When this is all you have to type with, you need new keyboard ideas. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Typing on a TV sucks. Those long and / or scrambled on-screen keyboards are both a nuisance to use, and a real problem for anyone wanting to make stuff for your TV.At CES 2025, I was just introduced to a better way. It’s made by a company called Direction9, which has been working on the system for about a year, and it starts with a very old way of typing: T9. T9 was created by necessity, back in the days when cellphones’ only buttons were the number keys. (Here’s a demo for the uninitiated.) TVs are similarly constrained by their directional pad — on most set-top boxes and smart TVs there’s no other way to type. The Direction9 system works like this: all the letters are arrayed in a three-by-three number grid, with multiple letters assigned to each number, just like T9. When you open the keyboard, your cursor defaults to the middle, and you click around to the letter you’re looking for. Every time you click the middle button to select a letter, the cursor jumps back to the center, which means you’re always only a click or two from the letter you’re looking for. You can use the keyboard a “smart” mode, which tries to predict which word you’re looking for — click... Read the full story at The Verge.

Here’s to figuring out whether using retinol is actually worth it for you. | Image: L’Oréal L’Oréal is hoping its latest beauty gadget can demystify skincare. At CES 2025, the company announced Cell BioPrint, a device that’s designed to analyze your skin and give personalized advice on how to slow down signs of aging. The device is the result of a partnership with NanoEntek — a Korean startup that specializes in chips that can read biofluids. A person essentially takes a facial tape strip, sticks it on their cheek, and then puts the strip in a buffer solution. That solution is then inserted into a cartridge for the Cell BioPrint to analyze. Once that sample is processed, the device takes images of your face as you answer a few short questions about skin concerns and aging. From there, L’Oreal says it uses proteomics, or the analysis of protein structure and function from a biological sample. In this case, the Cell BioPrint is designed to determine how well your skin is aging. It’ll then give personalized advice on how to improve your skin’s appearance, as well as predictions of how responsive your skin may be to certain skincare ingredients.It’s an attractive claim, but as with most beauty tech, it’s difficult to properly evaluate L’Oréal’s methods without peer-reviewed studies or experts weighing in. L’Oréal also claims the device can help predict future cosmetic issues before they manifest. For example, it may be able to determine if your skin is prone to hyperpigmentation or enlarged pores. Image: L’Oréal The Cell BioPrint analyzes your skin’s proteins to see how well you’re aging. Skincare became massively popular during covid-19 lockdowns, sparking a shift in beauty trends toward self-care and the rise of “skinfluencers.” On the flip side, that virality has since turned skincare buying into an extreme sport. Hop onto TikTok, and you’ll find dozens of skinfluencers egging you into dropping $80 on a vial of vitamin C serum, debating the moisturizing properties of glycerin versus hyaluronic acid, or wagging a finger about this or that retinol cream. (Some, may even convince you to buy a wand that zaps your face to increase the efficacy of said ingredients.) It’s confusing, expensive, and maddeningly, what works for one person may not for another. The most the average consumer can do is cross their fingers and hope that the latest potion they bought will actually work. The Cell BioPrint’s appeal is it claims to use science to cut through that noise. Maybe every skinfluencer says you need to start using retinol when you turn 30, but this device will purportedly tell you based on your own biology whether retinol will actually work for you. Personalization has always been a major theme with CES beauty tech, but it’s particularly compelling with skincare, which is highly dependent on your individual biology. But again, right now there’s no way to know how reliable the Cell BioPrint’s science and recommendations are.L’Oréal says the Cell BioPrint will be easy to use, with the process taking only five minutes. It also says people will be able to repeat tests, enabling them to monitor changes and progress over time. That said, it might be a while before something like Cell BioPrint is available for consumers. L’Oréal says the device will first be piloted in Asia later this year but otherwise didn’t have a concrete launch timeline or price.

CES 2025 is almost here, and we're expecting Nvidia to unveil the RTX 5000 series, AMD to show us what the next generation of Radeon GPUs will be called, and a bunch of other PC hardware that'll be ripe for upgrading to this year. It should be a wonderful time with the future of PC gaming on display with everything consumers will be able to buy later on in stores. But this year isn't normal, and really, no technology release for a while has.

