The Vergecast

Robotaxis: in. EVs: Out? The Verge's Andy Hawkins joins the show to talk about the goings-on in the transportation industry, including the reasons car makers are slowing down on EV production (but not giving up entirely) and why suddenly everyone's back in on robotaxis. Then, The Social Web Foundation's Evan Prodromou tells us what's new with the fediverse. We talk about Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and the increasingly ambitious plans for the ActivityPub protocol. Finally, we talk through some feedback on last week's episode about the pricing of the iPhone 16E, and how the way you buy your phone changes the way you feel about its price.

Further reading:

• EV truck maker Nikola goes bust
• Senate Republicans introduce bills to make EVs more expensive
• Volkswagen claims it’s actually making that $20,000 EV and will show it next month
• Ford lost $5 billion on EVs in 2024, teases new models
• Lyft eyes robotaxi launch in 2026
• Uber to Austin: get ready for Waymo
• The fediverse, explained: Mastodon, Threads, and the open future of social networking
• Flipboard’s Surf app is a feed reader for the fediverse
• Tumblr’s fediverse integration might finally happen soon.
• The Social Web Foundation
• Apple launches the iPhone 16E

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lots of gadget news this week! David, Jake Kastrenakes, and Allison Johnson start by talking about the iPhone 16E, which is both the cheapest compelling iPhone in a long time and a deeply odd addition to Apple's phone lineup. They also discuss the end of the Humane AI Pin, the latest from the Rabbit R1, and whether AI gadgets are even going to be a thing. After that, it's time for the lightning round: David and Jake talk about Amazon Chime, Mira Murati's new startup, and the future of James Bond. Then, in a special DOGE lightning round, Lauren Feiner joins the show to discuss everything happening with Trump, Musk, DOGE, and the US government. Because there's a lot of it.

Further reading:

• Apple launches the iPhone 16E
• 8 important things to know about the iPhone 16E
• The iPhone is done with home buttons — here’s why I’ll miss it
• Verge staffers react to the iPhone 16E: what we love and don’t love
• Apple no longer sells new iPhones with Lightning ports
• How the new iPhone 16E compares to the rest of Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup
• Apple’s first in-house iPhone modem is the C1
• Oppo Find N5 review: the final evolution of foldables
• The world’s thinnest foldable phone doesn’t come cheap
• Humane is shutting down the AI Pin and selling its remnants to HP
• The Humane AI Pin never had a chance
• Rabbit shows off the AI agent it should have launched with
• Amazon’s revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event
• Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with Majorana 1 chip
• A death knell for Chime
• Mira Murati launches rival to OpenAI called Thinking Machines Lab
• The New York Times adopts AI tools in the newsroom
• Amazon now has creative control over the James Bond franchise
• Spotify’s HiFi streaming could finally arrive this year
• Treasury inspector general will investigate DOGE payments access | The Verge
• Trump threatens 25 percent ‘and higher’ tariff on chips.
• Acer is the first to raise laptop prices because of Trump
• Trump issues an executive order claiming more oversight of independent agencies like the FTC and FCC.
• Trump administration cancels approval for NYC congestion pricing.
• DOGE’s alleged cost-cutting achievements included a few extra zeroes.
• A SpaceX team is being brought in to overhaul FAA’s air traffic control system
• Trump admin pulls hundreds of videos from CFPB’s YouTube channel
• DOGE can keep accessing government data for now, judge rules

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is all about companies in flux. First, we chat with The Verge's Alex Heath about all things Meta — whether the company is still serious about the metaverse, why its AI plans seem to be going so well, what "OG Facebook" really means, and what headsets to expect this year. After that, The Verge's Chris Welch takes us through the last year at Sonos, from the disastrous app launch to the pretty good headphones that were totally derailed by the disastrous app launch. Can the company get it together in order to launch its next big swing, a set-top box codenamed Pinewood? Finally, we answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline all about business cards. Because, yes, it's 2025, but sometimes you still need a place to put a business card.

Further reading:

• Mark Zuckerberg tells Meta employees to ‘buckle up’ in internal meeting
• Meta says this is the make or break year for the metaverse
• Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses sold more than 1 million units last year
• Meta’s AR / VR hardware roadmap through 2027
• Meta CTO says the company is working to ‘catch’ leakers
• Zuck wants to bring the “OG Facebook” back.
• The Sonos app fiasco: how a great audio brand nearly ruined its reputation
• Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch
• Sonos’ interim CEO hits all the right notes in first letter to employees
• Sonos Arc Ultra review: don’t call it a comeback (yet)
• Sonos Ace review: was it worth it? | The Verge
• After a bruising year, Sonos readies its next big thing: a streaming box
• Adobe Scan

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, once again, it's OpenAI and DOGE. And some other things! Nilay and David start the show by talking about Elon Musk's surprise bid to buy the nonprofit arm of OpenAI, along with the company's plans for new models and new rules for those models. After that, The Verge's Lauren Feiner joins to catch us up on what's happening with DOGE, how Musk and co. are making boring government information into something deeply fascinating and deeply confusing, and what it's like to work for the government now. Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about rumors of a new Apple Studio Display and iPhone SE, the new Powerbeats 2 Pro, Brendan Carr still being a dummy, and some surprising streaming moves from Apple and YouTube.

Further reading:

• Elon Musk just offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion
• OpenAI apparently hasn’t actually received Elon Musk’s acquisition offer. 
• Altman feels bad for Elon 
• OpenAI lays out plans for GPT-5
• OpenAI is reportedly getting closer to launching its in-house chip
• OpenAI is rethinking how AI models handle controversial topics
• Scarlett Johansson calls for anti deepfake laws after AI video goes viral
• Thomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair use
• AI chatbots are distorting news stories, BBC finds
• Waste.gov locks down after people discover it’s a WordPress template
• https://doge.gov/ exists
• Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook
• The Trump administration restores federal webpages after court order
• Trump administration illegally allowed DOGE to access workers’ data, lawsuit alleges
• State Dept.’s plan to buy $400 million worth of armored Teslas hastily changed to ‘armored EVs’
• Constitutional crisis intensifies.
• Google Maps now shows the ‘Gulf of America’
• Apple Maps now shows the Gulf of America
• Bing jumps on the Gulf of America bandwagon.
• Trump wants news outlets to get on board with “Gulf of America” — or else. Will they?
• Apple’s next Studio Display could get a much-needed Mini LED upgrade
• Tim Cook teases a new Apple launch next week, and it’s probably the iPhone SE
• FCC to investigate Comcast for having DEI programs
• The FCC is a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech
• Trump’s MAGA Media Enforcer Is Having ‘the Time of His Life’
• FCC chairman Brendan Carr has vowed to target all of Donald Trump's enemies.
• Jeep’s Wrangler-like Recon EV is ready to launch this year
• Jeep warranty ads in the infotainment
• Apple TV Plus is finally coming to Android
• YouTube is now even bigger on TVs than phones
• Powerbeats Pro 2 review: the workout buds to beat
• Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus review: incredibly iterative

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI and politics, politics and AI. That's the story of 2025. On this episode, The Verge's Kylie Robison joins the show to talk about ChatGPT's big new features, Operator and deep research, both of which promise to make the chatbot more useful and more autonomous. To access either one costs $200 a month — is it worth it? After that, The Verge's Liz Lopatto catches us up on the latest from Elon Musk and Doge, including why Musk is doing this thing, this way. Liz also makes the case that this isn't going to slow down anytime soon. Finally, Nilay Patel helps us answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline, and tells us how he felt about the Super Bowl's 4K stream.

Further reading:

• OpenAI’s new Operator AI agent can do things on the web for you
• ChatGPT’s agent can now do deep research for you
• I tested ChatGPT’s deep research with the most misunderstood law on the internet
• Elon Musk’s rapid unscheduled disassembly of the US government
• DOGE wreaked havoc on the government in just one week
• Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury records
• How Elon Musk’s Department of Energy access could pose a nuclear threat
• What we know about President Elon’s government takeover

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, David, and Richard Lawler take on a big week in confusing news stories. First, they talk through the latest from Elon Musk's DOGE, which is running rampant through government computer systems with little pushback. Then they explain the latest on the US government's tariff strategy, and the mass confusion it's causing across tech. Then they pivot away from politics and talk about streaming: the Super Bowl coming to Tubi, the deeply confusing forthcoming Fox streaming service, whatever Comcast is doing this year, and more. Finally, in the lightning round, they talk about Sonos's streaming box, Brendan Carr's latest assaults on free speech, OpenAI's "new" logo, and more.

Further reading:

• DC is just waking up to Elon Musk’s takeover
• Elon Musk is staging a takeover of the federal budget
• Workers are reeling from chaos at federal agencies
• Can anyone stop President Musk?
• “For all practical purposes, I’d call that a coup.”
• Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China
• Canada will retaliate against Trump with tariffs on US goods
• Trump agrees to a one-month pause on Mexico, Canada tariffs
• Qwertykeys halts keyboard shipments to US over tariff costs and confusion
• Shein and Temu depend on a 100-year-old tariff loophole that Trump wants to close
• Your packages are about to get slower and more expensive
• USPS backtracks, will accept parcels from China after all
• China tariffs may already be hiking up import fees
• China opens Google antitrust probe in retaliation to tariffs
• Fox plans to launch a streaming service by the end of 2025
• Super Bowl LIX will stream for free on Tubi
• Comcast is adding Dolby Atmos to its ‘4K’ Super Bowl broadcast this year
• Warner Bros. is streaming full movies for free on YouTube
• Disney teases ESPN’s expansive sports streaming future
• Disney’s streaming business posts another profit.
• CBS is preparing to give Harris interview materials to the FCC.
• FCC launches probe into Soros-backed radio station that revealed live locations of undercover ICE agents
• After a bruising year, Sonos readies its next big thing: a streaming box
• Sonos lays off 200 employees as its struggles continue
• Google has ‘very good ideas’ for native ads in Gemini
• ChatGPT’s agent can now do deep research for you
• Here’s OpenAI’s new logo
• Chairs Are Like Facebook

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the show, it’s all about the future of phones… and your data. The Verge’s Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about the new Samsung Galaxy S25, what’s new in this high-end phone, and what it means for all the other smartphones coming this year. After that, Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, talks us through how to think about the privacy implications of RedNote, TikTok, DeepSeek, and all the other tech that puts us in contact with China. Finally, we enlist The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy to help us answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline all about the Meta Portal. Remember the Meta Portal?? If you’re missing yours, we have some ideas.

Further reading:

• The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t so ‘ultra’ anymore
• Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus hands-on: more of the same
• Samsung Galaxy S25 vs. S25 Plus vs. S25 Ultra: specs comparison
• Trump signs order refusing to enforce TikTok ban for 75 days
• TikTok’s service providers still risk billions in penalties for bringing it back online
• TikTok is still on shaky ground in the US
• Chinese social media app RedNote tops App Store chart ahead of TikTok ban
• As Americans flock to RedNote, privacy advocates warn about surveillance
• Will RedNote get banned in the US?
• RedNote: what it’s like using the Chinese app TikTokers are flocking to
• Why everyone is freaking out about DeepSeek
• DeepSeek’s top-ranked AI app is restricting sign-ups due to ‘malicious attacks’
• US Navy jumps the DeepSeek ship.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Facebook’s new Portal Go is great for video calls, but not much else

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David dig into the week's biggest story: the new Intel-powered Surface Pro. Kidding! They talk about DeepSeek, the out-of-nowhere AI company that sent both Silicon Valley and the stock market into uproar this week. Then, after the hosts debate what the real killer app for AI is — and whether we've even found one yet — we follow up on our question from last week about how people are actually using AI. We got so many good answers, and we talk through what to make of them all. Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about Brendan Carr being a dummy, the return of the Pebble, the continued rise of Bluesky and Threads, and Meta's $25 million check to Trump.

Further reading:

• Why everyone is freaking out about DeepSeek
• DeepSeek says its newest AI model, Janus-Pro can outperform Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 3.
• Microsoft makes DeepSeek’s R1 model available on Azure AI and GitHub
• OpenAI has evidence that its models helped train China’s DeepSeek
• China’s DeepSeek AI is hitting Nvidia where it hurts
• DeepSeek’s AI app is restricting sign-ups due to ‘malicious attacks’ 
• US Navy jumps the DeepSeek ship.
• DeepSeek wakes up Trump.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on DeepSeek R1: “an impressive model.”
• Mark Zuckerberg tells Meta investors to not worry about DeepSeek
• The Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback, with some help from Google 
• Oracle and Microsoft are reportedly in talks to take over TikTok
• FCC chair says landlords can force bulk internet service on residents
• From NYT: F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships
• Meta agrees to pay $25 million to settle Trump account suspension suit
• Zuckerberg wants to Make Facebook Great Again
• Zuck wants to bring the “OG Facebook” back.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge’s Victoria Song joins the show to talk about the most popular and most-bailed-on New Year’s Resolution of all: getting in shape. She tells us about the apps that help you work out more without being rude about it, the data you really need to care about in your fitness tracker, and much more. After that, we talk to Anna Valtonen, one of the curators and researchers behind the new Nokia Design Archive. She tells us about the concepts, presentations, and overall culture that made Nokia such an important company in the history of phones. Finally, we answer another question on the Vergecast Hotline about how audio works on your phone. It’s all still too complicated.

Further reading:

• Ladder
• Fantasy Hike
• Stompers
• Runkeeper
• 5K Runner
• Our interview with Adrian Hon about Zombies, Run
• The Nokia Design Archive
• Nokia’s “Morph” concept
• The Nokia Communicator
• The Nokia Moonraker smartwatch
• From Apple: Share audio with AirPods and Beats headphones from iPhone or iPad
• Also from Apple: Play audio through multiple devices at once in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac
• From Samsung: Play music on two Bluetooth devices from your Galaxy phone

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, David, and The Verge's Allison Johnson run down all the biggest news from the latest Samsung Unpacked. The S25 Edge had everyone excited, but the other new Galaxy S25 models feel a little familiar. Then, The Verge's Lauren Feiner updates us on the many goings-on in the first days of the new Trump administration, from the TikTok ban delay to the executive orders on citizenship and AI. Finally, in the lightning round, David and Nilay talk about Netflix's price increase, smart-home standards, and more.

