Technologies
Razer’s Haptic Audio Headrest Wants to Rock Your World
It’s the company’s annual unveiling of not-products from of its design team, this time an audio headrest with haptics.

If you’re going to have a headrest on your gaming chair, you might as well make it work for you. Razer’s Project Carol design concept unveiled at CES tosses near-field 7.1-channel surround sound and Razer’s HyperSense haptics into the place you lay your head. It seems odd to have a headrest with system requirements, but this one’s PC only.
Near-field sound means that the audio is focused close to your ears, though mapped for surround, rather than room-filling like speakers would be. They’re essentially speakers that sit on either side of your head. The sides can be pulled forward towards your ears or pushed back.
Razer’s designed Carol to work with more gaming chairs than just Razer’s; it has adjustable, elastic straps to mount it. The audio connects to your PC via 2.4GHz (low latency) wireless. It also requires charging — at 8 hours of battery life, it will require frequent charging compared to a good headset.
Project Carol isn’t as glitzy or ambitious as some of Razer’s past concepts, like its Project Hazel from 2021 that eventually turned into the disappointing Zephyr mask. Like all concept products, there’s no guarantee that it will ever evolve into a shipping product, and there’s an even smaller chance that it will be able to do everything it touts.
And I think two of the real products the company announced — face padding for the Meta Quest 2 designed in conjunction with medical device manufacturer ResMed and the availability of the Razer Edge and Edge 5G cloud gaming tablet-plus-controller — seem more interesting than this year’s concept. I guess we’ll see where it goes.
Technologies
Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect
With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.
Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show
Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.
By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.
Google I/O: Where to watch
Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.
What to expect from Google I/O 2025
Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.
Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.
Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.
Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.
Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.
Technologies
You Can Now Buy Nike’s $900 Workout Shoes for Compression and Heating
The Nike Hyperboots, designed to help you warm up and recover from workouts, launched Saturday.

Those workout shoes with compression and heating that Nike and Hyperice showed off at CES 2025 earlier this year weren’t just a concept. The Hyperboot is now available to buy online in North America, so they’re within reach, as long as you’re willing to spend $899.
The high-tops, which Nike and Hyperice call a wearable much like your smartwatch, help your feet warm up before a workout, and then recover after it. The shoes do this with heating and air-compression massage technology, taking the idea of heating pads and compression socks and making them mobile.
«You can definitely feel the heat in here,» CNET former mobile senior writer Lisa Eadicicco said when she had the chance to try these workout shoes on in January. She walked across a demo room in Las Vegas wearing the fancy footwear to test out the compression and heating features.
The boots massage and compress your ankles and feet, and in CNET’s test, we could especially feel the heat around the ankles. Buttons on the shoes let you adjust compression and the amount of heat with multiple settings for each.
«The Hyperboot contains a system of dual-air bladders that deliver sequential compression patterns and are bonded to thermally efficient heating elements that evenly distribute heat throughout the shoe’s entire upper,» Nike said.
The battery lasts for 1 to 1.5 hours on max heat and compression settings, or 8 hours if you’re only using the massage setting. It takes 5 to 6 hours to charge via USB-C cable. The boots come in five sizes: S, M, L, XL and XXL.
Technologies
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