Browsing: Technology

Apple has unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, with sales set to begin October 23. The new model opens to a 7.6-inch inner screen and carries a 5.4-inch outer display. U.S. prices start at $1,999 for 256GB of storage. Preorders begin October 16 across more than 70 countries and regions. The iPhone Duo uses a book-style design with a precision hinge built from more than 100 components. Both displays support ProMotion, Always On features, and peak outdoor brightness of 3,000 nits. Apple powers the iPhone Duo with the A20 Pro chip, combining a six-core CPU, seven-core GPU, and dual 16-core Neural Engine.

The iPhone 18 Pro camera system adds four selectable aperture settings to control lighting and depth of field. Its main camera supports apertures of f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4.0. The system also includes 48-megapixel Ultra Wide and Telephoto cameras. New Pro controls allow adjustments to aperture, shutter speed and white balance inside the Camera app. Users can also view a histogram while composing photos or videos.

The United States is expanding domestic battery production as it works to reduce dependence on China. The larger challenge sits deeper in the supply chain. China still dominates battery materials, processing and key manufacturing technologies used worldwide. U.S. factories have added capacity, but many depend on imported components and refined minerals. That gap has placed graphite, cathodes, anodes and lithium iron phosphate materials at the center of Washington’s battery push.

Japan is expanding its fight against investment fraud with a new system that uses artificial intelligence to spot warning signs earlier. The Consumer Affairs Agency announced the package on September 1. It will analyze consumer complaints for language and patterns linked to fraudulent schemes and failing businesses. The package says AI will supplement existing keyword searches and support earlier alerts, investigations and enforcement when complaint data indicate serious risks. The AI system will examine about 900,000 consultation records each year in PIO-NET, Japan’s national consumer complaint database. It will compare new complaints with contexts and key phrases drawn from earlier cases. The system will look for solicitation methods, business structures and early signs of collapse. It can also flag common patterns across multiple operators, even when a complaint does not explicitly describe a confirmed financial loss.

China’s digital industry generated 20.71 trillion yuan in revenue during the first half of 2026, up 13.6% from a year earlier. Total profit reached 1.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.3%. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the sector’s revenue growth accelerated by 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year. The industry’s profit margin reached 8.6%, up 0.7 percentage point. China’s largest digital industry centers accounted for most of the national total. The 10 leading provincial-level markets generated 17.21 trillion yuan in combined revenue, up 13.2%. They represented 83.1% of national digital industry revenue and contributed 87% of overall revenue growth.

Japan successfully launched its H3 rocket carrying the Michibiki No. 7 navigation satellite on Tuesday. H3 Flight No. 9 lifted off at 4:23:31 a.m. Japan time from the Tanegashima Space Center. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, confirmed satellite separation about 29 minutes and four seconds after liftoff. The agency said the rocket followed its planned flight path and placed QZS-7 into its predetermined orbit.

The valuation shift reflects broader recalibrations across international financial markets as institutional managers re-evaluate capital commitments tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure. While competing hyperscale computing enterprises including Alphabet and Tesla accelerated capital investments toward data centers, robotics, and autonomous transport networks, Apple maintained disciplined expenditure controls over consecutive fiscal quarters. Market participants increasingly view Apple’s disciplined spending approach as a operational buffer, allowing the firm to expand its proprietary Apple Intelligence software ecosystem without incurring high infrastructure depreciation costs.