoted systems that maxed out all the AMD components and features possible and were designed in conjunction with AMD to do so. Now, those are being bumped up to a new AMD Advantage Premium slot, and poor, generic AMD Advantage will be used to denote more hands-off relationships — AMD “verified” without “rigorous qualification.”

This opens up marketing subsidies for custom builders and more prebuilt systems or laptops that don’t merit the co-development — companies such as Maingear, CLX, ABS and CyberPower PC — and existing partners including HP and Asus. Like Intel’s Evo badging, it rarely impacts your buying decisions in a meaningful way.

Buying the latest Windows OS directly at Microsoft will cost you a whopping $200. But if you’re building your own PC or are looking to upgrade your current one without breaking the bank, then you won’t want to miss out on this limited-time deal at StackSocial. This offer knocks 84% off a Windows 11 Pro lifetime license, which drops the price down to just $30.

This is a great price, but it’s important to note that not every computer out there is able to run Windows 11, so before you buy it, you’re going to want to ensure that your machine will meet the requirements for the operating system. Additionally, the listing says that if you have a PC that’s already running Windows 10, and Windows Update doesn’t let you install the free Windows 11 upgrade, your computer won’t be compatible with this version either.

After you’ve bought the license, you’ll get an activation key that you can use to install and activate Windows 11 Pro on one computer. To be clear, purchases like this are generally intended for advanced users — folks who are building a new computer or who want to dual-boot an existing computer with a second OS. If you’re doing that, you’ll need a secondary PC to access and download the files, so be sure you can access everything from another computer in your home, or that you have a friend’s machine you can use temporarily. Also note that you’ll want to have a USB thumb drive available to transfer the file.

If you’ve ever wanted to sync up The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the LG Dukebox might be just the device for you. This little hybrid tube-speaker… thing could be one of the weirdest devices of CES 2024.

The LG Duke Box is a 360-degree speaker with a transparent OLED panel at the front to show off the tube amplifier inside. Transparent OLEDs have been with us for a number of years, but the technology has yet to really take hold. LG says the screen can be used to watch movies, or “create a cozy fireplace ambiance where the vacuum tube is visible amidst the flickering flames”.

The DukeBox is likely to take advantage of the pleasant sound properties of vacuum tubes, and you can see them used in a zillion cheap amps on Amazon, but also in guitar amps and preamplifiers.

The DukeBox is reminiscent of last year’s StanbyMe Go — another TV-speaker combo from LG, except that one was designed to be portable. Samsung also released a soundbar with a vacuum tube in it many years ago. At the moment, the DukeBox appears to be a concept and not a real product, so pricing and availability are likely a ways off.

The CES 2024 product reveal is already in full swing, and while we’ve grown to expect a host of new laptops, TVs and smart speakers, the offerings at the world’s largest consumer electronics show this year also reflect our growing need for more specialized gadgets, our nostalgia for products thought obsolete and the quickly emerging presence of AI in our lives.

So, without further delay, here is the future that’s captivating us at CES 2024. We’ll continue to update this story with new tech highlights we discover.

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Robot stain fighter

We’ll kick things off with a product sure to clean up – literally. The new Bespoke Jet Bot AI+ 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.

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Teeth tech

And 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 boasts 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 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.

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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 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 atCES 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?) essentially a concept.

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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 called 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 like tapping fingers or rotating your wrist will actually do.

A TV you can see through isn’t the most practical of innovations, but there’s no denying its cool factor. Transparent OLED screen technology has been around for years in commercial applications, but for the first time in 2024, LG is selling it to consumers for use in the home. The company’s 77-inch transparent TV is called the OLED T, and I saw it for the first time at CES 2024.

When I walked into LG’s private demo suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel I saw what looked like a chic stand and shelf surrounding what looked like a big window. I could see right through it to the wall beyond. Images moved across the surface of the “glass,” including a school of fish, a field of stars, animated figures and other images. Then the LG rep pressed a button on a remote control and a sheet of black film rose slowly from below, obscuring the wall and turning the window into a TV screen, which could show sports or a movie.

The transparency isn’t as perfect as glass, but I could clearly discern the wall and even a little bud vase through the screen. When the mechanized film unrolled up behind the screen the image quality wasn’t quite as vibrant as some of the other OLED TVs LG had on display in its suite, but I won’t fuss about those details. A TV that can effectively disappear and transform into furniture, art or a fish tank, the OLED TV succeeds brilliantly.

