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

An Always-On AI Notetaker? This Startup Thinks You Can Just Use Your Phone

Thine doesn’t have its own pin or necklace to listen to everything so you can remember your conversations. It’s just an app.

The show floors of CES 2026 are awash with AI-powered notetaking and companion devices that listen to everything around you so you can go back and have a computer remember a conversation you just had. The folks at Thine think somebody else already got the hardware right, and all they need to give you is the app.

Pratyush Rai, the CEO of Thine, said in an interview that he decided to create an app for Apple’s iPhone because the functions he would’ve needed to create a device, like a pin, a ring or a necklace, already existed in the phone’s microphone and Siri functions.

«What we have realized is we should not try to solve a problem both from a hardware standpoint and a privacy standpoint that Apple has already solved for,» he said.

The iPhone streams live audio while it waits for you to say «Hey Siri,» and Thine uses that same function to capture and transcribe the conversations you have. Its microphone also has very good noise cancellation — something a new hardware company would have to work to perfect on its own.

From there, Thine takes over, training an AI model on those transcripts so you can ask questions like, «What did that AI executive tell me the other day at CES?» It will respond like a typical chatbot would, with a summary of that conversation. At CES, I watched as Rai asked Thine to recall the conversation we first had about the app two weeks earlier, and it provided accurate and pretty thorough highlights.

Rai said Thine doesn’t store the audio recordings of your conversations. The exact transcripts aren’t available right now, but the company is working on a new version that will provide those transcripts and allow you to upload them into your own chatbot, kind of like if you ran the Voice Memos app all the time and just kept the transcriptions. Rai said the decision to allow people to access verbatim transcripts came after feedback from users of competing AI notetaking devices, who said they really wanted the actual transcriptions.

For now, a fully functional Thine app is an expensive subscription: $200 per month. Rai said the target audience is executives and tech founders who want to keep track of all of their networking conversations. But he expects prices to come down significantly with scale, including as the AI models and software improve. Already, he said, those improvements allow the company to prepare the version that just offers transcriptions for around a dollar a month.

The big expense remains long-term storage — and keeping it secure. Rai said having those old conversations accessible by the AI model is essential to reduce hallucinations, when AI makes stuff up to fill the gaps in its context. When you’re trying to recall conversations you actually had with real people, you don’t want the AI’s best guess at what you talked about. You need the truth.

Being able to get that is key to Rai’s goal of creating an AI tool that helps you have better connections not with the chatbot, but with other people. He doesn’t want people to build relationships with Thine, but with each other. «This is not something we ever imagine with Thine,» he said.

Technologies

Today Only: Grab the HyperX Wireless Gaming Headset for Just $60 at Best Buy

Save a massive 50% on this state-of-the-art gaming headset while this flash deal lasts.

If you’re a gamer living with family, roommates or in a dorm, then you know how valuable a headset can be. Not only are they perfect for letting you play without missing any of the action, but they also allow your family to carry on without being privy to every blast. However, even these accessories are an added cost for your favorite hobby.

We’ve spotted this HyperX Cloud Flight gaming headset for just $60 at Best Buy. This saves you $60, which represents a discount of 50%. Keep in mind that this is one of Best Buy’s deals of the day, which means this discount ends at 9:59 p.m. PT today.

This gaming headset is made specifically for PS4 and PS5, laptops or PCs. It has a range of 66 feet and includes active noise cancellation so you can focus. HyperX also equipped this headset with a battery life of up to 30 hours for long gaming sessions.

Best Buy is also offering discounts on other HyperX headsets, such as the HyperX Cloud III wired gaming headset for just $62, which saves you $38. Other fantastic deals include a discount of $74 on the HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headset, which brings it down to just $126. We suggest looking through Best Buy’s entire list of deals on HyperX headsets so you can find the right pair for you.

Looking for a new gaming headset but not sure if these deals are for you? Check out our list of the best PC gaming headsets for more ideas.

Why this deal matters

Gaming and its accessories can be quite the investment. That’s why deals like this one can help you save and put those dollars to use somewhere else. Keep in mind that the HyperX Cloud Flight gaming headset typically costs $120, so paying $60 means you’re only parting with half its value. Of note, this deal ends at 9:59 p.m. PT today, so it’s wise to act fast.

Technologies

Motorola Teases New Razr Folding Phone With ‘Boundary-Breaking Camera System’

An Instagram post from Motorola shows a book-style foldable phone ahead of CES presentation.

A day after leaker Evan Blass began posting information about a purported Motorola book-style foldable phone called the Motorola Fold, the company itself has released a teaser video on Instagram that appears to confirm the new smartphone.

«A new era is unfolding… See you in Vegas,» Motorola says in that video. Motorola’s parent company, Lenovo, will be making its Tech World presentation for CES 2026 from the Las Vegas Sphere on Jan. 6, with a livestream on YouTube.

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On Jan. 4, Blass posted what appeared to be a presentation slide that included text on the Motorola Razr Fold, noting that it would be released «later this year.» The slide promised «brilliant displays, intelligent AI and an advanced, boundary-breaking camera system.»

In the same post, Blass also included a slide for what could be Motorola’s next flagship phone, the Signature, which would feature four 50-megapixel cameras. The Motorola video preview shows a foldable phone that also includes four cameras. After Motorola made its video post on Instagram, Blass posted purportedly leaked product shows of the Fold and the Signature.

Motorola’s most recent foldable phones have been variations on the Motorola Flip phone. This would be the company’s first book-style foldable phone.