News
HONOR reveals 1st images of Magic8 Pro, introduces new AI technologies
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered flagship launching in China next month
HONOR has revealed the first few images of the HONOR Magic8 Pro, which will launch next month in China.
The device comes in a light teal colorway that is somehow reminiscent of the Jade Cyan tone on the HONOR X9c.
In addition, the phone has a more squared look, especially its frame, with rounded corners. Meanwhile, the camera bump at the back is still very HONOR-looking.
But very noticeable is an extra button on the right side, which is reminiscent of the camera control button first introduced on the iPhone 16 series.
The HONOR Magic8 series will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform.
The phone will debut new groundbreaking on-device AI innovations, including Low-bit Quantization Technology for AI Models and Next-Generation Hybrid Retrieval Technology.
HONOR’s agentic AI capabilities and Qualcomm’s mobile platforms will make it possible for the upcoming phone to be even more efficient and packed with computing power. These advancements will also be available on the HONOR MagicPad 3 Pro.
High-efficiency on-device AI modeling
The Low-Bit Quantization Technology addresses computing power, memory, and energy consumption, which HONOR believes are the three biggest challenges of on-device AI.
Thanks to the new Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, this technology will help the HONOR Magic8 series deliver up to a 15% increase in modeling computing, 20% lower model consumption, and 30% less storage space compared to the previous HONOR device.
On top of that, Next-Generation Hybrid Retrieval Technology is designed to dramatically improve the way devices process and surface information.
By encoding text, images, and audio/video data into dense vectors and constructing high-efficiency semantic-level indexes, the system achieves millisecond-level similarity matching and boosts retrieval performance by up to 400%.
The breakthrough not only accelerates multimodal semantic search but also strengthens the foundation for intelligent agents. In turn, responses across a wide-range of real-world scenarios become faster and more accurate.
Magic Color
At the 2025 Snapdragon Summit China, HONOR also unveiled the first agent-powered Magic Color.
This innovation allows users to transform and restyle images or videos with simplicity, completing tasks such as locating an image, extracting key color tones, and applying those tones to a new target.
All the steps in the process are done through intuitive, one-sentence commands. That’s as Magic Color combines efficient on-device AI models and advanced semantic understanding to lower the barriers to complex image editing.
This shall enable everyday users and creators to achieve professional-grade results with ease. Looking ahead, HONOR plans to extend agent-driven capabilities across more than 200 vertical scenarios and 3,000 general scenarios, covering the top 100 applications.
AI Super Sampling for Gaming
Lastly, HONOR introduced its industry-leading Hyper-Fusion Core Architecture in collaboration with Qualcomm.
This deeply integrates HONOR Turbo X’s multiple core performance engines with Qualcomm Oryon CPU architecture.
By dynamically scheduling resources across cores, this architecture maximizes energy efficiency and performance for smoother and more responsive user experiences.
Along with this is the first GPU-NPU Heterogeneous AI Super Sampling Technology based on Snapdragon platforms.
This is designed to transform low-resolution, low-frame rate gameplay into high-resolution, high-frame rate experiences.
Similar to DLSS technology on PC, it leverages AI to reconstruct details, motion features, and lighting effects in real-time.
In practice, this enables demanding open-world titles to achieve 1080p at 120fps from 60fps, delivering both super-resolution and ultra-high frame rates.
Compared to traditional GPU-based upscaling, the combination of GPU-NPU computing reduces latency and jitter.
All the aforementioned advancements highlight HONOR’s vision for the Dual-Engine Era, where AI agent and performance optimizations converge to redefine the user experience and accelerate the arrival of general-purpose intelligent agent era.
Enterprise
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang resigns after scandals
NVIDIA’s week is finally and mercifully coming to an end. After being implicated in two extramarital affairs, now-former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has resigned from his position.
It’s been a terrible week for Huang’s personal life. Last weekend, a bombshell report revealed that Huang engaged in an affair with Alice Huang, who is reportedly involved with Chinese intelligence. Quickly realizing the heaviness of the allegations, the CEO admitted quickly to the affair.
However, barely 24 hours ago, another report revealed that Huang had a second extramarital affair. Though he was clear of any more espionage allegations, his romantic affair of choice was another executive within the company. NVIDIA’s board of directors quickly debated whether Huang should be fired for his actions.
Now, Huang has voluntarily resigned from his position. The former CEO leaves behind his spot at the head of the table since cofounding NVIDIA in 1993.
In his stead, the board of directors have named incumbent CFO Colette Kress as the company’s interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Despite her interim role, Kress will continue her duties as CFO.
Additionally, the board has named Harvey C. Jones, a member of board since its founding, as its first chair of the board.
Though the company will leave most of the controversy behind with Huang’s departure, its next chapter is about to begin. Will its new direction maintain the company’s tenuous balance between AI and gaming, or tip the scales towards one segment?
SEE ALSO: NVIDIA CEO admits to having an affair with alleged Chinese spy
News
St. Peter reunited people with their deceased loved ones through tech
The new “If Heaven Could Write” campaign generates letters from the imagined perspectives of loved ones.
Grieving can take many forms. Sometimes, it manifests through a desire to hear a loved one again. We look at their old clothing, a gust of wind, or a butterfly, and imagine them talking to us one more time. This year, St. Peter, through the power of technology, gave 11,000 people that chance through its new “If Heaven Could Write” campaign.
During St. Peter Deathcare Week, which ran from October 27 through November 2, the deathcare provider started the “If Heaven Could Write” campaign, an interactive digital experience that offered participants a chance to reunite with their deceased loved ones. It was available in 37 St. Peter Chapels and 76 cemeteries nationwide.
Upon scanning a QR code which took them to a portal, participants answered questions about their loved ones. Then, the portal generates a personal letter from the imagined perspective of the participant’s loved one, giving them one more chance to converse.
Of course, an imagined letter can’t replace someone who passed away. Still, the experience affords us a way to grieve and process the loss. No, the letter isn’t really from your loved one, but you can imagine what they would have said while reading through it. And sometimes, that’s all we need.
Though St. Peter Deathcare Week has already come and gone for the year, those interested can still participate in the campaign through its link.
In a world with a love-hate relationship with extra buttons on a phone, Apple has gone to the deeper end and included two buttons in the latest iPhones: the Action Button and the Camera Control. Next year, Apple might consolidate the two buttons into one, ridding itself of the Action Button.
According to a Weibo leak from Instant Digital, Apple will merge the two buttons starting with next year’s iPhones. Though technically a new button in itself, the merged version will, based on the leak, retain more Camera Control than the Action Button.
Of course, both functions can coexist in the same button. The Camera Control activates with a single press, while the Action Button needs a longer press. In the merged button, a single press can still open the camera and a longer press can activate whatever the user sets it to.
Both buttons have had a storied past. The Action Button came in 2023, replacing the Ring/Silent Switch. Meanwhile, the Camera Control debuted a year later, offering control over the camera with a capacitive button. The current iterations retain both buttons on the same phone.
Personally, as someone used to creating content, the Camera Control button is ultimately a boon to get those shots quickly while in the moment. Retaining that functionality is definitely worthwhile.
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