Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 Family and Galaxy Watch9 Hit Retail Shelves Starting August 7

Tech enthusiasts will soon be able to get their hands on Samsung’s latest mobile hardware as the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, Flip8, Watch Ultra2, and Watch9 officially arrive at carriers, major retailers, and Samsung Experience Stores starting August 7. Backed by a 30% jump in pre-order volumes over the previous generation, the global launch expands availability through Samsung.com and physical retail channels worldwide.

The New Galaxy Z Series: Three Distinct Foldable Experiences

Built on seven generations of foldable innovation and consumer insight, the new Galaxy Z series gives users more choice than ever, with three distinct experiences engineered to fit different needs.

Galaxy Z Fold8 introduces a fresh form factor built around the way people explore, discover and immerse themselves in their favorite content. Its display ratios are designed to move naturally with users throughout the day – from quick interactions like messaging, browsing and short-form video on the wider cover screen to more immersive viewing, reading and gaming on the 4:3 main display. With Gemini Notebook, users can bring together notes, images, recordings, files and documents in one workspace to collect, organize and develop their ideas. At just 201 g, it is Samsung’s lightest Galaxy Z Fold yet, while Samsung’s new Flex Titanium technology helps support a slimmer display structure with lasting durability and reduced crease visibility over time.

Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra brings Galaxy’s renowned Ultra standard to foldables, combining a larger workspace with an upgraded camera system and performance built for demanding creative workflows. Its expansive 8-inch main display opens up more room for multitasking, while Now Nudge1 helps users move from conversation to action by suggesting relevant next steps across supported apps.

The 200 MP main camera now supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) in 200 MP mode for richer detail, color and clarity. A new 50 MP ultra-wide camera adds greater flexibility for wider scenes and macro shots, helping users capture more from one device. Across Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8, Dual Recording captures both the action and the user’s reaction, while My FanCam2 automatically tracks and reframes a selected subject.

Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra also features a 5,000 mAh battery,3 45 W fast charging and an expanded graphite cooling structure – all in Galaxy’s slimmest Z Fold design yet, measuring just 4.1 mm when unfolded and weighing 215 g.

Galaxy Z Flip8, Samsung’s sleekest Flip ever released, is built for expression and quick interaction on the go. Its reimagined FlexWindow brings apps, insights, actions and assistance directly to the cover screen. Now Brief4 surfaces personalized information based on users’ schedules, routines and interests. Users can also access Gemini from the FlexWindow through side-key activation or natural voice requests, making it easier to complete connected actions on the go. Galaxy Z Flip8 further enhances Samsung’s signature Flip camera experience with a 50 MP camera, ProVisual Engine and FlexCam experiences that make it easier to capture, preview and share polished photos and videos from flexible angles.

Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9: Effortless Health Management From the Wrist

Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9 extend the Galaxy experience to the wrist, helping users turn daily health data into more meaningful, actionable guidance through effortless everyday wear. Both devices are powered by the Snapdragon Wear® Elite Platform and are designed to support continuous health tracking with improved performance, comfort and battery life.

Galaxy Watch Ultra2 is built for outdoor adventures and high-performance users who need long-lasting endurance, reliable durability and precise tracking. Available in a 47 mm size, it features an 800 mAh battery,5 a display with up to 5,000 nits of brightness, shock-resistant titanium casing and dedicated tracking modes for outdoor sports, including Trail Run.6 It is also rated IP69K and 10 ATM and certified to EN 13319.7

Galaxy Watch9 is designed as an everyday health companion for wellness-conscious users who want to build healthier habits through continuous activity and sleep tracking. Available in 40 mm and 44 mm sizes, Galaxy Watch9 features a lightweight aluminum casing, a comfortable design for 24/7 wear, a display with up to 3,000 nits of brightness and health features such as Vitals,8 Heart Health Score,9 Daily Cardio Load,10 Fitness Index11 and Hearing.

Together with the new Galaxy Z series, Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9 expand Samsung’s AI ecosystem, bringing connected companion experiences across phone and wrist.

Availability

Starting August 7, Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8 and Flip8 will be available through carriers, retailers, Samsung.com and Samsung Experience Stores in 106 markets worldwide.

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Sony Launches FE 100-400MM F5.6-8 OSS Super-Telephoto Zoom Lens

Sony introduces FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS, a super-telephoto 100 mm – 400 mm zoom lens for 35mm full-frame Alpha™ E-mount cameras, a lens you can easily carry to get closer to the moments you can’t reach. Despite its super-telephoto capabilities shooting up to 400mm, this new lens is compact and lightweight, weighing just 654 g (approx.). Excellent image quality is realized across the entire zoom range thanks to the latest optical design incorporating two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements and two aspherical elements. The lens also features fast, precise AF (autofocus) performance to help capture moving subjects such as birds, sports, trains and aircraft, and built-in optical image stabilisation supports handheld shooting in the super-telephoto range.

