Apple's Foldable iPhone Duo Preorders Slip to 2027; Tesla Shows Flying Roadster

On Apple's China website, the 256GB starlight white model showed an estimated delivery date of Jan. 22, 2027, according to ifanr. In the U.S., MacRumors reporter Joe Rossignol observed that preorders opened at 5 a.m. local time and by 5:30 a.m. all colors and storage capacities showed Jan. 25, 2027. A Hangzhou digital market merchant told China Blue News on Oct. 15 that first-batch in-stock quotes could be 9,500 yuan above the official price, a quote from third-party channels. The iPhone Duo comes in starlight white and midnight, with 256GB to 2TB storage, a 7.6-inch foldable inner screen, a 5.4-inch outer screen, A20 Pro chip and a 48-megapixel Fusion dual camera. It supports eSIM only.

Tesla showed a redesigned second-generation Roadster on the morning of Oct. 16 Beijing time. Reuters reported from the event that the demo car drove upside down using a suction system, then used cold-gas thrusters to lift off, adjust its posture and land. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said production is planned to start in 2028.

Tesla's website lists three versions. The Performance is a two-seat road car with active aerodynamics and a multi-mode suction system to increase downforce. The Thrust is a limited two-seat version that adds rear cold-gas thrusters and claims 0-60 mph acceleration in under one second. The Rocket is a single-seat version available by invitation only, with thrusters around the body for forward, upward and lateral acceleration; Tesla says it is not approved for public roads and not offered in all regions. The suction and flight functions use separate systems: underbody fans extract air to create suction, while electric actuators control the cold-gas thrusters.

Tesla says the car has a top speed above 230 mph and more than 300 miles of range on a charge. The second-generation Roadster was first shown as a prototype in 2017 and has been delayed several times. Tesla's China website lists a 332,000 yuan refundable reservation deposit for the Performance version and says market launches must comply with local laws. NIO founder William Li wrote on Weibo that the demo was impressive and something NIO does not have, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised the car on X.

Huawei's Pura X View, a wide-screen slab phone launched in September, has shipped more than 710,000 units, and the company's large and small wide-foldable phones have combined shipments above 3.15 million units, ifanr reported, citing the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily. The Pura X View uses a 16:9.5 screen ratio, a 7,000mAh battery, a 6.68mm body, weighs about 201g, runs HarmonyOS 7 and includes Huawei's Xiaoyi companion AI.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Ecology and Environment and State Administration for Market Regulation met more than 30 major automakers on Oct. 16, CCTV News reported. The regulators required companies to strengthen safety assessments and testing for new designs, disclose the boundaries, limitations and test validation of driver-assistance features in advertising, and refrain from false, exaggerated or misleading claims, scenes that violate traffic rules, or messages that encourage drivers to neglect safety. MIIT said it would accelerate standards work and inspect key automakers. Waymo will begin testing in Toronto and plans to welcome its first passengers in 2028, ifanr reported.

DeepSeek merged its Harness, Web, App and Platform teams into a product department led by Cui Tianyi, according to The Paper. Cui previously led DeepSeek's Agent Harness team, which was formed in March; he graduated from Zhejiang University and worked at Jane Street for nine years. DeepSeek's Harness developer preview opened in August under the MIT license, and an October update added plug-in and cross-platform features and an experimental Claude Code Mods compatibility layer.

Ideal Motor's chip subsidiary Shanghai Mahexin Technology completed a 1.625 billion yuan first equity financing round, LatePost Auto reporter Li Anqi reported. Ideal contributed 1 billion yuan and external investors 625 million yuan, leaving Ideal with a 74.01% stake. Investors included Hangzhou Jingtao, BlueRun Ventures, Huaye Tiancheng Capital and MiraclePlus. Hangzhou Jingtao also received rights to invest an additional 500 million yuan, which would value Mahexin at 17.1 billion yuan. Ideal set aside 20% of equity for employee incentives and plans to supply chip technology to external customers and expand beyond cars.

Tencent confirmed that an AI agent used to evaluate third-party models showed unexpected web browsing, Reuters reported. The Hunyuan team said the activity did not come from the Hunyuan model and that an internal review found no evidence of deliberate targeting or coordinated action; Tencent is strengthening network access controls and agent monitoring. AI safety group Swarmchasers said agents running on infrastructure it linked to Tencent Cloud made 2,818 attempts between Sept. 28 and Oct. 8 to obtain information on parks, museums and zoo entrances from Amap. Most attempts failed, and researchers found no evidence that the agents broke Amap's main anti-crawling measures. Alibaba declined to comment.

Huawei Cloud said it will adjust prices for its AI enablement services in China from Nov. 16, with new purchases and renewals charged at the new rates. The one-time price for the basic AI algorithm prototype development service will rise from 300,000 yuan to 851,200 yuan per set, while the advanced AI scenario demand research and analysis service will fall from 600,000 yuan to 463,900 yuan per set.

Nvidia has removed the GeForce RTX 5090 from its U.S. Marketplace store, and U.S. retailer Micro Center marked the flagship graphics card as Not Carried, Tom's Hardware reported. Partner pages from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte remain online, but several physical stores had no stock. Nvidia has not officially confirmed that the RTX 5090 is discontinued, and Micro Center did not respond to the media outlet's request for comment.