Apple’s biggest iPhone announcements usually happen in September, but for the second year in a row, the company is also introducing a new iPhone in March. The iPhone 17e is a new version of Apple’s basic no-frills iPhone, replacing last year’s iPhone 16e. The phone will be available to preorder on March 4 and will be available on March 11, starting at $599.

The new iPhone includes an Apple A19 chip similar to the one in the more-expensive iPhone 17—both phones have six CPU cores, but the 17e only gets four GPU cores instead of five. The phone’s cellular modem is also upgraded, from the original Apple C1 to an Apple C1X capable of faster speeds. Like the A18 in the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 17e also supports Apple Intelligence, implying that it has the same 8GB of RAM as the iPhone 17. Apple says the new Ceramic Shield 2 front glass (also used in the iPhone 17) will be more durable and that the “Apple-designed coating” on the display is three times more scratch-resistant than the coating on the iPhone 16e and better at reducing reflections and glare.

But there are two more-noticeable upgrades that help close the gap between the iPhone 17e and the regular iPhone 17. The first is support for MagSafe charging, a notable omission from the iPhone 16e. The second is an upgrade from 128GB to 256GB of storage in the base model, which makes the $599 version of the phone a more attractive deal. A 512GB version of the phone is available for $799.

The iPhone 17e will support MagSafe, which was notably absent from the 16e.

Credit: Apple

The 17e comes in three color options: black, white, and a pastel pink. It still includes a USB-C port, a notched display rather than a Dynamic Island, an Action Button, a 6.1-inch 60 Hz OLED display without ProMotion or always-on support, and a single 48 megapixel rear camera (which is still capable of taking 2x telephoto images by cropping a 24 MP chunk out of the middle of the image sensor).

The biggest problem with the iPhone 17e is still that it’s just $200 cheaper than the iPhone 17, which is an exceptionally strong version of Apple’s default phone. That $200 gets you a better main camera, a wide-angle lens, a slightly larger 6.3-inch display with ProMotion support and a Dynamic Island, and marginally faster graphics performance. But the 17e’s 256GB storage upgrade and the new chip do make it more appealing than the $699 iPhone 16, which also lacks a ProMotion display and only has 128GB of storage.

The new phone is part of a string of announcements that Apple is planning in the run-up to a “special experience” event on Wednesday morning. The company also announced a new iPad Air with an M4 chip today and is also widely expected to debut a new low-end iPad and a new MacBook that’s substantially cheaper than the MacBook Air.

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Posted Tuesday 3 March 2026 at 5:07 am AEST (my time).

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The Snapdragon Wear Elite Platform will support Wear OS by Google, Android, and Linux. Qualcomm is also bringing on-device AI to wearables with a dedicated NPU. Powered by the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, the platform can run up to billion-parameter models for real-time, agentic experiences. Qualcomm claims 5x higher single-core CPU performance and up to 7x faster GPU performance, which should translate into faster app launches, smoother performance, and improved responsiveness.

Despite the big performance jump, Qualcomm says Snapdragon Wear Elite can deliver 30% longer battery life compared to the previous generation. With fast charging, wearables based on the platform can reach a 50% charge in about 10 minutes.

On connectivity, Snapdragon Wear Elite introduces a “multi-mode” architecture that includes 5G RedCap, Micro-Power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, GNSS, and NB-NTN:

• 5G RedCap: low-power cellular connectivity
• Micro-Power Wi-Fi: always-on Wi-Fi at significantly lower power
• Bluetooth 6.0: improved proximity-aware interactions
• UWB: precise short-range proximity interactions
• GNSS: accurate location context
• NB-NTN: satellite-based two-way messaging

“By integrating a cutting-edge 3nm architecture with an industry-leading suite of connectivity solutions—including the first-of-its-kind hexa-connectivity system—this platform provides the raw horsepower and persistent reliability required to drive next-generation intelligent devices for both consumers and enterprises,” Qualcomm said in the product brief.

The first wearables powered by Snapdragon Wear Elite are expected to be revealed in the coming months. Until now, Samsung’s recent Galaxy Watch models have not used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear platforms. They’ve mostly relied on Samsung’s own Exynos wearable chips. But today, Samsung announced that this new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform will be powering the next-generation Galaxy Watch.

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Posted Tuesday 3 March 2026 at 5:06 am AEST (my time).

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Here’s what to expect from both devices.

Base iPad (12th Generation) Gets A18 and Apple Intelligence

The entry-level iPad is reportedly in line for one of its most significant upgrades in years.

The most notable change is the move to the A18 chip, which would bring Apple Intelligence support to the base iPad for the first time. Right now, it is the only iPad in Apple’s lineup that does not support Apple’s AI features.

With the A18, users can expect:

• Full Apple Intelligence support in iPadOS 26
• Access to upcoming Siri improvements
• Improved performance for everyday tasks
• Increased RAM, reportedly moving from 6GB to 8GB

Another likely change is the addition of Apple’s new N1 wireless chip, first introduced with the iPhone 17 lineup. The chip enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread support, and improved reliability for features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop, while the overall design is expected to remain largely unchanged, aside from the possibility of new color options.

iPad Air Moves From M3 to M4 With No Design Changes

The iPad Air is also expected to get an internal upgrade, moving from the M3 chip introduced last year to Apple’s newer M4 processor.

While no major design changes are expected, the M4 chip should deliver:

• Improved performance in iPadOS 26
• Better handling of AI tasks
• Enhanced performance for professional apps
• Greater efficiency under sustained workloads

The iPad Air is likely to continue offering 11-inch and 13-inch size options with Touch ID. Apple may also bring the N1 wireless chip to the Air lineup, with cellular variants potentially adopting a C1X modem.

No Other iPad Models Are Coming Yet

Other iPad models are not expected to see updates next week. The iPad mini is rumored to receive an OLED display later this year, while a new iPad Pro refresh is not anticipated until 2027.

Apple’s event next week should confirm the final specifications, pricing, and availability.

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Posted Sunday 1 March 2026 at 7:17 am AEST (my time).

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The search giant also said that the platform is quickly moving towards its Platform Stability milestone, which is set to be reached in March. This will see Google provide the final SDK and NDK APIs, allowing developers to finalize their apps for a stable release in June 2026.

For a long time now, Android has supported chat buttons that give you fast access to conversations across apps. With this latest beta, bubbles are now available for any application just by long-pressing the launcher icon. On tablets and foldable devices, a new bubble bar within the taskbar will allow for easier organization and movement between anchored points on the screen.

Also in this update, Google has improved pointer capture compatibility to treat touchpad movements and scrolling gestures as mouse events by default. This will significantly improve the experience for first-person games. The search giant notes that developers can still opt for absolute mode if they require raw finger-location data rather than relative movement.

