GoKawiil
Tech News
TrendForce reports Apple's smartphone production rose 14% year-over-year to about 52 million units in Q2 2026, giving it a 19% global share behind only Samsung's 62 million units. The overall global smartphone market fell 8% to 275 million units, a smaller drop than analysts had expected, prompting TrendForce to raise its full-year 2026 forecast to 1.07 billion units.
Samsung reports that combined US purchases of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra are running 30% ahead of last year's Z Fold 7, which itself was the most pre-ordered Fold model ever. The two Fold devices now make up about 80% of total Galaxy Z8 series purchases, with the Z Flip 8 accounting for the rest. Samsung also says roughly 30% of Flip 8 buyers switched from rival brands, most of them first-time foldable owners.
Samsung Electronics and TSMC have committed to deploying ASML's newest high-numerical-aperture EUV lithography systems, machines that can cost up to $400 million each. Both companies join Intel in adopting a related technical change expected to increase chip output on these machines by roughly 40 percent. Samsung plans to use the tools for memory chip production by 2028, while TSMC intends to apply the technology to its most advanced chips for customers like AMD, Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
Samsung outlines two ways to reboot a Galaxy tablet: a standard restart via the power menu or quick settings panel for general slowness or app glitches, and a force restart for a frozen, unresponsive screen. The force restart requires holding the Volume Down and Power buttons together for at least seven seconds until the device vibrates and the Samsung logo appears.
Samsung has issued the final security patch for the 2021 Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3, removing both devices from its official security update list. The Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 have now shifted to a quarterly update schedule, signaling their own support window will close around 2027.
Xiaomi released the Xiaomi 18 Fold and Huawei unveiled the Mate XT2 trifold this week, both timed just ahead of Apple's Wednesday event where the company is expected to reveal its first foldable iPhone under CEO John Ternus. Analysts say the Chinese manufacturers are trying to lock in buyers before Apple enters the foldable market.
Samsung executives Hee-Cheul Moon and Seungki Choi told WIRED they welcome Apple's entry into the foldable market ahead of its rumored iPhone Ultra launch. They noted that Samsung has cut 75 grams off its foldable design since 2017, with the new Galaxy Z Fold8 weighing 201 grams, lighter than Samsung's own single-screen Galaxy S26 Ultra. Apple's folding device is expected to weigh between 230 and 241 grams, heavier than Samsung's latest model.
Samsung has pushed four AI features first introduced for the Galaxy S26 lineup—Call Brief, Custom Cards in Now Brief, Now Nudge, and My FanCam—to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 via a second One UI 9 beta build. These tools were already extended to the Galaxy S25 series and now bring smarter calling context, personalized daily briefings, proactive on-screen suggestions, and automatic video reframing to last year's foldables. The update also patches bugs affecting Wi-Fi, display, camera, and app stability.
French AI startup Mistral AI has closed a €3 billion Series D funding round at a post-money valuation exceeding €21 billion, which it calls the largest equity raise ever by a European tech company. Samsung Electronics led the round, with EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund and existing backer PSG Equity as co-leads. Mistral plans to use the capital to expand compute infrastructure, accelerate commercial growth, and grow its presence internationally across the 20 countries where it now operates.
Apple is set to hold an event expected to unveil between six and nine new products, headlined by its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Ultra. Reports suggest the device could cost more than $2,000, with top configurations reaching $3,000, making it a flagship rather than a volume seller.
ASML announced that Samsung and TSMC will follow Intel in adopting its High NA extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, with Samsung targeting DRAM production by 2028 and TSMC planning advanced node use by 2030. The three chipmakers also launched a joint effort to shift from six-inch to 12-inch photomasks, a change expected to reach advanced production by 2033.
Arm has announced its new C2-Ultra CPU architecture, the successor to last year's C1-Ultra, which is expected to appear in Samsung Exynos and MediaTek Dimensity chips around 2027, and possibly Google's Tensor G7. Arm claims up to 15% peak performance gains over its predecessor, though most of that comes from a higher 4.45GHz clock speed rather than architectural changes, while power efficiency improves by 38% at equivalent performance thanks to a 2nm process and larger L2 cache.