Compact, Lightweight Design for Easy Handling, Even for First-time Super-Telephoto Users

The lens delivers a 100-400 mm super-telephoto zoom range in a compact and lightweight body weighing approximately 654 g, making it super light to carry. In addition to its excellent portability, its design also contributes to ease of handling during handheld shooting as well as quick framing. Users can capture powerful images of subjects that are difficult to approach, such as birds and sports scenes, while also enjoying landscape photography unique to super-telephoto lenses by making use of the ‘compression effect’, which makes the distance between nearby subjects and distant background elements appear closer together. When used with an optional teleconverter[i], you can double the distance you can capture, with the lens supporting focal lengths of up to 800 mm, or up to 1,200 mm in APS-C mode.

Sharp Detail through the Entire Zoom Range means you can Capture the Details That Matter

Excellent image quality is offered no matter what distance users intend to shoot, thanks to its optical design featuring two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements and two aspherical elements which reduce chromatic and other aberrations, delivering clear rendering across the entire zoom range. The shooting subject can stand out impressively in a natural, soft bokeh thanks to its 9-blade circular aperture and optimisation of spherical aberration. In addition, with excellent close-up shooting performance — a minimum focusing distance of 0.86 m at the telephoto end / 1.13 m at the wide end and a maximum magnification of 0.41x — users can enjoy photographing not only distant subjects but also close-up photography of flowers, insects, and other nearby subjects.

Fast, precise AF and built-in optical image stabilisation for moving subjects

The linear motor drive delivers fast, precise and quiet AF, enabling the lens to capture moving subjects. The lens also supports high-speed continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking at up to approximately 120 frames per second[ii] when used with the full-frame mirrorless camera α9 III.

Built-in optical image stabilisation effectively suppresses camera shake during handheld shooting and supports stable framing and shooting, even when capturing distant subjects. The lens also supports the camera body’s Active Mode image stabilization and coordinated image stabilization control[iii], enabling high-quality still-image and movie shooting with reduced blur, even when shooting handheld. Furthermore, it supports the camera body’s breathing compensation function[iv], which corrects changes in angle of view caused by shifts in focus position during movie recording.

Usability and Reliability Built for Outdoor Adventures with Dust and Moisture Resistance

Equipped with a customizable focus hold button, focus mode/range switch, and zoom lock switch, it enables quick operation suited to various shooting scenes and supports comfortable ultra-telephoto shooting. In addition, a dust and moisture resistant design[v] helps users continue shooting with confidence even when the weather changes unexpectedly. The supplied lens hood helps prevent flare and ghosting, which can cause image quality degradation.

Availability

The FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS will be available in Malaysia from mid-August with the SRP of RM3,499. Buy between now to 13 September 2026 to enjoy the Early Bird Promotion of an additional RM200 rebate when you purchase-with-purchase with any Sony Full-Frame camera;

 

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Lenovo Powers Esports World Cup 2026 as a Founding Partner

The Esports Foundation (EF) and Lenovo today announced an expanded partnership, with Lenovo becoming a Global Partner of the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC) and powering the world’s largest esports event with its high-performance Legion gaming devices.

The EWC 2026 will be bringing the world’s largest esports event to Paris for the first time, welcoming more than 2,000 players, 200 esports teams and fans from over 100 countries between July 6 and August 23. As EWC expands into the international stage, Lenovo joins the event’s Founding Partner roster, bringing its latest Legion desktop PCs and monitors to competition arenas, training facilities, broadcast studios, and festival spaces during the seven-week event.

“We are excited to welcome Lenovo as a Global Founding Partner for the Esports World Cup 2026, as we prepare to bring thousands of players and millions of fans to Paris this summer,” said Mohammed Al Nimer, Chief Commercial Officer of the Esports Foundation.  “Across seven weeks, thousands of matches, broadcast hours, and player setups, the technology behind the competition matters just as much as what happens on stage, and we are grateful to Lenovo for bringing its cutting-edge systems that will make our event possible.”

“As one of the largest gaming brands in the world, we are immensely proud to have Lenovo Legion devices powering the world’s largest esports event,” said Volker Düring, VP & GM, Gaming Business, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. “Lenovo’s partnership with EWC reflects a shared commitment to enable top esports athletes to use Legion’s premier gaming devices to compete at the highest levels on the largest esports stage.”