Google has also improved security for One-Time Passwords (OTPs) by implementing a mandatory three-hour delay on SMS access for apps that aren’t the intended recipient or the default SMS handler. This will help to stop OTP hijacking by ensuring only verified domains can programmatically read verification codes right after codes have been delivered.

Another security improvement is the introduction of the ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK permission which stops apps from scanning local area networks without user consent. This helps to prevent covert tracking and fingerprinting risks. Going forward, apps should now use system-mediated device pickers or request explicit runtime permissions to keep communicating with smart home and casting hardware.

Google says that developers should start compiling their apps against SDK 37 now to test for app-breaking changes. Following the March stability milestone, developers will be able to push their updated apps to the Google Play Store, ahead of the general availability launch. For end users enrolled in the Android Beta program, Beta 2 will be rolled out over-the-air automatically.

If you are in the Beta program and want to go back to Android 16 QPR3 without a data wipe, you must do this before installing this update as the next change for a seamless exit from the Beta program won’t happen until June 2026 next time.

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Posted Saturday 28 February 2026 at 4:58 am AEST (my time).

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The smartphone industry could experience a record-breaking decline in 2026 as a result of the RAM shortage stemming from memory-hungry AI giants. That’s according to the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC), which forecasts smartphone shipments to plummet 12.9 percent this year, marking its “lowest annual shipment volume in more than a decade.”

At the same time, the average selling price for smartphones is set to hit new highs, with IDC predicting a 14 percent increase to a record $523. “While memory prices are projected to stabilize by mid-2027, they are unlikely to return to previous level,” IDC senior researcher Nabila Popal says, adding that the sub-$100 phone segment will become “permanently uneconomical.” Next week, Apple is rumored to announce a new edition of its budget smartphone as the “iPhone 17e,” which could give a hint about where things are going.

The RAM shortage is going to affect much more than just smartphones as big AI companies like Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, and Google continue to buy up most of the available memory chips for use in AI datacenters. We’re already seeing the immediate impact of the shortage with price hikes coming for devices from Raspberry Pi, Framework, and even Samsung, but reports suggest that the crunch may push back the launch of certain products, like the PlayStation 6 and Meta’s next headset.

The memory shortage is expected to impact budget-friendly Android smartphones the most, as the rising costs of components leave them with “no choice but to pass the costs on to end users,” Francisco Jeronimo, the vice president for IDC’s Worldwide Client Devices, says in the report. That could result in smaller brands exiting the industry, while allowing Apple and Samsung to grab more market share, according to Popal.

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 12:02 pm AEST (my time).

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Magnet rings have changed my life. I grip and mount and satisfyingly snap awesome accessories on and off my phone all day. Even Samsung sells neat ones, like these folding magnetic mirrors. But unlike Apple and Google, Samsung refuses to put the magnets inside the phone.

Why? I asked Samsung’s Won-Joon Choi, the executive in charge of both R&D and operations for Samsung’s mobile business. He says the added thickness of magnets is a bad tradeoff to make, because you’re just going to buy a case anyhow.

“About 80 or 90 percent of people are using a case, and cases with magnets are very popular these days,” he tells me.

Samsung would rather use that extra height to give the phone a larger battery or make it thinner, he says.

That doesn’t mean Samsung isn’t looking into magnets. “We’re still doing a lot of research to make sure we don’t have any sacrifice inside the phone; when we actually achieve that, we’ll integrate,” he says.

Personally, I disagree with Choi’s premise. I want extra battery and magnets, and I’m willing to sacrifice thinness to get it. Phones are thin enough already, except for the ones that fold.

And if Samsung took charge of the magnets like Apple, and replicated Apple’s standard pattern and strength, maybe the magnet case I use with my Galaxy S25 would properly and firmly hold onto magnetic battery packs without them rotating in place. Since there’s no magnets inside my phone, I’m at the mercy of casemakers.

But I get it. Why make the tradeoff if someone will pay for a case anyhow? Seems like we need to ask Apple and Google why they chose differently.

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 12:02 pm AEST (my time).

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The Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are “more of the same for more money,” my colleague Allison Johnson reported this week. Now, Samsung is confirming what we previously only suspected: RAMageddon is partly to blame.

Samsung’s Won-Joon Choi, the COO of its mobile business, tells The Verge that the memory shortage alone made a “significant contribution” to the price. All the increasing material costs factored into the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus costing $100 more than their predecessors this year, as did tariffs, but the memory was “significant,” he tells me.

The S26 does come with double the storage this year at its higher price, with 256GB rather than 128GB, though its $899 price tag is still $40 higher than an S25 with 256GB cost at launch. And though tariffs may have been a factor as well, Samsung has hiked the price in other regions too, not just the United States. The pricier S26 Ultra does come with intriguing upgrades, however, including a built-in privacy screen and the largest vapor chamber cooling system in a phone.

Samsung chip partner Qualcomm warned in its February quarterly results that it was seeing a big dip in its handset business “100 percent” due to the memory shortage, telling investors that the AI industry’s appetite for components would likely define the entire scale of the phone industry all year long.

And today, IDC is forecasting the largest drop ever recorded in worldwide smartphone shipments, a dip of 12.9 percent, across 2026. “What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry,” writes IDC.

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 12:01 pm AEST (my time).

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To invoke this new feature, users simply have to long-press the power button and ask Gemini to perform tasks like booking a ride home through a ridesharing service or ordering groceries for a meal using a service like DoorDash. Based on the query, Gemini will work in the background to complete the tasks using the respective apps, allowing users to continue using their smartphones for other tasks.

Google highlighted that this feature is built with safety and privacy capabilities. For example, users can check on Gemini’s progress live whenever required via notifications, allowing them to view, jump in, or stop the task. For instance, if you have assigned a task to shop for groceries on Instacart, you can take over the process yourself while Gemini is in the middle of shopping.

Gemini performs the task by running the required app in a virtual window. Consequently, Gemini can only access limited apps and not the entire smartphone. Initially, this beta feature will work with select apps in the food, grocery, and rideshare categories. In the future, based on feedback, Google will expand it to more apps and devices.

You can check out the feature in action in the video below.

Your "usual" is now just a tap away. ☕️🍕Starting as a beta feature, Gemini can assist you with tasks across select rideshare and food apps. Just ask Gemini to handle your grocery cart, food delivery, or ride home. Gemini does the work, but you’re in control 🪄 pic.twitter.com/fjfsDXDx7m

 

— Android (@Android) February 25, 2026

This new Gemini agentic capability will be available as a beta feature in the Gemini app for Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series initially in the US, and Korea.

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 6:12 am AEST (my time).

