We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

As we head into 2026, many people are setting fitness goals and signing up for gym memberships. But if you have the space at home, it’s a lot more convenient to get your cardio in with an at-home treadmill and skip the crowds. While this is by no means the most advanced model on the market, the NordicTrack T Series 5 treadmill is an entry-level smart treadmill for walkers and runners, offering reliable performance and a smaller-than-average footprint. Right now, it’s 20% off at $479 (originally $599).

NordicTrack T Series 5 0-10MPH Incline Treadmill with 5″ Display

$479.00
at Amazon

$599.00
Save $120.00

$479.00
at Amazon

$599.00
Save $120.00

The NordicTrack T Series runs up to 10 mph at a maximum 10% incline and has a 5-inch LCD display that shows basic stats, but it doesn’t have a big built-in touchscreen (unlike the T-Series 8, which is 30% off right now), so it relies mostly on your phone or tablet, which can be placed on the device shelf. With an iFIT integration, you can follow guided workouts where the treadmill automatically adjusts speed and terrain as trainers coach you through your run. It still works in Manual mode if you don’t have a subscription, but it’s worth noting that part of the price tag goes toward these smart features.

At 68 inches long, it has a more compact footprint than many at-home treadmills, which typically run from 72 to 84 inches, making it easier to squeeze into smaller offices, dens, and garages. It’s also a little more lightweight due to its smaller frame and has wheels on one end, making it easier to move around. While its smaller size is a perk for many, it also means a narrower running belt, which may be a downside for runners with a longer stride or anyone who wants more lateral room. 

With a 2.6 HP motor, it’s a mid-power option. If you’re looking to sprint daily or do a lot of intervals, at 2.6 HP, you may want a higher-powered model. But for walkers and joggers who want a compact machine and incline for conditioning, the NordicTrack T Series 5 treadmill is ideal for space-limited homes and anyone who wants a virtual trainer experience, especially at just $479. However, if you don’t plan to use iFIT and want a wider or longer belt (or a larger display), you may want to go with another model.

Longtime reader joshuark shares a report: As spotted by Bluesky user DodgerFanLA, going to Office.com now greets you with the following helpful explainer: “The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps now including Copilot.*”

Never has an asterisk been more relevant to me than following the words “your favorite apps now including Copilot.”

About a decade ago, hardware company Corsair attempted to pivot from its classic logo — a subtle trio of ship sails — to a newer, edgier look, a pair of crossed swords that gave off regrettable ‘2000s tribal tattoo’ energy. The rebrand didn’t last long: after a fierce outcry from people who correctly thought the new logo sucked, Corsair swapped to a refreshed take on the sail logo, which it’s been using ever since. Corsair was established in 1994, and made about $1.4 billion last year — which I bring up because today Microsoft, a slightly bigger company, has slipped on its own rebranding banana peel. The company is seemingly all but ditching the Office name — which it introduced four years before Corsair existed, and which drove more than $30 billion in revenue just last quarter — with a catchy new name: “Microsoft 365 Copilot app.”

The company had already downplayed the Office name, despite it being perhaps the most universally recognized software in existence, by renaming its cloud version of Word, Powerpoint, etc. Office 365 in 2010, then Microsoft 365 in 2017. Now when you want to open up a Word document, you can get to them by launching the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Intuitive!

Should Microsoft just go ahead and rebrand Windows, the only piece of its arsenal more famous than Office, as Copilot, too? I do actually think we’re not far off from that happening. Facebook rebranded itself “Meta” when it thought the metaverse would be the next big thing, so it seems just as plausible that Microsoft could name the next version of Windows something like “Windows with Copilot” or just “Windows AI.”

Copilot is the app for launching the other apps, but it’s also a chatbot inside the apps. Any questions?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

The USB-C charging port is likely to remain ubiquitous on phones for the foreseeable future—at least until the engineers at Apple figure out how to make the long-rumored portless iPhone—but this little socket is more versatile than you may have realized.

