Technology

A big list of the best tiny games on the internet

Published

2 years ago

May 27, 2024

A big list of the best tiny games on the internet

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 39, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for gadgets this week, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been writing about Surfaces and other tablets, chatting with some internet friends about the fall of Red Lobster, reading about Magic: The Gathering and the history of emoji, watching MoviePass, MovieCrash, weeding my patio with a literal flamethrower, and for some reason, eating a lot of popcorn. Like, a lot of popcorn.

I also have for you a bunch of cool new gadgets, a new YouTube channel you’re going to love, a new-old Mario game, a clever new AI tool for Windows, lots and lots of fun new games, and a whole bunch more. Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into this week? What should everyone be into? What is so awesome that everyone needs to know about it right this second or else? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

The Sonos Ace headphones. I’m generally very happy with my Bose QuietComfort Headphones, which are kind of beaten up but still work great. Even for $450, though, the Ace look really nice — I dig the super-minimalist vibe, almost like they’re an early prototype the company shipped. Really curious to see the reviews on these.
The new Surface Pro. If you’re one of the “why can’t my iPad do more stuff” kinds of people, the device you want might not be an iPad. It might be the new $999 Surface Pro, which Microsoft promises has great performance and battery, comes in cool colors, and has a really nifty new keyboard attachment.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Another great reboot from Nintendo, which is remarkably good at sprucing up old Mario games and getting me hooked on them all over again. Like my colleague Andrew Webster wrote, the Switch is turning into a retro Mario RPG machine, and it’s awesome.
Howtown. I love a good “no mystery too small” show, which is why I’m a religious consumer of things like Search Engine and Underunderstood. This new YouTube channel, from two excellent creators, is an insta-subscribe for me. And they have some really fun guests lined up!
Microsoft Recall. One of the cooler AI apps I’ve seen — and maybe the best argument yet for why you need an “AI PC.” Sure, an app that tracks everything you do on your computer feels slightly creepy, but that’s kind of already how your computer works. This just makes it useful.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Fury Road is one of the coolest movies ever made, if you ask me, and by all accounts, Furiosa is a worthy — if slightly slower and less, uh, bonkers — follow-up. It’s also apparently the rare prequel that adds something to the first flick; guess which two movies I’ll be watching this weekend.
Stompers. I’m currently very into silly, chill, less-intense workout apps, and this is such a funny one. You compete with your friends to walk more, and when you’re winning, your friends get, like, virtual bananas to slow you down. Delightful!
Canva. Canva launched a big redesign this week (at least, if you can find a “secret portal”), which comes with a bunch of clever AI features and some new ways for your IT department to give Canva money. I don’t use Canva much personally, but the folks I know who do tend to love it. This should be good news.
Hellblade II. This game sounds genuinely terrifying — and there’s not much I love more than a game that makes me scream out loud. The sound design appears to be particularly intense, so if you need me this weekend, I’ll be holed up in the dark scaring myself half to death.
The Daylight DC1. Half of me rolls my eyes at anyone who’s like, “Gadgets are bad. Here’s a gadget to save you from gadgets.” And it’s $729! But I love the retro-future aesthetic here, I’m hopeful the screen tech works, and I’ll be keeping an eye on this thing for sure.

Group project

Last week, I asked you to share your favorite minigames on the internet. Things you can play in a few minutes. Maybe you play once a day, maybe you play it 50 times in a row while you’re on the train to work. Did I ask for this because selfishly I’m sort of bored of Quordle and Name Drop and wanted new stuff to try? Partly! But I also suspected I’m not the only one who loves these games.

Oh boy, was I right. Thank you to everyone who responded! I got a ton of great suggestions, and I want to share as many of them as I can. First of all, here are the ones you recommended the most often:

Coffee Golf. A new five-hole golf course to play every day. (This was the most recommended game of the week, by a lot, and I can see why. I love it.)
Bandle. Guess the song, one instrument at a time.
Travle. Get from one place to another, one adjacent country at a time.
Connections. Find the four words that belong together.
Framed. Guess the movie, one screenshot at a time.
Wordle. Can’t forget the OG!

And here is a list, in no particular order but very slightly categorized, of some of the other great game recommendations I got. First up, there are the games that I’d describe as “Wordle, but not exactly:”

Worldle. Guess the country by its shape.
Summle. Put the numbers and operators in place to make math equations work.
Episode. Like Framed, but for TV shows.
CineQuote. Guess the movie, one line at a time.
Murdle. Solve a mystery with only a few clues.
Waffle. Rearrange the board until all the letters are in the right place.
Knotwords. Like sudoku meets a crossword puzzle.
Strands. A word search with a theme.
Queens / Pinpoint / Crossclimb. The three new daily games on LinkedIn, which are all pretty fun.
Housle. Guess the house price by the photo.

