The week-long event has hosted the reveals from the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Tecno, to name a few, who all appear to be pushing the envelope with what’s possible in the mobile space.

Without further ado, here are some of the most exciting gadgets shown off at the annual trade show:

Lenovo’s transparent laptop

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That is indeed a transparent laptop.

Lenovo’s Project Crystal is a laptop concept with a 16-inch, see-through microLED display. The first-of-its-kind device was reportedly commissioned by the company’s ThinkPad division, who wanted to integrate the cutting-edge display technology with artificial intelligence (AI) software for various real world use cases.

One such use case would be to use the transparent display to share information to a person who might be sitting across from you at a table. Instead of needing to flip the whole laptop, you can simply hit a few buttons and reverse the display.

Lenovo says the laptop also has augmented reality (AR) use cases. The laptop includes a camera that can scan real world objects, and you can then, for example, use the display as an overlay of sorts on those objects.

Right now, the laptop remains a concept, and there are no plans of bringing it to market yet.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Xiaomi brought a lot of new gadgets with it to MWC 2024, including its SU7 electric car, and the robotic CyberDog.

What caught our eye, however, is the Chinese tech giant’s latest flagship, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, a highly capable camera phone with all the bells and whistles.

The new phone comes equipped with four 50MP lenses, which Xiaomi developed in tandem with Leica. The one-inch primary lens features variable aperture, letting you adjust the setting from f/1.63 to f/4.0. The telephoto lens has an f/1.8 aperture with a 3.2x optical zoom, while the periscope lens has an f/2.5 aperture with 5x optical zoom. The ultrawide lens, meanwhile, has an f/1.8 aperture and a 122-degree field of view, which allows you to fit more within the frame.

You can also purchase a separate camera grip add-on for the Ultra 14 that lets you use the phone like you would an actual camera. The grip, which includes a dedicated shutter release button, attaches via USB-C and features customizable controls for adjusting other camera settings like shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.

Samsung’s health-tracking Galaxy Ring

Samsung’s new health-tracking wearable made another appearance at MWC 2024 after first being unveiled at January’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event.

The all-new device is designed to be an alternative to smartwatches, featuring some of the same on-board sensors and trackers in a sleeker, more refined form factor. It can monitor pulse, body temperature, breathing, and sleep patterns, among other metrics, according to the South Korean electronics giant.

Tecno’s augmented-reality gaming handheld

Chinese phone manufacturer Tecno wants to take handheld gaming to the next level, bringing augmented reality (AR) tech to the portable PC market. Tecno’s Pocket Go is supposedly the industry’s first Windows AR gaming handheld, bringing AR capabilities on a portable gaming device.

It’s that support for AR that perhaps distinguishes the Pocket Go from others in the market. Instead of putting all the important components on a single device like the Steam Deck, Tecno’s latest innovation separates everything between two devices: a pair AR glasses and a controller.

The AR glasses primarily serve as the device’s display, featuring a 0.71-inch microOLED panel, which Tecno touts can emulate the experience of viewing a 215-inch television from six meters away. It also has an adjustable diopter setting of up to 600 degrees and a what the company calls VisionTrack function to track head movement and maximize eye comfort.

The controller, meanwhile, houses the components that power the experience, including the Ryzen 7 8840HS, an octa-core and 28W APU that includes a Radeon 780M integrated GPU. Inside, it also houses 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and a 50Wh replaceable battery.

Oppo’s AR glasses with voice assistant

Sticking to AR-ready devices, Oppo launched its own set of AR glasses at MWC 2024, called the Air Glass 3. At first glance, the prototype device resembles traditional glasses, but because it has AR functionalities, you can see digital content imposed over your view of the real world while wearing it.

What’s more, the glasses come with a voice assistant, powered by the Chinese phone manufacturer’s own large language model (LLM), AndesGPT. This allows you to talk to the assistant and ask it to perform certain tasks like search for information.

Oppo said you do need to connect the Air Glass 3 to an Oppo device for it to work. The company also didn’t say yet whether the device would eventually be released to the public.

Motorola’s rollable phone

Late last year, Motorola debuted a rollable phone that demonstrated advancements in flexible display technology. The company brought that same phone, dubbed the Adaptive Display, to MWC 2024, further showing off how it functions.

The phone essentially functions like a foldable, except it doesn’t have a hinge, and it can bend – or roll – in the shape of an arch. This design feature allows you to wrap the phone around your wrist like a smart bracelet of sorts.