To add to the cool factor, the OLED T uses the company’s wireless transmission technology, similar to the company’s M4 series. The only cord running to the television is power. Devices that use HDMI wires (like game consoles) and other connections plug into a separate box that can be placed up to 30 feet away from the TV.

In addition to the fish tank, LG built a host of screensavers, clocks and widgets that can show up on the TV and grouped them under the Always On section of the menu; the idea being that they’ll persist after you turn the TV “Off.” The company designed a simpler version of its smart TV system as well to work better with the see-through screen.

Representatives told me the shelves around the TV itself are optional, and could be slightly different or offer more options by the time the TV hits the market in mid-2024. it’s only available in one size (77 inches), but LG said future versions could go bigger or smaller depending on customer feedback. Pricing has not been set, but I expect it to be extremely expensive.

Samsung has unveiled a suite of ultra short-throw projectors under its The Premiere brand at CES 2024, which include 4K and 8K resolutions plus the ability to turn projections into touch surfaces.

The company is set to debut four projectors at the show: The Premiere 5, Premiere 7, Premiere 9 and the Premiere 8K, which is the flagship model. They all boast the new Lightwarp feature that “turns any object in the room into an interactive display surface,” Samsung says, using projection-mapping technology. The company says this is the first time it’s been used in a consumer device. It’s worth noting that similar technologies have appeared in products in the past, like the Amazon Glow, so it’ll be interesting to see how Lightwarp differs.

The projector line will also include the Samsung Gaming Hub for streaming cloud games without a console. The range will also work as smart speakers and include a screen-off mode.

The new projectors are as follows:

• The Premiere 8K: An upgrade to the 4K Premiere projector launched in 2020, the Premiere 8K projector is the first 8K UST projector and can display a 150-inch image on a wall from a foot away. The projector offers both smart TV onboard and Dolby Atmos audio. It includes wireless connectivity to your devices up to 33 feet (10m) away thanks to the Wireless One Connect Box. The company says the projector is capable of 4,000 lumens of auto-brightness with its triple-laser light source.
• The Premiere 5: Samsung says this is the world’s most compact triple-laser UST projector, at 7.9 inches high by 5.4 inches wide and 5.4 inches deep. The Premiere 5 can also wireless pair with, and mirror, a smartphone by tapping the phone on the top of the device. The Premiere 5 is capable of a 100-inch image from 17 inches and includes automatic focus, alignment and color balance.
• The Premiere 7 and The Premiere 9: These upgrades on the current Premiere LSP7T and LSP9T models promise a brighter image as well as a Quantum 4K processor and Dolby Atmos sound.

Pricing and availability is yet to be announced.

Samsung has sold more TVs than any other brand for more than 15 years, and at CES 2024, the company introduced TVs that use both OLED and QLED technology. For the QLED-powered models I’ll describe here, the main picture quality and design innovations are reserved for its TVs with 8K resolution.

The flagship QN900D is billed by Samsung as the slimmest, most premium 8K TV to ever hit the market. Available from 65 to 98 inches, it has a mirrored “floating” stand and a compact, U-shaped One Connect box to connect your gear. Image quality is powered by a mini-LED backlight and beefed-up processing, including an AI Motion Enhancer Pro to improve fast-moving objects and the ability to upscale low-resolution, standard-def content to 8K, which Samsung claims is a first.

Samsung also says the 900D is the first TV to support a maximum variable refresh rate (VRR) of 240Hz, improving the smoothness of games. Most other TVs max out at 120Hz or 144Hz, although Samsung’s step-down 800D 8K TV can go up to 165Hz. Note that these higher refresh rates work only with PCs, not game consoles like Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, so I don’t consider them a big deal for most people.

4K and 98-inch screens x4

Samsung claims that nearly 40% of high-end buyers are considering an 8K TV, but I still don’t think they’re worth the high price for most people. The company also introduced two high-end Neo QLED 4K models as well, the QN85D and QN90D, available in sizes from 43 to 98 inches and also offering mini-LED backlights. A new Custom Picture Mode shows you a set of four AI-generated images and uses the one you choose to adjust the image.

I didn’t review any Samsung New QLED TVs last year, but judging from the specifications, I’d expect the QN90D to perform at roughly the same level as the QN90B, one of my favorite non-OLED TVs in 2022.

