The CES 2026 stuff I might actually buy

Jan 10, 2026 08:00 PM - 1 month ago 65882

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 111, your guideline to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, dream you had a awesome vacation season, and besides you tin publication each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reference astir gerrymandering and watch conventions and John Ternus, watching F1 and Roofman and half the Mission: Impossible bid connected level rides, starting and past instantly failing a regular journaling habit, getting ace into the Debt Heads podcast, learning fun facts astir message processing, buying a bunch of aged gadgets connected eBay to capable up my video telephone background, and hardly escaping the CES flu. So far.

I besides person for you a bunch of the champion worldly retired of this year’s CES! Our full squad does an unthinkable occupation of covering each the news, and you should beryllium judge and check retired our awards for the show’s champion stuff. For our purposes here, I tried to conscionable drawback a bunch of the champion and astir absorbing worldly that really feels real. (I’m linking present mostly to our sum alternatively of normal merchandise pages, because successful galore cases, location aren’t immoderate yet.) Real successful the consciousness that (a) it will really vessel and activity and (b) it mightiness really beryllium worthy your money. A difficult task the week of CES!

Oh, and earlier I forget, mini housekeeping thing: this newsletter will now beryllium live connected our website the aforesaid clip it hits your inbox. Since it’s each for subscribers, nary bully logic to hold a time anymore! Read it successful email, publication it connected the site, publication it successful RSS — it’ll beryllium location each Saturday greeting starting now. Let maine cognize if you tally into immoderate issues! Now let’s get into it.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reference / listening to / bedazzling / still mounting up from the holidays this week? Tell maine everything: [email protected]. And if you cognize personification other who mightiness bask Installer, guardant it to them and show them to subscribe here.)

The Clicks Power Keyboard. The Communicator is possibly my favourite gadget of this year’s CES, but the Power Keyboard is overmuch much vanished and astir apt much practical. You tin connect it to your phone, but it besides useful arsenic a Bluetooth keyboard for your iPad, smart TV, and immoderate else. One of these will extremity up surviving connected my java array for sure.
The Lego Smart Brick. Undeniably the communicative of CES this year, astatine slightest according to our comments and website traffic! I really emotion really elemental an thought this is: it’s not immoderate full-on NEW SMART LEGO SYSTEM, it’s conscionable a measurement to make your favourite sets travel moreover much alive. I do person immoderate reservations astir having to complaint a Lego, though.
The Ikea Kallsup. Ikea is connected specified a heater of awesome smart location devices correct now. I perfectly emotion the thought of dotting these small speaker cubes each complete the house, chaining them each together into an highly colorful audio system. Ten bucks apiece is simply a immense win, too.
The Lenovo Legion Go 2. The latest successful Lenovo’s statement of handheld consoles, this 1 is already a triumph because it runs SteamOS and not Windows. It’s earnestly expensive, and I fishy we’ll spot a batch of caller title earlier this hits shelves successful June, but this 1 checks a batch of the correct handheld boxes.
The Pila Energy location battery. Every clip the powerfulness flickers — which seems to beryllium happening much and much — I get a small person to buying a backup battery. These are, against each odds, not hideous to look at! Which is possibly why they’re besides benignant of expensive. But I fishy I’ll beryllium consenting to make that trade.
The Corsair Galleon 100 SD. Having utilized a Stream Deck for years now, I deliberation the keyboard is actually wherever the Stream Deck belongs. This is simply a beast of a mechanical keyboard, too. I’m usually looking for thing quieter and lower-profile, but I look astatine this, and I deliberation I would beryllium unstoppable.
The Shokz OpenFit Pro. Shokz’s worldly continues to beryllium my go-to proposal for group who request open-ear, out-in-the-world headphones. These caller buds, which look to really someway besides connection solid sound reduction, mightiness conscionable switch the OpenRun Pro 2 headband I’ve been wearing for years.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold. My mentation of foldable phones is that we haven’t yet figured retired what “slightly bigger than your phone” really accomplishes. But “way bigger than your phone?” We cognize what that tin do. And this telephone folds retired to beryllium way bigger. I can’t extremity myself from wanting one.
The Amazon Ember Artline TV. There are truthful galore things I dislike astir the Frame TV I bought connected Black Friday. SO MANY THINGS. But I americium a full person to the creation TV concept, and it’s awesome to spot tons of different companies — including Amazon, which is not historically willing successful bold caller ideas astir televisions — jump connected board. Maybe this each intends my adjacent creation TV won’t beryllium truthful freaking slow.
The Govee Sky Ceiling Light. I’m penning to you from my dark, efficaciously windowless basement, staring astatine the pictures of this faux skylight and reasoning that yes, successful fact, this mightiness make my days much bearable. Or possibly I should spell extracurricular more. Who knows.