As with other concept devices, it’s yet unclear whether this shape-shifting phone might ever make it to market. – Rappler.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, USA – A moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early on Thursday, February 15, on a mission to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half century and the first by a privately owned spacecraft.

The company’s Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after 1 am EST (0600 GMT; 2:00 pm Philippine time) atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk’ SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

A live NASA-SpaceX online video feed showed the two-stage, 25-story rocket roaring off the launch pad and streaking into the dark sky over Florida’s Atlantic coast, trailed by a fiery yellowish plume of exhaust.

About 48 minutes after launch, the six-legged lander was shown being released from Falcon 9’s upper stage about 139 miles above Earth and drifting away on its voyage to the moon.

“IM-1 Odysseus lunar lander separation confirmed,” a mission controller was heard saying.

Moments later, mission operations in Houston received its first radio signals from Odysseus as the lander began an automated process of powering on its systems and orienting itself in space, according to webcast commentators.

Although considered an Intuitive Machines mission, the IM-1 flight is carrying six NASA payloads of instruments designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of NASA’s planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.

Thursday’s launch came a month after the lunar lander of another private firm, Astrobotic Technology, suffered a propulsion system leak on its way to the moon shortly after being placed in orbit on Jan. 8 by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket making its debut flight.

The failure of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, which was also flying NASA payloads to the moon, marked the third time a private company had been unable to achieve a “soft landing” on the lunar surface, following ill-fated efforts by companies from Israel and Japan.

Those mishaps illustrated the risks NASA faces in leaning more heavily on the commercial sector than it had in the past to realize its spaceflight goals.

Plans call for Odysseus to reach its destination after a weeklongflight, with a Feb. 22 landing at crater Malapert A near the moon’s south pole.

If successful, the flight would represent the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a U.S. spacecraft since the final Apollo crewed moon mission in 1972, and the first by a private company.

The feat also would mark the first journey to the lunar surface under NASA’s Artemis moon program, as the U.S. races to return astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite before China lands its own crewed spacecraft there.

IM-1 is the latest test of NASA’s strategy of paying for the use of spacecraft built and owned by private companies to slash the cost of the Artemis missions, envisioned as precursors to human exploration of Mars.

By contrast, during the Apollo era, NASA bought rockets and other technology from the private sector, but owned and operated them itself.

NASA announced last month that it was delaying its target date for a first crewed Artemis moon landing from 2025 to late 2026, while China has said it was aiming for 2030.

Small landers such as Nova-C are expected to get there first, carrying instruments to closely survey the lunar landscape, its resources and potential hazards. Odysseus will focus on space weather interactions with the moon’s surface, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies and navigation.

Intuitive Machine’s IM-2 mission is scheduled to land at the lunar south pole in 2024, followed by an IM-3 mission later in the year with several small rovers.

Last month, Japan became the fifth country to place a lander on the moon, with its space agency JAXA achieving an unusually precise “pinpoint” touchdown of its SLIM probe last month. Last year, India became the fourth nation to land on the moon, after Russia failed in an attempt the same month.

The United States, the former Soviet Union and China are the only other countries that have carried out successful soft lunar touchdowns. China scored a world first in 2019 by achieving the first landing on the far side of the moon. – Rappler.com

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.

Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body.

The US Food and Drug Administration had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test its implant on humans. In September, Neuralink said it received approval for recruitment for the human trial for paralysis patients.

The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.

The implants’ “ultra-fine” threads help transmit signals in participants’ brains, Neuralink has said.

The first product from Neuralink would be called Telepathy, Musk said in a separate post on X.

The startup’s PRIME Study is a trial for its wireless brain-computer interface to evaluate the safety of the implant and surgical robot.

Neuralink did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for further details.

The company has faced calls for scrutiny regarding its safety protocols. Reuters reported earlier this month that the company was fined for violating US Department of Transportation (DOT) rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials.

The company was valued at about $5 billion last June, but four lawmakers in late November asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Musk had misled investors about the safety of its technology after veterinary records showed problems with the implants on monkeys included paralysis, seizures and brain swelling. – Rappler.com

The Samsung Galaxy S24 processes the voice data on the device itself – cutting the need to send the data to the cloud, which can slow down translation and make for awkward conversations with lots of dead air. On-device processing is also theoretically better for data privacy, as the information remains on the phone and not uploaded to a cloud service.

