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Samsung Could Reveal New Galaxy S23 On February 1st
The tech giant’s Colombian website has inadvertently revealed the date of an upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung may have unintentionally confirmed that it will unveil next-generation flagship phones at the beginning of February, according to news from 9to5Google. The company’s Colombian website recently published a page that mentioned a Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled for February 1st, 2023, using the tagline “Epic Moments are Approaching” with the camera setup of the Galaxy S23 Ultra clearly showing.
Although several sources took screenshots of the page, the story is no longer viewable on the Columbian website. The announcement didn’t explicitly mention the upcoming Galaxy S23, but did show the flagship phone’s rumored triple-camera configuration. The teaser page’s color palette is also thought to give a hint towards the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra’s new colorways of green and lilac.
Previous Unpacked events have also taken place in early February, so this news confirms what we were already pretty certain about. In addition, further rumors suggest that the launch will take place in San Francisco.
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The upcoming smartphones will reportedly ditch Exynos chips in favor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC for all worldwide markets. The Korean tech giant typically equips USA, Asian and European models with different processors, so the new models will represent something of a departure.
Finally, one of the most hotly anticipated features of the new handsets are their upgraded cameras: The flagship Galaxy S23 will likely feature a huge 200-megapixel main camera, while the base models will still come with a 50-megapixel primary shooter.
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.
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.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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