News

Apple’s New Wireless Chips Tighten Its Grip On The iPhone

The iPhone Air debuts Apple’s C1X and N1 chips, boosting 5G, Wi-Fi 7 and efficiency — another step toward full control of iPhone components.

Published

12 months ago

September 10, 2025

Nour Nasir

Apple

Apple used the launch of the iPhone Air to debut two in-house wireless chips — the C1X modem and N1 wireless processor — a move that signals its long-term plan to control every major component inside the iPhone.

The C1X modem handles sub-6GHz 5G and 4G LTE, doubling the performance of the C1 modem first seen in the iPhone 16e. Apple says it delivers those gains while drawing 30% less power — critical for the iPhone Air, which runs on a slimmer battery than other models. The company also made a pointed comparison: the C1X is faster than the Qualcomm modem inside last year’s iPhone 16 Pro, at least for equivalent cellular standards.

The N1 chip takes over Wi-Fi duties and adds Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread for smart-home accessories. Together, the C1X and N1 pair with the new A19 Pro processor. Instead of a raw spec string, the A19 Pro brings more CPU and GPU headroom alongside a larger Neural Engine — enough to put pro-class power into Apple’s thinnest handset yet.

Also Read: Apple’s iPhone 17 Launch: Air, Pro, AirPods Pro 3, And More

Beyond this year’s redesign, the chips show Apple’s steady push away from external suppliers. Reports last year suggested the company’s ultimate aim is a single combined modem-processor, though that’s still some way off. For now, the iPhone Air illustrates the trade-off: thinner design, more wireless range, and less reliance on anyone else’s silicon.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.