The Vergecast Stay at CES 2026: What’s the level of a robotic that falls over?

This yr’s CES was an odd one. It is a convention often dominated by futuristic, costly TVs and futuristic, costly automobiles, however these issues weren’t what dominated CES 2026. As an alternative, Las Vegas was full of new concepts about previous devices and confirmed us a complete lot of actually spectacular {hardware} ready on software program to catch up.

On this episode of The Vergecast, recorded dwell on the Brooklyn Bowl in Vegas, David and Nilay speak by way of a number of the huge tales from this yr’s present. (Because of everybody who got here to see us and caught round after for drinks and bowling — we had a blast hanging with all of you!) We speak concerning the robots that may’t appear to face up, why it looks as if each firm is out of the blue making all the things, the return of the Bizarre Concepts About PCs, battery life, and rather more.

The main focus at CES is all the time on particular person merchandise, and there are plenty of attention-grabbing ones this yr, from the Lego Sensible Brick to the Clicks Communicator to the rows upon rows of robotic vacuums we noticed within the conference middle. Some issues will ship and be nice; some received’t. (We have now a sport on this episode about that, too.) However yearly, in case you look previous the devices themselves, you can begin to get a way of what the tech trade cares about — and the way our lives may change within the yr to return. It’s nonetheless early, and 2026 is shaping as much as be a yr, however we’ve some concepts already.

If you wish to know extra about all the things we focus on on this episode, and to take a look at the remainder of our CES protection, listed below are some hyperlinks to get you began: