The Vergecast

The Musk v. OpenAI trial continues, which means so do the allegations and leaks surrounding some of the most influential people in tech. Nilay and David recount the most interesting and entertaining moments from the courtroom this week, before digging into what we've learned about when Sam Altman was fired. After that, the hosts discuss OpenAI's apparent plans to build a phone, which seem utterly necessary and utterly doomed, along with the new Fitbit Air and a truly strange new home robot. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for the Hype Desk, Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the Chinese company that wants to make everything, and the next big rebrand for xAI.

Further reading:

• ⁠Internal Tech Emails on X: "Sam Altman texts Mira Murat⁠

• ⁠We are going through the removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI in detail. ⁠

• ⁠Toner is relating how Sam Altman’s firing happened. ⁠

• ⁠Toner says she found out about ChatGPT by seeing screenshots on Twitter. ⁠

• ⁠Zilis sent Altman a text message of support after his 2023 ouster. ⁠

• ⁠Google’s taking a big swing at AI health with the Fitbit Air⁠

• ⁠OpenAI is reportedly launching a phone for ChatGPT ⁠

• ⁠The creator of Roomba is back with a furry robot companion ⁠

• ⁠Inside Dreame’s wild launch event — packed with products no one can buy⁠

• ⁠Dreame — the vacuum company — just ‘launched’ its own phones | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Dreame’s rocket-powered car can do 0–60 in 0.9 seconds because you can just say things now⁠

• ⁠A foldable iPhone dummy — on video. ⁠

• ⁠Apple agrees to pay iPhone owners $250 million for not delivering AI Siri ⁠

• ⁠DOJ assault on the NFL could end the Packers as we know them.⁠

• ⁠Apple could let you pick a favorite AI model in iOS 27 ⁠

• ⁠xAI is becoming SpaceXAI.⁠

• ⁠Microsoft gives up on Xbox Copilot AI ⁠

• ⁠Microsoft’s new Xbox shake-up is all about platform changes ⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:00 Trial Discovery Era

00:06:00 Early OpenAI Origins

00:11:00 Elon Power Struggle

00:17:00 Altman Firing Texts

00:27:00 Why The Board Panicked

00:36:00 ChatGPT Phone Rumor

00:39:00 OpenAI Phone vs App Store

00:41:00 Why Apps Still Matter

00:44:00 Apple Siri Power Play

00:49:00 Apple Intelligence Lawsuit

00:53:00 Google Fitbit Air

00:57:00 Google Health Rebrand Backlash

01:01:00 Familiar Robot Pet Debate

01:10:00 Nintendo Star Fox Returns

01:12:00 Nintendo Weirdness Wins

01:15:00 Furry Overlap Discourse

01:16:00 Zach Gardening Surprise

01:21:00 Brendan Carr Broadband Fight

01:23:00 NFL Antitrust And Packers

01:29:00 Dreame Vaporware Parade

01:32:00 Rocket Car Reality Check

01:34:00 Elon Corporate Matryoshka

01:36:00 Xbox Ditches Copilot

01:37:00 Wrap Up And Schedule

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Car companies are beginning to use AI tools to radically speed up their development process, which could change the cars we drive forever — and have some big effects on the people who make them now. Verge contributor Tim Stevens explains. Then, The Verge’s Hayden Field catches us up on Codex vs. Claude Code, Anthropic vs. the US government, the vibes at OpenAI, and more, before helping answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠!) about whether all the recent tech layoffs are really about AI.

Further reading:

• ⁠The AI-designed car is taking shape | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia — but not Anthropic⁠

• ⁠Google employees ask Sundar Pichai to say no to classified military AI use | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Anthropic’s new cybersecurity model could get it back in the government’s good graces | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Microsoft and OpenAI’s famed AGI agreement is dead | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Here’s how the new Microsoft and OpenAI deal breaks down | The Verge⁠

• ⁠ChatGPT downloads are slowing — and may cause problems for OpenAI’s IPO | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Claude can now plug directly into Photoshop, Blender, and Ableton | The Verge⁠

• ⁠OpenAI’s new security model is for ‘critical cyber defenders’ only | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Anthropic releases a new Opus model amid Mythos Preview buzz | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Jack Dorsey’s Block cuts nearly half of its staff in AI gamble | The Verge⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:00 Today Show Preview

00:04:00 Car Design Primer

00:08:00 AI Speeds Up Design

00:13:00 Clay Models and Craft

00:15:00 Jobs Pipeline Risk

00:18:00 Software Defined Cars

00:20:00 Regulation and Safety

00:27:00 Slate Truck Update

00:34:00 Claude Code vs Codex

00:42:00 OpenAI Vibes Check

00:44:00 PR vs AI Doomerism

00:48:00 Pentagon Deals Exclude Anthropic

00:53:00 Mythos Reality Check

00:56:00 RIP AGI Moment

01:04:00 Hotline AI Layoffs ROI

01:13:00 Wrap Up and Sign Off

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Elon Musk spent a lot of his week trying to explain how OpenAI wronged him — but mostly just seemed to annoy everyone else in the courtroom. Nilay and David discuss Musk's testimony in the OpenAI trial, and what it might mean for the trial going forward. After that, the Hype Desk gang recommends a couple of new things to watch, before the hosts chat about the week's new gadgets, including the Steam Controller and the dual-screen Zephyrus Duo laptop. Finally, in the lightning round, Brendan Carr picks a fight over Jimmy Kimmel again, Netflix buys into the clip economy, and Taylor Swift fights the AI.

Further reading:

• Elon Musk confirms xAI used OpenAI’s models to train Grok

• All the evidence unveiled so far in Musk v. Altman 

• Elon Musk appeared more petty than prepared 

• Elon Musk tells the jury that all he wants to do is save humanity 

• Elon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon Musk 

• Jury selection in Musk v. Altman: ‘People don’t like him’ 

• Microsoft and OpenAI’s famed AGI agreement is dead 

• Now that OpenAI’s Microsoft exclusivity is over, it has a new deal with Amazon and AWS.

• ChatGPT downloads are slowing — and may cause problems for OpenAI’s IPO

• Meta lost 20 million users last quarter

• The more young people use AI, the more they hate it

• Google Search queries hit an ‘all time high’ last quarter

• Valve’s new Steam Controller isn’t perfect, but I’m buying one anyway 

• Valve launches the Steam Controller without the Steam Machine 

• Why the Steam Controller is (and isn’t) a big deal 

• Samsung’s first smart glasses have leaked 

• Is this Samsung’s upcoming wide foldable? 

• The long rumored foldable iPad may never see the light of day. 

• The new Razr Ultra is still the best-looking phone out there 

• Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo (2026) review: 2 screens 2 furious

• Trump demands ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel

• The FCC is going after the broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC stations 

• Former FCC staffers agree: Brendan Carr needs to be stopped 

• The FCC is saving Amazon’s Eero and Leo routers from its ban, too. 

• Taylor Swift deepfakes are pushing scams on TikTok 

• Here’s what Netflix’s new vertical video feed is like

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:00 Elon vs OpenAI Overview

00:07:00 Jury Selection Drama

00:12:00 Elon's Testimony Begins

00:23:00 Trial Implications

00:26:00 Microsoft and OpenAI Split

00:30:00 The AWS Deal

00:32:00 Consumer AI Backlash

00:41:00 AI Powered Ad Targeting

00:44:00 Enterprise AI Success Story

00:45:00 Widow's Bay Recommendation

00:46:00 Apple TV Quality Content

00:48:00 Coyote vs Acme

00:55:00 Steam Controller Review

00:57:00 Universal Remote Theory

01:01:00 Smart Glasses Problem

01:05:00 Wide Foldable Phones

01:09:00 Motorola Razr Ultra

01:12:00 ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo

01:17:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:18:00 Jimmy Kimmel Controversy

01:25:00 FCC Open Meeting Response

01:26:00 News Distortion Rule Lawsuit

01:29:00 Router Ban Update

01:33:00 Taylor Swift Trademark Strategy

01:37:00 YouTube Likeness Protection

01:41:00 Netflix Clips Feature

01:44:00 The Clip Economy Shift

01:46:00 Streaming Services vs TikTok

01:49:00 Show Wrap Up

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Elon Musk's case against OpenAI is heading to trial. Musk is almost certainly going to lose, but he might still get everything he wants from the fight. The Verge's Liz Lopatto explains how this spat made it this far, and where it's going next. After that, The Verge's Sean Hollister tells us about the latest products from Framework, including the company's coolest laptop yet — and a keyboard for couch potatoes. Finally, Sean helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about the Surface Go and other small PCs, which might be due for a comeback.

