This week in the tech world, Samsung dropped the Unpacked 2026 date, Apple found its new AirTag, and Claude showed ChatGPT how it’s done in the AI world.
To stay on top of all this and more, scroll down for our ICYMI roundup of the seven biggest tech news stories of the week.
7. Samsung has set a date for Galaxy Unpacked
Samsung has finally announced its first Galaxy Unpacked of 2026, which will take place on February 25 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. BST (5 a.m. AEDT on the 26th). The event itself will be broadcast live from San Francisco, California, and while the invite doesn’t reveal much, it does hint that Galaxy AI will play a big role in the event.
We expect Samsung to unveil the Galaxy S26 lineup, led by the Galaxy S26 Ultra, during the first Unpacked of the year, which is typically used to unveil the classic Galaxy S candy bar lineup. We only have a little longer to wait, but this should be a solid lineup with some interesting new features, especially for the flagship model, judging by recent rumors and leaks.
Just as ChatGPT adds ads in what could be a watershed moment for OpenAI, Anthropic has made several premium Claude tools free for all users, including file creation, connectors, and customizable skills.
The company has also improved the free version of Claude to hold longer conversations and offer better interactive displays, voice features and image searches, which should be a major upgrade for people who previously could only experience these options.
Best of all, as you might expect from the company that used its Super Bowl commercial to mock ChatGPT’s ads, Claude remains ad-free.
5. Discord has sparked a new controversy over age verification
It hasn’t been a good week for Discord or its fans. On Monday, it announced that age checks would be rolled out globally to all users starting in March. This announcement lit the fuse and the controversy has been as heated as ever for several days.
The problem for many is that Discord’s age checks – which involve taking a video selfie or submitting ID to Discord partners – seem intrusive at best and a privacy risk at worst. Discord then tried to calm fears, stating that facial scans never leave your device.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to retain unhappy users, especially those who remember the October 2025 incident in which one of Discord’s third-party services leaked 70,000 photo IDs.
Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent to raise the bar. This is the lesson of the new AirTag or AirTag (second generation). Apple’s update to its Bluetooth tracking tag retained the look, shape and feel while significantly increasing range and sound quality.
These two updates mean that the new AirTag is much better at its main job: helping you find your lost items. Oh, and did we mention it now works with your Apple Watch 9? The icing on the cake is that the AirTag is still the same price.
3. The world’s first sodium-ion electric vehicle has landed
One of the biggest tech stories of 2026 is new battery technology: we’ve seen solid-state batteries enter production, and this week sodium-ion batteries made headlines thanks to a new electric vehicle in China.
It may not be a household name, but the Changan Nevo A06 will become the first electric vehicle sold with a sodium-ion battery later this year. What are the advantages? These Na-ion packs are claimed to be safer, cheaper to produce, and capable of delivering more power in extremely cold weather than their lithium-ion rivals.
However, with lithium-ion packs rapidly improving, we hope we all benefit from this new battery technology battle.
2. Sony WF-1000XM6 headphones fell
Sony has finally revealed its latest flagship headphones, and they’ve been improved inside and out. There’s a new design that’s 11% thinner, a bit deeper, and much easier to take out of their case, which is a nice touch. There’s an improved processor and more mics than ever to power what Sony says is a 25% improvement in active noise cancellation.
There is a new speaker design and different tuning to deliver a more audiophile sound profile. And there’s a bunch of smart new features, as you’d expect from any Sony launch. So these must be the best elite headphones around, right? Oh well, not so fast… we’ve been testing them for two weeks, and we have some opinions.
1. Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 tilted against Apple’s MacBooks
The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra is almost a MacBook killer. If you use Windows laptops and Android smartphones, you may be jealous of how Apple’s ecosystem of products, including MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones, can interact with each other. Samsung has worked diligently 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 much more.
Even if you don’t own other Samsung devices, we found the Book6 Ultra to be a brilliant (if expensive) laptop with some of the latest and most powerful mobile technology, including Intel’s latest Panther Lake processors.