I heard about a bunch of Immaculate Grid games, which are a huge new category and are very fun:

Immaculate Grid. The original, I think? Guess the athlete, across lots of sports.
GeoGrid. Guess the country.
Cinematrix. Guess the movie.

And last but not least, there were the other games. Not all of them are daily, but I think they fit the “it’s a thing you can do a couple of minutes at a time,” so I’ll allow them:

Pedantle. Find words in a redacted page to figure out which Wikipedia entry it is.
Chrome’s Dino Game. Best use of a broken webpage ever.
Contexto. Try to guess the word just by guessing other words.
Football Bingo. Turns out, I don’t know soccer as well as I thought.
Untitled Game. It loads a blank webpage. You figure out what to do next.
Random battles on Pokemon Showdown.
Universal Paperclips. You make paperclips. And sell them. As many as you can. Forever.
Box Office Game. The game gives you a weekend and some numbers, you try to guess the most popular movies.

I now have about two-thirds of these games bookmarked in my browser, and I will be playing them all every day forever. I may never be productive again. Thanks again to everyone who shared their favorite games, and I hope you find something fun to play!

Screen share

David Imel is a man of many talents. He uses weird, old photography equipment to make truly gorgeous panoramic photos; he makes great videos going super duper deep into how we talk to each other online; he hosts podcasts and makes videos with the rest of the MKBHD crew.

I asked David to share his homescreen, both to see which of his cool photos he picked as a wallpaper and to snoop on whether he had any cool photography / podcasting apps I didn’t know about. Turns out, he’s pretty minimalist! Here’s David’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The wallpaper: A picture I took in Ohio while chasing the eclipse on a Fujifilm GFX 100S II Frankenstein attached to my Chamonix 4×5 view camera.

The apps: Photos, Settings, Viewfinder, Fujifilm Camera Remote, Telegram, Gmail, Pocket Casts, Messages, Arc, Spotify.

Gotta be honest, I generally use the swipe down to search apps gesture every time I want to use an app. I don’t know if that makes me a psycho, but I only keep a few on the homescreen. The widgets are for my bedroom lights and blinds — all running on Matter. 🤙 I get very little light in my apartment, so the blinds close at 9PM and open at 7AM to help me wake up, and I toggle the lights manually.

Viewfinder Preview. This is my favorite app for shooting film. I mostly use it for my 6:17 and 6:24 120 film cameras, but it’s amazing. You can emulate any film format and field of view, and you can take digital copies to both remember which image you shot and what your settings were. It’s also a light meter and has been super accurate.

Fujifilm Camera Remote. I use this to transfer photos from my X100 (my daily camera) to my phone. The new app (Fujfilmi XApp) never works for me for some reason, but the old app still works great.

Pocket Casts. This is probably the most-used app on my phone. I’ve used this app since like 2010 for podcasts, and since I bought it once for $7 way back in the day, I got grandfathered in for a lifetime pro tier once they added a subscription model. It’s a really fantastic podcast app, but I am aware that they hide a lot of features behind a subscription now, which kinda sucks.

Arc Search. David, I think you and I are probably both the biggest Arc fans on the internet. The browser is just so delightful, and the desktop app is absolutely incredible for research; segmenting out my work life / accounts / research projects, and spaces is great. I could talk forever about how much I love the actually useful AI features they have in the desktop app like tab renaming, download / file renaming, tidy tab sorting, etc., alongside pinned tabs, the ability to share folders, and more.

I also asked David to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he shared:

Right now, I’m in the middle of getting a Hasselblad Flextight film scanner up and running. It’s the highest-quality scan you can get outside of a drum scan, but they’re so old, you have to use a super old Mac for it. My friend Willem Verbeeck made a video on it recently. A nice ex-professional photographer in California found out I’m into panoramic photography (especially my Fujifilm TX-1) and had a mask specifically made for it. It weighs 60 pounds.
I’m a big fan of Casey Newton and Kevin Roose’s Hard Fork podcast. It’s not exactly new, but I think they have a great dialogue, and considering they both cover similar things in their respective publications, the conversations are a great mix of funny, intelligent, and engaging.
I don’t watch a ton of movies, shows, or YouTube, but I’ve been going back through VSauce’s channel and watching his old videos just because I really like the style of WHY WHY WHY storytelling. Oldie, but very goodie. Also Gawx Art might be the best YouTuber on the platform right now, and this interview with him on Jack Conte’s Digital Spaghetti channel is freaking awesome.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week.

