Hasta La Gadget!

We’re moving on from washing machines. As part of its refreshed Bespoke smart home appliances lineup, Samsung has revealed a new high-tech oven. The new range also includes a washer and dryer, so maybe we haven’t quite moved on.

The highlight is its Bespoke AI Oven. It has a seven-inch screen and touch controls, and features air sous-vide, air frying, and steam cooking methods. The most intriguing element is the AI Camera inside. The camera can detect what you’re making and suggest optimal cooking settings if it recognizes the cuisine. You can even monitor the cooking using the screen or the SmartThings app (which you can use to control the oven remotely).

There’s also the option to take photos of your creation or even livestream the video feed. To someone. Anyone.

– Mat Smith

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German Bionic debuts its lightest powered exosuit to date at CES 2023

I’m more intrigued by its ergonomics-monitoring safety vest.

German Bionic

German Bionic, the robotic exoskeleton startup behind the Cray X, will show off two new posture-protecting products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada this week. The Apogee is the company’s latest and lightest powered exosuit built for commercial and industrial use. The company’s new SafetyVest, on the other hand, doesn’t actively help the user pick up heavy stuff but it does monitor their movements and body positioning as they work and offers “data-based, personalized ergonomic insights, as well as assessments and recommended actions.”

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LG’s 2023 OLED TVs are up to 70 percent brighter

With a revamped interface and better sound options.

LG’s new TVs should be even brighter. They will include a per-pixel Brightness Booster Max feature that, on certain G3 series TVs, promises up to a 70 percent brighter picture, meaning less time squinting during daytime viewing. The G3, C3 and 8K-capable Z3 all use a new processor that offers AI upscaling, HDR tone mapping and object-based picture sharpening. The chip also helps deliver 9.1.2-channel surround sound from the built-in speakers. As is often the case when LG reveals its latest screens, you’ll have to wait a little longer for pricing and availability.

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Tesla set a new company record for vehicle deliveries

Over 405,000 Teslas shipped in Q4 2022.

Tesla delivered 405,278 electric vehicles over the final three months of 2022. It’s a new record for the company, but it still fell short of estimates from analysts. According to Tesla, the Model 3 and Model Y made up most of the company’s deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2022, with 388,131 of those vehicles making their way to consumers before the end of the year. Tesla faced macroeconomic and logistical challenges multiple times in 2022/ COVID-19 restrictions in China forced Tesla to suspend and reduce production at its Shanghai Gigafactory. Tesla also closed the facility during the last week of December.

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Last year at CES, Samsung folded its displays nearly every way you could think of, but this year it’s combining that with another trick — sliding. The Flex Hybrid OLED mobile screen, debuting at CES 2023, can both fold from one side and slide out on the other, changing both the size and aspect ratio. 

Starting off at a relatively compact 4.2-inches or so wide, it can fold out to a 10.5-inch 4:3 display suitable for productivity. You can then slide out the right side to create a 12.4-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That would make it well suited for entertainment or content creation, particularly considering the potentially excellent image quality offered by the OLED display technology. 

Samsung Display

The extra two inches of screen appears to roll from under the right-hand side of the device when slid out, judging by the extra thickness on that side of the display. The combined technology could effectively allow you to carry a 12.4-inch, 16:10 OLED tablet in a jacket pocket — ideal for entertainment or working on the go.

Two other Samsung displays will make their public debuts at CES 2023. The Flex Slidable Solo expands from a 14-inch OLED panel to a wider 17.3-inch display by sliding open from one side. And the Flex Slidable Duet OLED extends from two sides to make the same conversion. Both panels were featured at Intel’s Innovation 2022 event in September, but have yet to be shown in public. 

Arlo’s older security cameras will lose access to future updates and some perks users have been enjoying these past years, now that the company has started implementing a new end-of-life policy for its products. As users reported on Reddit (via 9to5Google), the company has sent out emails to announce the new policy and the first products to be affected: the Generation 3 (VMC3030) and Pro (VMC4030) cameras, which were released in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The two models will lose access to the seven free days of cloud storage Arlo bundles with its cameras starting on April 1st, 2023. They’ll also be the first models to stop receiving firmware and security updates, as well as bug fixes. 

In its full announcement (PDF) for the policy, Arlo explained that it will pull its cameras four years after the last time they were mass produced. Following the first two models above, the next Arlo cameras to lose access to updates and features include the Arlo Baby (ABC1000), Pro 2 (VMC4030P), Q (VMC3040) and Q+ (VMC3040S). Their end-of-life date is on January 1st, 2024. The company will also stop supporting Arlo Lights (ALS1101) and Audio Doorbell (AAD1001) on the same date. 

To note, users don’t have to throw them out as soon as those dates arrive. They can continue using the cameras to access livestreamed videos, as well as video clips stored locally with compatible Arlo base stations. But they’ll have to pay for Arlo’s Secure subscription service to have access to cloud storage, and the cameras will likely lose features over time since they’ll no longer get firmware upgrades. 

In addition to putting an EOL date on its products, Arlo is also phasing out its email notifications and E911 emergency calling service on April 1st, as well as its Legacy Video Storage on AWS S3 on January 1st, 2024. The company said it will provide a 30-day advance notice for products that will be affected by the EOL rule, though, so people can decide whether to buy newer devices or to continue using their old ones. 

Samsung launched its QD-OLED TV lineup last year at CES promising higher brightness than other OLED TVs, particularly its arch-rival LG. However, it was only mildly brighter than LG OLEDs back then, and yesterday, LG unveiled its 2023 OLED TV lineup with up to 70 percent more brightness and peak levels reportedly hitting around 1,800 nits. 

Now, Samsung Display has announced that its 2023 QD-OLED TV lineup will hit up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, possibly pipping LG and approaching Mini-LED TVs, if accurate. That’s thanks to a new QD-OLED Panel from Samsung Display, which uses a new “HyperEfficient EL” OLED material and Samsung’s IntelliSense AI. The TVs will also be more energy efficient and offer more accurate colors, according to Samsung Display.

The new TVs will also be available in a wider range of sizes. Where the 2022 S95B came in just 55- and 65-inch sizes, you’ll be able to purchase 49-, 55-, 65- and 77-inch TVs this year. The company hasn’t announced other features, but you can expect to see Tizen OS, HDR10+ (and likely not Dolby Vision, once again), along with Bixby, Alexa and SmartThings. Pricing and availability haven’t been revealed either, but we should learn more at CES 2023 in the coming days.

The “prospects don’t look good,” the economist warned in his New York Times column.