Further reading:

• This is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
• Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus hands-on: more of the same
• Samsung Galaxy S25 vs. S25 Plus vs. S25 Ultra: specs comparison
• Here’s what Samsung’s first Android XR headset looks like in person
• Samsung and Google are developing AR glasses together
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra stylus: back to boring basics
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on: smoothing out sharp edges
• Samsung claims its new Galaxy S25 Ultra glass can survive head-high drops on concrete
• Google Gemini now works across multiple apps in a single prompt
• The Stargate Project is a $500 million AI data center plan for OpenAI
• The United States Digital Service is now DOGE — here’s what it was responsible for. 
• Vivek Ramaswamy steps down from DOGE
• Trump signs order refusing to enforce TikTok ban for 75 days
• Trump says he’s open to Musk or Ellison buying TikTok
• TikTok’s service providers still risk billions in penalties for bringing it back online
• Bluesky and X launch new video feeds amid TikTok uncertainties
• Instagram announces a blatant CapCut clone
• Apple says it’s following the law by removing TikTok from the App Store
• Sen. Tom Cotton warns TikTok’s service providers of “ruinous liability” for hosting the app.
• Two lawmakers introduce a bill to repeal the TikTok ban.
• Trump is absolutely going to make ByteDance sell TikTok or shut down again.
• Netflix is raising prices again
• YouTube Premium gets more experimental features that can now be tested all at once
• Here’s the tech that could turn millions of Zigbee light bulbs into motion sensors with a single update
• Samsung is bringing ambient sensing to SmartThings

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First in this episode, a quick update on the TikTok ban (which didn't turn out to be much of a ban at all.) Then, Sportico's Jacob Feldman joins the show to talk about Venu, the much-hyped streaming service that planned to bring all sports into a single platform — and never even managed to launch. After that, The Verge's Kevin Nguyen tells us how to read more books this year, and how to turn all your aimless scrolling time into more productive reading time. Finally, we answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline about audio sources on your phone, and why you can't listen to a thousand things at once.

Further reading:

• TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US
• TikTok is back, but where are Marvel Snap, CapCut, and Lemon8?
• Trump touts his plan to save TikTok during his victory rally
• TikTok isn’t back in the App Store yet
• Bluesky and X launch new video feeds amid TikTok uncertainties
• The new ‘Hulu for Sports’ streaming service has a name: Venu Sports
• Venu Sports shuts down before it ever launches
• From Sportico: YouTube TV vs. Fubo Sports Bundle Could Be Next Streaming Fight
• The Boox Palma is an amazing gadget I didn’t even know I wanted
• From GQ: How to Read a Whole Damn Book Every Week

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Pierce and Richard Lawler are joined by The Verge's Ash Parrish and Andrew Webster to talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 launch — all the things we know, and all the things we don't. (There's a lot of both.) Then The Verge's Adi Robertson joins to talk about the latest machinations in the potential TikTok ban, plus a Supreme Court hearing about adult content that might just be about the future of the internet. Finally, in the lightning round, David and Richard talk about Patrick Spence leaving Sonos, the Blue Origin launch, Drake's latest beef with Kendrick Lamar, and more.

Further reading:

• Nintendo Switch 2 announcement: all the news on the next console
• The Nintendo Switch 2 has officially been announced
• Everything we know about the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers
• You’ll be able to try out the Switch 2 starting in April
• Nintendo announces Switch 2 Direct for April
• The Nintendo Switch 2 supports original Switch cartridges
• Nintendo teases a new Mario Kart for the Switch 2
• The Switch 2 is boring — and that’s exactly what Nintendo needs
• The Switch 2’s bigger screen is just what I wanted
• TikTok reportedly plans ‘immediate’ Sunday shutdown in the US if it’s banned
• TikTok ban: Sen. Markey tries to give a 270 day extension
• TikTok says it’s planning for ‘various scenarios’ ahead of possible US ban
• Elon Musk is reportedly trying to save TikTok 
• Donald Trump is reportedly considering an executive order to delay the TikTok ban.
• Duolingo is the real winner in the TikTok ban.
• RedNote: what it’s like using the Chinese app TikTokers are flocking to
• What is RedNote? The Chinese app gaining popularity as TikTok ban approaches 
• The Supreme Court could decide the fate of Pornhub — and the rest of the internet 
• Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch
• Sonos’ interim CEO hits all the right notes in first letter to employees 
• Sonos’ chief product officer is leaving the company
• The iPhone Air could be coming later this year
• Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launches SpaceX rival
• Super Bowl LIX will stream for free on Tubi
• Drake sues his label, UMG, saying ‘Not Like Us’ is defamatory
• Drake axes ‘Not Like Us’ diss track petition against UMG and Spotify
• FTC sues John Deere for ‘unfairly’ raising repair costs on farm equipment

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In five days, TikTok as we know it could be finished in the US. The Verge's Lauren Feiner joins the show to discuss last week's Supreme Court arguments over the ban, why things don't look good for TikTok, and what's likely to happen in the next five days. After that, Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor talks about the state of the gadget inventor, and what it means to be part of the creator economy in 2025. Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline about magic-link logins, and why passwords remain such a disaster.

Further reading:

• TikTok’s last stand: Supreme Court weighs ban as deadline looms
• TikTok still seems headed for a ban after its Supreme Court arguments
• What it will take for TikTok to survive in the US
• Kickstarter is adding the ability to collect money indefinitely
• Kickstarter’s CEO on why he doesn’t think the company will only do crowdfunding forever
• Passkeys might really kill passwords

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this special live episode of The Vergecast, from the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, it's time to talk CES. Nilay and David run through some of the show's biggest stories, plus the Meta news that dominated the conversations all week in Vegas. Then Allison Johnson, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, and Victoria Song join the show to talk about all the newest, best, weirdest, and worst gadgets they've seen this year. AI is everywhere, everyone's making smart glasses, the smart home might be turning a corner, and we've seen it all this week.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the live show! And if you couldn't make it, stay tuned — this won't be the last time we all get to hang out.

Further reading:

• Zuckerberg, inspired by Musk, ditches fact checking for Community Notes
• Zuckerberg says he’s moving Meta moderators to Texas because California seems too ‘biased’
• Meta’s fact-checking changes are just what Trump’s FCC head asked for
• Meta is leaving its users to wade through hate and disinformation
• Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook
• Samsung announces The Frame Pro: could this be the perfect TV? 
• LG’s 2025 OLED TVs are its best yet — but they risk going overboard with AI
• LG’s StanbyME sequel adds a carrying strap to the portable TV 
• Dell kills the XPS brand: Dell, Pro, Max / Premium, Plus, Base
• Afeela has a price: 89,000, 102,000
• TCL NxtPaper max ink mode 
• Roborock debuts a robot vacuum with a robotic arm at CES
• This toaster-looking gadget boosts your phone’s battery in seconds
• A SodaStream for your Hydro Flask!
• Aqara launches three touchscreen smart home control panels at CES 2025
• The Schlage Sense Pro smart lock is one of the first with hands-free unlocking using UWB
• Bird Buddy’s new camera tracks plants and insects in your garden
• Mirumi is a furry little companion bot that imitates a shy infant

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Holidays! The Vergecast is off this week, but we also know you might be doing a lot of traveling and / or avoiding of your family this time of year, so we figured we'd do something a little different. We compiled a bunch of our favorite Vergecast segments and moments from this year — a full six hours of them! — in case you need something to listen to. You may have heard them all before! They might all be new! Maybe it'll be a mix! This one's an easy skip if you're looking for one, but if you need some Verge in your ears this holiday season, we've got you covered. We'll be back for real in January, starting at CES. If you'll be in Vegas, come see us live on Wednesday, January 8th! https://voxmediaevents.com/vergecast And in the meantime, have a great holiday, and rock and roll.

Here are the segments we picked, in order, with timestamps (because we can't do chapters, we know, we hate it too):

• The wild world of undersea cables — 00:04:32
• Meet Tony Delivers — 00:42:19
• The story of the Delta emulator — 00:56:29
• Phones are the ultimate AI gadget — 01:37:12
• The history and future of notebooks – 02:04:34
• What is a photo? — 02:41:07
• An existential gaming console crisis — 03:17:46
• Inside the AI music lawsuits — 03:52:12
• The history of podcasts — 04:40:59
• Our Vision Pro score debate — 05:03:15
• A road trip on the hydrogen highway — 05:35:13

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy holidays! Before we disappear into family time and catching up on our favorite shows, we have one more episode for you. And it's 90 minutes of deep nerdery about the smart home. Every year, we try to dig into one standard or spec that has impacted our lives this year, and we couldn't think of anything more potentially great and occasionally infuriating than Matter. Matter is supposed to be the protocol that makes the smart home work — so, uh, how's that going? The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins to discuss the state of the smart home, before we play a game to see how well we understand things. Then, Home Assistant creator Paulus Schoutsen tells us what it's like to try and make Matter work, and where we might be headed next year.

Further reading:

• Matter: everything you need to know about the new smart home protocol
• Matter’s plan to save the smart home
• The Thread 1.4 spec is here, but it will be a while until we see any benefit
• What is Thread and how will it help your smart home?
• Every device that works with Matter (December 2024)
• Home Assistant’s next era begins now
• The Home Assistant Green is here to make the most powerful smart home platform more accessible

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Victoria Song and Kylie Robison join the show to talk about all of Google's recent AI and XR announcements, and the company's big and Gemini-powered vision for the future of computing. Then Chris Grant, the group publisher for Polygon and The Verge, explains why GTA VI and the Nintendo Switch 2 are so important to the future of gaming — plus a few predictions about how they'll turn out. Finally, The Verge's Helen Havlak answers a hotline question about how she plans her garden in Figma. Which is a real thing she really does.

Further reading:

• The Vergecast at CES – come see us on January 8th!
• Google launched Gemini 2.0, its new AI model for practically everything
• Google’s AI enters its ‘agentic era’
• I saw Google’s plan to put Android on your face
• GTA VI: all the news on Rockstar’s next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series
• Switch 2: all the news and rumors on Nintendo’s next console

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the second episode in our two-part 2025 preview, Nilay and David are once again joined by Wall Street Journal columnist (and friend of The Verge) Joanna Stern to talk about what will, and won't, happen in tech next year. This time, David joins us after a quick jaunt to the end of next year, and relays a bunch of things that happened in tech in 2025. But some of them are lies. Joanna and Nilay have to decide which things really will happen next year, and which won't. As always, the hosts get points for good guesses and negative points for bad ones. And once we're all in late 2025, we'll declare a winner.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, David, and The Verge's Richard Lawler talk about a big week in AI news. First, they go over all the latest on Google's Gemini 2.0 launch, and try to figure out whether Project Astra and Project Mariner will ever turn into products people use. They also discuss OpenAI's release (and un-release) of Sora, the new Reddit Answers tool, and what's new in iOS 18.2. Finally, in the lightning round, there's talk of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Sonos, and Cruise. There also is and isn't talk of quantum computing. Because that's possible now.

Further reading:

• Google’s AI enters its ‘agentic era’ 
• Gemini 2.0: what’s new in Google’s new flagship AI model
• Google’s AI-powered smart glasses are a little closer to being real 
• Google’s new Jules AI agent will help developers fix buggy code
• Google is testing Gemini AI agents that help you in video games
• Google built an AI tool that can do research for you
• Android XR_Keyword
• OpenAI has finally released Sora
• iOS 18.2 is out now, adding ChatGPT integration and more Apple Intelligence tools
• ChatGPT’s side-by-side ‘Canvas’ view is now available to everyone. 
• Reddit’s new AI search tool helps you find Reddit answers without Google
• YouTube is still growing fast on TVs in the living room
• Instagram will let creators test experimental reels on random people
• It sure sounds like Trump would be okay with a TikTok sale
• TikTok failed to save itself with the First Amendment
• Sonos Arc Ultra review: don’t call it a comeback (yet)
• Google reveals quantum computing chip with ‘breakthrough’ achievements
• Amazon’s online car ‘dealership’ with Hyundai is now live
• YouTube’s AI-powered dubbing is now available to many more creators
• Searching for color at Pantone’s all-brown party 
• Adam Mosseri on introducing Trial Reels
• From WSJ: iOS 18.2 Review: The AI Apple Promised Us

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A week ago, The Verge launched a subscription. And you had questions! So we have answers. The Verge’s Helen Havlak and Nilay Patel join the show to talk about how we priced the subscription, why ad-free podcasts are hard to do, Apple News, what we do during ad breaks, and much more. And if we didn’t answer your question, let us know! Call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11, or email [email protected], with all your questions. Thanks to everyone who sent them in!

Further reading:

• Nilay's post about The Verge subscription
• Subscribe to The Verge

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our two-part preview of the year to come! For the first installment, Nilay, David, and Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern bring all the predictions for 2025 — their mildest, medium-est, and spiciest ideas about the year to come. Each host presents their take on TikTok bans, social platforms, smart homes, streaming services, and more, and the others get to decide whether they agree. Whoever gets the most right at the end of the year will win a big prize. (There's a points system for determining all that, but we'll figure that out later.)

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David talk a bit about this week’s launch of the Verge subscription, plus what’s coming next. (There’s still time to send questions for next week! 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected].) Then they talk about the streaming news of the week, and the ways streaming services are continuing to act like cable companies. Then Kylie Robison joins to talk about the lowering stakes for AGI, shipmas at OpenAI, and more. Finally, in the lighting round, it’s crypto and browsers and Intel. And more crypto.

Further reading:

• Here we go: The Verge now has a subscription
• ESPN is coming to the Disney Plus app starting today
• Max is testing always-on HBO channels
• Max is finally about to start cracking down on password sharing.
• Walmart bought Vizio 
• OpenAI’s 12 days of ‘shipmas’ include Sora and new reasoning model
• Sam Altman says AGI will “matter much less” than people expect
• Sam Altman on Elon Musk and OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft.
• ChatGPT’s search results for news are ‘unpredictable’ and frequently inaccurate
• Stop using generative AI as a search engine
• Misinformation expert admits ChatGPT added fake details to his anti-deepfake court filing
• Bitcoin just hit $100,000 
• Dia is the The Browser Company’s AI-powered follow-up to Arc
• Threads takes an important baby step toward true fediverse integration
• Threads’ next update is a search feature that finds the post you’re looking for
• Meta says it’s mistakenly removing too many posts
• Intel’s CEO is out after only three years
• What happened to Intel?
• Trump picks two nominees who could decide the fate of Big Tech and crypto 
• Spotify Wrapped 2024 adds an AI podcast to recap your listening habits
• Apple Music’s yearly recap is finally available in the app

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Thomas Ricker joins the show with an update on his question to live the #vanlife. He shares stories about Starlink Mini, the new Peak Design backpack everyone loves, converting a Sprinter van to a mobile apartment, and more. Then, The Verge's Andru Marino takes us through his tests on a bunch of new creator- and social-friendly microphones, which plug into your phone and promise to make everything sound better. Finally, we answer a question about web browsers on the Vergecast Hotline.

