Nothing says CES like looking at a gadget and saying to yourself, “What the f*ck is it?” Wacky gadgets are as important to the attraction of the world’s largest consumer electronics show as mobile phones at MWC or as illegal as Trump Mobile.
Now that CES 2026 is getting farther and farther away, we’re here to round up the weirdest winners. The crème of the gadget confusion crop; the best of confusion; the titans say “tf i just saw him?!”
Color changing iPolish nails
Probably one of the biggest showstoppers this year was a set of acrylic nails that can change colors on demand, thanks to a novel little gadget made by a company called iPolish.
Basically, everything works by using a small piece of electrophoretic film on an acrylic nail. Once used, the nail can change its color with a vape-like device that emits an electric field. With iPolish, you can choose between 400 different colors selected by the accompanying app and change the color of each nail almost instantly.
Believe it or not, you can actually buy an iPolish starter kit now for $95 with an expected ship date of June.
A mascot that plays Lollipop Star music
Sometimes the smart gadgets at CES just feel like someone lumped a bunch of words together, and I’ll take the liberty of putting this bone-driving lollipop under that category.
The Lollipop Star is exactly what I said: a lollipop that you put in your mouth to play music in your head. You have to bite down a bit to really hear the songs since this is bone-chilling sound technology coming out of the trunk, but that exercise brings its own sugar-y reward—you get a sweet treat.
Currently, there are three artists—Ice Spice, Akon, and Armani White—but hey, who knows? Maybe bone conduction lollipops are the next big thing, and this is just the beginning. Charlie XCX flavor, here we come.
Fitasy 3D printed shoes
You might think that 3D printing is for VR accessories and non-trackable guns, but there are many other uses. I’ll give you a hint: look down. No, it’s not that; I’m talking about you the feet.
Fitasy brought its foot scanning technology to CES 2026, which 3D prints shoes that fit exactly to the anatomy of your feet. To do this, all you have to do is take a bunch of feet photos (no, Fitasy doesn’t charge for them) to create a 3D model in the app. That model is then implemented using digital light 3D printing to create a rubber-like kick with a shock-absorbing lattice design.
Everything is as wonderful as it is strange. If your dogs are dying for 3D printed, fully customized shoes, you can purchase a pair from Fitasy starting at $180.
Glyde is a smart hair clipper
There was everything smart at CES 2026—smart plates, smart glasses, and smart pet bowls. There is, however, only one smart device that can trim your hair, and that comes courtesy of Glyde. Why stuff smart technology into clippers? However, Glyde says the clip is “error-proof” and uses a “smart blade: sensing your speed, tilt, and angle, to “adjust in real-time to prevent uneven blur or overshoot.” There’s also a weird band you have to wear while using the Glyde, so it knows where you’re cutting.
We tried testing the Glyde for ourselves, but Gizmodo’s in-house expert, Wes Davis’ hair was apparently “too long.” Hey, we said “weird gadgets,” not “highly functional,” right?
Mui Board is smart wood
I remember two years ago when I wrote about the Mui Board; it was already kicking off the CES circuit years. The smart home hub, made of real wood, was originally released as a concept in 2019 but never shipped. Well, 2026 was the year of the Mui Board; with the new generation, this expensive wood is actually finding its way to customers, and I want it as bad as I did back then.
The Mui board doesn’t do anything groundbreaking on a technical level—it controls things like lighting and can be used to set timers or see notifications and weather like other smart home hubs—but it does looks great and emphasizes minimalism. You can also touch the wooden surface, which is strong, to connect with the hub and your smart home.
It costs $800, which is a lot of money for a smart piece of wood, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t pull the trigger if I had that kind of silly gadget bag.
TDM Neo headphone speakers
Sometimes you have to ask yourself: why not both? That’s what TDM does when it turns headphones into speakers. Yes, that’s right—music outside and inside, baby.
These headphones are foldable and magnetically attached, so when you’re tired of stuffing all your audio inside, you can have everyone listening to your favorite Spotify tunes. I heard the TDM Neo myself, and while it was hard to figure out how the speaker part sounded, as I was in a loud, crowded room, the headphone part sounded fine. Can you buy a Bluetooth speaker to go with your headphones? Of course, but going full Transformer is pretty cool.
Neural and HyperX brain-sensing gaming headset
You can ditch the energy drinks, because there’s a new way to stop them from adding 50g of sugar. This new gaming headset concept from Neurable and HyperX combines EEG sensors to track your focus and help guide you to become a better gamer.
To help you tune in, Neurable uses the equivalent of a meditation that asks you to look at a bunch of dots and focus until the dots get smaller. Remember, there are EEGs in this thing, so it measures your concentration scientifically; you can’t cheat your way to reduce dots.
If the headset is doing its job, it should increase your focus by reducing your cognitive load—the less you focus on pwning, the more you can focus on pwning. Everything is pretty cool if you ask me, and while there isn’t a hard release date, it doesn’t sound like an impossibility at all.
RoboTurtle for Beatbot
It’s not all about Spot, Boston Dynamics’ fearsome dog-like robot—turtles can have little robots, too, as therapy.
Introducing the RoboTurtle from Beatbot, a company known for making pool cleaning robots. Unlike its other pond robots, RoboTurtle has a more autonomous mission to conduct research in sensitive environments such as coral reefs. The idea is that the RoboTurtle can blend in with its surroundings and collect data easily without scaring the surrounding marine life.
In addition, it is also a cool form of biomimicry and it is very beautiful. I mean, look at this thing and tell me you wouldn’t want someone swimming around your pool and monitoring the chlorine levels? Personally, I think Beatbot is on to something here, organic or not.
Gizmodo is in Las Vegas all week bringing you everything you need to know about the technology unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all our coverage here.