Legion Powers Competition at One of the World’s Largest Esports Events

From competition arenas and broadcast studios to player facilities and fan experiences, Legion hardware will power key aspects of EWC 2026, enabling peak performance across one of the world’s biggest esports events. EWC 2026 players will compete using Legion Tower 7i and Tower 5i desktop PCs. This year, athletes will also be competing on Legion monitors as they fight for the top podium spots.

From Competition Stage to Concept Innovation

This partnership has already inspired significant hardware innovation from Lenovo in the Legion Pro Rollable Concept, a 16” rollable Lenovo PureSight OLED technology screen showcased earlier this year at CES 2026. Designed for esports athletes who need a single portable device that allows them to train for high-level competitions around the world, this gaming laptop concept’s display expands from 16” to both 21.5” and 24” sizes. EWC attendees will be able to demo the Legion Pro Rollable in the Legion booth.

Bringing Fans Closer to the Action

Legion branding will appear across EWC 2026 broadcasts and onsite experiences, including the Legion Gauntlet stage and dedicated festival zones featuring Legion laptops, tablets, and peripherals available for fans during the event. Fans will have a chance to win Legion hardware through on-site challenges, while exclusive content featured across Legion channels during EWC 2026 will offer a closer look at the players, setups, and hardware used across the competition.

As a Founding Partner for EWC 2026, Lenovo will also feature as a major part of this year’s global campaign, appearing across creative, broadcast and fan-facing content in the lead-up to and throughout the event.

Building on a Growing Global Esports Partnership

The partnership follows Lenovo’s debut at EWC 2025, where more than 2,000 Legion devices were used across tournament operations, broadcast studios, creator zones, and festival activations. Legion branding appeared across all 24 game titles and seven weeks of international broadcasts, reaching 750 million people across multiple regions and languages worldwide.

The Esports World Cup 2026 will be hosted in Paris from July 6 to August 23, welcoming more than 2,000 players and 200 Clubs from over 100 countries to compete across 24 games and 25 tournaments for a share of the record-breaking $75 million+ prize pool.

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Friendship's Day Gift Guide: Kingston's Top Tech Picks for Every Kind of Best Friend

This Friendship's Day, celebrate the friends who make every moment memorable with Kingston Technology, a world leader in memory products and technology solutions. Whether your best friend is a passionate gamer, an avid traveler, or a creative content creator, Kingston offers the perfect tech gift to match their lifestyle. From high-performance storage to reliable memory solutions, discover thoughtful gifts that they'll use and appreciate every day.

Celebrate your friendship with a gift that's built to last—because great memories deserve great technology

For your Gamer BFF: 

Friendship deserves gifts that go beyond the moment. This Friendship's Day, surprise your favorite gamer with a performance upgrade they'll enjoy every time they play. Kingston FURY memory and SSDs deliver the speed and reliability to keep every game running at its best.

Kingston FURY Renegade G5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD

Surprise your friend with the Kingston FURY Renegade G5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, designed for gamers and power users seeking maximum performance. It eliminates storage bottlenecks and drastically reduces load times, making it perfect for intense gaming, editing, and heavy workflows.

• With up to 14,800/14,000MB/s read/write speeds 

• Leveraging the latest PCIe Gen5 x 4 controller and 3D TLC NAND 

• Available in capacities from 1024GB, 2048GB and 4096GB 

Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 RGB 

Give your best friend's gaming rig the upgrade it deserves with Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 memory. Excellent for blazing through resource-heavy games, boosting frame rates, and handling intense multiplayer sessions, this memory delivers the speed and reliability they need for uninterrupted, high-performance gaming. 

• On-die ECC (ODECC) for improved stability at extreme speeds.

• Dual 32-bit subchannels for increased efficiency.

• Integrated power management for optimal power delivery.

For your Content Creator friend: 

For the friend who's always creating, give them a gift that works as hard as they do. Kingston's NV3 and KC3000 SSDs deliver the speed, responsiveness, and storage needed to keep projects moving—from the first draft to the final edit 

Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD 

For the friend who's always creating, give them storage that keeps pace with every project. Kingston's NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD delivers fast performance and dependable responsiveness, helping them edit, design, and multitask with confidence.

• Robust next-gen storage solution powered by a Gen 4x4 NVMe controller. 

• Delivers read/write speeds of up to 6,000/5,000MB/s

• Compact single-sided M.2 2280 (22x80mm) design allows for storage expansion up to 4TB 

KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD 

For the friend who turns inspiration into reality, having the right tools makes all the difference. Kingston's KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD delivers exceptional speed and responsiveness, making it easy to edit 4K videos, work on complex 3D renders, manage large creative files, and switch seamlessly between demanding applications—so every project keeps moving from idea to completion.

