Apple unveils passport-shaped foldable phone called Duo
Apple has unveiled a foldable phone called Duo, introducing the biggest change in years in the company’s flagship product.
The Duo is sized and shaped like a passport, with rounded edges.
It opens into a horizontal 19cm screen that also can be viewed vertically.
There is a smaller single screen on the front, when the phone is folded.
When open, it is Apple’s thinnest phone, the company said.
The folding phone event, the first with new CEO John Ternus at the helm, is the most noticeable overhaul of Apple’s flagship product since it removed the physical home button from the iPhone X in 2017.
The iPhone brought in $US209.6 billion ($A290.0 billion), or just over half of Apple’s sales, in its most recent fiscal year.
Apple positioned the iPhone Duo as a business productivity device, showing how it would manage Zoom calls with multiple participants and a broader view of the Slack messaging app.
The Duo’s larger screen will support multiple app windows at once, a move aimed at productivity that Apple has made with some of its iPads.
Ternus criticised existing foldables as awkward and poorly suited for common tasks such as scrolling and video viewing, saying the Duo was designed to deliver an iPad-like experience in a pocket-sized device through a custom hinge, dual displays with a consistent aspect ratio and a new titanium body.
“It’s entirely new and at the same time remarkably familiar. A similar size to your passport, it feels familiar to hold and comfortable to use with one hand,” Ternus said.
Apple said the iPhone Duo will feature the A20 chip to drive its displays and also a new C2 modem chip designed by Apple, part of its move away from Qualcomm’s wireless data chips.
“Apple has created a new premium growth opportunity, opened up another revenue stream and injected fresh momentum into the iPhone business,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.
Apple’s US shares were down 1.8 per cent at the end of the presentation.
Former chief executive Tim Cook handed over the leadership baton to Ternus at the start of the presentation with a video about how to start the event.
The video ended with a close-up of Cook, who said, “Not me. That’s your guy,” pointing back toward Ternus.
Ternus touted the iPhone platform as a personal AI hub that focused on privacy, saying that others wanted to collect and store personal data.
“Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer yours to control,” he said.
“That’s why Apple Intelligence runs on-device whenever it can.”
Apple’s Lilian Rincon, who oversees AI products for the iPhone maker and was recruited from Google earlier this year, described an updated Siri assistant that will work with 300,000 apps at release.
Executives also showed off the iPhone 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max handsets that are the latest versions of Apple’s well-known line, which do not fold.
Apple also unveiled a feature aimed at addressing growing concerns over AI-generated and manipulated images.
It introduced a new standard it calls “Apple Reference Image” to prove the authenticity of the images taken with the new iPhone 18 Pro cameras and said it will also support the emerging SynthID standard for identifying images that have been created or edited with AI.
The Apple Reference Image feature will not be available in European Union countries or China.
The iPhone 18 Pro will also include the new A20 Pro chip, which brings improvements to help advanced AI models to run directly on iPhones.
The company also said a new version of AirPods would come with noise cancellation, a first for its budget line of earbuds, and that a more expensive version would be available with extra features such as wireless charging and on-stem volume control that would allow users to adjust the volume by swiping up or down on the stem.
Apple also introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, positioning them as major health-focused upgrades.
That includes a redesigned sensor system that collects heart rate more frequently than before and powers new features that gauge recovery and fitness.
The company said the watches use new Apple silicon and improved sensors to deliver what it called the most accurate heart-rate tracking in a wearable.
Ternus previously served as Apple’s hardware chief but has kept a low public profile aside from a handful of product introductions and sustainability initiatives.
It will fall to Ternus to persuade Apple’s customers that they need a foldable device costing at least $A3499, a new high for a global brand that has defined mass luxury.
While Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold folding phones since 2019, the devices have remained a niche among tech enthusiasts.
But even with a steep price tag, analyst firms such as International Data Corporation expect Apple will sell every foldable iPhone it can produce and secure a 40 per cent share of the lucrative niche by the end of next year.
Sellers flee auctions as housing downturn deepens
Sellers are being scared away from listing their homes for auction as buyers gain the upper hand in Australia’s falling housing market.
More than three in five properties initially listed for auction across the capital cities ended up being converted to a private treaty in July, real estate listings platform Domain found.
The share of listings converted to private treaty has spiked at the same time as house prices have cratered after a series of interest rates rises and contentious tax changes in the federal budget.
Since February, the share of auction-launched listings in Sydney that later converted to private treaty jumped from 24.9 per cent to 56.3 per cent.
In Melbourne, the share climbed from 29.3 per cent to 58.1 per cent, while in Brisbane it increased from 36.6 per cent to 67.6 per cent.
The rate of conversion to private treaty was the highest since the 2022/23 housing downturn, Domain chief economist Nicola Powell said.
“When you compare what the market was in February to what those numbers are now, it has been a stark change,” she told AAP.
“That really reflects the significant shift in softer buyer demand that we’ve seen over that period of time.”
Auctions worked best for sellers when there was a high level of competition among buyers generating aggressive bidding, Dr Powell said.
“In a slower market, sellers probably see greater certainty through that negotiation process of a private treaty, rather than a public auction campaign,” she said.
“If you go through the auction process and your auction is passed in, and then it sits on the market, that can often have a detrimental impact to buyer perception as well.”
Preliminary auction clearance rates for the combined capital cities remained relatively low at 52.7 per cent in the first weekend of spring, down from 70 per cent the same time a year earlier, according to Cotality.
David McMahon, Ray White’s head of auctions for NSW and ACT, said those figures had hit the confidence of inexperienced agents, who were likely pushing sellers to move to private treaty.
But auctions were still the best way for sellers to get strong results, regardless of market conditions, he said.
When comparing auctions and private treaties over a full 45-day campaign, auctions still had the upper hand with a 55 to 60 per cent clearance rate, compared to private treaties in the mid-30s, Ray White data showed.
“So, clearance rates for auctions are still stronger when you compare the two-side-by side,” Mr McMahon said.
The largest increases in vendors switching to private treaties have been in premium markets, including Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where auctions tend to dominate.
Higher-value homes have also led the fall in prices, with house values in the upper quartile down 10.7 per cent from their peak in Sydney and 10.5 per cent in Melbourne, Cotality said.
Lower-quartile houses have been more resilient, down four per cent in Melbourne and less than six per cent in Sydney.
Rising sea levels threaten more than 267,000 properties
More than 267,000 Australian properties and two million hectares of land could be damaged or lost to rising sea levels and coastal flooding, in a trend that could cost the nation $855 billion.
Western Australia faces the greatest economic losses by 2100 at $230.5 billion, while Queensland has the most properties at risk, with more than 93,000 on the line, followed by NSW with more than 71,000.
The Climate Council issued the warning on Thursday in a report estimating the financial cost of rising sea levels and storm surges, drawing on research from the University of Melbourne.
It comes one week after the United Nations warned the world would exceed 1.5 degrees of warming within years, increasing the risk of sea-level rises and more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cyclones, floods and fires.
The council’s report, Rising Seas, Rising Bills, estimated the risk of sea-level rises in Australia in an intermediate scenario where global emissions peaked in 2040 and declined rapidly.
It found Australia could suffer $274.3 billion in property losses by 2100 because of inundation of low-lying areas, coastal flooding and land erosion, with effects felt in every state and the Northern Territory.
Damage to land could cost $580.7 billion, with more than 619,000 hectares of farmland at risk, along with more than 379,000 hectares of parks and recreation areas, and more than 23,000 hectares of land hosting critical infrastructure.
Scientists predicted sea levels would rise by at least another 14 centimetres by 2050, Climate Council spokesman Andrew Watkins said, but the actual figure could be higher and the risks greater.
“These are big, big numbers that we need to consider and the economic part of the study is conservative in that it doesn’t account for everything that could happen but for the basic land, property and infrastructure costs,” he told AAP.
“What we want is for people to realise what is at stake here.”
