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Chinese President Xi Jinping has bluntly questioned a nationwide rush of investment into the AI and EV industries. As deflation anxiety grows and Trump’s trade war with China ramps up, the world’s second largest economy is turning to fast-growth tech industries to remain competitive.

But Xi appears to think that the strategy is flawed. As reported by the Financial Times, China’s President sent out a pointed message about over-investment at the two-day Central Urban Work Conference in Beijing.

“When it comes to projects, there are a few things — artificial intelligence, computing power and new energy vehicles,” he said in a speech that made the front page of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party. “Do all provinces in the country have to develop industries in these directions?”

The Financial Times reports that Xi went on to criticise officials who encourage hasty development but don’t hang around to face the consequences. “We should not only focus on how much GDP has grown and how many major projects have been built, but also on how much debt is owed,” Xi told conference attendees. “We should not let some people pass the buck and leave problems to future generations.”

For now though, there’s no suggestion that China is shifting its focus away from the sectors Xi directly referenced. This week, NVIDIA was granted permission by the US government to resume selling its AI chips to China, with the company reportedly holding $8 billion in unshipped orders. It was initially blocked from selling the H20 AI GPU to China over concerns it could aid the nation’s military.

China is the global leader of the EV industry, and the country is taking on the US in the robotaxi race too. It was announced this week that Uber is partnering with Baidu to bring thousands of the Chinese company’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles onto the Uber network in mainland China and other non-US markets.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/xi-jinping-warns-against-chinas-overinvestment-in-evs-and-ai-154054773.html?src=rss 

A Russian lawmaker who regulates the IT industry said WhatsApp should prepare to stop offering its services in the country. Anton Gorelkin, the deputy head of the lower house of parliament’s IT committee, said that it’s very likely that WhatsApp will be placed on a list of restricted software, as Reuters reports.

WhatsApp owner Meta is designated as an extremist organisation in Russia, which has banned Facebook and Instagram since 2022. This week, President Vladimir Putin issued a directive for the nation to further restrict software (including communication apps) stemming from “unfriendly countries” that have sanctioned Russia, with a deadline of September 1. Gorelkin said WhatsApp will probably be one such service.

In June, Putin signed a law to create a state-affiliated messaging app that will tie into government services as part of a long-standing effort to rely more on Russian services and less on foreign tech companies — some of which withdrew from the country or scaled down operations there after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Gorelkin suggested that forcing WhatsApp to stop operating in Russia could help the state-backed app gain more market share.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/whatsapp-should-prepare-to-stop-operating-in-russia-official-says-140044721.html?src=rss 

We’ve been busy in the Engadget reviews department over the last few weeks, keeping up with Prime Day, product launches and the accumulating stack of devices on our desks. If you missed any of our in-depth testing recently, you can quickly catch up on the latest camera, laptop, phone and soundbar reviews in the list below. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

Samsung made notable design changes on its latest flagship foldable phone, finally giving the masses a significant update after a series of iterative models. Senior reviews writer Sam Rutherford argued the company “has finally achieved foldable phone nirvana” thanks to the reductions in overall size and thickness on the Z Fold 7, making the niche handset appeal to more users. “With its latest flagship foldable, Samsung has removed one of the remaining barriers preventing people from trying out the new breed of phones: excessive size and weight,” he said.

Canon R50 V

Content creators who are just getting into vlogging will soon realize they need a camera more robust than their phone for better quality footage. Reporter Steve Dent explained that Canon’s EOS R50 V excels at video, thanks in part to its quick autofocus, but the camera lacks the performance and features of its rivals. “Canon’s R50 V is a pretty good first try for a vlogging camera, hitting the mark in key areas like video quality and usability,” he wrote. “However, its rival, Sony’s ZV-E10 II, beats it in nearly every area, offering even better video quality, higher photo resolution, faster autofocus, smoother electronic stabilization and neat features missing on the R50 V — like the product showcase.”

Samsung HW-QS700F

Like the Z Fold line, Samsung has been on a streak of iterative updates for its flagship soundbars. For 2025 though, the company debuted an all-new model that automatically detects how you’re using it and adjusts the speaker output appropriately. It’s that trick, along with crisp sound, that makes the QS700F a contender even with its constrained 3.1.2-channel audio. “Caveats aside, the best thing about the soundbar is its automatic orientation adjustment,” I noted. “The QS700F is easy on the eyes too, which isn’t always the case with these devices.”

Panasonic S1 II

The S1 II may be Panasonic’s best camera for content creators, but there’s one major downside: the price. Steve’s assessment of this model’s features, which include 6K RAW video and best-in-class stabilization, will help you weigh the potential $3,200 investment. “Panasonic’s S1 II is a powerful hybrid camera, and if it wasn’t so expensive, it would be a no-brainer for creators,” he said. “However, Nikon’s Z6 III has nearly the same video capabilities, is a better camera for photography and costs at least $600 less, so I’m inclined to recommend that model for most users.”

Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1

The Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 is the company’s first consumer laptop to feature its recently updated naming scheme, and the change in moniker is accompanied by refreshed styling. Sam explained that while the machine is perfectly capable, especially with the optional LED display, it’s lacking personality. “It’s a totally serviceable machine, but it doesn’t have a single trait or feature that endears itself to its user,” he wrote. “Same goes for its name.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-galaxy-z-fold-7-panasonic-s1-ii-samsung-qs700f-and-more-123027122.html?src=rss 

Nintendo has posted a call for participants for another Playtest Program, and this time, it’s looking for 40,000 testers and not just 10,000 like in the first one. If you’ll recall, Nintendo looked for 10,000 participants for the first Playtest event last year to test an unnamed, mysterious Switch Online feature. The new program still only welcomes active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members, but as you’d expect, it now supports both the original Switch and the Switch 2. 