Huge TVs are a big deal at CES, and while Samsung doesn’t have any mainstream models over 100 inches, it will sell four separate series in 2024 that offer a 98-inch size, including a 98-inch version of its affordable Crystal UHD series. True to form, the company created SuperSize Picture Enhancer designed to enhance sharpness and black levels on large screens.

Gaming and accessibility extras

I’m a fan of Samsung’s Game Bar, which offers easy access to gaming stats like VRR as well as dedicated picture settings. The 2024 version, Game Bar 4.0, adds the ability to automatically detect a game genre, like role-playing, shooters or sports, and switch the game picture setting automatically. (Of course, Samsung calls it AI Auto Setting.) The system can also automatically detect the in-game mini-map to move it to another part of the screen. The Gaming Hub, which can access cloud games including Xbox, has a “tailored UI curated for you and your personal gaming preferences,” according to Samsung.

One cool new accessibility feature called Audio Subtitles recognizes the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and can actually read them out loud in real time, using text-to-speech technology. Last year, Samsung introduced an accessibility feature called Relumino, which improves contrast and sharpness for people with low vision. This year, you can use a split screen to watch normal video on one side and Relumino on the other.

Samsung also announced two series of OLED-based TVs. It didn’t announce pricing on any of its new TVs at CES. The new models will likely start shipping in spring, and I’ll know more once I get the chance to review them in person after that.

Glasses-free 3D monitors remain a niche, no matter how hard Acer tries, but manufacturers do seem to be taking baby steps, mostly for laptop screens (like last year’s Asus announcement). Samsung previewed its own take on it at CES 2024, along with a small teaser for The Link — continuing its tradition of “The” awkward product names — a new general-purpose (aka “lifestyle”) monitor designed specifically to be used with multiple siblings.

The 32-inch, 4K The Link prioritizes aesthetics and easy setup, going for the ultraslim desktop video wall effect. According to Samsung, the monitors connect to each other via POGO pins, letting you daisy chain them off the main connection.

The 3D monitor does sound like it’s for gaming: Samsung says it has eye and head tracking, it’s compatible with existing VR games and content as well as Steam VR, and the company’s working on partnerships with game publishers. Samsung says it can also create 3D effects (presumably for 2D content), but no matter how smart the AI processing is for effects like this, I always find them either underwhelming or annoying.

Samsung will have more information about both monitors later this year.

In addition to the high-refresh gaming monitors and panels it announced earlier, the company also launched the successor to its 32-inch 4K Smart Monitor M70D, the Smart Monitor M80D. As far as I can tell, only a couple of things have changed: The stand has been redesigned with a new base and it now supports HDR10 Plus (up from HDR10). Hopefully, that also means it uses a new panel and that Samsung just failed to specifically mention it.

Imagine being able to dim the living room lights with a turn of the wrist. Or browse Netflix with a few taps of your fingers. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, I had the chance to slip on an Android watch containing Doublepoint, some early software intended to turn smartwatches running Android’s WatchOS into a kind of remote control you can wear on your wrist.

A Finnish startup, Doublepoint’s software can make an Android watch into a general purpose controller for any device via a Bluetooth connection. It’s up to developers and app-makers to decide what a small gesture like tapping fingers or rotating your wrist will actually do, but watching it all in motion in several demos at a press event was a fascinating glimpse into the future.

So for example, if you wave your arm like it’s a laptop mouse, Doublepoint on the watch can control a cursor on the screen. In another demo, a watch with the software on it navigated Netflix on an iPad when someone tapped their fingers together.

“It’s like a mouse that’s basically on your wrist all the time,” CTO Jamin Hu told me on the CES show floor.

The software also works in tandem with eye tracking and “RayCasting” to make headset screen navigation simpler.

Gesture commands aren’t at all new. For example, Apple’s Double Tap for Apple Watch is an extension of its AssistiveTouch feature. But Doublepoint’s technology will let users assign microgestures for any device running on Android’s smartwatch software.

As AR and VR continue to gain momentum, the future of personal computing is increasingly keyboardless and mouseless, using gestures to do what tapping and clicking do now.

The software will come to developers in the first half of this year, so we’re still a ways out from seeing this technology arrive on the watch you’re wearing right now – but there’s some momentum.

A partnership with chipmaker Qualcomm opens doors for the software to appear on even more devices. “Our hope is that every Qualcomm device that go ends up on a smartwatch or Qualcomm chip that ends up on a smartwatch will have this built in.”