HMD launched its Fusion phone back in September sans modular attachments that it calls “Smart Outfits”, but now the company is giving consumers a look at what you can do with these accessories through this incredibly unique Venom version of the phone.

HMD partnered with Sony Pictures to celebrate the upcoming release of Venom: The Last Dance and created a unique Smart Outfit that embodies the symbiotic relationship between Venom and Eddie Brock. Much like Venom changes the outer appearance of Brock, the Venom smart outfits change the outer appearance of the HMD Fusion with Venom-like qualities.

This is visibly represented by a special glass chamber that snaps onto the back of the device, connected by the Fusion’s six smart pins. Inside the smart outfit, there are 160 electromagnetic arrays that “control” some ferrofluid on the inside of the glass chamber. Causing the ferrofluid to shift around, twist, and contort itself into different shapes much like Venom might do.

It’s an interesting concept for a modular smartphone accessory. One that might just excite Venom fans and convince them to consider this device. However, it’s important to note that you can’t actually buy this smart outfit for yourself.

The HMD Fusion Venom phone is not available for sale

While you can pre-order the HMD Fusion right now for $299.99, you can’t actually buy this Venom smart outfit. It was created specifically for the promotion of the new film. And there are only three of these in the world.

HMD says the Venom phone made an appearance at a special Venom pop-up event on October 20, and then once more at the premiere for the film that happened on October 21. So, unfortunately, there’s no way to even see these special smart outfits in person at this point. Luckily, HMD has shared quite a few images of the device. There’s also a trailer that displays the ferrofluid in motion. This should give you a better idea of how the smart outfit reacts.

The phone also came with unique Venom-themed movie easter eggs

In addition to the special physical appearance, HMD also loaded up this three-of-a-kind device with some special movie easter eggs. There’s an alarm tone that says, “Eddie, the time has come” and a notification alert that says “Who sent that thing?” in Venom’s voice.

Additionally, there’s a voicemail that comes up from Venom when the phone is loaded up. As well as a ringtone that plays for incoming calls. While HMD isn’t making it possible to own this smart outfit, it’s not leaving fans empty-handed. It has several Venom: The Last Dance wallpapers that can be downloaded.

It’s the end of an era for one of the App Store’s earliest success stories. Foursquare is shutting down its signature city guide app in order to “focus our efforts on building an even better experience in Swarm,” the company said in . The app will shut down December 15, while the web version will stay online until “early 2025.”

The shutdown is a notable reversal of a strategy the company announced a decade ago when it, controversially, opted its famed “check-in” service into a separate app. That app became known as Swarm while the Foursquare-branded app became a “” full of user-generated reviews and local recommendations.

Now, Foursquare says its future is, once again, the check-in. “We’re also introducing exciting new features and capabilities into Swarm throughout the year (👀 some of which may look familiar to you) in order to unlock new use cases that may better support your needs,” the company said, adding that additional updates are expected “early next year.”

It’s not clear why the company is changing its strategy to elevate Swarm over its namesake app. The company more than 100 employees earlier this year in an effort to “streamline” operations. Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, who is currently co-chair of the company’s board of directors, said in a post that the company is “doing fine,” though he expressed disappointment with the news. “I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been in a real funk these last few days over this news,” he wrote.

T-minus 7 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 officially kicks off! One of the year’s biggest tech events is ready to dominate the Bay Area’s thriving tech landscape for almost the entire week.

Get ready for one of the biggest tech gatherings, taking place October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Tech experts from every corner of the globe will come together to engage with the latest innovations, learn trends, and connect through unparalleled networking.

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Forge powerful connections with the 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders who gather at Disrupt 2024. 

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Discover groundbreaking innovations from the 350+ startups from all over the world that will be showcased in the Expo Hall.

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Gain invaluable insights from some of the top industry heavyweights across six of the industry stages and sessions.

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Engage in Q&A Breakouts and Roundtable Sessions with industry experts, focused on solving today’s key challenges.

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Though it remains very unclear whether any of the self-driving vehicles demoed at Tesla’s We, Robot presentation will ever actually make it to market, one of the production companies behind Blade Runner 2049 thinks Elon Musk ripped off their copyright for the event, and are taking him to court.

Today, Alcon Entertainment — an LA-based production company behind Blade Runner 2049 — filed a lawsuit against Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery alleging that an AI image generator was used to create promotional art for the We, Robot event that was meant to resemble stills from the 2017 sci-fi film. According to Alcon, which also owns the copyright to Blade Runner 2049, WBD and Tesla sent a request to use imagery from the film on the afternoon of October 10th just hours before the We, Robot demo took place on the Warner Bros. lot in California.

Though WBD owns some licensing rights for Blade Runner 2049, because the event would be live-streamed internationally, clearance for the images had to come from Alcon directly. And when Alcon’s legal and licensing departments were made aware of the situation, they sent back a firm refusal to the interested parties “so that there would be no mistakes in the conduct of the event.”

“Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” Alcon’s suit explains. “Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”

Despite Alcon’s refusal, however, Tesla allegedly decided to feed shots from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to create “a lightly stylized fake screen still screen” which was displayed prominently during the We, Robot presentation. During the event, Musk mentioned the Blade Runner franchise by name while describing sci-fi depictions of the future, and the livestream cut to an image depicting a man wearing a duster jacket and standing in front of a ruinous, apocalyptic cityscape.

Along with the larger copyright infringement, Alcon also says it was never made privy to any of the agreements between Tesla and WBD that would have been necessary before the We, Robot event. Along with giving Tesla the ability to use Warner Bros.’ lot and equipment, Alcon believes that agreement also included a promotional element that “allowed or possibly even required Tesla expressly to affiliate the Cybercab with one or more motion pictures” from the studio’s catalog.

Alcon’s suit doesn’t specify exactly how much money the company is seeking in damages, but it states clearly that it believes Musk, Tesla, and WBD all “understood the unauthorized nature of the image and the improper purpose behind it and encouraged or otherwise lent their support to the improper endeavor.”