• Delivers next-level performance using the latest Gen 4x4 NVMe controller and 3D TLC NAND

• Compact M.2 2280 form factor 

• With formidable speeds up to 7,000MB/s read/write

• Low profile graphene aluminum heat spreader 

For your travel-loving best friend:

This Friendship's Day, gift your travel buddy Kingston's external and portable SSDs so they can capture every destination, every detour, and every unforgettable moment without worrying about storage. Compact enough to go anywhere and reliable enough to keep every memory safe, it's the perfect companion for every journey.

Kingston XS1000R external SSD –

Always chasing the next adventure—whether it's hiking scenic trails, catching the next flight, or capturing every unforgettable moment along the way? The Kingston XS1000R is the perfect companion for your travel partner. From expanding storage on an iPhone 16 to backing up priceless travel memories, this sleek, pocket-sized SSD is built to keep pace with every journey.

• Speeds up to 1,050MB/s with USB 3.2 Gen 2

• Compact, pocket-sized form factor

• Includes USB-C® to USB-A cable and USB-A to USB-C adapter for broad compatibility with PCs, Macs, tablets, game consoles, smart TVs, iPhones, and Android smartphones

Kingston XS2000 external SSD 

For the friend who turns every trip into a cinematic story, the Kingston XS2000 is the ultimate travel companion. Whether they're capturing breathtaking landscapes, filming 4K content, or recording ProRes video directly from a compatible iPhone, its ultra-fast performance and up to 2TB of storage help keep every moment safe without slowing them down. Compact, powerful, and built for creators on the move, it's the gift they'll appreciate long after the journey ends.

• Speeds up to 2,000MB/s with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2

• IP55 rating with removable rubber sleeve

• Delivers speeds of up to 400 HD photos per second and transfers a 1-hour 4K video in under 30 seconds, making it ideal for high-res image and 8K video editing on the go

Kingston Dual Portable SSD 

For the friend who's always sharing memories as fast as they make them, the Kingston Dual Portable SSD is the perfect Friendship's Day gift. Whether they're swapping photos from a weekend getaway, transferring videos between devices, or backing up moments on the go, its built-in USB Type-A and USB Type-C connectors make sharing effortless—no extra cables needed. With ultra-fast transfer speeds and a sleek, pocket-sized design, it's made to keep up with every adventure you take together.

• Cable-free portable SSD with dual USB Type-A and USB Type-C connectors

• USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds up to 1,050MB/s read and 950MB/s write

• Compact, lightweight metal design that slips easily into any pocket, backpack, or carry-on

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Cadence Introduces AuraStack AI Super Agent, the World’s First Agentic AI Platform for PCB and Advanced Packaging

Cadence (Nasdaq: CDNS) today introduced the AuraStack™ AI Super Agent on Cadence® Allegro® AI Studio, the world’s first agentic AI platform for printed circuit board (PCB) and advanced packaging design, taking designers from system planning to final product in a single AI-native environment. The Cadence AuraStack AI Super Agent, accelerated by NVIDIA Blackwell and NVIDIA CUDA-X, coordinates domain-specific AI agents across planning, implementation and tightly integrated multiphysics analysis domains to compress the system-design cycle through manufacturing. With the AuraStack AI Super Agent, Cadence is now the only provider with agentic AI solutions spanning the full electronic system design flow, from digital and analog silicon design, advanced packaging, through to PCB design, building on its ChipStack™, InnoStack™ and ViraStack™ AI Super Agents.

“The next era of AI infrastructure—spanning data centers, automotive, aerospace and physical AI—will be defined not only by silicon, but by the systems that connect, power and cool it,” said Michael Jackson, corporate vice president of R&D for System Design and Analysis at Cadence. “As hyperscale data centers deploy massive AI clusters and other industries advance increasingly intelligent, high-performance systems, engineering teams face growing complexity in PCB and advanced package design. Agentic AI orchestration, combined with trusted EDA and SDA tools, enables customers to move from manual iteration to intelligent, automated design realization.”