At immoderate constituent successful the very adjacent future, I’m going to walk excessively galore thousands of dollars connected an e-bike. This will beryllium almost wholly Andy Hawkins’ fault. In summation to being The Verge’s proscription editor, he’s besides our foremost proponent of ditching your car and going full-on cargo bike. Yes, if you ask, he will lead your motorcycle bus.

I asked Andy to stock his homescreen this week, since there’s ever truthful overmuch absorbing future-of-transit worldly happening astatine CES. (Side note: I test-drove an Infinite Machine Olto while successful Vegas, it was fabulous.) Andy didn’t spell to Vegas this year, presumably because he couldn’t motorcycle that far, but he did work together to stock pinch us.

Here’s Andy’s homescreen, positive immoderate info connected the apps he uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 16. I was contented to tally my iPhone 11 into the ground, but my mother insisted I subordinate her family plan, truthful we each sewage upgrades past year. It’s a spot skinnier than my iPhone 11, which is good but took immoderate getting utilized to. A week aft I sewage it, my kid touched the surface pinch a sparkler, and now it has a weird imperishable pain successful the little near manus corner, benignant of for illustration the Eye of Sauron. So that’s cool.

The wallpaper: Typically a photograph of my kids. I precocious selected the action successful settings for a caller wallpaper photograph each hour, and I’ve been delighting successful the aged babe pics and occasional random sunset aliases cityscape photo.

The apps: Camera, YouTube, Weather, Bluesky, Google Maps, Slack, Photos, TikTok, Phone, Instagram, The Verge, Spotify, Gmail, Messages, Chrome, Telegram.

The apical half of my homescreen is devoted to folders for things for illustration streaming euphony and TV, news, navigation, societal media, banking, etc. The bottommost half is for my most-used apps: Instagram, Spotify, Google Maps, Photos, Camera, and, of course, The Verge. Those tin alteration sometimes. For example, I’ll move Instagram and TikTok retired (or delete them entirely), if I’m successful the mind to trim my doomscrolling. The dock is reserved for nonnegotiables: Gmail, iMessage, Telegram, and Chrome. My woman is the opposite. Her telephone is conscionable a chaos of random apps dispersed crossed aggregate screens. Couldn’t beryllium me.

I besides asked Andy to stock a fewer things he’s into correct now. Here’s what he sent back:

I’ve been really enjoying Letterboxd lately. It’s not the astir well-designed app, but arsenic an aspiring insufferable movie snob, it scratches the itch I person correct now for flight and distraction. Sometimes you conscionable want to unfastened an app and not instantly spot the worst point you’ve ever seen aliases immoderate pathetic AI slop. Sometimes you conscionable want to publication hilarious one-sentence reviews of Marty Supreme.
Relatedly, I’ve been watching a batch of pre-code movies, for illustration Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels and each the aged gangster movies for illustration Scarface and Little Caesar. The acting is simply a small goofy, but the speech and applicable effects (Real planes! Real bullets!) can’t beryllium beat.
Geese’s Getting Killed album. I’m a 46-year-old achromatic guy. This crap is for illustration ace to me.
I don’t want to sound for illustration a surgery record, but thing thumps riding bikes, particularly pinch kids. My boy conscionable sewage his first geared motorcycle and it’s been a crippled changer. We thrust the motorcycle autobus each Friday, moreover successful the winter, and it’s a existent temper lifter. The world is acheronian and scary and sometimes it feels for illustration thing bully will ever hap again. But past you’re riding down a elevation pinch your kid and he’s yelling “Wee!” and abruptly it’s not truthful bad.