Here are four other ways to put your USB-C port to use, no matter what your make and model of phone—from freeing up space on your handset to boosting your on-the-go productivity. It’s almost like adding extra superpowers to your handset.

Attach external storage

Both iOS and Android have integrated file management apps.
Credit: Lifehacker

You can plug external USB storage devices of almost every description into your phone, just as you can with your laptop or desktop computer. Lifehacker has written before about how this works on an iPhone, and many Android phones offer the same functionality, with the default file browser app also able to see the external drive.

You may need an adapter of some description, and you may need to make sure the USB drive is formatted in a particular way (a quick web search for the details for your particular phone model will tell you if this is the case). but often, you can just plug in your drive and the phone will figure out what’s what.

This is a helpful for backing up photos and videos without paying a monthly fee for cloud storage, or simply to free up some storage space on your device. It’s also a quick and easy way of getting files onto your phone, whether that’s audio or video files you want to play without having to stream them, or books or documents you need to review during a long trip when you won’t be able to rely on getting a good signal.

Put videos on a bigger screen

Many handsets—the latest iPhones and Pixel phones included—can output video over a USB-C connection. One scenario where this is useful is if you’re in a hotel room and you want to get a movie up on the room television without having to mess with wifi or streaming protocols.

This can be quite fiddly in terms of the cables you need and how they attach to the TV, but if you do some research around your particular phone model and the inputs you want to connect to, you should be able to get it working without too much trouble. Here’s Apple’s guide for the cables and adapters you need for the iPhone, for example.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy device, then it will probably support Samsung DeX. This is a desktop environment (like Windows or macOS) that you can run on an external monitor or TV from your phone, enabling you to not only play videos on the larger display, but also use social media, web browsing, and productivity apps too.

Connect a gaming controller

The Backbone One is an example of a gaming controller you can attach.
Credit: Backbone

There are some great mobile games around for iOS and Android, but using touchscreen controls can be awkward: You’re just about to blast an alien spaceship out of existence when you tap the wrong part of the display and turn down the brightness instead. It’s not ideal, but a dedicated gaming controller can help.

Lifehacker has covered some of these controllers in the past, and many can hook up via your phone’s USB-C port—giving you a solid and stable connection to the gaming action without any lag. You won’t need to charge the controller either if it’s hooked up via USB-C, as it’ll use the power coming from your phone’s battery.

One of the best examples of this is the $99.99 Backbone One controller. It works with Android phones and iPhones, and gives you a gaming boost in titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. It can also work really well if you’re streaming games from your Microsoft or Sony console to your phone over wifi.

Attach a mouse and keyboard

There are yet more peripherals you can plug into your smartphone, including two that can harness its versatility as a productivity device: a mouse and a keyboard. This works on a broad range of iPhone and Android handsets—here are the instructions for plugging a wired mouse into a Samsung Galaxy phones, for instance. (You can also connect these peripherals via Bluetooth.)

Admittedly you’re probably not going to dig out a full size keyboard every time you send a text message, but if you’ve got a lot of emails or a long report to write while you’re on the go, a travel keyboard can be very helpful. If you’ve got a foldable phone with a larger screen, then you’ve got yourself a decent portable workstation.

It’s even possible to connect up a mouse and a keyboard together via a USB-C hub, with maybe a memory card slot as an added bonus. Just keep an eye on power usage: If you’re connecting multiple accessories, look for a hub that you can also connect your charger to, so your phone battery isn’t constantly running down.

CES 2026 officially opens today, but much of the show’s biggest announcements already landed during Monday’s press conferences and early events. AI was everywhere, chipmakers dominated the schedule and a handful of brands used the pre-show window to quietly drop meaningful hardware updates.

Below are the biggest announcements and trends from January 5, plus a few standout hands-ons from Pepcom and CES Unveiled.

LG doubles down on AI

LG

LG’s World Premiere keynote leaned hard into its vision of “Affectionate Intelligence,” with AI positioned as the connective tissue across TVs, appliances and even robotics. While most of the hardware was announced ahead of time, the company used the stage to show how its ideas fit together, including updated OLED TVs, Micro RGB panels and its ultra-thin Wallpaper TV.