Further reading:

• Musk vs. Altman is here, and it’s going to get messy 

• Mark Zuckerberg lies about content moderation to Joe Rogan’s face 

• A look at the evidence of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Open AI 

• Framework announces Laptop 13 Pro, ‘the MacBook Pro for Linux users’ 

• Framework is building a better couch keyboard because everyone hates the Logitech one 

• Framework’s first OCuLink eGPUs hack its laptop into a desktop PC 

• Microsoft Surface Go review: a little goes a long way

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Rabbit R1 Returns

00:05:00 Musk vs OpenAI

00:07:00 What the Lawsuit Claims

00:11:00 Musk Motives and Remedies

00:16:00 Discovery Dirt and Strays

00:22:00 Altman Reputation Stakes

00:28:00 Risks for Musk and IPO

00:37:00 Framework Laptop Pro

00:41:00 Battery Life and Specs

00:43:00 Display Specs Upgrade

00:44:00 Battery And Memory Gains

00:45:00 Modular Upgrades Promise

00:50:00 Transparency And Community

00:53:00 Who This Laptop Is For

00:54:00 Linux First Developer Pitch

00:56:00 Pricing And Value

01:01:00 Couch Keyboard Upgrade

01:13:00 Vergecast Hotline Tiny Laptops

01:16:00 Arm Chip Revolution Explained

01:22:00 Wrap Up

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Now that we've had a few days to digest the Apple CEO succession news, Nilay and David get some help from Daring Fireball's John Gruber to discuss Tim Cook's legacy, the potential for change under John Ternus, and whether the Touch Bar actually could have been great. Then, Nilay and David react to some breaking news: Microsoft is going back to the Xbox. And everything is an Xbox now. Finally, in the lightning round, we have a round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, a very 2026 new microphone, a BMW we can't figure out, and Meta's new AI training tool: its employees.

We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters and our ad-free podcast feed.

We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

Further reading:

• Behold the cursed 2027 BMW 7 Series interior (via Car and Driver)
  

• Tim Cook’s departure is the start of a new era at Apple 

• Read Tim Cook’s letter to the Apple world as he departs as CEO 

• Wearable health tech might be Tim Cook’s greatest legacy  

• Who is Apple’s new CEO John Ternus? 

• Tim Cook: “I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this new role for a long time.”
  

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price cut but loses new Call of Duty games 

• Microsoft says the ‘idea’ of an Xbox mobile store ‘is not dead’ 

• Call of Duty never made much sense for Xbox Game Pass 

• We found Microsoft’s amicus brief about the Xbox mobile game store.
  

• Variety: Trump’s FCC Wants Input on Whether ‘Transgender and Gender Nonbinary’ TV Programming Is ‘Appropriate’ for Children
  

• Anthropic’s most dangerous AI model just fell into the wrong hands
  

• Insta360 is putting screens on its next wireless mics to show logos or images
  

• Now Meta will track what employees do on their computers to train its AI agents
  

--EPISODE RUNDOWN--

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:01:00 Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO

00:50:00 Xbox rebrand

01:06:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:08:00 FCC targets "transgender and gender nonbinary" kids' TV

01:13:00 Mythos

01:21:00 BMW 7-Series' confusing interior

01:27:00 Insta360 mic with screen

01:30:00 Meta tracks employees

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We get a lot of questions about how we make The Vergecast. And why we make The Vergecast. And how we make money, and journalism, and everything. So every once in a while, we try to answer those questions! In this episode, David and Nilay are joined by The Verge's publisher, Helen Havlak, to talk about video podcasts, ads, subscriptions, Nilay's jackets, and much more.

Curious about those video podcasts we discussed? Check us out on YouTube.

Jealous of those Verge subscriptions we discussed? Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters and our ad-free podcast feed.

Have more questions for us? We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

--EPISODE RUNDOWN--

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 David's late night stroll

00:02:00 Today's Vergecast is about The Vergecast

00:03:00 New verge.com website just dropped

00:09:00 Following feature insights

00:13:00 Open Social Web plans

00:25:00 Verge audience demographics

00:31:00 Monetization

00:48:00 Audio vs. video podcasts

00:54:00 Supporting The Verge

01:00:00 Old Verge video style

01:07:00 Verge alumni

01:12:00 Why is it called Brendan Carr is a Dummy?

01:14:00 Nilay's jackets

01:21:00 How has gadget blogging changed?

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For the first time in 15 years, Apple is getting a new CEO. Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus is taking the biggest job at one of the biggest companies in the world. News this big can only mean one thing: emergency Vergecast! Nilay and David broke down the news, their immediate reactions, and what they think might be in store for Apple going forward.

To watch our livestreams as they stream live, check us out on YouTube.
Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters and our ad-free podcast feed.
We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The AI vibes continue to find all-time lows. David and Nilay open the show by talking through the absurd Allbirds pivot to AI, the attacks on Sam Altman, and the increasing divide between what AI companies say is inevitable and what people actually want. Then, the Hype Desk crew talks Coachella and RAMageddon, before David and Nilay catch up on the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly suit and the increasing price of everything. In the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, satellite internet, brain-computer interfaces, and the Trump Phone.

Further reading:

• Allbirds announced a switch from shoes to AI and its stock jumped 600 percent 

• The Allbirds pivot to… meme stock? 

• The attacks on Sam Altman are a warning for the AI world 

• Sam Altman reportedly targeted in second attack 

• Altman attack suspect proposed “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs.” 

• Stanford’s AI study

• NYT: Half of Gen Z Uses AI, but Their Feelings Are Souring, Study Shows

• Reese Witherspoon on Threads on AI

• Ticketmaster is an illegal monopoly, jury finds 

• A jury is about to decide the fate of Ticketmaster 

• Microsoft counters the MacBook Neo with freebies for students

• YouTube Premium is getting pricier 

• RAMageddon has come for Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Laptop 

• Meta blames RAM shortage for $100 Quest 3 price hike

• FCC’s Brendan Carr again blasts deals between NFL and streaming services

• The FCC just saved Netgear from its router ban for no obvious reason 

• Netgear and the FCC have not responded to our emails. 

• Did Neuralink make the wrong bet?

• Apple and Amazon are teaming up to challenge Starlink’s smartphone ambitions 

• Point, Musk. 

• Amazon’s Starlink competitor now has an airplane antenna. 

• Amazon’s Starlink competitor Leo gets a new date 

• The new Trump Phone design is here 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

--EPISODE RUNDOWN--

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Allbirds Goes AI

00:06:00 From Shoes to Tech Hype

00:09:00 Altman Attacks and Backlash

00:13:00 Why AI Feels Threatening

00:18:00 Gen Z Polls and Trust Gap

00:29:00 Reese Witherspoon AI Pushback

00:35:00 Hype Desk Returns

00:36:00 RAM Apocalypse and Wikifeet

00:39:00 Coachella Livestream Era

00:43:00 Ticketmaster Monopoly Verdict

00:47:00 MacBook Neo Spurs Microsoft

00:49:00 OpenAI Clouds and Copilot Backlash

00:51:00 Windows vs Mac Value Shift

00:54:00 The Pricing Apocalypse Hits

00:55:00 Why YouTube Premium Costs More

01:02:00 Lightning Round

01:03:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:07:00 NFL Antitrust Exemption Fight

01:15:00 Amazon Buys Globalstar

01:22:00 FCC Router Ban Chaos

01:27:00 Trump Phone Gets Realer

01:31:00 Neuralink Bet

01:32:00 Wrap Up

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During the height of the cryptocurrency craze a few years ago, the actor Ben McKenzie found himself wondering why no one else was seeing what he was seeing. He joins the show to explain his yearslong attempt to understand Bitcoin and the crypto world, all of which is in his new documentary Everyone Is Lying to You For Money. (You can probably guess how he feels.) After that, The Verge's Victoria Song tells us about her testing of continuous glucose monitors, which have gone from medical device to influencer trend in some worrying ways. Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about why all our gadgets seem the same these days.

Vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! A vote for The Vergecast is a vote that Brendan Carr is a dummy, that buttons are good, and that party speakers rule the world. Voting is open until April 16.  https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology

Further reading:

• Everyone is Lying to You for Money

• 
  Low interest rates and loneliness: the origins of the pandemic crypto boom
  

• 
  Continuous glucose monitoring made me continuously crazy

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Sprinkler Duty Intro

00:03:00 Ben McKenzie Crypto Journey

00:04:00 Is Crypto Really Money

00:09:00 El Salvador Reality Check

00:11:00 Could Crypto Ever Work

00:14:00 Crypto Culture

00:19:00 Casino Capitalism And Crime

00:23:00 Why Bitcoin Keeps Rising

00:30:00 CGMs Explained

00:32:00 FDA OTC And Wellness Boom

00:33:00 Government Push For Wearables

00:39:00 Longevity Wearables Boom

00:41:00 Why Try CGMs

00:44:00 Scary Readings Doctor Visit

00:47:00 Living in the Data

00:48:00 Apps Scores Calibration

00:51:00 Disordered Eating Spiral

00:54:00 No Consensus for Non Diabetics

00:57:00 Medication Tradeoffs

01:00:00 Wellness vs Medical Regulation

01:04:00 Using CGMs Thoughtfully

01:10:00 Vergecast hotline

01:11:00 Why Gadgets Got Bland

01:22:00 Final Thoughts

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In a week filled with important news about important people, David and Nilay start the show with the biggest news of all: their silly tech projects. After some updates on iMac repurposing and vibe-coded productivity tools, the hosts turn to the state of OpenAI, and the big story from The New Yorker about whether we should trust CEO Sam Altman with the future of AI. After that, it's time for the lightning round, with the latest Brendan Carr is a Dummy shenanigans, and the New York Times' latest attempt to identify Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. Is it, in fact, Adam Back? And does it even matter?

Vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! A vote for The Vergecast is a vote that Brendan Carr is a dummy, that buttons are good, and that party speakers rule the world. Voting is open until April 16.  ⁠https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology⁠

Further reading:

• ⁠First photos of solar eclipse from Artemis II crew look almost too good to be real ⁠

• ⁠Artemis II astronauts break a record, name a crater ⁠

• ⁠Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? | The New Yorker⁠

• ⁠The vibes are off at OpenAI ⁠

• ⁠Sam Altman is “unconstrained by truth.” ⁠

• ⁠OpenAI’s AGI boss is taking a leave of absence ⁠

• ⁠OpenAI made economic proposals — here’s what DC thinks of them⁠

• ⁠CNN Defends Authenticity Of Iranian “Victory” Statement After Donald Trump Posts Irate Claim It Was A “Fraud”⁠

• From The New York Times: ⁠Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? My Quest to Unmask Bitcoin’s Creator⁠

• ⁠The latest Satoshi Nakamoto unmasking. ⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Cookie banners — those pop-ups that appear on practically every webpage demanding you accept their tracking systems — are one of the most consistent low-grade annoyances of life online. But Kate Klonick, a professor and writer, argues they're actually much worse than that, and the only plausible solution is to get rid of them entirely. After that, The Verge's Allison Johnson tells us about her AI-enhanced Google Maps experience, and why the new Ask Maps feature has the potential to be both incredibly cool and incredibly creepy. Then, she helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠!) about whether E Ink phones might solve all our problems.

Vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! A vote for The Vergecast is a vote that Brendan Carr is a dummy, that buttons are good, and that party speakers rule the world. Voting is open until April 16.  ⁠https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology⁠

Further reading:

• ⁠Ban Cookie Banners: A Case Study in Tech Regulation by Kate Klonick⁠

• ⁠Kate’s website⁠

• ⁠Google Maps is getting AI-powered ‘Ask Maps’ feature and more immersive navigation ⁠

• ⁠I let Gemini in Google Maps plan my day and it went surprisingly well ⁠

• ⁠TCL’s new Nxtpaper phones have a dedicated button for maximum monochrome ⁠

• ⁠Boox Palma 2 Pro review: one step forward, one step back ⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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We love a ranking here on The Vergecast, and it’s time for the hardest one yet: David and Nilay compare notes on the 50 best products Apple has ever made, and see how their answers stack up to the many, many voters on The Verge this week. Before that, though, it’s time for a bit of AI news — surprise, it’s enterprise software! — and the comeback of the Hype Desk. After all that, and after the rankings, we do a round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, talk about the fediverse, and repurpose our old iMacs.

Vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! A vote for The Vergecast is a vote that Brendan Carr is a dummy, that buttons are good, and that party speakers rule the world. Voting is open until April 16.  ⁠https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology⁠

Further reading:

• ⁠OpenAI’s big numbers: $122 billion funding round, 900 million weekly ChatGPT users. ⁠

• ⁠Why OpenAI killed Sora ⁠

• ⁠I think Google is taking a couple digs at OpenAI about Sora. ⁠

• ⁠Apple’s third-party Siri Extensions could lead to an AI App Store. ⁠

• ⁠Microsoft’s new ‘superintelligence’ game plan is all about business⁠

• ⁠OpenAI acquires TBPN | OpenAI⁠

• ⁠Apple turns 50: celebrating five decades of the tech giant ⁠

• ⁠Everything is iPhone now ⁠

• ⁠Steve Jobs and the greatest run of products in tech history ⁠

• ⁠How the invention of QuickTime changed computers forever ⁠

• ⁠The triumphs and failures of Apple without Steve Jobs ⁠

• ⁠The Apple product that really changed the industry: the MacBook Air ⁠

• ⁠Apple at 50: a visual history ⁠

• ⁠The origin story of Apple’s long-running relationship with Foxconn ⁠

• ⁠Apple’s long, bitter App Store antitrust war ⁠

• ⁠Snazzy Labs' iMac - Studio Display Mod Guide⁠

• ⁠Flipboard Surf launches social websites combining Bluesky, Mastodon, RSS, and more⁠

• ⁠These Raspberry Pi price hikes are no joke ⁠

• ⁠Today is the final day to save up to $150 on a PS5 before the price goes up ⁠

• ⁠Sony temporarily suspends memory card sales due to shortages ⁠

• ⁠The White House has an app now, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on it ⁠

• ⁠What’s inside the White House app? ⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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It's Apple 50 week, so we've got an Apple-filled podcast. First, longtime Apple journalist Jason Snell joins the show to talk about the state of the company as a hardware maker, a software maker, a force for good in the world, and more. Then, blogger and entrepreneur Anil Dash explains why he's worried about the rise of video podcasts, and the role Apple could play to make it better. Finally, The Verge's Allison Johnson helps answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about swapping your phone for a watch. And a tablet. And some other things.

Further reading:

• Rank the 50 best Apple Products⁠

• ⁠Apple in 2025: The Six Colors report card⁠

• ⁠Apple turns 50: celebrating five decades of the tech giant⁠

• ⁠Apple II Forever!⁠

• “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement.

• Why Apple’s move to video could endanger podcasting's greatest power

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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We start with some important business: Nilay has a flight to catch, and is very worried he won't catch it. Also, it's Apple's 50th anniversary next week, and we're going to spend the week debating which Apple products are the best Apple products. (Head to the ad-free Vergecast feed to hear our selection show!) But mostly, this episode is about social media. In two key trials this week, juries found social platforms liable not for the content they display but for the actual structure and features of the platform. That could change the way social media companies act, and how users fight back. After that, it's time for the silliness of the router ban, the latest in the chatbot wars, and an update on what's happening with Grammarly's Expert Voices feature.

Further reading:

• Rank your top 50 Apple products

• Verge subscribers, here’s how to set up ad-free podcasts 

• The TSA is broken — is privatization next? 

• What is ICE actually doing at American airports? 

• Meta misled users about its products’ safety, jury decides 

• Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case 

• Social media on trial: tech giants face lawsuits over addiction, safety, and mental health

• What it was like to watch grieving parents stare down Mark Zuckerberg in court 

• A bombshell child safety leak changed Meta — for the worse 

• Internal chats show how social media companies discussed teen engagement 

• 2026 is the year of social media’s legal reckoning 

• The US government just banned consumer routers made outside the US 

• The United States router ban, explained

• FCC green-lights Nexstar's $6.2B merger with rival TV station owner Tegna

• Cox Communications not liable for pirated music, Supreme Court rules 

• Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me 

• North Carolina man pleads guilty to AI music streaming fraud. 

• Apple is testing a standalone app for its overhauled Siri 

• OpenAI is planning a desktop ‘superapp’ 

• This is Microsoft’s plan to fix Windows 11 

• OpenAI just gave up on Sora and its billion-dollar Disney deal

• The age of piracy ended with LimeWire | Version History

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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David is bored with his iPhone. Over the last few months, he has been testing every other phone he could get his hands on, from the Pixel to the Razr to the Unihertz Titan. And at the end of it all... David bought another iPhone. The Verge's Allison Johnson joins the show to recount some of her own phone-testing experiences, to litigate the quality of foldable and flippable phones, to debate Android vs. iOS, and ultimately to help David decide whether he actually bought the right phone. After all that, David answers a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether AI can help us figure out how to use our devices better. Or maybe just use them for us. Devices are too complicated.

Further reading:

• Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) review: looking sharp

• Google Pixel 10 review: perfectly fine

• Apple iPhone 17 review: the one to get

• The iPhone Air makes a strong statement

• Why flip phones should be the future of smartphones

• Who needs a laptop when you have a folding phone?