The company created a sensation by making TVs that look more like art and less like tech. With The Frame Pro, Samsung is trying to deliver the best of both worlds. Samsung’s The Frame has been enormously popular ever since its release. There’s no shortage of imitators at this point, with other manufacturers trying their hand at creating a TV that seamlessly blends in with home decor and can also convincingly look like wall art when idle. But none have captured lightning in a bottle quite like Samsung. And in 2025, Samsung is looking to fend off copycats by introducing The Frame Pro. With the artwork side of things well handled, now the company is aiming to make The Frame Pro a good TV for everything else. The Frame has nailed the aesthetics and style from the start. People buy it for the vibe more than anything else. But as a TV, it’s always just been, well... fine. There wasn’t much wow factor in terms of brightness or the overall picture quality that came with the nice design. That might be changing now.There are two main upgrades that put the “pro” in The Frame Pro. First, Samsung is moving to Mini LED, which the company says will give The Frame Pro a boost in contrast, brightness, and black levels. The regular Frame, which isn’t going anywhere, has never offered any local dimming to speak of. But there’s an important caveat: this isn’t Mini LED in the regular sense. Normally, Mini LED TVs contain a ton of small dimming zones behind the screen. This lets them be way more precise in lighting up only the sections of the display that need it while preserving black levels and shadow detail elsewhere. The Frame Pro doesn’t do that. The Frame Pro uses Mini LEDs, but they’re at the bottom of the panel — not behind it. Instead, Samsung is placing Mini LEDs along the bottom of the screen, while claiming that this approach still produces some level of local dimming. To me, it all still very much sounds like an edge-lit TV. But I’ll give this “Mini LED” tech a fair chance whenever I get one in for review.Samsung is also boosting The Frame Pro’s maximum refresh rate from 120Hz to 144Hz, so PC gamers can get even smoother visuals than before. But if you were hoping “pro” might finally mean Dolby Vision support, that’s still a no.The Frame has always been something of a compromise; maybe you’ve got a significant other who refuses to allow a dull black rectangle into the living room. So you, being the good and considerate person you are, ultimately agree to “settle” on The Frame. After first hearing about The Frame Pro, I was hopeful that it would be much less of a compromise. But this asterisk around Mini LED has me a little less excited. Like recent models, The Frame Pro’s display has a matte finish to give your preferred art a more authentic appearance and mask the reality that you’re looking at a screen. But matte screens can sometimes lessen a display’s punch, so genuine Mini LED backlighting could’ve helped quite a bit in that regard. There’s no more wire running from Samsung’s breakout box to the actual TV. You plug your game consoles, streaming boxes, and other devices into the Wireless One Connect Box. The second major improvement is that The Frame Pro no longer has a thin wire running between it and Samsung’s breakout box that houses all the HDMI inputs and the TV’s other brains: that connection has gone fully wireless. This will result in an even cleaner look with less cable clutter. And the Wireless One Connect Box, which supports up to Wi-Fi 7, eliminates yet another telltale sign that The Frame Pro is a television. Now, all you’ve got to worry about concealing is the display’s power cord. Samsung says the wireless connection between the box and TV works at distances of up to 10 meters, “even with obstacles in its path.” The Wireless One Connect Box can be placed up to 10 meters away. The Frame Pro is also getting the same litany of AI-powered features as Samsung’s other 2025 TVs. AI is such a focus this year that there’s a dedicated button on the remote for activating Click to Search, which can show you “who the actors are in a given scene, where that scene is taking place, or even the clothing the characters are wearing,” according to Samsung’s press release. A new Samsung Food feature can recognize dishes onscreen and provide you with the recipes to make them — or something in the same ballpark, at least. Beyond that, the company is dialing up its AI-enhanced picture and sound optimizations, and AI is also reaching into accessibility features like Live Translate, which can “instantly translate closed captions on live broadcasts in up to seven languages.” That’s very neat.The critical question is one I can’t answer yet: how much will this thing cost? How much more expensive will The Frame Pro be compared to the regular model? Samsung won’t be sharing pricing details until closer to the spring when it ships. If the company gets cocky and goes too high, that could ruin a lot of the appeal here. But if you already know that some version of The Frame is in your future, you’re probably very happy that The Frame Pro now exists.Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

AMD is proud of its 3D V-Cache technology, so much so that we're now seeing it move to the company's mobile CPU family. For CES 2025, AMD announced the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, which is quite the mouthful and has the highest cache on any AMD mobile chip. As well as some new AMD Ryzen 9000 series mobile processors, AMD also announced AMD Ryzen AI 300, Ryzen AI Max, Ryzen 200, and Ryzen Z2 chips. There's almost enough chips here for a classic British staple takeaway meal. The highlight of the show is the mighty AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, which is where our coverage begins.