Rappler tech editor Gelo Gonzales tries out ‘Interpreter’ in this video. – Rappler.com

The Samsung Galaxy S24’s generative AI-powered image editing features allow users to select an object in a photo and move it around the frame, or to completely delete it. The generative AI technology is capable of filling in the holes left by the selection.

Rappler tech editor Gelo Gonzales is in San Jose, California for the launch of the new devices, and demonstrates the image editing feature in this video. – Rappler.com

The “AI Live Translate Call” allows a user to call and converse with another person speaking in a different language. As a user speaks, the phone provides a text translation that the person being spoken to would be able to understand. The phone also reads aloud the translation.

The words of the person on the other end are also translated for the user. 

The processing for AI call translation is done on-device. This means that the voice data doesn’t have to be sent to the cloud, where it can be translated, and then sent back to the device. The S24 processes the data right on the device, which makes the process faster – a key element as slow translations would make for a potentially awkward, time-consuming conversation. 

Rappler’s tech editor Gelo Gonzales is in San Jose, California for Samsung’s Unpacked event on January 18 (Manila time), where the tech giant is unveiling its new flagship device. He tries out the AI-powered call translation tool in this video. – Rappler.com

Here are some of the companies developing these kind of batteries. EV market leader Tesla, an industry outlier, has not detailed any solid-state development plans.

US startup QuantumScape, which has deals with six automakers including Volkswagen, has developed a semi-solid state cell with no anode that uses lithium metal, a ceramic separator and liquid electrolyte. The company says it could boost an EV’s driving range from 350 miles to 400-500 miles, an increase of 14%-43%. The expected range increase is down from earlier estimates of 50%-80%.

QuantumScape shipped its first prototype samples in late 2022, which VW said showed the battery could drive more than 500,000 miles without any noticeable loss of range and had a fast charging time to 80% capacity in 15 minutes.

France’s Blue Solutions is already selling solid state batteries for buses with a charging time of four hours, but is developing a new product for cars that uses a polymer electrolyte and ultra-thin lithium metal anode, aiming to have a charging time of less than 20 minutes and enabling a range increase of about 30% to nearly 1,000 km.

The company says it aims to build a gigafactory for its new batteries by 2029 and has signed a joint development agreement with BMW.

Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, said in June it had achieved a breakthrough in solid-state technology that addressed durability problems. It said it planned commercialization in 2027-2028 of a battery with a range of 1,000 km and a charging time of 10 minutes.

ProLogium Technology of Taiwan said that by the end of 2023 it aimed to ship prototype samples of its semi-solid-state batteries that enable a near doubling of the energy densities of the packs.

The firm, which has a cooperation deal with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and TotalEnergies, is building a gigafactory in Taiwan and plans one in France.

Chinese EV maker Nio  has commercialized 150 kilowatt hour (kWh) semi-solid-state batteries for its EVs, manufactured by Beijing Welion New Energy, which have a range of up to 1,000 km. Nio sells EVs in China and Europe and operates a battery-swapping service for its vehicles.

Ganfeng LiEnergy, a subsidiary of Ganfeng Lithium, is producing semi-solid-state batteries that power EVs produced by China’s Seres, such as the Seres 5 SUV which has a range of 530 km, with a fast charge time of 50 minutes.

China’s CATL, one of the world’s biggest battery producers, last year unveiled a condensed matter battery, a type of semi-solid-state battery it said could supply enough energy to power electric passenger aircraft. It had said it could start mass production of the batteries for EVs later in 2023, though hasn’t provided an update on this.

US startup Solid Power delivered test cells of its semi-solid state battery with a sulfide-based solid electrolyte and a high-content silicon anode to BMW late last year. It is also in the early stages of developing a battery with a lithium metal anode. Ford, BMW, Hyundai, and SK Innovation have invested in the company.

Another American player, Factorial Energy, delivered prototype samples of its semi-solid state battery to automaker partners last year for testing. The startup, which aims for a battery range of 600 miles, has agreements with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai.

South Korea’s LG Energy Solution said last year it aimed to develop polymer-based and sulfide-based solid state batteries by 2026 and 2030 respectively.

South Korea’s SK On, the battery unit of energy group SK Innovation, is developing two types of solid-state cells – high-molecular-oxide composite batteries and sulfide-based batteries – aiming to produce prototypes by 2026 and commercialize them by 2028.

