The Vergecast

For years, big tech companies have embedded their products into the classroom whether through Google's Chromebooks or computer science curricula developed by Apple or Microsoft. The industry pushed a generation of kids to foster coding skills with the promise of high-paying jobs. Now, those students are finding themselves less in demand as AI takes over, and the industry seems to be repeating its playbook. Senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner talks to Natasha Singer, author of the new book "Coding Kids," about how big tech worked its way into the classroom, and why Natasha is optimistic about educators’ response to th...

Live from Apple Park, Nilay Patel and Victoria Song join Jake Kastrenakes, Dominic Preston and Cameron Faulkner to talk about the iPhone Duo and the new Apple Watches. We also talk about the new iPhone 18 Pro's variable aperture and the AirPods 5.

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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.

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OpenAI announced its next big model, GPT-6 Astra, and also, by the way, that AGI is here now.
Today on The Vergecast, we've got an all-star panel to break down the news of the week.
First, senior AI reporter Hayden Field joins us to talk about our supposed AGI era and Nvidia's acquisition of Hugging Face. Then, our friend Joanna Stern pops in to talk about new Apple CEO John Ternus, old Apple CEO Tim Cook, and to, most importantly, speculate on the format of next week's Apple keynote.
We wrap things up with a super-special...

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 Rank-o-Matic and speculate on which rumored gadgets are most likely to see the light of day.

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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. In this episode, guest host David Imel talks to Lauren Feiner about her recent 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.

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Elizabeth Lopatto recently 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 wearables reviewer Victoria Song for a freewheeling discussion about what happens when we let AI make decisions for us.

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

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This week Apple announced a Mac Mini made for AI and a Mac Studio made for AI, both with faster M6 and M5 Pro chips made for AI. But that's all an amuse-bouche to Sept. 9's (expected) main course: the long-awaited folding iPhone. Nilay Patel, Jake Kastrenakes, and David Imel run through all of this week's Apple news, including the most important story: a surprise discount on the legendary polishing cloth.
Then, they react to Meta's settlement in its latest kids safety trial, geek out about Grand Theft Auto VI with the Hype Desk's Ashley Esqueda, check out...

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

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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.

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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 Clemson. Jen reports back to David Imel on how the gadgets stood up to the challenges of college Wi-Fi and rules against hanging things on the wall.

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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 The Verge’s Sean Hollister through a game of memory and history and a surprising amount of feelings tied to gadget launches.

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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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Smart phone cameras have been getting better and better at capturing flawless, true-to-life images. But is that what the people really want?
David Imel joins Nilay Patel and Jake Kastrenakes to talk through the Pixel 11's Camera Looks. They're Google's nod to the trend of retro digital and analogue cameras, and alter how a photo is processed on the sensor level. At the same time, its super zoom is still hallucinating text and making stuff up.

Then it's a supersized Brendan Carr is a Dummy, with increasingly infuriating tales of how Brendan Carr is being...

For better or worse, Amazon Alexa and Google Home's smart voice assistants have been imbued with the powers of generative AI. The promise is that you can use natural language with your smart speaker to adjust your thermostat, lock the doors, and find out what your pets have been up to. The reality is smart home voice assistants seem to be going through an identity crisis. Senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy invites Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel onto his own podcast to compare notes on life with Alexa Plus vs. Gemini for Home.

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Pixel reviewers assemble: Senior reviewer Victoria Song leads a Vergecast roundtable with editors Dominic Preston and Cameron Faulkner to discuss the Pixel 11/Pro/Fold and the Pixel Watch 5. We discuss if HiLight is a LowLight, whether we miss the temperature sensor, and if the Watch 5’s GPS truly beats Garmin and Apple. And stay tuned for more camera discussion on Friday’s Vergecast.

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It feels right now like prices are going up, gadgets are getting worse, and everything is getting harder to buy. Leo Mastrolia, the Digital Doctor and the owner of a repair shop in New Jersey, is seeing this all play out first hand. For the second part of our conversation (and the first part of our RAMageddon survival guide), he tells us what he’s telling his clients about fixing their gadgets, managing upgrades, and surviving a parts crisis.

