CES 2025 in Las Vegas drew more than 141,000 attendees (up from 138,000 last year) and north of 4,500 exhibitors. Artificial intelligence (AI) was, once again, a big draw at this year's gadgetfest, marked by an Nvidia keynote that saw people queuing up an incredible three hours prior to the event (some 6,300 attended it live at the Michelob Ultra Arena, according to the Consumer Technology Association, CES's showrunner).
The sheer size and scope of CES makes it impossible to cover every aspect of importance. But Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading's lone CES correspondent, was on the scene, bouncing up and down the Vegas Strip for meetings and press events (including an update from Skylo about its direct-to-device initiative) and a glance around the show floor and other elements that were at least modestly germane to Light Reading's coverage area.
Jeff and Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Phil Harvey connected on the LR Extra Podcast to discuss some of what could be seen and heard at this year's show, which now stretches along most of the Strip, including spots like the Aria, The Cosmopolitan, The Venetian, Caesar's Palace, the Park MGM (the old "Monte Charlo," as Harvey referred to it back in 2008) and, of course, the Las Vegas Convention Center itself.
Some news was shared at Jeff's last meeting at the show, as MobileX CEO Peter Adderton discussed the company's new apparel/branding partnership with Ethika that will give the mobile service provider a way to turn its own customers into sales agents.
Along the way, there was some news in the smart TV arena, including word that Sharp is TiVo's initial smart TV partner for the US, with another that is yet to be announced. Timed with the show, Sharp announced a partnership with Xumo, the Charter-Comcast streaming joint venture, to develop a new line of connected TVs.

Xumo's meeting and demo area at the Vdara showed off various smart TV models powered by its operating system, including a glance at a new lineup from Sharp that will debut later this year. (Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading)
Jeff caught up with Xumo President Marcien Jenckes at the show to discuss the JV's plans for 2025 and an update on its progress so far (Xumo smart TV shipments are in the "single-digit millions" at this point, he said). We'll have much more on that discussion in a Light Reading Podcast that will publish later this week.
And if you're into robots, CES did not disappoint. They were everywhere.

Enchanted Tools returned to CES with an upgraded version of its Mirokaï character robot, which is powered by Nvidia 'Jetson' chips. (Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading)
And they were of the benevolent, service-oriented robot variety. None showed any open intention of taking over the human race (they're sneaky that way).
And Philip K. Dick was on to something when he envisioned a day when our pets would be robots. The Tombot, the company behind a fluffy, robotic emotional support animal called Jennie, had show goers lined up to check out its cute creation.

'Jennie,' Tombot's AI-powered puppy, which responds to voice commands, got plenty of attention. (Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading)
Connected cars were also a big thing at CES 2025. But we thought Clarios' DeLorean (to show off its advanced battery tech, not a flux capacitor) was one of the cooler displays.

Clarios used a DeLorean to show off its advanced battery technology, though it did at least look like it could take someone back in time. (Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading)
Here's a snapshot of what was covered in the podcast (click the closed captioning button in the player for a lightly edited transcript):
The backdrop: How chaotic and crowded was this year's CES? (01:01)
Peter Adderton's new sales play for MobileX (05:00)
Updates from the smart TV market, including some news from TiVo, Xumo and the recently rebranded Whale TV (12:00)
What weird or curious things were at CES 2025 (robots… lots and lots of robots) (20:30)
Thoughts on Nvidia's plans for a $3,000 AI supercomputer (23:45)