The most memorable moment, though, was CLOiD, LG’s humanoid home robot, which capped off the presentation with demos that were more theatrical than practical. As usual for LG at CES, the vision was ambitious, even if much of it still feels a few years away.

NVIDIA pushes deeper into physical AI

NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s CES keynote was long, dense and firmly focused on AI infrastructure rather than consumer GPUs. CEO Jensen Huang introduced the Vera Rubin supercomputer platform, alongside updates to NVIDIA’s open AI models, robotics tools and autonomous vehicle stack.

Between discussions of “physical AI,” self-driving systems and massive data center hardware, NVIDIA made it clear it sees CES as a place to define the future of computing, not just sell graphics cards. If you were hoping for new GeForce news, this wasn’t the keynote for you.

Intel tries to reset the PC narrative

Intel

Intel’s press conference followed NVIDIA’s with a more focused pitch: the launch of Core Ultra Series 3 processors, also known as Panther Lake. Built on Intel’s 18A process — that’s less than 2nm — the chips are designed to power the next wave of AI PCs, with improved graphics, better efficiency and stronger local AI performance.

The message was clear: Intel wants to convince partners and consumers that it’s back in the game for high-end laptops, even as competition from AMD, Qualcomm and Apple continues to intensify.

AMD closes the night with AI-first silicon

AMD

AMD wrapped up press day with a keynote that mixed familiar AI rhetoric with meaningful chip announcements. Highlights included new Ryzen AI 400 laptop processors and updated desktop chips, including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D for enthusiasts.

As with NVIDIA and Intel, AMD leaned heavily into AI across cloud, PCs and edge devices. The difference was execution. AMD’s announcements felt more immediately relevant to products shipping this year.

Sony remains focused on Afeela

Afeela

Sony’s CES presence once again centered on Sony Honda Mobility and the Afeela electric vehicle. The company showed an updated prototype and shared progress updates, including expanded delivery plans and deeper entertainment integrations like PlayStation Remote Play.

For longtime CES watchers, it was a familiar story — the Afeela was first showcased here in 2020, after all. Sony’s traditional consumer electronics took a back seat, while mobility and software remained the headline.

Lego makes its CES debut with Smart Bricks

Lego

Lego held its first-ever CES press conference and used it to unveil Smart Bricks, part of a new “Smart Play” initiative that adds sensors, audio and wireless communication to traditional Lego pieces.

The system is launching with Star Wars sets later this year and is designed to work without apps or screens. It’s a notable shift for Lego and one of the more genuinely surprising announcements of the day.

Other notable CES day 0 news

Outside of the main press conferences, several companies made quiet but notable announcements (though some was Sunday news that hit the wires after the East Coast midnight hour). Samsung continued its CES rollout with new TVs, speakers and laptops. Anker drew attention with updated chargers and power accessories. Amazon shared incremental updates tied to Alexa and smart home hardware.

Meanwhile, Engadget’s team got hands-on with dozens of products at the Pepcom mini-show, from oddball gadgets to early looks at devices launching later this year.

Press day may be over, but CES is just getting started. The show floor opens today, with Lenovo, automotive tech, smart home gear and plenty of unexpected demos still to come. We’ll be publishing hands-ons, deep dives and daily recaps all week.

You can follow along with our CES 2026 liveblog or check back on Engadget for the latest updates as they happen.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ces-2026-day-0-the-biggest-news-you-missed-from-the-shows-monday-press-conferences-142811448.html?src=rss

Dell has unveiled an ultrawide, curved 52-inch 6K monitor at CES 2026. This productivity behemoth is designed for stock traders, engineers and other data professionals. Dell claims the UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is the world’s first 52-inch ultrawide curved 6K monitor (but with that many qualifiers almost anything can be a world first).

Given Dell’s experience in the monitor realm, this could be a dream display for professionals who handle vast data sets such as trading platforms, AutoCAD, 3D rendering software, spreadsheets and more. It sports a 120Hz refresh rate on an IPS Black panel and emits up to 60 percent less blue light when compared to competing monitors. It delivers an impressive 129 ppi (for comparison a 4K 32-inch monitor delivers 138 ppi) and an ambient light sensor helps avoid eye strain during long work sessions.

