Morning Brief

1. iQOO launches its flagship performance phone, the 15 Ultra
2. xAI releases Grok Imagine 1.0
3. Alibaba Cloud Qwen team releases Qwen3-Coder-Next
4. Apple reminds users to upgrade the Home app
5. Microsoft to discontinue standalone OneDrive business subscriptions
6. Adobe cancels plans to discontinue Animate

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iQOO launches its flagship performance phone, the 15 Ultra

On February 4, the iQOO brand officially unveiled its performance-focused Ultra flagship, the iQOO 15 Ultra. Aimed at gamers and creators, the device is enhanced across four key areas—performance, controls, live streaming, and design—and comes in two color options: 2077 (Black) and 2049 (Silver).

The iQOO 15 Ultra is powered by the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, paired with LPDDR5X Ultra Pro memory and UFS 4.1 storage, offering configurations up to 24GB + 1TB. For cooling, it features a custom Ice Dome air-cooling system that combines airflow channels with an extra-large VC, along with the in-house esports chip Q3, enabling full-scene ray tracing, 2K native-resolution upscaling, and 120FPS frame interpolation. The display is a 2K Samsung “Zhufeng” panel supporting a dynamic refresh rate from 1 to 144Hz, with peak brightness reaching 8000 nits and Dolby Vision certification.

In terms of controls, the iQOO 15 Ultra adopts a system-level ultra-sensory control framework that integrates pressure-sensitive shoulder buttons, a gyroscope, and touch input. It also debuts the Warhammer MAX dual-axis haptic motors, paired with dual speakers and Dolby Atmos. The phone packs a 7400mAh Blue Ocean battery, supports IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, and includes Wi-Fi 7, an ultrasonic 3D fingerprint sensor, and support for 31 5G bands, including n79.

For imaging, the device features a rear triple-camera setup with three 50MP sensors and a 32MP front-facing camera. Both the main camera and the periscope telephoto support CIPA 4.5-level stabilization, and the system is powered by the NICE 3.0 imaging algorithm and the Magic 2.0 image restoration engine. Pricing starts at RMB 5,499 for the 16GB + 256GB version during the initial sales period (February 4 to February 12), with the 16GB + 512GB variant priced at RMB 5,999. Higher-end options include 16GB + 1TB at RMB 6,999 and 24GB + 1TB at RMB 7,699. Source

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xAI releases Grok Imagine 1.0

On February 2, the xAI team announced the release of its video generation tool Grok Imagine 1.0, describing it as the company’s “largest upgrade to date.” According to xAI, the new version has begun rolling out more broadly, and users can try it via the Imagine page on grok.com.

Grok Imagine 1.0 is xAI’s audio-and-video generative foundation model. It currently supports generating short videos of up to 10 seconds in length at a maximum resolution of 720p, and it “significantly improves” audio capabilities, with an emphasis on producing richer speech and soundtrack effects. Source

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Alibaba Cloud Qwen team releases Qwen3-Coder-Next

On February 4, Alibaba Qwen announced the release of Qwen3-Coder-Next, an open-weight language model purpose-built for coding agents and local development. The model is built on Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Base and adopts a new architecture that combines hybrid attention with Mixture-of-Experts (MoE). Through large-scale executable task synthesis, environment interaction, and reinforcement learning for agent training, the model delivers strong programming and agent capabilities while significantly reducing inference costs.

Qwen3-Coder-Next is now available on ModelScope and Hugging Face. Source

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Apple reminds users to upgrade the Home app

Recently, Apple sent a notice to Apple Home users, reminding them to complete an upgrade of the Home app by February 10, 2026. Users who do not complete the upgrade may encounter issues with smart accessories and automation scenes failing to run properly, and may even be unable to access their smart home devices within the app.

In addition, users who do not upgrade will be unable to use new features such as robot vacuum support, and will miss out on important security patches and performance optimizations.

To upgrade, open the Home app, tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner to enter Home Settings, then select Software Update → Update Now, and follow the on-screen instructions. Source

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Microsoft to discontinue standalone OneDrive business subscriptions

On February 3, Microsoft confirmed in updated support documentation that it plans to remove the standalone low-priced subscription offerings for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online (Plan 1 and Plan 2). These plans do not include core productivity apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but have been attractive to users with limited budgets who only need specific features.

Microsoft plans to stop selling these standalone products to new customers in May 2026, and will disable renewals for existing users in June. The official end-of-life (EOL) date for current subscriptions is January 2027, with Microsoft planning to fully end all technical support for these products in December 2029, at which point the related services will be completely taken offline. Source

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Adobe Cancels Plans to Discontinue Animate

Following opposition from multiple parties, Adobe stated in a FAQ published on February 4 that Animate, which was previously slated for full discontinuation, will instead enter maintenance mode. Animate will continue to receive ongoing security updates and vulnerability fixes, and both existing and new users will be able to keep using the software. However, no new features will be introduced going forward. Source