Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay, Dieter, Alex Cranz, and Chris Welch discuss the hardware announcements from Samsung’s August Unpacked event, including the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The crew discusses the upgraded features on this upgrade of the new foldables and question where they fit in the realm of Samsung’s flagship phones.

In the second half of the show, senior reporter Adi Robertson explains the important changes coming to Messages and iCloud with Apple’s new tools on the iPhone meant to combat child abuse, and how Apple has responded to criticism over privacy issues.

You can hear the full discussion here or in your preferred podcast player.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• COVID-19 misinformation is increasing amid US virus surge
• Kidney transplant patients will test a COVID-19 booster shot in new trial
• Here’s why Apple’s new child safety features are so controversial 
• Join us for On The Verge: our exciting 10-year birthday party in New York City
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 announced with much bigger, more useful cover display
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 announced with S Pen support and water resistance 
• How Samsung beefed up its new folding phones: metal, tape, and a dab of goo
• Forget the Note — Samsung’s foldables are coming for the Galaxy S as well
• Google is bringing Samsung to the Apple Watch fight
• The Galaxy Watch 4 injects Samsung’s capable hardware with Google software
• Samsung details new smartwatch chip ahead of Galaxy Watch 4 launch
• Samsung announces Galaxy Buds 2 with active noise cancellation
• Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 review: nailing the basics with style 
• Apple’s controversial new child protection features, explained
• Apple pushes back against child abuse scanning concerns in new FAQ
• Interview: Apple’s head of Privacy details child abuse detection and Messages safety features
• Senators target Apple’s App Store exclusivity in new bill
• Senate approves $1 trillion infrastructure package as crypto worries loom
• Senate cryptocurrency tax reporting deal fails
• TCL announces new 6-series and 5-series TVs that come with Google TV instead of Roku
• Valve Steam Deck hands-on: the Nintendo Switch of PC gaming
• Apple’s 2021 iPhones will reportedly have a video portrait mode
• HP’s new Chromebase AiO has a screen that rotates from portrait to landscape
• DOJ letter tells Dish and T-Mobile to figure out CDMA customer migration, or else
• Dish says it will launch wireless 5G service in beta at the end of September
• The race to build Africa’s 5G networks is entangled in a U.S. push to cut Huawei’s dominance