The Weird Phone Future
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Samsung's mobile phone design philosophy could best be described as "if it ain't broke, bend it." The company—one of the top smartphone manufacturers in the world—announced some new foldable devices this week, and they don't exactly break the mold. Even the Galaxy Z Fold, once Samsung's flagship showcase of wacky innovation, looks and bends more or less the same as last year’s model. But while the designs may not be the most exciting, they do mean interesting things for Android, the mobile software that powers them.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu joins us to talk about everything Samsung announced this week, plus what it all means for the next versions of Android.
Show Notes
Here’s everything Samsung announced at its Unpacked event this week. Here’s Julian’s review of last year’s Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3.
Recommendations
Julian recommends the Ampere Shower Power Pro, a speaker for your shower. Lauren recommends oatmeal and not watching The Northman. Mike recommends the book The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman.
Julian Chokkattu can be found on Twitter @JulianChokkattu. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Mike. |
| 0:00.7 | Lauren. |
| 0:01.3 | Mike, have you upgraded your phone to Android L yet? |
| 0:04.8 | No, because I don't have a folding phone. |
| 0:08.3 | I only have a regular old non-folding pixel. |
| 0:10.7 | And you call yourself a tech editor. |
| 0:13.4 | Yes, several people call me a tech editor. |
| 0:17.3 | I guess my question is, is anyone actually using folding phones? |
| 0:21.6 | You know, sometimes I see one in the wild, and then it turns out that the person who's holding it just like works at Samsung. |
| 0:28.3 | Same. |
| 0:29.3 | I think I've seen one three times in the wild, and every time they're an employee at Samsung. |
| 0:33.7 | Well, we should talk about the new Samsung devices. |
| 0:35.8 | Yeah, speaking of Samsung, let's get to it. |
| 0:44.5 | Hi, everyone, welcome to Gadget Lab. |
| 0:46.3 | I'm Lauren Good. |
| 0:47.1 | I'm a senior writer at Wired. |
| 0:48.8 | And I'm Michael Colori. |
| 0:50.1 | I'm a senior editor at Wired. |
| 0:51.4 | And we're joined this week by Wired Reviews editor Julian Chikatu, who's joining us from New York City. Hey, Julian. Hey, how are you? Is Tobu the dog around as well? No, I had to kick him out of the room because you never know when he's going to start barking. Well, he's welcome anytime. Let's just talk about cats and dogs this episode. What do we say? |
| 1:11.7 | Sure. All right. Well, it's been a while since we've talked about Samsung and Android, but this |
| 1:16.7 | week, Samsung hosted its annual unpacked event, which is a smartphone launch event. These are |
| 1:22.2 | usually loud, hyped up events that are supposed to get everyone excited about the latest new thing. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WIRED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of WIRED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.