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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

In addition to three new wearables (the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7, and Watch Ultra) and a new pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Samsung has unpacked details on its two newest foldable smartphones: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 ($1,899.99) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($1,099.99). Both bring minimal improvements over their predecessors yet start $100 higher than previous releases. Preorders start today, and the devices will begin shipping on July 24th.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 most notably add the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset. It has a dedicated neural processing unit for the growing list of Galaxy AI and Google Gemini features present in Android 14 and One UI 6. Samsung refined their outward design with a flatter profile and less curvature around the corners and edges while making internal room for better cooling properties. Both devices also get an IP48 rating for protection against dust and water. They previously didn’t have an ingress protection rating for dust, though the “4” in that slot means it’s not exactly dust-tight — it only guarantees protection against objects 1mm or larger.
The Z Fold 6 also lasts a bit longer on the same battery capacity, Samsung says, while the Z Flip 6 gets a slightly bigger battery to claim similar improvements. The Z Flip 6’s camera also gets an upgraded 50-megapixel wide-angle sensor with 2X optical zoom. Below, we’ll delve into a few more specifics about each smartphone and show you where to preorder them for the best bonuses and upgrades.
How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
The cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is slightly larger than last year’s model at 6.3 inches — a marginal 0.1-inch increase with a very slight resolution bump to compensate. The internal display has the same 7.6-inch size with a hardly noticeable jump in pixel density but gets a significant brightness boost to 2,600 nits.
Samsung says the Z Fold 6 will offer the definitive Galaxy AI experience, with tailor-built features that make meaningful use of the larger display’s full expanse. The hinge and glass are a bit more durable, too, and the display crease is said to be less pronounced.
Rear cameras on the Z Fold 6 are largely the same as before with identical 50-megapixel wide-angle and 10-megapixel 3X telephoto options, but the 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor is said to have better low-light performance. Its larger vapor chamber is another big change meant to keep things cool during ray-traced gaming and other heavy activity that can heat up the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 starts at $1,899.99 for the base 256GB model, which is a $100 increase compared to the starting price we’ve grown accustomed to with older releases. It’s available in silver, pink, and navy at Amazon, Best Buy, and all major carriers. If you purchase through Samsung’s website, you can also unlock exclusive black and white options.
While preorders last, Samsung is offering 12 months of Samsung Care Plus coverage and up to $1,200 of credit with qualifying trade-ins when purchasing a carrier-specific model from its website. You can also get double the storage for free (from 256GB to 512GB or from 512GB to 1TB) if you preorder from Samsung, carriers, and retailers by July 23rd.
Amazon includes a $300 gift card with each Galaxy Z Fold 6 preorder. You can get the same deal in an SKU that bundles a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for $2,149.98, an increase that exactly matches their $249.99 MSRP.
Best Buy will also send you a $300 e-gift card when purchasing any Galaxy Z Fold 6. You’ll receive the gift card in your email inbox after your phone has been shipped or picked up. You can save another $100 upfront when opting in to the retailer’s carrier activation service, which would bring your total down to $1,799.99.

How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6
You’ll need to look a bit harder to notice differences on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. The 6.7-inch primary display and 3.4-inch cover display are the same size as they were last year, though Samsung has bolstered the latter’s utility with smart message replies and other fun changes. Most of the material changes compared to the Z Flip 5 are internal — it has a slightly bigger 4,000mAh battery and a newly minted vapor chamber to support the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. You’ll also get 12GB of RAM in the starting configuration, which is a decent bump from the older model’s 8GB.
As for the camera system, the Z Flip 6 gets an upgraded 50-megapixel wide-angle main sensor with a 2X optical zoom and up to 10X digital zoom with AI-assisted enhancements. The 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor remains unchanged.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 also comes in $100 higher than older models, now starting at $1,099.99 for a 256GB model. It’ll be available at Amazon, Best Buy, major carriers, and Samsung directly — the latter has exclusive peach, black, and white colors to entice you, in addition to the standard silver, pink, navy, and mint colors that will be available everywhere.
You’ll get the 12-month Samsung Care Plus benefit for purchasing a carrier model directly from Samsung, plus up to $1,000 toward its cost with qualifying trade-ins. You’ll also get double the storage (up to 512GB) when preordering from Samsung and its retail and carrier partners by July 23rd.
Amazon is throwing in a $200 gift card with Galaxy Z Flip 6 purchases. There’s also a bundle that adds the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for $1,349.98, but it doesn’t save you any money over purchasing the earbuds separately.
Best Buy is currently offering a $200 digital gift card with Galaxy Z Flip 6 purchases, which you’ll receive via email soon after receiving your phone. You can also save another $100 on your purchase if you opt for the retailer to handle carrier activation for you, effectively lowering the price to $999.99.

Carrier promotions and deals
You may find your carrier of choice has more appealing trade-in and financing terms for the Galaxy Z 6 series, plus bonus offers when adding more devices. Here’s a quick rundown of the numbers we’re seeing so far.

Verizon is offering 36-month financing options for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (starting at $56.11 per month) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($33.88 a month). New and existing customers can get up to $800 toward the purchase of either when trading in any Samsung smartphone in any condition.

AT&T will take $1,100 off the Galaxy Z Fold 6 ($52.78 per month before trade credits) or let you walk away with a free Galaxy Z Flip 6 (normally $30.56 per month) when trading in any Samsung smartphone in any condition. New and existing customers can also finance a 40mm Galaxy Watch 7 and a Galaxy Tab A9 Plus for 99 cents per month each on a 36-month term when buying the new foldables.

T-Mobile will take up to $1,100 off the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (normally $79.17 a month for 24 months) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($45.84 per month) when adding a line or trading in a qualifying device on its Go5G Plus or Go5G Next plans.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

In addition to three new wearables (the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7, and Watch Ultra) and a new pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Samsung has unpacked details on its two newest foldable smartphones: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 ($1,899.99) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($1,099.99). Both bring minimal improvements over their predecessors yet start $100 higher than previous releases. Preorders start today, and the devices will begin shipping on July 24th.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 most notably add the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset. It has a dedicated neural processing unit for the growing list of Galaxy AI and Google Gemini features present in Android 14 and One UI 6. Samsung refined their outward design with a flatter profile and less curvature around the corners and edges while making internal room for better cooling properties. Both devices also get an IP48 rating for protection against dust and water. They previously didn’t have an ingress protection rating for dust, though the “4” in that slot means it’s not exactly dust-tight — it only guarantees protection against objects 1mm or larger.

The Z Fold 6 also lasts a bit longer on the same battery capacity, Samsung says, while the Z Flip 6 gets a slightly bigger battery to claim similar improvements. The Z Flip 6’s camera also gets an upgraded 50-megapixel wide-angle sensor with 2X optical zoom. Below, we’ll delve into a few more specifics about each smartphone and show you where to preorder them for the best bonuses and upgrades.

How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

The cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is slightly larger than last year’s model at 6.3 inches — a marginal 0.1-inch increase with a very slight resolution bump to compensate. The internal display has the same 7.6-inch size with a hardly noticeable jump in pixel density but gets a significant brightness boost to 2,600 nits.

Samsung says the Z Fold 6 will offer the definitive Galaxy AI experience, with tailor-built features that make meaningful use of the larger display’s full expanse. The hinge and glass are a bit more durable, too, and the display crease is said to be less pronounced.

Rear cameras on the Z Fold 6 are largely the same as before with identical 50-megapixel wide-angle and 10-megapixel 3X telephoto options, but the 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor is said to have better low-light performance. Its larger vapor chamber is another big change meant to keep things cool during ray-traced gaming and other heavy activity that can heat up the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 starts at $1,899.99 for the base 256GB model, which is a $100 increase compared to the starting price we’ve grown accustomed to with older releases. It’s available in silver, pink, and navy at Amazon, Best Buy, and all major carriers. If you purchase through Samsung’s website, you can also unlock exclusive black and white options.

While preorders last, Samsung is offering 12 months of Samsung Care Plus coverage and up to $1,200 of credit with qualifying trade-ins when purchasing a carrier-specific model from its website. You can also get double the storage for free (from 256GB to 512GB or from 512GB to 1TB) if you preorder from Samsung, carriers, and retailers by July 23rd.

Amazon includes a $300 gift card with each Galaxy Z Fold 6 preorder. You can get the same deal in an SKU that bundles a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for $2,149.98, an increase that exactly matches their $249.99 MSRP.

Best Buy will also send you a $300 e-gift card when purchasing any Galaxy Z Fold 6. You’ll receive the gift card in your email inbox after your phone has been shipped or picked up. You can save another $100 upfront when opting in to the retailer’s carrier activation service, which would bring your total down to $1,799.99.

How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

You’ll need to look a bit harder to notice differences on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. The 6.7-inch primary display and 3.4-inch cover display are the same size as they were last year, though Samsung has bolstered the latter’s utility with smart message replies and other fun changes. Most of the material changes compared to the Z Flip 5 are internal — it has a slightly bigger 4,000mAh battery and a newly minted vapor chamber to support the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. You’ll also get 12GB of RAM in the starting configuration, which is a decent bump from the older model’s 8GB.

As for the camera system, the Z Flip 6 gets an upgraded 50-megapixel wide-angle main sensor with a 2X optical zoom and up to 10X digital zoom with AI-assisted enhancements. The 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor remains unchanged.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 also comes in $100 higher than older models, now starting at $1,099.99 for a 256GB model. It’ll be available at Amazon, Best Buy, major carriers, and Samsung directly — the latter has exclusive peach, black, and white colors to entice you, in addition to the standard silver, pink, navy, and mint colors that will be available everywhere.

You’ll get the 12-month Samsung Care Plus benefit for purchasing a carrier model directly from Samsung, plus up to $1,000 toward its cost with qualifying trade-ins. You’ll also get double the storage (up to 512GB) when preordering from Samsung and its retail and carrier partners by July 23rd.

Amazon is throwing in a $200 gift card with Galaxy Z Flip 6 purchases. There’s also a bundle that adds the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for $1,349.98, but it doesn’t save you any money over purchasing the earbuds separately.

Best Buy is currently offering a $200 digital gift card with Galaxy Z Flip 6 purchases, which you’ll receive via email soon after receiving your phone. You can also save another $100 on your purchase if you opt for the retailer to handle carrier activation for you, effectively lowering the price to $999.99.

Carrier promotions and deals

You may find your carrier of choice has more appealing trade-in and financing terms for the Galaxy Z 6 series, plus bonus offers when adding more devices. Here’s a quick rundown of the numbers we’re seeing so far.

Verizon is offering 36-month financing options for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (starting at $56.11 per month) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($33.88 a month). New and existing customers can get up to $800 toward the purchase of either when trading in any Samsung smartphone in any condition.

