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Chips, consumer electronics and hardware
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Apple has launched new smartphones under the name 'iPhone Duo,' according to a newsletter from The Verge. The newsletter's author mentioned 'devouring every iPhone Duo video I can find,' linking to Apple's product page. No further specifications or pricing were provided in the brief mention.
Preorders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now open, with the devices set to arrive on Friday, September 18. Announced at Apple's September 2026 'Sunrise and shine' event, the upgraded handsets feature a faster A20 Pro processor with enhanced GPU and neural cores for AI tasks, a variable aperture camera system, a smaller Dynamic Island, and four new color options.
Apple's A20 Pro system-on-chip, likely destined for the next iPhone generation, has posted a Geekbench 7 single-thread score of 4,006 points — the highest ever recorded for any processor — outperforming desktop CPUs from Intel and AMD by as much as 32%, according to an early submission to the Geekbench browser.
Just weeks before Meta's annual Connect conference, leaked images purportedly showing the design of Meta's 'Project Phoenix' headset have emerged, hinting at a new device that could compete with mixed reality glasses from companies like Xreal and Viture.
Desktop discrete graphics card shipments surged to 12.5 million units in Q2 2026, the highest since early 2022, with Nvidia capturing 90% of the market, according to Jon Peddie Research. The sales spike came despite record-high prices and falling desktop CPU shipments, driven by consumers rushing to beat further price increases linked to geopolitical tensions.
The death toll from the MV June Aster ferry fire off the coast of Palawan, Philippines, has climbed to 35 after coastguard teams recovered 30 bodies from the charred vessel on Friday, officials said. Dozens more passengers remain missing as search operations continue.
Apple has announced the iPhone 18 Pro, an iterative update that introduces a variable camera aperture for greater user control over image capture, alongside the A20 Pro chip — the company's first processor built on a 2nm process, promising significant performance gains.
Apple today unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max alongside its first foldable device, the iPhone Duo, at its 'Surprise and Shine' event – the first major product launch under new CEO John Ternus – while notably skipping the base iPhone 18 and raising prices on remaining older models by $100.
Apple today announced the Apple Watch Ultra 4, its latest rugged smartwatch, at its "Surprise and shine" event. Powered by the new S11 processor, the device promises significant performance improvements and is designed to support the upcoming Siri AI overhaul in watchOS 27.
Apple has revamped iOS 27 with new controls and app layouts specifically for its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, borrowing heavily from iPadOS to deliver a multitasking experience the company describes as 'as natural and intuitive as iPad.'
Apple has officially entered the foldable smartphone market with the iPhone Duo, a $1,999 device that marks the most dramatic redesign of its flagship product since the iPhone X in 2017. Announced at the company’s first major event under new CEO John Ternus, the Duo features a 7.6-inch inner Retina display when unfolded, a 5.4-inch outer screen, and will be available for preorder starting October 16, with in-store sales beginning October 23.
Apple will host its ‘Surprise and shine’ launch event on September 9th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, where it is expected to announce the first phones in the iPhone 18 lineup, including the company’s first foldable device, the rumoured ‘iPhone Duo’. The event will also be the first major keynote for John Ternus, who became Apple’s CEO on September 1st after taking over from Tim Cook.
Apple is holding its first iPhone keynote under new CEO John Ternus today, with strong indications the company will finally unveil a foldable iPhone — a product that could define a new era for the tech giant. The event, which also promises updates to Apple Watch, AirPods, and operating systems, marks a pivotal moment as Ternus steps into the spotlight following Tim Cook's retirement.
A startup called Besxar is working with SpaceX to develop an orbital semiconductor factory, using the vacuum of space to produce cleaner materials for advanced chips. The company, founded by former OpenAI staffer Ashley Pilipiszyn, has raised nearly $14 million and successfully completed its first test flights aboard a Falcon 9 booster in July.
Nintendo has announced the first special edition of its Switch 2 hardware: The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition, priced at $519.99. Pre-orders went live immediately following a Nintendo Direct on September 9, 2026, with the console scheduled to ship on October 29. The edition does not include a game, but a matching Pro Controller ($99.99) and carrying case are also available.
Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have announced plans to adopt ASML's latest high NA EUV photolithography machines, which cost up to $400 million each, and have agreed with Intel on a crucial technology change that could increase chip production on the new machines by 40 percent, according to Bloomberg reports.
