News

Samsung Galaxy Ring May Arrive In July With Eight Size Options

The wearable is currently in the prototype stage, with mass production slated to commence in the second quarter of 2024.

Published

3 years ago

February 22, 2024

Nour Nasir

samsung galaxy ring may arrive in july with eight size options

The Samsung Galaxy Ring made its debut at the January 2024 Galaxy Unpacked event. While specifics were withheld during the big reveal, recent industry reports indicate the Korean tech giant plans to unveil the eagerly anticipated wearable by late July.

Available in eight different sizes, the Galaxy Ring aims to ensure a comfortable fit for users. Currently, in the prototype stage, mass production is slated to commence in the second quarter of 2024.

Samsung is banking on the ring’s user-friendly design and durability to make waves in the healthcare wearables sector. Meanwhile, competition from Apple may be coming soon in the form of the Cupertino firm’s own smart ring for biometric health monitoring.

Also Read: Saudi Arabia Launches SpaceGuardian, An AI Satellite Imagery Project

Smart rings are receiving plenty of interest of late, offering versatile features for health and fitness monitoring in a small, discreet package. As the trend towards personal well-being grows, these devices provide a simple way to monitor vital health metrics like heart rate, sleep patterns, and activity levels.

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.