The robot stands 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs about as much as a golden retriever and is nearly the price of a brand-new budget car. 

This is Neo, the humanoid robot. It’s billed as a personal assistant you can talk to and eventually rely on to handle everyday tasks, including loading the dishwasher and folding laundry. 

Neo doesn’t work cheap. It’ll cost you $20,000. And even then, you’ll still have to train this new home bot, and possibly need a remote assist as well.

If that sounds enticing, preorders are now open (for a mere $200 down). You’ll be signing up as an early adopter for what Neo’s maker, a California-based company called 1X, is calling a «consumer-ready humanoid.» That’s opposed to other humanoids under development from the likes of Tesla and Figure, which are, for the moment at least, more focused on factory environments. 

Neo is a whole order of magnitude different from robot vacuums like those from Roomba, Eufy and Ecovacs, and embodies a long-running sci-fi fantasy of robot maids and butlers doing chores and picking up after us. If this is the future, read on for more of what’s in store.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What the Neo robot can do around the house

The pitch from 1X is that Neo can do all manner of household chores: fold laundry, run a vacuum, tidy shelves, bring in the groceries. It can open doors, climb stairs and even act as a home entertainment system.

Neo appears to move smoothly, with a soft, almost human-like gait, thanks to 1X’s tendon-driven motor system that gives it gentle motion and impressive strength. The company says it can lift up to 154 pounds and carry 55 pounds, but it is quieter than a refrigerator. It’s covered in soft materials and neutral colors, making it look less intimidating than metallic prototypes from other companies.

The company says Neo has a 4-hour runtime. Its hands are IP68-rated, meaning they’re submersible in water. It can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G. For conversation, it has a built-in LLM, the same sort of AI technology that powers ChatGPT and Gemini.

The primary way to control the Neo robot will be by speaking to it, just as if it were a person in your home.  

Still, Neo’s usefulness today depends heavily on how you define useful. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern got an up-close look at Neo at 1X’s headquarters and found that, at least for now, it’s largely teleoperated, meaning a human often operates it remotely using a virtual-reality headset and controllers. 

«I didn’t see Neo do anything autonomously, although the company did share a video of Neo opening a door on its own,» Stern wrote last week. 

1X CEO Bernt Børnich told her that Neo will do most things autonomously in 2026, though he also acknowledged that the quality «may lag at first.»

The company’s FAQ says that if there’s a chore request Neo doesn’t know how to accomplish, you can schedule an expert from 1X to help the robot «learn while getting the job done.»

What you need to know about Neo and privacy

Part of what early adopters are signing up for is to allow Neo to learn from their environment, so that future versions can operate more independently. 

That learning process raises questions about privacy and trust. The robot uses a mix of visual, audio and contextual intelligence — meaning it can see, hear and remember interactions with users throughout their homes. 

«If you buy this product, it is because you’re OK with that social contract,» Børnich told the Journal. «It’s less about Neo instantly doing your chores and more about you helping Neo learn to do them safely and effectively.»

Neo’s reliance on human operation behind the scenes prompted a response from John Carmack, a computer industry luminary known for his work with VR systems and the lead programmer of classic video games, including Doom and Quake. 

«Companies selling the dream of autonomous household humanoid robots today would be better off embracing reality and selling ‘remote operated household help’,» he wrote in a post on the X social network on Monday.

1X says it’s taking steps to protect your privacy: Neo listens only when it recognizes it’s being addressed, and its cameras will blur out humans. You can restrict Neo from entering or viewing specific areas of your home, and the robot will never be teleoperated without owner approval, the company says. 

But inviting an AI-equipped humanoid to observe your home life isn’t a small step.

The first units are expected to ship to customers in the US in 2026. There is a $499 monthly subscription alternative to the $20,000 full purchase price, although it will be available at an unspecified later date. A broader international rollout is promised for 2027.

Neo’s got a long road ahead of it to live up to the expectations set by Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons way back when. But this is no Hanna-Barbera cartoon. What we’re seeing now is a much more tangible harbinger of change.

Nintendo has released a new mobile app for its storefront for iOS and Android, and while the Nintendo Store app does a good job of making it easier to browse and purchase games for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, its most compelling feature may be one that lays out your Nintendo gaming history by year.