Western Australia, with the biggest coastline, faced the biggest risk of economic loss with more than 586,000 hectares of land exposed to rising seas and storm surges.
But Queensland had the highest number of properties at risk, the report said, with the Gold Coast named the most exposed urban area in Australia, facing the loss of more than 32,000 properties and $84 billion.
Private insurance rarely covered “actions of the sea”, the report noted, and could leave residents with high damage bills.
The federal government should stop approving fossil fuel projects and strengthen emission cuts to avert further risks, Mr Watkins said, but should also work with state and local governments to prevent construction in at-risk areas and preserve coastal regions.
“It is a creeping problem that’s not as obvious as fire and floods and you don’t want to suddenly, too late, realise what the impacts might be,” he said.
“We need to plan now and the sooner we get on to it, the better.”
Rising sea levels were already affecting agriculture in Australia, cane farmer Robert Quirk said.
His land in NSW’s Tweed Valley sits half a metre above sea level, and rising tides mean he has to run pumps throughout the year to drain the fields.
“We have a drainage problem and for every centimetre the ocean rises, I pump another 10 Olympic swimming pools off the farm every rain event,” he said.
“I’ve got little grandchildren who’ll be alive in 2100 and what will they do?”
Oil rises above $100 a barrel for first time since July
Benchmark Brent crude oil futures have risen above $US100 a barrel, hitting a more than six-week high and breaching the symbolic threshold for the first time since July 24 as intensifying conflict in the Middle East heightened concerns about oil flows.
Brent crude futures were up $US2.01, or 2.05 per cent, at $US99.93 a barrel by 6.02pm AEST after earlier touching $US100.19, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $US1.49, or 1.60 per cent, at $US94.52 a barrel.
Brent crude prices have risen by a quarter since early last month as hopes fade for a permanent resolution to the six-month-old US-Iran conflict.
Since the Iran war began on February 28, Brent has surged as high as $US126.41 a barrel, a peak reached on April 30.
This week, attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi energy facilities set oil installations ablaze, threatening a significant expansion of the conflict.
The attacks also threaten crude shipments via the Red Sea, which has been a key alternative route to the crucial Strait of Hormuz, where oil flows have been severely curtailed since the February 28 start of the Iran war.
“Market participants appear to be pricing in a more prolonged conflict in the Middle East as well as the risk that the latest escalation in military strikes disrupts oil flows from the Middle East,” said Hamad Hussain, senior climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics.
“The key risk is whether the recent attacks on oil tankers lead to fewer ship-to-ship transfers taking place in the Gulf of Oman, which have so far played a key role in providing oil to global markets and keeping a lid on prices.”
A growing number of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have raised their crude price forecasts in recent days.
In the week before a resumption in fighting on August 30, roughly eight million to nine million bpd had flowed through Hormuz, double the previous week’s volume, according to Rystad Energy’s Chief Economist Claudio Galimberti, although more recently it had fallen below two million bpd.
“I think the market is trying to treat this rise in energy prices as a one-off. It’s not. This is structural. It’s not going away, and it’s part of what I would argue as a security premium. And it’s only going to get bigger,” said Jeffrey Currie, co-chairman at Abaxx Markets.
While non-OPEC oil producers including the United States, Canada and Guyana have ramped up output, the International Energy Agency said last month it expected global oil supply would fall this year by 4.3 million bpd, or about four per cent.
Gas export project to stop dipping into domestic market
One of Australia’s biggest energy companies has vowed to stop taking gas off the domestic market for overseas exports at a controversial Queensland plant.
Santos has faced criticism for dipping into domestic gas supplies to meet demand for massive export contracts at its Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG) project.
Critics say the project has driven shortfalls in the domestic market and is a key reason behind the federal government’s decision to introduce a domestic gas reservation for Australia’s east coast.
But in an address to the National Press Club in Canberra, chief executive Kevin Gallagher vowed the Gladstone project “will not contract any third-party gas going forward”.
“It will meet its commitments and mitigate any shortfalls through other means,” he said on Wednesday.
