The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has confirmed a final pricing decision that will see Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom and NBN Co collectively pay just over $7.3 billion to retain expiring mobile spectrum licences.

The ruling, set at $7.32 billion, is only marginally below the regulator’s preliminary figure of $7.34 billion released in December, but it firmly rejects industry calls for a substantial downward revision.

ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin says the authority had carefully considered competing submissions from across the sector but ultimately found many of the industry’s arguments did not withstand scrutiny.

The decision brings to a close a lengthy consultation process that has seen telcos and consumer groups sharply divided over the “true” value of Australia’s scarce spectrum resources.

Pressure Building For Months

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network proposed that carriers should be granted discounted spectrum access in exchange for stronger commitments to closing regional coverage gaps, effectively tying pricing relief to expanded service obligations.

Industry players pushed back strongly. Telstra warned such conditions would force “tough trade-offs” between managing costs and continuing investment in mobile infrastructure, while broader sector lobbying warned that higher prices risked undermining affordability.

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance, representing industry interests, also cautioned that the proposed pricing structure would make it more difficult for carriers to deliver fast and reliable mobile broadband services at sustainable price points.

At the same time, Telstra escalated its concerns directly to the federal government, arguing in a pre-budget submission that spectrum should be capped at $3.9 billion industry-wide—well below the regulator’s assessment—on the basis that ACMA had overvalued the asset by more than $3 billion.

The final determination follows an earlier valuation trajectory that already exceeded market expectations. Industry forecasts had previously placed the likely outcome between $5 billion and $6.2 billion, but ACMA’s December figure of $7.34 billion signalled a sharp upward reappraisal of spectrum value.

In response to continued industry feedback, the regulator reopened consultation and commissioned additional economic advice from UK consultancy DotEcon and Australian advisory firm Ian Martin Advisory before finalising today’s decision.

The pricing framework applies across a range of key spectrum bands used for mobile and wireless services, including 700MHz, 850MHz, 1800MHz, 2GHz, 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.4GHz frequencies.

While some lower-band spectrum prices were reduced—reflecting adjustments in the 700MHz and 850MHz ranges—several mid-band allocations, including 1800MHz and 2GHz, were revised upward.

Higher-frequency bands also saw mixed movements, with modest increases in parts of the 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz ranges, while the 3.4GHz band was slightly reduced.

Looking ahead, ACMA will open its first renewal application window on 18 June, beginning with the 850MHz and 1800MHz bands.

The regulator has indicated that applicants will generally be required to submit renewal applications within nine months of each window opening, with final settlement expected two months prior to licence commencement.

As the industry absorbs the outcome, the decision underscores a clear regulatory stance: despite sustained lobbying and competing economic interpretations, ACMA has opted to hold firm on its valuation of one of Australia’s most critical digital infrastructure assets.

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Developed with input from Telstra and shaped by enterprise requirements, including field operations teams, the API-first system supports Microsoft-native workflows for duress alerts and automated check-ins, integrating via cellular, Wi-Fi and Icom UHF radio networks.

It consolidates lone worker alerts, incidents and status updates from multiple sources directly into a customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant and is now being rolled out to beta customers nationwide, including integrations with Geotab telematics.

Big Springs Water General Manager Peter Braneley said the platform aligned with how his teams already operate.

“Zetifi’s integration with Geotab means our safety alerts flow straight into the Microsoft tools our team already uses,” he said.

The launch comes as workplace safety data highlights ongoing risk for mobile and remote workers, with Safe Work Australia reporting that 42 per cent of workplace fatalities involve vehicle incidents.

From Fleet Data To Automated Response

Telematics, cameras and lone worker apps generate constant streams of safety data, but that data lives in vendor portals, separated from the Microsoft systems the rest of the business runs on.

Action still depends on someone watching a separate dashboard or basic email alerts and the value of the data too often stops at the vendor’s UI.

Zetifi Marshal extends the value of fleet and worker data into the customer’s own Microsoft 365 tenant, where it can be used to drive automated and agentic workflows.

Duress, check-ins, location and incident events flow into Teams cards, SharePoint records and Power Automate escalations, alongside the compliance, ops and safety processes already running there.

The customer owns the data and the workflow, and safety events connect directly to the systems where action actually happens.

Zetifi Marshal accepts inputs from any source. These include Zetifi’s Smart Antenna Pro gateway, and Icom UHF radios via Zetifi’s global integration partnership with Icom.

The solution also works with third-party platforms and devices, including Geotab telematics. The same policy and workflow apply regardless of where the event came from.

An acknowledgement loop confirms each event was actioned in workflow, not just delivered. Manual triage collapses to seconds. Where workflows fail to respond, backup communications fire automatically.

Dan Winson, CEO and Founder, Zetifi, says, “With Zetifi Marshal, no safety event is silently dropped. Organisations can take their compliance and duty-of-care to a new level. 