(Don't forget to send us your questions about The Verge and The Vergecast for next week's episode! Call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected] with all your most meta questions.)

Further reading:

• Starlink Mini review: space internet goes ultraportable
• Peak Design’s Outdoor Backpack is a more versatile everyday bag
• Stoke Voltaics’ portable electric cookware review
• This backpack solar generator can help you ignore nature
• This little box provides on-demand power when off the grid
• Living and working from an all-electric VW ID Buzz
• DJI’s new wireless mics skip a few features to get smaller and lighter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2024 is almost over, somehow. So we gathered a bunch of our Verge colleagues and told them each to tell us three things from the year: the biggest story, their favorite new tech thing, and their favorite new non-tech thing. We got a collection of big stories, cool gadgets, great movies, and more good stuff from the year that was.

We're also planning a special episode for Tuesday, December 10th, all about The Verge and The Vergecast. So if you have questions about how we work, what we cover, why we talk about copyright law so much, or what Nilay is actually like to work with every day, tell us! Call 866-VERGE11, or email [email protected], and we'll answer as many as we can on the 10th. Thanks in advance!

Further reading:

Jay Peters:

• Story of the year: Google is a monopoly
• New thing of the year: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Non-tech thing of the year: XOXO Field Notes notebooks

Jake Kastrenakes:

• Story of the year: All things AI
• New thing of the year: The Wiim Ultra amp
• Non-tech thing of the year: Chronoloy

Justine Calma

• Story of the year: The US election, and the rise of nuclear power
• New thing of the year: Nurse Unseen
• Non-tech thing of the year: Sugarcane

Vjeran Pavic:

• Story of the year: The Apple Vision Pro
• New thing of the year: The Fujifilm X100VI and the Kino app
• Non-tech thing of the year: Mountain Gazette

Kylie Robison:

• Story of the year: Billionaire crybabies
• New thing of the year: Stardew Valley
• Non-tech thing of the year: Curated playlists

Barbara Krasnoff:

• Story of the year: The US election
• New thing of the year: The Elgato Stream Deck
• Non-tech thing of the year: Googly eyes

Alex Heath:

• Story of the year: The AI rat race
• New thing of the year: Granola
• Non-tech thing of the year: Shochu

Ash Parrish:

• Story of the year: Grand Theft Auto VI and the Nintendo Switch 2, and more industry layoffs
• New thing of the year: The Playstation Portal
• Non-tech thing of the year: Bucephalus the puppy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Lauren Feiner joins Nilay and David to talk about the US government's proposal in its search antitrust case against Google. They discuss the future of Chrome, what a white-label search engine might look like, and how a Trump administration might change the course of this case altogether. Then Nilay and David talk about the week in AI and gadget news, from the latest on Amazon's new Alexa to Google bailing on tablets all over again. Finally, in the lightning round, they discuss Comcast spinning off its cable channels and the latest in the Threads / Bluesky competition.

Further reading:

• DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
• Google responds to DOJ’s ‘extreme proposal.’
• Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective
• Apple fights to keep DOJ antitrust suit from reaching trial
• Amazon announces new Echo Show 21 and Echo Show 15 smart displays
• Google may be about to reboot its laptop and tablet hardware again
• Google reportedly cancels Pixel Tablet 2 and might quit the category — again
• Sonos’ smart TV plans might have found an OS
• Windows 365 Link is a $349 mini PC that streams Windows from the cloud
• Comcast is spinning off its cable TV business
• Trump names Brendan Carr as his FCC leader
• Strava closes the gates to sharing fitness data with other apps
• Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI
• Threads’ custom feeds are already rolling out
• Threads’ algorithm will focus more on the people you follow
• Bose acquires premium audio brand McIntosh

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard Lawler joins the show to chat about the Tyson / Paul fight, and more importantly the fact that Netflix didn't seem to be able to keep up. As live sports — and TV in general — move toward streaming, are even the biggest names in tech ready for what's coming? After that, Roland Allen, the author of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, tells us about the history of the notebook, and why we've been writing things down about our lives for centuries. Even in a digital world, Allen argues, you just can't beat the notebook. Finally, a question from the Vergecast Hotline sends producer Will Poor down a TikTok Shop rabbit hole.

Further reading:

• Netflix served the Tyson vs. Paul fight to 60 million households
• NFL fans worry Netflix’s bad Tyson vs. Paul stream means it can’t handle football
• Netflix adds Beyoncé to live entertainment juggernaut
• Netflix snagged global streaming rights for NFL Christmas Day games
• Roland Allen’s website
• The Notebook: a History of Thinking on Paper

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the third episode in our series about the future of music, we talk with Ge Wang. Ge is a professor at Stanford, a co-founder of Smule, the conductor of Stanford’s laptop orchestra, and has been at the center of technology and artistry for most of his life. We talk about how humans can use AI without giving in to it, what it means to truly play with technology, and the value of art and creativity and friction when it feels like all those things are being taken away.

Further reading:

• Ge Wang’s website
• The future of computer music | Stanford University School of Engineering
• Ge’s viral TED talk: The DIY orchestra of the future
• From Wired: Behind the Scenes With the Stanford Laptop Orchestra
• Ge Wang: Human Well-Being Should Be AI Creators’ Goal

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David talk about the future of social, in light of Bluesky's recent surge in growth. Threads is huge, Bluesky is ascendent, Mastodon is... around, but can any of them become the next Twitter? Is that even the goal? After that, Kylie Robison joins the show and the gang discusses Apple's smart home device (which is just an iPad), the AI scaling slowdown, and a new twist in the delivery wars. In the lightning round, it's all about disclosures, wireless carriers, and the sad end of Freevee.

Further reading:

• Twitter’s succession: all the news about alternative social media platforms 
• One million people have joined Bluesky in the past week.
• Bluesky adds 700,000 new users in a week
• The Guardian is quitting X.
• Remember the TikTok ban?
• Apple’s rumored six-inch ‘AI wall tablet’ could control your smart home by March 2025
• Apple is reportedly working on an Apple Home security camera 
• Anthropic co-founder Darius Amodei said we’ll have artificial general intelligence “in 2026 or 2027.”
• Just Eat is selling Grubhub to Marc Lore’s Wonder for $650M
• Boost Mobile says it’s a real wireless carrier now
• Amazon is shutting down Freevee
• Trump says Elon Musk will lead ‘DOGE’ office to cut ‘wasteful’ government spending

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's show: sleep gadgets, AI DJs, and sneaky TVs. Victoria Song joins the show to talk about her experiences with the Eight Sleep mattress pad, the Oura Ring 4, and other sleep gadgets. Can you really measure your way to a better night of sleep? After that, Allison Johnson gives us her take on Spotify's AI DJ, and we wonder exactly how an AI tool is supposed to help us find and listen to music. Finally, Nilay Patel comes on to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline about the Samsung Frame TVs — and how to figure out whether you need a TV at all.

Further reading:

• Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra review: for sale, good night’s sleep, just $4,700
• Ozlo Sleepbuds hands-on: resurrected and I’ve slept so good
• Oura Ring 4 review: still on top — for now
• Spotify’s AI is no match for a real DJ
• Samsung’s Frame TV is finally getting the knockoffs it deserves

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the second episode in our three-part miniseries about the future of music, Charlie Harding, a music journalist and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast, joins the show to tell the story of Auto-Tune. He walks us through how a simple plugin became such a recognizable sound in music, why both artists and fans gravitated to the Auto-Tune sound, and why Auto-Tune has continued to grow even through backlash in the music business. Then we look ahead to AI, and try to figure out what — if any — lessons we might be able to learn about the sound and culture of the AI era to come.

Further reading:

• Charlie Harding on X
• Switched on Pop
• From Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music
• From Rick Beato: How Auto-Tune DESTROYED Popular Music
• From Gabi Belle: The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David talk about the election, and how The Vergecast plans to cover and talk about the next four years of the Trump administration. But only for a minute. Then it's onto our reviews of the new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro, which reset Apple's desktop and laptop lineup in an excellent way. After that, Sean Hollister joins the show to discuss his review of the PlayStation 5 Pro, the news about backwards compatibility for the Nintendo Switch successor, and the state of Nintendo's fight against emulators. In the lightning round, we talk about really expensive domain names, oddly named smart home standards, and cloud gaming whales. Which apparently exist.

Further reading:

• Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election
• What does Trump’s election mean for EVs, Tesla, and Elon Musk? 
• All the Big Tech leaders congratulating Donald Trump 
• Google CEO says company should be ‘trusted source’ in US election
• Another Trump presidency is literally toxic — his opponents are gearing up for battle
• Here’s FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sucking up to Donald Trump by threatening to take NBC off the air
• Apple Mac Mini M4 review: a tiny wonder
• Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024) review: the Pro for everyone
• Amazon says it’s fixing the Kindle Colorsoft’s yellow screen
• Kindle Colorsoft owners complain of a yellow bar on the e-reader’s screen
• PS5 Pro review: how close is your TV?
• Nintendo’s next generation is off to a great start
• Nintendo says the Switch successor will be compatible with Switch games
• Why is Nintendo targeting this YouTuber?
• Did OpenAI just spend more than $10 million on a URL?
• The Matter smart home standard gains support for more devices, including heat pumps and solar panels
• Nvidia to cap game streaming hours on GeForce Now instead of raising fees

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

November 6th marks 10 years to the day since Amazon surprise-launched a new, cylindrical device called the Echo. It introduced the world to smart speakers, and to the idea that you might be able to get stuff done just by shouting aloud in your living room. But a decade in, what has Alexa really accomplished? The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk through the history of Alexa, Amazon's struggles to improve and extend its voice assistant, and the promise of a language model overhaul that might in theory make Alexa far more useful. There's a chance Alexa's second decade might be even more interesting than the first.

Further reading:

• Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you
• Amazon Echo review: listen up
• Alexa, where’s my Star Trek Computer?
• Alexa, thank you for the music
• The Alexa Skills revolution that wasn’t
• The Amazon Echo graveyard
• Amazon’s supercharged Alexa won’t arrive this year

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first episode in our three-part miniseries on the future of music, we tell the story of Track Star, a music game show that has become a viral hit on TikTok and Instagram. Jack Coyne, the show's friendly host, tells us how Track Star came to be, why the format works so well, and why A-list celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran, and Kamala Harris are all clamoring to be on the show. Coyne also tells us where Track Star might go next — and why the future of music content might look a lot like the past.

Further reading:

• Track Star on TikTok
• Jack Coyne on Instagram
• The Olivia Rodrigo episode
• The "Every Track Star Song" playlist
• The Malcolm Todd episode
• Public Opinion

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David discuss a big week in AI news, including the new web search features in ChatGPT and the reporting that Meta is working on something very similar. They also briefly talk about this quarter's tech earnings, and what they say about the ways AI is really being used. Then, Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern joins the show to talk about Apple Intelligence, Apple's week of Mac launches, and why Siri still can't open her garage. Finally, in the lightning round, the hosts talk about Netflix's gentle push into social features, Tony Fadell's AI thoughts, and our endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Further reading:

• OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT
• Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too
• Microsoft’s gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are down
• Reddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily users
• Snap Inc. - Financials - Quarterly Results
• Apple’s Mac week: everything announced
• Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it’s so damn small
• Watch Apple show off the M4 Mac Mini in its reveal video - The Verge
• Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C
• Apple put the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom again
• Apple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
• Apple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chip
• Apple’s first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMac
• Apple Intelligence is out
• WSJ: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More
• Netflix is making it easier to bookmark and share your favorite parts of a show
• Tony Fadell calls out Sam Altman
• Tim Walz and AOC are going to play Madden together on Twitch
• The Verge’s guide to the 2024 presidential election
• Tech leaders line up to flatter Trump’s ego
• Jeff Bezos is no longer relentlessly focused on customer satisfaction
• “You have a Washington Post problem.”
• From The New York Times: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kylie Robison joins the show to talk about the recent dueling AI blog posts from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. What do these CEOs think the future of AI looks like? Then, Will Poor tells us the story of ShakeAlert, an earthquake alert system that has huge potential and some surprising challenges. On The Vergecast Hotline, Allison Johnson joins Will to figure out whether the iPhone's new Camera Control is really as fast as advertised.

Further reading:

• Sam Altman: The Intelligence Age
• Dario Amodei: Machines of Loving Grace
• Anthropic’s CEO thinks AI will lead to a utopia — he just needs a few billion dollars first
• OpenAI plans Orion AI model release for December
• ShakeAlert
• If you live on the West Coast and you have an iPhone, here's how to turn on the "Local Awareness" feature that speeds up WEA messages:
• Download the MyShake app on for iOS
• or for Android
• Ready.gov's earthquake advice:
• About emergency and government alerts on iPhone
• Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus review: all caught up

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, David, and Richard Lawler talk about all of the coming Apple gadgets and software, from the new iPad Mini to the upcoming week of Mac announcements to the many flavors of iOS and Apple Intelligence heading to a device near you soon. Then they talk about the other news in AI, from Anthropic's new computer-using model to the growing set of lawsuits against AI companies. In the lightning round, they discuss the Boox Palma 2, T-Mobile's "lifetime" deals, and the battle over FTC's click-to-cancel rule.