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A few years ago, Leo Mastrolia started a gadget repair shop. Little did he know he’d eventually become known across the internet as The Digital Doctor, and would learn to fix practically every gadget you can think of. On this episode, which is part one of our conversation with Leo, he tells us about his journey as a gadget fixer, the growth of his social channels, and how right-to-repair fights and upgrade cycles are affecting life in his store.

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Have you seen Instagram's new logo? Meta debuted it right before we started recording, so of course David and Nilay needed to talk about it. Then, the hosts turn to Mark Zuckerberg's 6,500-word missive on the future of AI, and the problem with his idea that giving AI to everyone will fix everything. After that, it's time for Claude watermarks, Spotify AI personas, Brendan Carr, Flock, and much more.

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Is it time to fire the neighbor kid and hire a robot lawnmower instead? Last year I wrote that “in all but a few scenarios, robot lawnmowers still aren’t worth your money,” but there’s a new class of Roombas with razor blades ready to tackle bumpy terrain and dodge crazy chickens. Realtor and smart home reviewer Brandon Doyle joins me to talk about our experiences with 2026’s newest robotic mowers and to let you know if they're finally worth all that money.

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Google just showed off its next generation of hardware, including the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel11 Pro Fold. (Whew, those names.) There's also the new Pixel Watch 5, the Pixel Tag, and a bunch of really interesting new ideas about smartphone cameras, GPS, and wellness. David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Victoria Song went live to talk about the state of Google's hardware, and whether there's anything worth upgrading for this year. 

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Before Alexa and Siri, there was ELIZA. The first chatbot ever was the creation of a man named Joseph Weizenbaum, who built the bot almost as a magic trick — and then couldn't believe how many people fell for it. David Berry and Mark Marino, two members of a team dedicated to restoring and understanding ELIZA, explain how Weizenbaum created the virtual conversant, why he came to regret it, and what ELIZA can teach us about life in the AI age.

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We've spent the last month vibe coding our own corners of the internet. The Verge's Jake Kastrenakes and Hayden Field join David to talk about their use of Gemini, Codex, and Claude Code to build 90s-themed personal websites, vegetable-sharing systems, and photo boards. It wasn't always easy, and we didn't get everything done, but with a little AI and a lot of prompting, we made it work.

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Google underwent a big AI shakeup this week, leaving a lot of people wondering whether there are big problems on team Gemini. David and Nilay start the show by discussing what's next for Jeff Dean and Demis Hassabis, before diving into the ways in which Google and Reddit have become existentially, problematically dependent on one another. After that, we talk through Disney's plan to turn Disney Plus into an everything app, and all the reasons we think that's a terrible idea and a sign of big problems in the streaming biz. Finally, in the lightning round, Brendan Carr is...

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is the first feature film ever shot entirely with IMAX 70mm film cameras, which is apparently a very big deal, and why it's been harder than usual to get a ticket to see Matt Damon. And now that Spider-Man is moving onto IMAX screens, it may be even harder to get a ticket. Why is this 60-year-old technology suddenly the hottest thing in movies? The Verge's film and TV reporter Charles Pulliam-Moore joins senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy to compare the standard and IMAX versions of The Odyssey and talk us through the difference between...

You have questions. We have (some) answers! For this week's hotline episode, Travis Larchuk asks David your questions about E Ink screens, federated messaging, minimalist phones, AI wearables, and what we got wrong about wide foldables. And don't forget, you can always call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com to get your questions in about anything and everything. Bonus points if it involves popping your two collars.

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Everyone in AI is talking about open-weight models right now. Some see them as the ticket to faster, more efficient development; others see them as an economic threat; they're either a security risk or the only security solution, depending who you ask. The Verge's Robert Hart explains how open-weight models work, why they're suddenly at the center of discussions about AI safety, and whether the only way to stop a bad guy with AI is a good guy with AI.