Marshal produces a continuous evidence trail (event, policy, action, acknowledgement, outcome) which means no manual chasing and being audit-ready for records from day one.”

Key features include:

• Capture. Events come from the Smart Antenna Pro gateway, Icom UHF radios, telematics devices including Geotab GO9 and GO Focus Plus dash cameras, or partner APIs. All normalise into one event model.
  
  
• Communicate. The Smart Antenna Pro is a multi-protocol edge gateway. It connects via Telstra Cat-M1 cellular or Starlink terminal Wi-Fi, with BLE for short-range, plus an integration to Icom UHF radios through Zetifi’s global technology partnership.
  
  Critical events fire to Zetifi and the customer’s Power Automate webhook in parallel, running two independent network paths.
  
  
• Cloud. Zetifi’s AWS IoT ingest normalises events, supervises delivery, and runs an acknowledgement loop with Microsoft.
  
  The customer’s Power Automate flow must POST back to Zetifi. If acknowledgement is missing, backup comms fire to the customer’s catch-all contacts (SMS via Telstra Messaging API, email via Amazon SES). Delivery and acknowledgement are tracked.

• Workflow.  Action and evidence happen in the customer’s Microsoft tenant: Teams cards, SharePoint records and Power Automate escalations, with Power BI dashboards and Copilot agents that read the customer’s own policy arriving at commercial release.
  
  The Marshal Console, Zetifi’s operational map and worker status view, is built on the customer’s SharePoint. The customer owns everything downstream of the API: their data, workflows and policies.

“This collaboration demonstrates a new category of connected safety platform, integrating hardware, connectivity and workflows into a single operational system,” says Ben Green, Head of muru-D & Incubation, Product & Development Technology, Telstra.

“It reflects the kind of applied innovation that can reshape how organisations approach worker safety at scale,” he said.

Channa Seneviratne, Technology Development and Innovation Executive, Telstra, said, “This joint work between Telstra and Zetifi establishes a new model of worker safety, where connectivity, AI and enterprise flows operate as one system.

“It moves beyond monitoring to reliable execution, which is a step change in how safety is delivered in the field. “

Zetifi will showcase its Zetifi Marshal lone worker safety solution at the Workplace Health & Safety Show in Melbourne on 20–21 May.

The company will be located at booth K18, where it will demonstrate how the platform transforms fleet and field data into automated safety responses.

The post Zetifi Launches Microsoft-Native Fleet Safety Platform, Marshal For Lone Worker Safety appeared first on Tech Business News.

The new in-app feature allows RACV members to request Emergency Roadside Assistance directly from their smartphone, reducing the need for phone calls and streamlining the process for drivers needing urgent support.

The move comes as roadside assistance providers increasingly invest in digital-first services to meet changing customer expectations around speed, convenience and real-time updates.

Using the RACV App, members can now log a breakdown request with their location automatically detected, while membership and vehicle details are pre-filled within the system.

Drivers can also select the type of issue they are experiencing before tracking the arrival of patrol vehicles in real time for Melbourne-based callouts.

RACV attends more than 800,000 Emergency Roadside Assistance callouts across Victoria each year, helping motorists dealing with flat batteries, breakdowns and other vehicle issues at home, roadside locations and regional areas.

According to RACV General Manager Automotive Services Makarla Cole the app-based option reflects what members have been telling RACV about how they want to access help.

“It’s essentially an Uber for your roadside assistance…As a leading provider of Emergency Roadside Assistance in Victoria, trusted by more than 1.4 million ERA members, RACV has a unique window into the changing needs of drivers on our roads,” Ms Cole said.

“When something goes wrong, people want to get help in a way that feels easiest in that moment. For some, that means speaking to someone on the phone and for others, it means using the app to let us know where they are and what’s happened.”

Ms Cole said the introduction of digital roadside assistance does not replace calling RACV for help.

“Members can still call RACV exactly as they always have. This is simply another option, giving people more choice in how they reach us, particularly if they are in an unfamiliar place or prefer to manage things through the app,” she said.

“While the experience is designed to feel straightforward for members, it connects multiple systems behind the scenes to help us get assistance to the right place as quickly as possible.”

The new platform also gives members greater control over the roadside assistance process, allowing them to confirm or adjust their location through in-app mapping, nominate the type of breakdown they are experiencing and receive live updates as an RACV patrol is dispatched and approaches their location.

RACV says early use of the feature had already seen successful assistance requests lodged by members away from home, underscoring the app’s ability to support motorists wherever they are across Victoria.

Ms Cole said the launch supports RACV’s long-term commitment to improving member experiences.

“This gives members more flexibility today, while also laying the foundations for future enhancements to roadside assistance and other digital services,” Ms Cole said.

The new digital roadside assistance service is being rolled out through the latest version of the RACV App on compatible devices, with members who have automatic updates enabled set to receive access progressively.