With its new lineup of TVs, Samsung is making a decision that I think might prove somewhat divisive. The company is bringing the matte, glare-free display technology that debuted on last year’s S95D OLED to several more models — including its flagship Mini LED sets. Here at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Samsung is showcasing all of its latest TVs at its annual First Look event. The new S95F QD-OLED gets blazingly bright, likely using a just-announced Samsung Display panel that’s technically capable of reaching 4,000 nits. According to the company, the glare-free coating has been improved to further cut down on reflections from overhead lighting, floor lamps, and sunlight. And similar to LG’s top-tier 2025 OLEDs announced earlier today, the S95F is capable of hitting a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. PC gamers, rejoice. Even Samsung’s First Look show floor, with bright lights everywhere, poses no issue for the glare-free screen. It’s really quite impressive. And now Samsung is bringing it to more models. But not everyone likes the perceived tradeoffs. If you’re wondering what’s so controversial about Samsung’s glare-free screen, some people insist it results in a worse overall picture than glossy coatings and that the perfect blacks of OLED aren’t so inky black in all lighting conditions anymore. This issue has been debated at length on Reddit, in YouTube videos (hey, Caleb), and all over AVS Forum. But clearly Samsung remains undeterred by the haters because now the glare-free display is also coming to the company’s Mini LED “Neo QLED” TVs for the first time. That includes the flagship 4K QN90F and both of this year’s 8K models. (Buying an 8K TV is very silly; I still very much recommend against doing that.) Samsung’s other 2025 4K TVs will stick with a glossy treatment, so at least there are options if you refuse to go glare-free. These latest Mini LED TVs are also available in some truly enormous sizes: the QN90F tops out at 115 inches, while the (glossy) QN80F can be had at up to 100 inches. Samsung says the wonderfully named “Supersize Picture Enhancer” will help keep 4K content looking crisp even on that giant QN90F. You still won’t find Dolby Vision on any of these TVs no matter the size; clearly, that’s a philosophical choice at this point. The company’s 115-inch 4K Neo QLED TV uses a “Supersize Picture Enhancer” to boost clarity at this enormous size. Vision AIFor 2025, Samsung is pulling all of its AI-powered TV features under new branding called Vision AI. These include the usual suspects like AI Upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering, and Adaptive Sound Pro. But there’s a new Click to Search feature that can identify actors on-screen, the location of a shot, or what clothes are featured in a scene “with just one click of the new AI button on your SolarCell remote.” Yes, there’s now a dedicated AI remote button. Another new AI trick is Samsung Food, which “recognizes the food on your screen and provides recipes for bringing it to life.” I’m mildly curious about this and can’t wait to see how accurate or off the mark it is. Live Translate is a much more helpful addition: it can “instantly translate closed captions on live broadcasts in up to seven languages.” The company is also using AI to provide more robust home security features. From tonight’s press release:Samsung AI Home Security transforms your TV into a smart security hub. It analyzes video feeds from your connected cameras and audio from your TV’s microphone to provide comprehensive home monitoring. It can detect unusual sounds and movements, such as falls or break-ins, to give you more peace of mind whether you’re at home, or away. You’ll receive alerts and notifications on your phone or directly on your TV screen, helping you stay connected to your home while ensuring the safety and well-being of your loved ones.Samsung is even leveling up Bixby, which isn’t something we’ve said in a long time. The company’s voice assistant can now “better understand context and assist with multiple actions — like changing the channel and raising the volume at the same time.” You can also now control your Samsung TV with the Galaxy Watch on your wrist. That’s got absolutely nothing to do with AI, but it might be convenient at times. As for its lifestyle TVs, Samsung is announcing The Frame Pro, which you can read all about here. Pricing for all of these 2025 TVs will be announced over the next few months, and they’ll begin to ship this spring.Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

