News

All The Latest Tech Unveiled At Samsung Unpacked 2024

The South Korean tech giant has revealed a new Galaxy Ring, two Galaxy Watches, and a new foldable smartphone.

Published

2 years ago

July 11, 2024

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Yesterday’s Samsung’s Unpacked event revealed several new devices from the South Korean tech powerhouse, including a new foldable, two smartwatches, and the company’s long-rumored Galaxy Ring.

Here are the standout details of some of those gadgets:

Samsung Galaxy Ring

samsung galaxy ring

Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Ring was revealed at the recent Unpacked event. As expected, it focuses heavily on health insights, most notably using AI to monitor sleep cycles. The lightweight ring is designed to be worn all the time and has a decent battery life of around a week.

You can pre-order the Galaxy Ring today, with full availability on July 24.

Pricing starts at $399.99.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra

samsung galaxy watch ultra

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra is squarely aimed at Apple’s device of the same name. The new watch offers increased battery life, superior durability, and detailed fitness and health tracking. Interestingly, the device also has a sleep apnea sensor that detects mild-to-severe breathing issues during a user’s sleep.

Galaxy Watch Ultra pre-orders have already opened, with full availability on July 24.

Pricing starts at $649.99.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7

samsung galaxy watch 7

Priced at $299.99, the new Galaxy Watch 7 is Samsung’s more affordable timepiece. Despite the lower price point, the smartwatch still features the AI-powered sleep tools featured in the Galaxy Ring. The Watch 7 can also take body composition snapshots and is said to feature a much more accurate GPS chip.

The Galaxy Watch 7 will be released alongside the Galaxy Watch Ultra on July 24.

Pricing starts at $649.99.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

samsung galaxy fold 6

Although Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event didn’t show off any new flagship smartphones, we did get a new foldable in the form of the Z Fold 6. Google Gemini AI is integrated into the phone, and can help with scheduling, task and travel planning, plus transcribe meeting notes.

As for hardware, the latest Fold is being treated to a minor update for 2024. The device runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, while the chassis (and screen) are now a few millimeters shorter and wider. Other small tweaks include a new brushed metal finish and updated colorways, while the camera and battery remain the same as on the outgoing model.

Like the rest of Samsung’s new lineup, The Z Fold 6 is available for pre-order now, with general release on July 24 — though you’ll have to fork out a hefty $1,899.99!

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 days 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.