Vergecast

Creator life involves using a lot of software. Bad software. Stephen Robles is one of the creators who decided to build something better, for himself and for his community. He tells David how he thinks about his responsibility as a developer, how he makes apps, and how AI is changing the way he builds things for his audience.

Meta just shipped a pair of smart glasses with no camera — a change that both David and The Verge’s Victoria Song are excited about. But these glasses, like the new product from Amazon Bee and seemingly everything else now, are still ready and willing to record the world around you at all times. What do we do in a world where everything, everywhere, might be recording? And can tech companies figure out a way to make us feel better about it?

A man named Mike Smith was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison, and a fine in excess of $8 million, for creating an AI system that faked billions of streams and earned him millions in royalties. Wired’s Kate Knibbs explains how Smith pulled it off, how he got caught, and what this case means for the internet’s growing slop problems.

We have a lot of questions about Apple’s new smart-home gadget — and all the updated ones, too. Come hang with Jen Tuohy, Nilay Patel, and me in an hour or so as we talk through all of today’s announcements, get Jen’s first hands-on impressions, and have deep existential debates about Siri. See you soon!

Amazon is determined to turn Alexa Plus into a do-everything AI assistant that can compete with Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and the rest. But after a year of testing, The Verge’s Jen Tuohy has mixed feelings on how it’s all going. And on whether a new tablet is the right way to fix it.

Bose, Sony, Beats, and seemingly every other headphone maker has recently released a new and excellent set of cans. Or buds. Or both. The Verge’s John Higgins explains why the headphone market is suddenly so great, how the companies are competing now, and which new pair is the right one for you.

The next big thing in AI, at least if you ask the tech companies, is assistant agents. David and The Verge’s Allison Johnson have both been testing products like Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dots, and startups like Instinct, in an effort to find out how much you can really get done by messaging with an AI tool – and whether the productivity is worth the tradeoffs.

Welcome to Bear Lair!* (No, it’s nothing like that other show.) As we continue to explore the world of AI tools and vibe coding, we invited a few enterprising Vergecast fans to share their projects — and we invited The Verge’s Hayden Field to judge them with us. We’ll see what people are working on, and whether any of them will make us fabulously wealthy.

In this hotline episode, guest host David Imel gives his thoughts on digicams, iPods, E Ink, and whether the TI-84 graphing calculator should be in the Version History Hall of Fame.

Jolly’s got new competition: OpenAI just launched its competitor to Muse and Grok Bot. It’s called Dots, and the headline feature is that it’s also cute, with fuzzy lil triangles and clouds and hearts that you can give access to your personal accounts to do things for you. The Verge’s senior AI reporter Hayden Field joined guest host David Imel from San Francisco, right after OpenAI’s DevDay presentation.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game isn’t just a game, it’s an economy. Livestreamers provide vicarious dopamine hits to viewers who tune in to watch them open booster packs, and the rarest cards can resell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The game’s 30th anniversary collection just launched, putting more copies of the game’s rarest cards back into circulation. Guest host David Imel talks about the state of the Pokémon TCG market with The Verge’s film, TV and pop culture reporter Charles Pulliam-Moore.

How does the former Sony PlayStation veteran think games will be made and played, especially now that gaming has become an increasingly expensive hobby? (And how’s he liking his Steam Machine?) Today on The Vergecast, he joins The Verge’s Sean Hollister to talk about the shifts in the gaming industry.

Meta and Snap both want to get on your face. The Verge’s Victoria Song and Jay Peters tried out all the new hardware: Specs, audio-only Ray-Bans, and Meta VR. Today, they join guest host David Imel to talk about how these new smart glasses feel, both physically and emotionally.

Transportation editor Andrew Hawkins is here to answer your questions about the confluence of cars and gadgets. Could a folding phone replace a dashboard display? What to do about the iPhone Pro Max not fitting the Tesla’s built-in wireless charger? And we hear from a listener who — shockingly — doesn’t care about CarPlay.

Nvidia’s new DLSS 5 (Deep Learning Super Sampling 5) rendering technology uses AI to (theoretically) improve video game graphics. When it was announced, social media declared that it was “yassifying” video game characters, changing faces in a way game developers didn’t intend. Linus Tech Tips’ own Linus Sebastian and David Gauthier join guest host David Imel to break down the the hype and controversy.