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The Xbox mobile app from Microsoft had a hiccup earlier today, sending out a blast of messages to users that it certainly didn't intend to do. If you're someone who was on the receiving end of this and was afraid of something happening with your Microsoft/Xbox account, Microsoft has now confirmed that this was an error on their part and that they are investigating.

Phones with the official Xbox app installed on them were the unfortunate target of this spam, which simply said, "This is a dummy message sent via Braze, please capture a screenshot once you receive it. This should take you to the recently added gallery."

While it doesn't look like everyone with the app was affected, enough were hit by the sudden notification barrage to make it a hot topic on social media.

Users reported dozens of these notifications landing on their phones over a small period of time earlier today, February 25, while some had only received an annoying few. Several posts even show that Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game artwork was attached to the messages.

Microsoft responded to the test message spam later, saying its engineers are working to find out what happened:

We are aware that some users have received errant messaging through the Xbox Mobile App. Apologies for this inconvenience. Currently, our engineering teams are working to identify the underlying cause of these notifications.

Brazen, the service mentioned in the spammed message, is an AI-powered customer engagement platform that can deliver targeted and personalized notifications to users. It looks like internal messages meant for a test environment integrating the AI system into the Xbox app had accidentally gone out of their way and ended up in real users' phones.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 11:44 am AEST (my time).

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TM Roh opened the event by calling the Galaxy S26 an "agentic phone," which immediately set the tone for the rest of the keynote. We saw over a dozen new AI features at the event, some are new, some are improvements of existing capabilities, so we've got a lot to unpack.

Here are all the AI features Samsung showcased today:

Now Nudge is an AI agent that runs in the background of a Samsung Galaxy phone. Its purpose is to handle a broader context of what's happening on your screen by allowing different apps to "talk" to one another. For example, if a friend texts you about evening plans, Galaxy AI checks your calendar, spots any conflicts, and shows a pop-up with the relevant info right there in the conversation. You're not even required to switch apps; it all happens automatically.

Now Brief brings AI capabilities to your personalized morning summaries. It also scans multiple apps on your phone for all the events you have planned for the day. It then shows a systemized brief of your reminders, reservations, travel updates, and all the things you'd otherwise piece together by manually checking three different apps.

Circle to Search gets a meaningful upgrade. It already lets you circle a single object to kick off a search; now you can circle multiple items at once. And it works across different purposes, for example, you can circle an outfit of a person on a photo, and it'll find where you can buy that piece.

Photo Assist is Samsung's way of integrating AI into its Gallery app. It allows users to edit their photos by writing prompts. You can swap clothes, restore missing parts of an object, change night to day, and more. Basically, anything that can be done with other in-app AI image editors.

Creative Studio is another AI feature for the Gallery app, which allows you to change the style of your photos. For example, you can turn your selfie into an oil painting or maybe an anime character. Once again, nothing that's exclusive to Samsung devices, since you can do this with almost any AI.

Document Scan is actually one of the more underrated features of Samsung's AI suite. It turns messy document scans into a clean PDF automatically. The AI cleans up distortions, creases, and stray fingers from multi-image scans. Anyone who's ever tried to scan a crumpled receipt knows how much a feature like this can be useful.

Bixby gets its biggest overhaul in a while. The assistant now handles natural language device control, meaning you can adjust settings by just describing what you want rather than knowing where exactly to look in the menus. Samsung also confirmed the integration of Google's Gemini 3 and Perplexity, which allows users to choose between different AI models to handle their tasks.

The broader agentic AI layer ties this together. You can allow multiple AI agents to talk to one another. For example, you can ask Perplexity to perform research on, let's say, the best restaurants in your area, which will do the search for you and then pass that info to Gemini to make a reservation.

On the privacy side, AI Call Screening identifies and summarizes unknown callers, while Privacy Alerts surface real-time notifications when apps are accessing your data suspiciously.

And finally, we're rounding things out with AI improvements for the camera. Upgraded Nightography now covers video, too, which should result in less grainy nighttime videos. The AI ISP, which previously only processed rear camera shots, now runs on the front camera as well, so the same level of detail and natural skin tones you'd get shooting with the main lens applies to selfies and video calls.

ProScaler upscales content on the display itself, so you should be able to play videos at lower resolutions without losing sharpness. This could be useful if you're trying to save some data, as you won't have to play videos in 4K for them to look decent.

And for anyone shooting professional footage, the S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy phone to support the APV codec, enabling near-lossless 8K video capture at high bit rates. Samsung even shot the entire Unpacked event with an S26 Ultra. Although with some extra gear attached to it. I'll just show you the picture of their setup, and you be the judge of how this would compare to a real-life, everyday scenario:

That's about it. It's a lot of features to absorb in one sitting. Some of them are genuinely useful, some are, well... I'm sure they'll find their target audience, too.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 11:38 am AEST (my time).

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There used to be countless companies making flagship Android phones, but a combination of factors has narrowed the field over time. Today, Samsung is the undisputed king of the Android device ecosystem with its Galaxy S line. So we can safely assume today’s Unpacked has revealed the most popular Android phones for the next year—the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26.

Samsung didn’t swing for the fences this time around, producing phones with a few cosmetic tweaks and upgraded internals. Meanwhile, Samsung is investing even more in AI, saying the S26 series includes the first “Agentic AI phones.” Despite limited hardware upgrades, the realities of component prices in the age of AI mean the prices of the two cheaper models have gone up by $100 this year. The Ultra remains at an already eye-watering $1,300.

Faster and more private

Looking at the Galaxy S26 family, you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart from last year’s phones. The camera surround is different, and the measurements of the smallest and largest phone are ever so slightly different. You probably won’t be able to tell just by looking, but the S26 Ultra has regressed from titanium to aluminum, a reversion Apple also made with its latest high-end phones. This phone also retains its S Pen stylus.

These phones will again have the latest Snapdragon flagship processor (in North America, Japan, and China) with customizations exclusive to Samsung. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy is a 3 nm chip with third-gen Oryon CPU cores, an Adreno 840 GPU, and a powerful Hexagon NPU for on-device AI processing. Samsung promises double-digit performance gains across the board, which is what we hear every year.

Samsung flagship phones have extremely fast hardware, so they benchmark well. However, they also tend to heat up and throttle quickly during sustained use. Perhaps that won’t be as much of a problem with the S26 series. Samsung says it has implemented its largest vapor chamber ever to better control temperatures.

The batteries have also been redesigned for greater efficiency and charging speed, but the base model is the only one that saw a capacity boost (4,000 to 4,300 mAh). Charging speeds have gotten a much-needed increase at the Ultra level. Samsung has only said you can now get a 75 percent charge in 30 minutes using its most expensive phone—it peaks at 60 W, up from 45 W for the last Ultra.