• Gemini’s task automation is here and it’s wild

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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David and Nilay start the show by exploring the increasing disconnect between the people who make AI products, and the people who keep saying they don't want them. (Or, at least, don't want to pay for them.) The AI industry is starting to retrench to a business-first approach, because there's simply no killer app for it yet. Speaking of no killer apps! Allison Johnson then joins the show to talk about the shockingly short life of the Samsung TriFold, and her bizarre journey to try and review the now-dead foldable. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the fate of the metaverse, and some important internet debunking.

Further reading:

• ⁠OpenAI cuts back on “side quests.” ⁠

• ⁠OpenAI’s adult mode will reportedly be smutty, not pornographic ⁠

• NYMag: ⁠Should You Be Able to Have Sex With ChatGPT?⁠

• ⁠I think VCs are starting to panic about the lack of *broad* consumer | TikTok⁠

• ⁠For the second time this week we have VCs vocalizing their frustration | TikTok⁠

• ⁠Poll: Majority of voters say risks of AI outweigh the benefits⁠

• ⁠How Americans View AI and Its Impact on Human Abilities, Society | Pew Research Center⁠

• ⁠Samsung discontinues its Galaxy Z TriFold after just three months ⁠

• ⁠Oppo’s nearly creaseless foldable isn’t launching in Europe after all ⁠

• From last year: ⁠Just look at Huawei’s trifold phone⁠

• ⁠This is not a fly uploaded to a computer⁠

• ⁠ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer⁠

• ⁠Meta is actually keeping its VR metaverse running, for now⁠

• ⁠Nvidia just announced DLSS 5 and Digital Foundry already has a video. ⁠

• ⁠Jensen Huang, on the critical reaction to DLSS 5: “Well, first of all, they’re completely wrong.”⁠

• ⁠DLSS 5 looks like a real-time generative AI filter for video games ⁠

• ⁠Nvidia has lost the plot with gamers ⁠

We're hiring a new podcast producer. Come work with us!

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A new era of software development is upon us. Career coders are no longer writing code, but rather managing teams of agents that do the work on their behalf. You can Claude Code your way through seemingly just about any problem. So what does that mean for the software we use, and the people who make it? Paul Ford, a writer and technologist who both writes about code and manages a team of coders, joins the show to explain his somewhat conflicted excitement about the new crop of AI tools, and his worries about what they’ll do to the world. After that, The Verge’s Dominic Preston helps answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠!) about the differences between the US phone market and the global phone market, and whether US buyers are missing anything important.

Further reading:

• ⁠The A.I. Disruption Has Arrived, and It Sure Is Fun⁠

• ⁠Claude has been having a moment — can it keep it up?⁠

• ⁠How the creator of Claude Code sees the future of AI⁠

• ⁠Ftrain⁠

• From Bloomberg: ⁠What Is Code?⁠

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

• ⁠Oppo’s new foldable isn’t quite creaseless, but it’s pretty damn close⁠

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

• ⁠Vivo and Oppo’s telephoto extender comes to iPhone⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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David and Nilay bought new computers this week, as the MacBook Neo turned out to be a surprisingly great cheap Apple laptop. The hosts discuss their experiences with the machines, from the processor to the keyboard to the mess that is MacOS Tahoe. After that, they talk about the future of Xbox, Project Helix, and what it might mean for every gaming PC to become an Xbox... and for the Xbox to become a gaming PC. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the latest on Paramount and Warner Bros, Grammarly's sloppelgangers, and more.

Further reading:

• MacBook Neo review: the Mac for the masses 

•  Asus chief says Macbook Neo's affordable pricing came as a shock to the entire PC market — compares $599 notebook to a tablet and content-consumption device

• The MacBook Neo is surprisingly easy to disassemble and repair.

• From 2007: Ballmer Laughs at iPhone

• Apple Studio Display XDR review: a great, but expensive, pro option

• The iPhone 17E is good, but you probably shouldn’t buy it 

• iPad Air review 2026: the M4 and other chip bumps make a difference 

• Apple is going high-end with new ‘Ultra’ products next 

• iPhone Fold rumor: iPad-like multitasking, but no iPad apps and no Face ID 

• Microsoft’s next Xbox, Project Helix, won’t reach alpha until 2027 

• Microsoft’s ‘Xbox mode’ is coming to every Windows 11 PC 

• Microsoft says you should build next-gen Xbox games by building them for PC. 

• FCC chair blasts Amazon after it criticizes SpaceX megaconstellation

• Brendan Carr on X

• FCC chief tells CNBC WBD-Paramount merger deal is ‘cleaner’ than Netflix’s, will be approved ‘quickly’

• Grammarly is using our identities without permission 

• Grammarly is turning off the expert review AI feature that stole our identities 

• Grammarly will keep using authors’ identities without permission unless they opt out 

• The Live Nation settlement has industry insiders baffled

• Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus review: This again 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Last week, it appeared the US Department of Justice was off to a strong start in its antitrust case against Live Nation Ticketmaster. Then, this week, the two sides surprised everyone by settling. The Verge's Lauren Feiner joins the show to explain the stakes of the case, the facts of the settlement, and why things aren’t entirely over just yet. Then, The Verge’s Hayden Field catches us up on what’s happening between Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Department of Defense. OpenAI got the contract, but it looks like Anthropic might be the real winner here. If the company’s business can survive, that is. Finally, David answers a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether you should get a foldable phone. And why foldable phones even exist.

Further reading:

• Live Nation settles government antitrust suit — that probably doesn’t include a breakup

• How Live Nation allegedly terrorized the concert industry

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

• Inside Anthropic’s existential negotiations with the Pentagon 

• We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots 

• How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance 

• Trump orders federal agencies to drop Anthropic’s AI 

• Iran Strikes: Anthropic Claude AI Helped US Attack. But How Exactly? - Bloomberg

• My favorite folding phone is the one that doesn’t exist yet 

• Google Pixel Fold review: closing the gap

• Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) review: looking sharp

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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In 1997, David Hampton and Caleb Chung took one look at a Tamagotchi and decided they could bring the virtual pet craze into the real world. Their robotic companion, Furby, packed a bunch of advanced technology into a small, adorable, often annoying package. But for all the irritation it caused (Furby famously had no on-off switch) there was a surprising amount of thoughtful philosophy in its design. The Verge’s Vee Song, Sean Hollister and host David Pierce are joined by Coco the Furby to discuss the lore behind the hottest toy of 1998.

⁠Geocities chat with Furby co-inventor David Hampton⁠

If you like the show, ⁠⁠follow the Version History audio podcast feed⁠⁠ to get every new episode.
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We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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

Further reading:

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

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

• ⁠Nothing’s Headphone A are something worth considering⁠⁠

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

• ⁠Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year⁠

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

• ⁠Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone mostly earns the name⁠

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

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

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

• ⁠Tecno is doing a modular phone (again)⁠

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

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

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

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

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

• ⁠Fortnite is returning to Google Play globally⁠

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

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

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

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

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

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Apple released a bunch of new iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Studio Displays this week. The Verge’s Nilay Patel and David Pierce tried them all this morning, and are back to share their thoughts live.

Further reading:

• All the news about Apple’s MacBook Neo, iPhone 17E, and more

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Most mainstream phone options are kind of the same, year in and year out — but that doesn’t mean there’s no innovation to be found. The Verge’s Allison Johnson is at Mobile World Congress, and joins the show to report on all the modular phones, robot phones, small phones, big phones, and (alas) 6G phones set to hit the market this year. After that, The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed explains the phenomenon of the gadget strap, and makes the case that they’re an increasingly useful accessory as our phones become even more important to our daily lives. (Yes, even if you have pockets.) Finally, The Verge’s Jay Peters helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether the metaverse, however you want to define it, is ever going to be realized.

Further reading:

• Oh great, here comes 6G 

• Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year 

• Lenovo made a Franken-laptop with modular ports and a second screen 

• Vivo’s next phone will launch with a professional camera rig 

• Tecno’s latest concept phone is lit by neon 

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

• The Motorola Razr Fold is shaping up to be pure flagship

• Xiaomi’s super-slim power bank costs extra in orange. 

• Honor’s thinnest tablet doesn’t come cheap. 

• Peak Design has wearable gadget straps for people who hate bags 

• Apple’s misunderstood crossbody iPhone strap might be the best I’ve seen 

• Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables

• Meta’s VR metaverse is ditching VR

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Samsung just launched its newest phones, the Galaxy S26 lineup, and wow is it full of Vergecast stories. There’s the very cool new Privacy Display, which seems genuinely useful; there’s the AI-powered camera, which seems like a disaster waiting to happen; and there’s the new agentic AI in Android, which Google and Samsung might be positioned to actually pull off. After talking through all the new stuff, Nilay and David discuss the recent executive shakeup at Xbox, and try to figure out why Microsoft just can’t win in games. Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, some truly remarkable charts, and much more.

