Gear News of the Week: Samsung Sets a Date for Galaxy Unpacked, and Fitbit’s AI Coach Comes to iOS Leave a comment

Samsung will unveil its subsequent flagship smartphone lineup on February 25 at its Galaxy Unpacked occasion in San Francisco. The corporate despatched out invitations earlier this week. The occasion will start at 10 am Pacific (1 pm Jap), and it will be livestreamed right here.

Rumors abound that recommend the Galaxy S26 collection—which can embody the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Extremely—will not have any main adjustments from their predecessors. They will doubtless be powered by the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with some minor charging pace enhancements and minor upgrades to the digital camera {hardware}.

Synthetic intelligence options will doubtless sit on the forefront, doubtless with a couple of new Gemini tips. Nevertheless, one large new function is a privateness display screen constructed into the smartphone itself. It’s going to allow you to selectively block elements of the show from folks round you. Sadly, even with solely minor upgrades, there could also be a value enhance for these telephones stemming from the RAM scarcity. As regular, Samsung is letting you reserve a Galaxy S26 machine proper now. You may get a $30 credit score to make use of when preorders open up, and an opportunity to win a $5,000 present card at Samsung.com.

Do not count on to see a Galaxy S26 Edge. Samsung’s super-slim Edge cellphone from 2025 wasn’t a success, and leaks recommend a successor has been canceled. Nonetheless, the Edge debuted in Could 2025, so we might nonetheless see a follow-up round then. All we all know is that it doubtless will not make a displaying at this Unpacked occasion. Samsung often publicizes different merchandise exterior of smartphones, and this yr, which may be a brand new pair of Galaxy Buds wi-fi earbuds.

We’ll be on the bottom bringing the information to you reside.

Fitbit’s Private Well being Coach Arrives on iOS

{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu

Months after Fitbit’s Private Well being Coach launched in public preview for Android customers, the Gemini-powered well being service is now lastly obtainable to iOS customers. To strive it out, you need to have an energetic paid or trial Fitbit Premium subscription and a cellphone that runs iOS 16.4 or larger. (You possibly can take a look at the total listing of necessities right here.) Private Well being Coach can also be increasing to English audio system in different nations, together with the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

As I discussed in my preview of the service, I might be cautious of divulging an excessive amount of private well being info to a big company, even one which guarantees to not use it for promoting. I additionally discovered that it’s simple to begin consulting with the Coach for recommendation on each a part of your day, which your IRL household and buddies will discover bizarre and annoying. Nevertheless, it is the best, most useful, and most accommodating of the AI coach providers that I’ve tried to date, and $10/month for Fitbit Premium is cheaper than an actual operating coach. As all the time, your mileage (actually) might fluctuate. —Adrienne So

iOS 26.3 Makes It Simple to Swap to Android

{Photograph}: Simon Hill

Apple launched iOS 26.3 this week for the iPhone, and the new new function would possibly shock you. The corporate is making it simpler to modify to Android telephones, because of a collaboration with Google, which additionally just lately added an analogous function for switching from Android to iPhone.