Agentic AI for Packaging and PCB Design

Building on the same architecture as Cadence’s ChipStack AI Super Agent, agentic AI is combined with principled simulation and optimization tools, leveraging a mental model of the design intent, to automate and orchestrate the design exploration, realization and signoff. The AuraStack AI Super Agent brings together automation and optimization for system planning, constraints management, physical structure definition, IP creation and reuse, place and route, design for manufacturability and multiphysics analysis across Cadence’s system design and analysis portfolio. It introduces a unified, AI-driven multiphysics foundation that concurrently models and optimizes electrical, thermal and mechanical behavior—including SI/PI, thermal, mechanical stress, drop, vibration and fatigue analysis—within a closed-loop environment, enabling earlier tradeoff evaluation and product-level optimization across the entire design flow. This continuous multiphysics feedback loop enables real-time design convergence, reducing late-stage surprises and improving overall system reliability.

The AuraStack AI Super Agent’s key benefits include:

• Accelerating time to market by 2X, with 15X productivity and multiphysics-driven quality—automating complex tasks, expanding design exploration.

• Unifying separate engineering teams around a shared, multiphysics-aware design environment with a single source of truth across domains.

• Advancing early and continuous multiphysics co-optimization to reduce late-stage rework and costly design iterations. Unifies Cadence multiphysics signoff solutions, such as Celsius™ Thermal Solver, Clarity™ 3D Solver for 3D-EM, MSC Nastran™ and Marc™ Linear and Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis Solvers for mechanical analysis, and Sigrity™ X Platform for signal and power integrity.

• Limiting expensive respins by identifying system issues earlier in development.

• Enabling product-level optimization, including co-optimization with advanced packaging approaches.

Industry Leaders Advancing Agentic AI with Cadence

Cadence is collaborating with industry leaders to deploy AuraStack AI Super Agent workflows for real-world advanced IC packaging and PCB design challenges.

NVIDIA is using Cadence to help automate and optimize increasingly complex system design workflows for its engineering teams.

“The scale and complexity of modern AI infrastructure demands a new design approach,” said Tim Costa, vice president and general manager of computational engineering at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA's collaboration with Cadence is advancing AI-powered engineering workflows that accelerate design convergence and innovation across the industry. The Cadence AuraStack AI Super Agent and the Millennium M2000 Supercomputer deliver up to 20X faster multiphysics performance, giving our engineers the capability to tackle the most demanding design challenges and bring the next generation of AI infrastructure to life.”

Cadence is partnering with TSMC to help customers accelerate advanced package implementation through AI-driven automation, enabling timely design convergence for increasingly complex multi-die systems.

“As advanced packaging complexity grows, customers need new levels of automation to achieve timely design convergence,” said Aveek Sarkar, director of the Ecosystem and Alliance Management Division at TSMC. “Our long-standing partnership with Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) ecosystem partners like Cadence to deliver advanced package design and verification solutions for TSMC 3DFabric® technologies helps customers accelerate the realization of next-generation multi-die systems for AI and high-performance computing applications. Through our multi-year collaboration on substrate auto routing, we are already enabling customers to boost productivity by 100X while delivering quality of results similar to manual routing.”

Socionext is leveraging Cadence to accelerate the automation and optimization of increasingly complex semiconductor package and PCB design workflows.

“AI-driven agents are set to transform IC package and PCB design by automating SI, PI and thermal workflows and enabling generative design,” said Iwasaki Toshifumi, lead design execution leading unit, Global Leading Group at Socionext Inc. “This acceleration allows our engineers to focus on higher-value work like architecture exploration, margin optimization, and multiphysics tradeoffs, while capabilities such as automated routing and chip-package-board co-design accelerate convergence and reduce manual effort.”

FORVIA HELLA continues to advance intelligent, sustainable mobility solutions that will define the future of automotive technology.

"Working closely with Cadence has fundamentally changed the way FORVIA HELLA develops advanced automotive electronics. Using AI-assisted placement technology, a task involving the placement of 300 components that previously took up to four days can now be completed in just four minutes,” said Sven Hoenecke, president & CEO, Electronics NSA at FORVIA HELLA. “This step change in productivity allows our engineers to evaluate more design alternatives, optimize layouts earlier in the development process, and accelerate the development of innovative products without compromising quality. By automating repetitive work, our teams can focus more time on solving complex engineering challenges and bringing new technologies to market faster.”

Schneider Electric is collaborating with Cadence to apply AI-driven design automation and engineering expertise to accelerate electronic design workflows and scale institutional knowledge across engineering teams.

"At Schneider Electric, we see AI as much more than a productivity tool. Our collaboration with Cadence has demonstrated the potential of AI to accelerate design activities and improve engineer efficiency,” said Daniel Gheno, senior vice president, Innovation and Technology EM at Schneider Electric. “The next frontier is to combine design automation with engineering expertise, enabling companies to capture decades of know-how and make robust design decisions available to every engineer. We believe this is where AI can truly transform electronic design."

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