RACV said the digital option would complement — rather than replace — its longstanding phone-based roadside assistance service, with members still able to call for help directly if they are unable to use the app or prefer to speak with a team member.

RACV averages over 5.1 million monthly visits to its digital platforms, showing a continuous 9.88% year-over-year increase in web traffic.

The post RACV Introduces Digital Roadside Assistance for Victorian Members appeared first on Tech Business News.

“Foundry is very important,” Tan told Jim Cramer on CNBC’s “Mad Money.” “It’s one of the key national treasures.”

Intel’s manufacturing business, known as foundry, is one of the most expensive and critical parts of the company’s revitalisation strategy.

It is designed to manufacture semiconductors for outside customers while helping rebuild advanced chip production capacity in the U.S. after years of overseas dominance.

Historically, Intel’s factories only produced its own chips used in personal computers and data center servers. Tan’s predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, championed the pricey external foundry strategy.

Shares of Intel have surged more than 300% since Tan was appointed CEO in March 2025, as investors bet the longtime semiconductor executive would stabilise the struggling chipmaker after years of setbacks.

One of the big questions was whether Tan would be able to make good on Intel’s foundry ambitions by getting its manufacturing capabilities competitive with the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Tan said the company is beginning to make tangible progress on that goal.

In particular, Tan pointed to improvements in Intel’s advanced 18A manufacturing process, which has been closely watched by investors as a key test of the turnaround. He said when he took over, the 18A process was “not good.”

“Now I’m seeing it,” said Tan, who led chip design software maker Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021 and had a two-year stint on Intel’s board that ended in 2024.

Manufacturing yield, the percentage of usable chips produced from each wafer, is a critical metric for profitability and customer confidence in the foundry business. Tan said Intel’s progress has exceeded expectations.

“The best practice is to see 7% or 8% yield improvement per month, and now I’m seeing it,” he said.

The improvements are beginning to draw customer interest, according to Tan. As Intel’s manufacturing performance has progressed, he said more prospective customers have approached the company about using its foundry business.

On May 8, the Wall Street Journal reported that Intel and Apple had reached a preliminary deal for Intel to produce some of Apple’s chips, which are currently manufactured by TSMC.

When Cramer asked Tan about those reports, the CEO declined to discuss customers by name. However, Tan says Intel expects commitments from multiple foundry customers in the second half of the year.

“Multiple customers, they are working with us,” he said. “We are looking forward to serve them.”

The comments align with what Intel executives previously told investors. On the company’s April earnings call, CFO David Zinsner said Intel expected signals from external foundry customers to become “more concrete” in the second half of the year and into early 2027.

Beyond Intel’s turnaround, Tan framed the foundry business as strategically important for the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.

Intel has built a new plant in Arizona, where it uses the 18A process, while a separate project in Ohio has faced major delays and is not expected to start production until at least 2030.

“90 plus percent of the most advanced processors are manufactured outside the country,” he said. “So, I think it’s important to bring some of them back.”

Looking further ahead, Tan said Intel’s next-generation 14A process could eventually compete with TSMC, widely considered the leading third-party chipmaker.

“It will be the same time as TSMC,” he said. “That is a major, major breakthrough.”

The post Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan Says Foundry Business Is Gaining Traction Amid Rising Customer Interest appeared first on Tech Business News.

While mega-cap firms such as Nvidia continue to anchor the sector, the next phase of AI-driven returns is being shaped by bottlenecks in memory bandwidth, networking throughput, power delivery, and inference optimisation.

Global AI infrastructure spending—led by hyperscalers and enterprise cloud providers—has expanded sharply alongside the shift from training-heavy workloads to inference-intensive deployment.

Industry forecasts broadly project sustained AI-related capex growth in the mid-to-high double digits annually through the decade, with some estimates placing total AI market value in the trillions of dollars by the early 2030s.

The expansion is increasingly capital-intensive, with compute density, energy efficiency, and interconnect speed emerging as binding constraints.

Within this environment, equity performance has become highly stratified: companies directly exposed to AI data centre buildouts and specialised silicon have significantly outperformed broader indices over the past 12–18 months, though with widening valuation dispersion.

High-Momentum AI Infrastructure Leaders

• Micron Technology (MU) has been one of the strongest performers in the AI supply chain, with its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products positioned as critical inputs for advanced GPU systems.
  
  

• Nvidia (NVDA) remains the dominant force in AI compute, with data centre revenue growth still running at strong double-digit to triple-digit rates year-over-year in recent reporting periods.
  
  
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has gained incremental share in both CPUs and AI accelerators, supported by hyperscaler partnerships and expanding deployments in inference-heavy workloads.
  
  
• Broadcom (AVGO) has emerged as a key beneficiary of custom silicon demand from hyperscalers, alongside strength in networking and switching infrastructure.
  
