Lowpass | The Verge

25 years later, is it time for a new iPod?

2026-04-23T09:09:02-04:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the original iPod. With its monochrome display, mechanical scroll wheel, and 5 GB hard drive, Apple's pioneering music player now looks like the relic of a bygone era.

And yet, in a surprising twist, there's growing interest in a redo.

After being essentially flat for five years, Google searches for "MP3 Player" tripled since last fall. A Reddit group for fans of digital audio players is now attracting 90,000 visitors per week on average …

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How Netflix made us fall in love with K-dramas

2026-04-16T11:46:30-04:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

What do you get if you take a bunch of ripped, shirtless male K-pop idols in boxing gloves and have them spar in the ring until they're sweating? For Netflix: another global hit.

The streamer's K-drama Bloodhounds, now in its second season, is currently tearing up its global viewing charts. Season 2 attracted 7.4 million views last week, making it the most-watched non-English TV show worldwide on the service, and the third-most-popular show overall.

Bloodhounds is no exception …

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YouTube’s TV takeover continues with 24/7 streaming ‘Stations’

2026-04-02T09:12:24-04:00

When Coachella returns to YouTube next week, the music festival will be offering more than just live performances. Viewers will also be able to tune into something YouTube calls Stations - 24/7 linear streams preprogrammed with videos from artists performing at the festival, perfect for playing in the background or vegging out on the couch.

Stations are essentially YouTube's take on FAST channels: free linear streaming TV channels that have gained popularity on services like Pluto and The Roku Channel, and are now baked into the EPGs of most smart TV operating systems.

One of the reasons FAST channels have become so popular is that they br …

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Meta gets ready to launch two new Ray-Ban AI glasses

2026-03-26T12:27:58-04:00

Second-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

Meta and its AI glasses hardware partner EssilorLuxottica are getting ready to launch the next generation of their Ray-Ban AI glasses. That's according to a series of FCC filings for two new Meta Ray-Ban models that were published by the agency earlier this month.

The filings describe the tested devices as production units, suggesting that Meta may launch them soon. When the company unveiled its second-generation Ray-Bans in late 2023, it did so a little over a month after the …

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Paid streaming for cheapskates is having a moment

2026-03-18T17:35:46-04:00

Roku’s Howdy offers ad-free streaming for $2.99 a month.

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

Streaming is getting expensive: This week, Amazon Prime Video became the latest streaming service to increase prices. In addition to the annual $139 fee for Prime, consumers now have to pay $4.99 for ad-free viewing. The increase comes after Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and Discovery Plus all raised their prices in 2025.

Those price increases don't go unnoticed. About half of US consumers think they're paying too much for streaming, and two out of three people who canceled a …

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Meta exec hopes VR teens will stick around

2026-03-12T07:15:10-04:00

Free-to-play titles like GorillaTag are popular with young teens with little disposable income. | Image: Another Axiom Inc.

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

"It is a pretty rough time for the game industry."

Meta Reality Labs director of games Chris Pruett did not mince words when he returned to GDC for his annual talk on the state of VR gaming this week. "I have been in the industry for almost 30 years at this point," he said. "This is the roughest period I have ever seen."

"It's rough for everybody," Pruett said. "It's rough for VR. We are not immune."

Pruett made these remarks two months after Meta cut more than 1,000 VR-relat …

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Osmo is trying to crack AR edutainment (again)

2026-03-10T07:49:35-04:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

I still remember the first time I tried the kids edutainment system Osmo back in 2014: I was sitting in front of an iPad, placed vertically on a white iPad stand, that showed me pieces of a tangram puzzle, its squares and triangles arranged to make a shape.

In front of the iPad were matching wood puzzle pieces strewn across the table. I went to work to re-create the shape in question with those wood pieces. When I had managed to do so, the iPad played an animation and a sound, …

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Your smart TV may be crawling the web for AI

2026-02-26T09:39:04-05:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

These days, if you sign up for a new streaming service, you generally have two options: Either pay a massive premium for an ad-free experience, or endure frequent commercial breaks and all the sneaky tracking that comes with ad targeting.

Web data aggregator Bright Data has been pitching streaming service operators on an alternative approach for apps running on Samsung's Tizen and LG's webOS platform - one that comes without ads and sky-high fees. All publishers have to do to u …

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The next iTunes may be vibe-coded

2026-02-19T08:22:41-05:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

Wouldn't it be great if you could exchange music recommendations with your friends, no matter whether they use Spotify, Apple Music, or Bandcamp? What if you could follow DJs and other tastemakers online and automatically turn their social media feeds into playlists? Or what if you could fine-tune your music recommendations with AI to only get recommendations for songs you've never played before?

Those are a few of the tasks the new music app Parachord is trying to take on by f …

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How Gorilla Tag is weathering the VR winter

2026-02-11T17:24:38-05:00

Monke gather in Gorilla Tag. | Another Axiom

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

The VR industry has been on edge since Meta's massive job cuts earlier this year: One exec called the layoff announcements "one of VR's darkest weeks." There's talk of a VR winter, and multiple VR studios have conducted significant layoffs of their own.

For Gorilla Tag maker Another Axiom, however, it's monkey - or monke, as they'd say - business as usual. The most popular game on Meta's Quest VR headset reached a new audience high this past weekend, when 119,000 players joined …

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