TSMC has announced plans to begin using High-NA EUV lithography for high-volume manufacturing in 2030, likely starting with its A10 or A11 fabrication technologies. The company, which had previously avoided public commitments to the expensive $400 million scanners, now expects to progressively increase the number of layers processed with High-NA EUV as transistor architectures become more complex.
Intel is reportedly preparing a 10% price increase across its CPU lineup, according to a Digitimes report citing supply chain sources, marking the third such hike in under two years as the company seeks higher gross margins amid a shrinking PC market. The report also indicates Intel plans to launch "major annual products" in March 2027, with AMD expected to follow with its own launches between June and July 2027.
A German scammer has defrauded two buyers out of a combined $5,000 by selling them hollow GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards — cases stripped of the GPU silicon and memory chips, rendering the cards non-functional. The incident highlights a growing trend of phantom hardware scams targeting high-demand components.
A New York Police Department counterterrorism memo has warned officers about the potential misuse of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, citing risks of secret recording inside police facilities and possible aid to acts of terrorism. Documents obtained by The Guardian show that officers from Maine to California share similar concerns about the camera-equipped eyewear.
Huawei has unveiled a new processor it claims is free of US technology, debuting the chip in its latest three-screen folding phone. The Kirin 950 Pro, announced this week alongside the $2,979 Mate XT2, features Huawei-designed LinxiCore processor cores, a GPU, and a neural processing unit that the company says all originate from its own designs.
Arm has announced its next-generation Neoverse CSS N4 platform, codenamed Ranger, built on TSMC's N3P process and supporting up to 128 cores per die. The semi-custom compute subsystem offers substantial upgrades in cache, memory bandwidth, and I/O over its predecessor, targeting cloud and infrastructure deployments.
Apple's upcoming iPhone launch this week is expected to bring higher prices as the company faces a sustained memory chip shortage that has reversed long-standing trends of falling component costs, with no end to the memory crunch in sight.
A growing trend of do-it-yourself plug-in solar systems is allowing US homeowners to dramatically cut their electricity bills without professional installation. In a recent test, one journalist plugged an 800-watt solar array directly into a household power outlet and saw their electricity bill drop to nearly zero on a sunny day, highlighting the potential and the challenges of this emerging technology.
AMD has announced the Threadripper Halo, a high-end AI workstation designed for local machine learning, at IFA 2026. The system, set to launch next year, marks the first time AMD's Instinct accelerators have been offered in a workstation form factor, positioning it as a competitor to Nvidia's DGX Station.
Dutch ethical smartphone maker Fairphone has entered the US market with the Gen 6+, a $650 device that prioritizes easy repairability and user ownership over the glass-and-glue design of mainstream competitors. Fairphone CTO Chandler Hatton says the goal is to enable customers to 'fully own' their device, even as the company makes trade-offs in build materials to achieve that vision.
Australian quantum computing company Diraq has installed what it says is the world's first silicon spin quantum computer in a shared commercial data centre, placing the system inside Equinix's Sydney facility ahead of an October go-live date.
Motorola has unveiled the Moto Watch Ultra, its first premium smartwatch running Google's Wear OS, marking a departure from the custom operating system used on the company's earlier 2026 model. The device comes in one size and two colors and is powered by a Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 chip.
Nvidia has officially announced that its RTX Spark N1X superchip will launch in October, bringing a unified memory architecture to laptops and mini PCs for the first time from the company. Two configurations are on offer, with the top-end model boasting a 20-core Grace CPU, a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, and up to 128GB of unified memory.
Hohem has unveiled the Eyepic, a handheld stabilized camera that combines a three-axis gimbal with a detachable magnetic camera module, allowing it to function both as a steadycam and a tiny standalone action camera capable of 4K video at 60fps.
SwitchBot has launched a new retrofit smart lock that offers homeowners up to 19 ways to enter their homes without a traditional key. Announced at the IFA trade show in Berlin, the Lock Ultra Max Vision Pro Combo includes facial and palm vein recognition, fingerprint scanning, passcodes, NFC card access, and app-based remote unlocking.
TSMC has nearly doubled its projected requirements for semiconductor production equipment since the end of last year, driven by surging demand from the AI sector. The world's largest contract chipmaker now forecasts 2026 capital expenditure of $60 billion to $64 billion, up from an initial $52 billion to $56 billion, as it races to build new fabs in Taiwan and the United States and upgrade existing facilities.