Users can connect up to four PCs to the monitor simultaneously, which can use picture-by-picture to treat each partitioned screen as an individual monitor. It also features built-in KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) features that let users control all connected PCs via a single mouse and keyboard. The monitor can also charge your laptop with up to 140W of power via a Thunderbolt 4 connection.

Dell also rolled out a new 32-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor with support for both True Black 500 HDR and Dolby Vision. It claims true-to-life color accuracy out of the box and excellent gamut coverage at 99 percent of DCI-P3. This monitor would be a strong fit for film and photo editing.

The Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is priced at $2,900 with stand or $2,800 without. It will be widely available starting January 6. The Dell UltraSharp 32 4K QD-OLED Monitor comes in at $2,600 and will be available beginning February 24.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/dell-unveils-a-massive-52-inch-6k-ultrawide-monitor-at-ces-2026-140024029.html?src=rss

Many people think the world is going to end in 2026. Man people think the world is going to end every year—maybe because the Bible said so, or The Simpsons said so—but this 2026-doomsday prediction seems to have a scientific basis. In a 1960 issue of Science magazine, Austrian scientist and polymath Heinz von Foerster detailed what he called the “Doomsday Equation,” a model he used to calculate the last day of civilization on earth. According to von Foerster (and probably Homer Simpson), The End is coming on Friday, November 13, 2026. 

Who is Heinz von Foerster?

Foerster was not a crank. A pioneer in computer science, artificial intelligence, physics, biophysics, and other academic disciplines, von Foerster worked with the Pentagon, and was named a Guggenheim fellow twice—so he was a respected academic, and kind of a big deal. His Doomsday paper is very real. Here’s a link to it in the November 1960 issue of Science and a screenshot:

Credit: Science Magazine

The Doomsday Equation looked at 2,000 years of historical data about how fast the earth’s population grew–-there were 2.7 billion people in 1960—and extrapolated a continually accelerating rate of growth. According to von Foerster, Humanity’s ability to overcome natural checks on population would result in hyperbolic growth—faster-than-exponential—an accelerating curve of population growth which would reach “infinite” on November 13 of this year, at which point there would be no space left on the planet for any more people to be. “Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death,” Von Forester said. “They will be squeezed to death.”

Preparing for the end

So should we pack it in and prepare for the End Times and death by suffocation? Actually the opposite. Von Foerster’s Doomsday Equation was meant to illustrate the problem of overpopulation, but he wasn’t being entirely serious with the specifics of his prediction; the math works out, but the conclusion is tongue-in-cheek.

So yes, he was joking—November 13, 2026 will fall on Friday (scary), and it also happens to be Heinz von Foerster’s 115th birthday—but he was joking to make a point. In the early 1960s, the population was growing at an alarming rate. The annual growth rate had climbed from roughly 1.7% to 1.9% throughout the 1950s, and by 1963, it had grown to  2.3%. So what happened?  

It turned out Von Foerster had a lot in common with fellow scientist Disco Stu of the Can’t Stop the Learnin’ Disco Academies: 

Ironically, 1960–1963 was the peak of global growth rates. Von Foerster’s (perhaps sardonic) solution was a control mechanism for population—a “peoplo-stat” where governments would carefully monitor and control the rate of people being born. But thankfully, we didn’t need eugenics-lite to solve the problem—like the best problems, it solved itself.

The “population bomb” is a dud

Credit: macrotrends.net

The rate of world population growth began slowing, as you can see from this chart from macrotrends.net. and the much feared “population bomb” of the 1960s fizzled out. Increased urbanization meant that people had one child to send to an exclusive nursery school instead of having 10 children to work as farmhands. Better medical care means more children live, so there’s no need to make “spares.” The end result: Population growth slowed through the decades to around 1% in the 2010s. At present, according to the UN, more than half of all countries have negative population growth rates. If these trends continue, the world population will peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion people and then begin a slow decline.