AT&T will take $1,100 off the Galaxy Z Fold 6 ($52.78 per month before trade credits) or let you walk away with a free Galaxy Z Flip 6 (normally $30.56 per month) when trading in any Samsung smartphone in any condition. New and existing customers can also finance a 40mm Galaxy Watch 7 and a Galaxy Tab A9 Plus for 99 cents per month each on a 36-month term when buying the new foldables.

T-Mobile will take up to $1,100 off the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (normally $79.17 a month for 24 months) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ($45.84 per month) when adding a line or trading in a qualifying device on its Go5G Plus or Go5G Next plans.

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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will now let kids interact with other users in virtual reality, but only if they get parental approval. An upcoming change will let parents individually approve each user their 10- to 12-year-old can call, chat with, and join VR experiences with on Quest. Previously, Meta didn’t allow kids in that age range to use chats, make calls, or invite others to games.
Last year, Meta lowered the minimum age for kids who can use its Quest headsets from 13 to 10 years old. Kids in this age range must get parental approval to create a Meta account for the headset, which their parents will have control over. Meta also doesn’t show ads to these accounts by default and will only recommend games and apps appropriate to their age.

Image: Meta

The change comes as the federal government ramps up scrutiny of child safety on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Discord. In February, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the Senate during a hearing and has since spent millions on lobbying while the government mulls bills on online child safety.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will now let kids interact with other users in virtual reality, but only if they get parental approval. An upcoming change will let parents individually approve each user their 10- to 12-year-old can call, chat with, and join VR experiences with on Quest. Previously, Meta didn’t allow kids in that age range to use chats, make calls, or invite others to games.

Last year, Meta lowered the minimum age for kids who can use its Quest headsets from 13 to 10 years old. Kids in this age range must get parental approval to create a Meta account for the headset, which their parents will have control over. Meta also doesn’t show ads to these accounts by default and will only recommend games and apps appropriate to their age.

Image: Meta

The change comes as the federal government ramps up scrutiny of child safety on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Discord. In February, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the Senate during a hearing and has since spent millions on lobbying while the government mulls bills on online child safety.

Read More 

Courtesy of HBO

Director Jess Jacklin talks to The Verge about her new documentary following the first all-quadriplegic esports team. “All of us have the experience of being a prisoner in your own body,” says Blake Hunt. He’s one of eight members of the world’s first all-quadriplegic esports team, the Quad Gods. “Gaming is one place that you are allowed to escape, and then it becomes less about what you’re physically able to do and more about what you’re capable of.”
Hunt and his fellow teammates are at a Central Park memorial service for Chris Scott, the gamer and former skydiving instructor who initially dreamed up the Quad Gods while receiving treatment for his spinal cord injury. In a film that’s packed with poetic reflections on what it means to live in a body that doesn’t always work the way you want it to, Hunt’s meditation on the power of gaming as a democratizing force, a form of physicality in and of itself, stands out to me as the central thesis of Quad Gods, which streams on Max on July 10th. At a time when there’s a lot to be afraid of when it comes to technology, particularly emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, Quad Gods offers a refreshingly optimistic counter-narrative of how these tools can level the playing field for people who society consistently brushes aside.
Quad Gods is a lot of films at once. It elegantly weaves together a number of classic documentary formats like sports, competition, and animation, but what ultimately makes it work is the fact that it paints vivid and humanizing portraits of its central characters. As a viewer, you aren’t confined to the limits of an esports competition. Hunt and his teammates, Richard Jacobs, Prentice Hall, and Sergio Acevedo, generously invite you into their lives as they cross New York City — by wheelchair, car, and bus — take their kids to school, go on dates, and try their best to navigate a world that, in the words of Hunt, “isn’t really designed for us.”
I was charmed by Quad Gods, which was a passion project by director Jess Jacklin that was years in the making. Ahead of the film’s release on HBO today, I talked to Jacklin about how she uncovered and developed this story, the challenges of making a movie about screens, and what she hopes viewers will take away.

Photo courtesy of Alex Joyce

The Verge: How did you discover this story?
Jess Jacklin: I met Dr. Petrino, who was a neuroscientist in the film. I was confiding in him at the time because I deal with a lot of chronic pain for a condition I have. At the time, he was going into VR trials to help rewire pain receptors in the brain, and I was fascinated. I came down to check out what he was doing, and Blake Hunt, who is one of the subjects in the film, was actually a part of Petrino’s VR testing at the time. Chris Scott, who you saw [in the film], was really championing this idea of an esports team. It was sort of his idea, and they were all casually hanging out down there talking about it. I was like, “What? This is amazing. I have to get involved.”
I met Chris first, and I was filming with him for a while. This is pre-covid days — this is 2018. I think they had picked a team name and were just starting to get a sponsor here or there, and he passed away. That was sort of what galvanized all of us — them to really keep going and me to really start pursuing it as a feature project.
It seems like you’ve had an interest in the therapeutic potential of technology for a while. How did this story challenge or confirm any preexisting ideas you had coming into it?
One of the biggest things I learned in the process of making this film was how to think about identity as a disabled person in terms of a social model of disability. It goes against what you might see in a traditional hospital setting, which is deemed “the medical model” in the academic world. There’s a lot of: How do you rehabilitate? How do you fix? But it’s sort of missing the idea of the full person, which is discounting this being a part of somebody’s life experience and them not necessarily wanting to change who they are but maybe wanting to lessen the amount of pain that they have or think about rehabilitation in different ways.
I felt like being around the lab and doing my research and being immersed in this world opened me up to all the nuances of the disabled experience, which, ultimately, I think I found in the film. For instance, somebody born without the ability to hear has a very different experience of themselves and their identity than somebody [who] went through a traumatic event and lost the ability to hear. This spectrum of the experience became something I was very interested in. Even within the three lead subjects — who you might think have all had very similar experiences — they’re all very different in what they want and how they see themselves. That became something I felt was really important to explore in the narrative as I was making it.
Quad Gods is a sports film, a competition film, an animated film, and a character study all in one. I’m curious how you thought about marrying all of those different formats and incorporating the competition into the narrative of the film.
I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to make a traditional sports doc. I didn’t want there to be this relationship to plot and to “Will they win? Won’t they win?” It just never felt like it was the point to me. I also felt like what gaming was to them was something bigger than that. It wasn’t about proving that they were as good as other players or something like that. It felt too superficial for what the actual experience was.
I thought, Well, the sports element can be nice for structure. It gives us a sense of something progressing, but I didn’t want to be tied to it, either. I thought of it as a nice device and also as a nice way to show the difference in opinion around it, too. It was a real point of tension. It comes in that scene where Richard asks the question, “What do we all want out of this? Do we even all want the same thing?” Because I was finding it meant something different to each of them.

Courtesy of HBO
Prentice Hall, Richard Jacobs, Alejandro Courtney, Blake Hunt exercising in Central Park

Your contributors see a lot of opportunity in technology, mainly in the form of video games, but there is also this scene you were just describing where they use AI to create their digital avatars. I’m curious how you think their attitudes toward these technologies and the very real benefits they offer counter and add nuance to some of the public skepticism and fear there is out there right now about some of these emerging technologies.
It’s offering something different to people who aren’t able-bodied. There’s so much potential in this stuff. The truth is a lot of them were gamers before they were injured. All three of the lead characters were already playing video games. This was just like, “Oh, great, there’s this technology now that allows me to do this thing that isn’t new, but I’m doing it in a new way.”
I think generally, for the disabled community, having things designed with any kind of body in mind is a great way to think about design because it ends up benefiting everybody. The example they use a lot is the curb cut. It was created for wheelchairs, but then women with strollers could use it. When you design in an open way, you can include everyone.
AI came along in the process of making this, and everybody was having the experience of like, “Whoa… Oh my gosh, I just uploaded my photo into this thing, and now all of a sudden, I’m this character, and I can create this stuff.” It was really cool to see them exploring with it. I think they all found a really fun, creative outlet in it, even just in this avatar exploration. I found Prentice was writing scenes and exploring animation and playing around with AI just because of the process we were in. I think that I’m optimistic about what technology can offer. I think that it’s easy to be Black Mirror about everything, but I’m cautiously optimistic about what it can offer.
What kinds of visual challenges did making a film about technology pose, and what solutions did you find?
I remember early conversations with the editors and it being like, “Is this just going to be a bunch of people sitting at computers the entire movie?” I thought, “Well, the most interesting thing isn’t really the video games. It’s these people and their lives are really dynamic.” That’s where I decided to focus. It’s not really what you expect. You don’t really expect someone to be an Uber delivery person. You don’t really think about them raising kids and getting on and off buses. That, to me, felt like, “Well, I will have them sitting at computers sometimes, but I can at least balance the film with all these other dynamic scenes.”
Do you have an update on the Quad Gods and how their team is doing this year?
One really exciting update is that Andy, who was the newest recruit to the Quad Gods and who you meet at the end of the film, just placed second in a big tournament. The next generation of the Quad Gods is coming in really strong, and so they were all on his livestream watching him compete for the championship. I mean, they ended up taking second place, which was amazing. I can’t remember what the game was, but he’s doing really well from just learning the quad stick when we filmed him to where he is at now. He’s gotten super good at it.
Quad Gods is streaming on Max starting July 10,

Courtesy of HBO

Director Jess Jacklin talks to The Verge about her new documentary following the first all-quadriplegic esports team.

“All of us have the experience of being a prisoner in your own body,” says Blake Hunt. He’s one of eight members of the world’s first all-quadriplegic esports team, the Quad Gods. “Gaming is one place that you are allowed to escape, and then it becomes less about what you’re physically able to do and more about what you’re capable of.”

Hunt and his fellow teammates are at a Central Park memorial service for Chris Scott, the gamer and former skydiving instructor who initially dreamed up the Quad Gods while receiving treatment for his spinal cord injury. In a film that’s packed with poetic reflections on what it means to live in a body that doesn’t always work the way you want it to, Hunt’s meditation on the power of gaming as a democratizing force, a form of physicality in and of itself, stands out to me as the central thesis of Quad Gods, which streams on Max on July 10th. At a time when there’s a lot to be afraid of when it comes to technology, particularly emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, Quad Gods offers a refreshingly optimistic counter-narrative of how these tools can level the playing field for people who society consistently brushes aside.

Quad Gods is a lot of films at once. It elegantly weaves together a number of classic documentary formats like sports, competition, and animation, but what ultimately makes it work is the fact that it paints vivid and humanizing portraits of its central characters. As a viewer, you aren’t confined to the limits of an esports competition. Hunt and his teammates, Richard Jacobs, Prentice Hall, and Sergio Acevedo, generously invite you into their lives as they cross New York City — by wheelchair, car, and bus — take their kids to school, go on dates, and try their best to navigate a world that, in the words of Hunt, “isn’t really designed for us.”

I was charmed by Quad Gods, which was a passion project by director Jess Jacklin that was years in the making. Ahead of the film’s release on HBO today, I talked to Jacklin about how she uncovered and developed this story, the challenges of making a movie about screens, and what she hopes viewers will take away.

