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OhSnap won our hearts (and a best of CES award) last year with the MCON, its tiny Bluetooth game pad that magnetically connects to your phone. At the time, we tried a pre-production unit, but in the year since the MCON has been finalized and went on sale last month. I just got a chance to try the final version here at CES, and just a quick demo was enough to convince me that OhSnap has made some solid refinements over the last year.Just as we saw last year, the MCON attaches magnetically to an iPhone or any compatible Android phone (the company also includes a magnetic ring in the box for Androids that dont have Qi2 yet). It has the full array of controls, including four face buttons, a D-pad, two joysticks and index finger buttons and full bumpers. Its just sleeker and feels more solid than last years prototype, and while mounting your makes it feel a bit top-heavy, its not awkward enough to cause real issues when playuing (at least thats how I felt after my brief demo).The controller also has grips that unfold to help balance things, and the plate that attaches your phone to the controller has a kickstand. So if you want to drop your phone down on a tray table on a plane and play just holding the controller, feel free. All in all, the MCON feels like a flexible and high-quality device thats probably worth the $150 OhSnap asks for it.The MCON dock connects your phone to your TV for full-screen gameplay.Nathan Ingraham for EngadgetThe company also has some new accessories to show off. Theres a $70 TV dock that powers your phone and outputs video from USB-C to HDMI. You could use this dock with any Bluetooth controller hooked up to your mobile phone, not just the MCON. Theres also a tiny $30 adapter you can put on your keychain that has a USB-C plug that goes into your phone; plug an HDMI cable into the other end and you can broadcast your games to a TV anywhere you go and play them with a controller.Its a pretty clever and comprehensive set of products, and while there are tons of mobile game controllers, the OhSnap feels like one of the more portable and sleek options out there. OhSnap is working on something even slimmer, though. The company showed off two new prototype controllers, the MCON Lite and MCON Slim. OhSnap is working on two new MCON controller that are more compact than the original.Nathan Ingraham for EngadgetAs the names suggest, theyre both more compact than the original model. The Lite uses concave joypads rather than full sticks, and the Slim makes things even smaller by using concave touch pads. Youre not going to get quite the same quality experience with those as you would with the bigger version, but they are noticeably thinner; OhSnap says theyll be cheaper, too. The MCON Lite is scheduled to arrive this summer, while the Slim should launch in the fall (around the same time as the iPhone 18).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/another-look-at-ohsnaps-mcon-a-magnetic-game-controller-for-your-phone-042424092.html?src=rss
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New tech at CES often makes categorization hard. Is Cozylas latest device a digital family calendar, a TV or a smart home hub? After seeing it, Id say the answer is, yes? Cozyla calls the Calendar + Max the largest interactive hub in its category. And indeed, its the size of a big flatscreen, but the main interface is just like any other Cozyla device, an Android-based family calendar and planner with shared schedules, notes, meal plans, and chores. It syncs with Google, Yahoo and Apple calendars as well as Outlook, and it will run apps from the Google Play store. (Yahoo owns Engadget, but has no say in our editorial coverage.) But this super-sized version can also stream shows and movies with whichever apps you subscribe to. The photo integration, via the app, will take pics from your phone and stick them on the bigs screen. You can also create a slideshow and photo walls to look at when the calendar is off. The smart home integration lets you view your security camera and video doorbell feeds on a much larger scale than your phones display can offer. The display has a camera of its own so you can make FaceTime and Zoom calls. The Max comes on a built-in stand that you can roll around the house, along with a battery that should power the whole thing for around six hours. When I first heard about it, I found myself wondering where I would put Calendar+ Max in my house. The kitchen is an ideal centralized calendar location, but I dont want to watch Miss Scarlet in there. Luckily, the wheels make that conundrum moot. This can go anywhere you want it to, and swings into portrailt orientation that looks great for chore mode, and landscape orientation for watching shows. Possibly the best part is the lack of subscription required. Like with all Cozyla screens, theres no ongoing cost to use all the features. The Calendar + Max has no release date or price available just yet, but if I ever decided to organize my familys life beyond barely contained chaos, I can see myself considering it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/cozyla-showed-off-a-4k-55-inch-digital-family-calendar-at-ces-040352802.html?src=rss
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For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to have a keyboard computer -- that is, a computer where the entire machine was stuffed inside of a keyboard. Maybe I caught a glimpse of the Commodore 64 at an impressionable age, but for whatever reason, the idea has always intrigued me. Now HP is bringing the concept back with its new EliteBoard G1a "Next Gen AI PC." It's an IT administrator's dream: It looks a typical desktop keyboard, but it has the full power of a Copilot+ AI PC inside. You can equip it with Ryzen 5 or 7 CPUs and their embedded Radeon 800 GPUs, up to 64GB of RAM and as much as 2TB of NVMe SSD storage. All you need to do is add a monitor and a mouse, and you've got a full-fledged desktop setup.HP EliteBoard keyboard PC.Devindra Hardawar for EngadgetThe more I think about it, the more sad I am that the arc of the computing industry trended towards standardized desktops and laptops. There was a brief spark of interest with the UMPC (ultra mobile PC) trend in the 2000's, which Engadget covered extensively as a young blog, as well as ASUS's Eee keyboard. But they couldn't survive the rise of the smartphone and tablet. It turns out putting an entire computer behind a screen was more compelling than stuffing them into a keyboard. I was able to test out an early EliteBoard prototype, and while the experience wasn't perfect, it's still an intriguing computing option. I had trouble setting it up initially because it only had two USB-C ports on its rear, which meant I had to find a way to power it through one port and pass a video signal through the other. Thankfully, my Anker USB-C charging hub was able to juice it up, and I also had a USB-C hub with an HDMI port, which allowed me to connect to my monitor.Sadly, the overall setup was a jumble of wires, and not the clean layout I expected from a keyboard PC. Once I was able to start up Windows though, I was less annoyed and more amazed that the keyboard contained an entire computer. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, as Intel's Compute Stick placed a functional PC in a much smaller case, but unlike the failed product, the EliteBoard actually felt usable. I was able to load up several browser windows with tabs, edit a few photos and even play a few light games, like Vampire Survivors. And yes, typing on it felt pretty great too.HP EliteBoard keyboard PC.Devindra Hardawar for EngadgetSince I was testing out prototype hardware, I agreed not to benchmark the EliteBoard. But from the performance I saw, it felt about the same an entry-level laptop. Basically, it's perfectly suited to its main task: Being a boring office computer. Back in my IT days, I certainly would have preferred deploying a few light keyboards instead of the tank-like Dell desktops we typically ordered.While the EliteBoard is targeted at commercial users, HP is considering it an experiment to see how people respond to a keyboard PC. There's a chance we could see one that's eventually meant for mainstream consumers. I'm not sure if that's exactly, necessary, though. The whole concept of a desktop PC mainly appeals to tinkerers and IT folks. And for anyone who wants to get their hands on an EliteBoard soon, there's really nothing stopping you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/hps-eliteboard-made-me-believe-in-keyboard-computers-again-033000955.html?src=rss
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The whole AI PC trend didn't exactly set the world on fire last year, but, like clockwork, AMD is still ready to deliver a new batch of AI chips at CES 2026. The Ryzen AI 400 processors will offer some slight speed upgrades over last year's chips, and notably, they also include AMD's first Copilot+ processors for desktops. Sure, the Copilot+ program didn't really go anywhere, but as I've argued, it at least served as a template for building capable AI PCs. Now we just need some genuinely useful AI features in Windows Recall and Copilot's voice commands aren't really compelling enough on their own.AMD's first AI desktop chips, the Ryzen 8000G series, arrived in 2024 with relatively underpowered neural processing units (NPUs) for AI tasks. The Ryzen AI 400 chips, on the other hand, feature 60 TOPS XDNA 2 NPUs (up from the 50 to 55 TOPS in Ryzen AI 300 hardware). That places them well above the 40 TOPS NPU minimum for Copilot+ systems. For most consumers, NPU speeds don't really mean much yet, but if you're running AI models on your system you can expect slightly faster inferencing from AMD's previous chips.AMD Ryzen AI 400 chipsAMDThe top-end Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 offers up to 12 Zen 5 CPU cores, 5.2GHz max boost speeds and up to 8,533 MT/s memory speeds. The line scales down to the four-core Ryzen AI 5 430, but even that model supports speedy 8,000 MTS RAM and offers a 50 TOPS NPU.AMD isn't giving us many specific details on the Ryzen AI 400 chips at CES, but broadly, it claims they'll offer up to 30 percent faster multi-tasking, 70 percent faster content creation and 10 percent faster gaming than its previous chips. The company also says you'll see 70 percent better "unplugged connectivity" on Cinebench nT, which is hopefully a sign that you'll see improved performance overall on battery.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/amds-ryzen-ai-400-chips-are-a-big-boost-for-laptops-and-desktops-alike-033000635.html?src=rss
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While it's nice to see desktop support in AMD's new Ryzen AI 400 chips, demanding gamers and enthusiasts will likely be more intrigued by the company's next batch of Ryzen AI Max+ chips, as well as the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D with 3D V-Cache. The former will make its way into small desktops and a handful of workhorse laptops, while the latter is another option for gamers who want the speed bump of 3D V-cache without shelling out for the $700 9950X3D. Last year, AMD debuted its Ryzen AI Max chips as a way to create a single piece of silicon with powerful CPU cores, GPU cores, NPUs and integrated memory, similar to Apple's home-brewed chips. At the time, AMD VP Joe Macri also noted that the existence of Apple Silicon helped make the Ryzen AI Max chips possible. "Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, it's gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it's bad graphics," Macri said at last year's CES. "What Apple showed was consumers don't care what's inside the box. They actually care what the what the box looks like. They care about the screen, the keyboard, the mouse. They care about what it does."AMD Ryzen AI Max+ chip familyAMDAt CES this year, AMD is unveiled the 12-core Ryzen AI Max+ 392 and eight-core Ryzen AI Max+ 388. Both chips feature boost speeds up to 5GHz, 50 TOPS NPUs and GPUs capable of 60 TFLOPs. We've seen the earlier Ryzen AI Max chips in the Framework Desktop and the ROG Flow Z13, and we were generally impressed with its performance. For small systems, it was powerful enough that we really didn't miss having dedicated GPUs.AMD Ryzen 7 9000X3DAMDAs for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, it's an 8-core chip that can reach up to 5.6GHz boost speeds with 104MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. Like all of AMD's X3D chips, it uses 3D V-cache technology to vertically stack additional cache memory. In comparison, the standard 9850HX chip has 76MB of L2 and L3 cache.AMD says the new Ryzen AI Max+ chips and the 9850X3D will ship in the first quarter. There's no pricing information on the latter, yet, but recent leaked listings suggest it may go for around $200. Rumors also point to a massive dual-cache (192MB!) 9950X3D2 chip coming soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/amds-new-ryzen-ai-max-chips-and-ryzen-7-9850x3d-court-desktop-enthusiasts-at-ces-2026-033000587.html?src=rss
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