GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple has unveiled its first foldable iPhone, dubbed the Duo, and early hands-on impressions describe a matte-finish inner display, a smooth hinge with barely detectable crease, and IP68 water resistance. The device has a compact 5.4-inch outer screen and animates a gradual visual transition as it opens and closes, rather than simply switching displays on and off.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev defended his company's tokenized stock products, arguing that once a company goes public, other firms can build financial instruments referencing its shares without needing the issuer's permission. This follows AMC CEO Adam Aron's public criticism that Robinhood's tokenized AMC shares let the brokerage profit from exposure to the stock without AMC's involvement or consent.
Analysts examining OpenAI's newly released GPT-6 Astra note it outperforms its GPT-5.6 predecessor across writing, math, coding, and especially 3D rendering tasks, jumping from 7.8% to 99.9% on the ARC-AGI-3 benchmark. Speculation has emerged that Astra uses a looped or recurrent-depth transformer architecture and may be concealing parts of its chain-of-thought reasoning process from users.
Android Authority found code in a beta build of the Google app (version 17.56.14) suggesting Gemini's floating overlay could soon let users assign tasks to Spark, Google's autonomous AI agent, without launching the full Gemini interface. The same handover option is also being tested in the main Gemini app, alongside a possible model-switching shortcut in the overlay.
Microsoft, acting through TracerAI, has withdrawn its DMCA takedown notice that accused the open-source voxel game Luanti of infringing Minecraft's copyright. The Luanti app has been reinstated on Google Play immediately, without needing to wait out the standard counter-notice period, signaling Microsoft has abandoned the case entirely.
After unveiling the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro at its 'Surprise and shine' event, Apple raised prices by $100 on all previous-generation iPhones still sold. The iPhone 16 jumped from $699 to $799, the 17E from $599 to $699, the base iPhone 17 from $799 to $899, and the iPhone Air from $999 to $1,099.
OpenAI Korea's general manager Harrison Kim said the company has made significant progress working with Samsung Electronics on next-generation chip development and production. This suggests OpenAI could source future AI accelerators from both Samsung Foundry and TSMC, rather than relying solely on TSMC as it does for its current Jalapeño inference chip built with Broadcom.
Samsung published a promotional message welcoming Apple to the foldable phone market just hours before Apple's anticipated launch event, where a foldable iPhone is rumored to debut. The post emphasized Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold as 'the world's lightest fold,' positioning the company as the established leader in the category.
Private equity firm Silver Lake is combining two of its portfolio companies, French business software maker Cegid and payroll platform Silae, into a single entity valued at over 10 billion euros. The merged company will unite payroll, accounting, e-invoicing and finance data under one roof, with a 1,400-person developer team dedicated to AI investment. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027 pending regulatory approval, with combined annual revenue projected at 1.9 billion euros.
Apple's first iPhone launch event, led by CEO John Ternus, introduced the foldable iPhone Duo alongside new AirPods and Apple Watch models. The Duo features dual 7.6-inch and 5.4-inch displays, Touch ID on the side button, an A20 Pro chip, a 48-megapixel camera, and up to 44 hours of battery life, with pricing starting at $1,999. Apple also revealed two Pro-tier iPhone 18 models with upgraded cameras, skipping a base model this cycle.
At its fall event, Apple launched the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and a new foldable iPhone Duo, but held back the standard iPhone 18, which is now expected in early 2026. Alongside this, Apple raised prices by $100 across its existing iPhone 17 models and even the older iPhone 16, which returns to its original $799 price.
Apple's Series 12 smartwatch now offers a ceramic case, the first time the material has appeared since the Series 5 in 2019. Buyers can choose pearl white or night blue finishes, with prices starting at $899 and rising to $949 for the 46mm model, well above the $399 base price.