The Verge: How did you discover this story?

Jess Jacklin: I met Dr. Petrino, who was a neuroscientist in the film. I was confiding in him at the time because I deal with a lot of chronic pain for a condition I have. At the time, he was going into VR trials to help rewire pain receptors in the brain, and I was fascinated. I came down to check out what he was doing, and Blake Hunt, who is one of the subjects in the film, was actually a part of Petrino’s VR testing at the time. Chris Scott, who you saw [in the film], was really championing this idea of an esports team. It was sort of his idea, and they were all casually hanging out down there talking about it. I was like, “What? This is amazing. I have to get involved.”

I met Chris first, and I was filming with him for a while. This is pre-covid days — this is 2018. I think they had picked a team name and were just starting to get a sponsor here or there, and he passed away. That was sort of what galvanized all of us — them to really keep going and me to really start pursuing it as a feature project.

It seems like you’ve had an interest in the therapeutic potential of technology for a while. How did this story challenge or confirm any preexisting ideas you had coming into it?

One of the biggest things I learned in the process of making this film was how to think about identity as a disabled person in terms of a social model of disability. It goes against what you might see in a traditional hospital setting, which is deemed “the medical model” in the academic world. There’s a lot of: How do you rehabilitate? How do you fix? But it’s sort of missing the idea of the full person, which is discounting this being a part of somebody’s life experience and them not necessarily wanting to change who they are but maybe wanting to lessen the amount of pain that they have or think about rehabilitation in different ways.

I felt like being around the lab and doing my research and being immersed in this world opened me up to all the nuances of the disabled experience, which, ultimately, I think I found in the film. For instance, somebody born without the ability to hear has a very different experience of themselves and their identity than somebody [who] went through a traumatic event and lost the ability to hear. This spectrum of the experience became something I was very interested in. Even within the three lead subjects — who you might think have all had very similar experiences — they’re all very different in what they want and how they see themselves. That became something I felt was really important to explore in the narrative as I was making it.

Quad Gods is a sports film, a competition film, an animated film, and a character study all in one. I’m curious how you thought about marrying all of those different formats and incorporating the competition into the narrative of the film.

I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to make a traditional sports doc. I didn’t want there to be this relationship to plot and to “Will they win? Won’t they win?” It just never felt like it was the point to me. I also felt like what gaming was to them was something bigger than that. It wasn’t about proving that they were as good as other players or something like that. It felt too superficial for what the actual experience was.

I thought, Well, the sports element can be nice for structure. It gives us a sense of something progressing, but I didn’t want to be tied to it, either. I thought of it as a nice device and also as a nice way to show the difference in opinion around it, too. It was a real point of tension. It comes in that scene where Richard asks the question, “What do we all want out of this? Do we even all want the same thing?” Because I was finding it meant something different to each of them.

Courtesy of HBO
Prentice Hall, Richard Jacobs, Alejandro Courtney, Blake Hunt exercising in Central Park

Your contributors see a lot of opportunity in technology, mainly in the form of video games, but there is also this scene you were just describing where they use AI to create their digital avatars. I’m curious how you think their attitudes toward these technologies and the very real benefits they offer counter and add nuance to some of the public skepticism and fear there is out there right now about some of these emerging technologies.

It’s offering something different to people who aren’t able-bodied. There’s so much potential in this stuff. The truth is a lot of them were gamers before they were injured. All three of the lead characters were already playing video games. This was just like, “Oh, great, there’s this technology now that allows me to do this thing that isn’t new, but I’m doing it in a new way.”

I think generally, for the disabled community, having things designed with any kind of body in mind is a great way to think about design because it ends up benefiting everybody. The example they use a lot is the curb cut. It was created for wheelchairs, but then women with strollers could use it. When you design in an open way, you can include everyone.

AI came along in the process of making this, and everybody was having the experience of like, “Whoa… Oh my gosh, I just uploaded my photo into this thing, and now all of a sudden, I’m this character, and I can create this stuff.” It was really cool to see them exploring with it. I think they all found a really fun, creative outlet in it, even just in this avatar exploration. I found Prentice was writing scenes and exploring animation and playing around with AI just because of the process we were in. I think that I’m optimistic about what technology can offer. I think that it’s easy to be Black Mirror about everything, but I’m cautiously optimistic about what it can offer.

What kinds of visual challenges did making a film about technology pose, and what solutions did you find?

I remember early conversations with the editors and it being like, “Is this just going to be a bunch of people sitting at computers the entire movie?” I thought, “Well, the most interesting thing isn’t really the video games. It’s these people and their lives are really dynamic.” That’s where I decided to focus. It’s not really what you expect. You don’t really expect someone to be an Uber delivery person. You don’t really think about them raising kids and getting on and off buses. That, to me, felt like, “Well, I will have them sitting at computers sometimes, but I can at least balance the film with all these other dynamic scenes.”

Do you have an update on the Quad Gods and how their team is doing this year?

One really exciting update is that Andy, who was the newest recruit to the Quad Gods and who you meet at the end of the film, just placed second in a big tournament. The next generation of the Quad Gods is coming in really strong, and so they were all on his livestream watching him compete for the championship. I mean, they ended up taking second place, which was amazing. I can’t remember what the game was, but he’s doing really well from just learning the quad stick when we filmed him to where he is at now. He’s gotten super good at it.

Quad Gods is streaming on Max starting July 10,

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Image: Napelton Aurora Imports

Hyundai pressured its dealers to “artificially inflate” its electric vehicle sales figures, instituting a system in which dealers who “played ball” were rewarded while those who refused were “punished,” a new lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Chicago by Napleton Aurora Imports in Illinois and affiliated franchises, says that Hyundai has issued numerous press releases touting the “fake” numbers that purport to show year-over-year growth in EV sales.
Dealers who declined to participate in the alleged ruse were put at a competitive disadvantage, including being forced to push unpopular vehicles or denied wholesale price discounts for customers.
“That is a false narrative”
Hyundai “has emphasized sales-volume growth in its Hyundai branded EVs, leading the public to believe these increasing EV sales are occurring organically because of the desirability of Hyundai EVs and customer demand for these vehicles,” the lawsuit says. “That is a false narrative. Instead of organic growth fueled by desirable vehicles and consumer demand, [Hyundai Motors America] created a multitiered scheme to cause its dealers to report false sales.”

Napleton Aurora v Hyundai – Illinois – 20240705 by ahawkins8223 on Scribd

The news comes has Hyundai’s sales in the US have decreased in the last quarter, even as the company has reported an increase in EV sales. In June, Hyundai said it sold 4,669 electric cars in the US, a nearly 9 percent increase compared to the same month last year. The company said its EV sales have climbed 33 percent so far this year.
The alleged scheme involved a “secret program” in which dealers were asked to falsely report unsold vehicles as “sold” to a customer or placed into a loaner service, only to reverse the “sale” the following month. The plaintiffs say they believe the illegal program is being used by Hyundai throughout its US operations.
The lawsuit cites transcripts from phone calls involving Hyundai sales managers pressuring a dealership employee to take part in the scheme. The sales manager said “he was ‘kinda up against a wall we gotta hit a number for the press and for the Koreans,’” the suit says. The sales manager also said “he felt ‘slimy for even proposing this,’ but [Hyundai Motor America] was asking dealers to ‘steal some inventory.’”
Before the lawsuit, Hyundai was in the process of trying to terminate two Napleton dealership franchises in Florida after a Napleton executive was sentenced to five years probation stemming from accusations of criminal sexual battery, according to Reuters.
A spokesperson for Hyundai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Image: Napelton Aurora Imports

Hyundai pressured its dealers to “artificially inflate” its electric vehicle sales figures, instituting a system in which dealers who “played ball” were rewarded while those who refused were “punished,” a new lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Chicago by Napleton Aurora Imports in Illinois and affiliated franchises, says that Hyundai has issued numerous press releases touting the “fake” numbers that purport to show year-over-year growth in EV sales.

Dealers who declined to participate in the alleged ruse were put at a competitive disadvantage, including being forced to push unpopular vehicles or denied wholesale price discounts for customers.

Hyundai “has emphasized sales-volume growth in its Hyundai branded EVs, leading the public to believe these increasing EV sales are occurring organically because of the desirability of Hyundai EVs and customer demand for these vehicles,” the lawsuit says. “That is a false narrative. Instead of organic growth fueled by desirable vehicles and consumer demand, [Hyundai Motors America] created a multitiered scheme to cause its dealers to report false sales.”

The news comes has Hyundai’s sales in the US have decreased in the last quarter, even as the company has reported an increase in EV sales. In June, Hyundai said it sold 4,669 electric cars in the US, a nearly 9 percent increase compared to the same month last year. The company said its EV sales have climbed 33 percent so far this year.

The alleged scheme involved a “secret program” in which dealers were asked to falsely report unsold vehicles as “sold” to a customer or placed into a loaner service, only to reverse the “sale” the following month. The plaintiffs say they believe the illegal program is being used by Hyundai throughout its US operations.

The lawsuit cites transcripts from phone calls involving Hyundai sales managers pressuring a dealership employee to take part in the scheme. The sales manager said “he was ‘kinda up against a wall we gotta hit a number for the press and for the Koreans,’” the suit says. The sales manager also said “he felt ‘slimy for even proposing this,’ but [Hyundai Motor America] was asking dealers to ‘steal some inventory.’”

Before the lawsuit, Hyundai was in the process of trying to terminate two Napleton dealership franchises in Florida after a Napleton executive was sentenced to five years probation stemming from accusations of criminal sexual battery, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for Hyundai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Image by Alex Parkin / The Verge and Samsung

Samsung didn’t just announce new foldable phones and wireless earbuds during its Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday but also a new lineup of wearables: the Galaxy Watch 7 ($299.99), the Samsung Ring ($399.99), and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra ($649.99). While you’ll have to wait until July 24th until they’re officially available, all of the wearables are available to preorder now in the US.

The new wearables target a wide audience, from casual users to outdoor athletes. The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a stylish wearable that’s more of a discreet health tracker, while the Galaxy Watch 7 is a smartwatch that’s more capable with new sleep apnea detection capabilities. Yet it’s not as feature-packed as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, which, as my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her hands-on impression, is basically the Android version of the Apple Watch Ultra. Built for the active, outdoorsy type, Samsung says it is its most durable watch yet and replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro as Samsung’s premium smartwatch.
We’ve published hands-on impressions of the Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, and Galaxy Watch Ring and will be sharing our reviews soon. In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about each new product and all the relevant information so you can place your preorder today.
How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7
Powered by the new 3nm Exynos W1000 chip and equipped with a new dual-frequency GPS, Samsung says the Galaxy Watch 7 is faster than its predecessor and can track your location even more precisely. As we noted in our hands-on review, it’s not a significant upgrade, but what is notable is that it now supports FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection features — which is an industrywide first.
Other new features include an upgraded Samsung BioActive Sensor for improved heart rate, EKG, and body composition analysis as well as Galaxy AI-powered features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips. Samsung has also added an Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index metric, which is supposed to reflect your overall biological aging process.

