This week in tech, Samsung dropped the Unpacked 2026 date, Apple found its new AirTag, and Claude showed ChatGPT how it’s done in the world of AI.
To catch up on all this and more, scroll down for our ICYMI roundup of the seven biggest tech news of the week.
7. Samsung set a date for Galaxy Unpacked
Samsung has finally announced its first Galaxy Unpacked of 2026, which will take place on February 25 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (5am AEDT on the 26th). The event itself will be live streamed from San Francisco, California, and while the invite doesn’t give much away, it hints that Galaxy AI will be a big part of the event.
We fully expect Samsung to unveil the Galaxy S26 series, led by the Galaxy S26 Ultra, at the first Unpacked of the year, which is generally used to reveal the classic candy-bar Galaxy S lineup. We only have a little longer to wait, but it should be a solid lineup with some nice new features, especially for the flagship model, judging by the latest rumors and leaks.
Just as ChatGPT is adding ads in what could be a make-or-break moment for OpenAI, Anthropic has made several premium Claude tools free for all users, including file creation, Connectors, and custom skills.
The company has also improved the free version of Claude to hold longer conversations and offer better interactive screens, voice capabilities, and image search, which should feel like a big upgrade for people who were previously only able to experiment with those options.
Best of all, Claude remains ad-free, as you’d expect from the company that used its Super Bowl ad spot to poke fun at ChatGPT’s ads.
5. Discord ignited a new era of verification controversy
It hasn’t been a good week for Discord or its fans. On Monday, it announced that age verification would roll out globally to all users starting in March. That announcement lit the fuse, and the dispute is still burning brightly several days later.
The problem for many is that Discord’s age verification — which involves taking a video selfie or submitting an ID to Discord’s partners — feels intrusive at best and a privacy risk at worst. Discord later tried to allay fears, saying that facial scans never leave your device.
Unfortunately, it faces an uphill task to retain disgruntled users – especially those who remember the October 2025 incident where one of Discord’s third-party services leaked 70,000 ID photos.
Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to raise the bar. This is the lesson of the new AirTag or AirTag (second generation). Apple’s update to its Bluetooth tracking brand kept the look, shape and feel, while significantly increasing the range and sound quality.
These two updates mean the new AirTag is that much better at its core mission: helping you find your lost stuff. Oh, and did we mention it now works with your Apple Watch 9? The cherry on top is that the AirTag is still the same price.
3. The world’s first sodium-ion EV landed
One of the biggest tech stories in 2026 is new battery technology – we’ve seen solid-state batteries enter production, and this week sodium-ion batteries hit the headlines thanks to a new EV in China.
It may not be a household name, but the Changan Nevo A06 will be the first electric car to be sold with a sodium-ion battery later this year. What are the benefits? These Na-ion packs are reportedly safer, cheaper to produce and capable of delivering more power in extremely cold weather compared to their lithium-ion rivals.
Still, with lithium-ion packs also improving rapidly, hopefully we’ll all benefit from this new battle of battery technology.
2. Sony’s WF-1000XM6 earphones dropped
Sony has finally unveiled its latest flagship earphones, and they’ve been upgraded inside and out. There’s a new design that’s 11% slimmer, slightly deeper and much easier to grab their case now, which is a nice touch. There’s an upgraded processor and more microphones than ever before, with what Sony says is a 25% improvement in active noise cancellation.
There is a new speaker driver design and different tuning to provide a more audiophile sound profile. And there’s a bunch of new nifty features you’d expect from any Sony launch. So these must be the best elite earphones out there now, right? Ah, well, not so fast… we’ve been testing them for two weeks and we have some opinions.
1. Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 swung at Apple’s MacBooks
The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra is almost a MacBook killer. If you’ve used Windows laptops and Android smartphones, you might have been jealous of how Apple’s ecosystem of products, including MacBooks, iPads and iPhones, can all interact with each other. Samsung has worked hard to replicate this, and the new Galaxy Book6 Ultra comes incredibly close, as you can pair it with your Samsung phone or tablet to quickly share files, swap controls, and more.
Even if you don’t own any other Samsung devices, we found the Book6 Ultra to be a brilliant (if expensive) laptop packed with some of the very latest and most powerful mobile technology, including Intel’s latest Panther Lake processors.
