I walked literal miles to find what's here. Recyclables in the trash is my metaphor here. Every third booth at CES showed off some new AI product or other. If you wanted to find a robotic lawn mower, throw a rock. Humanoid robots, smart locks and super thin TVs were everywhere.

Even amidst the connectivity nightmare that is CES, I was able to control heaters, tower fans and lights with my voice. Perhaps you like the idea of controlling your home appliances with your voice, but aren't super keen on a data center processing recordings of you. The trade-off for most smart home conveniences is relinquishing at least some of your privacy. Today at CES, I saw a line of voice-controlled home appliances from Emerson Smart that adjust power and setting via voice commands. But commands are recognized on the devices themselves, not carried through Wi-Fi and processed elsewhere.

Google TV's new Gemini features range from useful to unnecessary I checked out a preview of the new features during CES 2026. I met up with a few people from Google at the Encore Villas during CES (which is just 2,500 feet from my hotel but took 28 minutes to walk to, thanks to Vegas's pedestrian-averse design [also I got lost]). Once there, I saw what " more Gemini " will mean for people with a Google TV. The AI integration ranged from useful to probably unnecessary. The most useful bit, for me at least, came at the end.