Further reading:

• ⁠Samsung Unpacked 2026: live updates from the Galaxy S26 ⁠⁠announcement event ⁠

• ⁠Samsung Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus hands-on: More of the same ⁠

• ⁠Samsung AI photos⁠

• ⁠Google Gemini can book an Uber or order food for you with new agentic AI features ⁠⁠Google and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn’t with Siri⁠

• ⁠I’m super impressed with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Display ⁠

• ⁠Samsung announces Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro at Unpacked 2026⁠

• ⁠Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Microsoft ⁠

• ⁠Xbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft ⁠

• ⁠Read Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo about leaving Microsoft ⁠

• ⁠Sarah Bond is leaving Xbox ⁠

• ⁠Read Xbox president Sarah Bond’s memo about leaving Microsoft. ⁠

• ⁠Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up ⁠

• ⁠Read Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of Xbox ⁠

• ⁠New Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma says “hear you” to complaints about a lack of Xbox exclusives.⁠

• ⁠New Xbox CEO: ‘The plan’s the plan until it’s not the plan.’ ⁠

• ⁠Microsoft says today’s Xbox shake-up doesn’t mean game studio layoffs ⁠

• ⁠Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is ⁠

• ⁠Chairman Carr Announces Pledge America Campaign⁠

• ⁠Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’⁠

• ⁠Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas AI Scenarios chart⁠

• ⁠Youtube Chair Drama⁠

• ⁠OpenAI’s Stargate struggles. ⁠

• ⁠OpenAI’s first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Few AI products have found the kind of product-market fit we’ve seen from Claude Code. On the eve of the product’s first anniversary, Anthropic’s Boris Cherny explains why Claude Code is so powerful, all the work left to do, and why he no longer writes any code himself. After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field joins the show to talk about how we should think about giving our data (and our computers) to AI, even when it seems useful. Finally, The Verge’s Allison Johnson helps David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11) about whether you should go buy a phone, like, right now.

Further reading:

• Claude Code is suddenly everywhere inside Microsoft

• Claude has been having a moment — can it keep it up?

• The AI security nightmare is here and it looks suspiciously like lobster 

• OpenClaw’s AI ‘skill’ extensions are a security nightmare 

• Humans are infiltrating the social network for AI bots 

• Anthropic connects Claude to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive 

• MCP extension unites Claude with apps like Slack, Canva, and Figma 

• The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Once again, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and his bad ideas about free speech have rankled a late night host. And once again, Nilay and David talk through what the equal-time rule actually means, why organizations keep caving, and why it's apparently up to people like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel to fight back. After that, the hosts discuss the facial recognition feature Meta hopes to launch for its smart glasses, plus the gadgets we're likely to see Apple launch in the couple of weeks. In the lightning round, we get some bleak news on Tesla's self-driving skills, a robovac security disaster, and the future of Warner Bros.

Further reading:

• Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico

• Stephen Colbert says CBS banned him from airing this James Talarico interview 

• Why Everyone's Talking About Stephen Colbert, CBS, The FCC And James Talarico

• Meta reportedly wants to add face recognition to smart glasses while privacy advocates are distracted

• From the NYT: Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

• Apple’s doing something on March 4th 

• Apple is reportedly planning to launch AI-powered glasses, a pendant, and AirPods 

• Apple starts testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messages on iPhone 

• Apple’s Podcasts app will let you ‘seamlessly’ switch between audio and video shows 

• Looks like we can expect more AI from the Galaxy S26 camera. | The Verge

• Google announces dates for I/O 2026 

• Western Digital says it’s “pretty much soldout” for 2026. 

• Valve’s Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently’ out of stock because of the RAM crisis 

• Switch 2 pricing and next PlayStation release could be impacted by memory shortage 

• Tesla’s robotaxis have crashed 14 times in 9 months. 

• Tesla won’t use the term ‘Autopilot’ in California anymore

• Why are Epstein’s emails full of equals signs?

• 4chan’s creator says ‘Epstein had nothing to do’ with creating infamous far-right board /pol/

• DJI’s first robovac is an autonomous cleaning drone you can’t trust

• The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them

• DJI says yes, it will fix its other Romo robovac security hole within weeks

• Samsung ad confirms rumors of a useful S26 ‘privacy display’ 

• Warner Bros. Discovery gives Paramount one week to present its ‘best and final’ offer 

• WordPress’ new AI assistant will let users edit their sites with prompts 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The Verge's Allison Johnson has recently been doing the unthinkable: she's been leaving her laptop at home. Allison joins the show to explain how she turned her Samsung foldable into a useful computer, and why it feels so good to do so. Then, Sportico's Jacob Feldman joins the show to talk about the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, and the overall state of sports streaming in 2026. (Unfortunately, it's all still very complicated.) Finally, David answers a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether flip phones might have a future in an AI world.

Further reading:

• YouTube TV reveals pricing for its sports, news, and entertainment packages

• From Sportico: 2026 Sports Tech: Amazon vs. Youtube vs. ESPN vs. Netflix vs. Tiktok
  

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: stunning, bendy, and spendy

• Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) review: looking sharp

• Logitech’s Keys-To-Go 2

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Did you see Ring's Super Bowl ad and see happy puppies reunited with their owners? Or did you see the seeds of a complete, always-on surveillance nightmare coming for us all? David and Nilay discuss which is the right answer, why so many people don't want to trust tech companies, and why Ring might not care much about the difference. After that, the hosts discuss the ads coming to ChatGPT, the surprising number of AI executives quitting their jobs and issuing dire warnings on the way out, and the fake ad for OpenAI gadgets. In the lightning round, it's time for an extra long Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the latest Ferrari EV, the future of Siri, and more.

Further reading:

• Jeffrey Epstein’s digital cleanup crew 

• Jeffrey Epstein might not have created /pol/, but he helped carry out its mission

• Amazon Ring’s lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance 

• Wyze is sticking it to Ring

• Sen. Markey calls on Amazon to “discontinue” Ring monitoring features

• Ring’s new Search Party feature is on by default; should you opt out?

• Ring launches upgraded cameras with Retinal Vision 4K recording

• What the Guthrie case reveals about your ‘deleted’ doorbell footage 

• FBI releases recovered footage from Nancy Guthrie’s Nest cam 

• OpenAI’s first hardware slips to 2027

• OpenAI’s supposedly ‘leaked’ Super Bowl ad with ear buds and a shiny orb was a hoax 

• Two more xAI co-founders are among those leaving after the SpaceX merger 

• OpenAI reportedly disbanded its Mission Alignment team

• OpenAI fired exec who opposed ‘adult mode’ 

• Read an Anthropic AI safety lead's exit letter: 'The world is in peril'

• Opinion | I Left My Job at OpenAI. Putting Ads on ChatGPT Was the Last Straw.

•  What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either

• ChatGPT’s cheapest options now show you ads 

• Here are the brands bringing ads to ChatGPT 

• Claude gets more free features to capitalize on ChatGPT ads

• Ex-OpenAI researcher has “deep reservations” about its approach to ads

• Brendan Carr is a Dummy theme submitted by Michiel Vanhoudt on BlueSky

• FTC says it’s ‘not the speech police’ in letter warning Apple News about its alleged promotion of left-leaning outlets

• Ferrari’s first EV will have an interior designed by Jony Ive 

• Here’s what the Ferrari Luce’s buttons, switches, and knobs sound like.

• The early reviews of the Rivian R2 are starting to roll in

• Live Nation’s monopoly trial is reportedly fracturing Trump’s Justice Department 

• YouTube is coming to the Apple Vision Pro

• Apple keeps hitting bumps with its overhauled Siri 

• The iPhone 17e could launch soon with MagSafe and an A19 chip 

• Apple might let you use ChatGPT from CarPlay 

• Paramount ups its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, again

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The Trump Phone is real! Ish! The Verge’s Dom Preston has seen a T1 on a video call, that we can say for sure. Dom joins the show to explain what’s new about the phone, whether it has a chance to be a decent device, and why it’s taken so long for Trump Mobile to ship the thing. After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field explains the excitement around OpenClaw and Moltbook, and whether either one is a big moment for the AI industry. Finally, The Verge’s Andy Hawkins helps us answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11) about whether, and when, Tesla might get out of the car business altogether.

