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We tried to get humanoid robots to do the laundry
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At CES 2026, we put the robots to the test to see whether they’re ready for real homes — or still stuck in demo mode.

Verge Staff

Today’s Storystream

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No one asked for this.

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Sean Hollister
Easiest CPU liquid cooling install ever?

Asus brought a completely cable-free liquid cooler to CES: Asus’s “Q-Connector” uses hidden pogo pins instead of fan/pump cables! No price, but Asus spokesperson JJ Guerrero says even some mid-range Strix motherboards should include, and a modular connector makes it backwards-compatible. Another way it’s becoming easier to build a beautiful PC.

<em>See how the pins are modular? That’s for backwards/forwards motherboard compatibility. </em>
<em>You can see the big copper contacts just to the right of the CPU socket. </em>
<em>The cooler covers them completely. </em>
<em>Here’s a system with a Q-AIO installed.</em>
<em>A closer look at the Q-Connector cooler in the system.</em>
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See how the pins are modular? That’s for backwards/forwards motherboard compatibility.
Asus, GIF by Sean Hollister / The Verge
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Terrence O'Brien
Godzilla Minus Zero hits theaters on November 6th.

The US release of the Godzilla Minus One sequel is only three days after the premiere in Japan, a rare near-simultaneous release. It will open in Japan on November 3rd, an auspicious date as it’s when the original Gojira premiered in 1954. If you need a reminder of why you should be excited, go watch Minus One on Netflix.

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Terrence O'Brien
Musk complains the uproar over Grok’s sexual deepfakes is an “excuse for censorship.”

Elon is continuing to play the martyr. While his AI chatbot is creating sexualized images of real people and children, he claims people are up in arms because “they just want to suppress free speech.” While he cries censorship, the UK is gearing up to potentially block X temporarily if it can’t get its deepfake porn-maker under control. Musk has responded in typical childish fashion, according to the BBC:

Musk reposted a number of messages on the site overnight criticising the government’s reproval of Grok - including one which showed AI-generated images of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a bikini.

What we learned from CES 2026What we learned from CES 2026
Tech
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Thomas Ricker
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TikTok
Sean Hollister
Watch me Wolfbox myself.

True story: when we forgot to pack a hairdryer on a beach trip last year, I bought Wolfbox’s awesome MF100 mini blower instead. (It’s one of the top-rated ones in comparison tests.)

Now, Wolfbox has super-sized it. Wolfbox Megaflow 500 Pro; $200 in May.

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Terrence O'Brien
Don’t click anything in that Instagram password reset email, no matter how official it looks.

Seems a lot of people got password reset requests from Instagram over the last few days, including several Verge staffers and members of their family. The email might look legit. It might even have that little blue checkmark in Gmail. But, it probably came from a scammer. Honestly, it’s best practice to never click links in emails anyway.

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Terrence O'Brien
A Swedish hot dog with shrimp salad is the most chaotic evil sandwich ever and I will hear no arguments to the contrary.

The Sandwich Alignment Game is the time-waster you didn’t know you needed this weekend. You could lose serious time placing these 57 sandwiches on a D&D-style alignment grid. Now, some people might say this isn’t really a game, but I disagree. Deciding whether an eggplant parm or a meatball parm is more lawful than the other requires real mental dexterity.

The Playdate gets its Monument ValleyThe Playdate gets its Monument Valley
Gaming
Gaming
Andrew Webster
Snatching Maduro was all about the spectacle

Real people died while Trump treated war like a meme stock.

Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong
What’s on your desk, Stevie Bonifield?What’s on your desk, Stevie Bonifield?
Gadgets
Gadgets
Stevie Bonifield and Barbara Krasnoff
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Sean Hollister
Pocket Taco Pocket Taco Pocket Taco.

It’s not just a tongue-twister — the Pocket Taco is GameSir’s tiny Game Boy styled controller for your phone, not to be confused with 8BitDo’s tiny Game Boy styled controller for your phone. This one’s Bluetooth rather than USB-C, and cradles your phone’s bottom instead of hanging off the USB-C port. It also has a $35 price and a March release date.

