New Products
Could a potato chip be “fried in water”? That is how SIAL Paris describes one of the products selected for its 2026 innovation awards: salted potato chips from Swiss brand Nükt.
It’s the kind of claim that invites curiosity—and follow-up questions. What does the process involve? How does the texture compare with conventional chips? And does the different process change the nutritional profile? The award listing alone does not answer those questions.
The product is one of several unusual ideas highlighted ahead of SIAL Paris, which runs October 17–21 at Paris Nord Villepinte. Other selections include ube-coloured goat-cheese bites and a high-protein surimi noodle product. Which one would you try first?
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Tesla is displaying its Cybercab robotaxi at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, alongside the Optimus Gen 2 humanoid robot. The show’s press day is October 12; public days run from October 13 to 18 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
The Cybercab is designed without a steering wheel or pedals. Seeing it on a show stand, however, is different from taking a driverless ride. The vehicle’s appearance is an opportunity to examine the design and ask what would need to happen before such a service becomes part of everyday travel.
The show organizer also says Tesla will offer supervised driving demonstrations in other vehicles. Would you ride in a car designed without a steering wheel?
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The Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition) 2026 runs October 13 to 16 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, with electronicAsia running concurrently at the same venue. A separate Global Sources show runs October 11 to 14 at AsiaWorld-Expo, giving buyers two major sourcing destinations in the same week. Together the HKTDC technology fairs expect more than 3,200 exhibitors from 28 countries and regions.
The draw this year is robots and applied AI, not the gadget-and-accessory framing that defined the fair in earlier years. The organiser's preview highlights more than 120 robots on the floor, including humanoid machines and robot dogs, alongside brainwave-controlled games in an Immersive Experience Zone — demos designed to be photographed and shared as much as sampled. A new Future Industries Zone groups five themes: Future Computing, Future Manufacturing, Future Marine and Quantum Technologies, Future Microelectronics, and Future Wellness. The hall layout also includes a Hall of Fame for established brands, a RISE Avenue and Tech Hall for emerging applications, a Startup Zone, and a RoboPark.
The fair sits deliberately in the pre-holiday ordering window, which is why it tends to preview next year's specification direction rather than only show what is already on shelves. For a global reader, the angle is straightforward: a trade show that has visibly reorganised itself around robots and AI, not just consumer electronics.
Cross-border reach is the fair's other selling point. The HKTDC markets the event to buyers from more than 140 countries, and the co-located electronicAsia extends the robotics and components story. Two digital layers run alongside the physical show — an online Click2Match business-matching window and an extended sourcing period — so meetings are not confined to the four days in Hong Kong.
For context, the most recent pre-show guidance described the prior edition as drawing close to 2,900 exhibitors from 17 countries and roughly 60,000 buyers from 142 countries, a useful baseline even if 2026 figures are still being finalised.
The story travels in any language because the image is simple: walk among 120 robots, watch a humanoid move, and control a game with your brain. That is the fair Hong Kong is putting forward in 2026 — less a gadget bazaar, more a working snapshot of where applied AI is actually landing.
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