Aside from new sensors, the wearable also sports some new software. The wearable has been upgraded to Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch, while Samsung’s introduced some new tricks like a double pinch gesture so you can easily control your Samsung Galaxy Watch or phone. Samsung’s also added an AI-powered suggested replies feature, which recommends responses based on your previous conversations.
The Galaxy Watch 7 is available in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm. The 40mm is available in green and cream, while you can buy the 44mm version in green and silver. The smaller watch starts at $299.99, while the larger wearable retails for $329.99. If you want LTE cellular connectivity, you’ll have to pay an additional $50.
Right now, Samsung will through in a free watchband when you preorder the Galaxy Watch 7 from them ahead of its release on July 24th. You can also preorder the wearable from Amazon, Best Buy, and Verizon. The latter will offer the wearable for free if you buy any 5G Android smartwatch and trade in qualifying smartwatches.

How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra offers all the same health features as Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7, but it’s geared toward more active, outdoorsy types like divers, runners, hikers, cyclists, and more. As mentioned, my colleague Victoria describes it as similar to the Apple Watch Ultra but with a squircle-shaped case.
Samsung says it’s the most durable wearable in its lineup, with 10ATM of water resistance, an IP68 rating, a titanium case, and a sapphire crystal lens. It also offers more fitness tracking capabilities, like a multisport activity profile, a loud emergency siren, a Functional Threshold Power metric for cyclists, and a Race feature so you can compare your past and current performance. There’s even a Quick Button for easy access to the workout app and other features like the flashlight.
Retailing for $649.99, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is available in just one size — 47mm — and comes in gray, white, and silver. Like the Galaxy Watch 7, Samsung will also throw in a free watchband when you preorder it from them. However, you can also preorder the wearable from Amazon, Best Buy, and Verizon.

How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Ring
If you’re looking for a more discreet health tracker than a smartwatch, you might want to take a look at Samsung’s Galaxy smart ring. It offers all the standard health tracking sensors so you can keep tabs on activity, heart rate data, sleep, and even menstrual cycles. It also offers Galaxy Watch AI features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips, though it lacks irregular heart rate notifications and sleep apnea detection features.
After spending a brief amount of time with Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, my colleague Victoria Song said the smart ring shows a lot of promise. She’s yet to test its software, battery life, and the accuracy of its tracking data, but so far, she’s been impressed. The wearable is slick with a well-designed, easy-to-use charging case, while the fact it even works with the double pinch gesture is a cool touch.
Samsung’s Galaxy Ring comes in nine size options and three colors: black, silver, and gold. It starts at $399.99 and is available to preorder from Samsung, Amazon, and Best Buy.

Image by Alex Parkin / The Verge and Samsung

Samsung didn’t just announce new foldable phones and wireless earbuds during its Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday but also a new lineup of wearables: the Galaxy Watch 7 ($299.99), the Samsung Ring ($399.99), and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra ($649.99). While you’ll have to wait until July 24th until they’re officially available, all of the wearables are available to preorder now in the US.

The new wearables target a wide audience, from casual users to outdoor athletes. The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a stylish wearable that’s more of a discreet health tracker, while the Galaxy Watch 7 is a smartwatch that’s more capable with new sleep apnea detection capabilities. Yet it’s not as feature-packed as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, which, as my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her hands-on impression, is basically the Android version of the Apple Watch Ultra. Built for the active, outdoorsy type, Samsung says it is its most durable watch yet and replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro as Samsung’s premium smartwatch.

We’ve published hands-on impressions of the Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, and Galaxy Watch Ring and will be sharing our reviews soon. In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about each new product and all the relevant information so you can place your preorder today.

How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7

Powered by the new 3nm Exynos W1000 chip and equipped with a new dual-frequency GPS, Samsung says the Galaxy Watch 7 is faster than its predecessor and can track your location even more precisely. As we noted in our hands-on review, it’s not a significant upgrade, but what is notable is that it now supports FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection features — which is an industrywide first.

Other new features include an upgraded Samsung BioActive Sensor for improved heart rate, EKG, and body composition analysis as well as Galaxy AI-powered features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips. Samsung has also added an Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index metric, which is supposed to reflect your overall biological aging process.

Aside from new sensors, the wearable also sports some new software. The wearable has been upgraded to Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch, while Samsung’s introduced some new tricks like a double pinch gesture so you can easily control your Samsung Galaxy Watch or phone. Samsung’s also added an AI-powered suggested replies feature, which recommends responses based on your previous conversations.

The Galaxy Watch 7 is available in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm. The 40mm is available in green and cream, while you can buy the 44mm version in green and silver. The smaller watch starts at $299.99, while the larger wearable retails for $329.99. If you want LTE cellular connectivity, you’ll have to pay an additional $50.

Right now, Samsung will through in a free watchband when you preorder the Galaxy Watch 7 from them ahead of its release on July 24th. You can also preorder the wearable from Amazon, Best Buy, and Verizon. The latter will offer the wearable for free if you buy any 5G Android smartwatch and trade in qualifying smartwatches.

How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra offers all the same health features as Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7, but it’s geared toward more active, outdoorsy types like divers, runners, hikers, cyclists, and more. As mentioned, my colleague Victoria describes it as similar to the Apple Watch Ultra but with a squircle-shaped case.

Samsung says it’s the most durable wearable in its lineup, with 10ATM of water resistance, an IP68 rating, a titanium case, and a sapphire crystal lens. It also offers more fitness tracking capabilities, like a multisport activity profile, a loud emergency siren, a Functional Threshold Power metric for cyclists, and a Race feature so you can compare your past and current performance. There’s even a Quick Button for easy access to the workout app and other features like the flashlight.

Retailing for $649.99, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is available in just one size — 47mm — and comes in gray, white, and silver. Like the Galaxy Watch 7, Samsung will also throw in a free watchband when you preorder it from them. However, you can also preorder the wearable from Amazon, Best Buy, and Verizon.

How to preorder Samsung’s Galaxy Ring

If you’re looking for a more discreet health tracker than a smartwatch, you might want to take a look at Samsung’s Galaxy smart ring. It offers all the standard health tracking sensors so you can keep tabs on activity, heart rate data, sleep, and even menstrual cycles. It also offers Galaxy Watch AI features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips, though it lacks irregular heart rate notifications and sleep apnea detection features.

After spending a brief amount of time with Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, my colleague Victoria Song said the smart ring shows a lot of promise. She’s yet to test its software, battery life, and the accuracy of its tracking data, but so far, she’s been impressed. The wearable is slick with a well-designed, easy-to-use charging case, while the fact it even works with the double pinch gesture is a cool touch.

Samsung’s Galaxy Ring comes in nine size options and three colors: black, silver, and gold. It starts at $399.99 and is available to preorder from Samsung, Amazon, and Best Buy.

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Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images

Here’s what the SCOTUS decision might mean for everything from kids online safety laws to the TikTok ‘ban.’ Last week’s Supreme Court decision in the NetChoice cases was overshadowed by a ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. US that came down only minutes later. But whether or not America even noticed NetChoice happen, the decision is poised to affect a host of tech legislation still brewing on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, as well as lawsuits that are percolating through the system. This includes the pending First Amendment challenge to the TikTok “ban” bill, as well as a First Amendment case about a Texas age verification law that the Supreme Court took up only a day after its NetChoice decision.
The NetChoice decision states that tech platforms can exercise their First Amendment rights through their content moderation decisions and how they choose to display content on their services — a strong statement that has clear ramifications for any laws that attempt to regulate platforms’ algorithms in the name of kids online safety and even on a pending lawsuit seeking to block a law that could ban TikTok from the US.
“When the platforms use their Standards and Guidelines to decide which third-party content those feeds will display, or how the display will be ordered and organized, they are making expressive choices,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority opinion, referring to Facebook’s News Feed and YouTube’s homepage. “And because that is true, they receive First Amendment protection.”

NetChoice isn’t a radical upheaval of existing First Amendment law, but until last week, there was no Supreme Court opinion that applied that existing framework to social media platforms. The justices didn’t rule on the merits of the cases, concluding, instead, that the lower courts hadn’t completed the necessary analysis for the kind of First Amendment challenge that had been brought. But the decision still provides significant guidance to the lower courts on how to apply First Amendment precedent to social media and content moderation. “The Fifth Circuit was wrong in concluding that Texas’s restrictions on the platforms’ selection, ordering, and labeling of third-party posts do not interfere with expression,” Kagan wrote of the appeals court that upheld Texas’ law seeking to prevent platforms from discriminating against content on the basis of viewpoint.
The decision is a revealing look at how the majority of justices view the First Amendment rights of social media companies — something that’s at issue in everything from kids online safety bills to the TikTok “ban.”
The court is already set to hear Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton next term — a case challenging Texas’ HB 1181, which requires internet users to verify their ages (sometimes with government-issued IDs) to access porn sites. Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment industry group that counts Pornhub among its members, sued to block the law but lost on appeal. The justices’ decision in that case next year has the potential to impact many different state and federal efforts to age-gate the internet.
Wider impact of the decision
One recently signed law that may need to contend with the ruling is New York’s Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which requires parental consent for social media companies to use “addictive feeds” on minors. The NetChoice ruling calls into question how far legislatures can go in regulating algorithms — that is, software programmed to surface or deprioritize different pieces of information to different users.
A footnote in the majority opinion says the Court does “not deal here with feeds whose algorithms respond solely to how users act online — giving them the content they appear to want, without any regard to independent content standards.” The note is almost academic in nature — platforms usually take into account many different variables beyond user behavior, and separating those variables from each other is not a straightforward matter.
“Because it’s so hard to disentangle all of the users’ preferences, and the guidance from the services, and the editorial decisions of those services, what you’re left with — technologically speaking — is algorithms that promote content curation. And it should be inevitably assumed then that those algorithms are protected by the First Amendment,” said Jess Miers, who spoke to The Verge before departing her role as senior counsel at center-left tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, which receives funding from companies like Google and Meta.
“The Supreme Court made it pretty clear, curation is absolutely protected.”
“That’s going to squarely hit the New York SAFE Act, which is trying to argue that, look, it’s just algorithms, or it’s just the design of the service,” said Miers. The drafters of the SAFE Act may have presented the law as not having anything to do with content or speech, but NetChoice poses a problem, according to Miers. “The Supreme Court made it pretty clear, curation is absolutely protected.”
Miers said the same analysis would apply to other state efforts, like California’s Age Appropriate Design Code, which a district court agreed to block with a preliminary injunction, and the state has appealed. That law required platforms likely to be used by kids to consider their best interests and default to strong privacy and safety settings. Industry group NetChoice, which also brought the cases at issue in the Supreme Court, argued in its 2022 complaint against California’s law that it would interfere with platforms’ own editorial judgments.
“To the extent that any of these state laws touch the expressive capabilities of these services, those state laws have an immense uphill battle, and a likely insurmountable First Amendment hurdle as well,” Miers said.

