Technologies

The Absolute Worst CES Tech We’ve Seen in the Last 25 Years

Not every gadget can be a winner. Toilet robots, MP3 weaponry and vacuum shoes are just some of the oddities we’ve seen at CES over the last two decades.

CES 2023 is over, and together we’ve seen our share of both weird and wonderful devices at this year’s show, but… mostly weird.

Flying cars and obscure robots are so old hat now, and so I wondered if CES could do anything less practical and even more completely bonkers. Turns out it can! Over the past 20-plus years, I’ve seen gadgets so stupefying that sometimes they exist purely because journalists like me will write about them. But it’s time to call out the really awful ones, the worst of the worst. Vacuum shoes, toilet paper robots, MP3 weapon holsters, it’s your time to shine!

The most interesting part about this rogues gallery is that some of these products — the Pepe pet dryer, the HapiFork and the Hushme, to name a few — are still being sold today. That’s right: You blew it up, you maniacs!

Dyson Zone Air-Purifying Headphones

Not technically a CES product, as this was announced during 2022, but Dyson was demonstrating the Zone headphones in Las Vegas during CES 2023. Though the Zone looks like it should be a COVID mask, that’s unfortunately not what it does. According to the Dyson site, development on the Zone began way back in 2016 as a personal air filter — for pollution, mainly — and as such, it was never designed to protect against COVID. Furthermore, one critic has claimed the gadget’s force-driven fans could even help maximize your chances of catching coronavirus. CNET’s Katie Collins, who tried it out at Dyson’s HQ in the UK, thought it was «too brilliant and bizarre to ignore.»

Charmin Rollbot

Computer peripherals manufacturer Razer is the king of creating «look at me» products specifically for CES, but toilet tissue brand Charmin became notorious for this 2020 entry. That’s right, in the year that saw the mass panic buying of toilet paper came a robot that could bring you even more! Coincidence? Yes… probably. The RollBot was never going to be a real product, but we loved/loathed it anyway.

Kolibree Smart Toothbrush

Remember when we had to wash our hands for 20 seconds by singing songs to ourselves? The same methodology also applies to brushing your teeth, but why should you use your own brain and lips like a sucker? There have been many smart toothbrushes over the years, but today I’m picking on the Kolibree. Everything was just fine until the arrival of «the world’s first connected electric toothbrush.» Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…

Taser MP3 Holster

Back in the 2000s, the iPod became such a cultural phenomenon that every company rushed to create an MP3 player of its own. This culminated in what is one of the dumbest CES products in recent memory: the Tazer MP3 holster. Imagine trying to not only charge your holster but also connect it via USB to your computer to fill it up with 1GB of tunes.

Pepe Pet Dryer

Want to find a new way to make your small dog or cat hate you forever? Lock them in a cube prison for 25 minutes (!) and subject them to gusts of hot air. This combination torture device/dryer would have set you back $660, or you could just throw a towel over your wet dog like a normal human.

HapiFork

Throughout history, there have been so many gadgets designed to limit normal human behavior, but this one takes the (pan)cake. The HapiFork is yet another vibrating gadget that tells you to eat your meals slower (over 20 minutes), with the idea being that you are less likely to overeat. Personally, I wolf my own meals down like I’m in prison, so do your worst, HapiFork. I’ll eat with my hands if I have to! You’re not the boss of me!

Hushme

The Hushme is literally a «dumb» product — it’s designed to make its user mute to other people in the immediate vicinity. It was pitched as being useful in workplaces, but… if a co-worker gave me one of these, they’d better be wearing vacuum shoes, in order to clean up the gleefully stomped-on bits.

Belty

The original Belty was a prototype smart belt with a motor in it that adjusted itself to whether you just ate or were sitting down. Impractical as hell, but kind of cool? While there is a newer model, also called Belty, this one is even weirder — there’s no auto-sizing, but it does have a power bank charger in the buckle. OK, two things. Not only do I not want a potentially volatile compound near my nethers, I don’t want to connect a series of devices there either.

Xybernaut Poma

First shown off at CES 1998, the Hitachi Xybernaut wearable computer was a terrible idea long before Google Glass was even a gleam in Babak Parviz’s eye. The Windows CE-based Xybernaut Poma offered a 128MHz RISC processor and 32MB of RAM for the low price of $1,499, plus it strapped to your arm and your face and your belt!

Read more: Hitachi Fashioning Wearable PCs

Denso Vacuum Shoes

Shoes. You wear ’em. They wear out, you buy more. But that’s not exciting now, is it? They need things in them — phones, rockets, rollers and… vacuums? There are so many puns I could make about even just the name of the Denso Vacuum Shoes, but the fact that they existed at all was the biggest joke of all.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 12 #527

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 12, No. 527.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has some complex answers to find, and they’re tough to unscramble, too. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Spitting image

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Twins

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DATE, LIME, LIMES, PLACE, PLACES, CHAT, LACE, LACES, FACE, FACES, LOOK, COPY, CORE, THAT, SIMILE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

DOUBLE, REPLICA, DUPLICATE, FACSIMILE, LOOKALIKE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is COPYTHAT. To find it, look for the C that’s four letters down on the far-left row, and wind across and then down.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.

