Samsung

A fancy person detection algorithm picks subjects to focus on, and crops video to track your favorite. Samsung is pitching it for fans and stans, but I suspect it’ll get more use at kids’ ballet recitals.

For the first time, Samsung’s three new foldables use silicon-carbon batteries, meaning higher capacity in a smaller space. Samsung says it’s focused on maintaining longevity and stability, sometimes worse with silicon cells, but that’s stopped it hitting the enormous capacities of rivals like Oppo and Honor.

The smart glasses come with Google’s Gemini AI on board and will debut this fall with the designs we first saw in May — plus these two new ones from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

We’ll be live shortly after the event ends, talking phones and watches and foldables and flippables and AI and everything else Samsung has to share today. Come hang, bring thoughts and questions, tell us whether wide fold or tall fold is the way. See you there!

By leveraging data sourced from a Galaxy smartphone, smartwatch, or smart ring, the new Samsung Health Assistant can help users better understand their health while also providing guidance and recommendations on how they can improve it through “meaningful changes in their lifestyle.” The assistant is now in beta for eligible users in the US.

So far it’s mostly teasing novel ways of slicing pizza, but presumably it’ll all make sense soon.

Android Authority spotted that a new version of the Galaxy Wearable app is rolling out with a simplified three-tab layout, refined UI, and new home tab with useful shortcuts to key watch settings. It’s presumably no coincidence that it lands the same day Samsung is due to launch new Galaxy Watches at Unpacked.

We’re just hours away from Samsung Unpacked and the leaks keep coming. The Z Fold 8 Ultra retains the Z Fold 7’s slim and tall design, but is said to come with an upgraded 5,000mAh battery promising up to 27 hours of video playback.

The Samsung Galaxy Card is issued on Visa by Barclays US Consumer Bank, with applications opening on July 22nd. Samsung says the card is available as both virtual and physical, metal cards, and that users can earn “a host of cash rewards and other benefits.” It’s essentially an Apple Card — launched seven years ago — but for people loyal to Samsung products.

A story posted to Instagram showed the BTS member holding a passport-shaped device that resembles recent Galaxy Z Fold 8 leaks, as spotted earlier by SamMobile. Samsung is expected to reveal this rumored device, alongside its other newest foldables, during Galaxy Unpacked on July 22nd.

Marketing materials for the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 have been shared online by leaker Evan Blass. The Galaxy Watch 9 reportedly features a Snapdragon Wear Elite chip, and is shown in three color options. The Watch Ultra 2 upgrades reportedly include a 800mAh battery and up to 5,000 nits of peak brightness.

First announced at CES, the latest version of Samsung’s all-in-one home theater solution is finally available through Samsung’s online store for $1,199.99. That’s a bit steep for 430 ISO lumens and a 1080P resolution when Xgimi’s latest portable does 1,600 ISO lumens for $799, but Samsung’s can correct for distortions on uneven projection surfaces like curtains.

Caviar is back with yet another ridiculously expensive device, and this time, it’s a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra with 24-karat gold plating, which is expected to appear at Galaxy Unpacked next week (sans the gold). As spotted by Engadget, Caviar doesn’t list any tech specs, but notes that its device starts with 256GB of storage.

Memory chip demand by AI datacenters continues to be very good for Samsung, and some of its workers who are eligible for average annual bonuses of $340,000 this year. Per Reuters:

All signs point to Samsung launching a wide version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 this month, and now the company has released its first teaser. There are video versions too, all along similar lines teasing a “new shape” from the company.

Leaked renders of the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 suggest not much is changing in Samsung’s new wearables, at least from the outside. There should be performance upgrades though, plus the bump to Samsung’s take on Wear OS 7. Expect both next month alongside new foldable phones.

Chipmaker SK Hynix, which supplies high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia and Google, has overtaken Samsung, with Reuters reporting that its market capitalization has now hit $1.35 trillion. Samsung had held the top spot since 2000, prior to the AI boom.

During the VivaTech 2026 conference in Paris, Samsung announced a new feature for its mobile devices created through a collaboration with the pet health management platform, Lifet. You’ll be able to snap a photo of your dog or cat which will be analyzed by AI to alert you to conditions like periodontal disease and obesity.

Sonny Dickson is back with what’s purported to be one of those non-working, physically accurate replicas used by accessory makers ahead of launch. The folding Galaxy’s passport-like design is set to take on Huawei’s Pura X Max and Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone later this year.

The deal will pay some workers in Samsung’s highly profitable memory chip unit around $416,000 this year, while employees in other chip units will receive less, and those in its consumer electronics divisions are ‌set ⁠to receive very little by comparison. Payouts are pegged to Samsung hitting profit milestones through 2028.

The new deal, still being voted on, ensures enormous bonuses for memory chip workers but much smaller payouts for everyone else. Two Samsung unions take issue with that: one says its members will vote against the deal, the other says it’s taking legal action after being denied the chance to vote.

Samsung is working on a new type of digital wellbeing feature for One UI 9 that lets you restrict internet access for certain apps. It seems to be pitched at boosting concentration, but could apply to parental controls too — though right now it’s a Labs feature that may not ever launch.