Samsung has been using the same camera sensors for a few cycles now, and it’s not changing anything major this time around. The Ultra still has four cameras (including two telephotos) that top out with the 200 MP primary, and the S26+ and base model still have three cameras with a 50 MP primary. The apertures on the Ultra sensors are a bit wider to allow for brighter photos in challenging conditions. More interesting, though, is the option to record high-quality 8K video directly to an external drive. The S26 also brings support for the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec.

While the display specs haven’t changed much, they are home to the phone’s most notable new feature: Privacy Display. As smartphone screens have improved, they have emphasized high brightness and wide viewing angles, which is what you want most of the time. However, that also makes it easy for people nearby to see what’s on your screen. With one tap, the S26 can make it harder for shoulder surfers to see what you’re doing.

Privacy Display prevents shoulder surfers from peeking at your screen.

Credit: Samsung

Privacy Display uses a technology called Black Matrix, which activates “narrow pixels.” These pixels focus light more directly on the user to limit the viewing angle. Privacy Display can be activated system-wide as you like, but it can also be activated on a per-app basis or even just in the part of the screen where notifications appear.

What is an Agentic AI phone anyway?

Unsurprisingly, AI takes the lead with the S26 launch. Part of that is just Samsung following the zeitgeist, but companies can also add new AI capabilities to fill out spec sheets without a bunch of increasingly expensive hardware upgrades. In Samsung’s words, it has sought to have “AI integrated into every layer” of the Galaxy S26 experience.

That starts with expanded awareness of screen context. The company’s Now Brief feature, which is supposed to pull together useful information from across your apps, has not been very impressive so far. With the S26, Samsung is piping notification content into Now Brief, allowing it to remind you about things even if you never added them to your calendar or to-do list. Like many of Samsung’s Galaxy AI features, this data is processed on-device and won’t go to the cloud.

In a similar vein, Galaxy AI is also getting “Nudges,” which look similar to Google’s Magic Cue on the Pixel 10 series. The Galaxy S26 will be able to suggest content and apps based on what’s happening on the screen. For example, Galaxy AI might see you want to share images and suggest the right ones, or perhaps it will check your calendar for openings to save you from switching apps. Of course, that assumes the AI will correctly recognize the context and call the right action.

AI features will also be expanding in Samsung’s stock apps. In the Browser, Samsung has partnered with Perplexity for a new “Ask AI” feature. Rather than juggling tabs to read original sources yourself, you can have the AI do it. It basically gives you a research report like you could get from Perplexity itself (or Gemini Deep Research), but it’s integrated with the browser. Samsung’s gallery app also gets expanded AI editing tools with the S26. These capabilities will really allow you to change the substance of photos, so Samsung has added a visible watermark to label them. We’ve asked if there are AI labels in the image metadata, like you get with some other editing systems.

AI-edited photos have a visible watermark.

Credit: Samsung

A major component of Samsung’s “Agentic AI phone” pitch comes from a partnership with Google. For starters, Google’s AI-powered scam detection features in the Messaging app, previously exclusive to Pixels, will launch on the S26 in preview before expanding to more devices later. Circle to Search is getting an upgrade that lets it identify multiple objects in a single image—this is in testing on both the Pixel 10 series and the Galaxy S26.

The other Google tie-in is more in keeping with the goal of agentic AI. For the first time, Gemini will be able to handle multistep tasks for you. You can watch it work if you prefer, but this can also happen entirely in the background while you do other things. It’s a bit like the recently launched Chrome Auto Browse but for apps.

The selection of apps is pretty slim during this testing period. Samsung and Google say you’ll be able to order food and groceries in apps like DoorDash and Grubhub, and there will be a tie-in with Uber for both rides and food. Google currently says you should “supervise closely” when the agent is working on your behalf. So we’ll see how that goes.

When you can get it

Samsung is accepting preorders for its new phones starting today. You can get them at every mobile carrier or directly from Samsung’s website. Carriers will offer a variety of deals with monthly credits to reduce the sting of the new, higher prices. Samsung has enhanced trade-in values right now, which is a more straightforward way to get a discount if you have an old phone to unload. It’s offering up to $900 off instantly with an S25 Ultra or Z Fold 6 trade-in. Even a phone from a couple of years ago can cut the price of a Galaxy S26 way down.

The Galaxy S26 comes in a variety of understated colors.

Credit: Samsung

The phones are available in violet cobalt, sky blue, white, and black at all retailers. Samsung’s exclusive colors this time are silver shadow and pink gold. Devices will be on shelves and the doorsteps of preorderers on or around March 11.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 11:34 am AEST (my time).

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The Galaxy S26 Ultra leads the way with the headline hardware, Samsung’s highly-anticipated Privacy Display. The Privacy Display uses Flex Magic Pixel tech, which allows it to control pixel light dispersion and keep content clear for the direct viewer, while blocking the side angles. This means users of the Galaxy S26 Ultra won’t have to buy those privacy screen protectors anymore. The Privacy Display is exclusive to the S26 Ultra.

All models run the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 "For Galaxy" (global, overclocked primary core up to ~4.74 GHz on Ultra), with the S26 and S26+ shipping with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, while the Ultra also adds the 15GB variant.

Here are the specs of all the models:

The new Galaxy S26 series ships with One UI 8.5, which introduces all kinds of new software features, mostly powered by AI. We got Circle to Search 2.0, Live Translate Pro, Sketch to Image, and Ultra-exclusive video b-roll generation. Bixby also gets conversational updates, with users will also be able to choose different AI agents, including Gemini and Perplexity.

The Galaxy S26 series is available for pre-order starting today, with general retail availability beginning March 11. It comes in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, and White, plus Samsung.com-exclusive Pink Gold and Silver Shadow.

Starting prices (US): Galaxy S26 at $899 (256GB), Galaxy S26+ at $1,099 (256GB), and Galaxy S26 Ultra at $1,299 (256GB), with higher storage options available and generous trade-in credits up to $900 to lower effective costs for upgraders.

You can find more details about the Galaxy S26 lineup on Samsung's official website.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 4:55 am AEST (my time).

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You might already know that Unpacked is a bi-annual event that happens once at the start of the year and then again around July or August, when Samsung refreshes its foldable lineup. It's been weeks since the company sent the official invitation for the first iteration of Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

The event is set to kick off in San Francisco, and you'll be able to catch up on its livestream on February 25 at 10 am PT/ 1 pm ET / 6 pm GMT / 7 pm CET / 11:30 pm IST, depending on your time zone.

Just like previous years, Samsung said it will stream the event at different locations on the web, including its official YouTube channel, Samsung.com, and Samsung Newsroom website. You can also return to this page when the livestream starts to catch up on the latest announcements.