Buried at the very bottom of your Profile page (you can get to it by tapping the icon with your Mii at the bottom right) is an option called Play Activity. At the top, your Recent Activity will display games you played recently and for how long. But scroll down through All Activity and you’ll find games and console apps stretching back years and years.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

For me, it was a shock to see Wii U and Nintendo 3DS titles I’d forgotten all about, such as a game my daughters enjoyed — Art Academy: Home Studio — and Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash, which I played in 2015 for 10 days. I have no recollection of playing Steel Diver for Nintendo 3DS, but there’s evidence to prove that happened on March 28, 2011.

Why Play Activity matters

If the feature were just nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, that would be one thing, but for anyone who has a long history across multiple Nintendo console generations, this is good information to have. In an era of remakes and re-releases, it’s helpful to know what games you actually have played before, what console you played them on and whether you spent much time on them. My Play Activity history is littered with games I only played for less than an hour, such as Ridge Racer 3D, and abandoned for others.

It reminds me that I played Nintendogs, the cute dog simulator, for a full four years, from 2011 to 2015. Why hasn’t Nintendo rebooted that franchise? 

It’s useful that you can sort the play history by most recently played, date first played, total time played and by game system. I was surprised by how many titles I played on the Wii U, but it probably paled in comparison to the number of games I played on the GameCube or the original Wii. The Play Activity doesn’t appear to go back that far; for me, it stops at 2011 with the Wii U and 3DS. Games on the Switch appear to show more detail, showing you how much you played for each gaming session.

But most of all, it’s nice to have a document that charts your relationship with Nintendo’s systems and software, whether it’s to see how much time you spent watching Netflix on your Switch or to see how many hours you’ve logged in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

What else is in the Nintendo Store app?

If Play Activity were the only feature in the Nintendo Store app, it would still be worth a download for longtime gamers. However, that’s just a nice-to-have feature, not the main attraction.

The best reason to download the Nintendo Store app is the store itself, which becomes much easier to navigate and search through than the version on the Switch, which can be slow and cumbersome. You can make purchases for your Switch or Switch 2 directly in the app, use Nintendo Points, do GPS check-ins and view events, promotions and game news from the company. 

There’s also merchandise available, including game soundtracks, clothing and toys. Being able to quickly navigate which games have demo versions and being able to send a digital download to your Switch from your phone is handy.

An Ask the Developer tab is a nice area to browse in the News section of the app; recent stories discuss the making of Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.

Using the Nintendo Store app requires linking your Nintendo account.

One of the generational games of the 2010s was Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. First released on Nov. 11, 2011, the iconic RPG from Bethesda Softworks defined an era, and it’s been frequently rereleased since its launch. Still, its sequel, Elder Scrolls 6, looks like it won’t be ready anytime soon, according to the game’s director. 

Todd Howard, Bethesda’s creative chief and the director of Elder Scrolls 6, says the next game in the RPG series is «still a long way off,» in an interview with GQ magazine on Monday. He says work on Elder Scrolls 6 is happening every day, but he didn’t provide a possible release date for the highly anticipated game.

«I’m preaching patience,» he told GQ. «I don’t want fans to feel anxious.»

While Grand Theft Auto 6 may be the most anticipated game ever, Elder Scrolls 6 is a close second. Details about the game are minimal, but there are some tidbits of information to be found.

When will Elder Scrolls 6 come out?

As of right now, no one knows. 

When was Elder Scrolls 6 first announced? 

The first mention of Elder Scrolls 6 being a project at Bethesda was back in 2016, although the executive who made the comment did say the game wasn’t in development. 

The official reveal came at E3 2018, when only the logo of the game was shown. 

What platforms will Elder Scrolls 6 be available on?

Back in 2021, Xbox boss Phil Spencer stated that the new Elder Scrolls game wouldn’t be on PlayStation consoles, seemingly confirming it would only be available on PC and Xbox Series X and S consoles. That will likely change in the future as Microsoft has become more open to releasing its exclusive games on the PS5, as evidenced by the upcoming release of Halo: Campaign Evolved. 

There are no plans for the Elder Scrolls games to come out on Switch 2, but Spencer has confirmed interest in releasing Microsoft games on Nintendo’s newest console. 

Where will Elder Scrolls 6 take place? 

Bethesda has yet to confirm any details about the game, but fans have speculated on where Elder Scrolls 6 could take place. The previous four games took place in a certain province in the world of Tamriel. One tweet from the Elder Scrolls official Twitter account from 2020 showed an image of a map with the message, «Transcribe the past and map the future.»

Shown on the lower left part of the map is a faint text for Hammerfell. This region is home to the Redguards, a race of humans known for their highly skilled warriors. 

This is still speculation as Bethesda has yet to confirm any details, and likely won’t reveal any info until the game is close to release.