Further reading:

• This is the Trump Phone⁠

• ⁠The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America⁠

• ⁠600,000 Trump Mobile phones sold? There’s no proof.⁠

• ⁠OpenClaw: all the news about the trending AI agent ⁠

• ⁠OpenClaw’s AI ‘skill’ extensions are a security nightmare

• ⁠There’s a social network for AI agents, and it’s getting weird

• ⁠Humans are infiltrating the social network for AI bots

• ⁠Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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A new tranche of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails makes one thing painfully clear: Epstein was a central figure in the lives of a lot of big names in tech, and had influence on a surprising number of companies and executives. David and Nilay talk through what we’ve learned from the new emails so far. Then they turn to Anthropic’s spicy new Super Bowl ads about... ads, which caused a big reaction from OpenAI (which is betting big on ads). They also discuss this week’s antitrust hearing about Netflix’s purchase of Warner Bros., the latest in Brendan Carr is a Dummy, Google Home’s big buttons upgrade, and much more.

Further reading:

• Here's how Epstein broke the internet

• Former Windows 8 boss recruited Epstein to help negotiate his messy Microsoft exit

• Jeffrey Epstein arranged a meeting with Tim Cook for the former head of Windows

• The Epstein files 

• Google co-founder Sergey Brin visited Epstein’s private island and traded emails with Ghislaine Maxwell.

• It turns out Elon Musk didn’t exactly ‘refuse’ the invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. 

• Will Elon Musk’s emails with Jeffrey Epstein derail his very important year? 

• Bill Gates says accusations contained in Epstein files are ‘absolutely absurd'

• Jeffrey Epstein was permanently banned from Xbox Live 

• ‘We’ve basically funded an elite global pedophile ring since 2015.’ 

• Anthropic says ‘Claude will remain ad-free,’ unlike an unnamed rival

• Anthropic’s blog post: Claude is a space to think

• Sam Altman responds to Anthropic’s ‘funny’ Super Bowl ads 

• OpenAI’s CMO on X

• Nvidia CEO denies he’s ‘unhappy’ with OpenAI

• Netflix lands in the middle of a culture war during Senate hearing
  

• Everyone is stealing TV 

• Disney says Josh D’Amaro will replace Bob Iger as CEO 

• FCC aims to ensure “only living and lawful Americans” get Lifeline benefits

• Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says 

• Peloton’s gamble on expensive new hardware has yet to pay off

• Google Home finally adds support for buttons 

• Raspberry Pi is raising prices again as memory shortages continue 

• Valve’s Steam Machine has been delayed, and the RAM crisis will impact pricing 

• Aluminium: Why Google’s Android for PC launch may be messy and controversial

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. 

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AI companies want all the data, everywhere, to make their models bigger and better. That means a lot of questions about piracy and copyright, and at least in one case it means Anthropic systematically destroying countless books just to feed them to the model. The Washington Post's Will Oremus joins the show to explain how that worked, why Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI and others are doing it, and what the law has to say. Then, Puck's Julia Alexander helps David figure out whether Netflix is serious about showing movies in theaters, and what theaters need to do to survive in the entertainment business going forward.

Further reading:

• From The Washington Post: Anthropic ‘destructively’ scanned millions of books to build Claude

• Anthropic wins a major fair use victory for AI — but it’s still in trouble for stealing books

• Meta’s AI copyright win comes with a warning about fair use

• Did AI companies win a fight with authors? Technically

• From Puck: Why Netflix Needs Warner Bros.

• Welcome to the big leagues, Netflix

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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We've been covering what's happening in Minnesota, and the killing of Alex Pretti, all week on The Verge. To begin this episode, Nilay explains why — and why so many others seem to feel the same way right now. After that, the hosts talk about the CEO-studded screening of Melania Trump's documentary last weekend, the disastrous public appearance from Tim Cook, and whether Cook and other CEOs have any other option but to capitulate to the Trump administration. Then it's time for some gadgets: we talk about the super-foldy, super-expensive Samsung Galaxy  Z Trifold, the Clawdbot / Moltbot phenomenon, and whether Google can finally put Chrome OS and Android together the right way. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, Tesla's anti-car pivot, Apple's design hires, and more.

Further reading:

• On the ground in Minneapolis after the killing of Alex Pretti 

• I grew up with Alex Pretti 

• Creators and communities everywhere take a stand against ICE 

• It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun 

• Why won’t anyone stop ICE from masking? 

• Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and AMD CEO Lisa Su are at the White House for a VIP screening of the Melania doc.

• Tim Cook had ‘a good conversation’ with Trump about deescalation 

• Cook in 2020: Speaking up on racism

• From The New York Times: Amazon’s $35 Million ‘Melania’ Promotion Has Critics Questioning Its Motives

• From The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Melania’ Set for a $3 Million Opening Despite Amazon’s $35 Million Marketing Push

• Here’s Tim Cook hanging out with accused rapist Brett Ratner at the Melania screening

• What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed 

• TikTok USA is broken 

• TikTok is still down, here are all the latest updates 

• TikTok is still struggling in the US due to a “cascading systems failure.” 

• TikTok US is mostly back up and running 

• TikTok blames its US problems on a power outage 

• Oracle admits it broke TikTok.

• Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law 

• Is New TikTok banning the word “Epstein” in DMs? Not really. 

• TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover 

• Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media 

• Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters 

• Bluesky is testing ‘live’ features to take on X 

• Best gas masks

• The Samsung Trifold will cost nearly three grand 

• Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action 

• Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests 

• Moltbot, the AI agent that ‘actually does things,’ is tech’s new obsession

• Clawdbot’s bad day 

• I used Claude to vibe-code my wildly overcomplicated smart home

• The FCC’s Late Night Comedy Show

• Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots 

• Tesla says production-ready Optimus robot is coming soon 

• Tesla hits a grim milestone: its second straight year of decline

• Elon Musk invests $2 billion in Elon Musk

• Hang on, there’s a Trump Phone Ultra coming too? 

• Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With is joining Apple’s design team 

• The Stream Deck-packed gaming keyboard is a monster of good ideas

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Like so many others, we’re still reeling from the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. To open the show, we talk with Adi Robertson about how videos of the incident moved around social platforms, how even well-intentioned people got confused by AI imagery, and what we’ve learned about the state of misinformation. Then Adi explains the new TikTok, which is both the same and very different from the old TikTok. The newly US-centric version of the app has had some switching pains so far, and the changes may only be just beginning. After that, it’s time for a hard pivot, as Vulture’s Nick Quah joins the show to talk about Netflix’s entry into podcasts — and whether what Netflix is doing can even be called “podcasts” anymore. Finally, David answers an old Vergecast Hotline question that got him thinking about all the ways we hold our phones to make calls, and which one is the best. 

Further reading:

• It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun

• The day of the second killing

• TikTok USA is broken

• Everything (Including Netflix) Will Become YouTube This Year

• It’s finally time to retire the word ‘podcast’

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Nilay owns a Sony TV. He loves his Sony TV, and he's a little sad that it appears this era of Sony TVs is ending. He and David talk through the news of a new joint venture between Sony and TCL, before digging into OpenAI's new-fangled plan to make money (spoiler alert: it's ads!), and some new news about an AI gadget Apple may or may not be working on. Then it's time for the lightning round: Brendan Carr, Netflix, the Trump Phone, and much more.

Further reading:

• The TikTok deal could finally close this week.

• Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal

• Sony’s TV business is being taken over by TCL 

• What a Sony and TCL partnership means for the future of TVs OpenAI’s 2026 ‘focus’ is ‘practical adoption’ 

• OpenAI releases a cheaper ChatGPT subscription 

• Ads are coming soon to ChatGPT, starting with shopping links 

• Opinion | A.I. Is Real. But OpenAI Might Still Fail.Apple is reportedly working on an AirTag-sized AI wearable 

• Apple is turning Siri into an AI bot that’s more like ChatGPT 

• FCC Targets Colbert and Kimmel in New Crackdown on Late-Night TV - The New York Times

• Bureau Provides Guidance on Political Equal Opportunities Requirement | Federal Communications Commission

• Free TV startup Telly only had 35,000 units in people’s homes last fall

• Microsoft wants to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin 

• OpenAI says its data centers will pay for their own energy and limit water usage

• Netflix will revamp its mobile UI this year 

• 600,000 Trump Mobile phones sold? There’s no proof.

• YouTubers will be able to make Shorts with their own AI likenesses 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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There’s a new biggest name in EVs, and if you live in the US, you pretty much can’t buy one. But before we get to that, we have some stuff to catch up on: The Verge's Hayden Field joins us for a round of “Big Deal Medium Deal Small Deal” with some AI news, from the launch of ChatGPT Health to the recent viral moment for Claude Code. After that, The Verge’s Andy Hawkins joins the show to explain how BYD recently eclipsed Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles, what makes its cars so desirable, and when you, too, might be able to buy a Dolphin Surf. Finally, David tackles a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about giving your kids iPads instead of iPhones, and whether all screen time is created equal.