Further reading:

• Apple iPad Mini 2024 review: missing pieces
• iOS 18.2 will let everyone set new default phone and messaging apps
• Apple’s first iOS 18.2 beta adds more AI features and ChatGPT integration
• Apple teases ‘week’ of Mac announcements starting Monday
• Apple is preparing an M4 MacBook Air update for early next year
• Tim Cook says he uses every Apple product every day — how does that work?
• Tim Cook on Why Apple’s Huge Bets Will Pay Off
• Anthropic’s latest AI update can use a computer on its own
• Humane slashes the price of its AI Pin after weak sales
• Apple is ‘concerned’ about AI turning real photos into ‘fantasy’
• News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ and New York Post
• Kevin Bacon, Kate McKinnon, and other creatives warn of ‘unjust’ AI threat
• Industry groups are suing the FTC to stop its click to cancel rule
• The Boox Palma 2 has a faster processor and adds a fingerprint reader
• Seniors are PISSED that T-Mobile won’t honor its “lifetime” price guarantee.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Victoria Song joins the show to talk about her year of testing smart rings, and which of the many new options is the one you should buy. Then Chris Welch takes us through his testing of the new hearing health features for Apple's AirPods, including the surprisingly intense hearing test you can take right on your phone. Finally, Andrew Webster helps us answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline: why doesn't Apple buy Nintendo, and what would happen if it did?

Further reading:

• We tested six smart rings, and there’s a clear winner
• Oura Ring 4 review: still on top — for now
• Apple’s AirPods Pro hearing health features are as good as they sound
• Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 could forever change how people access hearing aids
• Super Mario Run hands-on: like Mario, just simpler
• Microsoft’s Phil Spencer says acquiring Nintendo would be ‘a career moment’

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the last eight months, David Cogen has been living a double life. By day: a YouTuber and creator, the face of the TheUnlockr channel, reviewing phones and testing ebikes and explaining how food smokers really work. By night and morning and every single other available in-between moment: a coffee shop entrepreneur, working to get a Brooklyn spot called Coffee Check up and running. In this episode, the second in the two-part miniseries that we’re calling How To Make It In The Future, Cogen tells the story of how a YouTuber becomes a coffee shop owner — and how to bring those two things together without ruining them both.

Further reading:

• TheUnlockr on YouTube
• David’s Coffee Check announcement
• Coffee Check’s website
• Another fun YouTuber story: Me, Myself, and iJustine

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David talk about the week in gadget news, after scoring their predictions on last week's Tesla event. (Spoiler alert: nobody did very well.) They talk about the new iPad Mini, the new Sonos Ace Ultra soundbar, and the new Analogue N64 emulator. Then Amazon's Panos Panay joins the show to discuss this week's big Kindle news, and where he thinks the future of e-readers is headed. Finally, Nilay and David do a lightning round, with a lot of Google org chart news and just a little bit of Trump news.

Further reading:

• The Optimus robots at Tesla’s Cybercab event were humans in disguise
• The Tesla Cybercab is a cool-looking prototype that needed to be much more than that
• Tesla’s Robovan is the surprise of the night
• Apple just announced a new, faster iPad Mini 
• AMD and Intel are teaming up to fend off ARM chips
• Sonos announces ‘breakthrough’ Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4 
• Analogue’s 4K Nintendo 64 launches next year for $249
• Amazon’s new Kindle family includes the first color Kindle
• Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition hands-on: color E Ink looks pretty good
• Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024: a new design and AI tools for note takers
• Amazon’s new Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite are faster and brighter
• Amazon discontinues the last Kindle with physical buttons 
• Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads
• Here’s a bunch of bananas shit Trump said today about breaking up Google
• Trump says Tim Cook called him to complain about the European Union
• Anthropic’s CEO thinks AI will lead to a utopia — he just needs a few billion dollars first 
• The New York Times warns AI search engine Perplexity to stop using its content

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before a podcast was a “podcast,” it was… well, it wasn’t really much of anything. It was in 2004, though, that many of the earliest names in on-demand audio began to smush “iPod” and “broadcast” into the word we’ve come to know as the way we all download and listen to shows now. In this episode, we go back two decades to the first days of the podcast. Then we hit the skip button to today and look at where podcasts are headed next.

Further reading:

• From PodNews: The history of the word 'Podcast'
• From The Guardian: Audible revolution
• From Wired: The First Podcast: an Oral History
• From The New York Times: An MTV Host Moves to Radio, Giving Voice to Audible Blogs

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Danny and Steven Sanicki are twins, competitive golfers, and suddenly the biggest names in online mini golf. They started making mini golf content on TikTok about a year ago, and it took off; since then they've been trying to ride the viral wave and also turn it into something that lasts. For this episode, the first in a miniseries we're calling How To Make It In The Future, we talk to the Sanickis about their journey to turn putt-putt into their life's work — without killing the fun in the process.

Further reading:

• @dannysanicki on TikTok
• Twin Tour Golf on Instagram
• Twin Tour Golf on YouTube
• From Golf Digest: How college golf twins and some friends with time to kill accidentally created a viral mini-golf sensation

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay and David make some predictions about Thursday evening’s Tesla event — which you’ve already seen, but we haven’t! Then they talk about the week’s gadget news, from Nintendo’s new Alarmo alarm clock to Apple’s upcoming iPads and Macs. Then Lauren Feiner joins to talk about the latest on all fronts in Google’s antitrust fight, and how the government might be planning to break up the company altogether. Then it’s time for a lightning round about Google Docs tabs, FEMA misinformation, and Zoom AI avatars.

Further reading:

• The bill finally comes due for Elon Musk
• In the past week, 4 of Elon Musk's direct reports have announced their exits from Tesla
• All the buzz about Nintendo’s Alarmo clock
• I totally forgot we wrote about Nintendo’s sleep tracking alarm clock 10 years ago.
• Nintendo’s original alarm clock prototypes were a lot less playful
• A closer look at Nintendo’s adorable Alarmo clock
• Shrunken Mac Minis and a new iPad Mini might come in November
• Apple’s Vision Pro leader, Dan Riccio, is retiring
• A Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers
• How the DOJ wants to break up Google’s search monopoly
• Google must crack open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge
• The filing: Microsoft Word - FINAL - Google Remedy Framework
• Google’s response: DOJ’s radical and sweeping proposals risk hurting consumers, businesses, and developers
• Google Docs is making it much easier to organize information
• Zoom will let AI avatars talk to your team for you - The Verge
• Hurricane Milton hits tonight, and it’s past the point of evacuation. Creators are still there.
• Instagram and Threads moderation is out of control - The Verge
• FEMA adds misinformation to its list of disasters to clean up

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For this full-on “what is a photo” episode, we start by chatting with Halide developers Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan De With about what it means to build a camera app in 2024 — and what it means to try and accurately capture a photo. Then The Verge’s Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about her experiment going all-in on AI-ifying her photos. Finally, we answer a hotline about which gadgets to attach to your head when you go for a run.

Further reading:

• Halide
• Halide’s Process Zero feature captures photos with no AI processing
• Let’s compare Apple, Google, and Samsung’s definitions of ‘a photo’
• No one’s ready for this
• Google’s AI tool helped us add disasters and corpses to our photos
• The AI photo editing era is hare, and it’s every person for themselves
• This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it?
• 
  

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, Alex, and David discuss Microsoft's new Copilot announcements, and the friendlier face the company is trying to put on its chatbot. They also wonder: what, exactly, is an AI companion supposed to do for you, and how is it supposed to do it? They then dive into OpenAI's huge funding round, before exploring all the new gadgets of the week and some deep drama in the WordPress universe. Finally, it's time for a lightning round of news about Dish and DirecTV, Progressive Web Apps, and Nintendo's fight against emulation. We also send off Alex, our sadly departing co-host, with cake and Plex servers.

Further reading:

• Microsoft gives Copilot a voice and vision in its biggest redesign yet
• Read Microsoft’s optimistic memo about the future of AI companions
• Shh, ChatGPT. That’s a Secret. - The Atlantic
• College students used Meta’s smart glasses to dox people in real time
• Sonos has a plan to earn back your trust, and here it is
• Chromebooks are getting a new button dedicated to Google’s AI
• Microsoft is discontinuing its HoloLens headsets
• Google’s Pixel Buds are now fully supported on Windows and macOS.
• Automattic demanded a cut of WP Engine’s revenue before starting WordPress battle
• DirecTV and Dish are merging
• Nintendo has reportedly shut down Ryujinx, the Switch emulator that was supposedly immune

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to discuss a bunch of updates in the smart home world, including what's new from Google Home and in iOS 18, plus some big news in the world of smart locks and video doorbells. Then, The Verge's Chris Welch comes on to test some new earbuds, and see which pair has the best sound – and the best mic. After that, a new take on the Vergecast's chaotic wearables theory.

Further reading:

•  Ki is bringing wireless power to kitchen appliances
• The Eufy Smart Lock E30 is the company’s first Matter device
• The Ultraloq Bolt Mission from U-tec is the first smart lock with UWB
• Assa Abloy buys Level Lock to bolster its smart lock business
• TP-Link Tapo D225 Video Doorbell Camera review
• Ring’s entry-level wireless doorbell gets a head-to-toe view
• iOS 18 lets you control Matter devices without a smart home hub
• The Thread 1.4 spec is here, but it will be a while until we see any benefit
• Google TV gets a big upgrade
• Google is set to supercharge Google Home with Gemini intelligence

And on wireless earbuds:

• The best wireless earbuds to buy right now
• Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are its best earbuds yet
• Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 review: big upgrade, much smaller earbuds
• Bose’s new QuietComfort Earbuds offer top-tier ANC for under $200
• Apple AirPods 4 review: defying expectations
• Nothing’s first open-ear headphones keep you aware of your surroundings

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Sayman, the creator of a viral new app called SocialAI, joins the show to discuss why he built a social network where you're the only human around. He tells us how he thinks about AI interfaces, what's next for ChatGPT and other chatbots, and why posting to a language model might be better than posting on a social network.

Further reading:

• SocialAI
• Michael Sayman on LinkedIn
• SocialAI: we tried the Twitter clone where no other humans are allowed
• From TechCrunch: Friendly Apps raises $3 million, pre-product, for apps that improve people’s well-being
• From Wired: I Stared Into the AI Void With the SocialAI App
• From New York Magazine: Does Anyone Need an AI Social Network?
• From Ars Technica: “Dead Internet theory” comes to life with new AI-powered social media app

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Alex Heath joins Nilay, Alex, and David to talk about all the announcements coming out of Meta Connect: the impressive (and expensive) Orion glasses, the new features for the Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, and lots and lots of new AI. Then they discuss the latest executive departures at OpenAI, as the industry's foremost AI company undergoes a huge shift. In the lightning round, it's time for more AI gadgets, the PS5 Pro... and then some more AI gadgets.

Further reading:

• Meta Connect 2024: biggest news and announcements
• Hands-on with Orion, Meta’s first pair of AR glasses
• Meta’s Ray-Bans will now ‘remember’ things for you
• Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone
• Meta’s VR app store is about to fill up with phone-style 2D apps
• Mark Zuckerberg: creators and publishers ‘overestimate the value’ of their work for training AI
• Meta’s AI can now talk to you in the voices of Awkwafina, John Cena, and Judi Dench
• Kristen Bell told Instagram to ‘get rid of AI’ before she became its official voice
• OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is leaving
• Just 5,000 people use the Rabbit R1 every day
• Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 review: big upgrade, much smaller earbuds
• I played the PS5 Pro, and it’s clearly better
• Inside Jony Ive’s Life After Apple and His LoveFrom Design Business

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kylie Robison joins the show to talk about OpenAI’s new model, o1, and what this new “reasoning” model says about the state of the art in AI — and what AI companies are willing to put up with in the name of building God. Then, Gaby Del Valle and Adi Robertson talk through the latest on the TikTok ban, the Trump crypto chaos, and the ongoing adtech antitrust trial against Google. (All with as little politics-talk as possible.)

Further reading:

OpenAI releases new o1 reasoning model

OpenAI’s new model is better at reasoning and, occasionally, deceiving

TikTok ban: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform

TikTok oral arguments will weigh security risks against free speech

TikTok faces a skeptical panel of judges in its existential fight against the US government 

Donald Trump is hawking tokens for a crypto project he still hasn’t explained

US v. Google redux: all the news from the ad tech trial

How Google got away with charging publishers more than anyone else

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first episode in our new miniseries about the impact of AI in our everyday lives, we chat with Steven Johnson, a longtime author who has spent the last couple of years at Google working on an AI research and note-taking tool called NotebookLM. We talk about whether AI can really help us learn better, how Google has tried to make NotebookLM more accurate and helpful, and whether AI-generated podcasts are the future of learning. 

Further reading:

• NotebookLM
• Steven Johnson’s website / newsletter
• From Steven Johnson: Listening To The Algorithm
• Google teases Project Tailwind — a prototype AI notebook that learns from your documents
• Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great
• Google is using AI to make fake podcasts from your notes
• 
  

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, Alex, and David are joined by Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern to talk about this year’s iPhone – and Joannabot, the AI chatbot Joanna made to help you make buying decisions. They also answer some questions about the new phones as Apple gets ready to ship them. They also talk about Snap’s new Spectacles, the future of YouTube communities, Instagram teens, and AI social networks.

Further reading:

• Our iPhone 16 Review, Brought To You By a Joanna Stern AI Chatbot
• Snap releases new Spectacles for AR developers
• Snapchat’s AI selfie feature puts your face in personalized ads — here’s how to turn it off
• Snap announces “Simple Snapchat” redesign to compete with TikTok
• Evan Spiegel explains why Snap is betting on Spectacles 
• Meta extends its Ray-Ban smart glasses deal beyond 2030 
• YouTube’s new Hype feature is a way to promote and discover smaller creators
• YouTube integrates AI for creators through Veo and the Inspiration tab
• YouTube Communities let fans and viewers chat and post with creators 
• YouTube confirms your pause screen is now fair game for ads
• YouTube is adding ‘seasons’ to make your favorite channel more like Netflix
• SocialAI: we tried the Twitter clone where no other humans are allowed
• Lionsgate signs deal to train AI model on its movies and shows

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've finally finished testing, scoring, and reviewing Apple's new gear for the fall. On this episode we talk through our reviews of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, the Apple Watch 10, and the AirPods 4, to see whether they're real upgrades and whether they're worth your money. And then, on the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11), we make the case for the Pixel in 2024.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peak Evernote was roughly a decade ago. Since then, the product has often felt stagnant (or worse), the company churned through executives and business plans, and it seemed like Evernote was slowly turning into a zombie app. Not gone, not even forgotten, just sort of... there. For the third and final installment in our series about productivity and digital life, we sit down with Federico Simionato, the Evernote product lead at Bending Spoons. We talk about the acquisition process, how he perceives Evernote in today’s landscape, what it took to start shipping new stuff again, why Bending Spoons changed the subscription price, and much more.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, David, and Alex talk about the new PlayStation 5 Pro — why it's so expensive, why it doesn't have a disc drive, and why it made so many people feel feelings. They also talk about the fallout from this week's iPhone launch, the first days of the Google ad trial, Kamala Harris's earrings, Huawei's triple-folding phone, and much more.

