Technologies

My CES 2026 Secret Weapon? This New Wearable AI Note-Taking Pin From Plaud

During a week of information overload, I’m outsourcing my memory to the Plaud NotePin S.

CES is always one of the most hectic weeks of the year for CNET journalists — myself included. I’ll be jumping between booths, often speaking to multiple different companies within the span of an hour, having interesting and intense conversations about different products as I go.

Sometimes these conversations begin before I’ve even had a chance to pull my recorder from my bag, never mind switch it on. Often I end up scribbling down extra details or quotes in my notepad — a fun challenge for my memory and eyes when the time comes to sit down and write and I’m forced to decipher my own handwriting.

Not this year, though. At CES 2026, AI note-taking company Plaud is launching its new NotePin S, an AI wearable that can clip to your collar, strap onto your wrist, hang around your neck or cling to your shirt with a magnet and record your conversations as you go about your day.

Plaud sent me this updated version of the NotePin ahead of CES, so I’ll be able to test it out as I wander the show floors. Just as with the previous version of the pin and the Plaud Note Pro, which the company announced back in August, the NotePin S connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and transcriptions of your conversations will appear in the Plaud app.

I already expect the NotePin S, which is a sleek pill-shaped device that’s smaller than a USB stick, to be a game changer for me as I roam the halls of CES. In a briefing ahead of the show, Plaud said that the pin had been successfully tested out at the Dreamforce conference earlier this year, so I know the dual microphones, which have a range of around 9.8 feet, are capable of working well in a noisy convention center.

To activate the recording, all I’ll need to do is long press on the front of the pin. But the feature I’m most looking forward to testing out is the press to highlight button on the pin, which will allow me to mark key moments in conversations so they’ll be easy to find when I come to look through my transcriptions later.

I’m also glad that, thanks to the range of the wearable accessories bundled with the NotePin S, the device will work with a variety of different outfits. In such a busy environment, I might be tempted to use the lanyard to carry it around my neck, but on the days I’m wearing a jacket, the lapel clip might be more suitable. For sit-down interviews, I’m tempted to switch to wristband so that I can press to highlight with the least amount of intrusion into the conversation.

For when I’m back home, conducting interviews from the comfort of my office, Plaud has another new toy for me to play with. At CES the company also announced Plaud Desktop — an AI notetaker designed to bridge in-person and online meetings by capturing your conversations natively.

This means no intrusive meeting bots joining your call. (If you know, you know.) Instead, it will sit on your computer and detect when a meeting is taking place, record that meeting discreetly and then provide a context-rich summary within your Plaud account.

The most appealing part of this for me is the idea that all of my notes, meetings and conversations — whether captured by my wearable or my computer — will be accessible and organized in one place.

Both the NotePin S and Plaud Desktop will be available immediately, with the pin costing $179 (£159).

Technologies

These Tiny Robots Are Smaller Than Grains of Salt and Can Think, Move and Swim

Despite their size, the robots can navigate liquids, respond to their environment and operate without external control.

Robots smaller than a grain of salt? It sounds like science fiction, but researchers have developed autonomous microrobots that can move through liquids, sense their environment and operate independently using only light as a power source.

The microrobots, developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, measure roughly 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers. Yet they can detect temperature changes, follow programmed paths and function independently for months at a time.

Their work was reported this week in two scientific journals, Science Robotics and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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«We’ve made autonomous robots 10,000 times smaller,» senior author Marc Miskin, assistant professor in electrical and systems engineering at Penn Engineering, said in a statement. «That opens up an entirely new scale for programmable robots.»

Powered entirely by light, the robots don’t move using mechanical limbs. Instead, they generate tiny electrical fields that push ions (electrically charged particles) in fluid to create motion, an approach better suited to the unique physics of the microscopic world, where traditional motors don’t work.

Unlike earlier microrobots, these devices combine sensing, computing, decision-making and movement in a single, self-contained system at an extremely small scale.

Previous efforts in microrobotics have often relied on external controls, such as magnetic fields or physical tethers, to guide movement. These new microrobots, however, incorporate their own miniature solar cell-powered processors, allowing them to respond to their environment, communicate through patterned movements visible under a microscope and carry out tasks without outside direction.

Potential applications include monitoring biological processes at the cellular level, supporting medical diagnostics or helping assemble tiny devices. Because each robot can be mass-produced at very low cost, the technology opens new avenues for research and engineering at scales that were previously unreachable.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Jan. 7

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 7.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought today’s was a tough one — I couldn’t solve too many of the Across clues and had to move on to the Down clues to fill in the answers. Also … look at the answer for 3-Down! Are we using Gen Z slang now as if everyone knows it? Anyway, if you want all the answers, read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Planning to, informally
Answer: GONNA

6A clue: ___ tolls (GPS setting)
Answer: AVOID

7A clue: Pulsed quickly, as the heart
Answer: RACED

8A clue: Draw an outline of
Answer: TRACE

9A clue: Prefix with loop for theoretical high-speed transport
Answer: HYPER

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Wayne’s sidekick in «Wayne’s World»
Answer: GARTH

2D clue: Egg-producing organ
Answer: OVARY

3D clue: «I’m serious!,» in slang
Answer: NOCAP

4D clue: Sister’s daughter
Answer: NIECE

5D clue: Snake that sounds like it would be good at math?
Answer: ADDER

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Technologies

New Moto Things Include a Stylus for the Razr, Revamped Location Tracker

The Moto Pen Ultra will bring handwriting to the upcoming Razr Fold, while the Moto Tag 2 doubles the battery life of its predecessor to two years.

Motorola’s just-announced Razr Fold will be getting a premium stylus, which will arrive alongside a revamped location tracker.

The Moto Pen Ultra and Moto Tag 2 were announced Tuesday at CES 2026 during the Lenovo Tech World conference, debuting alongside the new Moto Watch as part of the Moto Things accessory line.

The Moto Pen Ultra comes with a magnetic case, which will then charge the stylus over USB-C. The pen features 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and a 6-axis motion sensor to assist with writing, drawing and sketching. When using the Pen Ultra with the Razr Fold, the stylus supports palm rejection and a range of tools from a quick access toolbar like Quick Clip for highlighting and sending content into a note for later.

While Motorola has made a series of stylus-equipped phones for its lower-cost Moto G line, the Pen Ultra appears to be specifically for the more flagship level devices Motorola makes like the Razr Fold.

The Pen Ultra is joined by the Moto Tag 2, which is an updated location tracker that supports Google’s Find Hub network. The Moto Tag 2 features double the battery life of the tracker it replaces, with Motorola stating it should last for two years. The Moto Tag 2 also supports ultra wideband to assist with precise location tracking.

Neither the Moto Pen Ultra nor the Moto Tag 2 had their pricing and release dates announced as part of the Tuesday event. The accessories join other announcements made by Motorola at Lenovo Tech World, which include the FIFA World Cup edition of the Motorola Razr and the Qira AI assistant.