Everything you need to know before Amazon Prime Big Deal Days returns from 6 to 8 October 2026!

Hardwarezone SG - Sep 16, 2026

With less than a month to go before we see another Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event, here is what you need to know about the sale.

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Sega and Netflix announce slate of new adaptations spanning Crazy Taxi, Sonic and Yakuza

Sep 15, 2026

Sega and Netflix announce slate of new adaptations spanning Crazy Taxi, Sonic and Yakuza

Adaptations for Crazy Taxi and Yakuza prequel Stranger than Heaven will be live-action, while the Sonic adaptation is set to be an animated series for kids.

DeepSeek AI engineer slams Anthropic, OpenAI over ‘pacing’ calls, invokes Nazi Germany

Sep 15, 2026

DeepSeek AI engineer slams Anthropic, OpenAI over ‘pacing’ calls, invokes Nazi Germany

A DeepSeek engineer has issued a stark warning about the potential concentration of advanced artificial intelligence and resources in proprietary US developers Anthropic and OpenAI, intensifying a growing debate in China over calls by US industry leaders to “pace” AI development amid safety concerns. The comments preceded an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump on September 24, where AI safety may emerge as a key point of dialogue as the two countries race...

China is beating the US in consumer AI adoption, thanks to super apps: Morgan Stanley

Sep 15, 2026

China is beating the US in consumer AI adoption, thanks to super apps: Morgan Stanley

China is surging ahead of the US in consumer AI adoption as technology giants like Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding embed artificial intelligence directly into popular everyday apps, even as American models lead in capability, according to Morgan Stanley. A survey conducted by the bank and published in a report on Monday showed that 80 per cent of Chinese respondents used AI for personal purposes at least weekly, compared with 54 per cent in the US. China’s generative AI user base grew...

China is beating the US in consumer AI adoption, thanks to super apps: Morgan Stanley

Sep 15, 2026

China is beating the US in consumer AI adoption, thanks to super apps: Morgan Stanley

China is surging ahead of the US in consumer AI adoption as technology giants like Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding embed artificial intelligence directly into popular everyday apps, even as American models lead in capability, according to Morgan Stanley. A survey conducted by the bank and published in a report on Monday showed that 80 per cent of Chinese respondents used AI for personal purposes at least weekly, compared with 54 per cent in the US. China’s generative AI user base grew...

Forget AI KPIs: how China’s tech giants are rationing tokens for employees

Sep 15, 2026

Forget AI KPIs: how China’s tech giants are rationing tokens for employees

When generative artificial intelligence first swept through China’s technology sector, workers faced a clear directive from management: use AI and use it often. Consuming vast numbers of AI tokens – the basic unit of computing power needed to process text or write code – became a badge of honour, with companies often viewing a high token count as a sign that employees were productive and taking initiative. But those computing allowances are now being sharply rolled back as China’s leading...

Forget AI KPIs: how China’s tech giants are rationing tokens for employees

Sep 15, 2026

Forget AI KPIs: how China’s tech giants are rationing tokens for employees

When generative artificial intelligence first swept through China’s technology sector, workers faced a clear directive from management: use AI and use it often. Consuming vast numbers of AI tokens – the basic unit of computing power needed to process text or write code – became a badge of honour, with companies often viewing a high token count as a sign that employees were productive and taking initiative. But those computing allowances are now being sharply rolled back as China’s leading...

New parental controls in iOS 27

Sep 15, 2026

New parental controls in iOS 27

A few weeks ago I had the chance to get a preview into the new iOS 27 features that is launching today. The more streamlined child safety controls come from feedback from parents who deal with the realities of handing off their iPad or second-hand iPhone to their kids. The new iOS 27 child safety

Apple is adding Apple TV and Apple Arcade to iCloud+ in Singapore at no extra cost

Sep 15, 2026

Apple is adding Apple TV and Apple Arcade to iCloud+ in Singapore at no extra cost

Starting from S$1.48 a month, the expanded iCloud+ bundle replaces standalone Apple TV and Arcade subscriptions

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, and macOS 27 are all available to update now

Sep 15, 2026

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, and macOS 27 are all available to update now

Apple’s next-generation software updates is arriving days before the release of the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12, and Apple Watch Ultra 4.

BYD’s Atto 1 is a compact electric hatchback that aims to be the ideal city-driving companion

Sep 15, 2026

BYD’s Atto 1 is a compact electric hatchback that aims to be the ideal city-driving companion

The Atto 1 is by no means the first electric hatchback, but more options are welcome in this relatively underserved space.