“I loved Jenny Nicholson’s YouTube essay about the demise of the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel experience. It’s long (four hours!), but she goes into every detail, from concept, to her own visit, to why it failed. Totally worth the time.” – Mike

“ReminderCal is a really awesome app that syncs iOS Reminders so they appear in iOS Calendar. I’ve set up Shortcut automations for it, and now it works like magic (even when using the app switcher!) and feels like Apple integrated it! Plus I’m absolutely loving Hit Me Hard and Soft. The whole album is Billie Eilish at her best, and I can’t get “Chihiro” out of my head!” – John

“Just saw someone mention SequoiaView, which is great, but WizTree is about 1 billion times faster. Hope it helps someone in a rush to clean up a disk…” – César

“I installed a Synology NAS in my home and set it up as a NAS (obviously) but also as a Plex server, which works really well! I can now watch my old DVDs and Blu-rays again using Plex, after importing them as MP4s, and it can also configure itself automatically to be accessible from outside my local network.” – Wenzel

“Bought a bike recently and am really enjoying viewing my Apple Watch metrics on my iPhone. Using the Peak Design case and bike mount.” – Hobie

“After a long day, my favorite way of winding down before sleeping is watching this YouTube channel, Virtual Japan, that makes videos walking around Tokyo and other cities of Japan in a beautiful 4K HDR. My favorite videos are this one from an Onsen town and this one from a rainy midnight in Kyoto. It’s one of the best ways of calming the mind and the body before sleeping.” – Guilherme

“Apparently this isn’t new, but I just heard about Hoopla this week! It’s an app that you can connect your local library card to and gain access to their library of digital content including streaming movies and TV shows! I’ve found several shows on there that are otherwise only available on a streaming service I don’t want to pay for, so it’s been a great find for me this week!” – Charles

“Probably not new, but I learned about PlayCover and have been using it to replay the GTA III / Vice City / San Andreas games on my MacBook using my Netflix subscription.” – Alex

Signing off

About this time of year, a lot of people start asking me (and everyone else I know who likes gadgets) which Bluetooth speaker to buy. It’s party and barbecue time, I guess! There are lots of good choices out there, but let me just save you a bunch of time: buy a UE Wonderboom. The whole Boom lineup is great, honestly, but this one’s plenty loud, it’s tiny, it lasts forever, it sounds great, it’s $100. You might be able to beat it on one of those things, but I’ve never found a better “awesome speaker in a tiny box” anywhere. When the weather’s good, mine goes everywhere with me. Maybe we can hang at the beach and sync ours up for some sweet stereo tunes. Hit me up.

Technology

Most dubious uses of AI at CES 2026

Published

9 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

You can’t shake a stick without hitting an AI gadget at CES this year, with artificial smarts now embedded in just about every wearable, screen, and appliance across the show floor, not to mention the armies of AI companions, toys, and robots.

But those are just the beginning. We’ve seen AI pop up in much stranger places too, from hair clippers to stick vacs, and at least one case where even the manufacturer itself seemed unsure what made its products “AI.”

Here are the gadgets we’ve seen at CES 2026 so far that really take the “intelligence” out of “artificial intelligence.”

Glyde smart hair clippers

An extremely normal hair-cutting experience.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

This is a product that would be silly enough without the AI add-on. These smart hair clippers help amateur hairdressers deliver the perfect fade by dynamically altering the closeness of the cut, helped along by an ominous face mask that looks like it belongs in an optician’s office.

But it’s taken to the next level by the real-time AI coach, which gives you feedback as you cut. Glyde told me it’s working on voice controls for the AI too, and that eventually it will be able to recommend specific hairstyles, so long as you’re willing to trust its style advice. Are you?

Gotta love a CES booth that hands out mystery pills like they’re candy.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

“Where Pills meet AI.”

That was the message emblazoned across the SleepQ booth, where company reps were handing out boxes of pills — a multivitamin with ashwagandha extract according to the box, supposedly good for sleep, though I wasn’t brave enough to test that claim on my jetlag.