Samsung has made it pretty clear through its marketing materials that the Galaxy AI will be a big focus at the event, with a new home on the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. You can check out our detailed roundup to know about the expected specs of the Galaxy S26 series.

Galaxy S26 series will feature a privacy layer to deter shoulder surfers in public places. However, the ongoing memory crisis may prompt the company to cut corners on its base model. You can also expect the Galaxy Buds4 and Buds4 Pro at Galaxy Unpacked 2026, which were spotted in an alleged screenshot from Samsung's LockStar app.

Samsung will talk more about the upgraded Bixby, which is now a conversational AI assistant on One UI 8.5. You can control your device using Bixby and manage settings and web searches using natural language. Its beta version is currently available in the US and UK.

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Posted Wednesday 25 February 2026 at 4:39 pm AEST (my time).

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After selling their popular weather app to Apple in March 2020, where some of its core features were incorporated into Apple Weather, the creators of Dark Sky have left Apple to create yet another alternative. Their new app, called Acme Weather, embraces the fact that forecasts will never be entirely accurate by providing both a main prediction of the day’s conditions and several alternate predictions.

Acme Weather is currently only available for iOS. An Android version is planned, but there’s no release timeline yet. You can try it out for two weeks for free, but a $25 annual subscription is needed if you like what you see and want to keep using it. Dark Sky cost $3.99 when it was a third-party app, but Acme Weather’s creators claim their new app will provide better forecasts and more weather info than Dark Sky did, sourced from satellite data, ground station observations, and radar data.

The app shows the primary forecast alongside alternate predictions. The closer they are, the better the chance the forecast will be accurate.

Image: Acme Weather Corporation

 

The alternate predictions will be presented alongside the primary forecast as a series of lines showing how conditions may progress throughout the day. When the alternate prediction lines are grouped close together, it’s an indication that the primary forecast is reliable. When there’s a wider spread between predictions, the forecast could be more likely to change throughout the day.

To expand the information available through the app during active weather events, Acme Weather also allows users to report conditions where they’re located, which appear on a map as simple icons. Community-reported conditions are joined by other maps featuring radar, lightning, rain and snow amounts, wind, temperature, humidity, storm tracks, and cloud cover, which are included with forecasts based on their relevancy to predicted conditions.

Dark Sky was known for its excellent notifications, which are another feature being carried forward with Acme Weather. The new app will offer user-customizable notifications that can include “down-to-the-minute rain warnings,” government-issued severe weather warnings, nearby lightning activity, and even a heads-up as to when you might be able to see a rainbow at your location.

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Posted Tuesday 24 February 2026 at 1:46 pm AEST (my time).

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According to Samsung’s press release, Bixby will now allow users to control and navigate Galaxy devices using natural language without needing to know exact setting names or menu structures. The update is designed to help users describe what they want to do or ask why something is happening on their device, and receive direct access to the relevant setting or action, similar to Apple's AI assistant Siri.

The upcoming Galaxy S26 series is likely to ship with the updated Bixby experience, while existing supported Galaxy models should receive the feature through the manual software updates.

Bixby Expands Natural Language Control on Galaxy Devices

Samsung states that users no longer need to memorize specific commands or navigate through multiple layers of settings. Instead, Bixby can interpret conversational requests and map them to system features.

Samsung provides several examples:

• If the display is straining a user’s eyes, asking Bixby what to do can trigger the Eye Comfort Shield setting.
• Asking, “Why is my phone screen always on when it’s inside my pocket?” prompts Bixby to surface the Accidental Touch Protection setting.
• Users can request automated routines, such as dimming display brightness at 9 p.m. daily, and Bixby will create the routine automatically.

The company positions the update as a way to reduce friction in accessing deeper customization options that many Galaxy users may not know exist.

Integration Of Bixby Within One UI 8.5

The Bixby update is tied to Samsung’s One UI 8.5 software release. Samsung has not provided a full device compatibility list in the material, but the update is most likely expected to reach current and next-generation Galaxy phones.

Samsung has faced criticism in previous years for Bixby’s limitations compared to other digital AI assistants. With the rise of generative AI, Samsung appears to be repositioning Bixby as a device-level assistant focused on understanding natural language prompts related to phone settings and features.

The company does not mention external AI providers in the announcement. However, previous reports have suggested that Samsung may use a combination of its own AI models and third-party systems for more complex prompts. Samsung has previously partnered with Perplexity and offered promotional Perplexity Pro subscriptions to Galaxy users. The current Samsung press release does not confirm how the partnership with Perplexity factors into this update.

What This Means for Galaxy Users

For current Galaxy owners, the update may change how they access settings and routines. Instead of manually searching through menus, users can describe the issue or desired outcome in simple human language.

If your Galaxy phone receives One UI 8.5, you can test the new functionality by:

1. Updating to the latest available One UI version in Settings > Software Update.
2. Activating Bixby using the assigned button or voice trigger.
3. Asking a settings-related question in natural language, such as describing a display or battery issue.
4. Review the suggested action before confirming any system change.

Because One UI updates typically launch in phases, availability may vary by device model and region.

Samsung should provide more details during its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, where the Galaxy S26 is likely to be introduced. The full list of supported devices and regional rollout timing for One UI 8.5 has not yet been disclosed.

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Posted Monday 23 February 2026 at 3:42 am AEST (my time).

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It’s that time of year—a new budget Pixel phone is about to hit virtual shelves. The Pixel 10a will be available on March 5, and pre-orders go live today. The 9a will still be on sale for a while, but the 10a will be headlining Google’s store. However, you might not notice unless you keep up with the Pixel numbering scheme. This year’s A-series Pixel is virtually identical to last year’s, both inside and out.

Last year’s Pixel 9a was a notable departure from the older design language, but Google made few changes for 2026. We liked that the Pixel 9a emphasized battery capacity and moved to a flat camera bump, and this time, it’s really flat. Google says the camera now sits totally flush with the back panel. This is probably the only change you’ll be able to identify visually.

Google also says the new Pixel will have a slightly upgraded screen. The resolution, size, and refresh rate are unchanged, but peak brightness has been bumped from 2,700 nits to 3,000 nits (the same as the base model Pixel 10). Plus, the cover glass has finally moved beyond Gorilla Glass 3 to Gorilla Glass 7i, which supposedly has improved scratch and drop protection.

Credit: Google

Google notes that more of the phone is constructed from recycled material, 100 percent for the aluminum frame and 81 percent for the plastic back. There’s also recycled gold, tungsten, cobalt, and copper inside, amounting to about 36 percent of the phone’s weight. The phone also continues to have a physical SIM slot, which was removed from the Pixel 10 series last year. The device’s USB-C 3.2 port can also charge slightly faster than the 9a (30 W versus 23 W), and wireless charging has gone from 7.5 W to 10 W. There are no Qi2 magnets inside, though.

