Victoria Song

Don’t take my word for it — I interviewed Jason Valley, a visually impaired Verge reader, for this week’s Vergecast. Jason tells me how he uses the Ray-Ban Meta glasses as a visual interpreter, and how the Live AI feature has helped him live a more independent life after losing much of his sight. I also chat with Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley about why accessible design is universal design. Watch the full episode here.

Sigh. Oh well. That’s a wrap. I guess BTS is just out of the military, and Stray Kids already finished their North American tour. Sob. Well, at least we had the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack blasting earlier.

The crowd has been relatively quiet thus far, but Gemini on the wrist got some claps, woos, and enthusiasm from the crowd. Gemini isn’t just coming to the Galaxy Watch 8 series though; It’s rolling out to compatible Wear OS watches — the Galaxy Watch 8 series is just the first to get it out of the box, without relying on a software update.

Samsung is highlighting the acquisition of Xealth to enable connected healthcare so that physicians can see your wearable metric data. This is essentially telehealth, and signaling where Samsung’s head is at for its overall wearable and health tech strategy. To quote Xealth’s CEO just now: A “bridge between wellness and healthcare that allows digital health to scale.”

We just got a big video about the Running Coach feature on the Galaxy Watch 8 series. “If you’re a runner, this definitely made you want to run.” As a runner, I plead the fifth. But we do have Jacob Kiplimo, the half-marathon world record holder onstage now sporting a Galaxy Watch. Blink, Jacob, if you need our help.

You can read everything that’s up in my hands-on, but here in the Unpacked warehouse, we were just treated to a light show and a 50-foot SQUIRCLE view of the Galaxy Watch 8 and 8 Classic. “These aren’t just pretty faces,” Samsung says. They’re calling it a “cushion system” but I’m telling you this is a SQUIRCLE.

They should’ve just done a livefeed of Allison liveblogging. Do I want a $2,000 foldy phone now? I think I do? Am I losing it? I can’t get over it.

Samsung has been highlighting creators and their work throughout this keynote. We just saw one video from a creator highlighting the new blue color of the Z Fold 7. (It’s very blue and fetching.) There was even an influencer sign at check-in, and they have their own prime seating inside Duggal Greenhouse while several tech journalists were scrambling to find a single seat. It’s a new era, man.