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Sony / Honda Afeela concept EV

Sony

The Sony CES 2025 keynote will begin soon and you can watch it, and follow our coverage live, right here. The Afeela electric vehicle dominated Sony’s 2023 and 2024 CES press conferences and it appears that trend will continue this year, with an appearance at the Sony event (and a followup press conference) already confirmed. This represents a change for Sony, a CES mainstay company, as it’s better known for its decades in the consumer electronics space with its Walkman portables and Trinitron TVs of old along with next-gen PlayStation consoles and Alpha cameras.

The Afeela is the first product from Sony Honda Mobility, a joint venture between the Japanese electronics and transportation giants. After a surprise rollout at CES 2023, the Sony CES presser teed up additional details on the EV’s LiDAR-heavy sensor array and AI-enhanced cabin tech (the latter coming with an assist from Microsoft) at CES 2024. If the car’s previously announced scheduling waypoints — preorders in 2025 ahead of 2026 availability — remain intact, we’re hoping to hear which of the Afeela’s concept car niceties will actually make the cut once it enters the streets of the real world.

Of course, it won’t be all Afeela all the time in Vegas. Expect Sony to spend time talking up its imaging, gaming or maybe even its movie studio division. And with any luck, we’ll get more info on the company’s XR headset, which was shown off at the 2024 show, only to never be seen again. CES 2025 would be the perfect place to show off a meaty update of a possible competitor to the Apple Vision Pro.

You can watch the Sony CES press conference as it happens below. The feed will start Monday, January 6 at 8:00PM ET.

The separate Afeela press conference will take place on Tuesday, January 7 at 4:30PM PT, and will be streamed on YouTube as well.

Live167 updates

  • Roborock’s latest robot vacuum can pick up your dirty socks

    We were already intrigued by the description of Roborock’s CES 2025 offering, but seeing the video that Karissa Bell took really adds to the experience. The Saros Z70 robovac has a built-in arm that folds out and picks up items on your floor, and can even put them away. Will this save domestic relationships and keep people happy? Based on what Karissa saw, the robot arm at least seems to work, so you will just have to work on communication.

    Karissa adds:

    “Before you can use it, you will have to activate the arm through the Roborock app, where you can also set what kind of objects it can interact with and where they should be placed. While not quite Rosey the Robot, Saros Z70 has the potential to make tidying up a lot easier. And it’s not just a prototype — Roborock is planning to make it available for purchase this year.”

    Read more about the Roborock Saros Z70 robovac in our full story.

  • will.i.am continues to haunt CES

    LG's xboom Grab is the most compact option in the new lineup. LG's xboom Grab is the most compact option in the new lineup.

    LG’s xboom Grab is the most compact option in the new lineup. (Billy Steele for Engadget)

    It wouldn’t be CES without celebrity-endorsed launches, and those of us who have covered this event for awhile are all too familiar with will.i.am’s efforts to develop a successful tech product. Who can forget the PULS bracelet, which launched as smartwatch and wearable fever was just taking off? Anyway, will.i.am continues to make his presence known here at the conference, but this time via a collaboration with LG. In fact, right before CES 2025 began, the company appointed the musician as its “Experiential Architect,” working together on the xboom line of audio products.

    This week, Billy Steele got to check out the LG xboom in person, which includes a trio of speakers. The Grab is the smallest of these, and here’s what Billy thought:

    “I was pleasantly surprised by how much bass the xboom Grab mustered during my demo, with punchy highs and solid mids holding the details. That low-end tone seemed slightly muffled to me, but I only got a quick listen, so a full review would confirm if that’s actually the case. The other surprising thing is how loud the xboom Grab can be. At only 50 percent volume, the compact unit produced an almost uncomfortable level of sound for the room.”

    Read more about the LG xboom speakers in our hands-on.

  • By the way, there were things we saw at CES Unveiled last night that we might have wanted to try but avoided due to hygiene and personal comfort reasons. For example, a mass of people crowded around the booth of a company called Kirin, with a product called Salt Spoon that was supposed to use electricity to deliver the flavor of umami. It had disposable versions of its spoon ready for people to use, and though I waited in line multiple times to try it out, I never got to taste it. Based on what I heard from various people at the booth though, the salty flavor did seem to come through. I plan on hunting down Kirin this week to get myself some salty spoon time.

  • While CES has been raging on, there has been some interesting news happening outside of Las Vegas too. For instance, Apple has announced that it plans to release an update “in the coming weeks” that will make it clearer that notification summaries are generated by AI. In case of future incidents where Apple Intelligence has misrepresented an alert by a news organization’s app, for example, people will be able to see more easily that it was Apple Intelligence (as opposed to, say, the BBC) that crafts the sentences in those summaries.

  • Now that Samsung is wrapped, next up on our list of notable press conferences today is Sony, which is taking place at 5PM PT (aka in about 2 hours, if I’ve done my math right). Of course, there are other companies with events in between, like Zeekr. CES is a great place to learn of companies you might not have heard of before.

  • A slide with the words Galaxy Unpacked in the middle and the date A slide with the words Galaxy Unpacked in the middle and the date

    A slide with the words Galaxy Unpacked in the middle and the date “Jan. 22 2025” below it. To the right of the date are the words “Live on samsung.com” (Samsung (screenshot))

  • But not before he teed up the date of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event by showing the details on a slide. It’ll take place on January 22, 2025.

  • We’re getting a summary of how Samsung has discussed the assistance AI will provide in the home. And that’s it, he offered best wishes and closed the press conference.

  • JH Han is back, which means we’re probably about done.

  • We’re getting a rundown on various competitions and youth programs that help develop life skills for the workforce and more.

  • Samsung AI now knows how to separate the volume of dialog, but not background noise, when performing translations in real time.

  • Settings will sync to new appliances, including your preferences for Bixby. Voice guides will be available for customers with low vision on appliances with touch screens later this year.

  • VP of the corporate sustainability center Inhee Chung is now on stage. Accessibility is the next topic on the agenda.

  • We’re getting a rehash of the Harman automotive announcements from last year, as well as upcoming avatars that will serve as travel companions.

  • Samsung SmartThings is coming to Hyundai EVs.Samsung SmartThings is coming to Hyundai EVs.

    Samsung SmartThings is coming to Hyundai EVs. (Samsung (screenshot))

  • SmartThings will also lend a hand with Hyundai EVs in the near future. It will help with everything from charging to locating your care in a full parking lot.

  • Samsung is aiming to add smart tech to... oceangoing vessels.Samsung is aiming to add smart tech to... oceangoing vessels.

    Samsung is aiming to add smart tech to… oceangoing vessels. (Samsung (screenshot))

  • SmartThings is even coming to ships, he says. Lots of response from the crowd on that one. Here’s to you, Boaty McBoatface.

  • Samsung's Galaxy Book5 Pro and Book5 360 have a feature similar to Google’s Circle to Search. Samsung's Galaxy Book5 Pro and Book5 360 have a feature similar to Google’s Circle to Search.

    Samsung’s Galaxy Book5 Pro and Book5 360 have a feature similar to Google’s Circle to Search. (Samsung)

    From earlier, here’s the details on Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro5 lineup that the company talked about onstage a few minutes ago.

  • He’s talking about all the ways the platform can use AI to manage multiple stores or entire hotels.


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