  
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) remains structurally central to the AI ecosystem as the leading advanced-node foundry. Nearly all major AI chip designers rely on its manufacturing capacity, and ongoing capital expenditure

Software and Platform Layer Exposure

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has shown accelerating commercial traction in its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), with reported revenue growth in recent quarters driven by enterprise deployment expansion. Growth has been particularly strong in U.S. commercial segments, indicating broader adoption of applied AI systems beyond government contracts.

SoundHound AI (SOUN) represents a smaller-cap exposure to voice and conversational AI. Revenue growth has been accelerating from a low base, with improving gross margins reflecting a shift toward software-heavy deployment models. However, volatility remains elevated due to concentration risk and early-stage commercialisation dynamics.

Data Center Power, Networking, and Infrastructure Bottlenecks

Vertiv Holdings (VRT) has benefited from rising demand for thermal management and power delivery systems as AI compute density increases. Liquid cooling and advanced power infrastructure have become critical constraints in next-generation data centres, supporting both revenue expansion and margin stability.

Arista Networks (ANET) continues to capture share in high-speed Ethernet switching for AI clusters. As data centre topologies shift toward massively parallel GPU/accelerator systems, demand for low-latency, high-bandwidth networking has strengthened.

Ciena (CIEN) is positioned in optical transport infrastructure, a layer increasingly stressed by AI-driven bandwidth growth. Long-haul and intra-data-centre traffic expansion has created multi-year tailwinds for coherent optics and high-capacity networking solutions.

Market Structure and Key Dynamics

The AI equity landscape in 2026 is increasingly defined by supply-chain constraints rather than pure demand growth. Three structural bottlenecks dominate:

• Memory bandwidth (HBM supply)
• Power delivery and cooling capacity
• High-speed interconnect and networking throughput

These constraints are creating asymmetric pricing power for firms positioned in upstream infrastructure rather than end-user software alone.

At the same time, valuation dispersion has widened materially. Large-cap leaders trade at premium multiples supported by strong cash flow visibility, while mid-cap AI beneficiaries often reflect higher implied growth expectations and elevated volatility.

Some segments—particularly early-stage AI software—price in aggressive long-term adoption curves, increasing sensitivity to execution risk.

Risk Considerations

Despite strong structural tailwinds, several risks remain relevant:

• Cyclicality in semiconductor demand, particularly in memory markets
• Geopolitical exposure, especially in Taiwan-based manufacturing
• Interest rate sensitivity, affecting long-duration growth valuations
• Energy constraints, which may slow data center expansion in certain regions
• Execution risk in early-stage AI software monetization

Bottom Line

Rather than a single concentrated “AI trade,” the current cycle increasingly resembles a layered infrastructure buildout spanning silicon, memory, networking, power, and application software.

Returns have become more dependent on positioning within specific bottlenecks than broad exposure to the AI theme itself.

As a result, investors are differentiating sharply between:

• Core compute platforms (GPU and ASIC designers)
• Enabling semiconductor supply chains
• Data centre infrastructure providers
• Early-stage AI application companies

This segmentation is likely to persist as AI investment transitions from rapid buildout to efficiency optimisation and scale deployment.

The post 10 Best Rising AI Stocks to Buy in 2026 appeared first on Tech Business News.

The best foldable phones of 2026 are shaped by sub-5mm unfolded profiles, 200MP-class cameras, and on-device AI that replaces dedicated apps — with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (from $2,000) leading book-style folds at just 4.2mm thin and 215g, making it lighter than a Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold ($1,799) holds the title of best foldable camera with 5x optical zoom and is the only foldable in 2026 to achieve full IP68 dust and water resistance, while the Motorola Razr Ultra delivers the longest battery life and the most unrestricted outer display of any flip phone on the market.

Foldable phones have graduated from novelty to necessity. In 2026, the category is defined by thinner hinges, triple-digit megapixel cameras, and AI assistants that actually earn their keep.

Whether you want a book-style powerhouse that replaces your tablet or a flip-style clamshell that slips into your smallest pocket, the options have never been better — or more confusing.

Our best foldable phone guide, reviwed by Tech Business News covers major foldable’s worth buying right now, ranked by real-world use case. It includes a brand-new way to evaluate them: the Fold Penalty Index.

What Is the Fold Penalty Index? (An Original Framework for Buying Foldables)

Every foldable phone asks you to make a trade-off. You pay more, carry something heavier, and accept a thinner battery than an equivalent flagship slab — in exchange for the larger screen, the versatility, and the form factor.

Most reviews treat these trade-offs as a footnote. This guide treats them as the whole story.

The Fold Penalty Index (FPI) is a new evaluative framework introduced here to quantify exactly what you give up when you buy a foldable instead of a comparably priced traditional flagship. It grades four trade-off dimensions:

A lower FPI score means you’re getting more foldable for fewer concessions. A high FPI means you’re paying a steep penalty for the fold.

