Phones that flip and fold have been The Next Big Thing so long it almost seems like they might never happen. Even as they’ve gotten better, faster, and more durable, devices from Google, Samsung, and others have just had too many compromises. (They also cost way too much.) But bit by bit, year by year, it seems we might be getting closer to truly great flips and folds.
On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about her review of Motorola’s new Razr Ultra, one of the most compelling (and best-looking) flip phones we’ve yet tested. Allison explains what Motorola got right, what’s not quite ready, and why she’s not quite ready to sell everyone on a flip phone. She also talks about Motorola’s approach to AI, which is sometimes very clever and sometimes just flat out bad.
After that, The Verge’s Alex Heath talks us through the recent history of Snap, and why the company still seems unable to find its footing as a business. Snapchat is more popular than ever, especially among young users, but hasn’t managed to turn that into the perpetual money machine it needs in order to fund its ambitious augmented reality projects. That, plus some of the information we’re hearing about WhatsApp in the ongoing Meta trial, makes us wonder: is there a business in chat? What does it mean that nobody can figure out how to make money from helping people talk to each other? And what happens when companies start sticking ads in our chats?
Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about another possibility for Google Chrome. The US government wants to make Google sell its massively popular browser; what if Google just shut it down instead?
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
