MANILA, Philippines – For the first time in three years, Blizzard’s annual fan gathering, BlizzCon returned. The California-based publisher, developer—and now Microsoft subsidiary—kicked off a weekend-long celebration with big reveals for their familiar brands and franchises. The Blizzard identity has always been wrapped up in a small number of steadfast IPs. Series like Warcraft, Diablo

China’s top internet watchdog has drafted new rules to regulate how social platforms and game developers should protect minors, including a ban on offering “virtual intimacy services” to those under 18 as artificial intelligence-powered companions gain traction. The rules, titled “Ensuring minors’ safe and healthy use of the internet”, would ban online platforms from providing “virtual relatives or companions”, and prohibit them from offering services that “induce minors to become addicted or...

Chinese and US negotiators made progress on artificial intelligence (AI) and trade ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House later this week. “We had a very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters following Sunday’s eight-hour-long negotiations at JPMorgan Chase’s head office in New York. The talks had a “good atmosphere” and were “not bad”, said China’s Li Chenggang. Li’s promotion to international trade...

Chinese and US negotiators made progress on artificial intelligence (AI) and trade ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House later this week. “We had a very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters following Sunday’s eight-hour-long negotiations at JPMorgan Chase’s head office in New York. The talks had a “good atmosphere” and were “not bad”, said China’s Li Chenggang. Li’s promotion to international trade...

Neither Beijing nor Washington can win the race for artificial intelligence dominance without relying on other countries, a Bank of America analyst said ahead of this week’s high-stakes bilateral summit, citing deeply entangled global tech supply chains. While China’s advantages had emerged in areas like power grids and manufacturing equipment, the country remained reliant on overseas suppliers for advanced chips, memory and some high-end materials, said Matty Zhao, co-head of China equity at...

Neither Beijing nor Washington can win the race for artificial intelligence dominance without relying on other countries, a Bank of America analyst said ahead of this week’s high-stakes bilateral summit, citing deeply entangled global tech supply chains. While China’s advantages had emerged in areas like power grids and manufacturing equipment, the country remained reliant on overseas suppliers for advanced chips, memory and some high-end materials, said Matty Zhao, co-head of China equity at...

TEHRAN — In a hall adorned with Quranic verses and usually reserved for prayers, Iranian teenage girls watched the robots they had designed play football in an event showcasing sanction-hit Iran’s aspirations in emerging tech. Only months ago, the Grand Mosalla religious complex hosted the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed

It’s paired with the release of an Instax Link Wide 2, which helps print the photos taken by the Pal 2 camera.

Sometimes, last-minute in-store shopping might be your best option.

When Chinese artificial intelligence developers want to train their next-generation frontier models, they all face the same daunting wall: they cannot legally buy the world’s most powerful AI chips. However, the country’s tech giants and start-ups have still managed to quietly keep pace with global rivals. Their secret is an elusive workaround: moving heavy training workloads across borders through the cloud. By setting up proxy entities in foreign jurisdictions, domestic firms have for years...

When Chinese artificial intelligence developers want to train their next-generation frontier models, they all face the same daunting wall: they cannot legally buy the world’s most powerful AI chips. However, the country’s tech giants and start-ups have still managed to quietly keep pace with global rivals. Their secret is an elusive workaround: moving heavy training workloads across borders through the cloud. By setting up proxy entities in foreign jurisdictions, domestic firms have for years...

Chinese chipmaker Hygon Information Technology is set to release a new chip targeting complex real-world applications including robotics, an expansion from its current focus on data centres. The product launch, slated for Tuesday, marks Hygon’s move into a new chip category powering machines that interact directly with their environments, as physical artificial intelligence becomes increasingly important. The new chip, an iteration of the company’s CPU1000 series, is designed to meet “low-power,...

There are two big tech-centric events that are being talked about today. The first and more obvious one is Pax Silica. The second is the upcoming listing of GCash into the local stock market. Although these two events are by themselves a big deal on their own merit, I would not have framed them to

Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai is facing a trust crisis after developers discovered that its coding assistant tool, ZCode, was silently uploading local workspace data to external servers without explicit user consent. Even though the company, also known as Zhipu AI, apologised and patched the vulnerability, developers said the incident was likely to weaken its reputation, especially at a time when cybersecurity is becoming a central issue in the AI industry. The issue came to light...