Further reading:

• Car influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them back

• Tesla’s fourth quarter sales fell a lot more than expected

• From Inside EVs: A Guide To BYD, The Chinese Automaker That Just Surpassed Tesla

• Anthropic wants you to use Claude to ‘Cowork’ in latest AI agent push

• Anthropic shakes up C-suite to expand its internal incubator

• OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to connect their medical records
  

• Google brings buy buttons to Gemini and AI search

• Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it?

• Google is taking over your Gmail inbox with AI

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Nearly two years ago, Apple showed off what an AI-powered Siri might do. That Siri never materialized, but thanks to a deal with Google for its Gemini tech, it might finally have a chance to work. David and Nilay discuss the ins and outs of the deal, and what it might mean for both Apple's and Google's ambitions in AI. (They also talk about the onslaught of new lawsuits from publishers related to Google's adtech antitrust case, including from our parent company Vox Media. Disclosure is our brand.) After that, they talk about Grok's horrific deepfake problem on X, and why everyone involved deserves the blame. Then it's time to pour one out for VR and the metaverse, which is losing steam as Meta loses interest and continues to pivot to AI. RIP Supernatural, a surprise hit of an exercise app! Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the latest Paramount / Warner / Netflix drama, the Trump Phone, and the Digg reboot.

Further reading:

• The Atlantic, Penske, and Vox Media have all sued Google for antitrust violations

• Apple picks Google’s Gemini AI for its big Siri upgrade

• What Apple and Google’s Gemini deal means for both companies

• Google’s Gemini AI will use what it knows about you from Gmail, Search, and YouTube 

• Why Google Gemini looks poised to win the AI race over OpenAI 

• A “conscious decision” from OpenAI. 

• X hasn’t really stopped Grok AI from undressing women in the UK 

• Advocacy groups demand Apple and Google block X from app stores 

• UK pushes up a law criminalizing deepfake nudes in response to Grok

• X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t  

• Meta plans to lay off hundreds of metaverse employees this week 

• Meta confirms Reality Labs layoffs and shifts to invest more in wearables 

• Meta is closing down three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts 

• Meta’s layoffs hit the studio that made Batman: Arkham Shadow, too. 

•  Supernatural Will No Longer Get New Content Or Features

•  FTC won’t appeal court decision permitting Meta to buy Within

• The best thing to do in VR is work out

• FCC chair Brendan Carr is pressed on removing ‘independent’ from its website. 

• Verizon gets FCC permission to end 60-day phone unlocking rule 

• Anthropic wants you to use Claude to ‘Cowork’ in latest AI agent push 

• Paramount sues after Warner Bros. Discovery rejects its latest deal Netflix is reportedly considering an all-cash offer for Warner Bros. 

• The new Digg is launching an open beta. 

• Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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January brings two things in Vergecast-land: CES, and New Years' Resolutions. We start this episode with a dive into the story of this year's biggest tech show, the Lego Smart Brick, which is either a clever way of thinking about creativity or the end of creativity as we know it. Sean Hollister explains how the Smart Brick works, and how Lego can make sure it ends the right way. Then, Platformer's Casey Newton discusses his productivity system, his adventures in Claude Code, and how you too can make yourself a little more productive this year — with or without AI.

Further reading:

• Lego announces Smart Brick, the ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years

• Lego’s Smart Bricks aren’t just an experiment

• I played with the Lego Smart Brick

• From Platformer: The project that turned me into a Claude Code believer

• From Platformer: What I learned about productivity this year

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The theme of CES 2026 is gadgets. It's always gadgets. This year more than most, though, the world's biggest tech show is about how fast the hardware world is moving — and how much work the software, and the AI, have to do to catch up. On stage live at the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, David and Nilay talk through some of the biggest news of the week, from robots to laptops to AI cuddle buddies, to see what's really going to matter in tech this year.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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2026 is just beginning, and it's already time for the biggest gadget event of the year. As the Verge team heads to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, David and Nilay run through as many of the newly announced products as they can. There are robots, art TVs, phones, more robots, smart Legos, smart home gizmos, and still more robots. Some of this stuff will ship, and might even be a big hit. Some of it, well, won't. But it's all an interesting look into what's happening in tech right now.Also: if you're in Vegas for CES, come see us live! We'll be at the Brooklyn Bowl on Wednesday, January 7th, for live recordings of Decoder and The Vergecast, and we'd love to see you there.

Further reading:

• ⁠This robot companion is a cameraman for your pet ⁠

• ⁠LG says its CLOiD home robot will be folding laundry and making breakfast at CES ⁠

• ⁠SwitchBot brings a humanoid home robot to CES ⁠

• ⁠You can’t buy Zeroth’s WALL-E robot in the US, but you can get its cousin ⁠

• ⁠This startup brought WALL-E to life and will also sell you WALL-E’s weird cousin⁠

• ⁠Kicking Robots, by James Vincent⁠

• ⁠The Clicks Power Keyboard is also a backup battery for your phone ⁠

• ⁠The Clicks Communicator is a BlackBerry for your phone ⁠

• ⁠I just want to keep unfolding the Samsung Z TriFold ⁠

• ⁠The Aliro smart lock standard for NFC and UWB unlocking will launch this year ⁠

• ⁠Lutron adds smart wood blinds to its Caséta line. ⁠

• ⁠Bosch’s fancy coffee machine is getting Alexa Plus ⁠

• ⁠The new Ultraloq smart lock uses both your face and your palm to let you in ⁠

• ⁠Lockin’s new vein-scanning smart lock has a video doorbell and recharges wirelessly ⁠

• ⁠Hands-on with the Mui Board: a wooden smart home controller ⁠

• ⁠The Mui Board will support mmWave sleep tracking and gesture control ⁠

• ⁠You can unlock SwitchBot’s first deadbolt smart lock with your face ⁠

• ⁠Lifx launches a smart mirror and a $30 dimmer switch that can control smart bulbs ⁠

• ⁠Lockly’s new smart locks will support Matter and NFC ⁠

• ⁠GE Lighting’s new Matter-compatible smart shades start at just $300 ⁠

• ⁠The LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV makes its return at CES ⁠

• ⁠RGB is the next big thing in OLED gaming monitors ⁠

• ⁠Belkin’s new HDMI adapter wirelessly connects to screens from 130 feet ⁠

• ⁠LG’s new Gallery TV, designed for displaying art, will be at CES 2026 ⁠

• ⁠Samsung brings back the Timeless Frame with its biggest Micro RGB TV at CES. ⁠

• ⁠TCL debuts a new quantum dot and color filter technology with the X11L ⁠

• ⁠Gemini on Google TV is getting Nano Banana and voice-controlled settings ⁠

• ⁠Amazon announces a Samsung Frame competitor with the Ember Artline TV ⁠

• ⁠Amazon Fire TV OS gets a revamp that’s more modern and pleasing ⁠

• ⁠LG’s new karaoke-ready party speaker uses AI to remove song vocals ⁠

• ⁠Would you let AI cut your hair? ⁠

• ⁠A developer for a ‘major food delivery app’ says the ‘algorithms are rigged against you⁠

• ⁠Lego announces Smart Brick, the ‘most significant evolution’ in 50 years | The Verge⁠

• ⁠Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now blogging about AI slop ⁠

• ⁠“Feed is dead.” ⁠

• ⁠Adam Mosseri on how Instagram exists in the age of AI-generated images⁠

• ⁠The Trump phone just missed another release date ⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The iPhone 4 was one of the best iPhones ever — and definitely the most dramatic iPhone ever. It was lost in a bar in California, sold to Gizmodo, and published for the world to see months before its launch. The phone itself had a bunch of important new features, and one that spawned Antennagate. In this episode, David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and longtime tech columnist Walt Mossberg tell the whole story of the phone, its legacy, and its place in tech blog history.

If you like the show, ⁠⁠subscribe to the Version History feed⁠⁠ to make sure you get every new episode.

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.

We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The world runs on RAM, and RAM is harder than ever to get your hands on. What’s happening here? Every year, the Vergecast team spends the holiday season going deep on a single spec or technology, and this year it’s all about Random Access Memory. (No, that’s not a Daft Punk album.) Nilay, David, and Sean Hollister explain what RAM is, why it matters, how it became a precious commodity, and what it means for the future of chips around the world. We also play some games. We do… okay at the games. Happy Holidays!

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Google didn't invent the concept of smart glasses, but it was one of the first companies to actually put them on people's faces. It was a revolution, and also a problem: Google made face computers extremely uncool, and its early user base was so off-putting they became collectively known as “Glassholes.” The Verge’s Victoria Song and Waveform’s David Imel break down why Glass failed — despite being shockingly right about the future of technology.

If you like the show, ⁠⁠follow the Version History feed⁠⁠ to make sure you get every new episode as soon as it drops.