But Tim Baxter, owner and founder of consultancy group Naru Research, said Santos had previously told investors that it saw its Australian operations as a chance to secure higher margins to benefit shareholders.
“After the way its GLNG project has distorted the east coast gas market and driven up prices, Santos has no right to give a self-interested lecture on energy security,” Mr Baxter said.
The commitment from the Santos boss came as the federal government prepares the final stages of the gas reservation scheme, which will require LNG producers to sell the equivalent of 20 per cent of exports to the domestic market.
Mr Gallagher warned that would flood the domestic market, crashing the price of gas and risk future gas supply.
Instead of he called for the reservation to require exporters to “offer” gas to the domestic market on commercial terms, similar to the reservation currently in place in Western Australia.
“I have publicly supported domestic reservation as part of its development since 2018, and the time to put a reservation policy in place is now, before billions of dollars are invested,” Mr Gallagher said.
While the “must-sell” requirement has drawn scrutiny from the energy sector, it has been supported by manufacturers, business groups and unions.
“Santos insisting that any reservation only requires them to ‘offer’ gas to domestic users, rather than actually supply it, is code for retaining the failed status quo,” said Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow.
“Current regulation already includes a ‘must offer’ requirement and all it has delivered is high prices, supply uncertainty and lost jobs.”
‘Lying cowards’: Liberal MP unloads on Hanson and Joyce
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have been labelled “lying cowards” by a federal Liberal MP as a row over an alleged war criminal intensifies.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie claimed in an email to supporters this week Senator Hanson had branded him a traitor, following a cartoon video posted to the One Nation leader’s X account.
The nine-minute video, posted on July 23, remained pinned at the top of the senator’s X account.
There has been tension between Mr Hastie, an SAS veteran, and Senator Hanson since he spoke out against accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.
The row heightened when Mr Hastie was subpoenaed to testify in court against Roberts-Smith.
Senator Hanson’s closest supporter, billionaire Gina Rinehart, has backed Roberts-Smith, and has named a planned housing complex for veterans in his honour.
But Senator Hanson denied suggesting Mr Hastie was a traitor, telling The Nightly newspaper she would define him as “a wanker”.
Mr Joyce on Wednesday denied knowledge of the cartoon.
“I dearly hope that nobody is threatening Andrew or his family, and certainly not premising (threats) on anything to do with One Nation,” he told reporters.
“It’s got nothing to do with One Nation.”
Mr Hastie branded Senator Hanson and Mr Joyce, his former coalition colleague, as “lying cowards”, speaking to News24 on Wednesday.
He called on One Nation to delete the cartoon or own up to it in parliament.
The WA MP accused the party of politicising the Roberts-Smith court proceedings and “trashing” his own service record.
“I would say that Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are lying cowards, and I’ll say it again so there’s no ambiguity,” he said.
“They are lying cowards.”
“And then: On July 23, at the top of her X account, she posted a cartoon … I’m called a traitor eight times … when you start calling me a traitor to my own country, then we have a big, big problem.”
He said neither had served “a day in our uniform overseas on operations”.
“I stand with a lot of Australians who believe in the rule of law, who believe that Australian soldiers should be held to high standards of battlefield conduct,” Mr Hastie said.
Voters may ‘forgive’ state One Nation leader’s past
One Nation-curious voters could be more inclined to look past a state party leader’s history of drug use and drink driving.
Warren Pickering sensationally admitted on Tuesday to taking speed, ecstasy and marijuana in his 20s and losing his licence three times for “low level” drink driving at age 18, 20 and about a decade later.
The former combat engineer’s admissions, made when flanked by his daughter and stepson, came after The Australian newspaper published a series of allegations raised by his former partner of almost 20 years, Jo Scott.
Mr Pickering, who is standing for the lower house seat of Pakenham in the November state election, denied ever being a drug addict or using ice, also known as crystal methamphetamine, while their children were home.