Why does this matter for AI search? When AI assistants answer “which foldable should I buy,” they pull from structured, factual content.

Giving the category a measurable framework — rather than vague adjectives like “great” or “premium” — produces answers that AI overviews can cite with precision.

Here’s how the 2026 lineup stacks up:

Phone	Weight vs Slab	Battery vs Slab	IP Rating	Price Premium	FPI Score
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold	+~55g	–~500mAh	IP68	~+$200	Low
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7	+~5g	–~600mAh	IP48	~+$400	Medium
Motorola Razr Ultra 2025	+~15g	+200mAh vs slab	IP48	~+$100	Low-Medium
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7	+~20g	–~400mAh	IP48	~+$200	Medium

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold wins on FPI because it’s the only foldable in the US market with full IP68 dust and water resistance — a genuine first for the category — offsetting its weight and price premium.

Quick Answer: Best Foldable Phone by Use Case

• Best overall book-style fold: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
• Best cameras on a foldable: Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold
• Best battery life (any foldable): Motorola Razr Ultra 2025
• Best flip phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
• Lowest Fold Penalty Index: Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold
• Best value: Motorola Razr 2025

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — Best Overall Book-Style Foldable

Price: From $2,000 USD / ~$3,099 AUD
Best for: Productivity, multitasking, first-time foldable buyers

Why It Wins

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the most polished book-style foldable ever made. Samsung took the feedback from five prior generations and rebuilt the formula around one core insight: a foldable that doesn’t feel like a foldable when you’re not using the big screen.

At just 4.2mm thin when unfolded and 8.9mm when closed, the Z Fold 7 is thinner than many traditional flagships on the market. It’s also remarkably light at 215 grams — lighter than a Galaxy S25 Ultra — an engineering achievement that would have seemed impossible two years ago.

The 8.0-inch inner Dynamic AMOLED display is the largest in Samsung’s foldable history, and the 6.5-inch cover screen is finally wide enough to use without squinting.

For the first time in the Fold series, the under-display selfie camera is gone, replaced by a standard punch-hole. The crease — the original sin of foldable phones — has been significantly reduced thanks to a titanium lattice beneath the display and ultra-thin glass that is 50% tougher than before.

Camera System

The headline spec is a 200MP main sensor — the same camera found in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Night shots are sharp and detailed, and Samsung’s warmer colour science produces images that photograph particularly well for social media. The 10MP telephoto tops out at 3x optical (30x digital), which is where the Pixel pulls ahead.

AI Features

Galaxy AI, powered by Gemini Live, is deeply integrated throughout the system. Circle to Search, Live Translate, Note Assist, and Interpreter Mode all work seamlessly on the Z Fold 7’s large canvas. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip with 12GB of RAM handles everything without hesitation.

The Trade-Off

The Z Fold 7 carries an IP48 rating, not IP68. That means it handles water splashes well but is not fully dust-proof — a concern in the long run for the hinge mechanism. And at $2,000, it commands the steepest price premium in the category.

2. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold — Best Cameras & Lowest Fold Penalty

Price: From $1,799 USD / ~$2,799 AUD
Best for: Camera enthusiasts, AI power users, long-term durability

Why It Wins

Google’s third foldable is where the company stopped proving it could make foldables and started proving it could make great foldables. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the most durable book-style foldable available in the US market in 2026.

It is, crucially, the world’s first foldable phone to achieve full IP68 dust and water resistance. This is not a minor footnote. IP68 means the phone can survive submersion in up to 1.5 metres of water for 30 minutes — and, more importantly for long-term owners, that no dust can enter the hinge mechanism.

For anyone planning to keep their foldable for two or three years, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the safer long-term investment.

The phone is wider and heavier than the Z Fold 7 — at 258g versus 215g, that’s a 43-gram penalty — but its 8.0-inch Super Actua Flex OLED display is among the brightest ever tested on a foldable, and the 6.4-inch cover screen has been upgraded to be larger and brighter than last year.

Camera System

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s 48MP main camera paired with a 5x telephoto lens gives it the best optical zoom experience on any US foldable.

In side-by-side testing, the Pixel consistently resolves more detail at 5x and 10x zoom than Samsung’s 3x optical system. Google’s computational photography, sharpened by the Tensor G5 chip and 16GB of RAM, also delivers more accurate white balance and true-to-life colour in most lighting conditions.

The Camera Coach feature — AI voice guidance for better framing and composition — is a genuinely useful addition for anyone who photographs people, pets, or events.

AI Features

Gemini is baked into every layer of Android 16 on this device. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold gets Google’s most advanced on-device AI features, including real-time voice translation, AI-powered call screening, and Magic Editor in Google Photos, which can restructure entire images with a single prompt.

