Author: Doudou

A Chinese company you may have never heard of has just announced that it’s making a smartphone – or at least sourcing one from an ODM. But wait, this is no regular smartphone; it’s the world’s first AI agentic phone. And guess what, it’s being hyped before OpenAI got a chance to hype up its own rumored smartphone. The company in question is called StepFun – it was founded in 2023 by former Microsoft employees in Shanghai, and the phone they are teasing today is called the StepX Neo. StepFun is no stranger to on-device AI, but they’ve so far…

One niche that Anthropic spends more time and money on than other AI companies is called mechanistic interpretability, which means looking inside the complex math of an AI model to learn why it comes up with one particular output and not another. It’s complicated stuff; there are millions of data points that might contribute to any result, and wading through them can look more like word salad than anything useful. It’s also controversial. Describing AI models with terms borrowed from psychology and neuroscience can make their behavior seem more sophisticated than we might otherwise judge it to be. That’s why,…

The move allows customers to send and receive money across banks and electronic money providers through a single interoperable system. Rwanda’s national instant payment system, eKash,  has become fully interoperable, enabling seamless transactions between banks and electronic money issuers as the country continues to strengthen its digital payments ecosystem. According to a public notice issued by RSwitch, the transition of domestic interoperable retail payment transactions to eKash, Rwanda’s National Digital Payment System (NDPS), has been completed in line with National Bank of Rwanda Directive No. 45/2026. From 14 July 2026, transfers between bank accounts, mobile wallets and combinations of both…

According to a new report by Omdia, global smartphone shipments fell 4% in the second quarter of this year (April-June) compared to the same period last year. Obviously, the ongoing memory crisis is to blame, pushing up component costs and making devices more expensive. However, both Samsung and Apple managed to grow their market shares – the former from 20% to 22%, and the latter from 16% to 20%. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s market share fell from 15% to 11%, Oppo’s from 12% to 10%, and vivo’s from 9% to 8%. As you can see, Samsung still leads the pack and Apple…

Theofelus urged the board to provide strategic leadership as Namibia navigates an increasingly complex digital landscape. The Ministry’s key priorities. Discussions centred on accelerating digital transformation, enhancing cybersecurity and ensuring CRAN’s regulatory initiatives contribute to Namibia’s broader digital development goals. During the meeting, CRAN Board Chairperson Elwis Nashilongo reaffirmed the board’s commitment to transforming the communications regulator into a smart, digitally enabled institution. The board said it will prioritise innovation, improve operational efficiency and support Namibia’s digital transformation agenda. Theofelus urged the board to provide strategic leadership as Namibia navigates an increasingly complex digital landscape. She stressed that regulators must…

Rising component prices forced Samsung to increase the prices of some of its phones in several regions. But the effects of the current market conditions reach further than that – repair costs are going up as well. In its home country of South Korea, Samsung has raised the price of repair materials for smartphones by an average of 5%, reports The Chosun. Other segments are affected as well – e.g. materials for home appliance repair now cost 9% more on average. To put this in monetary terms, the average smartphone repair job became KRW 11,000 more expensive – this converts…

The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Apple has sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secretsOpenAI purportedly stole IP to develop its own consumer hardware. (CNBC)+ The suit claims OpenAI poached Apple staff to access the information. (BBC)+ And requested trade secrets in job interviews with Apple workers. (Guardian)+ Apple also sued two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan. (Reuters $)2 A Nobel-winning chemist is leaving the US to lead an AI lab in ChinaOmar Yaghi will head an institute using AI to discover new materials. (LA Times $)+ He…

The agreement establishes a strategic collaboration framework spanning five key areas: AI consulting, training and upskilling, enterprise AI solutions, product distribution, and joint business development. Inception42 –  the region’s leading innovator of AI-powered products & solutions, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NXT Holding,  a Sahm Holding owned AI-native holding company headquartered in Abu Dhabi. The agreement establishes a strategic collaboration framework spanning five key areas: AI consulting, training and upskilling, enterprise AI solutions, product distribution, and joint business development. The MoU was signed by Ashish Koshy, CEO of Inception42 and Sara AlAhbabi, Director of SPVs and Portfolio…

We are less than two weeks away from Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, when we expect to see not just the new Galaxy foldables, but the next-generation Galaxy Watches, too. And we’ve already seen quite a few leaks in the past few weeks, so we have a good idea of what to expect from the upcoming Galaxy Watch9 and Watch Ultra2. However, while the previous reports were mostly about looks and straps, the one coming from WinFuture talks about the hardware, and judging by the hardware upgrades, they may be used to justify the sudden price hike.…

Waze adds some new and improved features that might make driving less of a chore. Source link