Wearable

When the Pixel Watch 4 design leaked looking thicker than we’re used to, we figured Google was doubling down on battery.

If you missed anything from Samsung’s big event earlier this week, we’ve got the highlights for you to watch right here, along with our first impressions of the new Fold / Flip and Galaxy Watch 8 series.

The OpenAI CEO wore a pair of bold glasses while talking to reporters at the Sun Valley conference, and he says they aren’t smart glasses and that he doesn’t like the form factor. Altman briefly teased OpenAI’s upcoming hardware, but only to say that “it’s going to be great.”

Some images that reportedly show the new Galaxy Watch 8 (40mm/44mm dial size), Watch 8 Classic (46mm), and Watch Ultra (47mm) have leaked ahead of the Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday, where they’re expected to be officially unveiled. The round body of the Watch and Watch Classic has notably been updated to the round watch face and squircle body design used by the Ultra, alongside other changes and specification upgrades.

It’ll cost a combined $149.99 a year, which is roughly 60 percent cheaper than if you were buying both separately. This makes a ton of sense given that Strava announced it had acquired Runna back in April. The caveats are that the bundle is only on an annual basis — no monthly option — and you have to buy through Strava’s app. The good news is that there are refund / subscription extension options if you’re already a Runna or Strava subscriber.

Remember the first voice assistant I ever wanted to talk to twice? It’s headed by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, and it just hired Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell as chief product officer. They go way back: Mitchell joined Iribe’s Scaleform in 2009, they worked together at Autodesk and Gaikai (where we met), then co-founded Oculus. Now they’re hiring for AI glasses with, apparently, next-gen embedded OS.

The upgraded Quatix 8 starts at $1,199.99 for the 47mm model, offering an AMOLED display with a scratch-resistant sapphire lens, titanium bezel, and up to 16 days of battery life (or up to 29 days on the $1,299.99 51mm option).

The strength-training startup had a funny campaign last year, ribbing Peloton for allegedly copying the Ladder app for its Strength Plus app. Now it’s flexing that it poached Peloton instructor Jennifer Jacobs (who Peloton originally poached from Ladder) and offering Peloton members a three-month, all access subscription. Word has it Ladder is also planning to send trucks with digital billboards outside Peloton’s NY headquarters advertising the campaign.

That’s according to CNET, which interviewed Hon Pak, Samsung’s head of digital health, about new features coming to One UI 8 Watch, including an AI running coach and a non-invasive antioxidant level check that might be impressive if it actually does what it claims.

In addition to their discussion of what happened with AI Siri, Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak talked about how an Apple Watch might fit into Apple’s AI device plans, if Apple is working on a foldable (“who’s to say?”), and if iPhone prices will go up due to tariffs (“nothing to announce”). It’s worth watching.

The company’s first chief technology officer (CTO), Francis Shanahan, has a remit “to focus on artificial intelligence efforts,” announced alongside a new head of marketing. New-ish CEO Peter Stern has already said AI “has the potential to give humans superpowers,” which in Peloton’s case so far means personalized workout plans and AI-powered subtitles for classes.

Developers are already barred from publishing new AndroidX or Wearable Support Library on the Play Store, and starting January 14th, 2026, users will no longer be able to install new legacy watch faces, nor will developers be able to publish updates for them, Google says.