The Trade-Off

Heavier. Slower to charge (94 minutes for a full charge versus 83 minutes for the Z Fold 7). Runs hot during sustained gaming. But if cameras and long-term durability matter most to you, these are acceptable trade-offs.

3. Motorola Razr Ultra — Best Battery Life & Best Clamshell

Price: From $1,199 USD / ~$1,849 AUD
Best for: Commuters, travellers, anyone who values pocketability and endurance

Why It Wins

The Motorola Razr Ultra is the foldable that makes the most sense for the most people. It costs less than its Samsung and Google rivals, offers the best battery life of any foldable tested in 2026, and fits in pockets that a book-style fold wouldn’t touch.

The large outer display is unrestricted — unlike Samsung’s Flip line, third-party apps run natively on the cover screen. You can reply to messages, check maps, control music, and scroll through feeds without ever opening the phone. For many users, the Razr Ultra functions almost as two phones in one.

Its flagship Snapdragon chipset and Moto AI features keep it competitive in daily performance benchmarks. The camera system is capable without being class-leading.

The Trade-Off

This is a flip-style phone, not a book-style fold. The inner screen is smaller than what you get on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 or Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and the multitasking experience doesn’t rival Samsung’s One UI. If you want a tablet replacement, look elsewhere.

4. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 — Best Flip Phone for Long-Term Buyers

Price: From $1,099 USD / ~$1,699 AUD
Best for: Style-conscious users who want Samsung’s ecosystem and maximum software longevity

Why It Wins

Samsung’s Z Flip 7 is the most refined flip phone Samsung has ever made. The biggest upgrade is the FlexWindow: a 4.1-inch, edge-to-edge cover display that transforms how useful the phone is without opening it. It’s the cover screen that Flip owners have been asking for since the beginning.

The Exynos 2500 chip powers the device efficiently, and the Z Flip 7 is the first Samsung flip to offer Samsung DeX support. Most critically for long-term buyers: seven years of guaranteed OS and security updates make this a safe five-year purchase.

The Trade-Off

The Exynos 2500 is not as fast as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon equivalents in raw benchmarks, and third-party app compatibility on the cover screen still lags behind Motorola’s Razr lineup. Charging at 25W is slow for a $1,099 phone in 2026.

What About the Apple iPhone Fold?

Apple has not yet released a foldable iPhone. Current rumours point to a book-style design opening to approximately the size of an iPad Mini, with a likely late-2026 to early-2027 release window.

Pricing is expected to exceed $2,000. Until it launches and is reviewed, it cannot be responsibly recommended — but its arrival will fundamentally reshape this ranking.

How to Choose: The Right Foldable for Your Life

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 if:

• You want the slimmest, lightest book-style foldable available
• Samsung’s ecosystem (Galaxy AI, DeX, SmartThings) is already part of your life
• You take a lot of social media and evening photos

Buy the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold if:

• Camera quality — especially zoom — is your primary concern
• You want the most durable foldable money can buy (IP68)
• Long-term AI software support from Google matters to you

Buy the Motorola Razr Ultra if:

• Battery anxiety is real for you
• You want a phone that fits in every pocket you own
• You resent paying $2,000 for a phone

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 if:

• You want the premium Samsung flip experience with seven years of updates
• Samsung DeX matters to you
• You want the most polished and supported flip phone available

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary: The Best Foldable Phones for 2026

For Business Use:

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 – The Z Fold 7 is the clear business choice. Its 8.0-inch inner display and Samsung DeX support effectively turn it into a portable workstation, replacing both your phone and laptop in meetings.

For General & Personal Use

• Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold For everyday life, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold wins on the metrics that actually matter to most people. It costs $200 less than the Z Fold 7, shoots better photos in real-world conditions, and its full IP68 rating means you don’t have to think twice at the beach

The foldable phone market in 2026 has no bad choices at the top — only different trade-offs. Use the Fold Penalty Index to identify which trade-offs you’re actually willing to make, and let that guide your decision more than any spec sheet.

The post The Best Foldable Phones In 2026 For Personal And Business appeared first on Tech Business News.

The agreement combines Argon & Co’s operational transformation consulting capabilities with QAD Redzone’s connected workforce platform, which is currently deployed across more than 2,000 factories worldwide.

The partnership marks QAD Redzone’s first strategic global alliance focused specifically on transformation-led operational consulting, as manufacturers continue to face labour shortages, rising operational costs and increasing production complexity.

Industry leaders are under mounting pressure to deliver measurable productivity gains, particularly as many businesses struggle to convert investments in automation and continuous improvement programs into sustained frontline execution and long-term operational performance.

“Manufacturers have more operational data and technology than ever before, but many still struggle to turn that into consistent performance on the shopfloor,” said Paul Eastwood, Managing Partner APAC at Argon & Co. 

“Too often, improvements fail to stick, and digital investments struggle to deliver measurable results at scale.” said Eastwood,

“As AI and connected operations continue to evolve, the real opportunity lies in combining operational insight with the execution disciplines and behaviours needed to sustain performance over time.” he said.