Michael Huston, a former clerk to Chief Justice Roberts who co-chairs law firm Perkins Coie’s Appeals, Issues & Strategy Practice, said that any sort of ban on content curation would likely be unconstitutional under the ruling. That could include a law that, for instance, requires platforms to only show content in reverse-chronological order, like California’s Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, which would prohibit the default feeds shown to kids from being based on any information about the user or their devices, or involve recommending or prioritizing posts. “The court is clear that there are a lot of questions that are unanswered, that it’s not attempting to answer in this area,” Huston said. “But broadly speaking … there’s a recognition here that when the platforms make choices about how to organize content, that is itself a part of their own expression.”
The new Supreme Court decision also raises questions about the future of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a similar piece of legislation at the federal level that’s gained significant steam. KOSA seeks to create a duty of care for tech platforms serving young users and allows them to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. “Now with the NetChoice cases, you have this question as to whether KOSA touches any of the expressive aspects of these services,” Miers said. In evaluating KOSA, a court would need to assess “does this regulate a non-expressive part of the service or does it regulate the way in which the service communicates third-party content to its users?”
Supporters of these kinds of bills may point to language in some of the concurring opinions (namely ones written by Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito) positing scenarios where certain AI-driven decisions do not reflect the preferences of the people who made the services. But Miers said she believes that kind of situation likely doesn’t exist.
David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the NetChoice decision shows that platforms’ curation decisions are “First Amendment protected speech, and it’s very, very difficult — if not impossible — for a state to regulate that process.”
Regulation is still on the table
Similarly important is what the opinion does not say. Gautam Hans, associate clinical professor and associate director of the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell Law School, predicts there will be at least “some state appetite” to keep passing laws pertaining to content curation or algorithms, by paying close attention to what the justices left out.
“What the Court has not done today is say, ‘states cannot regulate when it comes to content moderation,’” Hans said. “It has set out some principles as to what might be constitutional versus not. But those principles are not binding.”
There are a couple different kinds of approaches the court seems open to, according to experts. Vera Eidelman, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, noted that the justices pointed to competition regulation — also known as antitrust law — as a possible way to protect access to information. These other regulatory approaches could, the Supreme Court seems to be hinting, “either satisfy the First Amendment or don’t raise First Amendment concerns at all,” Eidelman said.

Transparency requirements also appear to be on the table, according to Paul Barrett, deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. He said the decision implies that a standard for requiring businesses to disclose certain information created under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel is good law, which could open the door to future transparency legislation. “When it comes to transparency requirements, it’s not that the Texas and Florida legislatures necessarily got it right,” Barrett said. “Their individualized explanation requirements may have gone too far, even under Zauderer. But disclosure requirements are going to be judged, according to Justice Kagan, under this more deferential standard. So the government will have more leeway to require disclosure. That’s really important, because that’s a form of oversight that is far less intrusive than telling social media companies how they should moderate content.”
The justices’ opinion that a higher bar was required to prove a facial challenge to the laws — meaning that they were unconstitutional in any scenario — could be reason enough for some legislatures to push ahead. Greene said states could potentially choose to pass laws that would be difficult to challenge unless they are enforced since bringing a narrower as-applied challenge before enforcement means platforms would have to show they’re likely to be targets of the law. But having a law on the books might be enough to get some companies to act as desired, Greene said.
Still, the areas the justices left open to potential regulation might be tricky to get right. For example, the justices seem to maintain the possibility that regulation targeting algorithms that only take into account users’ preferences could survive First Amendment challenges. But Miers says that “when you read the court opinion and they start detailing what is considered expression,” it becomes increasingly difficult to think of a single internet service that doesn’t fall into one of “the expressive capabilities or categories the court discusses throughout.” What initially seems like a loophole might actually be a null set.
Implications for the TikTok ‘ban’
Justice Barrett included what seemed to be a lightly veiled comment about TikTok’s challenge to a law seeking to ban it unless it divests from its Chinese parent company. In her concurring opinion, Barrett wrote, without naming names, that “a social-media platform’s foreign ownership and control over its content moderation decisions might affect whether laws overriding those decisions trigger First Amendment scrutiny.” That’s because “foreign persons and corporations located abroad” do not have First Amendment rights like US corporations do, she said.

Experts predicted the US government would cite Justice Barrett’s opinion in their litigation against TikTok, though cautioned that the statement of one justice does not necessarily reflect a broader sentiment on the Court. And Barrett’s comment still beckons for a greater analysis of specific circumstances like TikTok’s to determine who really controls the company.
Barrett’s concurrence notwithstanding, TikTok has also notched a potentially useful ammunition in NetChoice.
“I’d be feeling pretty good if I were them today,” Greene said of TikTok. “The overwhelming message from the NetChoice opinions is that content moderation is speech protected by the First Amendment, and that’s the most important holding to TikTok and to all the social media companies.”
Still, Netchoice “does not resolve the TikTok case,” said NYU’s Barrett. TikTok’s own legal challenge implicates national security, a matter in which courts tend to defer to the government.
“The idea that there are First Amendment rights for the platforms is helpful for TikTok,” Hans said. “If I’m TikTok, I’m mostly satisfied, maybe a little concerned, but you rarely get slam dunks.”

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images

Here’s what the SCOTUS decision might mean for everything from kids online safety laws to the TikTok ‘ban.’

Last week’s Supreme Court decision in the NetChoice cases was overshadowed by a ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. US that came down only minutes later. But whether or not America even noticed NetChoice happen, the decision is poised to affect a host of tech legislation still brewing on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, as well as lawsuits that are percolating through the system. This includes the pending First Amendment challenge to the TikTok “ban” bill, as well as a First Amendment case about a Texas age verification law that the Supreme Court took up only a day after its NetChoice decision.

The NetChoice decision states that tech platforms can exercise their First Amendment rights through their content moderation decisions and how they choose to display content on their services — a strong statement that has clear ramifications for any laws that attempt to regulate platforms’ algorithms in the name of kids online safety and even on a pending lawsuit seeking to block a law that could ban TikTok from the US.

“When the platforms use their Standards and Guidelines to decide which third-party content those feeds will display, or how the display will be ordered and organized, they are making expressive choices,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority opinion, referring to Facebook’s News Feed and YouTube’s homepage. “And because that is true, they receive First Amendment protection.”

NetChoice isn’t a radical upheaval of existing First Amendment law, but until last week, there was no Supreme Court opinion that applied that existing framework to social media platforms. The justices didn’t rule on the merits of the cases, concluding, instead, that the lower courts hadn’t completed the necessary analysis for the kind of First Amendment challenge that had been brought. But the decision still provides significant guidance to the lower courts on how to apply First Amendment precedent to social media and content moderation. “The Fifth Circuit was wrong in concluding that Texas’s restrictions on the platforms’ selection, ordering, and labeling of third-party posts do not interfere with expression,” Kagan wrote of the appeals court that upheld Texas’ law seeking to prevent platforms from discriminating against content on the basis of viewpoint.

The decision is a revealing look at how the majority of justices view the First Amendment rights of social media companies — something that’s at issue in everything from kids online safety bills to the TikTok “ban.”

The court is already set to hear Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton next term — a case challenging Texas’ HB 1181, which requires internet users to verify their ages (sometimes with government-issued IDs) to access porn sites. Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment industry group that counts Pornhub among its members, sued to block the law but lost on appeal. The justices’ decision in that case next year has the potential to impact many different state and federal efforts to age-gate the internet.

Wider impact of the decision

One recently signed law that may need to contend with the ruling is New York’s Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which requires parental consent for social media companies to use “addictive feeds” on minors. The NetChoice ruling calls into question how far legislatures can go in regulating algorithms — that is, software programmed to surface or deprioritize different pieces of information to different users.

A footnote in the majority opinion says the Court does “not deal here with feeds whose algorithms respond solely to how users act online — giving them the content they appear to want, without any regard to independent content standards.” The note is almost academic in nature — platforms usually take into account many different variables beyond user behavior, and separating those variables from each other is not a straightforward matter.

“Because it’s so hard to disentangle all of the users’ preferences, and the guidance from the services, and the editorial decisions of those services, what you’re left with — technologically speaking — is algorithms that promote content curation. And it should be inevitably assumed then that those algorithms are protected by the First Amendment,” said Jess Miers, who spoke to The Verge before departing her role as senior counsel at center-left tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, which receives funding from companies like Google and Meta.

“That’s going to squarely hit the New York SAFE Act, which is trying to argue that, look, it’s just algorithms, or it’s just the design of the service,” said Miers. The drafters of the SAFE Act may have presented the law as not having anything to do with content or speech, but NetChoice poses a problem, according to Miers. “The Supreme Court made it pretty clear, curation is absolutely protected.”

Miers said the same analysis would apply to other state efforts, like California’s Age Appropriate Design Code, which a district court agreed to block with a preliminary injunction, and the state has appealed. That law required platforms likely to be used by kids to consider their best interests and default to strong privacy and safety settings. Industry group NetChoice, which also brought the cases at issue in the Supreme Court, argued in its 2022 complaint against California’s law that it would interfere with platforms’ own editorial judgments.

“To the extent that any of these state laws touch the expressive capabilities of these services, those state laws have an immense uphill battle, and a likely insurmountable First Amendment hurdle as well,” Miers said.

Michael Huston, a former clerk to Chief Justice Roberts who co-chairs law firm Perkins Coie’s Appeals, Issues & Strategy Practice, said that any sort of ban on content curation would likely be unconstitutional under the ruling. That could include a law that, for instance, requires platforms to only show content in reverse-chronological order, like California’s Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, which would prohibit the default feeds shown to kids from being based on any information about the user or their devices, or involve recommending or prioritizing posts. “The court is clear that there are a lot of questions that are unanswered, that it’s not attempting to answer in this area,” Huston said. “But broadly speaking … there’s a recognition here that when the platforms make choices about how to organize content, that is itself a part of their own expression.”

The new Supreme Court decision also raises questions about the future of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a similar piece of legislation at the federal level that’s gained significant steam. KOSA seeks to create a duty of care for tech platforms serving young users and allows them to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. “Now with the NetChoice cases, you have this question as to whether KOSA touches any of the expressive aspects of these services,” Miers said. In evaluating KOSA, a court would need to assess “does this regulate a non-expressive part of the service or does it regulate the way in which the service communicates third-party content to its users?”

Supporters of these kinds of bills may point to language in some of the concurring opinions (namely ones written by Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito) positing scenarios where certain AI-driven decisions do not reflect the preferences of the people who made the services. But Miers said she believes that kind of situation likely doesn’t exist.

