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 In addition to its annual soundbar updates, Samsung debuted two new home speakers at CES 2026. The Music Studio 5 and 7 are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi units designed to blend in with your home decor thanks to their minimalist look. They certainly don't look like your typical speakers, and Samsung has packed them with features that it says will ensure optimal sound quality from each one.
The Music Studio 5 has a four-inch woofer and two tweeters, and a sound profile that's optimized by AI Dynamic Bass Control. The design is an interesting interplay between a circle and a square, but the speaker delivers crisp, clear sound — even in the roar of a CES demo area. The Music Studio 5 will also come in a smattering of colors, which could lend a pop to a bookshelf. Controls line the top edge, including one-touch access to Spotify.
Samsung Music Studio 7Billy Steele for EngadgetIf you're looking for something more robust, the Music Studio 7 is a 3.1.1-channel unit that's capable of four-direction spatial audio and high-resolution listening. Samsung says you can enjoy tunes at up to up to 24-bit/96kHz and the speaker can be used as part of a turntable setup. The sound here is more robust as I heard noticeably more bass from the 7 than on the 5. The various control buttons are up top here as well, positioned near the front of the speaker for easy access.
You can also use up to four Music St
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 Smart locks have a notable inconvenience: running out of power. Lockin, maker of vein-recognition locks, debuted its newest model on the CES floor. It charges wirelessly via an optical infrared beam with a four-meter range. A small device, connected to a standard outlet inside the house, shoots a beam at the lock, which has a small receptor panel that turns the light into power, sort of like a plug-in sun beaming at a tiny solar array. The tech carries certifications from two independent organizations, and won't harm eyeballs or bodies that get in the way of the beam (though if the beam is interrupted, charging stops).
The lock itself is a mortise lock that will likely require a pro to install, as it's not just a standard deadbolt replacer. It's not a standard lock in other ways too, with video and speaker capabilites, AI recognition as well as touchscreen features and vein recognition.
The tall black rectangle looked sleek (if huge) in person with a pocket-style grip and a rather sizable display on the interior panel. The outer panel has a touchscreen along with two cameras allowing it to act as a doorbell video camera. You can unlock the door via palm, finger vein or 3D facial recognition.
Lockin V7 Max smart lockLockinIt'll feed the video to any of the major smart home eco systems, including those from Google, Apple, Amazon and Samsung. But for general setup and advanced AI features, such as recognizing a package delivery and speaking a canned request to the driver, you'd use Lockin's own app.
I can't imagine this high-end do-everything lock will be cheap, and
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 We're used to Samsung updating its Q990 soundbar at CES every year, and 2026 is no different. However, the company also debuted the HW-QS90H: a new all-in-one option that Samsung says won't require a standalone subwoofer due to its Quad Bass Woofer system. The QS90H offers 7.1.2-channel audio with 13 total drivers. Before the show properly kicks off, we got to listen to the new soundbar for a quick judge of its merits.
The first thing I noticed about the QS90H is its impressive bass performance. Most of the time when a company claims its soundbar doesn't need a subwoofer, that proves to be untrue. But even in the chaos of a noisy demo area, I could clearly hear the bassy thump coming from the QS90H's built-in subwoofers. For once, I think would-be buyers could get by without a sub, especially in smaller living rooms.
Samsung achieved this with two of those Quad woofers. These drivers push air in two directions rather than just one, which helps with the extra low-end tone. The company didn't sacrifice clarity either. The nine additional drivers, positioned for front, side, wide and up firing sound, provide the clear detail I've come to expect from Samsung.
Samsung QS90H soundbarBilly Steele for Engadget
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 Takway, a startup that wants to be the "Nintendo of the AI robot era," has unveiled a Tamagotchi-like virtual pet at CES 2026 that's meant to go with you everywhere and develop a unique personality in the process. Sweekar is an AI companion built into a palm-sized toy, a cutesy egg-shaped device with ears and a screen for its face. As with a Tamagotchi, you'll have to feed and play with it to keep it happy and healthy, and its mood and facial expressions will reflect your care. But this virtual pet will remember your voice and the activities you've done together — and once it's grown up, it will keep itself entertained, go off on its own virtual excursions (kind of like a Finch birb) and bring back tales of its adventures.
The Sweekar pocket pet being placed into a large brown checkered purseTakwaySweekar comes in pink, yellow and blue, but there will also be the option to switch up the shells and buy silly little outfits for it, because why not. The pocket pet has four life stages, becoming less needy as it grows.
