When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Govee's smart ceiling light doubles as a virtual sky light Just unveiled at CES, the Sky Ceiling Light can bring some much-needed daylight into dark or windowless living spaces. Nothing beats a skylight when it comes to brightening up a gloomy living space, but installing one can be a pricey proposition. At CES, smart light manufacturer Govee is showing off an alternative: a smart ceiling light that mimics daylight. The Govee Sky Ceiling Light employs "custom-engineered LED and architectural gradient illumination" to serve up "clear-sky tones and soft skylight transitions," ideal for casting some simulated daylight into a gloomy, windowless living area.

Most of the long and thin smart floor lamps we've tried are all about casting bold splashes of color on the wall, perfect for setting a mood but not must help when it comes to reading, dining, or getting something done. But with its new line of Matter-enabled lamps, Govee hopes to bring the dazzle without forgetting the productivity. Govee already has several floor lamps in its portfolio, including two that we've reviewed, the Govee Floor Lamp Pro and the Floor Lamp 2. We admired both lamps, which have long, thin, stick-light designs that cast multicolored and even animated light on your walls. But while both lamps can serve up eye-catching color scenes, they're not really designed for illuminating your reading nook or dining table. With its trio of new floor lamps, Govee is trying something different.

Smart lighting company Govee has a new product that creates a quirky new product category. The Gaming Pixel Light displays still or animated pixel art set to 8-bit soundtracks. It can also show you weather updates, sports schedules and Bitcoin prices on its retro display. But it wouldn't be a CES 2025 gizmo without AI something or other stuffed inside, so you won't be surprised to learn that its companion app lets you generate AI pixel art from text prompts. As the product name suggests, the Gaming Pixel Light is marketed as a (desktop or wall-mounted) lighting companion for gamers.

Sure, Govee has some new smart lights to unveil at CES this year, but what this smart lighting manufacturer really wants to talk about is, of course, the buzzword of the show: AI. From its AI-powered gaming lights to its light-scene-creating AI chatbot, Govee clearly sees its budding AI efforts as the best way to set itself apart in the crowded smart lighting market, and the company isn't being timid about putting AI front and center. The star of the show is Govee's smart lighting-focused AI model, newly upgraded to 12 billion parameters, up from just 0.86B parameters in the previous version Trained on more than 10,000 lighting effects, Govee's model is the brains behind its text-to-image AI Lighting Bot, which allows users to create and edit smart light effects using natural-language text prompts. There's also AI Dreamview, a Govee technology that applies their newly created effects across groups of smart lights. To be clear, Govee does have some actual smart lights to show off at CES, including a new and portable table lamp that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker.

At CES 2024, Govee not only revealed an upgraded AI Sync Box Kit, Neon Rope Light 2 and, because it's 2024, there's even a dedicated chatbot. While it wasn't available for testing at CES Unveiled, the media preview event that takes place two days before the CES show floor opens, Govee's AI Lighting Bot will eventually be bundled into the company's smartphone app, where you'll apparently be able to cajole it into generating using natural language inputs, a la ChatGPT. As you can see in Govee's concept video, it'll apparently source lighting designs and transmit them to your Govee lights, whether they're lighting spots, strips or anything else. In one example in Govee's video, a user asked for a "Barbie Dreamhouse-inspired lighting effect" for their outdoor lights and spotlights, which then undulated between various shades of hot, powder and another-kind-of pink. Of course, you'll need even more lighting strips to accomplish grander smart lighting visions, and Govee is willing to oblige with its second-generation Neon Rope Light 2. A spokesperson explained that it will now offer smoother lighting transitions and upgraded bend clips and is made of an even more flexible material, which should be easier to shape around furniture, corners and even into shapes.

The living room is where most people spend a good chunk of their time when they want to relax, but most people's home theater setup could use a little TLC. While you can drop serious money fast in this space, that doesn't have to be the case. If you've got a movie-lover on your gift list, or someone who's particularly hard to shop for, getting them something to upgrade their TV-watching experience is usually a set bet. Here are some of the best home theater gifts for this year, and no, not all of them cost a fortune. While the latest Apple TV model isn't a massive leap over its predecessor, there are a few updates that make it worthy of a holiday splurge.

This year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) -- the celebration of all things tech and then some -- brought what it usually brings to the Vegas Strip: AI-powered gadgets. Of course, AI comes in many forms, and not all that's advertised as AI is in fact true AI. But there's always diamonds in the rough, like an AI-equipped oven from Samsung that automatically adjusts cooking settings for the perfect bake. As my colleagues on the ground traverse the show floor (I'm covering CES remotely this year), they're highlighting the most interesting AI-powered tech they come across. I've compiled each into a handy list, which is far from definitive, but which aims to give an idea of the top AI trends this year at CES. Samsung kicked off CES 2023 with a new oven and fridge in its Bespoke Home smart appliances lineup.

We fell in love with the LIFX Z LED strip lights for their incredibly simple set up, ease of use, and variety of awesome features. The Lifx Z LED Strip Kit impressed us from the very beginning. In what felt like a blink of an eye, we had these dimmable lights connected to Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. It also works with IFTTT, SmartThings, Nest, Arlo, Flic, and more. The strip is very responsive when controlled using the Lifx app on iOS and Android devices (keep in mind that HomeKit is only available on Apple smartphones and tablets). Although these weren't the brightest lights we tested, they put off a vivid glow that easily illuminates a dark room. These smart lights have a noticeably thicker strip than the set from Govee, but less chunky than the C by GE set we tested.