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For the last few years, the trend in wearables has been all about screens. As many of them as possible. But now, companies like Whoop, Fitbit, and Garmin are creating new products that ditch the display entirely. The Verge's Victoria Song explains why no-screen is the new flex, why even the most quantified athletes might not want a display on their wrist, and whether Whoop and the Whoop Dupes are a sign of a broader trend

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It's a big week for new ideas about computers, so David and Nilay spend some time on Samsung's vision for foldables and Mark Zuckerberg's vision for AI agents that do absolutely everything. Then they talk about the fallout from last week's OpenAI Hugging Face hack, and whether all this talk about AI safety will actually amount to anything. Finally, it's time for Brendan Carr is a Dummy, the vertical video takeover, and the smashing success of the Ferrari Luce.

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A new study from the Oversight Board found that leading AI systems are less likely to criticize authoritarian governments than democratic ones. It's a wild finding — but wait? Why is the Oversight Board studying systems from OpenAI and Anthropic in the first place? Suzanne Nossel, who sits on the board, joined us to discuss the findings and why the Oversight Board's future might involve looking at more than just Meta.

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The wide foldable is here, and it's glorious. The Verge's Dominic Preston has been reviewing Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8, and joins the show to explain what this shorter, wider device gets right, what it's still missing, and why this looks like the right kind of foldable for most people. (Once the price comes down, anyway.) With a similar foldable iPhone likely coming soon, it's shaping up to be a fun year of foldables.

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The team at Light has been working on minimalist phones for more than a decade. Its last device had a lot in common with a smartphone, but the newest model, the Light Flip, is something very different. Light CEO Kaiwei Tang explains why Light made a flip phone, how the world's opinion of smartphones is changing, and whether you can cure your tech problems with more tech.

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Some of the biggest players in AI — in particular OpenAI, SpaceX, and Amazon — are heavily invested in creating a world after smartphones. They're also all rumored to be building devices that sound a lot like smartphones. Verge contributor David Imel helps us figure out what these companies might actually be building, what an AI smartphone looks like, and whether anyone can unseat Apple and Google.

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Google Zero continues to affect website after website, and publisher after publisher. David and Nilay discuss Google's increased focus on AI, the web companies finally starting to fight back, and whether there's a way forward for Google's pact with the open web. After that, they talk about a big week in AI detection software, which sometimes works and frequently doesn't. Then it's time for the Hype Desk, Brendan Carr is a dummy, the Light Flip, and more.

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TikTok is endless. Netflix is already starting the next episode. Who's making time to read a book? Today we're chatting with The Atlantic's Rose Horowitch to discuss her story "The End of Reading is Here" and the role technology plays in reducing how much time — and attention — people have to read long pieces of writing. In a world where we're inundated with more text than ever from social media feeds, AI, and group chats, is it really possible that we're taking in less than before?

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Samsung just kicked off phone season with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8, along with two new watches and a look at its smart glasses. David and Nilay talk through all the new devices, Samsung's overall case for foldable phones, and what it'll take for Samsung — or anyone — to convince people to spend $2,000 on a phone.

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So far, most electric vehicles have looked more or less like cars. But recently, a few companies have looked to another, smaller mode of transport for inspiration. The Verge's Andy Hawkins explains why companies like Amble and Chip are reinventing the golf cart, in the hopes of creating an entirely new kind of street-legal vehicle. As long as the speed limit stays low.

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Since the beginning of the AI revolution, a few companies have claimed to be building the best and most powerful AI models. All of them were American. More recently, a few Chinese companies seem to have caught up, shipping models that are much cheaper and maybe also just as good. The Verge's Hayden Field and Lauren Feiner join the show to explain how China made so much progress, the threat that progress represents to US companies and the US government, and what might happen next.

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It's public beta season, which means David and Nilay have been upgrading some devices this week. We talk through the good and bad of our early experiences with Siri AI, and what it'll take for next-gen Siri to be a hit. After that, we discuss the real reason Apple decided to sue OpenAI over trade secrets, OpenAI's forthcoming smart speaker, the new Pixel colors, our emoji strategies, Brendan Carr, and much more.

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AI text detectors have been notoriously unreliable, but that's starting to change. This year, Pangram keeps coming up as the trusted source in identifying AI-written text. We sit down with Pangram CEO Max Spero to find out how the system was made, how much we should trust it, and where the line is between useful AI and AI slop.

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