A working Apple 1 computer motherboard signed by co-founder Steve Wozniak, accompanied by a letter signed by Steve Jobs, is heading to auction at Bonhams in New York next month with an estimated value of US$500,000 to US$800,000. The so-called 'Hatfield' Apple 1, which last sold for $686,000 in 2013, is described by the auction house as beautifully preserved and fully operational.
LTO tape storage is experiencing a renaissance, with capacity shipments jumping 57% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, driven by soaring demand from AI data centers, traditional archiving, and cyber-resilient backup requirements, the LTO Program Technology Provider Companies reported Tuesday.
Acer has announced the Swift Blade 14, a laptop designed to compete directly with Apple's MacBook Air on portability, coming in at just 1.76 pounds — nearly a pound lighter than Apple's 13-inch model — while measuring 0.51 inches thick and featuring Intel's new Wildcat Lake processors.
Jaguar Land Rover has officially debuted the 2027 Range Rover Electric, a battery-electric variant that joins the lineup alongside existing internal combustion and plug-in hybrid models. Priced from $138,000, the fully electric SUV marks a significant step in JLR's electrification transition, with 80,000 potential buyers already registered as 'hand-raisers'.
John Ternus officially became Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook after 15 years, and promptly sent his first staff memo teasing a 'huge launch next week' that he called 'phenomenal.' The memo, reported by Bloomberg and detailed by The Verge, also hints at 'incredible products already in the works,' setting the stage for the company's upcoming iPhone event on September 9, where a foldable iPhone Ultra and iPhone 18 Pro are rumored to debut.
Smart-home company Shelly has introduced its first security camera, a $49.99 wired model that records in 1080p and can be used without any subscription fees, though optional paid plans may expand its features. The camera, available in black or white, goes on sale soon from Shelly’s online store and other resellers.
Sonos announced the Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar, Sonos Ace Ultra headphones, and a major software update called Sonos 27 at an event in New York City, marking its biggest product push since the 2024 app rollout that led to widespread customer backlash.
Poco, the Xiaomi spinoff brand, has announced its flagship F9 Pro and F9 Ultra smartphones, featuring a continued partnership with Bose for enhanced audio. The F9 Ultra includes a Bose-branded 2.1 sound system with a light-up subwoofer, alongside ultra-bright displays and large batteries.
JBL is entering the connected whole-home audio market with its new Cove series of speakers, which can be used independently, as a stereo pair, or linked together for multi-room sound. The range, announced today, places the company in direct competition with established players like Sonos and Bose's new Lifestyle Ultra system.
Samsung has detailed a three-phase roadmap for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that progressively integrates logic and compute capabilities into the memory stack, culminating in a radical 'zHBM' design that places DRAM directly above the processor. Presented at Hot Chips 2026, the plan leverages an advanced logic process for the HBM base die to address rising bandwidth and power constraints in AI accelerators.
NVIDIA has announced the Jetson Orin Nano 2, a new entry-level edge AI board that the company says delivers twice the AI performance of the original Jetson Orin Nano — or matching performance at 40% less power — with availability expected in the first half of 2027.
Apple is preparing to launch two new small, powerful Macs, according to reports ahead of the company's anticipated September event, where it may also debut a foldable iPhone.
BYOK, the no-frills writing gadget designed for distraction-free drafting, is set to receive custom extensions, according to founder Nick Sjolinder. The move aims to address the demands of users who want the device to handle note-taking, screenplay writing, or novel organization without compromising its core appeal.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has revealed that Project Helix, Microsoft's codename for its next-generation hardware, will encompass a 'family of devices' rather than a single console, broadening the scope of the company's gaming strategy.
Meta is rolling out a software update for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that closes a privacy loophole allowing wearers to continue recording after covering the front-facing LED indicator. The company is also launching a new marketing campaign aimed at combating the device's reputation, which has been derided as 'pervert glasses' in online discourse.
Pollen Robotics, a subsidiary of AI model hosting platform Hugging Face, has announced the Microduck, a $399 bipedal robot duck designed to teach users about hardware AI and machine learning. Standing just 25 cm tall and weighing 800 grams, the robot comes with an open-source software stack, onboard sensors, and a simulation environment for reinforcement learning, but its hardware is not open source. The announcement comes amid reports that Nvidia is in talks to acquire Hugging Face for approximately $13 billion.