The bottom line on Doomsday 2026

November 13, 2026, will come and go, and chances are very good that you will not starve to death, get hit by an asteroid, or suddenly be crushed under the weight of all these damn people (unless you’re on a subway at rush hour).

As for overpopulation: The problem isn’t that there are too many of us, but too few. We don’t really know what it will mean for the worldwide rate of reproduction to go negative, but it’s likely to mean a lot of 90-year-olds hobbling around and everyone younger trying to figure out how to care for them.  But, like the best problems, it’s far enough in the future that someone else will have to deal with it. 

Stratechery’s Ben Thompson has published a lengthy rebuttal to Dwarkesh Patel and Philip Trammell’s widely discussed winter break essay “Capital in the 22nd Century,” arguing that even in a world where AI can perform all human jobs, people will still prefer human-created content and human connection.

Patel and Trammell’s thesis draws on Thomas Piketty’s work to argue that once AI renders capital a true substitute for labor, wealth will concentrate among those richest at the moment of transition, making a global progressive capital tax the only solution to prevent extreme inequality. The logic is sound, writes Thompson, but he remains skeptical on several fronts.

His first objection: if AI can truly do everything, then everyone can have everything they need, making the question of who owns the robots somewhat moot. His second: a world where AI is capable enough to replace all human labor yet still obeys human property law seems implausible. He finds the AI doomsday scenario — where such powerful AI becomes uncontrollable — more realistic than a stable capital-hoarding dystopia.

Thompson points to agricultural employment in the U.S., which dropped from 81% in 1810 to 1% today, as evidence that humans consistently create new valuable work after technological displacement. He argues that human preferences for human connection — from podcasting audiences to romantic partners — will sustain an economy for human labor simply because it is human. Sora currently ranks 59th in the App Store behind double-digit human-focused social apps, for instance.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NVIDIA has unveiled the G-Sync Pulsar, which it calls the “latest evolution of [its] pioneering VRR (variable refresh rate) technology,” at CES 2026. The new tech promises a gaming experience that’s free of stutter with buttery smooth motion, which is made possible by pulsing the display’s backlight. G-Sync Pulsar displays have multiple horizontal backlight sections that are pulsed independently from top to bottom, unlike traditional displays whose backlight is always on. When the backlight is always active, the image fades from one frame to the next. The displays with the new tech give pixels in a frame enough time to stabilize before they’re backlit so that they’re shown in their right locations, effectively reducing monitor-based motion blur.

The company says G-Sync Pulsar can effectively quadruple your refresh rate. If you’re playing at 250 fps, that means it can deliver a perceived effective motion clarity of over 1,000 Hz. That enables easier tracking and shooting in-game, making displays with the technology especially suited for esports. You can see the difference in motion in Counter-Strike 2 between a 360Hz monitor without G-Sync Pulsar and one with the technology switched on in the video below.

The first four displays designed specifically to support G-Sync Pulsar and Ambient Adaptive Technology, which allows users to automatically adjust color temperature and brightness based on ambient lighting, will be available starting on January 7. Acer, AOC, ASUS and MSI will each be releasing a 27-inch 2,560 × 1,440 IPS display, which comes with a 360Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of peak brightness in HDR.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidias-g-sync-pulsar-tech-can-minimize-motion-blur-for-gamers-140000058.html?src=rss

We see plenty of far-out ideas on the CES show floor, and this year Razer brought in a concept piece called Project Motoko. The device is Razer’s take on blurring the line between a gaming headset and an AI-powered wearable for daily life. Or it’s a way for Ghost in the Shell fans to feel affronted by Razer taking The Major’s name in vain, take your pick. 

Project Motoko is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms. The headset has a pair of first-person view cameras positioned at eye level that can support real-time object and text recognition. It also has a wide field of attention that can capture things happening beyond the normal human eye’s peripheral vision, and its microphone array is designed to capture both near and distant audio. 