Further reading:

• PS5 Pro: all the news about Sony’s next console
• Sony’s PS5 Pro has a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI upscaling
• The $700 PS5 Pro doesn’t come with a disc drive
• Sony’s new PS5 heralds the end of disc drives
• Here are all the games enhanced by PS5 Pro
• PlayStation 5 Pro comparison: What’s different from the regular PS5?
• Sony will sell you a refurbished PS5 if you don’t want to drop $700 on a Pro
• The people want disc drives.
• Microsoft lays off 650 more Xbox employees
• No, Kamala Harris wasn’t wearing these audio earrings
• These are real earrings — and also real earbuds
• Google Pixel Watch 3 review: third time’s the charm
• Huawei’s new tri-fold phone costs more than a 16-inch MacBook Pro
• Here’s a closer look at the Huawei Mate XT triple-screen foldable
• The Meta Quest 3S leaks in Meta’s own PC app
• Google and the DOJ’s ad tech fight is all about control
• Google dominates online ads, says antitrust trial witness, but publishers are feeling ‘stuck’
• WhatsApp will send messages to other apps soon — here’s how it will look
• The US finally takes aim at truck bloat
• Google is using AI to make fake podcasts from your notes
• Facebook and Instagram are making AI labels less prominent on edited content

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple launched the iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10, and AirPods 4 at its annual fall event in Cupertino. The devices come with some big upgrades — a new camera control on the iPhone, a new design on the Watch — but also a lot of promises about AI. Today on the show, we discuss everything that's new, everything that's missing, and all the reasons you might or might not want to upgrade your Apple gear this year.

Further reading:

• iPhone 16 event live blog: all the news from Apple’s keynote
• iPhone 16 event: all the news from Apple’s keynote
• Apple announces the iPhone 16 with a faster processor and Camera Control button
• Apple announces the iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max hands-on: don't call it a shutter button
• Apple Watch Series 10 announced with bigger screen and thinner design
• The AirPods Pro 2 will soon double as hearing aids
• iOS 18 will launch next week with new ways to customize your homescreen
• Apple announces AirPods 4 with noise cancellation and better sound 
• AirPods 4 hands-on: noise cancellation for people who hate ear tips
• Apple has a faster MagSafe charger to go with the new iPhone 16 phones 
• Apple has a faster MagSafe charger to go with the new iPhone 16s
• It sure looks like FineWoven is dead
• Apple’s Visual Intelligence is a built-in take on Google Lens
• Beats’ new iPhone 16 cases work with the Camera Control button

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss previews for the Apple event, gadgets at IFA, the latest with Snap, and a whole lot more.

Further reading:

• Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event is set for September
• Apple’s iPhone 16 event: how to watch and what to expect
• Apple’s rumored Mac Mini redesign may ditch the USB-A port
• Is our long FineWoven nightmare almost over?
• What Not to Expect at Apple Event on September 9: 'It's Glowtime'
• A new low-end Magic Keyboard may come next year.
• Apple Sports is ready for all kinds of football
• Inside Apple’s theatrical U-turn on Wolfs.
• Ted Lasso could come back for a fourth season
• Beats’ long-awaited Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds are coming in 2025
• Microsoft and Apple are arguing over cloud gaming apps again
• The Remarkable Paper Pro is as outrageous as it is luxurious
• Honor’s superthin foldable is another cool phone the US won’t get
• TCL’s new Nxtpaper phones have a dedicated button for maximum monochrome
• Our first official look at Huawei’s tri-fold.
• Acer’s first handheld gaming PC is the Nitro Blaze 
• DJI’s $199 Neo selfie drone is going to be everywhere
• Acer’s Project DualPlay concept laptop has a pop-out controller and speakers
• Acer’s 14-inch laptops claim 24 hours of battery life from Intel, Qualcomm, or AMD
• Qualcomm’s new eight-core Snapdragon X Plus makes these Windows laptops cheaper
• IFA 2024: hands-on (and off) with Lenovo’s Auto Twist AI PC concept
• Intel strikes back against Windows on Arm
• Verizon looks to expand Fios with $20 billion purchase of Frontier
• Concord was worse than bad — it was forgettable
• Sony is taking Concord offline on September 6th after disastrous launch
• Snapchat to put ads next to chats with friends
• You’ll soon be able to Sony is taking Concord offline on September 6th after disastrous launch
• Sub.club is here to help the fediverse make money

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss Telegram CEO being charged in a French criminal investigation over content moderation, Yelp suing Google for antitrust violations, a week in AI-generated nonsense, and more.

• Telegram says CEO has ‘nothing to hide’ after being arrested in France 
• French authorities arrest Telegram’s CEO
• Why the Telegram CEO’s arrest is such a big deal
• Telegram CEO charged in French criminal investigation
• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov faces court questioning in France.
• French prosecutors explain why they arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov
• How Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Founder, Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man
• Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms?
• How Telegram played itself
• Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
• TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’
• California State Assembly passes sweeping AI safety bill
• Mark Zuckerberg responds to GOP pressure, says Biden pushed to ‘censor’ covid post
• Google Gemini will let you create AI-generated people again
• xAI’s new Grok image generator floods X with controversial AI fakes
• X’s Grok directs to government site after sharing false election info
• Smart home company Brilliant has found a buyer
• ESPN ‘Where to Watch’ feature helps find where to stream sporting events
• Plaud’s NotePin is an AI wearable for summarizing meetings and taking voice notes
• The maker of the Palma has a new cheaper e-reader
• The Dyson Airwrap i.d. is a smarter hair curler
• Snapchat finally launched an iPad app
• Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words
• Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event is set for September

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of the native resonance of your smartphone: 

02:32 -The Verge’s David Pierce tries to find out if those YouTube videos promising to remove water from your phone with sounds actually work. 

32:42 - Then, David chats with The Verge’s Alex Heath about some AR glasses that are reportedly set to launch from Snap and Meta this fall.

59:16 - Later, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about competition in the AI industry.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can learn a lot about somebody just by learning about how they get things done. Are they the sort of person who might have a perfectly color-coded email inbox, a flawlessly organized to-do list, and what’s that, they just sent you a calendar invite for happy hour next week? Or are they more likely to have a giant pile of sticky notes they never look at, a computer desktop with so many files you can’t even see the wallpaper, and today’s main tasks written on their arm? Neither is wrong, but they’re very different.

On this episode of The Vergecast, the second in our three-part miniseries about work and productivity and how to get more done in a digital world, we decide to get to know our colleagues in a new way: by asking them to share their own productivity systems. We didn’t give them much specific instruction or homework, other than to come ready to answer a question: how do you get stuff done? Eight Verge staffers showed up, with eight very different ideas about what being productive means and how best to pull it off. Along the way, we found some ideas to steal, a few new apps and tools to try, and a lot of new thoughts about our co-workers.

If you want to know more about the things we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started:

• A Googler’s guide to getting things done
• TickTick
• Upnote
• Notion
• Google Keep
• Google Calendar
• The Rhodia #16 spiral notepad
• Papier’s productivity planners

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's David Pierce, Alex Cranz, Allison Johnson, and Richard Lawler discuss the Google Pixel 9 review and its controversial reimagine AI feature, a Chick-fil-A streaming service, Sonos app updates, and more.

Further reading:

• Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL review: AI all over the place
• Google’s AI tool helped us add disasters and corpses to our photos 
• This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it? 
• The AI photo editing era is here
• Donald Trump posts a fake AI-generated Taylor Swift endorsement
• From Digital Trends:I tried Google's new Pixel Studio app, and it's a mess
• OpenAI exec says California’s AI safety bill might slow progress
• https://www.threads.net/@chriswelch/post/C-8wxAGOpyP
• https://www.threads.net/@chriswelch/post/C-8LGwKOlPj?xmt=AQGzGV_vvL3vxoEhZ_nM263bP8n-Pu9Dxz5Ngmib-0wzgA
• https://www.threads.net/@chriswelch/post/C-8wxAGOpyP
• A new $6 billion bid to take over Paramount could undo plans to merge with Skydance.
• I hope the next CEO of Disney is just Bob Iger with a fun mustache.
• Paramount Plus plans are 50 percent off ahead of the 2024 NFL season 
• The 2024 Olympics were a big win for TV of all kinds
• The Acolyte has been canceled
• Chick-fil-A is reportedly launching a streaming service for some reason
• Apple Podcasts now has a web app
• Spotify star Alex Cooper is jumping to a new podcast network
• JBL made its charging case touchscreen more useful with a size boost 
• Meta and Snap are about to show off their new AR glasses 
• Amazon cancels the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition’s main feature — focusing on photos

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of hydrogen futures: 

The Verge’s William Poor, Andrew Marino, and Alex Parkin head to California to figure out why hydrogen fuel cell technology, once a super-promising successor to gasoline, lost out to battery electric cars. They also put the embattled tech to the test with a road trip across California’s “hydrogen highway.”

Further reading: 

• Check out the interactive map of our trip here, and the video version of the story here.

• Read Andrew Hawkins’ story about the future of hydrogen fuel cell tech here.

• Read Justine Calma’s coverage of federal green hydrogen programs here.

• Go deep into California zero emission transportation policy here.

Credits:

Fact Check by Jasmine Arielle Ting

Thanks to:

Bill Elrick, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership

Michael McCurdy, California State Library

Archival footage courtesy of Global ImageWorks, LLC

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Laura Mae Martin is a big believer in the settings menu. Martin is Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor, and spends much of her time working with other Googlers on improving their productivity and communication systems — and one of the things she often recommends is taking a few minutes to poke through the options. “With your phone, with your email, your Slack, all these things, the features are there but we don’t take the time to dive into them,” she says. She even thinks you should maybe have to look at settings before you can use the app. “Like, you can’t get into the app unless you spend 10 minutes figuring out what it can do.”

On this episode of The Vergecast, the first in our three-part miniseries about all things productivity and work, we talk to Martin about how she sees things changing. Four years after the pandemic forced us all to work from home, are we finally figuring out remote and hybrid work? Are managers realizing that butts-in-seats isn’t, and maybe was never, a good metric for productivity? And is the era of the hard-charging hustle bro finally giving way to a healthier, more holistic way of thinking about being productive? Martin sees all these things from so many perspectives, and has lots of thoughts on everything from communication styles to energy flows.

We also talk about the rise in digital productivity tools like Notion and Slack, and why email is still so important — and still so terrible. One of Martin’s jobs at Google is to consult with the teams building Workspace apps like Docs and Gmail, and she has lots of thoughts on how those product works and how they could be better. We also talk about whether AI stands to change the way we get things done, and whether it’ll help us do more or just give us more to do.

Along the way, Martin offers us lots of practical tips on how to manage our digital lives a little better. Charging your phone outside the bedroom, no-tech Tuesdays, and a couple of prettier email labels might actually go a long way. And if you have too many notes in too many places, it’s time to get a Main List going.

If you want to know more on everything we talk about in this episode, here are a few links to get you started:

• Laura Mae Martin’s website
• Her book, Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing’
• The Google Workspace guide to productivity and wellbeing
• The Verge’s favorite tools to stay organized
• The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data
• All I want is one productivity app that can handle everything

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss AI tools announced at this weeks Pixel 9 event, Nilay's TV competition, tech regulatory news, and more.

Further reading:

• AI overshadowed Pixel at the Pixel event
• All the AI features coming to Google's Pixel 9 series 
• Google debuts Pixel Studio AI image-making app
• Google makes your Pixel screenshots searchable with Recall-like AI feature
• Every time Google dinged Apple during its Pixel 9 launch event
• Google Gemini’s voice chat mode is here
• Using Gemini Live was faster than Google, but also more awkward
• Google Pixel 9 launch event: all the announcements and products 
• Google's Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show 
• The Pixel 9 Pro XL showed me the future of AI photography
• Google’s Zoom Enhance camera trick is finally available 
• Inside the competition that named the Sony A95L the best TV of 2024
• Patreon adds Apple tax to avoid getting kicked out of the App Store 
• Apple is finally going to open up iPhone tap-to-pay
• Apple relents and approves Spotify app with EU pricing 
• AltStore PAL drops its annual subscription thanks to a grant from Epic
• Epic judge says he’ll ‘tear the barriers down’ on Google’s app store monopoly
• The FTC’s fake review crackdown begins this fall
• Ex-Google CEO: AI startups can steal IP, hire lawyers to “clean up the mess”
• Flipboard is going to let you follow fediverse accounts right inside the app
• Halide’s Process Zero feature captures photos with no AI processing
• Realme’s 320W fast charging can fully charge a smartphone in four and a half minutes

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of the correct height-to-width ratio of a foldable phone: 

The Verge’s David Pierce, Allison Johnson, Victoria Song, and Chris Welch discuss all the new gadget announcements from Google’s Pixel event — including the Pixel 9, the Pixel Watch 3, the Pixel buds, and more.

Further reading:

• Google Pixel 9 launch event live coverage: all the news
• Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is a Pro show
• Google’s new Pixel Buds Pro 2 seem better in every way that matters
• The Pixel 9 Pro XL showed me the future of AI photography
• Google Pixel Watch 3 hands-on: a big leap forward
• The Google TV Streamer might be the Apple TV 4K rival we’ve been waiting for
• Why Google decided now’s the time to move on from Chromecast
• The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade
• Google’s Pixel Fold one year later: I can’t wait for the sequel

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, Alex Heath, and Lauren Feiner discuss a federal judge ruling that Google violated US antitrust law, X suing a group of major advertisers over an “illegal boycott”, and the rest of this week's wild tech news.

