The Vergecast

Most mainstream phone options are kind of the same, year in and year out — but that doesn’t mean there’s no innovation to be found. The Verge’s Allison Johnson is at Mobile World Congress, and joins the show to report on all the modular phones, robot phones, small phones, big phones, and (alas) 6G phones set to hit the market this year. After that, The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed explains the phenomenon of the gadget strap, and makes the case that they’re an increasingly useful accessory as our phones become even more important to our daily lives. (Yes, even if you have pockets.) Finally, The Verge’s Jay Peters helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!) about whether the metaverse, however you want to define it, is ever going to be realized.

Further reading:

Oh great, here comes 6G 

Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year 

Lenovo made a Franken-laptop with modular ports and a second screen 

Vivo’s next phone will launch with a professional camera rig 

Tecno’s latest concept phone is lit by neon 

Honor’s Magic V6 is the first foldable with an IP69 rating 

The Motorola Razr Fold is shaping up to be pure flagship

Xiaomi’s super-slim power bank costs extra in orange. 

Honor’s thinnest tablet doesn’t come cheap. 

Peak Design has wearable gadget straps for people who hate bags 

Apple’s misunderstood crossbody iPhone strap might be the best I’ve seen 

Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables

Meta’s VR metaverse is ditching VR

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Samsung just launched its newest phones, the Galaxy S26 lineup, and wow is it full of Vergecast stories. There’s the very cool new Privacy Display, which seems genuinely useful; there’s the AI-powered camera, which seems like a disaster waiting to happen; and there’s the new agentic AI in Android, which Google and Samsung might be positioned to actually pull off. After talking through all the new stuff, Nilay and David discuss the recent executive shakeup at Xbox, and try to figure out why Microsoft just can’t win in games. Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, some truly remarkable charts, and much more.

Further reading:


⁠Samsung Unpacked 2026: live updates from the Galaxy S26 ⁠⁠announcement event ⁠

⁠Samsung Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus hands-on: More of the same ⁠

⁠Samsung AI photos⁠


⁠Google Gemini can book an Uber or order food for you with new agentic AI features ⁠⁠Google and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn’t with Siri⁠

⁠I’m super impressed with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Display ⁠

⁠Samsung announces Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro at Unpacked 2026⁠

⁠Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Xbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Read Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo about leaving Microsoft ⁠

⁠Sarah Bond is leaving Xbox ⁠

⁠Read Xbox president Sarah Bond’s memo about leaving Microsoft. ⁠

⁠Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up ⁠

⁠Read Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of Xbox ⁠

⁠New Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma says “hear you” to complaints about a lack of Xbox exclusives.⁠

⁠New Xbox CEO: ‘The plan’s the plan until it’s not the plan.’ ⁠

⁠Microsoft says today’s Xbox shake-up doesn’t mean game studio layoffs ⁠

⁠Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is ⁠

⁠Chairman Carr Announces Pledge America Campaign⁠

⁠Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’⁠

⁠Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas AI Scenarios chart⁠

⁠Youtube Chair Drama⁠

⁠OpenAI’s Stargate struggles. ⁠

⁠OpenAI’s first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠[email protected]⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Few AI products have found the kind of product-market fit we’ve seen from Claude Code. On the eve of the product’s first anniversary, Anthropic’s Boris Cherny explains why Claude Code is so powerful, all the work left to do, and why he no longer writes any code himself. After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field joins the show to talk about how we should think about giving our data (and our computers) to AI, even when it seems useful. Finally, The Verge’s Allison Johnson helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11) about whether you should go buy a phone, like, right now.

Further reading:

Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft

Claude has been having a moment — can it keep it up?

The AI security nightmare is here and it looks suspiciously like lobster 

OpenClaw’s AI ‘skill’ extensions are a security nightmare 

Humans are infiltrating the social network for AI bots 

Anthropic connects Claude to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive 

MCP extension unites Claude with apps like Slack, Canva, and Figma 

The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Once again, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and his bad ideas about free speech have rankled a late night host. And once again, Nilay and David talk through what the equal-time rule actually means, why organizations keep caving, and why it's apparently up to people like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel to fight back. After that, the hosts discuss the facial recognition feature Meta hopes to launch for its smart glasses, plus the gadgets we're likely to see Apple launch in the couple of weeks. In the lightning round, we get some bleak news on Tesla's self-driving skills, a robovac security disaster, and the future of Warner Bros.

Further reading:

Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico

Stephen Colbert says CBS banned him from airing this James Talarico interview 

Why Everyone's Talking About Stephen Colbert, CBS, The FCC And James Talarico

Meta reportedly wants to add face recognition to smart glasses while privacy advocates are distracted

From the NYT: Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

Apple’s doing something on March 4th 

Apple is reportedly planning to launch AI-powered glasses, a pendant, and AirPods 

Apple starts testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messages on iPhone 

Apple’s Podcasts app will let you ‘seamlessly’ switch between audio and video shows 

Looks like we can expect more AI from the Galaxy S26 camera. | The Verge

Google announces dates for I/O 2026 

Western Digital says it’s “pretty much soldout” for 2026. 

Valve’s Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently’ out of stock because of the RAM crisis 

Switch 2 pricing and next PlayStation release could be impacted by memory shortage 

Tesla’s robotaxis have crashed 14 times in 9 months. 

Tesla won’t use the term ‘Autopilot’ in California anymore

Why are Epstein’s emails full of equals signs?

4chan’s creator says ‘Epstein had nothing to do’ with creating infamous far-right board /pol/

DJI’s first robovac is an autonomous cleaning drone you can’t trust

The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them

DJI says yes, it will fix its other Romo robovac security hole within weeks

Samsung ad confirms rumors of a useful S26 ‘privacy display’ 

Warner Bros. Discovery gives Paramount one week to present its ‘best and final’ offer 

WordPress’ new AI assistant will let users edit their sites with prompts 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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The Verge's Allison Johnson has recently been doing the unthinkable: she's been leaving her laptop at home. Allison joins the show to explain how she turned her Samsung foldable into a useful computer, and why it feels so good to do so. Then, Sportico's Jacob Feldman joins the show to talk about the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, and the overall state of sports streaming in 2026. (Unfortunately, it's all still very complicated.) Finally, David answers a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!) about whether flip phones might have a future in an AI world.

Further reading:


YouTube TV reveals pricing for its sports, news, and entertainment packages


From Sportico: 2026 Sports Tech: Amazon vs. Youtube vs. ESPN vs. Netflix vs. Tiktok

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: stunning, bendy, and spendy

Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) review: looking sharp

Logitech’s Keys-To-Go 2

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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