Robotics

Google’s keynote description is vague: “Discover how we’re furthering our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” AIHowever, given the announcements already made this year, we expect artificial intelligence to be the focal point of the event. At last year’s I/O, AI was also the crown jewel of the event, with a slew of AI-related announcements, including Gemini 1.5 Flash, Veo, Imagen 3, and Google’s mobile platform, Android. Also: Google reveals Gemini 2.5 Flash, its ‘most cost-efficient thinking model’Android 16Similarly, this year, you can expect to learn more about the new features on Android 16, which will likely feature a myriad of new AI capabilities, updates to Gemini, Google Workspace, Google Search, and maybe even a new large language model. Also: Android 16 release is way ahead of schedule – and here’s whyAgentsAI agents have been the hottest topic in the AI space, and we can expect Google to add more to its current agent feature lineup. At the moment, this includes its Google Research feature, which can search the web for you and compile it into a detailed report, and Gems, Google’s custom AI agents. Also: Google Workspace gets a slew of new AI features. Here’s how they can help your daily workflowXR headsetIf Google follows last year’s precedent, it will hold off on hardware announcements. However, the company may update us on its highly anticipated XR headset, which it is developing in partnership with Samsung. Google I/O is notorious for throwing surprises, so it is a good rule of thumb to expect something no one is talking about.Also: Here’s the Android XR headset that Google and Samsung are releasing in 2025 – and the software that powers it More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETIf you’re in dire need of some bling on your earbuds, this collaboration between Motorola and Swarovski will fill that diamond-encrusted void. Motorola just announced its Moto Buds Loop, and they’re just as much a fashion accessory as they are earbuds. The Moto Buds Loop are open earbuds with a clip-on form factor, mimicking the style and fit of an earring or ear cuff. The earbuds, available in Pantone-curated French Oak or Trekking Green (read: beige and green, respectively), bring the dazzle factor and are adorned with Swarovski crystals.Also: I used Motorola’s $1,300 Razr Ultra, and it left me with no Samsung Galaxy Z Flip envyOpen earbuds are a little different from your classic earbuds: they are a mix between in-ear earbuds that isolate sound within your ear canal and bone conduction headphones that play music close to your ears without obstructing environmental noise from getting through.  More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETYou have my attention, Motorola.The company today is unveiling not one, not two, but three Razr flip phones, including a first-ever ‘Ultra’ model that’s feature-packed, fashionably styled, and unsurprisingly expensive at $1,299.Also: Motorola Solutions to outfit first responders with new AI-enabled body camerasI spent an intimate afternoon with all three models ahead of their launch, and, barring the price tag that makes me question the state of the economy, my first impressions were mostly positive. In fact, the Razr Ultra, which I tested the most, left me feeling a little less excited about what’s on the docket from Samsung later this summer. Here’s why. More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Shure MoveMic 88+ Receiver Kit is available now on Amazon for $449 The MoveMic 88+ is a flexible piece of audio equipment that can help you achieve high-quality audio while on the go You will need to tweak the audio settings to get the best sound from different environments. more […] More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETAI systems require a lot of energy to function, but no one has exact numbers, especially not for individual chatbot queries. To address this, an engineer at Hugging Face built a tool to try to find out.Also: The top 20 AI tools of 2025 – and the #1 thing to remember when you use themThe language surrounding AI infrastructure, much of which emphasizes “the cloud” and other air-themed metaphors, can obscure the fact that it relies on energy-hungry computers. To run complex computations quickly, AI systems require powerful chips, multiple GPUs, and expansive data centers, all of which consume power when you ask ChatGPT a question. This is part of why free-tier access to many chatbots comes with usage limits: electricity costs make computing expensive for the hosting company. Chat UI EnergyTo demystify some of this, Hugging Face engineer Julien Delavande built an AI chat interface that shows real-time energy use estimates for your conversations. It compares how much energy various models, tasks, and requests use — for example, a prompt that requires reasoning is likely to use more energy than a simple fact-finding query. In addition to Watt-hours and Joules, the tool shows usage in more accessible metrics, such as the percentage of a phone charge or driving time, using data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is available now for $55 on Amazon. It’s a solid fitness tracker with great battery life that covers the basics in a slim form factor. It might not fit everyone, and the entry-level tracking data lacks the deep, personalized insights you’ll find on more expensive devices. […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Mudita Kompakt is on pre-order now for $369, and will be available in May for $439. The E Ink display is easy on the eyes, the battery lasts for days, and it satisfies the minimalist intention with far fewer distractions. The camera is unnecessary, there is no voice-to-text, and the […] More

jgroup/Getty Images There’s been a ton of buzz about how AIs can help programming, but in the first year or two of generative AI, much of that was hype. Microsoft ran huge events celebrating how Copilot could help you code, but when I put it to the test in April 2024, it failed all four […] More