Chinese memory chip giant Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said on Sunday that it adopted its new-generation technology platform for mass production, narrowing the advantage of global leaders including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in manufacturing nodes. CXMT’s fifth-generation technology platform, dubbed G5, achieved a “quantum leap” in storage density, with the number of dies produced per wafer increasing by at least 50 per cent from the previous generation while maintaining better...

MANILA, Philippines – Falcons Vega fell to Gen.G, 2-3, in the lower bracket final of the VCT 2026: Game Changers Pacific Playoffs, September 19. Composed of three homegrown Filipina talents, Alexandria “Alexy” Francisco, Camille “Kamiyu” Enriquez, and Kelly “shirazi” Jaudian, Falcons Vega’s loss marks the first time since the league’s introduction in 2022 that no

MANILA, Philippines — Jace Beleren is finally back in the spotlight of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) with the upcoming Reality Fracture expansion. While Jace plays a major role in the set’s Standard environment, the blue planeswalker is also set to make waves in Commander. Normally a mono-blue planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering, Reality Fracture’s Commander

Chinese action camera maker Insta360 is deepening its US footprint with a flagship store opening in New York as it navigates escalating price competition with DJI and industry-wide memory cost pressures. The Chinese GoPro rival was slated to plant its flag in the heart of Times Square with its first flagship retail store in the US on Saturday, a marquee launch as the firm looked to “leap to the next stage of growth”, co-founder Max Richter said. “The US market plays a very important role for us...

Chinese action camera maker Insta360 is deepening its US footprint with a flagship store opening in New York as it navigates escalating price competition with DJI and industry-wide memory cost pressures. The Chinese GoPro rival was slated to plant its flag in the heart of Times Square with its first flagship retail store in the US on Saturday, a marquee launch as the firm looked to “leap to the next stage of growth”, co-founder Max Richter said. “The US market plays a very important role for us...

Years ago, I watched a focus group explain itself into a contradiction. We asked people what mattered when choosing car insurance. Price won. The deductible came next. Reputation did not appear. During coffee, I asked the interviewer to change the question. How much cheaper would a less prestigious insurer have to be before they switched? One participant, who 15 minutes earlier ranked price first, said no discount was large enough. Nothing changed except how we asked the question. Something...

Just got a new iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max? You’ll want to read this first before setting it up.

Betting big on its durability is the Poco X8’s IP-rated resistances. Yes, multiple ones.

Xiaomi’s new wide-screen foldable will launch in China on 7 September.

The restaurant will anchor a nationwide Sushiro x Pokemon campaign that features themed dishes and collectables from 10 September to 22 October.

Chinese researchers have made early strides in pushing semiconductor processing nodes below 3-nm using older lithography technology, as more advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools from ASML remain blocked under US sanctions. The breakthrough marks the latest progress in China’s drive to chart an alternative path to advanced chipmaking amid US export restrictions. Under current export control rules, Dutch equipment giant ASML is barred from selling its state-of-the-art EUV machines...

MANILA, Philippines — Before spending their hard-earned savings on a new tool, student buyers need a reliable gadget guide to help them make informed and confident decisions on their next big purchase.  We’ve created a list of things that students should remember, know, and avoid before deciding on their next gadget purchase that will empower

We’re particularly looking forward to those iPhone Duo cases.

Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm, Damo Academy, has open-sourced an artificial intelligence model capable of identifying nearly 150 abdominal conditions – including cancers – by reading computed tomography (CT) scans, marking the latest step in the firm’s growing medical AI efforts. The vision-language model, called Damo Radar, was designed to analyse contrast-enhanced CT scans covering 18 abdominal organs and identify a broad range of diseases and other abnormalities, such as malignant...

Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm, Damo Academy, has open-sourced an artificial intelligence model capable of identifying nearly 150 abdominal conditions – including cancers – by reading computed tomography (CT) scans, marking the latest step in the firm’s growing medical AI efforts. The vision-language model, called Damo Radar, was designed to analyse contrast-enhanced CT scans covering 18 abdominal organs and identify a broad range of diseases and other abnormalities, such as malignant...

Ant International, the overseas affiliate of China’s Ant Group, is executing an artificial intelligence overhaul across its entire suite of global financial services, introducing AI agents designed to help manage payments, foreign exchange and treasury operations. Described by the company as its largest-ever product upgrade, the initiative embeds AI-native solutions across all platforms: cross-border payment network Alipay+, merchant services provider Antom, account and treasury platform...