Internally, the Pixel 10a is even more like its predecessor. Unlike past A-series phones, this one doesn’t have the latest Tensor chip—it’s sticking with the same Tensor G4 from the 9a. That’s a bummer, as the G5 was a bigger leap than most of Google’s chip upgrades. The company says it stuck with the G4 to “balance affordability and performance.”

In fairness, Google has managed to keep the price steady at $499. With components like RAM and storage in short supply this year, prices could rise for many device refreshes.

Why the sidegrade?

Google’s position is that the Pixel 10a still offers a good value despite the middling upgrades compared to last year’s phone. It keeps the Pixel camera experience (which is admittedly great) available at a lower price than the flagship phones. While you get better results with the more expensive Pixels, the 9a was still one of the mobile photography options in 2025. With identical camera hardware in 2026, we expect the 10a to be the same.

But why not make the Pixel 10a a bigger upgrade? Making a better phone theoretically means you sell more of them, right? There are a few possibilities.

By slowing the improvement of the A-series Pixels, Google is making the Pixel 10 look like a better option for buyers. Upgrading the processor and adding features like PixelSnap could make the 10a too appealing compared to the $800 Pixel 10—Google’s A-series phones have been regularly recommended over the flagships due to the lower price and similar capabilities. The Pixel 10’s camera is also less capable than the Pixel 9 was for that generation, making it that much more similar to the A-series.

Component prices are also a concern for 2026. While smartphone development cycles can easily range from 18 to 24 months, Google may have decided late in the game to stick with the Tensor G4 in this phone to offset the higher cost of storage and memory. Google has stressed that it wanted to keep the A-series at its traditional $499 price. As a major player in AI, an industry that is vacuuming up all those parts, Google may have had insight into the coming shortage before most.

Credit: Google

Whatever the reason, the Pixel 10a is looking like a very modest upgrade. If you still think it’s the right phone for you, Google will take your money starting today. The device is at the Google Store for $499 with 128GB of storage, and some carriers should begin offering the phone soon. The 256GB version runs $100 more. The Pixel 10a is available in Lavender, Fog, Obsidian, and the new Berry color.

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Posted Thursday 19 February 2026 at 5:43 am AEST (my time).

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If you're interested in going paperless, you probably think you need a scanner. It's true that hardware scanners make turning multipage documents into PDFs very simple. But most of us don't have easy access to a scanner.

What we do have are phones, and those phones have very good cameras. That's where scanning apps come in.

These apps allow you to take photos of each page of a paper document, crop out the edges of the photo and straighten everything, then combine those photos into a PDF file. A scanning app is handy, but there's a catch: a lot of the apps out there are a mess.

That's what makes FairScan stand out. It's an app for scanning documents using your Android phone that just ... scans documents. That's it.

FairScan creator Pierre-Yves Nicolas wrote in a blog post last year that he had previously tried several Android apps for scanning documents. "All of them exhibited behaviors that I certainly don't want," he says. These behaviors included obvious things like ads, hidden privacy violations, and shady practices such as storing your documents in the cloud—then using them to train AI—with only a tiny text prompt notifying you this is happening.

FairScan, which is both free and open source, doesn't do any of that. It scans.

To get started, simply install the app. And yes, it’s Android-only for now, but you can download it from the Google Play Store as well as F-Droid, the repository for open source Android apps.

Get the document you want to scan ready, placing it on a flat surface in a well-lit room. Then aim your camera at the first page. A green box will surround the page—adjust until it's surrounding the portion of the document you want to scan. Take the picture when you're ready.

If you have more pages you can click the plus button to add them; this allows you to repeat the process with the next page. You can do this as many times as you want, allowing you to scan a multipage document.

When you're ready, you can export the scanned pages to either a single PDF or multiple JPEG files.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind while scanning. First, lighting is going to matter a lot. You don't want the shadow of your phone to be in the image, so make sure your phone isn’t positioned between your light source and the document you’re scanning. I find the app works best in a room with diffuse lighting, whether that's multiple lights illuminating your work surface, or several windows letting in a great deal of natural sunlight. It's also worth trying to get the paper document as flat as possible, to avoid distortions.

This application is very simple. There are a few features I'd personally like to see added, including the ability to edit pages after taking the photo and some kind of optical character recognition (OCR) that would digitize your scanned text and make it searchable.

But the major pro of the software—that it does its job without bothering you—is the killer feature here. What does it say about the state of the technology ecosystem that I find this such a big deal? A lot, actually.

All of us are hoping to use our phones as a tool—a way to achieve a specific end. And it's easy to also think of the applications you can install as tools. The problem: Most people who make apps aren't in the tool business. They’re offering a nominally useful app in order to extract value from you in other ways—by serving you ads, forcing you into a subscription, or selling your personal data.

This isn't how tools have to work. If you buy a hammer, that hammer doesn't demand that you pay extra if you want to use it to close paint cans. It doesn't pepper you with notifications encouraging you to upgrade to HammerPro™️. You just have a hammer for doing all the hammer things. FairScan is like that, which makes it stand out in an increasingly enshittified field.

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Posted Wednesday 18 February 2026 at 6:26 am AEST (my time).

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When Google announced it had engineered AirDrop compatibility for its Pixel 10 phones late last year, the pessimists among us figured it would be a matter of days before Apple shut it down. But not only is it still working, Google has expanded the capability to the Pixel 9 series (minus the budget-oriented Pixel 9A).

As with Pixel 10 phones, owners of (almost all) Pixel 9 phones will be able to send and receive files a little more easily with Apple devices. Files sent from a Pixel to an iPhone, Mac, or iPad will appear as AirDrop transfers. On the Android side, files are handled through Quick Share. The receiving Apple device needs to be discoverable to anyone — you can set a ten-minute time limit on this — and the Pixel likewise needs to be discoverable to all or in receive mode. With that done, all that’s required is a tap to accept the transfer and you’re on your way to cross-platform-sharing-bliss.

That is, unless you’re the owner of a Pixel 9A — you’ll need to use plain Bluetooth or some other old-fashioned method. I asked Google why the 9A is excluded from AirDrop support, and communications manager Alex Moriconi said only that they’re “looking forward to improving the experience and expanding it to more Android devices over time.” So if you want to be glass half full about it, the 9A could still be included in a future update. In the meantime at least, I’m feeling pretty optimistic that this AirDrop compatibility is sticking around for the long-term.

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Posted Wednesday 18 February 2026 at 6:25 am AEST (my time).

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You might have noticed some reporting a few days ago that Android 17 was rolling out in beta form, but that didn’t happen. For reasons Google still has not explained, the release was canceled. Two days later, Android 17 is here for real. If you’ve got a recent Pixel device, you can try the latest version today, but don’t expect big changes just yet—there’s still a long way to go before release.