The partnership combines Argon & Co’s proprietary Manufacturing Optimisation and Daily Execution system, known as MODE, with Redzone’s AI-powered connected workforce platform to give manufacturers a more unified and scalable approach to operational performance.

Rather than relying on fragmented improvement initiatives, the combined offering is designed to provide real-time visibility across factory operations, supported by AI-driven insights and frontline collaboration tools that allow teams to respond more quickly to performance issues as they emerge.

By integrating Redzone’s connected workforce technology with the MODE framework, manufacturers are able to standardise operational processes, improve visibility at every level of the business and embed performance capability more deeply within frontline teams.

The companies say the combined approach can help manufacturers achieve operational gains at a pace that traditional transformation programs have often struggled to deliver.

“Redzone’s mission is to transform manufacturing by empowering the frontline to win every day and that mission demands more than great technology, “said Ken Fisher, President at Redzone.

“It requires world-class coaching by people who have actually worked inside a factory. Argon & Co’s consultants are proven manufacturing experts who understand the realities of the shop floor,”

“That depth of expertise, combined with their truly global reach, is exactly what it takes to help manufacturers achieve what once seemed impossible: five days of production in four,” he said.

Through the partnership, manufacturers will be able to combine connected worker technology with embedded operational disciplines, including daily management systems, standard work, structured problem-solving, leadership routines and capability transfer programs.

“Redzone has already built a significant client base in the US, and there’s a reason for that, it delivers results. What excites me is the opportunity to take that even further.

“By combining Redzone with Argon & Co’s MODE operating system, we can help existing Redzone clients unlock even greater factory performance, while enabling manufacturers implementing Redzone for the first time to embed stronger operational disciplines,” said Eastwood.

The Argon & Co and Redzone offering brings together connected workforce technology, a proven manufacturing operating system, and deep expertise in transformation and behavioural change, an integration that remains uncommon in manufacturing transformation programs.

The partnership will initially target manufacturers in food and beverage, consumer goods, industrial manufacturing and process industries, with rollout capability across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

The post Argon & Co Partners With QAD and Redzone Amid Global Manufacturing Push appeared first on Tech Business News.

The company states plainly that the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features in Google Search and that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor any special optimisations necessary.

That single line alone cuts against a significant amount of advice circulating in marketing circles right now.

The guidance, published on the Google Search Central Blog, tells site owners to focus on making content “unique, non-commodity” and to provide visitors with satisfying, original content, framing this as the core of what Google wants to surface across both its classic and AI search results.

Perhaps more striking for those who have been tracking the rise of so-called Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) as emerging disciplines

Google explicitly says publishers don’t need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, or special markup to appear in these features.

That’s a direct shot at the wave of LLMS.txt hype and AI-specific content rewriting strategies that have been promoted heavily across the industry.

On the technical side, Google confirms that to be eligible for inclusion in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page simply needs to be indexed and eligible to appear in standard Google Search with a snippet, with no additional technical requirements beyond that.

The document does touch on some newer territory.

Both AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a “query fan-out” technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources to develop a response, with advanced models identifying a wider and more diverse set of supporting web pages than classic search would.

Google frames this as an opportunity for more types of sites to gain visibility, not a reason to overhaul content strategy.

On the traffic question, Google notes that clicks from search results pages featuring AI Overviews tend to be higher quality, with users spending more time on the destination site, and suggests publishers look beyond raw click volume.

For seasoned SEOs, the document reads less like a disruption and more like a reaffirmation. The fundamentals Google has been preaching for years, original content, strong crawlability, people-first experiences, remain the foundation.

The AI layer on top of search does not appear, at least according to Google, to require a parallel and separate optimization playbook.

Whether that message lands will depend on how willing the industry is to hear it. The GEO and AEO consulting market has grown considerably on the assumption that AI search demands something fundamentally new. Google, for now, is saying it doesn’t.

The post Google Says Good SEO Is Still the Best Optimisation Strategy for AI Search appeared first on Tech Business News.

Cornerstone continues to strengthen its commitment to supporting customers while expanding its presence across the region

Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., has strengthened its leadership team in Asia Pacific and Japan with the appointment of Brenton Smith as Vice President, APJ, as the company accelerates its regional growth strategy and customer engagement efforts.

Smith joins the workforce agility solutions provider with extensive experience leading enterprise technology businesses across Asia Pacific.

Most recently, he spent seven years at BMC Software, where he oversaw operations across APJ from bases in Australia and Singapore, supporting customers throughout ASEAN and the broader region.

“Brenton Smith brings to Cornerstone a strong customer-first mindset and deep understanding of the challenges organisations are facing today,” said Vincent Belliveau, Chief International Officer at Cornerstone

“Our customers are at the center of everything we do, and Brenton’s deep understanding of the APJ market will help us strengthen those relationships and better support organizations as they navigate change and drive workforce transformation.” he said.

