News

Apple’s California Streaming Event Is Set To Take Place On September 14

The online event will be broadcasted from Apple Park, Apple’s corporate headquarters.

Published

5 years ago

September 9, 2021

Joanna Melki

Apple

After weeks of intense speculation and rumors, Apple has finally announced that its next special event will take place on Tuesday, September 14 at at 1 PM ET. The event is called California Streaming, and it will be broadcasted from Apple Park, the corporate headquarters of Apple.

The event invitation page shows a glowing Apple logo floating over a lake against a darkening sky. The logo hides a clever Easter egg that you can reveal by tapping it on an ARKit-compatible iOS device. When you do that, the ARKit viewer pops up, rendering an augmented reality version of the logo over your surroundings. You can then zoom into the logo and enter the image on the invitation page. Pretty cool stuff!

iPhone 13 Will Be The Star Of The Show

It’s no secret that Apple will introduce a new iPhone at this year’s fall event. Apple’s ‌iPhone 13‌ models (a 5.4-inch ‌iPhone 13‌ mini, a 6.1-inch ‌iPhone 13‌, a 6.1-inch ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro, and a 6.7-inch ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro Max) are expected to be very similar to the iPhone 12 models that were released last year.

The biggest change will likely be the 120Hz ProMotion display, but Apple will almost certainly reserve it for the Pro models. Besides a high refresh rate screen, Apple customers can look forward to a smaller notch, the A15 chip, faster 5G technology, and improved cameras.

More Announcements To Look Forward To

Besides the refresh of the entire iPhone lineup, the California Streaming event is expected to introduce the first redesign of the Apple Watch in years. Thanks to a new lamination technique, the Apple Watch Series 7 will bring the display closer to the cover glass, making it look even more stunning than before.

The AirPods 3 have reportedly been in mass production since August, so the event provides the perfect opportunity for their introduction. Their design is rumored to be much closer to the AirPods Pro, and they may get active noise cancellation to make the redesign feel more justified.

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.