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Clicks is an apologetically gadgety company, making gear that feels charmingly out-of-place in a world where almost every smartphone out there is an all-screen slab. That was obviously two years ago when the company first revealed its keyboard case that brought tactile typing to the iPhone and eventually other Android devices. Rather than that being a one-off curiosity, the company had two new announcements at CES 2026: a magnetic keyboard accessory that also doubles as a battery bank and small, squat mobile phone with a keyboard. And while there isnt a working prototype of the Clicks Communicator available for the press to see, I got to check out the new Power Keyboard talk with Clicks co-founder and former BlackBerry marketing director Jeff Gadway about where he thinks his products fit into the smartphone world.At first glance, the $79 Power Keyboard feels like a big improvement over the original Clicks Keyboard case. It magnetically attaches to any phone with Qi2 and connects over Bluetooth. The keyboard itself is similar to the original Clicks keyboard, but theres a dedicated number row which is a nice improvement. But the thing that really caught my eye was its old-school slider form factor. When closed, the Power Keyboard sits on the back of your phone like a thick wireless battery pack but it satisfyingly slides up to reveal the keyboard like the Palm Pre or BlackBerry Torch smartphones of old. The magnetic, sliding Clicks Power Keyboard.Nathan Ingraham for EngadgetThe Power Keyboards last trick is that it can charge your phone up when attached. The battery itself isnt huge, so youre not going to fully recharge a modern smartphone. But its still a nice addition for if you need some power in a pinch. You can also set it up so it doesnt charge your phone and instead uses all the battery to power the keyboard; in that situation, the keyboard will last weeks without a charge. Or you can designate a percentage that can only be used by the keyboard for example, if the battery packs charge drops below 20 percent, itll stop charging your phone and instead save that power for the keyboard.The Clicks Power Keyboard, without a phone attached.Nathan Ingraham for EngadgetAs someone who has never owned a smartphone with a keyboard, I cant say how good the Clicks keyboard actually is there would be a definite learning curve before I got comfortable with it. It certainly feels tiny to me, but if you just type on and trust autocorrect you should get the hang of it before too long. Whether the benefits of using a physical keyboard matter are up to you to decide. Its nice seeing a bigger screen unobstructed by the virtual keyboard, but I feel far too set in my touchscreen ways to consider switching it up. But some people just loved their keyboards, and for them this gadget might hit the spot.The Clicks Communicator is the more unexpected of the two new devices the comapny is working on, but without a working demo model I cant render any judgement about how it will actually work. When it was announced, Clicks specifically said they were targeting people who used multiple devices, a demographic that I wasnt fully convinced was large enough to justify the Communicators existence. But Gadway assured me the company had done plenty of research before moving into the hardware production phase. You've got people who are mandated to carry a second device for corporate deploy. Then you've got people who are small business owners and want to have a separate phone for their small business, he said. In markets like Europe, there's a requirement for employers to give people the option to have a separate device and create more separation. You've got travelers who want a second SIM, and then you've got this growing cohort of digital detox, digital minimalism, digital well-being people. None of those segments might be huge on its own, but add it all up and the Clicks team felt like they had a decent opportunity. The Clicks Communicator has an LED Light on its side button that you can customize for different notifications.Nathan Ingraham for EngadgetThe other half of the thought process was making the Communicator different from an iPhone or Pixel instead of having two essentially identical devices, Clicks wanted to make the Communicator with a distinct focus. Our thought process was that complementary devices in tech are on the rise, Gadway said. You wear an Oura Ring and you wear a smart watch; you carry an e-reader for reading and a tablet for content consumption. So why shouldn't your second phone be better at certain things than your first phone instead of just being a straight duplicate?Thats where the squarish, 4-inch touchscreen, keyboard and custom implementation of the Niagara Android launcher, which is a list-based UI rather than a grid of apps. The custom Clicks implementation of it focuses on your messaging apps and quickly triaging through new items (hence the Communicator name). The keyboard itself is touch sensitive and can be swiped across to navigate and take actions on what you see. But the Communicator is just an Android phone at heart which means you can install any apps that you find essential though its form factor changes what it is best used for. You can download whatever apps you want, but we've optimized it to be better at specific things, Gadway said. So, you know, do you want to watch letterboxed TikTok videos on this? Probably not. You could, but it's not the thing you#39;re going to reach for to do that. But we're not going to give you a product that restricts what you can do.The good thing about being a smaller hardware maker is that Clicks doesnt need to sell millions of these theyre just interested in offering an alternative for people who might enjoy it, just as theyve done with their keyboard accessories. Of course, the Communicator is a bigger investment; its up for pre-order now for $399 (thats Pixel 9a territory, for comparison). Once it launches in the second half of the year, well find out if it can find its audience. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/the-clicks-co-founder-explains-who-its-tiny-communicator-phone-is-for-170000501.html?src=rss