Manufacturer Welt, originally spun out of a Samsung incubator, calls its product “AI-upgraded pharmacotherapy.” It’s really just using biometric data from your smartwatch or sleep tracker to tell you the optimal time to take a sleeping pill each day, with plans to eventually cover anxiety meds, weight-management drugs, pain relief, and more.

There may well be an argument that fine-tuning the time people pop their pills could make them more effective, but I feel safe in saying we don’t need to start throwing around the term “AI-enhanced drugs.”

I always wished my vacuum was more intelligent.

Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Startup Deglace claims that its almost unnecessarily sleek-looking Fraction vacuum cleaner uses AI in two different ways: first to “optimize suction,” and then to manage repairs and replacements for the modular design.

It says its Neural Predictive AI monitors vacuum performance “to detect issues before they happen,” giving you health scores for each of the vacuum’s components, which can be conveniently replaced with a quick parts order from within the accompanying app. A cynic might worry this is all in the name of selling users expensive and proprietary replacement parts, but I can at least get behind the promise of modular upgrades — assuming Deglace is able to deliver on that promise.

AI-generated art of a bulldog wearing 18th-ish-century military garb and seated on a golden throne, in the style of an old oil painting.

You too can hang beautiful art like this in your home.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

Most digital picture frames let you display photos of loved ones, old holiday snaps, or your favorite pieces of art. Fraimic lets you display AI slop.

It’s an E Ink picture frame with a microphone and voice controls, so you can describe whatever picture you’d like, which the frame will then generate using OpenAI’s GPT Image 1.5 model. The frame itself starts at $399, which gets you 100 image generations each year, with the option to buy more if you run out.

What makes the AI in Fraimic so dubious is that it might be a pretty great product without it. The E Ink panel looks great, you can use it to show off your own pictures and photos too, and it uses so little power that it can run for years without being plugged in. We’d just love it a lot more without the added slop.

Into the ModuVerse.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

Infinix, a smaller phone manufacturer that’s had success across Asia for its affordable phones, didn’t launch any actual new products at CES this year, but it did bring five concepts that could fit into future phones. Some are clever, like various color-changing rear finishes and a couple of liquid-cooling designs. And then there’s the AI ModuVerse.

Modular phone concepts are nothing new, so the AI hook is what makes ModuVerse unique — in theory. One of the “Modus” makes sense: a meeting attachment that connects magnetically, generating AI transcripts and live translation onto a mini display on the back.

But when I asked what made everything else AI, Infinix didn’t really have any good answers. The gimbal camera has AI stabilization, the vlogging lens uses AI to detect faces, and the microphone has AI voice isolation — all technically AI-based, but not in any way that’s interesting. As for the magnetic, stackable power banks, Infinix’s reps eventually admitted they don’t really have any AI at all. Color me shocked.

This looks pretty smart, but it really is just a microwave.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

There’s a growing trend for AI and robotic cooking hardware — The Verge’s Jen Tuohy reviewed a $1,500 robot chef just last month — but Wan AIChef is something altogether less impressive: an AI-enabled microwave.

It runs on what looks suspiciously like Android, with recipe suggestions, cooking instructions, and a camera inside so you can see the progress of what you’re making. But… it’s just a microwave. So it can’t actually do any cooking for you, other than warm up your food to just the right temperature (well, just right plus or minus 3 degrees Celsius, to be accurate).

It’ll do meal plans and food tracking and calorie counting too, which all sounds great so long as you’re willing to commit to eating all of your meals out of the AI microwave. Please, I beg you, do not eat all of your meals out of the AI microwave.

A vertical monitor displaying an image of a margarita. There is a webcam mounted on top.

Yes, that is just a Dell monitor with a Logitech webcam stuck on top.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

The tech industry absolutely loves reinventing the vending machine and branding it either robotics or AI, and AI Barmen is no different.

This setup — apparently already in use for private parties and corporate events — is really just an automatic cocktail machine with a few AI smarts slapped on top.

The AI uses the connected webcam to estimate your age — it was off by eight years in my case — and confirm you’re sober enough to get another drink. It can also create custom drinks, with mixed success: When asked for something to “fuck me up,” it came up with the Funky Tequila Fizz, aka tequila, triple sec, and soda. What, no absinthe?

A palm-sized device with a small screen displaying a cartoon version of Elon Musk.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge

Should you buy your kid an AI toy that gives it a complete LLM-powered chatbot to speak to? Probably not. But what if that AI chatbot looked like chibi Elon Musk?

