Until now, most mobile phone companies have worked to ensure their phones won’t start fires. (Occasional Samsung devices excepted, of course.) But this week at Mobile World Congress, we found a company that dared to go in a different direction. Oukitel’s WP63 rugged smartphone includes a built-in fire starter, and this is what it looks like:
On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Dominic Preston joins Nilay to explain the existence of this particular mobile device, as well as wrap up all the weird and wonderful gadgets he and the team saw at MWC. There was also a “robot phone” that dances to (and so far, only to) “Believer” by Imagine Dragons.
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Then, The Verge’s Sean Hollister helps us make sense of Google and Epic’s enemies-to-lovers saga. The end of 30 percent app store fees, the secret $800 million deal, a non-disparagement agreement, and something about the metaverse.
But before all that, we share a rare moment of unfiltered gadget joy. Nilay just had “the single most incredible experience I’ve ever had watching a movie in my house, in my entire life,” thanks to the Kaleidescape 8TB solid-state server. Scenes of rain or confetti have never looked better. This is all it takes to make Nilay happy.
In the lightning round: Audience metrics indicate Verge readers are more interested in the Kobo Remote than most of Apple’s new product announcements, Dom’s charging his phone on a li’l racing car, and Sean’s on the plastic brick beat with Clear Drop’s Soft Plastic Compactor and disappointment about the Lego smart brick’s debut playsets. Plus, Brendan Carr is still a dummy.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on MWC:
* The best mobile tech announced at MWC 2026 so far
* Honor’s Robot Phone is a bad robot, an interesting camera, and maybe your friend
* Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone mostly earns the name
* Here’s the upgrade to my favorite phone camera of last year
* Tecno is doing a modular phone (again)
* Unihertz’s new QWERTY phone is even more like a Blackberry
* Lenovo made a Framework-like laptop with modular ports — and a second screen
* This $299 mechanical keyboard has a giant glowing knob
* This Windows gaming handheld has a screen that folds in half
* 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
* A new video from the White House mixes Call of Duty footage with actual video of Iran strikes