David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the NetChoice decision shows that platforms’ curation decisions are “First Amendment protected speech, and it’s very, very difficult — if not impossible — for a state to regulate that process.”

Regulation is still on the table

Similarly important is what the opinion does not say. Gautam Hans, associate clinical professor and associate director of the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell Law School, predicts there will be at least “some state appetite” to keep passing laws pertaining to content curation or algorithms, by paying close attention to what the justices left out.

“What the Court has not done today is say, ‘states cannot regulate when it comes to content moderation,’” Hans said. “It has set out some principles as to what might be constitutional versus not. But those principles are not binding.”

There are a couple different kinds of approaches the court seems open to, according to experts. Vera Eidelman, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, noted that the justices pointed to competition regulation — also known as antitrust law — as a possible way to protect access to information. These other regulatory approaches could, the Supreme Court seems to be hinting, “either satisfy the First Amendment or don’t raise First Amendment concerns at all,” Eidelman said.

Transparency requirements also appear to be on the table, according to Paul Barrett, deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. He said the decision implies that a standard for requiring businesses to disclose certain information created under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel is good law, which could open the door to future transparency legislation. “When it comes to transparency requirements, it’s not that the Texas and Florida legislatures necessarily got it right,” Barrett said. “Their individualized explanation requirements may have gone too far, even under Zauderer. But disclosure requirements are going to be judged, according to Justice Kagan, under this more deferential standard. So the government will have more leeway to require disclosure. That’s really important, because that’s a form of oversight that is far less intrusive than telling social media companies how they should moderate content.”

The justices’ opinion that a higher bar was required to prove a facial challenge to the laws — meaning that they were unconstitutional in any scenario — could be reason enough for some legislatures to push ahead. Greene said states could potentially choose to pass laws that would be difficult to challenge unless they are enforced since bringing a narrower as-applied challenge before enforcement means platforms would have to show they’re likely to be targets of the law. But having a law on the books might be enough to get some companies to act as desired, Greene said.

Still, the areas the justices left open to potential regulation might be tricky to get right. For example, the justices seem to maintain the possibility that regulation targeting algorithms that only take into account users’ preferences could survive First Amendment challenges. But Miers says that “when you read the court opinion and they start detailing what is considered expression,” it becomes increasingly difficult to think of a single internet service that doesn’t fall into one of “the expressive capabilities or categories the court discusses throughout.” What initially seems like a loophole might actually be a null set.

Implications for the TikTok ‘ban’

Justice Barrett included what seemed to be a lightly veiled comment about TikTok’s challenge to a law seeking to ban it unless it divests from its Chinese parent company. In her concurring opinion, Barrett wrote, without naming names, that “a social-media platform’s foreign ownership and control over its content moderation decisions might affect whether laws overriding those decisions trigger First Amendment scrutiny.” That’s because “foreign persons and corporations located abroad” do not have First Amendment rights like US corporations do, she said.

Experts predicted the US government would cite Justice Barrett’s opinion in their litigation against TikTok, though cautioned that the statement of one justice does not necessarily reflect a broader sentiment on the Court. And Barrett’s comment still beckons for a greater analysis of specific circumstances like TikTok’s to determine who really controls the company.

Barrett’s concurrence notwithstanding, TikTok has also notched a potentially useful ammunition in NetChoice.

“I’d be feeling pretty good if I were them today,” Greene said of TikTok. “The overwhelming message from the NetChoice opinions is that content moderation is speech protected by the First Amendment, and that’s the most important holding to TikTok and to all the social media companies.”

Still, Netchoice “does not resolve the TikTok case,” said NYU’s Barrett. TikTok’s own legal challenge implicates national security, a matter in which courts tend to defer to the government.

“The idea that there are First Amendment rights for the platforms is helpful for TikTok,” Hans said. “If I’m TikTok, I’m mostly satisfied, maybe a little concerned, but you rarely get slam dunks.”

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The ZV-E10 II looks a whole lot like its 2021 predecessor.

Trickle-down economics may be garbage, but Sony remains a steadfast believer when it comes to the tech in its cameras. The new ZV-E10 II continues Sony’s trend of bringing small, iterative changes down from its pricier cameras to more affordable models. Only it’s never without some tradeoffs.
The ZV-E10 II is the APS-C mirrorless system camera follow-up to the original ZV-E10 of 2021, now with a bigger battery, a 26-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor, and improved 4K video. It will also cost $999 for the body or $1,099 in a bundle with Sony’s new PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II lens when it launches in early August — right around the price of a flagship phone like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But, of course, even the best iPhone camera has a sensor about nine times smaller than the APS-C one in the ZV-E10, which is why phones rely on computational tricks to try and compete with the image and video output of dedicated cameras.
While the ZV-E10 II’s $999 price is a bit of a steal compared to the $1,800 FX30 cinema camera it gets its sensor from, it’s also worth noting that it’s actually $200 more than the launch price of the original ZV-E10.

So what does the extra $200 get you over the original ZV-E10 (which you can still get today for an even lower $700)? Aside from its borrowed sensor, the new camera now uses the NP-FZ100 batteries of its full-frame brethren for much-improved battery life. The ZV-E10 II can also record 4K video at up to 30 fps with no crop, whereas the last-gen model limited uncropped filming to 24 fps (stepping up to 4K / 60 still has a slight crop of 1.1x on the ZV-E10 II).
Battery longevity and higher-quality recordings are sure to go a long way in a camera that’s designed for someone to roll lengthy video clips of self-filmed vlogs, but some tradeoffs are made to give the ZV-E10 II these features while keeping its compact dimensions. Namely, the new camera eschews a mechanical shutter (making it mostly useless for taking pictures of subjects in motion since its sensor is not stacked or partially stacked), it lacks any in-body image stabilization (in favor of electronic stabilization), it still lacks a viewfinder, and it didn’t get the AI processing chip of its pricier cousins to further improve the autofocus. So, while the ZV-E10 II has the kind of excellent autofocus that Sony Alphas have been known for, it’s squarely focused on vlogging and video capture compared to other do-it-all hybrid models.
Those shortcomings may be a dealbreaker for someone willing to spend a few hundred dollars more and get Sony’s similar but more versatile A6700, though the ZV-E10 II is designed to be easier to use and more approachable than the cameras from Sony’s A-line of Alpha cameras. Like previous ZV models, it simplifies the controls with more reliance on a touch interface, a Cinematic Vlog mode for a one-tap zero-effort cine look, and dedicated buttons for a “bokeh mode” and Product Showcase autofocusing (the latter is a whole focus mode for YouTube-like videos where someone presents stuff in front of their face).

If your goal is to create video content, which do you choose?

Sony wants its ZV cameras to be the logical step up that creators use once they want to move from their phones to a more capable setup, and while it’s not overhauling the playbook it set in motion with the ZV-E1 or ZV-1 II, it’s hard to deny that despite a price increase the ZV-E10 II may offer enough for a vlogger who wants room to grow — and at a price that’s similar to many flagship phones.
Keep an eye out for our video hands-on from Becca Farsace in her upcoming episode of Full Frame.

The ZV-E10 II looks a whole lot like its 2021 predecessor.

Trickle-down economics may be garbage, but Sony remains a steadfast believer when it comes to the tech in its cameras. The new ZV-E10 II continues Sony’s trend of bringing small, iterative changes down from its pricier cameras to more affordable models. Only it’s never without some tradeoffs.

The ZV-E10 II is the APS-C mirrorless system camera follow-up to the original ZV-E10 of 2021, now with a bigger battery, a 26-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor, and improved 4K video. It will also cost $999 for the body or $1,099 in a bundle with Sony’s new PZ 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II lens when it launches in early August — right around the price of a flagship phone like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But, of course, even the best iPhone camera has a sensor about nine times smaller than the APS-C one in the ZV-E10, which is why phones rely on computational tricks to try and compete with the image and video output of dedicated cameras.

While the ZV-E10 II’s $999 price is a bit of a steal compared to the $1,800 FX30 cinema camera it gets its sensor from, it’s also worth noting that it’s actually $200 more than the launch price of the original ZV-E10.

So what does the extra $200 get you over the original ZV-E10 (which you can still get today for an even lower $700)? Aside from its borrowed sensor, the new camera now uses the NP-FZ100 batteries of its full-frame brethren for much-improved battery life. The ZV-E10 II can also record 4K video at up to 30 fps with no crop, whereas the last-gen model limited uncropped filming to 24 fps (stepping up to 4K / 60 still has a slight crop of 1.1x on the ZV-E10 II).

Battery longevity and higher-quality recordings are sure to go a long way in a camera that’s designed for someone to roll lengthy video clips of self-filmed vlogs, but some tradeoffs are made to give the ZV-E10 II these features while keeping its compact dimensions. Namely, the new camera eschews a mechanical shutter (making it mostly useless for taking pictures of subjects in motion since its sensor is not stacked or partially stacked), it lacks any in-body image stabilization (in favor of electronic stabilization), it still lacks a viewfinder, and it didn’t get the AI processing chip of its pricier cousins to further improve the autofocus. So, while the ZV-E10 II has the kind of excellent autofocus that Sony Alphas have been known for, it’s squarely focused on vlogging and video capture compared to other do-it-all hybrid models.

Those shortcomings may be a dealbreaker for someone willing to spend a few hundred dollars more and get Sony’s similar but more versatile A6700, though the ZV-E10 II is designed to be easier to use and more approachable than the cameras from Sony’s A-line of Alpha cameras. Like previous ZV models, it simplifies the controls with more reliance on a touch interface, a Cinematic Vlog mode for a one-tap zero-effort cine look, and dedicated buttons for a “bokeh mode” and Product Showcase autofocusing (the latter is a whole focus mode for YouTube-like videos where someone presents stuff in front of their face).

If your goal is to create video content, which do you choose?

Sony wants its ZV cameras to be the logical step up that creators use once they want to move from their phones to a more capable setup, and while it’s not overhauling the playbook it set in motion with the ZV-E1 or ZV-1 II, it’s hard to deny that despite a price increase the ZV-E10 II may offer enough for a vlogger who wants room to grow — and at a price that’s similar to many flagship phones.

Keep an eye out for our video hands-on from Becca Farsace in her upcoming episode of Full Frame.

Read More 

Hot foldable summer is in full swing, y’all. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you had any remaining hopes, despite leak upon leak, that Samsung’s foldables would get a major update this year, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news. They’re a little more durable, a little lighter, and come with a handful of tiny upgrades. Even so, both models got a boost of a certain kind: higher prices, with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 now starting at $1,899 and the Z Flip 6 at $1,099.
Both phones use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset specially tuned for Samsung, and like the S24 series, they both include seven years of OS and security update support. They’re both a little bit sturdier, claiming better resistance to drops thanks to improvements to the hinge design and materials. The inner flexible glass is also more durable, and both phones are now rated IP48. That definitely looks better on paper than the previous IPX8 rating — the X indicating a lack of dust resistance — but the “4” only means the devices are officially protected from foreign objects of 1mm and greater, not against dust.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The cover screen is a teensy bit wider this time around.