He’s just one of the many avatars offered by the Luka AI Cube, including Hayao Miyazaki, Steve from Minecraft, and Harry Potter. Kids can chat to them about their day, ask for advice, or even share the AI Cube’s camera feed to show the AI avatars where they are and what they’re up to. Luka says it’s a tool for fun, but also learning, with various educational activities and language options.

The elephant in the room is whether you should trust any company’s guardrails enough to give a young kid access to an LLM. Leading with an AI take on Elon Musk — whose own AI, Grok, is busy undressing children as we speak — doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

Dominic Preston

Technology

10 health tech products stealing the spotlight at CES 2026

Published

9 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

10 health tech products stealing the spotlight at CES 2026

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The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is the world’s largest consumer technology event, and it’s underway in Las Vegas. It takes over the city every January for four days and draws global attention from tech companies, startups, researchers, investors and journalists, of course.

CES is where many of the products that shape the next few years of consumer tech first appear. Think of it as a preview of what may soon land in our homes, hospitals, gyms and workplaces.

At CES 2026, flashy gadgets and robots are everywhere, but health technology is drawing some of the most attention. Across the show floor, companies are focusing on prevention, recovery, mobility, safety and long-term well-being. These 10 health tech products stole the spotlight in Las Vegas and hint at where wellness innovation could be headed next.

MARCH IS NUTRITION MONTH – HERE ARE 8 NUTRITION PRODUCTS THAT CAN HELP YOU LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFE

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CES 2026 put health tech front and center, with companies showcasing smarter ways to support prevention, mobility and long-term wellness. (CES)

The 10 health tech products turning heads at CES 2026

From AI-driven health insights to tools designed to reduce everyday risk, these are the health tech products people are stopping to look at on the CES 2026 show floor.

1) NuraLogix Longevity Mirror predicts your health in 30 seconds

NuraLogix introduced a smart mirror that turns a short selfie video into a snapshot of your long-term health outlook. The Longevity Mirror analyzes subtle blood flow patterns in your face using AI and scores metabolic health, heart health and physiological age from zero to 100.

Results appear in about 30 seconds along with clear explanations and recommendations. The AI was trained on hundreds of thousands of patient records, which helps translate raw data into understandable insights.

The mirror supports up to six user profiles. It launches in early 2026 for $899 and includes a one-year subscription. After this, the subscription costs $99 per year. Optional concierge support connects users with nutrition and wellness experts.

2) Ascentiz walking exoskeletons keep getting lighter and more practical

Ascentiz showed how mobility tech is shifting toward real-world use at CES 2026. The Ascentiz H1 Pro walking exoskeleton stood out for its lightweight, modular design, which reduces strain while supporting motor-assisted movement across longer distances.

The system uses AI to adapt assistance to the user’s motion and terrain, making it useful on inclines and uneven ground. A belt-based attachment system keeps the device compact and easy to wear, while dust- and water-resistant construction supports outdoor use in different conditions.

For users who need more power, Ascentiz also offers Ultra and knee or hip-attached models that deliver stronger assistance. Together, the lineup shows how exoskeletons are moving beyond clinical rehab and toward everyday mobility support.

3) Bambini Kids brings powered walking to pediatric rehab

Cosmo Robotics earned a CES Innovation Award for Bambini Kids, the first overground pediatric exoskeleton with powered ankle motion. It is designed for children ages 2.5 to 7 with congenital or acquired neurological disorders.

The system offers both active and passive gait training modes. Encouraging guided and natural movement helps children relearn walking skills while reducing complications linked to conditions like cerebral palsy.

NuraLogix’s AI-powered mirror uses a short selfie video to estimate heart health, metabolic health and biological age in about 30 seconds. (NuraLogix)

4) Sunbooster turns desk work into sunlight exposure

If you spend most of your day indoors, one of the wellness products drawing attention at CES 2026, Sunbooster, offers a practical way to replace a missing part of natural sunlight.

The device clips onto a monitor, laptop or tablet and projects near-infrared light while you work, without adding noise or disrupting your routine.

Near-infrared light is a natural component of sunlight linked to energy levels, mood and skin health. Sunbooster uses patented SunLED technology to deliver controlled exposure and tracks daily dosage, encouraging two to four hours of use during screen time.

The technology has been tested in human and laboratory studies conducted at the University of Groningen and Maastricht University, adding scientific backing to its claims. The company is also developing a phone case and a monitor with built-in near-infrared lighting, which could make sunlight replacement even more seamless in indoor environments.