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Meta has announced three new agreements to purchase nuclear power for its AI infrastructure as well as the Prometheus supercluster, a 1-gigawatt data center being built in Ohio. The social media giant is partnering with power companies Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to deliver an expected 6.6 gigawatts of generation to its projects by 2035. The company's agreement with TerraPower will fund the development of two new reactors capable of delivering up to 690 megawatts of power as early as 2032. The deal also gives Meta rights to energy from six other reactors that could deliver an additional 2.1 gigawatts by 2035. All this power would come from TerraPower's "Natrium" reactors, which use sodium instead of water as a coolant. A partnership with Oklo will bring 1.2 gigawatts of nuclear power online as early as 2030. Meta says the agreement opens the door to the construction of multiple Oklo reactors, which it claims will create thousands of construction and long-term operations jobs in Ohio. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is one of Oklo's largest investors, and owns just over 4 percent of the company. Metas agreement with Vistra focuses on keeping existing nuclear plants running longer and boosting their output. Through new 20-year deals, Meta will buy more than 2.1 gigawatts of electricity from some of Vistras existing plants in Ohio, while also backing added capacity at those sites, plus another in Pennsylvania. Vistra expects the added capacity, totaling 433 megawatts, to come online in the early 2030s. Big tech is increasingly turning to nuclear to power its AI ambitions. Meta signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy for nuclear power last year. Meanwhile Microsoft is famously reopening Three Mile Island and will be the plants sole customer as part of a 20-year deal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-announces-a-slew-of-nuclear-energy-agreements-165337159.html?src=rss
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LG opened CES 2026 by outlining its vision to reduce the physical effort and mental burden of life. Buy enough of the devices its presently working on and youll exist in an environment of ambient care, coddled by the machinery in your home. It sounds positively utopian: When the sensors in your bed know youve not slept well and are getting a cold, a robot will wake you with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. When youre in a rush to get to work, the robot will make you a sandwich for you to eat on the go, sparing you the effort of making it yourself. The more I roamed the halls of the show after that, the more I couldnt help feeling uneasy about what so many companies here were pitching. To me, the vision of the future on show here is equal parts solitary and infantilized.Theres obvious reasons for this: AI swallowed the tech industrys oxygen, sapping any chance of innovation in consumer hardware. The advent of Panther Lake is a win for Intel, but its not going to enable dramatic changes in how people work with their PCs on a daily basis. The US policy shift away from EVs and toward fossil fuel-powered vehicles, too, means that the big names in auto manufacture have similarly shied away from the show. That left CES full of various robotics startups offering early visions of humanoid robots designed to work on production lines, take care of your home and replace your pet. I saw more than a few stands where booth attendants were pretending to delight in teaching their wheeled robot pets to play fetch. At least, I hope they were pretending.Im painfully aware of how many devices felt like they were only a hop, skip and a jump away from the Sharper Image catalog. Gadgets that are designed to fill some perceived hole in your life that wont actually make things better or easier in the long run. Im leery about denigrating assistive technology that offers a vital lifeline to people with accessibility needs. Im also leery about knocking devices that may enable people to keep working despite wrestling with long term injuries I've got one eye on the raft of exoskeletons exhibited at the show which might help me work in the garden despite the weakness in my lower back. But Im also not quite sold on how many toilet computers, massage chairs and scootcases we all need in our daily lives. Theres also the elephant in the room that many of these innovations seem intent on acting as a replacement, substitute or supplement for real interaction. Robotic panda bears scuttling around your home to save you the effort of caring for a real flesh-and-blood pet. Holographic AI waifus that will obsequiously respond to whatever you ask of it with nothing but flattery and agreement. The sheer volume of AI Labubus operating as friend, enemy, companion or a combination of all the above. Cuddly home robots that are little more than a tablet on a moveable base thatll keep your kids entertained so you dont have to. Yes, Im being unfair, but sometimes shows like this make me sound like someones grandpa angrily insisting you darn kids get off your screens. I feel some of these gadgets are specifically designed to enable a degree of detachment from our own bodies. Were spending so much time getting dopamine from our devices that were no longer able to pay attention to how our bodies are feeling. In LGs vision of the future, moving around for ourselves and making our own food is a thing of the past, which will, surely, put a dent in our physical and mental health. We lose the ability to connect with the people around us because weve spent too long being flattered by our AI lackeys. We need a machine to monitor the food we eat and the crap we excrete because were not willing to pay attention to what were doing. Much in the same way that AI encourages us to take shortcuts rather than enjoy the process of being creative, the rest of the tech industry seemingly wants us to shortcut the fundamentals of life.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ces-2026-offered-a-lonely-vision-of-the-future-160000993.html?src=rss
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