News

Garmin Reveals First Running Watches With AMOLED Displays

The range-topping Forerunner 965 will cost $600 when released in late March, while the 265 model launches today for $450.

Published

4 years ago

March 3, 2023

Nour Nasir

Garmin

Garmin has unveiled two new GPS smartwatches with AMOLED displays: the Forerunner 965 and 265 series. The timepieces are labeled as dedicated running watches and provide “advanced training metrics” for athletes, heart-rate variability (HRV), sleep quality, training load and more.

The high-end Forerunner 965 model comes with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display, a decent 31 hours of GPS-mode battery life and up to 23 days of use as a smartwatch. The flagship model of the series features additional performance stats over the cheaper 265, including training load ratio, stamina info and detailed climbing metrics (including gradient, distance and elevation).

The Forerunner 265 Series comes in two sizes (42mm and 46mm) and holds out for 24 hours in GPS mode or 15 days in smartwatch mode.

All of the watches in the series use Pulse Ox sensors, and offer “Body Battery” monitoring, sleep and stress stats, menstrual cycle and pregnancy tracking. As well as featuring adaptive training options and suggested workouts, the Garmin 965 and 265 both monitor v02 max and other important performance metrics.

Also Read: Best Music Streaming Services In The Middle East

The Forerunner 965 will cost $600 when it hits stores in “late March”, while the cheaper Forerunner 265 is available now for $450.

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

6 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.