I am consuming chilly, fizzy, blue shaved ice, savoring the coolness and surprisingly-sweet sugar-free raspberry blueness, questioning, as I usually do at CES, “How did I get right here?”
CES 2026 kicked off final night time – and for the uninitiated who’re fast to inform me I bought my dates fallacious, I am speaking in regards to the firehose of product releases and carnival ambiance that kicks off two days earlier than the large present flooring open. The occasion, generally known as CES Unveiled, serves because the official launch gathering for the media, and our first alternative to take the temperature of the world’s largest tech occasion.
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Pretend snowboarding and sharp edges
Maybe emboldened by the saccarin, I then discovered myself ‘snowboarding’ throughout the cement flooring, adjoining to the largely carpeted CES Unveiled ballroom.
Skwheel’s Peak and Peak S are finest described as large, powered rollerblades which can be designed to recreate the sensation of snowboarding however on just about any floor (apart from snow). Firm reps defined how they created the Peak boots initially as a approach to maintain individuals ‘snowboarding’ through the low season, however shortly discovered that folks actually loved the sensation of snowboarding on roads and hills, and in parks.
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So, sure, in opposition to my higher judgment, I strapped them on, grabbed the distant that allowed me to manage velocity and braking, and took off… at possibly three miles per hour, and doing my finest to lean into imaginary slaloms. The Peak S can journey at as much as 20mph and for distances of as much as 37 miles, however I could not afford to take a spill and wreck the remainder of my CES.
It is a enjoyable tackle mobility, however should you plan to spend between $990 and $1,490 for a Peak or Peak S, you’d higher be severe about hard-surface snowboarding.
With my adrenaline cooking and my mouth nonetheless barely blue from the slushie, I sauntered over to take a look on the C-200 Ultrasonic Chef’s Knife. It is $300 value of silently vibrating, slicing pleasure.
I favored the look of the rechargeable blade, however was a little bit underwhelmed once I tried to make use of it to chop a tomato. It appears that evidently even a piezo crystal-inflused knife vibrating at 30,000 occasions per second wants some finesse if you’re to make use of it correctly.
A house allergy lab
Close by, I noticed a cluster of French-speaking technologists who had been explaining their hand-sized machine, Allergen Alert, which might smash up your meals, squeeze it, after which take a look at it for allergens like milk and gluten, and present the outcomes on a related iPhone app.
It is likely to be the primary shopper machine that might carry such testing into the house, but it surely will not be low-cost: $200 to start out after which $25 for six pouches, during which the meals will get mashed, then examined, after which discarded. However, hey, you may’t put a worth on peace of thoughts.
As for the AI, it was on show in Nosh, a $2,000 robotic cooking machine that has 500 on-board recipes, mixes substances, after which makes use of AI and a digicam to observe the meals in actual time and assess how meal prep goes.
Sadly, they weren’t allowed to cook dinner within the ballroom, so Nosh went by the motions, however nobody was snacking on its Asian delicacies.
Any manner the wind blows
There have been different fascinating discoveries, like the person who made GeoWind, a geodesic-like wind turbine that he insisted is much extra environment friendly and rugged than a regular turbine. I beloved his ardour.
Then there was the Ascentiz staff, who descended on me like my very own private cotiere, shortly strapping me into their robotic assistive strolling machine, which begins at $1,500.
I strutted round for a couple of minutes, ready for the “Aha!” second of feeling like I now not wanted to maneuver my very own legs, the robotic may do it for me, but it surely by no means got here (to be honest, it is an “assistive” machine, not a strolling substitute). As a substitute, I felt a couple of pulls as I awkwardly tried to not fall on my face and look much more ridiculous.
Lastly, I squeezed myself into Bodyfriend’s $20,000 robotic therapeutic massage chair, which tugged on my legs and arms because it aggressively massaged my again and butt.
At the least I left the night feeling each stretched and relaxed, and maybe prepared for the remainder of CES 2026.
TechRadar will likely be extensively masking this 12 months’s CES, and can carry you all the large bulletins as they occur. Head to our CES 2026 stay information web page for the most recent tales and our hands-on verdicts on every thing we have seen.
It’s also possible to ask us a query in regards to the present in our CES 2026 stay Q&A and we’ll do our greatest to reply it.
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