Technologies
Everyone Wants a Robot That Folds Laundry. LG Brought Its First One to CES 2026
LG’s new AI-powered home robot CLOiD promises to empty the dishwasher, fold laundry and perform light cooking tasks.

Robots that can perform our least favorite domestic chores, such as washing dishes, folding laundry and cooking, have been a popular fixture in the public’s imagination since The Jetsons. However, 63 years later, the attempts to actually produce one have mostly resulted in hilarious videos. LG is hoping to break that trend this year at CES 2026.
LG, one of the best-known home appliance brands, is set to unveil its first-ever multitasking autonomous home robot, CLOiD. The launch could mark a major tipping point, prompting other blue-chip home appliance brands to enter the fast-emerging multifunctional home robot market.
According to the company, CLOiD is an AI-powered home robot that purports to do far more than vacuum, mop or pick up socks. While existing home robots are engineered to perform tasks such as floor cleaning, pool and lawn care, the CLOiD uses AI and vision-based technology to automate more complex household tasks, such as «retrieving milk from the fridge, placing a croissant in the oven for breakfast and folding and stacking garments after laundering.»
In an email, LG tells us that CLOiD is designed to perform and coordinate household tasks across connected home appliances using LG’s ThinQ ecosystem. This means you’ll need LG appliances for it to function as a go-between that executes several mundane daily tasks.
«CLOiD is intended to reduce the time and physical effort required for everyday chores,» LG said in a statement on Sunday.
While we’ve yet to see the robot in action, the AI-enabled home robot will be demonstrated publicly for the first time this week at CES 2026. CNET eagerly awaits a first look at CLOiD ahead of the massive tech show and will report back following the demo.
How LG CLOiD is designed
«The LG CLOiD consists of a head unit, torso with two articulated arms and a wheeled base equipped with autonomous navigation. The torso can tilt to adjust its height, enabling the robot to pick up objects from knee level and above,» LG said.
Each arm has seven degrees of freedom, matching the mobility of a human arm. The shoulder, elbow, and wrist allow forward, backward, rotational, and lateral motion, while each hand includes five independently actuated fingers for fine manipulation. This configuration allows LG CLOiD to handle a wide range of household objects and operate in kitchens, laundry rooms and living areas.
The wheeled base uses autonomous driving technology derived from LG’s experience with robot vacuums and the LG Q9. This form factor was selected for stability, safety and cost-effectiveness, with a low center of gravity that reduces the risk of tipping if a child or pet makes contact.
CLOiD’s head serves as a mobile AI home hub
The head serves as a central intelligent control center for the household. It houses a chipset acting as LG CLOiD’s central processor, along with a display, speaker, cameras, multiple sensors and voice-powered generative AI. Together, these components enable the robot to interact with people using natural speech and expressive visual cues, understand users’ home environments and daily routines, and autonomously manage connected appliances based on what it learns.
Integration with ThinQ and ThinQ ON
CLOiD’s capabilities expand significantly through its integration with LG’s smart home ecosystem, including the AI home platform ThinQ and hub ThinQ ON. This connectivity allows CLOiD to orchestrate a wider range of services across LG’s various appliances.
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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.
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