“Project Motoko is more than a concept, it’s a vision for the future of AI and wearable computing,” Nick Bourne, Razer’s global head of mobile console division, said in the press release about the device. “By partnering with Qualcomm Technologies, we’re building a platform that enhances gameplay while transforming how technology integrates into everyday life. This is the next frontier for immersive experiences.”

In addition to taking in environmental details, Project Motoko can also operate as a wearable AI assistant, and the model is compatible with several different chatbots. The company’s press release noted that it can integrate with Grok, OpenAI and Gemini. Since Project Motoko is a concept device, Razer has no plans for a commercial release of this headset, but one of the highlights of CES is seeing these more experimental designs. Razer is also well-established as a brand for serious gamers, so seeing the company explore making an AI wearable that could appeal to a broader audience, if still a geeky one, is an intriguing move.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/razers-project-motoko-is-a-concept-gaming-headset-that-doubles-as-an-ai-wearable-140000534.html?src=rss

Razer is once again thinking big about what a gaming chair can do, and its concept for CES 2026 isn’t just a chair but an entire multisensory experience to match whatever’s happening on-screen. The concept, called Project Madison, combines reactive lighting, spatial audio and multi-zone haptic feedback to make the player feel more immersed in the in-game environment. We’re talking Razer Chroma light strips along the head flaps, THX Spatial Audio for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound and six haptic motor actuators powered by Razer Sensa HD Haptics to bring the physical sensations of a game to life.

One can only imagine the price tag on such a setup. Actually, I’d rather not. Project Madison isn’t a product you can buy right now anyway, but Razer did bring a real — albeit far less flashy — new(ish) gaming chair to CES too. The company has updated its Iskur V2 lineup with the Iskur V2 NewGen, which features the same dynamic lumbar support and dual-density cold-cured foam seat cushion that it’s known for, but now wrapped in Razer’s Gen-2 EPU Leather with CoolTouch Technology for a long-lasting cooling effect. 

Razer

Per Razer, “The chair’s material delivers high thermal effusivity, keeping it cool to the touch for hours of play.” That CoolTouch faux leather is also coming to the less expensive Iskur V2 X, with the Iskur V2 X NewGen. Pre-orders for both chairs are now open, though the company hasn’t yet said when they’ll ship. The $650 Razer Iskur V2 NewGen comes in Black/Green, Black, Quartz and Light Gray, while the $350 Iskur V2 X NewGen is available in Black/Green, Black and Quartz.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/razers-project-madison-concept-chair-has-reactive-lighting-immersive-audio-and-multi-zone-haptics-140000118.html?src=rss

Ring turned up to CES with a whole host of announcements, including a revamped range of home sensors. Ring Sensors (for that is their name) is a new lineup of tools, built on Amazon’s Sidewalk low-power networking protocol. That includes updated versions of its door, window and break glass sensors, as well as a new OBD-II car alarm, motion detectors and panic buttons. You’ll be able to pre-order the new car alarm today, while the rest of the new sensors will be available at some point in March. And, in tandem with that news, Amazon is announcing that Sidewalk is expanding outside of the US, starting in Canada and Mexico.

At the same time, the company is launching a number of enhancements to its app platform, including the Ring Appstore. This will let users purchase and integrate with third-party apps which have been built to cater to “specific use cases, from small business operations to everyday needs around the home.” The company added that, in the coming weeks, users will be able to browse a growing number of apps designed to help “you get more value from your Ring cameras.”

The company is also throwing more AI into its system to better coordinate its alerts, including Unusual Event Alerts. These will learn from the patterns around your home and, when it spots something out of the ordinary, send you a ping. Active Warnings, meanwhile, will use computer vision to identify potential threats and offer “specific warnings based on details like location and actions.”

Finally, Ring has teamed up with Watch Duty, a non-profit alert platform designed to share useful information about local wildfires. The pair have added a Fire Watch feature to the Neighbors app to enable communities keep each other in the loop about local fire and smoke events. Ring users are encouraged to share details from their own Ring cameras to “support first responders on the ground.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/ring-relaunches-its-suite-of-smart-home-sensors-140000667.html?src=rss