SMART RINGS THAT CAN TRACK YOUR SLEEP, FITNESS, AND COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

5) Allergen Alert brings a pocket-sized lab to the table

Allergen Alert tackles one of the most stressful parts of eating out with food allergies. The handheld device tests a small food sample inside a sealed, single-use pouch and detects food allergens or gluten directly in a meal within minutes.

Built on laboratory-grade technology derived from bioMérieux expertise, the system automates the entire analytical process and delivers results without requiring technical knowledge. The company says the technology has attracted interest from highly demanding environments, including Michelin-starred restaurants, as a way to help reduce cross-contamination risk.

At CES 2026, Allergen Alert positioned the device as a tool designed to restore confidence and inclusion at the table. The mini-lab will be available for pre-orders at the end of 2026, with plans to expand testing to additional common allergens in the future.

6) Samsung Brain Health explores early cognitive changes

Samsung previewed Brain Health, a research-driven feature designed for Galaxy wearables that analyzes walking patterns, voice changes and sleep data to flag potential early signs of cognitive decline.

The system draws on data from devices like the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring to establish a personal baseline, then looks for subtle deviations linked to early dementia research. Samsung emphasizes that Brain Health is not intended to diagnose medical conditions. Instead, it aims to provide early warnings that encourage people and their families to seek professional evaluation sooner.

Samsung plans for future beta availability, but no public release date has been confirmed. At CES 2026, people can check out the feature during an in-person demo.

7) Withings BodyScan 2 turns a scale into a health hub

Withings is rethinking what a bathroom scale can do with BodyScan 2, which earned a CES 2026 Innovation Award. In under 90 seconds, the smart scale measures ECG data, arterial stiffness, metabolic efficiency and hypertension risk.

The connected app helps users see how stress, sedentary habits, menopause or weight changes affect cardiometabolic health. The focus shifts away from weight alone and toward early health signals that can be tracked over time.

An attendee sits for a one-minute UNO BrainBody health screening at the UNOVINS booth during CES 2026, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Jan. 7, 2026. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)

8) Garmin Venu 4 focuses on health trends, not single stats

Garmin earned a CES Innovation Honore Award for the Venu 4 smartwatch. A new health status feature highlights when metrics like heart rate variability and respiration drift away from personal baselines.

Lifestyle logging links daily habits to sleep and stress outcomes. With up to 12 days of battery life, the watch supports continuous tracking without nightly charging.

RheoFit A1 delivers a hands-free, AI-guided massage experience designed to speed recovery after workouts or long days at a desk. (RheoFit)

9) Ring Fire Watch turns doorbells into wildfire sensors

Ring introduced Fire Watch, an opt-in feature that uses AI to detect smoke and flames from compatible cameras. During wildfires, users can share snapshots with Watch Duty, a nonprofit that distributes real-time fire alerts to communities and authorities.

It shows how existing home tech can play a role in public safety during environmental emergencies.

10) RheoFit A1 delivers hands-free AI recovery

RheoFit A1 may be the most relaxing health gadget at CES 2026. The AI-powered robotic roller glides beneath your body to deliver a full-body massage in about 10 minutes.

With interchangeable massage attachments and activity-specific programs, it targets soreness from workouts or long hours at a desk. The companion app uses an AI body scan to adapt pressure and focus areas automatically.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

CES 2026 showed how health tech is becoming more practical and more personal. Many of the products on this list focus on catching problems earlier, reducing everyday stress and helping people make better decisions about their health. From tools that flag potential health risks to devices that improve safety at home, the real shift is toward technology that fits naturally into our daily lives.

Which of these CES 2026 health tech products would you actually use first in your daily life, and what problem would it solve for you? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Disney Plus is getting vertical video

Published

21 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Disney Plus will be getting a vertical video feed later this year, Disney announced as part of its Global Tech & Data Showcase for advertisers at CES.

Based on an interview with Erin Teague, Disney’s EVP of product management for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, Deadline reports that vertical video in the app could include “original short-form programming, repurposed social clips, refashioned scenes from longer-form episodic or feature titles or a combination.”

“Think all the short-form Disney content you’d want in one unified app,” Teague said onstage at Wednesday’s showcase. “Over time, we’ll evolve the experience as we explore applications for a variety of formats, categories, and content types for a dynamic feed of just what you’re interested in — from Sports, News, and Entertainment — refreshed in real time based on your last visit.”

Update, January 7th: Added quote from Disney’s Erin Teague.