Technologies

Act Fast to Get the Fitbit Versa 4 Smartwatch While It’s Down to $150

Save $50 on this top-rated fitness tracker while this limited-time deal lasts.

There are plenty of smartwatch options out there for people hoping to keep an eye on their fitness. While you can certainly go big with something like an Apple Watch, budget can often be a huge factor.

Well, right now you can get your hands on the Fitbit Versa 4 while it’s 25% off. This is a great discount, and brings it down to just $150 in three different colors. However, this is a limited-time deal, which means it’s not going to be at this price for long.

The Fitbit Versa 4 is a slim smartwatch with features including a heart rate monitor, sleep tracking and more. It’s a smartwatch that doesn’t break the bank and right now it’s available with a $50 discount that takes the usual $200 price down to just $150. You don’t need to enter any discount codes or clip any coupons, and you can choose between the black, blue and copper rose colors before adding your new smartwatch to your cart. Best Buy is matching the pricing.

Buyers of the Fitbit Versa 4 can look forward to GPS-powered workout features as well as a 24/7 heart rate monitor and sleep tracking. Your Fitbit will show your daily stress management score, how much oxygen is in your blood and a whole lot more. And it’ll do it all in a shape and size that looks great while staying out of the way whether you’re working out or actually working at work.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

Each Fitbit 4 comes with a free six-month Fitbit Premium membership with personalized analytics and insights based on your data, although you’ll have to start paying once that period is up. Still, the trial could be a great way to get a feel for how useful you find that information before you have to pay extra.

Note that Amazon hasn’t said how long we can expect this special price to hang around, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on picking up this smartwatch with this discount. Don’t worry too much if you do miss out though, our list of the best Fitbit deals is sure to have something for everyone.

SMARTWATCH DEALS OF THE WEEK

Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 46mm, Black, M/L Sports Band):

$329 (save $100)
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (Bluetooth, 40mm, Cream):

$200 (save $100)
Amazfit Active 42mm Smartwatch With 14 Day Battery Life (Black):

$85 (save $25)
Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch With AMOLED Display:

$200 (save $100)
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (Wi-Fi, LTE, 47mm, Titanium Silver):

$500 (save $150)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

The Fitbit Versa 4 is pricey, but this discount helps take the edge off. With over 40 exercise modes, built-in GPS and tracking for just about everything, it’s a great pick for adventurers and fitness enthusiasts alike. But hurry — we don’t know how long this deal will last.

Technologies

Siri’s New Features May Include Adding Voice Controls to Apps

A feature Apple showed off last year is reportedly being tested with popular third-party apps.

Apple is testing new features for its Siri assistant with popular apps — including Uber, Facebook and YouTube — that would make it possible to use third-party app features with voice commands, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The testing is being done with the goal of releasing a revamped Siri in the spring of 2026 that uses Apple’s App Intents to expand what Siri can do outside of Apple’s own OS and first-party apps. For instance, people might be able to post Instagram comments or make purchases using only their voice, something Siri can’t yet do with most apps that Apple didn’t develop itself, according to the report.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple showed off a demo of this type of functionality last year, but the overhaul might not arrive until 2027. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, there are some internal doubts among Apple engineers as to whether the functionality will work well enough, especially in apps where mistakes could be costly or harmful, such as health or banking apps.

Gurman points out that if the company gets it right, it would be a major feature that could give Apple, «a new, voice-first interface… it could potentially be a hit that many users didn’t see coming,» he writes.

Creeping competition

Even if Apple succeeds in revamping Siri with new features that customers find to be a big improvement, the company will be doing so under pressure from competitors on the artificial intelligence front.

«Apple should be worried, and it appears they are,» says Vikas Sharma, senior director of patent services at Quandary Peak Research. «ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Alexa are all ahead of Siri in the AI race.»

Sharma expressed doubts that a spring 2026 release would include everything users might expect from a major Siri revamp. «At this point, there’s no update on any exciting upcoming capabilities, so the release may end up being incremental rather than revolutionary,» Sharma says.

But if Apple can work its magic and make good on some of the features that it gave a glimpse of last year, the effects could be profound.

«Imagine booking rides, flights, cars and hotels seamlessly through third-party apps; ordering from Amazon; sharing files through Slack/email; or finding emails with specific attachments, all through voice commands,» says Sharma. «With these capabilities, Siri could become a true AI assistant.’