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Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Gemini Task Automation is rolling out for real.

It’s been in beta for a little while, but Samsung’s new foldables mark the official launch, together with an expansion to more than 40 apps.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Samsung’s foldables will get Google’s easier Android switching.

Samsung Smart Switch will make it easier to jump from iOS to a Galaxy Z Flip 8 or Fold 8, sharing photos, videos, contacts and more with just a QR code, no iOS app install required. Similar features are already rolling out on some Pixels with Android 17.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Marshall wrapped a speaker in crushed purple velvet to celebrate Hendrix.

Its $299.99 Acton III Bluetooth speaker is now dramatically more groovy to celebrate the brand’s 60 year anniversary of working with the musician. But it’s not just about the new aesthetics. When you power the speaker on or off it also plays unique sounds sourced from Hendrix’s recordings.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

1/4Image: Marshall
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
My FanCam is Samsung’s AI video editor for focusing on your favorites.

A fancy person detection algorithm picks subjects to focus on, and crops video to track your favorite. Samsung is pitching it for fans and stans, but I suspect it’ll get more use at kids’ ballet recitals.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Silicon-carbon — by Samsung.

For the first time, Samsung’s three new foldables use silicon-carbon batteries, meaning higher capacity in a smaller space. Samsung says it’s focused on maintaining longevity and stability, sometimes worse with silicon cells, but that’s stopped it hitting the enormous capacities of rivals like Oppo and Honor.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
NHTSA wants to know why Tesla got rid of its radar.

Props to Fred Lambert at Electrek for catching this: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requesting from Tesla all information about a document called “Radar Saves Us” in its investigation into Full Self-Driving crashes. The details could prove that Tesla knew its camera-only approach to autonomous driving was flawed, which could trigger another massive recall for the company.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Samsung and Google’s smart glasses get two new designs.

The smart glasses come with Google’s Gemini AI on board and will debut this fall with the designs we first saw in May — plus these two new ones from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

1/4Image: Samsung / Google
I almost forgot Samsung’s Z Flip 8 was a foldable

Cover screen? More like cover phone.

David Imel
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2 bet big on battery

The watches sport a new chip, bigger batteries, and new health metrics. But the updates come with another price hike.

Victoria Song
Samsung’s wider Z Fold 8 feels just right

But $1,900 is a hell of a lot for a phone with no telephoto camera.

Dominic Preston
Samsung’s newest foldable finally feels Ultra

One small step for phones, one giant leap for foldables.

David Imel
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Fire your CEO — AI is better, faster, and cheaper.

That’s the premise of OverpAId, a satirical website proclaiming that AI is a more effective cost-cutting tool for replacing CEOs than other human employees. It’s a fun read that jabs at how the technology is impacting real workplaces and economics, and can’t be held accountable for making catastrophic decisions.

A screenshot from the OverpAId satirical website.
It’s not a real product, but if everyone is expendable in the name of boosting profits, then maybe it should be.
Image: OverpAId
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Oh great, another suitor.

In what seems very much like a desperate attempt to save face after failing to convince the world that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a bad film, Elon Musk says that Grok Imagine will generate a “historically-accurate” adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. One can only imagine what “historically-accurate” means here.

David Pierce
David Pierce
Stick around after the Samsung event for a Vergecast livestream!

We’ll be live shortly after the event ends, talking phones and watches and foldables and flippables and AI and everything else Samsung has to share today. Come hang, bring thoughts and questions, tell us whether wide fold or tall fold is the way. See you there!

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Samsung’s also got an AI health assistant coming.

By leveraging data sourced from a Galaxy smartphone, smartwatch, or smart ring, the new Samsung Health Assistant can help users better understand their health while also providing guidance and recommendations on how they can improve it through “meaningful changes in their lifestyle.” The assistant is now in beta for eligible users in the US.

A Samsung smartphone showing an AI-based health assistant on screen.
Image: Samsung
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
I’m at Galaxy Unpacked ready for Samsung’s new foldable.

So far it’s mostly teasing novel ways of slicing pizza, but presumably it’ll all make sense soon.

Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Ryan Gosling’s ‘La La Hand’ blunder is officially fixed.

The actor has expressed regret over the flat positioning of his hand in the La La Land poster over the years. Maybe he’s joking, but Lionsgate has now corrected it anyway, unveiling a tweaked design for the movie’s 10th anniversary that’s replacing the previous version “across every platform in the world.”

<em>Spot the difference. Here’s the updated version…</em>
<em>…compared with the original theatrical release poster. Gosling can finally rest easy.</em>
1/2
Spot the difference. Here’s the updated version…
Image: Lionsgate
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Raspberry Pi now has a bigger touchscreen.

The 10-inch Touch Display 2 is available for $80, joining the existing 7-inch and 5-inch variants of Raspberry Pi’s refreshed display lineup. It has a pixel resolution of 1200×1920, support for ten-finger touch, and draws power from its host device , but it’s only compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 and Compute Modules.

<em>Here’s a size comparison between all three Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 models.</em>
<em>It comes with all the necessary cables, connectors, and mounting hardware you need to get it hooked up out of the box.</em>
<em>It can’t be used with the Raspberry Pi Zero series or Raspberry Pi 4 or earlier models because they don’t meet its requirment for four DSI lanes.</em>
1/3
Here’s a size comparison between all three Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 models.
Image: Raspberry Pi
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
A tale as old as time.