Google will probably have more to say about feature changes for Android 17 in the coming months, but this first wide release is aimed mostly at testing system and API changes. One of the biggest changes in the beta is expanded support for adaptive apps, which ensures that apps can scale to different screen sizes. That makes apps more usable on large-screen devices like tablets and foldables with multiple displays.

We first saw this last year in Android 16, but developers were permitted to opt out of support. The new adaptive app roadmap puts an end to that. Any app that targets Android 17 (API level 37) must support resizing and windowed multitasking. Apps can continue to target the older API for the time being, but Google filters apps from the Play Store if they don’t keep up.

Some improvements to media and camera support are also included in the first release. The updated API will allow apps to switch between camera sensors more smoothly rather than starting new activities each time. The system also has “professional-grade” support for the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard. That means more efficient video encoding and decoding capabilities in Android.

Google also says Android 17 Beta 1 debuts new performance optimizations with better management of system resources. The OS will use what Google calls generational garbage collection, featuring more frequent and less CPU-intensive removal of unneeded processes from memory.

In short, the first Android 17 beta is chock full of things that may interest developers and modders, but there’s little in the way of user-facing changes right now.

Android 17 release schedule

Google has made some notable changes to how it releases Android updates, and Android 17 continues the trend. Like last year, there will be two Android 17 releases in 2026. The first one, coming in Q2, will be the more significant of the two. It will include a raft of new APIs, behavioral changes, and feature updates. This split release setup was implemented to better align with when major OEMs release new devices, but Android 17 availability still focuses mainly on Pixels. Google’s phones receive immediate updates, but everyone else has to wait for OEMs to roll out updates over the following weeks or months.

At the end of the year, another version (you can think of it as Android 17.1 even though Google doesn’t give it a name) will become available on supported devices. This “minor SDK release” will include some API and feature changes, but Google doesn’t have any details at this time.

Credit: Google

Before we get to that, Google plans to launch a second beta release in March. The company says Beta 2 will include final APIs, allowing developers to complete testing and roll out updates. Developers will have “several months” to get that work done before the final version hits Pixels.

In 2025, Google also changed the way it updates the open source parts of Android. Rather than regular code dumps, Google now only updates the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) twice yearly, in the second and fourth quarters, when new versions are released. That makes it harder to know what to expect from upcoming versions of Android, but Google insists this is more efficient.

If you want to check out Android 17 today, you’ll need a Pixel device. It supports the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, Pixel 8, Pixel 9, and Pixel 10 generations. The Pixel tablet and original Pixel Fold are also included. Other phone makers may release beta builds in the weeks ahead, but it’s a Google-only event for now. You can opt in to get an OTA to Android 17 on the beta program website.

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Posted Saturday 14 February 2026 at 1:05 pm AEST (my time).

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According to WinFuture, the Xiaomi Tag, identified by the model number BHR08SPGL, was mistakenly listed by various European retailers for several days. Even Xiaomi's own shop pages in the United Kingdom and France featured initial listings, meaning a launch could be imminent.

In France, Xiaomi reportedly sets an official recommended retail price of €17.99 for a single tag, although some retailers already offer the device for under €15 ($17). For this price, customers receive a 7.2-millimeter-thick tag, crafted from plastic, which uses a CR2032 battery expected to last approximately one year before requiring replacement. Xiaomi is reportedly going to charge €59.99 (~$70) for a pack of four.

Based on the retailer listings found so far, the Xiaomi Tag connects using Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC. There is no mention of the previously widely reported support for Ultra-Wideband (UWB), suggesting this particular model might lack the precise tracking capabilities of UWB-equipped trackers. It appears available only in white.

Several hints regarding Xiaomi's tracking device have also been found in HyperOS code, the company's Android flavor. Earlier code suggested clear indications of UWB support, leading some to speculate Xiaomi might eventually offer a UWB-enabled version or that plans changed for this initial release.

According to rumors, this Bluetooth version of the Xiaomi Tag can integrate with both Apple's Find My and Google's Find My Device Network, allowing users to locate lost items on or in which the tracker is attached, regardless of whether they own an iOS or Android device.

Xiaomi's competitor, Apple, launched the AirTag 2 last month, retaining its $29 price for a single unit and $99 for a four-pack in the United States.

Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband (UWB) U2 chip, the same one found in the iPhone 17 lineup, powers the new AirTag, expanding its finding range by up to 50% farther than the original. It also features a speaker that is approximately 50% louder and introduces Precision Finding directly on compatible Apple Watch models, specifically Apple Watch Series 9 or later and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later.

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Posted Friday 13 February 2026 at 6:27 am AEST (my time).

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The iPhone 18 Pro is expected to launch this year with several tech specs upgrades and improvements in the camera zoom. Apple hasn't made a mark on the AI front, but the company is working to add something equally important, if not better.

A new post from Weibo-based leaker Fixed Focus Digital details upcoming satellite-powered 5G internet support for the iPhone 18 Pro, adding fuel to old rumors. The leaker said Apple's C2 modem will support NR-NTN, enabling the iPhone 18 Pro to access the internet directly via low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

NR-NTN stands for New Radio Non-Terrestrial Networks, a technology that enables direct satellite-to-device 5G connectivity for smartphones and provides backhaul for carriers in areas where traditional cell towers are scarce. The leaker expects positive developments in this area, noting that Huawei tested its implementation of the technology at the end of last year.

This isn't the first time that rumors of 5G satellite internet for iPhone have surfaced. It was reported that Apple is working on several satellite connectivity features, including Satellite over 5G, which allows cell towers to utilize satellite infrastructure to increase coverage.

The iPhone-maker may allow users to send photos via the Messages app using satellite connectivity. It's developing a satellite framework for third-party apps and satellite-powered Apple Maps to operate without cellular or Wi-Fi access.

Apple is also trying to figure out how people can use their smartphones naturally with satellite connectivity, so they don't have to point their devices toward the sky to establish a connection. All of these expected updates will build on the existing features, such as Emergency SOS via Satellite.

Back in 2015, Apple had reportedly considered launching its own satellite service for iPhones and homes in collaboration with Boeing. While the internal talks didn't come to fruition, the iPhone does have direct-to-cell satellite coverage, but it's limited to text messages only.

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Posted Thursday 12 February 2026 at 4:31 am AEST (my time).

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Almost exactly one year after launching the iPhone 16e, Apple is preparing to launch the 17e, according to Mark Gurman. The iPhone 17e will feature an upgraded A19 chip from the iPhone 17 lineup, plus MagSafe charging, and move Apple’s in-house cellular chips. Just as importantly, the company apparently plans to keep the price at $599, despite soaring RAM and storage prices.