South Korea’s Samsung SDI is developing a solid-state battery without an anode and launched production of prototypes last year ahead of expected mass production in 2027.

Honda plans to launch a solid-state battery test line in 2024, aiming to use the batteries in models in the latter part of this decade. It also invested in SES AI to jointly develop semi-solid state batteries.

Nissan plans to launch an EV with a pure solid-state battery developed in-house by its fiscal year 2028. – Rappler.com

Expect to wait another year, industry observers said.

One company aimed to use AI to disrupt the red-hot meat-grilling industry. Another aspired to play with your pet. A prototype boxing glove that uses machine learning to turn people into better fighters also made its debut. Few of these gadgets captured the wild energy that generative AI did in the 2023 hype cycle.

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Just a year after ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, companies did not have enough time to translate the excitement of large language models into gadget form.

“We’re still trying to get it all to work,” said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory. “You need the silicon and the software, and it’s only been a year since ChatGPT launched – people are still getting on board.”

The lackluster showing was an inauspicious beginning to a year when investors are expected to look for signs of financial returns from the billions of dollars of investments committed to the heavily hyped generative AI sector.

But profits are not assured, especially in the nascent device sector. On the first day of the trade show, AI gadget startup Humane announced it laid off 10 employees, ahead of the March launch date of its $699 AI-powered gadget intended to replace the smartphone, citing the need to restructure.

One sector that leaned into the frenzy was the automobile industry. Volkswagen presented vehicles with a voice assistant that integrates ChatGPT’s technology, that is supposed to let drivers listen to research content on the road. But ChatGPT has a propensity to “hallucinate” erroneous information, and was why Mercedes-Benz launched a virtual assistant that checks some of its answers against data from Google in order to be more accurate.

China-based Mojie demonstrated augmented reality glasses made with plastic lenses that connect to a smartphone. The glasses included an option that lets the user push a button on the frames to activate ChatGPT and display responses to queries in their field of view.

AI startup Rabbit launched a standalone gadget called the R1 that is similar to the voice assists produced by Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google. The device uses what the company describes as a “large action model” to control apps. It sold 10,000 units in a day.

Next year’s CES is likely to contain many more gadgets and products that include forms of generative AI after companies have enough time to develop the appropriate hardware and software, according to Accenture analyst Syed Alam.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see handheld devices that are doing generative AI, and maybe even offline,” Alam said. – Rappler.com

Well, there is now, but it’s not an app; it’s a robot. 

Meet Wi-Z. 

Robinsons Retail Holdings Incorporated (RRHI), owner of the Shopwise retail chain, has introduced a robot that helps people find items in its International Grocery Shopping branches, such as in Gateway Mall 2 in Cubao, Quezon City; Shopwise Chino Roces, Makati City; Shopwise Sucat, Parañaque; and in Shopwise Antipolo.

All you have to do is choose a category from the robot’s screen, tap it, and Wi-Z will lead you to the row where that item is. 

“Welcome. I can lead you to the place you want to go,” says Wi-Z. His screen says, “Where would you like to go?” and shows several categories such as Bath Accesories, Dishwashing Liquid, Imported Cereals, Insect Killer, Pet Foods, Dental Care, Home Appliance, Imported Soda, Kitchen Aid, and Pharmacy.  

Looking for toothpaste? Just press Dental Care and Wi-Z will lead you to the row which has all goods related to dental care. 

His screen will then say, “Leading to Dental Care.” 

Upon reaching the row, Wi-Z says, “The destination has been arrived. Looking forward to the next trip.” His screen says, “Arrived at Dental Care.” 

“I am going back,” Wi-Z says, and returns to his Guide Point or one of the entrances of Shopwise where the robot was programmed to return to. 

Wi-Z then says, “Arrived at Guide Point.” 

If people are blocking Wi-Z’s path, the robot then says: “I cannot move forward. Can you make way for me?” or “I am working now, kindly let me pass.” 

Wi-Z has three trays which can be filled with a few items that Shopwise can promote via the robot. 

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In November 2018, RRHI, owned by the Gokongwei family, acquired 100% of Rustan’s Supercenters Incorporated, which used to operate retail brands Shopwise, Rustan’s Supermarket, The Marketplace, and Wellcome.

Wi-Z appears to be part of the RRHI’s move to upgrade Shopwise’s image by making it more modern and global, amid stiff competition in the retail industry. RRHI has renovated and changed the look of Shopwise in its branches in Makati City; in Cubao, Quezon City; in Sucat, Parañaque; and in Antipolo City, Rizal.

