Technologies

An AR Laptop Is Not as Crazy an Idea as You Might Think

The Spacetop is like a Chromebook for AR headsets. With Apple’s hardware looming, it’s an idea ahead of its time.

A small keyboard and trackpad lies in my lap. But there’s no screen. Not that you can see, anyway. To me, I have a curved wraparound workspace with dozens of windows open. I’m seeing it on a pair of AR glasses (with prescription inserts) perched on my nose.

I first tried the Spacetop in Las Vegas back in January, but the company that developed it, Sightful, is finally announcing the early-access product experiment now. I’ve seen tons of AR and VR headsets, but very few unique peripherals designed to work together with these future goggles and glasses. Instead of gaming or social experiences, Spacetop’s main pitch is to turn laptops into AR-assisted devices with endless virtual displays.

If that sounds like a weird pitch, consider that I’ve already lived it. I’ve paired Meta’s Quest Pro to my laptop to extend its virtual monitors around my head, and plenty of solutions like this already exist using available apps. The interfaces can be clunky, and the hardware isn’t totally made to be mobile. Spacetop’s keyboard base, with its own Qualcomm processor inside, acts as a spatially tracked anchor that the AR glasses can follow and track the floating displays to. The tracking can work while in motion in a car or plane, and a button on the keyboard can make the floating displays vanish for an in-room conversation with someone, toggling the virtual screens on and off.

A visualization of someone working on a keyboard while screens hover in the air around them. — This visualization of working on Spacetop is actually very similar to the experience of using it, except the field of view at any time is smaller (imagine viewing through a narrower window).

Sightful

The Spacetop comes with a pair of NReal Light AR glasses as part of its package, which need to be physically tethered to the keyboard to work. Sightful’s founders are planning for wireless options eventually, but found the tethered option more reliable for consistent tracking right now. Also, the whole concept could eventually work with other AR and mixed-reality headset hardware down the road.

Hands on a keyboard that doesn't have a screen. A screenless laptop. — The Spacetop’s keyboard. No screen, just a base. There’s a cradle for the AR glasses.

Scott Stein/CNET

That would make sense, considering how many devices should be on their way: Apple’s, to start, and whatever Samsung, Google and Qualcomm are cooking up in the next year or so. NReal’s glasses are fine, but don’t work over my own glasses. Instead, I had to use prescription inserts, which Sightful will make for buyers of the hardware. The inserts I tried weren’t a perfect match, but were enough to appreciate that the display resolution was more than good enough for monitor readouts. The field of view, however, is narrower than most VR headsets: it can show something like a 40-inch TV screen as seen across a table, but I have to turn my head to see the other floating windows of other minimized browsers in the Spacetop’s Chrome-like software interface.

A man working on a screenless laptop with AR glasses on — Sightful’s co-founder, Tomer Kahan, demoing Spacetop with me. I worked on it, too.

Scott Stein/CNET

Zooming into displays, or scrolling around, is all done through trackpad and keyboard work. The keyboard itself is the interface.

Sightful’s team has experience in AR: Founders Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan came from Magic Leap, and Berliner also founded Primesense, the depth-sensing technology that powered Microsoft Kinect and which Apple acquired as the foundation to its Face ID TrueDepth camera.

As Apple’s headset begins to imagine how mixed reality could work with other devices — perhaps iPads, or the Apple Watch — upcoming glasses and goggles will start to imagine working better with phones or laptops, and other tools to come. It makes sense that new peripherals would arrive as well — not just controllers, but tracking rings, wearable trackers and a new wave of keyboards designed specifically for mixed reality.

I think Spacetop is a bit ahead of the curve here, and while it’s designed as a primary computer with its own headset, the future may belong to smart accessories that evolve from this idea to work with more headsets to come. If VR and AR are ever going to be more than just places for games, better work tools need to arrive. Spacetop is a pretty fascinating first step to what I imagine will be a lot more on this front.

Technologies

Ring Finally Goes Wire-Free for Its Latest 4K Video Doorbells

The launch of battery-powered versions of the company’s powerful AI doorbells has been highly anticipated.

Security company Ring on Wednesday announced a significant expansion of its video doorbell line, notably battery-powered versions of both its 4K and 2K models, priced from $80.

Both Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest debuted high-resolution video doorbells with new AI features in the fall of 2025. But they were wired only, and in my tests, I kept thinking, «I sure wish there were battery models available.»