The Z Fold 6’s outer screen gains a couple of millimeters in extra width, addressing complaints (including my own) that the phone’s narrow dimensions when it’s closed feel awkward. That takes it from a 6.2-inch display on the Fold 5 to 6.3 inches, with a 2376 x 968 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate — though the inner display still measures 7.6 inches when it’s unfolded. The phone is lighter overall, now 239 grams instead of the 253 grams in the Z Fold 5. All (tiny) moves in the right direction.
The Fold 6’s camera hardware is much the same as last year, too, with a 50-megapixel main rear camera and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto. However, there’s an updated 12-megapixel ultrawide this year, which claims better low-light performance.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
There’s a new ultrawide camera, but the telephoto and main lenses are the same.

The Z Flip 6’s cover screen measures 3.4 inches, same as the Z Flip 5, and it’s now significantly smaller than the 4.0-inch screen on this year’s Motorola Razr Plus. Samsung hasn’t focused a lot of energy on outer screen software improvements, either — there are new smart reply suggestions when responding to messages from the cover screen, more options for widgets on the cover panel, and some new interactive wallpapers that respond to the movements of your phone.
Still, there are a few updates that could make a meaningful difference — particularly on the Flip 6. It will come with a bigger 4,000mAh battery and a vapor cooling chamber, a first for the Flip series. The phone gets the same 50-megapixel main camera sensor as the Fold and base-model S24 devices and comes with the new ultrawide camera, too. There’s 12GB of RAM in the base model instead of 8GB, and the Z Flip 6 starts at 512GB rather than 256GB, which, if you’re going to raise prices, kind of seems like the least you can do.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The camera cutouts on the front panel are now color-matched to the Flip’s frame.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be a phone launch in 2024 without AI. The full suite of AI features introduced with the S24 series are present on the Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, but Samsung would very much like you to know that the Z Fold’s big inner screen is great for using all of its AI features. There’s also a new “sketch to image” feature that uses AI to turn S Pen doodles into images, and interpreter mode gets an update to take advantage of the foldable form factor to display translations on the cover and inner screens.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are available today for preorder. The Z Fold 6 starts at 512GB of storage and costs $1,899; the Z Flip 6 also starts at 512GB and costs $1,099. Samsung is offering a new Z Assurance program included for Fold 6 and Flip 6 buyers, providing one free replacement of the factory-installed screen protector and one discounted screen replacement. Both devices will be available for general sale on July 24th.

Hot foldable summer is in full swing, y’all. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you had any remaining hopes, despite leak upon leak, that Samsung’s foldables would get a major update this year, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news. They’re a little more durable, a little lighter, and come with a handful of tiny upgrades. Even so, both models got a boost of a certain kind: higher prices, with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 now starting at $1,899 and the Z Flip 6 at $1,099.

Both phones use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset specially tuned for Samsung, and like the S24 series, they both include seven years of OS and security update support. They’re both a little bit sturdier, claiming better resistance to drops thanks to improvements to the hinge design and materials. The inner flexible glass is also more durable, and both phones are now rated IP48. That definitely looks better on paper than the previous IPX8 rating — the X indicating a lack of dust resistance — but the “4” only means the devices are officially protected from foreign objects of 1mm and greater, not against dust.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The cover screen is a teensy bit wider this time around.

The Z Fold 6’s outer screen gains a couple of millimeters in extra width, addressing complaints (including my own) that the phone’s narrow dimensions when it’s closed feel awkward. That takes it from a 6.2-inch display on the Fold 5 to 6.3 inches, with a 2376 x 968 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate — though the inner display still measures 7.6 inches when it’s unfolded. The phone is lighter overall, now 239 grams instead of the 253 grams in the Z Fold 5. All (tiny) moves in the right direction.

The Fold 6’s camera hardware is much the same as last year, too, with a 50-megapixel main rear camera and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto. However, there’s an updated 12-megapixel ultrawide this year, which claims better low-light performance.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
There’s a new ultrawide camera, but the telephoto and main lenses are the same.

The Z Flip 6’s cover screen measures 3.4 inches, same as the Z Flip 5, and it’s now significantly smaller than the 4.0-inch screen on this year’s Motorola Razr Plus. Samsung hasn’t focused a lot of energy on outer screen software improvements, either — there are new smart reply suggestions when responding to messages from the cover screen, more options for widgets on the cover panel, and some new interactive wallpapers that respond to the movements of your phone.

Still, there are a few updates that could make a meaningful difference — particularly on the Flip 6. It will come with a bigger 4,000mAh battery and a vapor cooling chamber, a first for the Flip series. The phone gets the same 50-megapixel main camera sensor as the Fold and base-model S24 devices and comes with the new ultrawide camera, too. There’s 12GB of RAM in the base model instead of 8GB, and the Z Flip 6 starts at 512GB rather than 256GB, which, if you’re going to raise prices, kind of seems like the least you can do.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The camera cutouts on the front panel are now color-matched to the Flip’s frame.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be a phone launch in 2024 without AI. The full suite of AI features introduced with the S24 series are present on the Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, but Samsung would very much like you to know that the Z Fold’s big inner screen is great for using all of its AI features. There’s also a new “sketch to image” feature that uses AI to turn S Pen doodles into images, and interpreter mode gets an update to take advantage of the foldable form factor to display translations on the cover and inner screens.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are available today for preorder. The Z Fold 6 starts at 512GB of storage and costs $1,899; the Z Flip 6 also starts at 512GB and costs $1,099. Samsung is offering a new Z Assurance program included for Fold 6 and Flip 6 buyers, providing one free replacement of the factory-installed screen protector and one discounted screen replacement. Both devices will be available for general sale on July 24th.

Read More 

It sure is squircle. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

It’s the Apple Watch Ultra, but for Android. Oh, and the Galaxy Watch 7 is here, too. Last month, Samsung announced a cheaper, entry-level Galaxy Watch FE. And today, it announced a refreshed $299.99 Galaxy Watch 7 and the all-new $649.99 Galaxy Watch Ultra. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Samsung’s taking a page from Apple’s smartwatch playbook — and nowhere is that more obvious than with the new Ultra.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro as the premium smartwatch in Samsung’s lineup. Like that watch, this one caters to the outdoor athlete. But whereas the Pro had its own distinct vibe, the Ultra isn’t exactly hiding where it got its inspiration from.
I’m not exaggerating or being a hater, either. It’s in the name! Apple Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch Ultra. Everything about this watch is reminiscent of Apple’s. Samsung says this is its most durable watch yet, with 10ATM of water resistance, an IP68 rating, a titanium case, and a sapphire crystal lens. There’s a new orange Quick Button that launches shortcuts to the workout app, flashlight, water lock, and a few other options. (There is a lot of orange styling.) It’s got a new lug system for attaching straps that looks an awful lot like Apple’s, too.
Speaking of new straps, there are now options that cater to runners, hikers, and swimmers. The screen is brighter, going up to 3,000 nits. It’s got dual-frequency GPS, you can take it diving, and there’s a new multisport activity profile. There’s a Night Mode for your watchface that turns everything red so it’s easier to read at night. There are new power-saving modes that get you up to 100 hours of battery overall and up to 48 hours of exercise. There’s a new Functional Threshold Power metric for cyclists. Runners get a new Race feature that lets you compare current and past performance. Did I mention there’s an 85dB emergency siren, too? (I heard it — it does get quite loud.)

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
It’s spiritually similar to Apple’s Ultra but has some distinct Samsung flavor.

Look, it’s that Apple Watch Ultra but in an Android-friendly font.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing! There hasn’t really been a 1-to-1 equivalent for the Apple Watch Ultra in the Android space. Garmins are great, but they’re lacking in the smart features and third-party app department. Samsung is just filling a niche. Also, it’s $150 cheaper. Can’t argue with that.
It’s also not totally fair to call this an Apple Watch Ultra knockoff. Samsung does bring its own flavor. The 47mm titanium case is a squircle shape. Next to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the squircle shape was chonkier overall. I had mixed feelings as to the style — I miss the rotating bezel! Yet it does look distinct and is wearable even on my smaller wrist. Furthermore, while there’s no physical rotating bezel, Samsung did include its signature digital touch bezel. That’s a good thing, as while the Quick Button looks and rotates like a digital crown, it doesn’t actually scroll. That threw me for a loop, but I imagine it’s simply something to get used to.
As for the Galaxy Watch 7… well, it’s here. I’m only half kidding. Design-wise, nothing’s changed besides some new strap colors. The sizes are the same, as are the battery sizes and price. But aside from form factor and durability, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra share most of the same internal hardware and software updates, too.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
The Galaxy Watch 7 mostly gets a spec bump.

For instance, they both get the upgrade to Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch. Both sport a new 3nm Exynos W1000 chip with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. They both have LTE, fast charging, and dual-frequency GPS. On top of the usual sensors, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra also have an upgraded Samsung BioActive Sensor for improved heart rate, EKG, and body composition analysis. The gist is the new BioActive Sensor adds more LEDs and more colors of LEDS — blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet, to be specific. That mostly adds a new experimental Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index metric, which Samsung says takes a look at your “diet and lifestyle” to reflect your overall biological aging process. (Aside from confirming that this does not refer to blood glucose, that’s about as clear as Samsung got.)
As with the Galaxy Ring, both watches also get Galaxy AI-powered features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips. The former is similar to readiness metrics found on other health trackers, while the latter offers personalized insights based on your health tracking data.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Aside from form factor and the Ultra’s extra durability, the watches share many of the same specs, features, and software.

The biggest thing is, this year, Samsung announced the two watches have FDA De Novo clearance for sleep apnea detection. That’s a big deal, as this is an industrywide first. Basically, it uses your sleep tracking data to monitor sleep disruptions indicative of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Just because this feature is FDA-cleared doesn’t mean it’s intended as a diagnostic tool. It just means the FDA has classified it as a low-to-moderate risk device that doesn’t have a precedent and is safe for its intended use. Rather, you’re meant to take that information and consult your healthcare provider.
At the end of my hands-on, neither the Galaxy Watch 7 nor the Ultra blew me away. In each case, I hadn’t really seen anything truly new. But, that’s also my reviewer privilege speaking. Of course I wish the Galaxy Watch Ultra felt a bit more unique — at least in terms of design — but it’s like I said: there wasn’t really an Apple Watch Ultra equivalent for Android. Now there is. So long as Samsung’s Ultra holds up in testing, that’s ultimately a good thing.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra are available for preorder starting today and will be generally available from July 24th.