OWC has released two new super-long active optical USB4 cables, available in lengths of nearly 10 feet (3 meters) and 15 feet (4.5 meters) and offering up to 40Gbps of data throughput. According to OWC’s press materials, they’ll set you back $98.99 and $129.99, respectively, though its website currently lists them for slightly less. That’s a bargain, compared to what Apple is charging.Data throughput aside, OWC says you can also expect the 3m option to provide up to 240W of power, while the 4.5m cable manages 60W. The cables are covered with braided nylon, too, which hopefully means they’re nice and flexible. And although they aren’t Thunderbolt 4 cables, they’ll work the way you’d expect with other Thunderbolt 3- or- 4-capable devices, including docks and hubs. Image: OWC Intel generally guarantees Thunderbolt 4 performance at up to 2 meters over traditional copper cables. Those cables need special tech inside to keep throughput up over longer runs, which is likely part of why Apple’s 3-meter 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 cable costs $159. You can find some USB4 cables as long as OWC’s for much less than that, but the longer ones don’t tend to offer the same high throughput, which OWC credits to the electromagnetic interference immunity of fiber-optics. OWC’s cables are a bit of a throwback to Thunderbolt’s roots as Light Peak, which was initially codeveloped by Intel and Apple as a fiber optic cable standard that made its way to a Sony laptop just as the companies decided to go with copper, instead. Optical, data-only Thunderbolt lives on at companies like Corning, which has you covered if you need a $480 164-foot (50 meters) 5K optical display cable in your life.Cables aside, OWC also recently announced a $189.99 Thunderbolt 5 hub, which went up for preorder in November and is available now. It’s got four Thunderbolt 5 ports and a single USB-A port and supports three simultaneous 8K displays at 60Hz.

Most CES pre-briefings consist of a short rundown of the products followed by stations where you get to go hands-on with them, but Dell's was different this year. This time around, the company held a full-on keynote with Michael Dell himself, where the firm announced that it's killing off all of its branding on its laptops, consolidating them into one brand. And the brand is...Dell.

The Verge LG and Samsung have both announced their 2025 smart TVs at CES this weekend, and some of them will include access to Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant. Both TV manufacturers are chasing the artificial intelligence hype train with dedicated AI sections on their smart TVs that include a shortcut to a Copilot web app.LG is adding an entire AI section to its TVs and rebranding its remote to “AI Remote,” in an effort to sell consumers on the promise of large language models. While it’s not clear exactly how Copilot works on LG’s latest TVs, the company describes access to Copilot as a way to allow users to “efficiently find and organize complex information using contextual cues.”LG hasn’t demonstrated its Copilot integration just yet, but it has shown off its own AI Chatbot that’s part of its TVs. It appears Copilot will be surfaced when LG TV users want to search for more information on a particular subject. Image: Samsung Samsung is showing off its AI Vision features at CES this week. Samsung also has its own Vision AI brand for its AI-powered TV features this year, which include AI upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering, and Adaptive Sound Pro. There’s also a new AI button on the remote to access AI features like recognizing food on a screen or AI home security features that analyze video feeds from smart cameras. Microsoft’s Copilot will be part of this Vision AI section. “In collaboration with Microsoft, Samsung announced the new Smart TVs and Smart Monitors featuring Microsoft Copilot,” says Samsung in a press release. “This partnership will enable users to explore a wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations.”I asked Samsung for more information or images of Copilot in action, but the company doesn’t have anything more to share right now. I’ve also asked LG and Microsoft for more information about Copilot on TVs and neither company has responded in time for publication. Without any indication of exactly how Copilot works on these TVs, I’m going to chalk this one up as a gimmicky feature that LG, Samsung, and Microsoft clearly aren’t ready to demo yet.

When it comes to productivity software, Microsoft 365 and Google Docs are household names. They dominate the market, offering cloud-based document creation and collaboration with integrated services. But there’s a growing interest in alternatives that don't lock you into proprietary ecosystems. That’s where ONLYOFFICE Docs steps in.

Gaming handhelds are a newer form factor segment that's still being fleshed out and while current-gen devices are excellent for enjoying the latest games with decent results, there's always room for improvement. That's where AMD's Ryzen Z2 processors come into play for CES 2025. The new Z2 family has the Ryzen Z Extreme, Ryzen Z2, and Ryzen Z2 Go. The latter has just four cores, offering a more affordable CPU that should get slightly more battery life out of a device. AMD is taking advantage of the reliable growth seen with hardware from Asus, Lenovo, and Valve.

CES 2025 is here, and HP is bringing the heat with a new range of business laptops including a brand-new EliteBook Ultra powered by Intel Lunar Lake, which is very different from the Qualcomm model launched last summer. There's also the first convertible EliteBook since HP's big rebranding back in June 2024, with the new EliteBook X Flip.