TCL’s IFA 2026 showcase bags over 30 global honors

Sep 14, 2026

TCL’s IFA 2026 showcase bags over 30 global honors

Walking into TCL’s showcase at IFA 2026, it was difficult to look at any one product without appreciating the wholistic impact of it all. The company had built its presentation around the idea of a connected home, with televisions, phones, appliances, smart glasses and AI-powered devices occupying different parts of the same experience. Rather than

Chinese researchers chart 5-stage path toward ‘last AI built by humans’

Sep 14, 2026

Chinese researchers chart 5-stage path toward ‘last AI built by humans’

Researchers from China’s leading universities and tech giants are setting their sights on a crucial new front in the AI race with the US: developing systems capable of building better versions of themselves without human intervention. In a joint paper published on Thursday, researchers from ByteDance, Tsinghua University and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, among others, outlined a five-stage road map for recursive self-improvement (RSI). The study, titled “The Last AI Built by...

5 standout booths at IFA 2026

Sep 14, 2026

5 standout booths at IFA 2026

IFA 2026 is a behemoth of an event spanning over 190,000 square metres with 2,000 exhibitors from 51 different countries. Even the lengthy five days isn’t enough to see everything IFA 2026 has to offer. 15,000 steps later I saw much of what was on display at the Messe Berlin from AI cat feeders to

How Philippine creators leverage AI on CapCut

Sep 14, 2026

How Philippine creators leverage AI on CapCut

I just got back from CapCut World Singapore, the first-ever event of its kind. It was a gathering of creators and industry stakeholders who all have one thing in common: they create, edit, and some even make money using CapCut. The Singapore leg is CapCut World’s first stop, with two more destinations set for the

Cloudy with a chance of Big Macs: McDonald’s and Meituan launch drone route in Shanghai

Sep 14, 2026

Cloudy with a chance of Big Macs: McDonald’s and Meituan launch drone route in Shanghai

Shanghai’s bustling riverfront has become the latest testing ground for urban logistics technology, with McDonald’s and Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan joining forces to launch the country’s first catering brand-exclusive drone-delivery route. Commencing operations last week, the new service allows visitors strolling or exercising along the scenic West Bund area in Shanghai’s Xuhui district to have their fast-food orders ‘airdropped’ directly to designated kiosks, according to a recent...

Cloudy with a chance of Big Macs: McDonald’s and Meituan launch drone route in Shanghai

Sep 14, 2026

Cloudy with a chance of Big Macs: McDonald’s and Meituan launch drone route in Shanghai

Shanghai’s bustling riverfront has become the latest testing ground for urban logistics technology, with McDonald’s and Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan joining forces to launch the country’s first catering brand-exclusive drone-delivery route. Commencing operations last week, the new service allows visitors strolling or exercising along the scenic West Bund area in Shanghai’s Xuhui district to have their fast-food orders ‘airdropped’ directly to designated kiosks, according to a recent...

China rejects calls for ‘pacing’ on AI development, fearing it would entrench US tech lead

Sep 14, 2026

China rejects calls for ‘pacing’ on AI development, fearing it would entrench US tech lead

Calls by US tech leaders for a voluntary slowdown in artificial intelligence development have run into sharp pushback from Chinese researchers and state media, who question whether the proposal is a genuine push for responsibility or an effort to entrench America’s technological lead. The debate intensified on Monday when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined a growing chorus of Silicon Valley leaders demanding industry-wide “pacing”, warning that competitive pressure must not override safety as AI...

Xi touts Brics cooperation on AI as US titans flag tech risks

Sep 14, 2026

Xi touts Brics cooperation on AI as US titans flag tech risks

President Xi Jinping promoted China’s vision for artificial intelligence (AI) at the annual Brics summit, seeking to win support from the Global South amid tech competition with the US. China would spearhead development of an AI Brics “community”, support cooperation in developing large language models and offer training, Xi said on Sunday in New Delhi. The previous day, he invited Brics nations to join the newly formed World AI Cooperation Organisation. Brics countries must “strengthen...

Shein shares drop to lowest since IPO amid ‘underperform’ rating, contact-lens recall

Sep 14, 2026

Shein shares drop to lowest since IPO amid ‘underperform’ rating, contact-lens recall

Shein Global Holdings saw its shares plummet to their lowest level since listing two weeks ago, falling as much as 10 per cent in Hong Kong trading on Monday, slammed by an “underperform” rating from Jefferies and product safety recalls in Australia and New Zealand. Shein closed down 9 per cent to HK$36.40 on Monday, the lowest since its September 1 debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The high-profile stock has been on a downward spiral and is now 25 per cent lower than its initial public...