It sure is squircle. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

It’s the Apple Watch Ultra, but for Android. Oh, and the Galaxy Watch 7 is here, too.

Last month, Samsung announced a cheaper, entry-level Galaxy Watch FE. And today, it announced a refreshed $299.99 Galaxy Watch 7 and the all-new $649.99 Galaxy Watch Ultra. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Samsung’s taking a page from Apple’s smartwatch playbook — and nowhere is that more obvious than with the new Ultra.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro as the premium smartwatch in Samsung’s lineup. Like that watch, this one caters to the outdoor athlete. But whereas the Pro had its own distinct vibe, the Ultra isn’t exactly hiding where it got its inspiration from.

I’m not exaggerating or being a hater, either. It’s in the name! Apple Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch Ultra. Everything about this watch is reminiscent of Apple’s. Samsung says this is its most durable watch yet, with 10ATM of water resistance, an IP68 rating, a titanium case, and a sapphire crystal lens. There’s a new orange Quick Button that launches shortcuts to the workout app, flashlight, water lock, and a few other options. (There is a lot of orange styling.) It’s got a new lug system for attaching straps that looks an awful lot like Apple’s, too.

Speaking of new straps, there are now options that cater to runners, hikers, and swimmers. The screen is brighter, going up to 3,000 nits. It’s got dual-frequency GPS, you can take it diving, and there’s a new multisport activity profile. There’s a Night Mode for your watchface that turns everything red so it’s easier to read at night. There are new power-saving modes that get you up to 100 hours of battery overall and up to 48 hours of exercise. There’s a new Functional Threshold Power metric for cyclists. Runners get a new Race feature that lets you compare current and past performance. Did I mention there’s an 85dB emergency siren, too? (I heard it — it does get quite loud.)

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
It’s spiritually similar to Apple’s Ultra but has some distinct Samsung flavor.

Look, it’s that Apple Watch Ultra but in an Android-friendly font.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing! There hasn’t really been a 1-to-1 equivalent for the Apple Watch Ultra in the Android space. Garmins are great, but they’re lacking in the smart features and third-party app department. Samsung is just filling a niche. Also, it’s $150 cheaper. Can’t argue with that.

It’s also not totally fair to call this an Apple Watch Ultra knockoff. Samsung does bring its own flavor. The 47mm titanium case is a squircle shape. Next to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the squircle shape was chonkier overall. I had mixed feelings as to the style — I miss the rotating bezel! Yet it does look distinct and is wearable even on my smaller wrist. Furthermore, while there’s no physical rotating bezel, Samsung did include its signature digital touch bezel. That’s a good thing, as while the Quick Button looks and rotates like a digital crown, it doesn’t actually scroll. That threw me for a loop, but I imagine it’s simply something to get used to.

As for the Galaxy Watch 7… well, it’s here. I’m only half kidding. Design-wise, nothing’s changed besides some new strap colors. The sizes are the same, as are the battery sizes and price. But aside from form factor and durability, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra share most of the same internal hardware and software updates, too.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
The Galaxy Watch 7 mostly gets a spec bump.

For instance, they both get the upgrade to Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch. Both sport a new 3nm Exynos W1000 chip with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. They both have LTE, fast charging, and dual-frequency GPS. On top of the usual sensors, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra also have an upgraded Samsung BioActive Sensor for improved heart rate, EKG, and body composition analysis. The gist is the new BioActive Sensor adds more LEDs and more colors of LEDS — blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet, to be specific. That mostly adds a new experimental Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index metric, which Samsung says takes a look at your “diet and lifestyle” to reflect your overall biological aging process. (Aside from confirming that this does not refer to blood glucose, that’s about as clear as Samsung got.)

As with the Galaxy Ring, both watches also get Galaxy AI-powered features like Energy Score and Wellness Tips. The former is similar to readiness metrics found on other health trackers, while the latter offers personalized insights based on your health tracking data.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Aside from form factor and the Ultra’s extra durability, the watches share many of the same specs, features, and software.

The biggest thing is, this year, Samsung announced the two watches have FDA De Novo clearance for sleep apnea detection. That’s a big deal, as this is an industrywide first. Basically, it uses your sleep tracking data to monitor sleep disruptions indicative of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Just because this feature is FDA-cleared doesn’t mean it’s intended as a diagnostic tool. It just means the FDA has classified it as a low-to-moderate risk device that doesn’t have a precedent and is safe for its intended use. Rather, you’re meant to take that information and consult your healthcare provider.

At the end of my hands-on, neither the Galaxy Watch 7 nor the Ultra blew me away. In each case, I hadn’t really seen anything truly new. But, that’s also my reviewer privilege speaking. Of course I wish the Galaxy Watch Ultra felt a bit more unique — at least in terms of design — but it’s like I said: there wasn’t really an Apple Watch Ultra equivalent for Android. Now there is. So long as Samsung’s Ultra holds up in testing, that’s ultimately a good thing.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra are available for preorder starting today and will be generally available from July 24th.

Read More 

Alongside its latest folding phones and wearables, Samsung is introducing the new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Buds 3. As leaks (and early sales) confirmed, the company has moved away from the subtle in-ear design of past generations to a stemmed look that gives these an AirPods-esque look and feel — especially in white. Both earbuds also come in a gunmetal gray finish that, combined with the angular “blade” design, makes me think of Tesla’s Cybertruck. But there’s no denying the overall similarities to Apple’s massively popular AirPods.
Samsung’s press release says the switch was the direct result of “a variety of collected statistical data” that showed a stem form factor produces better comfort and in-ear stability. So, here we are. I’ll miss the vibrant purple Buds 2 Pro, not to mention the bean-shaped Buds Live.
To see Samsung’s design team go so far in the other direction and settle on such a familiar, same-y design here is rather disappointing, though it’s possible the end product will be significantly better because of it. The Galaxy Bud controls are also now basically identical to those of the AirPods Pro, with pinch gestures for play / pause / track and swipes.

Old and new. The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro at left with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (and their blade lights) on the right.

The $249.99 Buds 3 Pro do have one standout aspect of their design: on each earbud is a thin “blade light” that can illuminate to indicate Bluetooth pairing status, and you can also set the lights to stay on at all times. I was hoping the light lines would be able to reflect the battery charge level for each earbud, but no such luck.
The Pro earbuds have an in-ear fit with silicone tips, while the regular Buds 3 ($179.99) go with an open-style design for people who don’t like the feeling of having their ears plugged up. Both earbuds offer active noise cancellation, though I wouldn’t expect any miracles from ANC on the Buds 3 since there’s no seal to work with. Audio performance in general should also be a step up on the Buds 3 Pro since they include two-way drivers in each earbud, whereas the standard Buds 3 have just single drivers.
The Buds 3 Pro now include adaptive noise cancellation, so the ANC will automatically be adjusted based on your surroundings. When the earbuds detect important sounds like sirens, they’ll temporarily dial back the noise cancellation to let those through.

I mean…

Come on.

Both sets of earbuds are rated IP57 against dust and water, and they also both support wireless charging. Samsung’s proprietary Bluetooth codec is now capable of wirelessly streaming up to 24-bit / 96kHz audio so long as you use the Buds 3 / 3 Pro with one of the company’s recent phones, but as usual, Samsung continues to exclude LDAC. Multipoint also remains absent; these buds only offer automatic switching between Samsung devices.

Image: Samsung
The earbuds share a lot in common, but the Buds 3 Pro get Samsung’s best audio quality and ANC performance.

The Pros eke out slightly longer battery life, lasting for up to six hours on a charge with ANC on or a total of 26 hours including case recharges. The Buds 3 can hit five and 24 hours, respectively — or six and 30 hours if you leave ANC off, which I suspect people often will.

Both pairs of earbuds are being released alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6.

Samsung claims that voice call quality has substantially improved across the lineup thanks to the inclusion of super wideband, a feature that has already come to competing earbuds like the Pixel Buds Pro.
Both the Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3 are available for preorder today and go on sale July 24th. My full review will be coming soon, so stay tuned to find out whether Samsung’s shift to the stem was a worthwhile change.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Alongside its latest folding phones and wearables, Samsung is introducing the new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Buds 3. As leaks (and early sales) confirmed, the company has moved away from the subtle in-ear design of past generations to a stemmed look that gives these an AirPods-esque look and feel — especially in white. Both earbuds also come in a gunmetal gray finish that, combined with the angular “blade” design, makes me think of Tesla’s Cybertruck. But there’s no denying the overall similarities to Apple’s massively popular AirPods.

Samsung’s press release says the switch was the direct result of “a variety of collected statistical data” that showed a stem form factor produces better comfort and in-ear stability. So, here we are. I’ll miss the vibrant purple Buds 2 Pro, not to mention the bean-shaped Buds Live.

To see Samsung’s design team go so far in the other direction and settle on such a familiar, same-y design here is rather disappointing, though it’s possible the end product will be significantly better because of it. The Galaxy Bud controls are also now basically identical to those of the AirPods Pro, with pinch gestures for play / pause / track and swipes.

The $249.99 Buds 3 Pro do have one standout aspect of their design: on each earbud is a thin “blade light” that can illuminate to indicate Bluetooth pairing status, and you can also set the lights to stay on at all times. I was hoping the light lines would be able to reflect the battery charge level for each earbud, but no such luck.

The Pro earbuds have an in-ear fit with silicone tips, while the regular Buds 3 ($179.99) go with an open-style design for people who don’t like the feeling of having their ears plugged up. Both earbuds offer active noise cancellation, though I wouldn’t expect any miracles from ANC on the Buds 3 since there’s no seal to work with. Audio performance in general should also be a step up on the Buds 3 Pro since they include two-way drivers in each earbud, whereas the standard Buds 3 have just single drivers.

The Buds 3 Pro now include adaptive noise cancellation, so the ANC will automatically be adjusted based on your surroundings. When the earbuds detect important sounds like sirens, they’ll temporarily dial back the noise cancellation to let those through.

Both sets of earbuds are rated IP57 against dust and water, and they also both support wireless charging. Samsung’s proprietary Bluetooth codec is now capable of wirelessly streaming up to 24-bit / 96kHz audio so long as you use the Buds 3 / 3 Pro with one of the company’s recent phones, but as usual, Samsung continues to exclude LDAC. Multipoint also remains absent; these buds only offer automatic switching between Samsung devices.

The Pros eke out slightly longer battery life, lasting for up to six hours on a charge with ANC on or a total of 26 hours including case recharges. The Buds 3 can hit five and 24 hours, respectively — or six and 30 hours if you leave ANC off, which I suspect people often will.

Samsung claims that voice call quality has substantially improved across the lineup thanks to the inclusion of super wideband, a feature that has already come to competing earbuds like the Pixel Buds Pro.

Both the Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3 are available for preorder today and go on sale July 24th. My full review will be coming soon, so stay tuned to find out whether Samsung’s shift to the stem was a worthwhile change.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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