Gear News of the Week: Samsung Sets a Date for Galaxy Unpacked, and Fitbit’s AI Coach Comes to iOS
Samsung will unveil its next lineup of flagship smartphones on February 25 at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco. The company sent out invitations earlier this week. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET and will be streamed live here.
Rumors abound that the Galaxy S26 series, which will include the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra, will feature no major changes from its predecessors. They will likely be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with some minor loading speed improvements and minor camera hardware upgrades.
Courtesy of Samsung
Artificial intelligence features will likely be at the forefront, probably with some new Gemini tricks. However, a big new feature is a privacy screen built into the smartphone itself. It will allow you to selectively block certain parts of the screen of people around you. Unfortunately, even with only minor upgrades, the price of these phones could increase due to lack of RAM. As usual, Samsung is now allowing you to reserve a Galaxy S26 device. You’ll get a $30 credit to use when pre-orders open and a chance to win a $5,000 gift card to Samsung.com.
Don’t expect to see a Galaxy S26 Edge. Samsung’s ultra-thin Edge phone of 2025 was not a success and leaks suggest a successor has been canceled. Nonetheless, the Edge debuted in May 2025, so we could still see a follow-up around that time. All we know is that it probably won’t be featured at this Unpacked event. Samsung usually announces other products aside from smartphones, and this year it could be a new pair of Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds.
We will be there to tell you the news live.
Fitbit’s personal health coach comes to iOS
Photography: Julian Chokkattu
A few months after Fitbit’s Personal Health Coach launched in public preview for Android users, the Gemini-powered health service is finally available for iOS users. To try it, you need to have an active Fitbit Premium subscription, paid or trial, and a phone running iOS 16.4 or later. (You can see the full list of requirements here.) Personal Health Coach also extends to English speakers in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
As I mentioned in my overview of the service, I would be wary of disclosing too much personal health information to a large company, even if they promise not to use it for advertising purposes. I also found it easy to start going to the coach for advice on every part of your day, which your IRL family and friends will find strange and annoying. However, he East the simplest, most useful, and most accommodating AI coach service I’ve tried so far, and $10/month for Fitbit Premium East cheaper than a real running coach. As always, your mileage (literally) may vary. —Adrienne So
iOS 26.3 makes it easier to switch to Android
Photography: Simon Hill
Apple released iOS 26.3 this week for the iPhone, and this new feature might surprise you. The company is making the switch to Android phones easier, thanks to a collaboration with Google, which also recently added a similar feature for switching from Android to iPhone.