Wireless video doorbells are far better for most front doors than models that require connecting to your existing doorbell wiring, which is often poorly positioned for a security camera. Mine, for example, is located on a wall beside my door that’s useless for any kind of video views, no matter how you angle a lens.

«Enhancing image quality in battery-powered doorbells means customers can enjoy reliable performance with the flexibility to install devices in a way that suits their space, whether renting or living in homes without existing wiring,» a Ring spokesperson said.

At first, I wondered whether the higher 4K resolutions and more advanced AI features would use too much power to support batteries. If so, Ring is the first to fix that issue with this suite of doorbells, including these models available for preorder right now:

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro — $250: This model offers up to 4K resolution and 10x zoom, and Ring says it features a redesigned internal architecture to support battery power.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd-gen) — $180: This model includes a quick-release battery pack along with 2K video.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd-gen) — $100: This video doorbell includes 2K video, a 6x zoom and what Ring calls a «streamlined, rechargeable design,» which means you take the entire video doorbell to charge it, not just the battery — a design I greatly prefer, since Ring’s battery packs can get fiddly.

There’s also a new version of a Ring wired doorbell with 2K resolution, starting at $80. It wouldn’t be Ring without a plethora of doorbell devices to confuse newcomers, which is why I have a guide specifically for Ring video doorbells that will need some updating once I finish testing these new models.

Resolution plus an intelligence upgrade

Ring’s ordinary subscriptions of the Ring Protect plan give you cloud video storage and intelligent alerts for people, packages and vehicles, which are important but not really advanced AI. But spring for the $20-per-month Ring AI Pro cam, and this new generation of cameras opens up other capabilities.

Ring’s AI features include AI video descriptions, so if you get an alert, you can also get a summary of what the doorbell saw, including people and activities. A similar feature lets you search your video history with specific terms, such as «bike,» «truck» and so on. You also get the beta version of Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which can ID logged faces of people who approach.

If these AI features make you uneasy and you’d rather protect your privacy, the best option is to avoid a subscription altogether or choose a lower-tier plan that gives you cloud storage without AI.

I also have a guide on how to turn off Ring’s detection and data-sharing features that might make you nervous, so you can keep what you like while ditching what you don’t.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 26.

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.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. 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: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: «___ want for Christmas …»
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his «Alas, poor Yorick!» speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after «match» or «mischief»
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Technologies

McDonald’s KPop Demon Hunter Meals Include Bright Purple Nugget Sauce

The Derpy McFlurry mixes popping boba pearls and berry sauce into a soft-serve dessert.

McDonald’s has seen success with themed combo meals, including its holiday Grinch Meal. Now, the fast-food chain is capitalizing on Netflix’s Oscar-winning animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, with new upcoming menu items and both a breakfast meal and a lunch/dinner offering. Let’s hope you like the color purple.

The HUNTR/X Meal, named for the K-pop girl group in the movie, is a 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal that includes a medium drink and three special menu items.

Ramyeon McShaker fries come with a small bag of soy, garlic, sesame and spice seasoning, along with regular McDonald’s french fries. You sprinkle the seasoning into the provided bag, dump in the fries, shake it all up and eat.

The meal includes two new sauces for the fries and nuggets. Hunter sauce is a sweet chili sauce mixing notes of chili, garlic and pepper. But my favorite item on this new menu is Demon sauce, a bold mustard sauce with some heat and a bold purple color. There’s just not enough dark purple food out there.

There’s also a new dessert, the Derpy McFlurry, which blends creamy vanilla soft serve with berry-flavored popping boba pearls, served with a swirl of wild berry sauce. McDonald’s named it for the supernatural feline, Derpy Tiger, from the movie.

If breakfast is your bag, the new morning meal is the Saja Boys Breakfast Meal, named for the movie’s boy band.

It includes a Spicy Saja McMuffin sandwich, which is a sausage McMuffin with egg and a spicy Saja sauce, hash browns and a small drink.

Both meals come with a photocard for one of the bands and a Derpy card. The Derpy card includes a QR code you can scan to unlock online content about the film.

The full KPop Demon Hunters menu should be available at participating McDonald’s beginning March 31.

The McDonald’s Grinch meal (and its accompanying patterned socks) sold out quickly, so KPop Demon Hunters fans may want to mark their calendars and nab a meal when they are released.