The $800M secret deal and metaverse clauses

While most phone makers work hard to ensure their products don’t start fires, Oukitel made a phone that starts fires on purpose. This week on The Vergecast, Dominic Preston joins Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel to wrap up all the weird and wonderful phones he and the team saw at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Then, Sean Hollister takes us through Google and Epic’s enemies-to-lovers saga: A secret $800 million deal, a non-disparagement agreement, and something about the metaverse for some reason. Plus: Nilay just had the best home movie experience of his life thanks to the Kaleidescape 8TB solid-state server, Dom’s charging his smart phone on a mini racecar, and Sean delivers some disappointing news about the Lego smart brick we were all rooting for. And Brendan Carr is still being a dummy.

Further reading:

• ⁠Nothing is finally covering up with the slim, metal Phone 4A Pro⁠

• ⁠Nothing couldn’t wait to show off the Phone 4A⁠

• ⁠Nothing’s Headphone A are something worth considering⁠⁠

• Honor’s Robot Phone is a bad robot, an interesting camera, and maybe your friend⁠

• ⁠Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year⁠

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

• ⁠Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone mostly earns the name⁠

• ⁠Xiaomi, unlike Google and Samsung, thinks camera hardware comes first⁠

• ⁠Xiaomi 17 is a small(ish) phone with a big(ish) battery⁠

• ⁠Here’s the upgrade to my favorite phone camera of last year⁠

• ⁠Tecno is doing a modular phone (again)⁠

• ⁠Lenovo made a Framework-like laptop with modular ports — and a second screen⁠ ⁠

• Google isn’t waiting for a settlement — the 30 percent Android app store fee is dead⁠

• ⁠Here’s how Google describes its fee-reducing Apps Experience and Games Level Up programs⁠

• ⁠Epic and Google have signed a special deal for a new class of ‘metaverse’ apps⁠

• ⁠Tim Sweeney signed away his right to criticize Google until 2032⁠

• ⁠Fortnite is returning to Google Play globally⁠

• ⁠FCC Chair Brendan Carr is pushing for US-based call centers⁠

• I’m not ashamed to admit the Kobo Remote is the best gadget I’ve bought this year⁠

• Did Live Nation punish a venue by taking Billie Eilish away?⁠

• I charge my phone on a racing car. Do you? ⁠

• ⁠Investigating the 61-pound machine that eats plastic and spits out bricks

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