A handwritten note from Mr Pickering referring to “sexual deviance” related to behaviour after the couple opened their relationship to a third person at a time when Mr Pickering was “exploring his own sexuality”, One Nation’s national director James Ashby said.
In a lengthy social media post on Wednesday, Senator Pauline Hanson described it as a story of personal redemption.
“Warren’s story shows a man who confronted his mistakes, changed the direction of his life and chose not to remain defined by the worst decisions of his youth,” the federal leader of One Nation wrote.
Federal One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce commended Mr Pickering for correcting the record after the 43-year-old previously rejected all of Ms Scott’s claims.
“If people turn their life around, you can either pat them on the back as an example of what everybody should do (or) you can kick them in the knee,” Mr Joyce told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“I’m not in the group to want to kick some in the knees.”
Victorian One Nation MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell said Mr Pickering had previously disclosed elements of his past to her, including drug use.
She backed him remaining the state party leader and believes coming clean might resonate with the public.
“It shows that we are real people,” Ms Tyrrell told reporters at state parliament.
Political analyst Kevin Bonham pointed out One Nation recently triumphed over Labor in a by-election for the WA seat of Secret Harbour despite candidate Luke Herdegen admitting to drug use.
“The stuff that came out about Pickering under normal circumstances would destroy a major party candidate but this is not normal anymore,” he told AAP.
“The things that are driving people to One Nation may cause a lot of them to say ‘who cares’.
“It’s similar to how Trump voters will forgive Trump for absolutely everything. They’re determined to reject the major parties.”
Mr Pickering found an unlikely ally in Legalise Cannabis MP David Ettershank, who said it was very disturbing to witness him being stigmatised and criminalised.
Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association acting chief executive Scott Drummond said he was optimistic these sort of conversations helped to reduce stigma for others.
“The more we can talk about these topics in adult, nuanced ways, bringing compassion and understanding instead of judgment and discrimination, the better,” he said.
Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams said people deserved an opportunity to rebuild their lives but described some of allegations against Mr Pickering as “very serious”.
One Nation has promised to get tough on crime in Victoria and any visa holder who breaks the law would be deported under the federal party’s immigration platform.
The leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell, suggested the strict stance, in light of Mr Pickering’s admissions, highlighted One Nation’s hypocrisy.
State keeps top-tier credit rating despite massive debt
Australia’s only state with the coveted Triple-A credit rating from one major agency has held onto it despite ballooning debt.
The forecast from Fitch means the NSW taxpayer will be spared the pain of higher interest bills, despite accumulating a gross debt of a staggering $178.5 billion as of June.
Although it is a similar amount of debt to that of Victoria, which Fitch has given a weaker AA+ rating, it said NSW had demonstrated its capacity to absorb potential shocks.
“Fitch considers NSW’s disciplined fiscal approach and resilient economic base to be key strengths,” the agency said on Wednesday.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey welcomed the announcement, saying the government was on track to reach a budget surplus next financial year.
“The family budget is under pressure, which is why we’re committed to growing NSW with more jobs, higher wages and attracting increased levels of private sector investment,” Mr Mookhey said.
“We want this to be a state that works for working families.”
Victoria’s gross debt is even higher at an eye-watering $215 billion.
Sydney University’s Luke Hartigan told AAP after the NSW budget was handed down the treasurer’s surplus forecast was ambitious.
“If the economy starts to slow down a bit, then we should probably see some fall-off in GST revenue (for NSW) as well,” the School of Economics academic said.
“So it’s ambitious to think we’ll have a surplus, considering most of the other states have big deficits and the federal government has a deficit.”
NSW also currently holds a Triple-A credit rating with global agency Moody’s and an AA+ rating from S&P Global.
In comparison, Fitch said Victoria had accumulated a lot of debt in a shorter period of time because of COVID relief programs and infrastructure projects, weakening its credit rating.
But the agency said Victoria had significant scope to increase revenue.
Retail environment not that bad: industry veteran
Australian consumers have been battered by interest rate hikes and soaring gas prices, but the chairman of a leading food and drinks wholesaler has seen worse.