Further reading:

• Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case
• All the spiciest parts of the Google antitrust ruling
• X files antitrust lawsuit against advertisers over ‘illegal boycott’ 
• The Global Alliance for Responsible Media is 'discontinuing' after Elon Musk's X filed an antitrust lawsuit against it
• Disney’s password-sharing crackdown starts ‘in earnest’ this September
• Disney’s streaming business turned a profit for the first time
• The price of Disney Plus is about to go up
• Logitech’s ‘forever’ mouse isn’t happening
• Google is discontinuing the Chromecast line
• The Google TV Streamer might be the Apple TV 4K rival we’ve been waiting for
• Humane’s daily returns are outpacing sales 
• Samsung’s Frame TV is finally getting the knockoffs it deserves 
• Microsoft says Delta ignored Satya Nadella’s offer of CrowdStrike help
• Hands-on with Google’s new Nest Learning Thermostat
• OpenAI won’t watermark ChatGPT text because its users could get caught

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of what the future of Kindle turns out to be: 

We’re once again trying out a couple of our favorite new show formats. 

In Version History, we talk through the whole story of Quibi, from its early days as NewTV to its extremely ill-timed launch to its ultimate demise. 

• From Variety: Quibi Has Raised $1.75B After Closing $750M Round to Fund Launch
• From Variety: Jeffrey Katzenberg’s NewTV Closes $1B, Major Studios Among Investors
• Quibi’s CES 2020 launch
• Quibi app review: short-form streaming in a shifting landscape
• Steven Spielberg is writing a horror series you’ll only be able to at night
• Quibi’s Super Bowl 2020 commercial
• From The Wall Street Journal: Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman Struggle With Their Startup—and Each Other
• How Quibi imploded less than six months after launch
• 11 reasons why Quibi crashed and burned in less than a year

Next, we try out our as-yet-untitled debate show. The Verge’s Kevin Nguyen and Alex Cranz take on a surprisingly contentious topic: is the future of books print or digital? 

• The Boox Palma is an amazing gadget I didn’t even know I wanted
• Kobo’s great color e-readers are held back by lock-in
• From The Wall Street Journal: How the Kindle Became a Must-Have Accessory (Again)
• The Playdate makes a surprisingly good e-reader

Later, producer Andru Marino answers a question from The Vergecast Hotline about a very unusual shopping situation for MP3 players. 

• NW-E394 Walkman Digital Music Player 
• Mighty’s ‘iPod shuffle for Spotify’ gets upgraded battery and Bluetooth

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Allison Johnson, and Victoria Song discuss Apple iOS 18.1 beta. upcoming Pixel 9 rumors, Olympics coverage, AI deepfake regulation, and more.

Further reading:

• The best way to watch the Olympics is on TikTok
• Apple releases iOS 18.1 developer beta with the first ‘Apple Intelligence’ iPhone features 
• Apple’s iOS 18.1 developer beta adds AI call recording and transcription
• A first look at Apple Intelligence and its (slightly) smarter Siri
• Apple’s new AI features will reportedly miss the iOS 18 launch and wait for iOS 18.1. 
• Google Pixel 9 event: rumors and what to expect 
• Pixel 9’s ‘Add Me’ feature puts you in a group photo even when you’re not there  
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em 
• Samsung hypes the Galaxy Z Flip as a great police bodycam
• Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber wants your next mouse to last forever
• Microsoft wants Congress to outlaw AI-generated deepfake fraud
• Google tweaks Search to help hide explicit deepfakes
• Lawmakers want to carve out intimate AI deepfakes from Section 230 immunity 
• Elon Musk posts deepfake of Kamala Harris that violates X policy
• The Copyright Office calls for a new federal law regulating deepfakes. 
• Senators will introduce the No Fakes Act to keep AI ...

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of dedicated streaming hardware: 

We try out a couple of show formats we’ve been planning for a while. 

In Version History, we tell the story of the Roku Netflix Player, debate its legacy, and try to decide whether this thing belongs in the Version History Hall of Fame. 

• From Fast Company: Inside Netflix’s Project Griffin: The Forgotten History Of Roku Under Reed Hastings
• From CNBC: How Roku used the Netflix playbook to rule streaming video
• From CNN: Netflix Player offers PC-free movie watching
• From Wired: Review: Roku Netflix Set Top Box Is Just Shy of Totally Amazing
• From The New York Times: Why the Roku Netflix Player Is the First Shot of the Revolution

After that, it’s time for debates. Nilay Patel and David Pierce yell at each other about who should own the screens in your car. Are CarPlay and Android Auto the answer, the solution to universally crappy automaker software?

• Car companies haven’t figured out if they’ll let Apple CarPlay take over all the screens
• The rest of the auto industry still loves CarPlay and Android Auto
• Everybody hates GM’s decision to kill Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its EVs
• Rivian CEO says CarPlay isn’t going to happen
• Apple’s fancy new CarPlay will only work wirelessly

Later, David answers a question from The Vergecast Hotline about political spam texts.

• From The Washington Post: How to stop receiving spam texts
• From PCMag: Stop Robotexts: How to Block Smishing and Spam Text Messages

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of The Vergecast, we look at why TV and movie recommendations are so complicated, and whether AI might be able to make them better. If Spotify can build infinite playlists of music you’ll like, and YouTube and TikTok always seem to have the perfect thing ready to go, why can’t Netflix or Hulu or Max seem to get it right?

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started:

• Movievanders
• Reelgood
• The internet is a constant recommendations machine — but it needs you to make it work
• Netflix’s Greg Peters on a new culture memo and where ads, AI, and games fit in
• From Scientific America: How Recommendation Algorithms Work—And Why They May Miss the Mark
• From Google: Multimodal prompting with a 44-minute movie

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Jake Kastrenakes discuss OpenAI's new SearchGPT product, Amazon's plan to launch a paid version of Alexa, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold review, and whole lot more.

Further reading:

• OpenAI announces SearchGPT, its AI-powered search engine
• Bing’s AI redesign shoves the usual list of search results to the side
• Reddit is now blocking major search engines and AI bots — except the ones that pay
• Google had a massive quarter thanks to Search and AI
• Amazon’s paid Alexa is coming to fill a $25 billion hole dug by Echo devices
• The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a great phone that’s out of ideas
• Asus ROG Ally X review: the best Windows gaming handheld by a mile
• Samsung Galaxy Ring review: keeping you in Samsung’s orbit
• Apple’s first foldable iPhone could arrive in 2026
• Apple Maps launches on the web to take on Google
• The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle is now available
• Rivian CEO says CarPlay isn’t going to happen
• The NBA’s new TV deals put a lot of games on Amazon’s Prime Video starting in 2025
• Reddit’s NFL, NBA deals bring more sports highlights — and ads
• Spotify CEO confirms a ‘deluxe’ version with hi-fi audio is coming soon
• Sonos CEO apologizes for disastrous rollout of new app

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of configuration changes:

The Verge's Tom Warren joins the show to to talk about the story and legacy of the CrowdStrike crash. 

• CrowdStrike and Microsoft: all the latest news on the global IT outage
• Major Windows BSOD issue hits banks, airlines, and TV broadcasters
• What is CrowdStrike, and what happened?
• CrowdStrike’s faulty update crashed 8.5 million Windows devices, says Microsoft
• CrowdStrike outage: Photos, videos, and tales of IT workers fixing BSODs

Then we talk with The Verge's Victoria Song and Zombies, Run creator Adrian Hon about making exercising fun without making it competitive and awful.

• Zombies, Run
• Adrian Hon’s Substack
• Finally, the Apple Watch will let you rest
• This walking app let me whack my co-workers with a baseball bat
• Ignore your fitness tracker and walk to Mordor instead

Finally, we answer a hotline question about handheld gadgets for new parents — because there's a lot of time to kill when there's a baby around.

• Backbone One review: the best mobile gaming controller yet
• Handheld consoles are the future of gaming
• Holedown

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of The Vergecast, senior producer Will Poor explores the AI-tinged worlds of Dries Depoorter. Depoorter has built all manner of quirky and provocative installations and online experiments. There’s a clock that tells you how much of your life you’ve already lived; a phone charger that only works when your eyes are closed; a mobile chat app that you can only use when your phone has less than 5% battery.

His most eyebrow-raising work, though, is around AI and surveillance. In his projects Depoorter takes publicly available webcam footage from around the world, and uses it to stalk celebrities, catch jaywalkers in the act, keep politicians honest, and generally make you wonder about your own privacy and anonymity.

We talked with Depoorter about how he creates his work, how he thinks about the future of AI, and how he responds to the people who see his art and want to turn it into commerce. It’s a wild conversation, so check it out above. To see all of Dries’ work, head over to his portfolio.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay, Alex, and David talk about what's happening on social media — and around the web — in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Then they talk about their early impression of Apple's public betas, from the redesigned homescreens to the iPad's fancy new math abilities. After that, it's time for a bunch of gadgets all asking the same idea: is this anything? Then it's off to the lightning round, filled with 4K streams and leaky infinity pools.

Further reading:

• A custom sticker printer infuriated clients with a pro-Trump mass text message
• Shooting conspiracies trend on X as Musk endorses Trump
• Donald Trump likes TikTok, not Zuckerberg.
• The FBI said it found the Trump rally shooter’s Steam account, then took it back
• The Trump rally shooter had a Discord account, company says
• The Trump rally shooting is a cash cow for the dropshippers 
• The FBI says it has ‘gained access’ to the Trump rally shooter’s phone 
• J.D. Vance likes Lina Khan and crypto, hates ‘Big Tech’
• Elon Musk, Joe Lonsdale, and tech elites back a pro-Trump super PAC
• Apple’s public betas: all the news on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more
• Apple is finally embracing Android’s chaos
• iOS 18 might help you rescue photos you thought were gone forever
• The watchOS 11 beta slowed me down, in a good way
• RCS in iOS 18: Apple’s new messaging standard almost solves the green-button problem
• Testing Math Notes and the Calculator app in iPadOS 18
• Phone mirroring on the Mac: a great way to use your iPhone, but it’s still very much in beta
• Canon’s long-awaited EOS R1 and R5 Mark II have eye-controlled autofocus
• Dyson unmasks its super customizable OnTrac headphones
• A long-delayed hands-on with Essential’s skinny Android phone
• This case turns your Apple Watch into a tiny iPod
• Google solves its Pixel 9 Pro leaks by just showing the phone early
• Leaked photos reveal Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
• Xreal Beam Pro review: an AR tablet with good ideas but not enough power
• The OnePlus Pad 2’s vibrating stylus simulates writing on paper
• Sling TV adds 4K streaming for free
• Comcast will have high bitrate, low latency 4K feeds of the Olympics
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s $27 million mansion is a ‘lemon’ with a leaky pool, lawsuit alleges

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of nose bridge microphones: 

03:10 - The Verge’s David Pierce enlists help from Alex Cranz and Sean Hollister to figure out the best gadget setup for his handheld gaming needs. 

• The Steam Deck wasn’t born ready, but it’s ready now
• Nintendo Switch OLED review: screentime
• Sony PlayStation Portal review: flawed but fun
• Asus ROG Ally updated review: it’s a bit better now
• This amazing knockoff GBA SP comes stuffed with software piracy

42:10 - Victoria Song joins the show to test out the microphones on a bunch of smart glasses and headsets. 

• Razer’s new Anzu smart glasses break from the pack with truly wireless audio
• The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses actually make the future look cool
• Amazon’s latest Echo Frames are more style than substance
• Meta Quest 3 review: almost the one we've been waiting for
• Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not

01:10:26 - Later, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline.

• North Focals glasses review: a $600 smartwatch for your face

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Humans are terrible at remembering things. On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk to one of the people who has been working on this problem for a very long time: Dan Siroker, the CEO of Limitless. We talk about what it takes to build a great memory aid, how we might use them in the future, and why it’s so tricky to get right.

We also talk about the human side of it all — what does it change about our lives when we stop forgetting things? Is remembering your friend’s birthday different when it’s actually an AI model doing the remembering? And will these tools ever really work outside of work? Tools like Limitless are coming fast and improving quickly, and we’re going to have to figure out how to live with them.

Further reading:

• From The New York Times: Can’t See Pictures in Your Mind? You’re Not Alone.
• Limitless AI: a new wearable gadget, and app, for remembering your meetings
• Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs
• Microsoft’s all-knowing Recall AI feature is being delayed
• The Pixel 9’s ‘Google AI’ is like Microsoft Recall but a little less creepy
• Apple announces iOS 18 with new AI features and more customizable homescreen
• Notion AI can automatically write your notes, agendas, and blog posts for you

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss the announcements from Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, Redbox shutting down, and more tech news from this week.

Further reading:

• Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: all the news on the Galaxy Ring, Fold, Flip, Watch, and AI
• Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 are pricier with minor updates
• Samsung’s Galaxy Ring could be the one ring to rule an ecosystem
• Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra hands-on: ultra déjà vu
• Galaxy Watch 7: price, availability, and how to preorder
• Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds are blatant AirPod clones in both form and function
• Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm are, uh, still doing that XR thing.
• Motorola’s 2024 Razr Plus is a fun and flawed flip phone
• Redbox shuts down as its parent company declares Chapter 7 bankruptcy
• Sling TV is the latest streamer to get those pesky pause ads
• Netflix’s next live event is a Joe Rogan comedy special
• Spotify is going to let you leave comments on podcast episodes
• Paramount agrees to sweetened Skydance merger deal
• Instagram is sticking to short videos, says Adam Mosseri
• Amazon’s Echo Spot is back with better sound and no camera
• Nothing’s CMF launches new supercheap earbuds and a smartwatch
• Nothing’s CMF Phone 1 is proof that gadgets can still be fun
• Early Apple tech bloggers are shocked to find their name and work have been AI-zombified
• Microsoft and Apple ditch OpenAI board seats amid regulatory scrutiny
• The developers suing over GitHub Copilot got dealt a major blow in court

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of corporate infighting: 

The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Alex Cranz roleplay as CEOs of Vergecast Inc., tasked with creating a tech company by acquiring product lines from various industry giants. They select established products ranging from smartphones and PCs to messaging and audio solutions, sourced from companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, Meta, and others. 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of spatial computing:

The Verge’s David Pierce chats with Victoria Song and Wes Davis about using the Vision Pro for the five months that it's been available to the public. The group details what works, what doesn’t, and what’s next for the device.

• Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
• Apple announces visionOS 2 with 3D photo transformations and an ultrawide Mac display
• The Vision Pro isn’t destroying your eyes, but maybe get eye drops
• The Vision Pro is a computer for the age of walled gardens
• Apple’s Vision Pro team is reportedly focused on building a cheaper headset
• The Vision Pro will get Apple Intelligence and ‘Go Deeper’ in-store demos

David chats with the folks at Sandwich Vision, who create Vision Pro apps called Television and Theater, about why they made 3D-rendered versions of CRT TVs in virtual reality.

• Sandwich Vision

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel and David Pierce chat with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding about the RIAA lawsuit against AI music startups Udio and Suno. Later, Nilay and David discuss the rest of this week's tech and gadget news.

Further reading:

• What the RIAA lawsuits against Udio and Suno mean for AI and copyright 
• Major record labels sue AI company behind ‘BBL Drizzy’ 
• Good 4 who? How music copyright has gone too far 
• Samsung just announced a date for its next Unpacked
• Google announces surprise Pixel 9 hardware event in August
• Motorola’s 2024 Razr phones are ready to make a splash 
• Beats Pill review: much easier to swallow this time
• Ultimate Ears announces new Everboom speaker, Boom 4 with USB-C, and more 
• Ludacris Performs Free Concert With JBL Speaker: Here's Where You Can Buy One for Summer
• Apple will soon offer better support for third-party iPhone displays and batteries
• Distance Technologies augmented reality car heads-up display hands-on
• Seven things I learned about the Sony car while playing Gran Turismo inside one 
• Rivian teases five new vehicles, and I have no idea what they are
• A group of Rabbit R1 jailbreakers found a massive security flaw
• Meta is connecting Threads more deeply with the fediverse
• ChatGPT’s Mac app is here, but its flirty advanced voice mode has been delayed
• Verizon’s new V logo arrives as the lines blur between 5G, Fios, and streaming
• Supreme Court rules Biden administration’s communications with social media companies were not illegal coercion
• Tesla Cybertruck recalled again, this time over faulty wiper and trim

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of the many definitions of electronic paper: 

03:12 -The Verge’s David Pierce takes a look at the Boox Palma, a phone-shaped e-reader that runs Android. He also compares notes with Clockwise’s Matt Martin and writer Craig Mod. 

• The Boox Palma is an amazing gadget I didn't even know I wanted
• New Pop-up Walk, Reading Digitally in 2024 — Roden Newsletter Archive 

30:06 - The Verge’s Nathan Edwards and Tom Warren join the show to discuss their experience using Microsoft’s new Surface Copilot PCs. They also answer a question from The Vergecast Hotline.

• Surface Laptop 7th Edition review: Microsoft’s best MacBook Air competitor yet
• With Copilot Plus, the new and improved Windows PCs are here 
• Microsoft’s embarrassing Recall 
• Microsoft makes Copilot less useful on new Copilot Plus PCs 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and Alex Heath discuss Apple's Vision Pro team reportedly refocusing on a cheaper headset, Meta launching a new "Wearables" organization, a new AI company startup from former OpenAI chief scientist, and a whole lot more tech news.

Further reading:

• Apple’s new hands-free unlocking feature won’t work with existing smart locks
• Apple’s fancy new CarPlay will only work wirelessly
• Android’s AirTag competitors are off to a poor start.
• This universal remote wants to control your smart home sans hub
• The Framework Laptop 13 is about to become one of the world’s first RISC-V laptops
• The Beats Solo Buds have a great look and an even better price
• Xreal’s new Beam Pro is an Android tablet designed to work with your AR glasses
• Apple’s Vision Pro team is reportedly focused on building a cheaper headset
• Meta forms new Wearables group and lays off some employees
• OpenAI’s former chief scientist is starting a new AI company
• Perplexity continues to piss off publishers.
• An AI video tool just launched, and it’s already copying Disney’s IP
• Anthropic has a fast new AI model — and a clever new way to interact with chatbots
• AIs are coming for social networks
• TikTok ads may soon contain AI avatars of your favorite creators
• McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now
• Nvidia overtakes Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company
• US sues Adobe for ‘deceiving’ subscriptions that are too hard to cancel
• Tech CEOs are hot now, so workers are hiring $500-an-hour fashion consultants

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of super helpful humanoid helper robots: 

05:07 - The Verge’s David Pierce and Andy Hawkins discuss the latest at Tesla: new products, new initiatives, and a payday for Elon Musk. 

• Tesla’s 2024 shareholder meeting: all the news about Elon Musk’s $50 billion payday
• Let’s speculate wildly about Tesla’s three mystery vehicles 
• Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s massive pay package — was there ever any doubt?
• Whatever Elon wants, Tesla gets

40:21 - Vee Song joins the show to discuss updates to the Apple Watch, a new Samsung Galaxy Watch, and more wearable news. 

• Finally, the Apple Watch will let you rest - The Verge
• Samsung’s Galaxy Watch FE is its new entry-level smartwatch - The Verge
• The Pixel Watch 2 can now detect when you’ve been in a car crash
• Apple announces watchOS 11 with new training features and Live Activities
• Samsung sues Oura preemptively to block smart ring patent claims

1:02:54 - David and Liam James answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline about weather apps. 

• Forecast Advisor

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss takeaways from WWDC, this week's gadget news, and Elon Musk dropping his lawsuit against OpenAI.

Further reading:

• Apple and OpenAI aren’t paying each other yet, says Bloomberg
• MKBHD interviewed Tim Cook.
• Tim Cook is ‘not 100 percent’ sure Apple can stop AI hallucinations
• Can Apple Intelligence fix the iPhone’s broken notifications system?
• The AI upgrade cycle is here
• Here’s how Apple’s AI model tries to keep your data private
• The best small updates Apple didn’t mention at WWDC
• Apple IDs are becoming Apple Accounts
• Apple skipped over the best visionOS 2 updates
• iOS 18 will let you record calls — and tells everyone for their privacy
• SharePlay is coming to Apple TV, HomePods, and Bluetooth speakers 
• Finally, offline maps with turn-by-turn guidance.
• The new versions of iOS and macOS will let you rotate your Wi-Fi address to help reduce tracking.
• Xbox boss: ‘I think we should have a handheld, too’
• Microsoft announces a discless Xbox Series X console in white
• Xbox chief confirms more games are coming to other platforms
• Jabra’s earbuds are going away, but the impact they made isn’t
• The best thing about Jabra’s new earbuds is the case 
• The Light Phone 3 adds a better screen, a camera, and new ways to replace your smartphone
• The Windows on Arm chip race heats up with a challenger to Qualcomm
• Did startup Flow Computing just make CPUs 100x faster? Here’s the white paper and FAQs
• Google is putting more Android in ChromeOS
• Elon Musk drops lawsuit against OpenAI
• Elon Musk has unusual relationships with women at SpaceX, WSJ reports
• Sony buys Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
• Pew: A growing number of Americans are getting their news from TikTok

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, Allison Johnson, and David Pierce discuss all the announcements from Apple's WWDC event.

Further reading:

• Apple WWDC 2024: the 13 biggest announcements 
•  Apple Intelligence: every new AI feature coming to the iPhone and Mac
•  Apple is giving Siri an AI upgrade in iOS 18 
• Apple announces iOS 18 with new AI features and more customizable homescreen
• Apple says iPhones will support RCS in 2024  
• Apple’s AI can make custom emoji and images
• iOS 18 introduces satellite capabilities to its iMessage app
• Apple announces iPadOS 18 with a built-in calculator and customizable homescreen 
• Apple made an iPad calculator app after 14 years
• The iPhone’s new Game Mode makes it faster and more responsive 
• Apple announces watchOS 11 with new training features and Live Activitie
• Apple announces macOS Sequoia at WWDC 2024 
• Apple’s standalone Passwords app syncs across iOS, iPad, Mac, and Windows 
• Apple’s AirPods are being upgraded with powerful accessibility features  
• Apple’s InSight feature for Apple TV Plus will tell you who that actor is
• Apple teases new seasons of Severance and Silo
• Apple announces visionOS 2 with 3D photo transformations and an ultrawide Mac display
• Apple is finally launching the Vision Pro outside the US
• Canon made a special lens for the Apple Vision Pro’s spatial videos 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss what they expect to see next week at Apple's WWDC, or "dub dub" as it's more affectionately known. But first, we take you through all the gadgets previewed at Computex.

Further reading:

• This is Lunar Lake — Intel’s utterly overhauled AI laptop chip that ditches memory sticks
• Humane is reportedly trying to sell itself to HP for $1 billion
• Humane, the startup behind the AI Pin, in talks with HP, telecoms to sell 
• Humane warns AI Pin owners to ‘immediately’ stop using its charging case
• Even the Raspberry Pi is getting in on AI 
• Apple put a Thread smart home radio into its newest Macs and iPads
• Apple just corrected the M2 iPad Air’s core count 
• Samsung leak reveals a cheaper Galaxy Watch
• Meta is fixing three of the biggest Quest 3 annoyances with v66 update 
• Nothing’s Phone 3 will be all about AI apps 
• The Asus ROG Ally X is official — and I took a peek inside
• Palmer Luckey is now selling pixel-perfect ultrabright magnesium Game Boys for $199
• iOS 18 (and AI) will give Siri much more control over your apps
• Apple’s non-AI WWDC plans include Settings and Control Center revamps
• Apple might bring AI transcription to Voice Memos and Notes
• Apple’s WWDC may include AI-generated emoji and an OpenAI partnership
• Apple’s WWDC 2024 is set for June 10th
• Think inside the box
• Max raises prices across its ad-free plans
• We tested Aptoide, the first free iPhone app store alternative
• Google acquires Cameyo to integrate Windows app virtualization into ChromeOS

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of audio over Wi-Fi: 

03:02 - The Verge’s Chris Welch shares his review of Sonos's Ace headphones.

• Sonos Ace review: was it worth it?
• Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign

28:58 - MoviePass, MovieCrash director Muta’Ali and MoviePass CEO Stacy Spikes discuss what went wrong with the MoviePass subscription service and how that story was documented in the film.

• MoviePass, MovieCrash review: a damning account of corporate greed
• MoviePass is using you to ruin the movies 

56:47 - Jennifer Pattison Tuohy answers a question from The Vergecast Hotline about smart home gadgets for renters. 

• Home Assistant: Setting up the Aqara FP2 Presence Sensor - Derek Seaman's Tech Blog 
• Yale launches its first retrofit smart lock — the Yale Approach with Wi-Fi 
• The new Yale Keypad Touch brings fingerprint unlocking to August smart locks
• Aqara kick-starts its first Matter-over-Thread smart lock with a promise of Home Key support 
• The new Yale Keypad Touch brings fingerprint unlocking to August smart locks

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss Google's algorithm leak, OpenAI content deals, and more tech news from this week.

Further reading:

• Google won’t comment on a potentially massive leak of its search algorithm documentation
• Google confirms the leaked Search documents are real
• An Anonymous Source Shared Thousands of Leaked Google Search API Documents with Me; Everyone in SEO Should See Them
• Secrets from the Algorithm: Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Has Leaked
• Unpacking Google's massive Search documentation leak
• How SEO moves forward with the Google Content Warehouse API leak
• Google responds to leak: Documentation lacks context
• Vox Media and The Atlantic sign content deals with OpenAI
• Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search 
• Apple’s WWDC may include AI-generated emoji and an OpenAI partnership
• OpenAI CEO Cements Control as He Secures Apple Deal
• Custom GPTs open for free ChatGPT users
• OpenAI has a new safety team — it’s run by Sam Altman
• Why the OpenAI board fired Sam Altman 
• Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6 billion to fund its race against ChatGPT and all the rest
• New Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Ring details have leaked, courtesy of the FCC
• The Fitbit Ace LTE is like a Nintendo smartwatch for kids 
• Discord’s turning the focus back to games with a new redesign
• The business behind Unnecessary Inventions’ millions of followers
• Welcome to Notepad, a newsletter on Microsoft’s era-defining bets by Tom Warren

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of open smart home standards: 

03:25 - Microsoft’s Pavan Davuluri, leader for Windows and Devices, joins the show to discuss the future of the AI PC and what’s next for Microsoft’s hardware

• Microsoft’s new Windows chief on the future of the OS, Surface, and those annoying ads
• Microsoft’s big bet on building a new type of AI computer 
• Microsoft Build 2024: everything announced

30:25 - The Verge’s Jen Tuohy and David Pierce discuss the latest updates in the smart home world in a segment called “Does Matter matter yet?”

• The Dyson WashG1 is the company’s first dedicated mop
• Amazon’s Matter Casting is shaping up so nicely, I want to use it everywhere
• Matter 1.3 arrives with new device type and features
• Smart lighting company Brilliant is looking for a buyer
• Google launches new Home APIs and turns Google TVs into smart home hubs 

01:13:20 - David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about AI-powered search engines. 

• Google is redesigning its search engine — and it's AI all the way down 
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai on AI-powered search and the future of the web

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of The Vergecast, the fourth and final installment of our series on the five senses of video games, we asked Polygon’s Charlie Hall to help us make sense of the current state of the art in flight simulation. Hall, who once spent more than four months in VR mapping the edge of the Milky Way galaxy in Elite: Dangerous, has more experience in a virtual cockpit than most. We wanted to know how the pros set up their simulators to get the most realistic experience and why it’s so complicated to make a virtual world look like the real one.

Further reading:

• It’s time to build the cockpit of your dreams
• Microsoft Flight Simulator’s most-needed feature is co-op
• My first kill as a Star Citizen
• If Microsoft Flight Simulator has you craving air combat, try this flight sim next

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss announcements from Microsoft Build, the OpenAI's trouble with Scarlett Johansson, new Sonos headphones, and more.

