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Kerry Wan/ZDNETFor years, TVs have been the center of attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). That holds true in 2025, even with the AI takeover well underway. LG’s OLED TVs are brighter than ever, Samsung is still chasing the 8K TV dream, Displace has double-downed on wireless sets, and Panasonic is back, baby.Also: We have named the 12 winners for the official Best of CES 2025 awardsBut among all the releases at this year’s Las Vegas trade show, one TV stood out to me the most: LG’s StanbyMe 2. Unlike the brand’s flagship G5 and M5 OLED sets, the StanbyMe 2 is a little more playful and nonchalant, yet full of confidence. Its 27-inch display isn’t trying to be the centerpiece of your living room; it wants to follow you around the house, from your countertop to your bathtub (no, seriously.)The new lifestyle TV is accentuated by a few practical upgrades, such as a built-in battery that LG claims can last up to four hours (compared to the previous version’s three and a half hours), travel and mounting accessories, and space at the top of the TV to magnetically attach the remote. It’s like stashing an Apple Pencil on the side of an iPad — it just makes sense. More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETWhen I first laid eyes on Samsung’s stretchable Micro LED display concept, I was taken back to when my childhood self watched The Ring. Seeing that infamous scene of a creature crawling out from within the TV led to many, many sleepless nights as a six-year-old. Also: I replaced my Google Pixel 9 Pro with the OnePlus 13 – and it set a new standard for meLike that movie scene, seeing subjects physically push out of the Samsung display concept is polarizing and disruptive, like something that shouldn’t be possible. But it is. More

TCL unveiled the latest iteration of their flagship LED TV, the QM6K, which features an updated QD-Mini LED panel for sharper contrast, more lifelike colors, and a brighter picture overall. With both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X audio, you’ll get room-filling virtual surround sound without having to set up extra equipment. And if you’re a console gamer, you’ll love the 144Hz refresh rate, auto low-latency mode, and support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro VRR. More

Getty Images Almost every aspect of modern life is affected by our connectivity to the Web. On those rare occasions when my internet provider has an outage, life seems to come to a standstill. Everything from logging onto a VPN for work to streaming Spotify is suddenly out of the question. Even many smart home […] More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETDuring the biggest week in tech, we saw CES announcements from giants like Samsung, Google, Nvidia, Asus, Lenovo, LG, and Dell, as well as new and innovative brands with cool concepts. Here’s the stuff that impressed us the most, both in terms of products we think could be worth buying and technologies that will impact the future.Also: We have named the 12 winners for the official Best of CES 2025 awards1. Smart glasses with an invisible display More

No, ANC earbuds should not be confused with a hearing protection device, and experts agree.”Nobody should ever think of them as, in my opinion, pure hearing protection. They’re not,” says ENT Dr. Joe Donzelli. And while noise-canceling earbuds can offer some passive protection like any sound wave boundary, Dr. Donzelli assures that they don’t deter the culprit of hearing loss: Inner ear trauma.”Everything is all about the sound you’re delivering through the headphones, so you can get the greatest noise cancellation ever, but if you just turn up the volume and expose yourself to high decibels for long periods of time, you’ll then create inner ear trauma,” Donzelli explains.However, since listening to music at high volume for long periods of time can damage hearing, a good pair of ANC headphones may have some secondary hearing protection benefits.”If someone is using ANC earbuds to get rid of ambient noise, they may not have to turn the volume up as loud to hear the in-ear sound,” Donzelli says.Essentially, here’s how ANC earbuds may help: You find your ANC earbuds effectively cancel out distracting noises. Before, you had to blast the volume just to hear accurately, but thanks to the magic of ANC, the sound is clear at half the volume. Now, you’re listening at a lower volume for longer and, therefore, likely have less exposure to damaging decibel levels, which means less inner ear trauma. But Donzelli reiterates that the “tighter you put something in your ear and the louder you make it, the more damage. So if somebody runs around with their [earbuds] turned up all the way with or without noise cancellation, it doesn’t make a difference.”  More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETGetting regular eye exams is a good practice for maintaining good vision. However, doing so requires setting aside time to visit an eye doctor, a luxury many people don’t have. Eyebot hopes to change that by introducing the option of a 90-second, self-serve eye exam. With so many exhibitors, it’s difficult to stand out on the CES show floor, but the Eyebot booth had a line nearly every day, with people buzzing to get their eye exam in. The concept is simple: users walk up to a kiosk, follow the prompts, and within 90 seconds, get a tele-doctor-approved prescription.Also: CES 2025: The 24 most impressive products you don’t want to missSound to good to be true? I gave it a try for myself, and the four-step experience was as seamless as it sounds. When you first walk up to the kiosk, called the S1 Terminal, you are walked through a series of questions, such as whether you are wearing contacts or glasses, what type of glasses you are wearing, and whether you are happy with your current prescription.  More

Nvidia I know, I know: “Year of the Linux desktop … yadda, yadda.” You’ve heard it all before. But now there’s a Linux-powered PC that many people will want: Nvidia’s Project Digits, a desktop with AI supercomputer power that runs DGX OS, a customized Ubuntu Linux 22.04 distro. Powered by MediaTek and Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell […] More