Gurman says Apple is planning to pitch the iPhone 17e aggressively in emerging markets and to enterprises. He claims that, with almost no changes expected from the Pixel 10a and Samsung focused on the higher end of the market, Apple sees an opening.

We also expect Apple to launch an updated iPad and iPad Air around the same time, alongside the spec-bumped MacBook Pros and a MacBook Air with an M5 processor. The base-model iPad will be moving to an A18 chip, which means it will support Apple Intelligence, while the iPad Air will move to an M4 and switch to an OLED display.

Gurman says most of these launches should be expected by early March.

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Posted Monday 9 February 2026 at 3:46 am AEST (my time).

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Vivaldi 7.8 is now available for Android and iOS devices, bringing a stack of new and unique features for each platform. On Android, there are pinned tabs, privacy dashboard, support for third-party password managers, private search, and the option to disable pull-to-refresh. On iOS, we get swipe to switch tabs, the option to add search engines from any website, and swipe tabs away.

If you’ve used any modern browser on the desktop, you’ve likely right clicked it and pinned the tab to keep it in place away from the rest of your browser clutter. To pin tabs on mobile, you can just long-press any tab and select “Pin Tab” to lock it at the start of your Tab Bar. This feature could be most useful for those who have lots of tabs open and want to bring a bit more order to their browser.

Privacy Dashboard is another new feature in Vivaldi for Android. It allows you to see which trackers and ads Vivaldi has blocked while you browse. According to Vivaldi head Jon von Tetzchner, Privacy Dashboard isn’t “just a number, it’s a window into how much of the web is designed to follow you around. Every blocked tracker is one less company building a profile on your habits, your interests, your life.”

Over the years, web browsers have been adding their own password manager with sync, this essentially locks you into one browser across mobile and desktop. With this latest update, Vivaldi 7.8 on Android supports third-party password managers. In the settings, you can choose to use Vivaldi’s password manager or hand off login assistance to a third-party password manager. You can find these settings under “Autofill services” in the settings.

This update also brings two quieter features, first is the ability to select text and then search about it directly in private tabs. Second is the option to disable pull-to-refresh, while this feature can be handy, in some situations it can be incredibly annoying when the page decides to reload when you were just trying to scroll up, now Vivaldi Android users can switch it off.

Over on iOS, the company decided to focus on streamlining workflows. One of the new features, swipe to switch tabs, lets you swipe up or down on the address bar to just straight to the tab switcher. Vivaldi’s developers think this feels natural by meeting you where your thumb already is.

Another feature is the ability to long press on any search field and add it as a search engine in your browser. You could do this with a university library, documentation pages, niche databases, or search engine, giving you ultimate customization.

Finally, this version adds swipe away tabs. In the tab switcher, you can now close tabs with a quick swipe so that you don’t need to go hunting for tiny X buttons. Just swipe and it's gone.

Vivaldi 7.8 for Mobile is now available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

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Posted Friday 6 February 2026 at 5:16 am AEST (my time).

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Google has taken the wraps off the Pixel 10A, the latest in its line of budget-friendly smartphones. A teaser shared on Wednesday shows off the new device in a powdery blue color, which will be available for preorder on February 18th.

Based on the teaser shared by Google, the Pixel 10A looks a lot like its 9A predecessor. It features two cameras inside a flat, oblong cutout on the rear of the device, and it looks like it comes with some similarly-sized bezels. Google didn’t share any more details about the device’s specifications, so we’ll likely have to wait a little longer to hear more.

We don’t know how much the Pixel 10A will cost, either, but one leak suggests that the pricing will remain unchanged in some regions, with options for 128GB and 256GB of storage. Google’s teaser also includes a link to sign up for emails to receive an “exclusive offer” on the Pixel 10A.

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Posted Thursday 5 February 2026 at 4:27 am AEST (my time).

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iOS 26.3 and 26.4 Changes

iOS 26.3 is all about system utilities, regional regulatory updates, and privacy tweaks rather than any graphical overhaul. iOS 26.3 will include an iPhone to Android transfer tool and EU notification forwarding.

The most prominent addition is new iPhone-to-Android transfer feature. This feature enables users to transfer an iPhone alongside an Android smartphone and transfer photos, messages, notes, apps, and even a phone number wirelessly. This feature is available worldwide in the Settings app under General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Transfer to Android.

For users in the European Union, iOS 26.3 brings Notification Forwarding and proximity pairing for third-party accessories, just like with AirPods. This is in line with Apple’s compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act and is only available in supported regions.

Apple is also working on infrastructure for end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging. As of the second iOS 26.3 beta, system infrastructure shows support for encrypted RCS messaging, although carrier support is still needed before it can be used.

Other additions in iOS 26.3 include:

• A new Weather Wallpapers section on the Lock Screen.
• A new Limit Precise Location option that limits location data shared with mobile networks.
• Ongoing Background Security Improvements testing, which permit Apple to release some security-related updates without a full iOS version. The current test updates do not contain actual bug fixes.

Early indications for iOS 26.4

iOS 26.4 is likely to arrive later in the spring after a beta process that has not begun yet. A couple of features are already associated with this version, although not all of them will be available.

Apple and Google have announced a more personalized version of Siri, and iOS 26.4 will be the first version to introduce users to the underlying work. The new Siri will be able to understand personal context, on-screen awareness, and more advanced per-app actions. Some features demonstrated earlier may not be available until later versions.

Another feature that has been confirmed is the addition of new emoji support, which follows the latest standard from the Unicode Consortium. The new emoji will include a trombone, a treasure chest, an apple core, an orca, ballet dancers, and more. Apple has been adding new emoji in x.4 versions of iOS for a few releases now.

Other features that have been rumored to be in development include:

• AutoFill for credit card information stored in the Passwords app by Apple in third-party apps.
• The ability to create folders in the Freeform app.
• A new validation process that will verify device integrity when signing into Apple ID and iCloud.
• The addition of a “Precise Outdoor Location” feature for AirPods in the Find My app.
• Development of a new sports level in the Apple TV app, although no information is available yet.

Apple has not yet announced which of these features will be included in the initial iOS 26.4 release.

Apple's upcoming iOS 26.3 update brings new features and privacy settings

Users interested in the Android transfer feature or the new privacy options should wait for the final release of iOS 26.3 instead of using the beta version. Users following Siri updates or the new emojis should look forward to iOS 26.4 in the spring.

Some of the features mentioned for iOS 26.4 may be postponed or revised before they are released to the public.

Resources: 

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/03/ios-26-3-and-ios-26-4-features/

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Posted Thursday 5 February 2026 at 4:25 am AEST (my time).

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