Interested participants must be at least 18 years old, and their Nintendo accounts must be registered in one of these regions: Japan, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. They can sign up individually or in groups of up to four people, whose data will be partially shared between each other. Nintendo will choose participants in Japan through a raffle and will accept testers from other regions on a first come first serve basis. The company will take applications from July 18 at 6PM Eastern until July 21 at 11AM Eastern time. 

While Nintendo didn’t say what the participants will be doing, it noted in the announcement that it will be a “test of the same service” that was also tested in October 2024. The company has yet to formally announce that service, but previous participants had revealed that Nintendo had them play a Minecraft-like game that involves using blocks to build structures. Users could play with other people in the game’s shared world if they want, which is probably why interested players can apply as a group. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-launches-another-switch-online-test-program-for-40000-players-133053714.html?src=rss 

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the Democratic FTC Commissioners President Trump had fired back in March, said she looks forward to getting back to work. US District Judge Loren AliKhan has just ruled that her removal from the agency was “unlawful and without legal effect” and that she was still a “rightful member” of the commission. The judge explained that the firings violated protections that prevent a president from unilaterally removing officials at independent agencies. 

In her statement after the ruling was handed down, Slaughter said the “for-cause removal protections that apply to [her] colleagues and her at the FTC also protect other independent economic regulators like the SEC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve.” Slaughter was one of the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission that Trump had removed from their position, leaving only three Republican commissioners in charge. 

Historically, the FTC had five members: Three from the same party as the president and two from the opposite party. At the moment, FTC’s website only lists the three current Republican commissioners, including Chairman Andrew Ferguson. The chairman previously said that he had “no doubts about [Trump’s] constitutional authority to remove Commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for [the] government.” The other fired Democratic commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, was originally part of the lawsuit. However, his claims had been dismissed since he resigned from the agency completely and took on a private-sector job since then, explaining that he couldn’t afford to have no income while the case was in court. 

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told The New York Times that the administration would appeal AliKhan’s decision. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the president’s constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority,” he added. The judge expected as such and noted in her ruling that the case would likely reach the Supreme Court. As Politico has noted, the Supreme Court previously refused to reinstate the members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board that Trump had fired. Those personnel were also supposed to be protected by the federal law the restricts the president’s ability to remove government agency officials. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trumps-firing-of-democratic-ftc-commissioner-was-unlawful-judge-rules-120029367.html?src=rss 

Apple is suing leaker Jon Prosser and a codefendant for misappropriation of trade secrets related to YouTube videos from earlier this year that depicted mockups of iOS 26 (which was, at the time, expected to be called iOS 19). In the suit, which Apple filed at a district court in the Northern District of California, the company claims Prosser and Michael Ramacciotti “conspired to break into an Apple employee’s development iPhone to take Apple’s trade secrets.”

Per the filing, which was obtained by MacRumors, Prosser had promised to “find out a way for [Ramacciotti] to get payment” if his codefendant was able to access the development iPhone of his friend Ethan Lipnik, who worked on software designs at Apple. Apple claims Ramacciotti was staying with Lipnik and waited until he left for an extended period of time, using a location-tracking tool to make sure of that. Ramacciotti is said to have gained access to the iPhone and made a FaceTime call to Prosser to show features and designs from iOS 26.

Prosser allegedly used a screen capturing tool to record the video call and then shared the footage with others in order to create mockups he used in his videos (Prosser has said that Apple uses identifiers in in-development versions of its software to help it pinpoint leakers, and recreating the renders is intended to protect them). One of those people who saw the footage is said to have recognized Lipnik’s apartment and to have informed him of that.

In January, Prosser published a video on his Front Page Tech YouTube channel depicting a render of an iOS 26 Camera app redesign that looked relatively close to the real deal. He later showed off mockups of the redesigned Messages app and the Liquid Glass design language Apple is switching to this year.

Apple terminated Lipnik’s employment for failing to protect confidential information. Per the suit, Lipnik said that Ramacciotti “often spent time at his home, sometimes staying for the weekend, and observing his patterns and security protocols for his devices.” Apple says it discovered the alleged trade secret theft from an anonymous tip and that it also has a voice note that Ramacciotti sent to Lipnik to apologize and claim that Prosser was behind the scheme.

The company claims the development iPhone in question hosted a “significant amount of additional Apple trade secret information that has not yet been publicly disclosed. It added that it does not know how much of this information Prosser and Ramacciotti obtained.

Apple is seeking an injunction directing Prosser and Ramacciotti “not to make use of or disclose Apple’s confidential, proprietary and trade secret information to third parties without its written consent” and to destroy any such material they possess. The company is also seeking damages and is requesting a jury trial.

Prosser responded to the lawsuit on X, claiming that “This is not how things went down on my end. Looking forward to being able to speak to Apple about it.” Prosser followed up by saying, “For the record: I certainly did not ‘plot’ to access anyone’s phone and was unaware of the situation playing out.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-sues-leaker-jon-prosser-for-allegedly-stealing-ios-26-info-from-an-employee-123019259.html?src=rss