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Åhead of our last Friday episode of 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr did The Vergecast an enormous favor: he went in front of Congress and said a bunch of wild things about regulation. So, of course, Nilay and David have to talk about them. For a really long time. After that, the hosts look at all the ways YouTube and Netflix are becoming more like one another, and then update the Go90 Scale of Doomed Streaming Services to round out the year. Finally, in the lightning round, there's talk of web apps, EVs, Bluesky, and the metaverse.

Further reading:

• The Vergecast live at CES

• Brendan Carr doesn’t regret his threats to broadcasters 

• Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell: ‘Cable companies are at the mercy of content companies’

• The Oscars will stream on YouTube in 2029 

• Netflix’s next big TV game is FIFA soccer 

• My Favorite Murder and The Breakfast Club podcasts are ditching YouTube for Netflix 

• Warner Bros. wants its shareholders to reject Paramount’s latest offer 

• Netflix is “100% committed” to releasing WB films in theaters. 

• Even Jared Kushner thinks the Paramount WB bid sucks.

• Peacock will bombard you with ads as soon as you open the app 

• HBO Max’s new channels keep Friends and Game of Thrones playing 24/7 

• Instagram is putting Reels on your TV 

• LG forced a Copilot web app onto its TVs but will let you delete it

• Mercedes-Benz discontinues feature that syncs music to driving

• Ford’s big bet on EVs didn’t pan out — now it’s pivoting to hybrids and energy storage

• Bluesky claims its new contact import feature is ‘privacy-first’ 

• Gemini 3 Flash is here, bringing a ‘huge’ upgrade to the Gemini app 

• The ChatGPT app store is here

• Alexa Plus’ website is live for some users 

• Meta pauses third-party Horizon VR headsets program 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Who's going to win the Super Bowl? What about the latest season of Survivor? Or the race to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve? Who will be Portugal's next president? How many times will Elon Musk tweet in the next week? On Polymarket, and other prediction markets, you can bet on all these things and more. Are we entering a world in which everything is gambling and gambling is everything? Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal joins the show to explain the rise of prediction markets, what's betting and what's investing, and more. Then, The Verge's Hayden Field teaches us about Model Context Protocol, a wonky bit of AI infrastructure that might be key to making AI agents work. MCP is barely a year old, and practically all of tech is ready to embrace it. Finally, Hayden helps David answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about why every AI company seems to want you to go shopping.

Further reading:

• Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting not

• Election night at Kalshi HQ

• Joe Weisenthal at Bloomberg

• From Bloomberg: My Biggest Question About Prediction Markets

• Anthropic launches tool to connect AI systems directly to datasets

• AI companies want a new internet — and they think they’ve found the key

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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A year ago, David and Nilay sat down with Wall Street Journal senior tech columnist Joanna Stern to make a bunch of confident predictions about 2025. We got them... you know what, never mind. Let's look ahead to 2026! This year, we gather again to make increasingly bold bets about the year to come, including the future of a few of the world's biggest companies and whether we're finally going to get a foldable iPhone. Last year's predictions may not have been our best, but we're feeling good about these.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Technically, the Netflix / Warner Bros. news is almost a week old, but what a week it has been! And so, after some follow-up on smart shades and CES, Nilay and David talk through all that’s at stake in the fight between Paramount and Netflix — and whether it’s even possible for someone to win this deal. After that, Charlie Harding, co-host of Switched on Pop and honorary Vergecast intern, explains how AI is taking over the country music scene in Nashville. He also makes us a song, and it’s a jam. Lastly, the hosts talk about font news (with a special guest), Brendan Carr, smart rings, garage wars, and more.

Further reading:

• The Verge subscription turns one 

• Netflix is buying Warner Bros. for $83 billion 

• Paramount launches a hostile $108 billion bid to snatch Warner from Netflix 

• David Ellison pitches Paramount’s $108 billion hostile bid for WBD as “pro consumer.” 

• Behind Paramount’s Relentless Campaign to Woo Warner Discovery and President Trump

• New Paramount Speaks: Theatrical Films, Streaming Investment and Tech Upgrades Are Top Priorities

• Netflix CEO made a visit to the White House before buying Warner Bros. 

• Trump isn’t sold on the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal

• Netflix’s leadership thinks the Warner Bros. deal won’t be like other big media mergers.

• Welcome to the big leagues, Netflix 

• There are no good outcomes for the Warner Bros. sale

• OpenAI’s billion-dollar Disney deal puts Mickey Mouse and Marvel in Sora

• Get ready for an AI country music explosion

• Brendan Carr is a Dummy

• Chamberlain’s new technology blocks aftermarket controllers from working with its garage door openers

• The Pebble Index 01 is a smart ring with a built-in microphone

• Calibri is too woke for the State Department | The Verge

• Gruber got a copy of the thing

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Well, friends, it's been a year. And before we turn the page to 2026 and all the stories of 2025 begin to blur together, we decided to take stock of things. Nilay and David are joined by Wall Street Journal senior tech columnist Joanna Stern to debate the best products of the year, the biggest policy moves, the people who broke bad, the good AI things, the bad AI things, and much more. It's been a vibe-everything kind of year, and there's a lot to discuss.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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AI models are very good at summarizing things, finding other things like those things, and helping you find those things again. But does that mean we should leave all the work of finding and understanding to those models? Sari Azout, the founder of an app called Sublime, doesn't think so. For this episode, the second in our two-part series about how developers are using AI and building models into their products, Azout explains how Sublime tries to balance being a thoroughly human-focused app with the efficiencies that come with new technologies. She has thoughts on curation, taste, and the differences between AI as a creative partner and AI as a creative replacement.

Further reading:

• Sublime

• From Sari's newsletter: What matters in the age of AI is taste

• From The Atlantic: Good Taste Is More Important Than Ever

• AI Is a Lot of Work

• Making human music in an AI world

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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First things first: David and Nilay are both having some TV problems, and they need to talk it out. But then they get to the news of the week, including Samsung's new extra-foldy foldable phone, and a big change in the design departments at both Apple and Meta. What does it all say about the future of smart glasses? After that, the hosts talk through why Sam Altman declared a code red inside of OpenAI in order to redirect focus to ChatGPT — and whether the technology that has made all these products possible is actually the right technology moving forward. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, recap season, "dear algo," and thermostats.

Further reading:

• Samsung’s Z TriFold is official and it looks like a tablet with a phone attached 

• Huawei tris again. 

• Huawei’s first trifold is a great phone that you shouldn’t buy 

• Apple’s head of UI design is leaving for Meta 

• Apple AI chief steps down following Siri setbacks 

• Louie Mantia’s blog post about Dye

• Zuck’s post about the new team

• Linux usage on Steam hits a record high for the second month in a row 

• OpenAI declares ‘code red’ as Google catches up in AI race 

• OpenAI just made another circular deal 

• Anthropic’s AI bubble ‘YOLO’ warning 

• Anthropic’s racing OpenAI to go public 

• Normalizing extraterrestrial data centers

• I tested five AI browsers and lost my mind in the process

• The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake

• Ilya Sutskever – We're moving from the age of scaling to the age of research

• FCC boss Brendan Carr claims another victory over DEI as AT&T drops programs

• First there was nothing, then there was Hoto and Fanttik

• This new Honeywell Home smart thermostat can answer your Ring doorbell

• Spotify Wrapped 2025 turns listening into a competition 

• YouTube introduces its own version of Spotify Wrapped for videos 

• Amazon Music Delivered puts your top tunes on a festival poster. 

• Google Photos Recap will tell you how many selfies you took this year

• “Dear algo.” 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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Apple makes a lot of gadgets. You've probably heard of some of them. Most of them are very good! Few companies in tech, or anywhere, can claim a track record as impressive and consistent as the folks in Cupertino. But only one Apple product can be the best Apple product. The Verge's Victoria Song and Allison Johnson join David to rank Apple's nine product categories — iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, AirPods, AirTags, HomePod, and Apple TV — in order of their best-ness. The gang agrees on a few, disagrees on a few, and gets in one argument that threatens to end the show forever.
We want to hear what you think of our ranking! If you have thoughts, on Apple gadgets or anything, you can always call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11 or email us at vergecast@theverge.com.

Further reading:

• Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not

• Apple HomePod (second-gen) review: playing it safe

• Apple TV 4K (2022) review: unmatched power, unrealized potential

• Apple Watch SE 3 review: major glow-up

• Apple iPad Pro (2025) review: fast, faster, fastest

• AirTag location trackers are smart, capable, and very Apple

• Apple iPhone 17 review: the one to get

• Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review

• Apple AirPods (third-gen) review: new design, same appeal

• Apple MacBook Air M4 review: a little more for a little less

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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