“I’d say, having worked in retail in Australia for a long time now, I don’t think that this is the worst I’ve seen,” Metcash chairman Peter Birtles told the IGA supermarkets supplier’s shareholders on Wednesday.
Mr Birtles has worked in retail for more than 30 years, including serving as chief executive of Supercheap Auto and Rebel owner Super Retail Group from 2006 to early 2019.
Since 2022, he’s been chairman of Metcash, a wholesaler to thousands of family-owned businesses, including IGA, The Bottle-O and Total Tools.
“You’re not seeing the spectre of significant job losses that there have been at other times, which perhaps have had a more dramatic impact,” Mr Birtles told the group’s annual meeting.
“When you look at the actual level of retail spending, it hasn’t been as subdued as potentially some people think, so there’s still opportunity out there.”
The company revealed on Wednesday that total sales for the first 18 weeks of its current financial year, from May 1 to September 3, rose 3.5 per cent.
But the liquor market remained challenging, with subdued consumer demand and elevated competitive intensity.
Its wholesale sales to liquor stores were flat during the period, while wholesale sales to on-premise customers gained 5.1 per cent, for total sales growth of 0.8 per cent in its liquor business.
Supermarket sales have been resilient and tobacco sales have picked up amid Queensland’s crackdown on the black market.
“We’d have to say that Queensland’s led the way in terms of enforcement,” chief executive Doug Jones said.
“What we’ve seen is that in relation to our tobacco business, there has been a stronger recovery of tobacco as we’ve seen those enforcement actions being put into place across Queensland.”
Shares in Metcash fell 2.5 per cent to $2.88 in afternoon trading.
Australia Post boss denies misleading on closure plans
Australia Post’s boss has denied misleading a government committee by withholding plans to close scores of post offices, arguing they were in an “embryonic” stage.
In a heated hearing, chief executive Paul Graham said the leaked plan was a framework and wasn’t activated when he gave evidence to a hearing in May, and remains unactivated.
“I could talk about a hundred things that are in embryonic stages or ideas … that aren’t formal,” he told the Senate committee in Canberra on Wednesday.
The business case to “re-imagine” the post office network and licence arrangements was leaked in June, outlining potential plans to reshape Australia Post’s retail network, including shutting up to 36 metropolitan outlets in NSW and Victoria.
It also reportedly discussed pushing regional operators to give up their perpetual licenses as part of a “format conversions strategy”.
This often involves cutting services, relocating them to other businesses, or reducing outlets to parcel agencies or lockers.
The head of the government-owned letters and parcels business said his goal was to always be open and transparent, adding there’s no program currently in place to close down post offices.
“I was asked the question: Was there an active program?” Mr Graham said about his comments in May.
“And in my understanding of what an active program is, my answer was correct: there was no active program.”
Under parliamentary privilege, Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson, who uncovered the document, accused Mr Graham of misleading the upper house.
“I didn’t use the words ‘active program’; you did, Mr Graham,” she told him.
“You deliberately deceived our committee by using those sorts of tricky words.”
Post office licensees were largely kept in the dark about the plans and frozen out of consultation, their peak body said.
“We’ve got a leadership team that is focused on shrinking the network to meet the current business, rather than growing the business to fill this network,” Licensed Post Office Group chair Scott Etherington told the committee.
Post office closures were a death knell for small communities and businesses, as was the slow erosion of their services, he said.
“It’s absolutely critical for the economic survival and for the people who live in those communities that they have a full-service post office in that community,” Mr Etherington said.
He also called out Australia Post’s “voluntary” payment schemes, which provide support to struggling licensees who sign a fixed-term agreement and give up their permanent licenses.
“When I walk up to a man in the desert dying of thirst with a glass of water and I say, ‘It’s completely up to you whether you choose to take this glass of water,’ most people would say that’s not really a voluntary choice,” he said.
“And that’s exactly where we are.”
The licensee group wants a review of the financial viability of a services-led post office model and an immediate pause of the “reimagined” post office program.