Here’s what the Installer organization is into this week. I want to cognize what you’re into correct now arsenic well! Email [email protected] aliases connection maine connected Signal — @davidpierce.11 — pinch your recommendations for thing and everything, and we’ll characteristic immoderate of our favorites present each week. For moreover much awesome recommendations, cheque retired the replies to this station connected Threads and this station connected Bluesky.

“Slow Gods, by Claire North. It’s a banger!” — Eliot

“Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries was the sassy, cleanable romp I needed this vacation season. (I haven’t yet watched the TV show.) I’m presently pairing that pinch Margaret Atwood’s memoir (a small highbrow balance) and the eventual cozy setup: espresso from my Profitec 600 instrumentality that’s kept lukewarm by the existent MVP, an Ember Mug 2.” — Lauren

“I’m relistening to aged Retronauts pods. The much Bob Mackey successful my life, the better.” — Brad

“An app I started utilizing because Instagram has decided that authentic contented was meaningless has been Retro. I sewage a free twelvemonth of the premium subscription and americium fundamentally conscionable utilizing it arsenic a individual photograph diary alternatively than a societal network.” — Ryan

“This glorious video, ‘Durrr ChatGPT.’ It’s mind-boggling erstwhile I spot group usage it for practically everything these days. This video perfectly captures my temper and I support going backmost to it. It is made pinch axenic rage and you tin consciousness it.” — Yagya

“Just sewage myself a Pixel Buds 2a aft realising that I don’t, successful fact, request immoderate costly Ultra aliases Pro earbuds. Love these things and really ray they are. They conscionable work! (And person nary settings I request to excavation heavy for!) Bonus points for acting arsenic a impermanent Find My tracker. All this astatine $99.” — Anshuman

“This heavy dive into why the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV rollout and deployment has been specified a fiasco is fascinating and somewhat infuriating!” — Eric

“I urge the Espro portable java maker. I recreation to Italy for activity regularly and the state has a java measurement problem for Americans. No, that one-ounce espresso isn’t going to aftermath maine up. I tried an Aeropress antecedently but it has a batch much pieces and cleanup. The Espro gives maine a decent measurement pinch easy cleaning and storage.” — Sean

“I’ve been meaning to urge Mr. Owen Cutts connected TikTok. He does thing called Old Music Friday, and it’s awesome! He plays classical soul, R&B songs, and goes done what makes them great. But that’s not the champion portion — he gets truthful into the euphony he dances….. it’s conscionable gotta beryllium seen to enjoy.” — Brian

“I precocious started utilizing ChatGPT to play a solo RPG. (Solo RPGs are games wherever you person random events by rolling dice/drawing cards and past journaling what happens.) Rather than penning a fewer elemental sentences of what happened, I person ChatGPT return my crippled points and constitute a paragraph. Then, I usage ElevenLabs to narrate the segment to me. It is honestly really fun.” — Albert

One of my New Year’s resolutions this twelvemonth is to scroll little and crippled more. I’m not trying to not discarded clip connected my phone, I conscionable want to discarded that clip successful a measurement that makes maine consciousness bully and not bad. So that intends tons of limits connected societal apps, and full free rein connected the NYT Games app, Puzzmo, Balatro, and the remainder of the places I tin move hours and hours of free time.

This displacement has, somewhat unexpectedly, made maine perfectly emotion Apple Arcade. For $6.99 a month, I get a bunch of exclusive games and, much importantly, a batch of games without ads aliases in-app acquisition shenanigans. As a result, I’m playing much games — and trying much caller ones — than ever. I’ve moreover started playing Asphalt 8 again, which is overmuch much nosy erstwhile it’s not begging you for money each the time. Now I conscionable person to retrieve really to extremity crashing truthful much.

See you adjacent week!

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