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By Max A. Cherney and Kenrick Cai, Reuters Apple held an event Tuesday morning to showcase the new iPhone 16, Airpods and Apple Watch models. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP Apple unveiled updated Watches and AirPods at an event focused on its AI-enhanced iPhone 16, although Apple's product showcase risks being overshadowed by Chinese rival Huawei's tri-fold phone, unofficially announced earlier in the day. The Chinese company's website showed on Tuesday that it had garnered more than 3 million pre-orders for its Z-shaped tri-fold phone. This underscores Huawei's ability to navigate US sanctions and solidifies its position against Apple in China, where consumers are hankering for more AI features and are willing to pay for them. Apple shares were barely changed in early after...

Customers who want to return items bought online may face more charges, as some retailers have been adding up the costs Photo: NZ Post The decision by retailer ASOS to start charging shoppers for returns when they frequently want large refunds makes sense in a changing retail environment, commentators say. The large international clothing retailer announced it will charge UK shoppers £3.95 for returns unless they keep £40 of their order. In New Zealand, returns cost $8.99. Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young said the evolution of influencers had changed how people shopped, and many people now ordered large numbers of items online, only to return the majority. "If the retailer is paying for the freight it will impact on margins and profitability, together with double handlin...

IRD has been giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns. File photo. Photo: AFP Inland Revenue (IRD) has confirmed it will look into the safety of how it anonymises the taxpayers' details it provides to Facebook and other social media platforms. IRD is giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns, despite legal and computer experts saying it is not safe. It earlier said all the details were fully protected by anonymisation using a "hashing" process, in which letters are replaced by numbers. 'Hashing' substitutes long strings of letters and numbers for taxpayers' names, dates of birth, address, phone, and email contacts, which have been provided by IRD in lists of up to half ...