Company announces clever modular or replaceable hardware; company uses proprietary tech for the purpose; the hardware becomes obsolete when replacements dry up. Let’s hope Glorious’ hot-swappable headphone batteries don’t suffer the same fate.

bennyfactor:

if these batteries could be the exact same shape as either one of the skinnier sony infolithiums, or one of the long-running pager / dumbphone battery formats, so that there would be a definite aftermarket of batteries for it, it’d be perfect. My concern with something like this is if you don’t buy like 3 spare batteries at the same time you get the headphones, you won’t be able to find any for sale a few years later.

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

The 2026 Honda Prelude is a marvel of hybrid technology

The first new Prelude in 25 years has a hybrid powertrain and simulated shifting. But don’t let that deter you.

Peter Nelson
Meta made its own AI detection system. It should have just used Google’s

It’s early days for Content Seal, but the standard isn’t off to a good start.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Disney lays off “several hundred” staffers.

The ESPN, National Geographic, and Pixar divisions are among the most impacted according to Deadline, making this the second round of cuts this year since Josh D’Amaro took over the Disney CEO role in March. That Pixar blow comes despite Toy Story 5 earning almost $1 billion so far.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Pixel art on your power bank.

I’m no fan of the feature creep invading power banks but I can still appreciate these adorable portable batteries from Orico, available in both 5000mAh ($37.99) and 10,000mAh ($45.99) capacities.

<em>The smaller 5000mAh version.</em>
<em>Come on, that’s fun!</em>
<em>The companion app where the magic happens.</em>
<em>The larger 10,000mAh model.</em>
1/4
The smaller 5000mAh version.
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Samsung just updated its Galaxy Watch app.

Android Authority spotted that a new version of the Galaxy Wearable app is rolling out with a simplified three-tab layout, refined UI, and new home tab with useful shortcuts to key watch settings. It’s presumably no coincidence that it lands the same day Samsung is due to launch new Galaxy Watches at Unpacked.

Four screenshots of new Galaxy Wearable app
Image: Samsung / Android Authority
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
World Cup final sets US viewership record.

The final between Spain and Argentina on Sunday was the most-matched “soccer” telecast in US history. With an average of 38,937,000 viewers, the match was up 132 percent compared to the 2022 final — averaging 16,784,000 viewers — and up 240 percent over 2018’s final which drew 11,441,000 viewers.

For perspective, about 125.6 million Americans watched the most recent Super Bowl.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Reddit might cut ties with Google as traffic drops.

Reddit has discussed shutting off Google’s access to data used to train its Gemini AI models. Or maybe it’s just a renegotiation bluff now that its $60 million-a-year deal is coming to an end. According to The Wall Street Journal:

… with AI-generated answers to queries reducing clicks to outside websites, Reddit executives are assessing what the upside is of continuing to feed its content to Google, said the people familiar with the matter.

Google Zero comes for us all, eventually.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Spotify now ranks top music videos.

Spotify has launched its first chart dedicated entirely to music videos. The global top 50 videos are ranked daily by stream count, and are available at the Charts hub and Music Video Playlists hub.

The top rankings as of July 22nd, 2026.
The top rankings as of July 22nd, 2026.
Screengrab: The Verge via Spotify
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Hello Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

We’re just hours away from Samsung Unpacked and the leaks keep coming. The Z Fold 8 Ultra retains the Z Fold 7’s slim and tall design, but is said to come with an upgraded 5,000mAh battery promising up to 27 hours of video playback.

Neill Blomkamp’s new zombie AI ‘film’ is just slop warmed over

No amount of clever editing can make this Seedance-generated mess interesting.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
France is banning kids under 15 from social media.

Both houses of France’s Parliament voted to approve a new law that could restrict under-15s from social media as soon as September 1st, while also banning cellphone use in high schools. Australia began restricting kids under 16 from social media last year, though a recent study found that many underage users can still access the platforms.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google Meet’s new homepage gives you an overview of your meetings.

The “revamped” homepage, rolling out starting today, lists all of your upcoming meetings with links to notes and calendar attachments for each one. It also has options for navigating through weeks and months to see past and future meetings.

A screenshot of the redesigned Google Meet homepage
Image: Google
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Meta’s Horizon Plus subscription now includes the Xbox Game Pass starter edition.

As Microsoft continues its Xbox “reset,” the pared-down Game Pass bundle that arrived recently as a benefit for Discord Nitro is now also included in the 7.99 monthly / $59.99 annually Quest subscription. The starter edition also includes 10 hours of cloud gaming access to try some of the 50-plus games it unlocks before downloading them.

Meta also said that soon its Meta Quest Touch controllers will be able to emulate the Xbox gamepad, although anyone who has a real Xbox pad can just pair that to their headset immediately.

David Imel
David Imel
Jack Dorsey made an open-source Slack for humans and agents.

Block’s new open-source app “Buzz” is a self-hosted Slack-meets-GitHub built on a Nostr relay. I don’t have enough characters to explain what that all means, but think of it like a private Slack alternative. Oh, and you can vibe-code in it.

Image credit: Buzz
David Pierce
David Pierce
Today’s Vergecast: The car of the future is an EV golf cart.

So far, most electric vehicles have looked more or less like cars. But recently, a few companies have looked to another, smaller mode of transport for inspiration. The Verge’s Andy Hawkins explains why companies like Amble and Chip are reinventing the golf cart, in the hopes of creating an entirely new kind of street-legal vehicle. As long as the speed limit stays low.