Its Shopwise branch in Cubao moved to the new Gateway Mall 2 on July 28 this year from its large store behind Araneta Coliseum.

“Our newest store at Gateway Mall 2 embodies our commitment to excellence and customer-centricity as we bring international grocery shopping without the membership fee to more locations throughout the country,” Kerwin Legarde, general manager, said at the opening.

Shopwise Sucat branch was relaunched on November 17. Its Antipolo branch was also renovated this year. Shopwise Makati was relaunched in October 2022.

To support its international grocery branding for Shopwise, RRHI also launched Meadows, a brand in Singapore and Hong Kong which offers various food and other items, this month of December. 

Among the Meadows products being offered in Shopwise International Grocery Shopping are potato chips, tortilla chips, crackers, nuts, pet food, and others. 

Meet Robi

Anthony Paul Pasia, Robinsons Retail Holdings’ director for IT Delivery and Retailer Services Robinsons, told Rappler they also have a red version of the robot named Robi and a white version called Tim. 

These robots have been deployed to assist shoppers in the following stores:

• Robinsons Supermarket Galleria Quezon City
• Robinsons Supermarket Ermita
• Robinsons Supermarket Eastwood Technoplaza II
• Robinsons Supermarket Magnolia
• Robinsons Supermarket Novaliches
• Robinsons Supermarket Antipolo
• Robinsons Supermarket Montalban Towncenter
• The Marketplace Venice Grand McKinley
• The Maretplace Powerplant Mall Rockwell
• The Marketplace Makati
• The Marketplace EDSA Shangri-la

Pasia said the first robot was deployed in The Marketplace Shangri-la last July 2023, and that all participating stores have two robots each. – Rappler.com 

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With the political agreement, the EU moves toward becoming the first major world power to enact laws governing AI. Friday’s deal between EU countries and European Parliament members came after nearly 15 hours of negotiations that followed an almost 24-hour debate the previous day.

The two sides are set to hash out details in the coming days, which could change the shape of the final legislation.

“Europe has positioned itself as a pioneer, understanding the importance of its role as a global standard setter. This is yes, I believe, a historical day,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton told a press conference. (READ: EXPLAINER: What is the European Union AI Act?)

The accord requires foundation models such as ChatGPT and general purpose AI systems (GPAI) to comply with transparency obligations before they are put on the market. These include drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law, and disseminating detailed summaries about the content used for training.

High-impact foundation models with systemic risk will have to conduct model evaluations, assess and mitigate systemic risks, conduct adversarial testing, report to the European Commission on serious incidents, ensure cybersecurity and report on their energy efficiency.

GPAIs with systemic risk may rely on codes of practice to comply with the new regulation.

Governments can only use real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces in cases of victims of certain crimes, prevention of genuine, present, or foreseeable threats, such as terrorist attacks, and searches for people suspected of the most serious crimes.

The agreement bans cognitive behavioral manipulation, the untargeted scrapping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage, social scoring and biometric categorization systems to infer political, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, and race.

Consumers would have the right to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations while fines for violations would range from 7.5 million euros ($8.1 million) or 1.5% of turnover to 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover.

Business group DigitalEurope criticized the rules as yet another burden for companies, on top of other recent legislation.

“We have a deal, but at what cost? We fully supported a risk-based approach based on the uses of AI, not the technology itself, but the last-minute attempt to regulate foundation models has turned this on its head,” its Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said.

Privacy rights group European Digital Rights was equally critical.

“It’s hard to be excited about a law which has, for the first time in the EU, taken steps to legalize live public facial recognition across the bloc,” its senior policy advisor Ella Jakubowska said.

“Whilst the Parliament fought hard to limit the damage, the overall package on biometric surveillance and profiling is at best lukewarm.”

The legislation is expected to enter into force early next year once both sides formally ratify it and should apply two years after that.

Governments around the world are seeking to balance the advantages of the technology, which can engage in human-like conversations, answer questions and write computer code, against the need to put guardrails in place.

Europe’s ambitious AI rules come as companies like OpenAI, in which Microsoft is an investor, continue to discover new uses for their technology, triggering both plaudits and concerns. Google owner Alphabet on Thursday launched a new AI model, Gemini, to rival OpenAI.

The EU law could become the blueprint for other governments and an alternative to the United States’ light-touch approach and China’s interim rules. – Rappler.com

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