Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 1451
Apple Goes Down‑market: MacBook Neo Brings iPhone Silicon to an Entry‑Level Laptop
Apple has launched the MacBook Neo, a compact 13‑inch laptop starting at ¥4,599 that uses the A18 Pro iPhone chip — the first iPhone‑class SoC in a Mac. The move signals a strategic push into lower price tiers to recruit new users into Apple’s ecosystem while testing a new chip segmentation between A‑series and M‑series devices.
Alibaba’s Qwen Loses Its Chief: Lin Junyang’s Exit Signals a Hard Pivot from Open‑Source Ideals to Commercial Pressure
Lin Junyang, the technical lead of Alibaba’s open‑source Qwen large‑model project, has stepped down amid a corporate reorganisation that centralises AI development and prioritises commercialisation. The departure highlights a broader strategic shift at Alibaba from an open‑source, model‑centric approach toward an integrated, infrastructure‑driven system designed to convert massive AI spending into revenue.
Huawei Fits Cars with 896‑Line ‘Image‑Level’ LiDAR — High‑End S800 and M9 First to Ship
Huawei unveiled an 896‑line, dual‑optical‑path, image‑level LiDAR at a March 4 Hongmeng event and said the sensor will first ship on the high‑end Zunjie S800 and AITO/Wenjie M9. The module promises four times the vertical resolution of typical 192‑line units and is being framed as part of a multi‑sensor perception stack rather than a standalone solution.
Architect of Alibaba’s Qwen Steps Down Abruptly, Raising Questions for China’s Open‑Source AI Drive
Lin Junyang, a leading architect of Alibaba’s open‑source Qwen models, announced his sudden resignation on March 4, saying he needed to rest. His exit raises questions about continuity at a flagship Chinese AI programme even as Alibaba signals the team should continue with existing plans.
Seedance 2.0 Turns AI Video into a One‑Yuan‑Per‑Second Product — Cheap, Fast and Fraught
ByteDance’s Volcano Engine has published pricing for Seedance 2.0 that equates to roughly 1 CNY per second for a 15‑second AI‑generated video under the higher tariff, with a cheaper rate when users supply source video for editing. The rates formalise per‑token billing for video, lowering barriers to production while raising questions about infrastructure strain, content moderation and copyright.
MWC 2026: China’s Tech Armada Meets the ‘AI Traffic Tsunami’ — From Networks to Robots, a Full‑Stack Response
At MWC 2026 Chinese firms showcased a full‑stack strategy to confront industry challenges flagged by GSMA: finish 5G standalone, protect networks from an AI‑driven traffic surge, and secure data flows. Huawei emphasised AI‑centric networking and large SuperPoD compute clusters as an alternative to existing GPU suppliers, while device makers and robotics firms pushed AI into everyday, affordable products.
Giant Rift at Alibaba’s Qwen: Senior Leader’s Exit Triggers Mass Departures and Fears of a Turn Away from Open AI
Lin Junyang, the public technical leader of Alibaba’s open‑model Qwen project, has resigned and several core team members have followed. The exits coincide with a corporate reorganisation that shifts the project from vertically integrated research to horizontally split teams and places stronger emphasis on product KPIs such as DAU, provoking worries that Qwen’s open‑source character and research depth may be sacrificed for rapid commercialisation.
Lei Jun Urges China to Put Humanoid Robots to Work and Harden Rules for the Smart‑Driving Era
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun submitted five proposals at the National People’s Congress pushing for rapid industrial deployment of humanoid robots, stronger smart‑driving safety rules and upgraded training pipelines for intelligent vehicles. His recommendations couple engineering targets and cost‑reduction measures with governance steps — coding, data and ethics standards — and call for industry‑education reforms and support for tech philanthropy.
China Declares 2025 a Make-or-Break Year for Domestic Humanoid Robots
Lou Qinjian, spokesman at China’s NPC, called 2025 a decisive year for domestic humanoid robots to achieve both technical breakthroughs and real-world deployment. The country’s industry is making rapid strides in hardware, datasets and pilots, but still faces major engineering, regulatory and social challenges before humanoids become widely useful.
Micro‑LED 'Chip‑on‑Panel' Could Cut Data‑Centre Intra‑Rack Power to 5% of Copper, TrendForce Says
TrendForce says Micro‑LED chip‑on‑panel (CPO) interconnects could shrink intra‑rack transmission energy to about 5% of copper cabling, a change driven by surging bandwidth needs from generative AI. The technology promises big operational savings and higher port density but must overcome manufacturing, coupling and standardization hurdles before it can displace existing optical and copper solutions.
Sudden Shake-Up at Alibaba’s Qwen Project as Lead Engineer Steps Down After Qwen3.5 Splash
Lin Junyang, the technical lead of Alibaba’s Qwen large-language-model project, announced his resignation shortly after the open-source release of Qwen3.5. Several core contributors have also posted farewells, raising concerns about the project’s continuity and the wider tension between open-source commitments and commercial priorities at Alibaba.
Ant Group and Tsinghua Open-Source an RL Training Framework as China’s AI Infrastructure Race Heats Up
Ant Group and Tsinghua University released AReaL v1.0, an open‑source, asynchronous reinforcement‑learning training framework aimed at lowering the engineering barrier for production‑grade adaptive agents. The announcement coincided with mixed market moves in China’s AI ETF, underscoring investor interest in infrastructure plays even as the sector navigates commercialisation, hardware constraints and regulatory questions.