Does this episode of The Vergecast feature several of the world’s best-known rappers? That depends on how you define “feature,” which turns out to be a pretty thorny question. This episode definitely features laser bongs and Snapchat bots, though. But not blue checkmarks or Netflix DVDs. None of those anymore.
Eric Migicovsky is no longer a hardware hacker for a living — you might remember he used to run Pebble — but he’s apparently still out here building sick doodads. This time, it looks like a BB Q20 keyboard attached to a screen running his universal messaging app Beeper. I don’t know why, but I want one.
The tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook. But we’ve been here before.
TikTok’s probably not going away anytime soon, but will that stop governments around the US from trying? Why is it that only two companies make Android phones worth buying? And can Chris Welch convince you to spend $3,000 on a new TV? On The Vergecast, these and other big questions. Like: what is a quantum dot?
Other than the My AI chatbot launch, the most interesting thing at Snap’s Partner Summit today was definitely the AR mirrors. The company thinks you might use it in a store to try stuff on, or just goof around while you wait for your friend to check out. It all seems very early, but pretty fun.
Also... AR vending machines are apparently a thing now.
The Washington Post just published a really cool breakdown of where chatbot training data really comes from. It’s just one data set being studied here — Google’s C4, which is used by Meta’s LLaMa and some other models — but it reveals a lot about how LLMs learn from the web, and what they’re really learning.
The least surprising bit? There’s a whole lot of Wikipedia in there.
Netflix was never going to be a DVD shipper forever. But to win the streaming wars, it might need to recapture what made DVDs by mail so special.
That and other deep thoughts on the state of the tech industry, this week on The Vergecast! We talked all about HBODiscoveryMaxPlus, Twitter’s fights with NPR and Substack, our many feelings about CarPlay, and the future of cloud gaming at Sony. And then more feelings about CarPlay.
Listen, I’m just saying, CNN Airport would definitely be a better name for a streaming service than Max. We tried to figure out what’s next for this service, then looked into Twitter’s big fight with Substack, Sony’s cloud and mobile gaming plans, and more.
Also: Nilay is still wrong about CarPlay. That’s the main takeaway from this episode.