It starts out as a closed egg for its two-day incubation period, after which it will "break" its shell to reveal a face. From then on, you have to keep it alive with care tasks and attention in order to raise it through the baby and teen stages. On
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 There's a good chance you spend more time talking to your phone's virtual assistant, or dictating text with your voice, instead of actually calling people these days. But, as convenient as voice input can be, you don't want to be the obnoxious person shouting commands to Siri or ChatGPT in a quiet library. And you probably won't have much luck dictating an email in a room with toddlers screaming and Peppa Pig blaring on the TV. (Ask me how I know.)
At CES 2026, the startup Subtle is unveiling its solution to those issues: Voicebuds. While they look like a typical pair of wireless earbuds, they feature a custom AI model that lets you dictate text below the sound of a whisper. Additionally, they can also filter out noisy environments so that you don't have to shout for dictation and voice commands. The Voicebuds seem similar to the WHSP ring we saw at CES 2024, which let whisper to your phone, and they also compete with other AI earbuds like the Notebuds One.
Subtle Voicebuds.SubtleSubtle claims its Voicebud
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GE Profile has launched a brand-new smart fridge at CES 2026, sporting one unique feature we've never seen before. It could forever change the way you shop for groceries and manage other household essentials.
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There are a slew of keyboards and apps that help people learn how to play the piano, but a small company called PopuMusic is showing off an intriguing set of products at CES to make the process easier. PartyKeys and PartyStudio are a 36-key MIDI keyboard and MIDI / Bluetooth speaker that pair together in seamless fashion. The PartyStudio is particularly interesting because it has a built-in library of 128 instrument tones and more than 50 different drum machine patterns. Naturally, it works with the PartyKeys, but any MIDI keyboard can connect to it and use those sounds.
The PartyStudio and PartyKeys both use NFC to connect to each other — you can just tap and hold the keyboard up to the speaker for pairing. You can connect up to three devices using MIDI over Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE MIDI) as well as a fourth using a wired connection. If you have more than one keyboard, meanwhile, you can connect them together with NFC as well — you can pair three keyboards together total, giving you a huge 108-key surface to play.
Both the PartyStudio and PartyKeys have an understated but appealing look to them (they're available in black or white) and feel quite substantial and well-made. PopuMusic has been releasing hardware via Kickstarters campaigns for a few years now, so even though they're a relatively small and new company they have some experience in this department. The speaker seems to hit a nice balance of portability and power; it has two tweeters and two woofers and weighs in at 3.75 pounds. It's about 13.5 inches wide, 5.2 inches tall and 4 inches deep, so it's not a tiny speaker you'll just throw in your bag, but it still feels easy to tote around thanks to its attached handle.
The other trick that the PartyStudio and PartyKeys have is on the software side. Using a companion app, multiple people can play along with a song. The light-up keyboard can show you what to play, and if you have multiple people playing each keyboard can display compli
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Back in 2023, Withings launched Body Scan, a super-premium scale with the sort of tech found in a high-end gym or low-end clinic. It had a six-lead ECG, offered segmented body composition and could monitor your nerve health, among other things. Now the company has rocked up at CES 2026 in Las Vegas with a second-generation model that adds in tests for hypertension and cellular health. Withings hopes the new model will give you even more data you can use to fight against chronic illnesses brought on by our decadent modern lifestyle.
The first generation Body Scan checked 40 biomarkers, while the new model has 60, and even the press materials need a bulleted list to talk about the new features. Topping the bill is the new Impedance Cardiography (ICG) which monitors your heart's capacity to pump blood to the organs. Second, Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) uses a low level electrical current to check your body's total water, letting the scale keep an eye on your cellular age, active cell mass and metabolic efficiency.
Naturally, all of this data will then be extruded through the company's "clinically validated" AI model to offer more insights, such as your risk of hypertension and glycemic regulation. You'll also be told, based on your vital statistics, your health trajectory, and given tips on how to improve your "healthspan." In short, the company wants to further position this as a clinic in a box, steering you toward healthier choices as and when it can.
There's one major hardware tweak from the first generation, as the retractable handle used for the ECG now contains the scale's display. That, I'm sure, makes it easier to read if you're squinting naked onto the scale after your morning shower. But I'm also concerned that it's a single point of failure for the thin ca
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Two new smart locks from Lockin don't require batteries at all. They're a game changer for renters or apartment dwellers who can't run wires.
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