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Smart Glasses, AI Wardrobes and Cute Bots: Stroll Down Android Avenue at MWC 2026

​Nestled between two conference halls at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is a pathway lined with Google’s latest tech — and its cutest robot figures. Here, spectators can step inside homey, wood-paneled booths and try out features across Pixel, Android XR and Search. Welcome to Android Avenue.. I swung by Google’s setup to check out demos for its latest products and features. Greeting me at the entrance and setting the scene was an adorably colorful Android statue waving hello.. CNET’s Tara Brown and I hold up our access stickers in front of a matching Android. Abrar Al-Heeti/CNET. In one booth, I tried on the Android XR smart glasses prototype for the first time and explored some promising use cases. I saw and heard real-time, AI-powered translations through the glasses as a Google employee spoke to me in Spanish. I also followed a Google Maps overlay that guided me along my route without obstructing my vision, thanks to the display projected onto the right lens.. Android XR glasses tap the Gemini AI assistant. Andrew Lanxon/CNET. Hot off the heels of Samsung’s S26 launch, Google demoed a new Gemini capability that takes on a more assistive role. You can long-press the power button and ask Gemini to plan a vegetarian tapas tour, for instance, then have it drop that information in a Google Keep note, all through voice command.. Other use cases include having Gemini book an Uber for you, which it’ll do in the background so you can keep using other apps on your Galaxy S26 phone.. Gemini handles tasks like calling an Uber or helping to plan and jot down an excursion. Andrew Lanxon/CNET. In another booth, I toyed around with an update to Google’s Circle to Search that’ll simultaneously find all the pieces of an outfit on your screen, then let you try them on virtually.. After long-pressing the home button and circling a picture of an ensemble I liked, Google showed a list of product results for each element. Tapping “try it on” generated a lifelike image of me wearing the orange-red pants I was eyeing.. Amusingly, the AI took the liberty of replacing my real-life dress and jacket with a black T-shirt. It’s not the first time Gemini has decided to play around with the parameters of my modest clothing, but hopefully it’ll get better at avoiding those gaffes with time.. The Circle to Search update is rolling out on the Galaxy S26 series and Pixel 10 devices.. Those arms are AI-generated — as is the whole outfit. Andrew Lanxon/CNET. Circle to Search may have done a better job with Patrick Holland’s ensemble. Andrew Lanxon/CNET. One of my favorite Pixel features lets you use Apple’s AirDrop and Android’s Quick Share across both ecosystems. With a couple of taps, I sent an image from a Pixel 10 phone to an iPhone, and also received one in return. The feature is also available on Pixel 9 devices.. Quick Share/AirDrop compatibility makes it easier to transfer media between newer Pixel phones and iPhones. Andrew Lanxon/CNET. Seeing new tech is always neat  

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Rabbit’s Cyberdeck is a modern take on a netbook

​When you think of an AI-forward PC, you might think of something like NVIDIA’s $3,999 DGX Spark — a computer with enough computing power to run complex large language models locally. That’s not what Rabbit is trying to build with Project Cyberdeck. Instead, the company’s goal is to produce a device tailored for vibe coding, and Engadget was given an exclusive first look at the upcoming PC. Rabbit began working on Project Cyberdeck after the company’s CEO, Jesse Lyu, saw how much his software engineers were using Claude Code. Lyu thought a small form factor PC, like the netbooks that were popular in the late aughts, with a command line interface would be ideal for on-the-go vibe coding, but when he went online to look for something that fit the bill, he was disappointed.”They all come with shitty rubber dome keyboards,” Lyu says of low-cost PCs like the latest Chromebooks, which use flexible silicone sheets under their keys to save on space and cost. “They’re not something you would enjoy typing on for an extended period of time.” So Rabbit decided to build its own device. For inspiration, Lyu and company looked to an unlikely source: the Sony Vaio P. The Cyberdeck takes inspiration from the Sony Vaio P. SonySony’s netbook was only briefly available from the start of 2009 to about the end of 2010. At the time, the 8-inch Vaio P was the world’s lightest netbook, weighing just 1.4 pounds, but it had a host of issues. It was also expensive, costing considerably more than other Intel Atom notebooks of the time. In 2009, the most affordable Vaio P would set you back $900 (about $1,365 adjusted for inflation). With Project Cyberdeck, Rabbit is aiming for a device that costs about $500, and hopefully avoids a similar fate.I saw a few early renders of Project Cyberdeck, which Rabbit isn’t ready to share publicly yet. Imagine a cross between the Rabbit R1, Vaio P and the original Nintendo DS. It looks cute. All the renders had four USB-C ports to allow users to connect the device to external monitors and peripherals, though the actual IO specs are as-yet undecided. The company is in the process of sourcing components and working towards a final design, so details can — and will — change. I saw some of the parts Lyu has been testing in his office, but no final prototype as such. For one, Rabbit still needs to decide on a chipset. The company is aiming for a performance benchmark relative to the Raspberry Pi 5, which has a Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor clocked at 2.4GHz. With 16GB of RAM, the Raspberry Pi 5 can run two external monitors, a capability Rabbit hopes to match with the Cyberdeck. The idea here is to make a device that’s powerful enough it won’t feel slow when it’s communicating with Anthropic and OpenAI’s servers, but affordable enough to make it a no-brainer purchase for developers. The company confirmed Project Cyberdeck will run Linux. Rabbit will allow users to modify the operating system and install any third  

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Yeti’s Durable New Portable Power Station Doubles as an Off-Grid Solar Generator and UPS

​Goal Zero’s newest portable power station comes with a more durable build and additional capabilities.  

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My Favorite Gaming Headphones From SteelSeries Cured My Battery Anxiety

​I’ve used a lot of great wireless gaming headsets, but this pair from SteelSeries helped me stop worrying about battery life, making them worth the high price.  

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When to Stream ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ on Peacock

​The scary movie arrives in April.  

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Nano Banana 2: How Much of an Improvement Is Google’s New AI Image Model?

​I edited photos with the original Nano Banana, the pro model and now Nano Banana 2. Here’s how they stack up.  

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