CES is a week-long showcase of recent merchandise and repair from throughout industries. Some merchandise are true improvements, whereas others are undoubtedly duds. Some, nonetheless, are simply plain bizarre.
As I walked round CES this week, from conference heart halls to media-only occasions, I had a blast trying out the weirdest tech I may discover. In any case, simply because one thing is bizarre, does not make it boring or ineffective. Quite the opposite; a few of these gadgets had been among the many most attention-grabbing issues to see. These eight merchandise, nonetheless, stood out most to me:
Electrical Salt Spoon
Credit score: Jake Peterson
This was CNET Group’s choose for weirdest and most surprising product of CES, and it isn’t exhausting to see why. Kirin’s Electrical Salt Spoon makes meals style saltier, not with additional sodium, however by way of electrical energy.
In line with Kirin, the salt spoon makes use of a gentle electrical present to draw sodium molecules in your mouth that might in any other case be misplaced in your style buds. In doing so, the meals on the spoon tastes saltier than it in any other case would. You select one in all 4 depth ranges (the corporate recommends the bottom setting for rookies), press the button, and also you’re good to go. The spoon is gigantic, nonetheless, which makes it troublesome to activate the electrical present whereas consuming on the similar time.
It is bizarre, but in addition noble, because it may allow individuals who want to chop down on their sodium consumption to nonetheless take pleasure in “salty” meals.
I solely noticed the spoon on the present, and did not have an opportunity to style take a look at the product. Nevertheless, Mashable’s Matt Binder did: He wasn’t certain at first whether or not it was working, till the spoon shut off midway by way of a sip of broth, as a result of how awkward it was to carry. Dropping the impact whereas consuming with the spoon did exhibit the way it was making the meals saltier.
Bodyfriend
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
I did not assume one of many weirdest issues I might see at CES could be a therapeutic massage chair, however that is as a result of I did not assume somebody would make a Transformers-style therapeutic massage chair—and one so clearly impressed by Bumblebee, at that.
To be clear, Hasbro has nothing to do with the chair. That is Bodyfriend, a therapeutic massage chair with legs and arms that may transfer as if it had been a robotic. That, supposedly, helps folks stretch muscle tissues they would not in any other case have the ability to transfer themselves. Nevertheless, to me, it looks as if a slow-moving robotic that is fallen and might’t stand up.
The chair has 733 components and might measure your coronary heart fee, along with, in fact, providing massages. You may see CNET’s Bridget Carey give it a attempt at CES Unveiled:
Petal
Credit score: Jake Peterson
Do you like your vegetation? Do you ever marvel how they’re feeling? Do you want they might textual content you? After all you do. That is why there’s Petal, from the makers of Chicken Buddy.
Petal is a digicam with a versatile stem you’ll be able to add to your yard, to maintain tabs in your vegetation and flowers. After all, because it’s 2025, Petal can be powered by AI and might establish potential hazards to your flora, akin to bugs and bees. There’s even an interactive choice that permits you to “chat” along with your flowers by way of Chicken Buddy’s chatbot, so you’ll be able to be taught what number of issues your flower “noticed” at the moment.
Nékojita FuFu
Credit score: Jake Peterson
In case you hate your drinks being too sizzling, you do not have to chill them down your self; as a substitute, you would use Nékojita FuFu. This small cat system sits on the rim of a mug or bowl, and, utilizing a tiny inside fan, blows in your sizzling drink or meals for you.
It sounds foolish, and it undoubtedly is, however the firm claims it really works: The FuFu can cool sizzling water down from 190°F to 160°F in three minutes, and 151°F in 5 minutes. Examine that to 176°F after three minutes and 171°F after 5 minutes with out the cat, and it does appear to do one thing.
I am unable to think about this stuff gaining widespread recognition, but it surely’s additionally enjoyable. It jogs my memory of novelty tea infusers, like “Mr. Tea.” If it makes you cheerful to have a cute cat in your mug cooling your espresso to a drinkable temperature, I am all for it.
I additionally like the thought proposed by the highest touch upon our article concerning the Nékojita FuFu: “Put this on one of many rechargeable ‘keep sizzling mugs’ and let ’em combat it out.”
AeroCatTower
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
The AeroCatTower is an air air purifier. It is also a cat tower. You may need gathered that by the creepy cat sitting atop the system.
It isn’t clear how properly the AeroCatTower cleans the air, but it surely does take your cat into consideration. When your pet jumps on prime to relaxation, the machine slows down in order to not disturb them. Plus, there is a built-in seat heater to ensure they’re additional comfortable. Hey, perhaps it will preserve your cat off your keyboard.
Realbotix
In case you had been strolling round CES and weren’t certain whether or not or not you noticed Realbotix’s sales space, you missed it. Realbotix is out right here attempting to make anthropomorphic AI-powered robots, and the result’s, properly, bizarre. Simply watch CNET’s interview with Aria, one in all Realbotix’s robots, to see why. Aria’s face is firmly within the uncanny valley, as is the very fact her lips are completely out of sync along with her speech. Her actions typically are removed from pure. The entire thing form of looks as if chatting with a personality from a PS1 sport.
What’s weirder, although, is when Realbotix swaps out the faces on the robots, leaving you with a flimsy, creepy face masks. I get what Realbotix goes for right here, however its present robots are disconcerting, to say the least. (I walked previous this sales space and audibly mentioned “Jesus Christ” to myself.)
Credit score: CNET/YouTube
ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable
Credit score: Michelle Ehrhardt
We coated two main merchandise from Lenovo at CES this 12 months: One was the Lenovo Legion Go S, the primary PC gaming handheld not from Valve to natively run SteamOS. Very cool. The opposite was the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, a laptop computer that has a rollable show that extends an additional 2.7 inches vertically. Very bizarre, but in addition very cool.
Lifehacker affiliate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt sat down with Lenovo to check out the funky laptop computer. As marketed, you’ll be able to press a button or use a hand gesture to unfurl your laptop computer’s show to a full 16.7 inches, which is neat. You get the advantage of a big show within the kind issue of a 14-inch laptop computer—plus the novelty of showing components of your show you by no means knew had been hidden within the laptop computer, in fact. The remainder of the machine is a fundamental Copilot+ PC, although, with an Intel Core Extremely 7 chip, as much as 32GB of RAM, and as much as 1TB of storage—so no overly fancy internals to go with the novel show tech. At $3,500, Lenovo could have priced this into being extra bizarre than cool, although.
Dell’s massive rebrand
Credit score: Dell
You already know what’s bizarre? Throwing out a longtime model like XPS in favor of language each different tech firm makes use of. It is a complicated transfer from Dell, who made headlines throughout this week’s CES when it introduced the tip of XPS, Inspiron, Latitude, Precision, and its different manufacturers. Now, Dell computer systems will are available three traces: Dell, Dell Professional, and Dell Professional Max. In every of these traces, there are three additional traces to think about: Base, Plus, and Premium.
Your pal may need a Dell Plus, whereas one other may purchase a Dell Professional Base, all of the whilst you have a Dell Professional Max Premium. That is not so complicated, is it? Whether it is, try Khamosh Pathak’s explainer right here.