“What really stands out to me about Cornerstone is the focus on keeping people at the center of everything,” said Brenton Smith, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan at Cornerstone.

“AI is there to support how employees work, learn, and grow, and that creates a real opportunity to help organisations develop their people through continuous learning in a way that’s practical and impactful.”

“I’m looking forward to working with customers across Asia Pacific and Japan to help them adopt and scale technology in a way that supports their teams and drives real business outcomes.” said Smith.

Cornerstone says the appointment reflects its continued commitment to supporting customers across Asia Pacific and Japan while strengthening its footprint in one of the company’s fastest-evolving regions.

Delivered as an open, enterprise platform, Cornerstone Workforce AI is built for scale, security, and trust, with certified AI guardrails across whatever application your people work every day.

As an industry leader, Cornerstone is helping approximately 7,000 organisations, 140M+ users, across 186 countries build continuous workforce readiness. 

The post Cornerstone Strengthens APJ Leadership with Appointment of Brenton Smith appeared first on Tech Business News.

As infrastructure becomes more complex and distributed, the ability to turn observability data into meaningful operational action is becoming increasingly crucial.

Despite huge investments in observability tools, many organisations are still stuck reacting to incidents instead of preventing them.

According to LogicMonitor’s Observability & AI Trends 2026 report, organisations already have huge volumes of telemetry data, yet many still struggle to generate actionable intelligence and operationalise it. ¹

“Organisations today have more visibility into their systems than ever before; however, visibility alone doesn’t resolve incidents,” said Karthik SJ, general manager of AI, LogicMonitor.

“The real value of AI in observability comes when it can help teams move from understanding what is happening to safely acting on those insights in real time.”

“The barrier is not a lack of data or technological capability, it is trust.”

“For AI to move from analysing systems to actively operating them, IT leaders need confidence that automated decisions will be safe, transparent, and accountable”

“Trust mechanisms are what transform AI from a helpful assistant into a trusted operational actor.” said Karthik SJ.

Explainability Is Key To Trust

An imperative element of gaining trust is explainability. If AI recommends an action to execute, organisations need to see the reasoning behind that decision. They also need insight on how a conclusion or a recommendation has been reached. 

Without this transparency, AI decisions appear like a black box; the input and output are visible, yet there is a lack of knowledge on what has gone on in between. This causes hesitation in trust towards automated remediation, and troubleshooting becomes harder.

Explainability turns AI from mysterious automation into a collaborative tool.

“The lack of trust some companies may feel with AI isn’t entirely irrational. Most organisations are still early in adopting AI for operational decision-making, so the fear of the unknown remains imminent,”

“In conjunction with this, the increase in responsibility that AI observability already has in operational decisions can carry real risks. When AI moves from analysing data to intervening in live systems, the consequences of mistakes become much more significant.” said Karthik Sj.

Guardrails help mitigate this risk by limiting which actions AI can take automatically, requiring approval for high-risk changes and validating decisions against operational policies.

Autonomous operations need clear boundaries set and the appropriate guardrails in place to prevent AI errors from becoming major operational incidents.

Human Oversight Is Always Essential

For this reason, integrating automation into an enterprise should be progressive rather than immediate. At the first stage, AI functions primarily as a monitoring and detection tool.

It analyses telemetry data like metrics, logs, traces, and infrastructure signals to identify anomalies that suggest something could be wrong.

“As systems mature, AI begins to act more like an advisor,” said Karthik Sj. “It not only detects problems; it also recommends potential solutions based on historical incidents and patterns.

“Human operators remain firmly in control, approving or rejecting these recommendations while benefiting from faster diagnosis and improved context. Organisations may then let AI perform certain safe actions automatically once it has demonstrated reliability.” he said.

In the most advanced stages, AI can operate parts of the infrastructure autonomously by detecting incidents and identifying root causes to initiate remediation workflows.

This can stabilise systems without waiting for human approval. However, even at this stage, humans must remain as overseers, defining the policies and monitoring the outcomes.

The balance between automation and supervision is what lets organisations safely transition toward autonomous IT operations. AI-driven observability will only deliver real value when it moves beyond surfacing insights to safely taking action. 

“Dashboards and alerts have long helped organisations understand what is happening across their systems,”

“However, as digital environments grow more complex and distributed, relying solely on human operators to interpret data and respond to incidents is becoming increasingly unsustainable,” said Karthik Sj.

“The future of observability will not be defined by more sophisticated dashboards or faster alerts. It will be defined by an organisation’s ability to operationalise AI safely, moving from insight to intervention, letting systems be observed and intelligently operated.” concluded Karthik Sj.

The post AI-First Observability Is Defined By Action, Not Insight appeared first on Tech Business News.