2017: The year digital assistants for kids began to flourish at CES

I've spent days now, walking the show floors at CES, listening to pitches from baby- and kid-tech developers, and writing up analyses on all of it. I'm a smart-home reporter, so I knew coming into CES how ubiquitous Alexa and her retinue would be. But I wasn't prepared for how fundamentally it would affect kid-tech. If CES 2017 is any indicator, Alexa's biggest skill in five years will be nannying.

Here are three things I've discovered at CES about voice assistants for kids.

 

The Furrion Prosthesis is the giant racing mech you've always wanted

It's no Mobile Suit Gundam, but Furrion's Prosthesis racing mech is one of the most ridiculously neat things we've seen at CES 2017.

It's the first mech in what its parent company hopes will become a racing series. It started life as an art project, as a machine that humans could use to walk around. But then the idea grew until it was positioned as a first-of-its-kind racing mech. And you have to admit, racing mechs sounds pretty great.

 

Medium lays off third of staff, blaming reliance on ads

Medium CEO and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams says a "broken system" of ad-driven media on the internet led to the pullback.

Medium CEO Ev Williams said the publishing platform will close its New York and Washington DC offices.

Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images

Medium, the web-publishing site run by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, is laying off a third of its staff because ad-supported digital media is a "broken system," Williams said in a blog post Wednesday.

No Russian attempt to hack Vermont power grid found

Someone browses the internet on his work laptop. The laptop connects to a potentially malicious IP address. Nothing happens.

It's a garden variety internet risk. Just part of being a 21st century digital citizen.

On Friday evening, however, a similar and apparently benign event led to a report that Russian hackers may have penetrated the US electrical grid through a Vermont utility. The report, written by The Washington Post and summarized by CNET News, said Burlington Electric Department had found code associated with Russian hackers on an employee's computer. Initially the Post reported the hackers had penetrated the grid, but then said the code was isolated to a single employee laptop.

 

Google wants to help you buy a BMW

A new app from BMW and Google lets you digitally customize a car.

Photo by Rainer Häckl, courtesy of Google

You could probably call it tech for the 1 percent: Google and BMW are teaming up to make it easier to shop for that new Beemer you've had your eye on.

The two companies unveiled on Wednesday a new app that helps you digitally customize and virtually walk around a new BMW, so you can feel out the customizations before you buy. The companies unveiled the app during the annual CES tech trade show in Las Vegas.