Allison Johnson, reporting for The Verge:

Maybe it’s a reflection of just how slow hardware innovation has been, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Display, which limits the screen’s viewing angle to keep any would-be peepers away, left me totally impressed.

It’s not a brand-new technology — we’ve seen it before in laptops — and it was leaked thoroughly before Samsung’s announcement. But seeing it work on the S26 Ultra for the first time was cooler than I expected, especially given that hardware thrills are hard to get these days…

What’s really cool is that in true Samsung fashion, you can customize this a hundred different ways. You can obscure only notifications as they pop up at the top of the screen, or have it automatically turn on when you enter a PIN or use a specific app. It can also tie into routines, so you could have it turn off when you arrive home and turn back on when you leave. The effect works the same way whether you’re holding the phone horizontally or vertically, too.

Also in true Samsung fashion, the S26 line reverses the decision to move to titanium a few years ago, switching back to aluminum and emulating Apple tit for tat. Shameless company.

As much as I enjoy criticizing Samsung, the Privacy Display feature on these new smartphones is impressive. It truly has nothing to do with a protective film. Rather, the display now has “two sets of pixels” that point either straight ahead or to the side. When Privacy Display is enabled, the second set turns off, reducing — and in some cases, effectively eliminating — side viewing angles. The new display does have some trade-offs, such as worse viewing angles even when the Privacy Display is disabled, but I suppose that won’t matter to most people.

I hope I’m not exposing myself here, but I tend to look at people’s phones out in public. Not to be creepy, but to see what kind of phone they’re using. I think most tech nerds do this subconsciously. What I’ve noticed from my subconscious people-watching is that no small part of the normal population has (usually cracked, because of course) privacy screen protectors installed on their phones. I’d estimate it at around 30 percent, and the crowd usually skews younger. I truly don’t know why so many people find the need to cover their screens up — scratch that, it’s probably because of people like me — but I think Privacy Display, if marketed well, will be a hit. Especially the feature where only certain parts of the display can be hidden — I let out an audible gasp when I first saw that in the leaks.

I also don’t think this feature will ever come to iPhones. Apple manufactures organic-LED display panels for certain Apple products, but I really think Samsung Galaxy engineers worked with Samsung Display to ensure this remains a key marketing feature for their products. (It’s also possible that Samsung kills this feature next year, because that’s the Samsung way.) I’d certainly love to be proven wrong, but they’re ultimately different parts of the business. (Plus, if such a feature were likely to come to iPhones, we’d probably hear about it through the rumor grapevine by now.)

Also from Johnson, who’s been doing some great reporting work from San Francisco this week:

Google’s Gemini AI is getting one step closer to being more like an actual assistant. Starting with some Pixel 10 phones and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, Gemini will be able to hail an Uber or put together a DoorDash order on its own.

It’s called task automation, and it starts with a prompt to Gemini — something like “Get me an Uber to the Palace of Fine Arts.” Gemini then launches the app in a virtual window on your device and goes through the process step-by-step. You can watch it all happen, with options to stop the automation or take control if necessary, or just let it run in the background while Gemini does its thing. The assistant will notify you if it needs your attention to choose between two options, or if something you asked it to look for is out of stock. Once your ride or grocery cart is all set, Gemini will alert you to take a look and submit the final order yourself.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Apple announced this exact feature two years ago at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference. The “more personalized Siri” powered by App Intents has still not shipped, and nobody is sure that it will. Google, meanwhile, has already shipped Gemini personalization and a direct copy of the App Intents framework, except with much less third-party developer involvement. Google DeepMind demonstrated this first a few years ago through Project Mariner, an agent that promised to click around websites and perform actions on behalf of the user. Now, this project is no longer just a concept and is baked into millions of phones worldwide.

One could correctly argue that Apple hasn’t lost any business due to its lack of artificial intelligence features. “They’re selling Mac minis and MacBook Pros like hotcakes,” they’d say, and they’d be right. But I’d argue that it’s pretty antithetical for a technology company not to embrace the most innovative technology on the market today. Apple could do truly amazing things with its size and capabilities if it had competent leadership. App Intents could be much more reliable and faster than having Gemini poke around websites. The “more personalized Siri” promises to run on green-energy servers, a concern top of mind for many Americans. Apple’s advantages are numerous.

Seeing demonstrations like the ones at Unpacked on Wednesday further proves that Apple needs to get its head in the game. Until then, Google keeps winning. And I guess Samsung’s there for the ride, too.