Further reading:

• Microsoft’s big bet on building a new type of AI computer 
• Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs 
• https://www.theverge.com › microsoft-surface-pro-pric...
• Here’s the eight-inch Snapdragon PC for your Windows on Arm experiments 
• How does the Microsoft Surface Laptop stack up to the MacBook Air? 
• Microsoft Build 2024: everything announced
• Windows now has AI-powered copy and paste
• Microsoft is making File Explorer more powerful with version control and 7z compression
• Here’s the eight-inch Snapdragon PC for your Windows on Arm experiments
• Microsoft Edge will translate and dub YouTube videos as you’re watching them
• Microsoft brings out a small language model that can look at pictures 
• Microsoft’s new Copilot AI agents act like virtual employees to automate tasks 
• Microsoft outage took down Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and ChatGPT search features
• OpenAI is ‘in conversations’ with Scarlett Johansson over the ChatGPT voice that sounds just like her
• OpenAI pulls its Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT
• Lawyers say OpenAI could be in real trouble with Scarlett Johansson
• Scarlett Johansson told OpenAI not to use her voice — and she’s not happy they might have anyway
• OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show
• OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game
• OpenAI’s News Corp deal licenses content from WSJ, New York Post, and more
• OpenAI strikes Reddit deal to train its AI on your posts
• The US government is trying to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster
• The Sonos Ace headphones are here, and they’re damn impressive
• Sonos CEO Patrick Spence addresses the company’s divisive app redesign
• here’s an electric salt spoon that adds umami flavor 
• Apple needs to explain that bug that resurfaced deleted photos 
• Humane is looking for a buyer after the AI Pin’s underwhelming debut 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of Arm-based chipsets:

03:08 - The Verge’s Tom Warren and David Pierce discuss the announcements from Microsoft’s Surface event, including the new Arm-powered Surface Laptop, and Copilot Plus PCs.

• Microsoft’s Surface AI event: news, rumors, and lots of Qualcomm laptops 
• Microsoft announces an Arm-powered Surface Laptop
• Microsoft’s new Surface Pro gets an OLED display for the first time
• Microsoft announces Copilot Plus PCs with built-in AI hardware
• The new, faster Surface Pro is Microsoft's all-purpose AI PC 
• Recall is Microsoft’s key to unlocking the future of PCs

27:29 -Verge senior AI reporter Kylie Robison joins the show to chat about OpenAI’s GPT-4o demo and where we’re headed in the next few years of AI. 

• ChatGPT is getting a Mac app
• OpenAI’s custom GPT Store is now open to all for free
• OpenAI releases GPT-4o, a faster model that’s free for all ChatGPT users 
• ChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in Her 
• OpenAI pulls its Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT 
• OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leaving
• OpenAI researcher resigns, claiming safety has taken ‘a backseat to shiny products’
• We tried out the Project Astra demo at Google I/O which worked well un... | tech | TikTok 

57:40 - Nilay Patel answers a question about iPads for this week’s Vergecast Hotline.

• Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best tablet money can buy

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of refillable scent cartridges: 

Producer Andru Marino tries out a gadget called the Gamescent, an AI-powered scent machine that syncs with your gaming and movie watching experience. He walks David Pierce through the experience and whether integrating olfaction could be the future of gaming. 

We also hear from Nimesha Ranasinghe, an assistant professor at the University of Maine working on taste sensations and taste simulation in virtual reality experiences, which can lead to adding another sense into the world of gaming. 

Further reading:

• A Brief History of Smell-O-Vision
• “Scent of Mystery”, the First and Only Use of Smell-O-Vision
• The sights, smells, and sprays of ‘Iron Man 3’ in 4DX
• The iSmell story
• Smell-O-Vision is REAL: Linus Tech Tips
• VR pioneer Jaron Lanier on dystopia, empathy, and the future of the internet
• The sense of taste in virtual reality
• Virtual lemonade sends colour and taste to a glass of water

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss announcements from Google I/O and OpenAI's GPT4o event.

Further reading:

• Google and OpenAI race to build the feature of search
• OpenAI releases GPT-4o, a faster model that’s free for all ChatGPT users
• ChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in Her
• ChatGPT is getting a Mac app
• OpenAI’s custom GPT Store is now open to all for free
• OpenAI’s “ChatGPT and GPT-4” Spring Update stream starts in 20 minutes
• OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leavingl
• Project Astra: the future of AI at Google is fast, multi-modal assistants like Gemini Live
• Google’s Gemini AI is getting a chatty new voice mode 
• Google will let you create personalized AI chatbots
• Google’s Gemini can build an entire vacation itinerary ‘in a matter of seconds’ 
• Google’s Circle to Search will help you with your math homework
• Google’s Gemini video search makes factual error in demo
• We have to stop ignoring AI’s hallucination problem
• Google I/O 2024: everything announced
• Google is redesigning its search engine — and it's AI all the way down 
• Google now offers ‘web’ search — and an AI opt-out button
• Gemini is about to get better at understanding what's on your phone screen 
• Google is building Gemini Nano AI right into Chrome
• Google makes its AI way faster with Gemini Flash 
• Google’s new LearnLM AI model focuses on education
• Android apps will soon let you use your face to control your cursor
• Android is getting an AI-powered scam call detection feature
• Google targets filmmakers with Veo, its new generative AI video model
• Google’s invisible AI watermark will help identify generative text and video
• Google Photos is getting its own ‘Ask Photos’ assistant this summer
• Blink and you missed it: Google has a new pair of prototype AR glasses
• We have to stop ignoring AI’s hallucination problem
• Google launches new Home APIs and turns Google TVs into smart home hubs

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of tandem OLEDs: 

The Verge’s David Pierce and Chris Welch discuss the new iPad Pros with an OLED screen, Sonos’ controversial new app, and Sonos’ leaked headphones. 

• Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best kind of overkill
• The new Apple iPad Air is great — but it's not the one to get
• The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy
• Sonos Ace headphones will have magnetic ear cushions and 30-hour battery life

The Verge’s Will Poor buys a bunch of broken iPhones on eBay, and pits the Apple Store against independent repair techs.

• Jet City Device Repair
• iFixit’s iPhone 8 charge port repair guide
• Hugh Jeffreys’ iPhone 12 investigation
• Apple’s plan to allow used parts in iPhone repairs

David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about why some people think the iPad should be a Macbook replacement. 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode two of our Five Senses of Gaming miniseries, David Pierce dives into the world of hearing with audio-only video games with Paul Bennun, who has been in this space longer than most. Years ago, Bennun and his team at Somethin’ Else made a series of games called Papa Sangre that were among the most innovative and most popular games of their kind. He explains what makes an audio game work, why the iPhone 4 was such a crucial technological achievement for these games, and more.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss Apple's iPad event, the evolution of the streaming business, updates on the Wisconsin Foxconn site, and much more tech news.

• Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ reveal 
• The 7 biggest announcements from Apple’s iPad event 
• Here's how the latest iPad Pro compares to the new iPad Air (and prior models)  
• Apple adds a 13-inch iPad Air to the mix
• The iPad Air is now heavier than the iPad Pro 
• Apple announces new iPad Pros with OLED displays and thinnest design ever 
• Apple announces its M4 chip
• Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro M4: bigger trackpad and a function row 
• Hands-on with the new iPad Pro: yeah, it's really thin 
• You can upgrade the iPad Pro’s processor now, too 
• The new Apple Pencil Pro is harder to lose and better to draw with
• Apple puts more ‘Pro’ in Final Cut and Logic Pro for the iPad 
• Apple quietly kills the old-school iPad and its headphone jack
• The new iPads are ditching physical SIM cards
• Goodbye to Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio, the best iPad Pro accessory
• People sure are pressed about Apple’s crushing iPad commercial
• A Disney, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle is on the way
• The streaming business will look “very different” in the next couple of years.
• Max nears 100 million subscribers globally.
• Max price hike incoming.
• Disney’s streaming business gets closer to becoming profitable
• ESPN is coming to the Disney Plus app
• Sony is now in play to buy Paramount.
• The Office is getting a Peacock spinoff about local newspapers
• The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy 
• Inside Microsoft’s Xbox turmoil
• Microsoft says it needs games like Hi-Fi Rush the day after killing its studio
• Epic v. Apple judge seems displeased over style restrictions on iOS buttons
• The new Sonos app is missing a lot of features, and people aren’t happy 
• President Joe Biden to announce AI data center at failed Foxconn site in Wisconsin
• TikTok sues the US government over ban
• The Google Pixel 8A is a midrange phone that might go the distance 
• Google’s Pixel Tablet relaunch at $399 makes its magnetic dock optional 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of enterprise certificate hacks: 

03:22 - The Verge’s David Pierce chats with Riley Testut, founder of AltStore and developer of the game emulator app Delta, about how his app finally made it into Apple’s App Store. 

• The free Delta game emulator for iPhones is live on Apple’s App Store
• Third-party iPhone app store AltStore PAL is now live in Europe
• Delta is the game emulator your iPhone has been missing

46:17 - David walks us through his experimentation with the many software and hardware solutions for “AI voice notes.” 

• Cleft Notes is an AI voice notes app that really works

1:02:02 - David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about the Rabbit R1. 

• Rabbit R1 review: nothing to see here

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re kicking off our “Five Senses of Gaming” miniseries today, starting with “touch.” The Verge’s William Poor explores a controller crisis in the Nintendo 64 speedrunning community, and follows one speedrunner’s quest to recreate a mythical controller he lost.

Further reading/viewing:

• How Sticks Are Sabotaging Speedrunners (Stick Crisis History)
• abney317 on Twitch
• The Quest to Beat abney317
• Mariokart64.com
• More on Beck Abney’s controller problems

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss this week's tech and gadget news.

Further reading:

• Rabbit R1 review: an unfinished, unhelpful AI gadget 
• The Rabbit R1’s first software update addresses its dismal battery life - The Verge 
• Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along
• TikTok and Universal Music Group end feud with new agreement 
• Microsoft’s OpenAI investment was triggered by Google fears, emails reveal
• Peloton announces new round of layoffs as CEO quits
• Elon Musk goes ‘absolutely hard core’ in another round of Tesla layoffs 
• Tesla layoffs hit Supercharger team just as it’s poised to take over EV charging
• LinkedIn is the latest company to get in on gaming 
• Pixel 8A leak reveals $499 starting price
• Beats announces Solo 4 headphones and $79.99 Solo Buds
• Beats Solo 4 review: playing both sides 
• Walmart is about to launch a 4K Chromecast that’s also a smart speaker
• SwitchBot S10 review: with plumbing hookups, this robovac and mop is actually hands-free
• iOS 17.5 beta lets you keep Find My on during iPhone repairs
• Razer made a million dollars selling a mask with RGB, and the FTC is not pleased
• Instagram’s updated algorithm prioritizes original content instead of rip-offs 
• Meta is “exploring” algorithm changes on Threads.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of dedicated AI hardware: 

The Verge’s David Pierce and Allison Johnson debate whether the emergence of standalone AI gadgets like the Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1 are better off as apps or should exist as its own hardware. 

• Humane AI Pin review: not even close 
• The Humane AI Pin worked better than I expected — until it didn’t 
• A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget
• Can Rabbit’s R1 outsmart the smartphone assistants? Let’s find out!
• The future of AI gadgets is just phones
• The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses actually make the future look cool  

The Verge’s Alex Heath joins the show to discuss Meta’s big move into AI with its multimodal AI smart glasses and a new AI model called Llama 3. 

• Q&A: Mark Zuckerberg on winning the AI race 
• Meta wants to be the Microsoft of headsets
• Zuckerberg says it will take Meta years to make money from generative AI

Nilay Patel answers a question from The Vergecast Hotline about Microsoft and antitrust.

• Microsoft splits Teams from Office as antitrust pressure ramps up
• Microsoft and OpenAI deal may face anti-trust investigations in the EU. 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss President Biden signing the TikTok ban bill, Apple's May 7th iPad event, Tesla's flop era, and more.

Further reading:

• Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden’s desk
• Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it
• Rabbit R1 hands-on: early tests with the $199 AI gadget 
• Apple announces May 7th event for new iPads
• What to expect at Apple’s May ‘Let Loose’ event
• The Mercedes G-Wagen, the ultimate off-road status symbol, goes electric 
• The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have multimodal AI now 
• Kuo: Apple cuts Vision Pro shipments due to low demand
• Tesla’s in its flop era
• Tesla lays off ‘more than 10 percent’ of its workforce, loses top executives
• Tesla recalls all 3,878 Cybertrucks over faulty accelerator pedal 
• Tesla reveals a new Model 3 Performance with more horsepower and faster acceleration
• A cheaper Tesla is back on the menu
• Sonos announces redesigned app that puts everything on your homescreen
• Qualcomm announces Snapdragon X Plus and Elite processors 
• Apple might be the streaming home of soccer’s next big tournament 

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the flagship podcast of forced app divestiture: 

03:07 - The Verge’s David Pierce and Lauren Fiener discuss the latest tech policy bills floating through Congress, including a privacy bill, a generative AI bill, and the TikTok divest-or-ban bill.

• TikTok ‘ban’ passes in the House again
• TikTok divest-or-ban legislation could suddenly be fast-tracked in the Senate
• Lawmakers unveil new bipartisan digital privacy bill after years of impasse 
• A real privacy law? House lawmakers are optimistic this time 
• New bill would create public datasets to train AI and incentivize innovation.

34:17 - David talks with Nikola Todorovic and Tye Sheridan about their company Wonder Dynamics, which is creating AI-powered production tools for filmmakers. 

1:09:16 - David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about messaging apps.

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss third-party iPhone app stores, game emulators, Google Android and hardware team restructuring, the latest TikTok news, and more.

Further reading:

• Third-party iPhone app store AltStore PAL is now live in Europe
• The free Delta game emulator for iPhones is live on Apple’s App Store
• A new NES emulator was briefly available on the Apple App Store
• The first Apple-approved emulator for the iPhone has arrived... and been pulled
• Apple opens the App Store to retro game emulators
• Google is combining its Android and hardware teams — and it’s all about AI
• Meta’s battle with ChatGPT begins now
• AI isn't useless. But is it worth it?
• Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child
• Big Papa Joe, world's biggest TouchWiz Fan - The Vergecast (clip)
• Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child  
• Sony might have perfected Mini LED TVs with its new 2024 lineup
• Broadcast TV still exists, and now it’s sort of getting a built-in DVR
• TikTok Notes starts rolling out as a new rival to Instagram
• TikTok gives users more in-app ways to buy event tickets.
• TikTok divest-or-ban legislation could suddenly be fast-tracked in the Senate
• Report: ByteDance still has access to US users’ TikTok data despite Project Texas
• The president could delay a TikTok ban an extra six months under a reported House proposal.
• TikTok to restrict users who repeatedly post problematic topics from ‘For You’ feed
• Twitch’s new TikTok-style Discovery feed is rolling out to everyone soon
• Spotify is developing a remix feature to rival sped-up TikTok tunes
• Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to ‘inject a sense of crisis’
• Boston Dynamics’ new electric Atlas robot is swiveling nightmare fuel