We tried out the new Googlebooks, which are essentially Chromebooks evolved with an Android elemental stone. They’re made by Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, and Asus (not Google), but all have the new Googlebook OS, heavy integration with Android phones and Gemini, and a built-in “Glowbar.” Laptop reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto went hands-on with the new devices, and reports back to guest host David Imel.

Senior reviewers Allison Johnson and Victoria Song trade host and guest duties in a Vergecasting ouroboros that’s never been attempted before and will probably never be attempted again. Allison talks about the iPhone 18 Pro’s new camera, Victoria talks about the Watch 12 and Ultra 4’s new sensors, and they both give their verdicts on who should upgrade.

Last week, an Anthropic researcher resigned and posted on X, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” These warnings are nothing new, but this one managed to go mainstream. So, do the people making AI really think it could kill us all? How? And if it really could be as dangerous as they say, why would anyone continue to work on it? Senior AI reporter Hayden Field joined us to answer your questions about the AI freakout.

Sean Hollister got his hands and face on Valve’s new VR headset, the Steam Frame. It’s expensive, starting at more than $1,000. It’s buggy — he and CNET’s Scott Stein both felt like beta testers as they reviewed it. But it’s also full of interesting ideas, including the promise that Steam games could one day come to your mobile phone. This week on The Vergecast, Sean and Scott discuss who exactly this device is for, in a world that mostly seems to have moved on from VR.

AI doomerism broke containment last week with an Anthropic researcher’s proclamation that there’s a >10% chance AI could kill all humans within the decade. The Vergecast is recording an all-AI hotline with senior reporter Hayden Field, and we want to hear from you. Comment on this post, e-mail vergecast@theverge.com, or call us at 866-VERGE-11.

Following Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event, The Vergecast is going live to share our first reactions and answer your questions. Folding phones, non-folding phones, non-phones, we’ll talk about it all. Come hang out!

At this year’s London Marathon, two runners completed the route in under two hours, becoming the first people to ever do so on an official course. It’s a feat that Outside magazine’s Alex Hutchinson once thought wouldn’t be accomplished until 2075. The Verge’s senior policy reporter (and marathoner) Lauren Feiner talks to Alex about “super shoes” and the other surprising technological advances that led to this moment.

Apple’s big hardware event is coming next week. iPhones are the main draw, but senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy has her eyes on the rumors around — what else? — smart home gadgets. Andrew O’Hara from the Smart Home Insider podcast joins Jen to fire up the Vergecast Rank-o-Matic and speculate on which rumored gadgets are most likely to see the light of day.

Data centers have been a staple of Loudoun County since the early dot-com boom, but recent expansions have left some residents wondering how much more the county can take. Guest host David Imel talks to Lauren Feiner about today’s article detailing the buildout of “Data Center Alley,” what it means for residents, and what other counties reeling with similar buildouts can learn from it.

Elizabeth Lopatto wrote about Mark Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word AI manifesto in her piece, “Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t understand how to live.” Today, she joins guest host David Imel and senior reviewer Victoria Song for a freewheeling discussion about what happens when we let AI make decisions for us.

Skyrocketing RAM prices put a spotlight on product longevity and repairability, which makes this an apt time for Fairphone to launch its first smartphone sold directly in the United States. Guest host David Imel talks to CEO Raymond van Eck about the Fairphone 6+, the company’s goals of user-repairability and ethically-sourced materials, and AI’s place in the future of Fairphone.

If, after months of increasingly dire RAMageddon warnings, you suddenly find yourself in the market for a new laptop… we’re here to help. In the latest installment of our Vergecast “RAMageddon Survival Guide,” laptop reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto joins David Imel to offer his recommendations.

Two-hour usage limits, age verification, and a $17.1 billion payout: We’re breaking down today’s big settlement in Meta’s kids online safety trial. Senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner and senior tech and policy editor Adi Robertson discuss how we got here, why Meta settled, and what this means for the ongoing conversation around teen mental health and social media.

It can be hard enough to set up smart home tech in a house or an apartment, but what about a dorm room? Jennifer Pattison Tuohy recently tested out some smart home tech when she dropped off her son for his freshman year at college. Jen reports back to David Imel on how the gadgets stood up to the challenges of dorm Wi-Fi and the rules against hanging things on the wall.

Do you remember your first BlackBerry? Do you remember when that first BlackBerry launched? On this episode taped before David Pierce went on leave, producer Travis Larchuk leads David, Nilay, and Sean Hollister through a game of memory and history and a surprising amount of feelings tied to gadget launches.