JBL’s latest karaoke microphones remove vocals with AI, with a smartphone version available too

Sep 14, 2026

JBL’s latest karaoke microphones remove vocals with AI, with a smartphone version available too

You can be the next King of Smartphone Singer, and your neighbours shall remember you as the Phantom of the HDB Opera.

WhatsApp reportedly testing Mac-like sidebar for iPad

Sep 14, 2026

WhatsApp reportedly testing Mac-like sidebar for iPad

The redesigned sidebar could make it easier to navigate between WhatsApp’s chats, calls, communities and other sections on the iPad.

The iPhone event is over, but Apple could still announce these 8 products before the year ends

Sep 14, 2026

The iPhone event is over, but Apple could still announce these 8 products before the year ends

Apple may hold another event next month to unveil up to eight new products across its Mac, iPad, smart home, and audio lineups.

Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he is unwilling to cede edge to China

Sep 13, 2026

Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he is unwilling to cede edge to China

US President Donald Trump on Sunday played down the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about ceding America’s edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology. While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to “negative...

Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he is unwilling to cede edge to China

Sep 13, 2026

Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he is unwilling to cede edge to China

US President Donald Trump on Sunday played down the need for his administration to check the development of artificial intelligence, saying he worried about ceding America’s edge over China in a global competition and that winning would help address the risks from the advancing technology. While acknowledging the need for some regulation, Trump provided no specifics about potential rules and attributed warnings about the technology moving too quickly and with little oversight to “negative...

Seeking cash for AI, China’s Z.ai eyes new US$5b fundraising push after July share sale

Sep 13, 2026

Seeking cash for AI, China’s Z.ai eyes new US$5b fundraising push after July share sale

Z.ai, the Chinese artificial intelligence model developer listed in Hong Kong, is seeking to raise about HK$15.7 billion (US$2 billion) through a placement of roughly 21.97 million new H shares at HK$714 apiece, according to a company filing on Sunday. The company also announced a 20.14 billion yuan (US$3 billion) convertible-bond sale, according to its filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, closed at HK$793 on Friday, down 73 per cent from its intraday high of...

Chinese researchers extend future memory endurance 100-fold in semiconductor advance

Sep 13, 2026

Chinese researchers extend future memory endurance 100-fold in semiconductor advance

Chinese researchers have developed a way to make an emerging type of memory chip much more durable, potentially overcoming a critical reliability barrier to its use in high-performance computing and future artificial intelligence systems as the AI boom drives demand for more advanced semiconductors. The team demonstrated more than 10 billion writing cycles in wurtzite ferroelectrics, a class of materials that can switch between two electric states to store data. The result was roughly 100 times...

Opinion: Pax Silica is not a data center

Sep 13, 2026

Opinion: Pax Silica is not a data center

#OpEd: Contributor Carl Lamiel discusses the greater misinformation that plagues the Pax Silica project. The Philippines has a habit of turning complicated policy announcements into simple headlines. Pax Silica may be the latest example. The initiative has generated attention because it places the Philippines in a broader conversation about semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, technology supply chains,

Beijing pushes AI-assisted chip design as part of self-sufficiency drive

Sep 13, 2026

Beijing pushes AI-assisted chip design as part of self-sufficiency drive

Artificial intelligence agents are increasingly taking the wheel in designing China’s next-generation semiconductors, as Beijing and domestic technology firms accelerate efforts to integrate AI into chip design software to bolster national self-sufficiency. Empyrean Technology, China’s top maker of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, has been accelerating the chip design process by using AI-optimised algorithms and agentic tools, according to company chairman Liu Weiping. By applying an AI...

JioHotstar, the Netflix of India, is now streaming in Singapore, taking on the existing incumbents

Sep 13, 2026

JioHotstar, the Netflix of India, is now streaming in Singapore, taking on the existing incumbents

With more than 500 million active users in India, JioHotstar is bringing its huge multilingual catalogue to Singapore, where it will compete on content and pricing.

Apple Pay Express Mode comes to selected MRT stations, and here’s how you can enable it

Sep 13, 2026

Apple Pay Express Mode comes to selected MRT stations, and here’s how you can enable it

Express Mode lets you hold your iPhone or Apple Watch near the fare reader to pay without unlocking or authenticating your device.

