The biggest news from CES 2022 – TechCrunch

Be it virtual, in-person or some mix of the two, CES is a beast. How could you keep up with all of the news flooding out of the show? You can’t, really. The big outlets each put a small army on CES coverage and only really scratch the surface.

With that in mind, and with CES 2022 now wrapped, we figured it was worthwhile to bring it all together in one neat little box — a recap of our top stories of the week, the trends we noticed and some of our favorite bits. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’ll give you a good sense of the show if you were too busy to pay attention in real time.

The top stories

We wrote up many, many, many news items from CES. Can’t read them all? Here’s some of the stuff that folks read and shared the most:

BMW shows off a color-changing car

It’s like something out of a sci-fi flick: push a button, and your car changes color. Based on E Ink tech along the same lines as a Kindle screen, it’ll only flip between black/white/shades of grey… but still — wow. Don’t go looking for a preorder page, though… for now, it’s just a tech demo.

Nvidia launches the $249 GeForce RTX 3050

Between crypto miners, resellers and chip shortages, good graphics cards are hard to come by right now — especially if you don’t want to pay a huge markup. So it makes sense that a great card meant to ship at a budget-friendly price would grab a lot of eyes… but will resellers just gobble up all of these, too?

Nvidia expands its GeForce Now game streaming ecosystem

Nvidia had a good bit of news around its game streaming service, GeForce Now: new games, free subscriptions for select AT&T customers and plans to build it right into Samsung TVs.

Nvidia had quite the CES; while it didn’t break the top stories list, its announcement that it is opening up its Omniverse tech to more creators also pulled a ton of eyes.

Meet Bob, a cute little dishwasher that saves water and zaps bacteria

Want a dishwasher, but dont have space and/or don’t want to deal with ripping out cabinets or installing water lines? Bob lives on your counter and you add the water with a pitcher. Plus you can use its water-free UV-C mode to disinfect things like phones, or keys, or other things that can’t get wet. Plus it’s hella cute.

How sweet is your blood? Scanbo gives an answer without poking holes in you

“How sweet is your blood?” writes Haje in a wonderfully Haje headline. It’s early days, but AI company Scanbo is aiming to do glucose monitoring without the painful, exhausting, never-ending finger pricks

Sony gives first details on next-gen PS VR2 headset for PS5

We’ve known for a while that Sony has been working on a new VR headset for the PS5, but now we know a lot more… like that it’s called PS VR 2, has a much improved display, supports foveated rendering and more.

GAF Energy takes on Tesla’s Solar Roof

“GAF Energy, a division of the roofing giant, claims its new solar shingles are simple enough to install that no special equipment or knowledge is required, making home renewable energy that much more accessible,” writes Devin Coldewey.

Power1 is an iPhone battery case with a spot for your AirPods

Ever wished you could just cram your AirPods right into your iPhone instead of carrying around an extra little widget? This case makes it happen. Brian Heater goes hands-on with a prototype.

Spot goes into the metaverse

“By connecting robots to the metaverse, we will be able to move freely between both the real world and virtual reality,” says Hyundai Motor Group President Chang Song in a sentence that explodes my brain a little. Will traveling the planet — or, as Hyundai’s promo video suggests, Mars — in a robot avatar be a totally normal thing at some point?

Sony explores building electric cars

Sony has been experimenting with cars for a few years now, showing new prototypes at each of the last two CES events. Now they’ve announced the formation of a new company, Sony Mobility Inc., just to figure out how to commercialize their EV efforts.

The Trends

Why Matter matters

Smart home devices can be great… once you get them up and running. But for most people, just figuring out what works together is a chore. A lot of the biggest tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.) have banded together to build a protocol called Matter, and Christine Hall has a look at how those efforts are going so far.

Robots roll out

Are we close to having Rosie the robot roaming our homes? Or are we forever stuck with puck-shaped robo-vacuums that eat our socks? In last week’s Actuator newsletter, Brian Heater gave us a look at where consumer robotics are today, and how it has moved forward over the years. Plus there’s a robot cat that nibbles on your finger for some reason?

EV Chargers charge up

Electric vehicles tend to grab most of the headlines… but what about the boxes that you plug them into to give’m juice? There’s growing competition in the space, and Rebecca Bellan has the overview about what each team is doing differently.

E-Bikes and Scooters take charge

What’s left to build in the world of e-bikes and scooters? How can one fancy electric scooter differentiate itself from another? Our mobility team took us on a ride through all of the micro-vehicle news from the show.

VR simmers

Rather than any one headset or “killer app” making VR an overnight ubiquitous thing, its story so far has been one of incremental progression — and CES this year moved it a few more steps down the road.

Metaverses metaversed the metaverse

Metaverse? Metaverse! “Metaverse” was by far the buzziest word at CES this year, even if a few companies’ use of the word was… questionable.

Gadgets galore

The organization behind CES might not want anyone to call it “Consumer Electronics Show” anymore (as it aims to broaden its scope to all of technology, not just the electronic bits), but there are still lots, and lots, and lots gizmos and gadgets to be found. Heater took a look at some of the most interesting ones.

Elder tech can help everyone

As much as we’d love to pretend otherwise, we all get old. Before we know it, we’ll have a generation of seniors that grew up from day one with the internet always within reach. How can tech evolve to help older people live more comfortably? From robot companions to lightbulbs that might help detect falls, Catherine Shu rounded up the latest advancements in elder tech.

Our favorite bits

We spent the last week with our heads buried in CES news — and, for much of the CES team, it was our seventh or eight or zillionth time doing so. What stood out to us? Here’s some of the stuff we’re still thinking about.

John Deere’s self-driving tractor

Mercedes-Benz’s Vision

BMW’s color-changing concept car

The Labrador robot

Mui Lab’s “calm” smart home device

Bob