As the rest of the tech industry seems to mostly shift to overproduced infomercials for their product launches, Samsung is holding fast to its love for giant live events in huge arenas. This year, at Unpacked in Paris, the company announced a whole lineup of new gadgets. The new Fold and Flip look nice but also a bit uninspired; the Watch Ultra and Buds 3 look almost too familiar; and the Galaxy Ring might be the beginning of something really cool.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk through all of Samsung’s announcements and try to figure out whether “Apple products but for Android” is actually a winning strategy. It might be! Plus, we debate what to make of Samsung’s somewhat lackluster upgrades for the Flip and Fold phones — maybe these just aren’t the smartphone shapes of the future. Or at least not yet.
After that, we talk about a weird week in the streaming biz, from the maybe-finally-really-happening Paramount / Skydance deal to the looming end of Redbox to Instagram’s somewhat surprising plan to not try and do longform video.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk Nothing’s awesomely cheap new phone, the latest in the AI copyright lawsuit world, and the sad current state of TUAW.
If you want to know more about everything we talk about in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on Samsung:
- Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: all the news on the Galaxy Ring, Fold, Flip, Watch, and AISamsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 are pricier with minor updatesSamsung’s Galaxy Ring could be the one ring to rule an ecosystemSamsung Galaxy Watch Ultra hands-on: ultra déjà vuSamsung’s new Galaxy Buds are blatant AirPod clones in both form and functionSamsung, Google, and Qualcomm are, uh, still doing that XR thing.Motorola’s 2024 Razr Plus is a fun and flawed flip phone
And in streaming news:
- Paramount agrees to sweetened Skydance merger dealRedbox shuts down as its parent company declares Chapter 7 bankruptcySling TV is the latest streamer to get those pesky pause adsInstagram is sticking to short videos, says Adam Mosseri
And in the lightning round:
- David Pierce’s pick: Nothing’s CMF launches new supercheap earbuds and a smartwatchNilay Patel’s pick: The developers suing over GitHub Copilot got dealt a major blow in courtAlex Cranz’s pick: Early Apple tech bloggers are shocked to find their name and work have been AI-zombified