The US and China are racing to build ‘self-improving AI’. Here’s what’s at stake

Sep 13, 2026

The US and China are racing to build ‘self-improving AI’. Here’s what’s at stake

The US-China race for artificial intelligence dominance has entered a new phase: using AI to build better AI. Leading AI companies in the United States and China are increasingly focused on deploying advanced models to write code, design experiments, and develop training techniques that can be used to improve more powerful models. The ultimate goal is to achieve what the industry refers to as recursive self-improvement (RSI) – the creation of AI systems that can train themselves...

The US and China are racing to build ‘self-improving AI’. Here’s what’s at stake

Sep 13, 2026

The US and China are racing to build ‘self-improving AI’. Here’s what’s at stake

The US-China race for artificial intelligence dominance has entered a new phase: using AI to build better AI. Leading AI companies in the United States and China are increasingly focused on deploying advanced models to write code, design experiments, and develop training techniques that can be used to improve more powerful models. The ultimate goal is to achieve what the industry refers to as recursive self-improvement (RSI) – the creation of AI systems that can train themselves...

What is AGI? How China’s AI firms are catching up as OpenAI Astra sparks debate

Sep 12, 2026

What is AGI? How China’s AI firms are catching up as OpenAI Astra sparks debate

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s declaration that artificial general intelligence (AGI) has arrived following the release of OpenAI’s latest model, Astra, has ignited debate over whether AI’s holy grail is now reality. As China races to close the gap with the US, leading Chinese AI companies are declaring their ambitions to pursue AGI, even as Beijing appears to maintain a cautious stance towards the concept. Here is a primer on what AGI means, where top Chinese AI developers stand, and how Chinese...

In the age of AI, the future of writing is still human

Sep 11, 2026

In the age of AI, the future of writing is still human

When Wattpad launched in 2006, it gave a generation of young writers a way to publish stories without going through and working with the traditional publishing industry because it was a very daunting task for someone who just wants to get their book out in the wild as a young author. For many Filipino teenagers,

5 ways space tech impacts Filipino life, from typhoons to traffic

Sep 11, 2026

5 ways space tech impacts Filipino life, from typhoons to traffic

Discover the space tech from the Department of Science Technology (DOST) and overseas partners Space may be the final frontier, but for Filipinos, it is already part of the daily commute. Before heading to work, you might check the weather, look at traffic on Waze, or track your ride home. When a typhoon approaches, you

Chinese optical transceiver makers dodge US ban for now as FCC updates rules

Sep 11, 2026

Chinese optical transceiver makers dodge US ban for now as FCC updates rules

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published its final decision on updates to its equipment authorisation rules, easing market anxiety over potential bans on Chinese optical transceivers. The rule, adopted in July and finalised on Friday, tightens authorisation requirements for devices containing certain hardware components made by entities on the Covered List – a US blacklist of foreign technology equipment and service providers deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national...

Chinese optical transceiver makers dodge US ban for now as FCC updates rules

Sep 11, 2026

Chinese optical transceiver makers dodge US ban for now as FCC updates rules

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published its final decision on updates to its equipment authorisation rules, easing market anxiety over potential bans on Chinese optical transceivers. The rule, adopted in July and finalised on Friday, tightens authorisation requirements for devices containing certain hardware components made by entities on the Covered List – a US blacklist of foreign technology equipment and service providers deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national...

Why Sweden, once one of Beijing’s most outspoken critics in Europe, has changed its tune

Sep 11, 2026

Why Sweden, once one of Beijing’s most outspoken critics in Europe, has changed its tune

Millions of Swedish voters head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament. Whatever the outcome, analysts say, the country is likely to look more towards Beijing for its technology edge and to diversify away from an increasingly unreliable Washington, despite persisting challenges in China-EU trade. “Many factors right now suggest that relations between Sweden and China will change in the long term – not necessarily directly linked to the elections – because I see more Swedish businesses...

HWZ Community Special: Beerfest Promo Perks & Brewed Here podcast series

Sep 11, 2026

HWZ Community Special: Beerfest Promo Perks & Brewed Here podcast series

What do tech and craft beer have in common? More importantly, dive in for the perks and answers you never knew.

Ant to let AI agents shop via 10 digital wallets, from AlipayHK to Starryblu to KakaoPay

Sep 11, 2026

Ant to let AI agents shop via 10 digital wallets, from AlipayHK to Starryblu to KakaoPay

Ant International, the overseas affiliate of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, is making a major bid to power the next phase of mobile payments: letting autonomous artificial intelligence agents handle your electronic wallet to make purchases. The company on Friday open-sourced its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) on GitHub, effectively putting it forward as a potential global technical standard for how AI agents securely pay for real-world goods. AMP was built onto Ant International’s existing...

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