<em>A pocket case to keep it in, with a lanyard slot.</em>
1/6Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
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Sean Hollister
‘This slaps,’ says Allison, about the 8BitDo FlipPad.

It’s just one of two Game Boy-styled mini-controllers that cradle your phone at CES 2026. This one plugs directly into your phone with USB-C, is coming summer 2026, but doesn’t have a price yet. GameSir has a Bluetooth one for $35 that’s coming March and cradles your phone. (YouTube video version here.)

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Sean Hollister
Would you buy a Tamagotchi for your plants?

The company calls it Senso, and it’s cute! Detachable heads and charger so you can leave the probe in soil. Light, temperature, humidity, and soil moisture, plus a whole AI pitch I’m not quite buying. I’d be more tempted if it weren’t a Kickstarter and had a local smart home API. (YouTube version here.)

The gap between premium and budget TV brands is quickly closing

As the gap in performance shrinks, and there’s less to separate the best from the rest, how will manufacturers react?

John Higgins
AI is coming for collectibles nextAI is coming for collectibles next
Tech
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Dominic Preston
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto
A tiny taste of strolling the CES show floor.

Before saying goodbye to CES 2026, I roamed around without a destination in mind to soak up the scene with my camera. After a week of operating at breakneck pace for long hours, it felt meditative to just capture a tiny glimpse of tech on display — including some human (and very non-human) moments.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

<em>“AI” holograms are big at CES. In this case, literally.</em>
<em>But a faster camera shutter speed reminds us that, at their core, they’re just large spinning fans with LED lights.</em>
<em>Even the suits of CES occasionally need a breather with some pinball.</em>
<em>A one-minute spacewalk experience that also throws you around like a roller coaster. I have no idea why.</em>
<em>I love when people in VR headsets incidentally stare daggers at people.</em>
<em>Getting side-eyed through some Xreal glasses.</em>
<em>There are many keyboards and colorful keycaps on display in some of the smaller vendor areas. I’m like a moth to a flame.</em>
<em>Those are some strategically placed “Don’t Touch” post-its.</em>
<em>An “AI storyteller” toy aimed at children ages three to eight. As a parent to a two-year-old, all that comes to mind is “Nope!”</em>
<em>I know this display is just showing a wide variety of switches, but part of me wants to type on this chaos keyboard.</em>
<em>There’s an obsession with jumbo-sized versions of regular items at booth displays.</em>
<em>And.</em>
<em>They.</em>
<em>Get.</em>
<em>Ridiculous.</em>
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“AI” holograms are big at CES. In this case, literally.
Scenes from the anti-ICE march in New York City

Hundreds gathered to peacefully protest the killing of Renee Nicole Good.

Amelia Holowaty Krales and Hayden Field
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto
The Steam Machine wasn’t at CES, but accessory makers are getting ready.

There were a couple Steam Machine mockups at Jsaux’s CES booth, but they were just shells showing off the company’s cheesy looking stickers. The front display concept wasn’t there.

Jsaux seems thirsty to build a Steam Machine accessory ecosystem like it did with the Steam Deck, where it found success, but the real ideas will require actual hardware.

1/4Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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David Pierce
“Enter John and his magical text files.”

Anil Dash wrote a really fun, really deep history of Markdown, the text markup language John Gruber created that has subsequently become totally ubiquitous online. Dash also argues that the idea behind Markdown, and the forces that made it huge, hold important lessons that the current tech industry — and AI companies in particular — could really stand to learn from.

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Jay Peters
Welcome to the Mothership.

Former Polygon staffers Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah are launching a new publication called Mothership, “which aims to analyze games specifically through the lens of gender and identity.”

It launches on January 26th, but they published a YouTube Short and a blog post explaining what the site’s all about.

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Andrew J. Hawkins
Aww cute, it thinks it’s a train.

A Waymo made the unfortunate decision to drive on light rail tracks in Phoenix with a passenger inside while a train was approaching. The passenger made the right call to abandon the robotaxis, even if it meant getting out in the middle of traffic. Valley Metro, which oversees light rail service, says there were no significant delays as a result of the incident. This comes a few weeks after a blackout caused a massive Waymo traffic jam in San Francisco.

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