The Vergecast

Latest Episodes:

Apple's Intelligence beta and more AI chaos Aug 02, 2024

Show notes

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Allison Johnson, and Victoria Song discuss Apple iOS 18.1 beta. upcoming Pixel 9 rumors, Olympics coverage, AI deepfake regulation, and more.

Further reading:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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The history of Roku and the fight over CarPlay Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

Today on the flagship podcast of dedicated streaming hardware:

We try out a couple of show formats we’ve been planning for a while.

In Version History, we tell the story of the Roku Netflix Player, debate its legacy, and try to decide whether this thing belongs in the Version History Hall of Fame.

From Fast Company: Inside Netflix’s Project Griffin: The Forgotten History Of Roku Under Reed Hastings
From CNBC: How Roku used the Netflix playbook to rule streaming video
From CNN: Netflix Player offers PC-free movie watching
From Wired: Review: Roku Netflix Set Top Box Is Just Shy of Totally Amazing
From The New York Times: Why the Roku Netflix Player Is the First Shot of the Revolution

After that, it’s time for debates. Nilay Patel and David Pierce yell at each other about who should own the screens in your car. Are CarPlay and Android Auto the answer, the solution to universally crappy automaker software?

Later, David answers a question from The Vergecast Hotline about political spam texts.

From The Washington Post: How to stop receiving spam texts
From PCMag: Stop Robotexts: How to Block Smishing and Spam Text Messages

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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In search of the perfect movie recommendation Jul 28, 2024

Show notes

On this episode of The Vergecast, we look at why TV and movie recommendations are so complicated, and whether AI might be able to make them better. If Spotify can build infinite playlists of music you’ll like, and YouTube and TikTok always seem to have the perfect thing ready to go, why can’t Netflix or Hulu or Max seem to get it right?

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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Search as we know it is officially over Jul 26, 2024

Show notes

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Jake Kastrenakes discuss OpenAI's new SearchGPT product, Amazon's plan to launch a paid version of Alexa, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold review, and whole lot more.

Further reading:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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Inside the global computer crash Jul 23, 2024

Show notes

Today on the flagship podcast of configuration changes:

The Verge's Tom Warren joins the show to to talk about the story and legacy of the CrowdStrike crash.

Then we talk with The Verge's Victoria Song and Zombies, Run creator Adrian Hon about making exercising fun without making it competitive and awful.

Finally, we answer a hotline question about handheld gadgets for new parents — because there's a lot of time to kill when there's a baby around.

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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The all-seeing AI webcam Jul 21, 2024

Show notes

On this episode of The Vergecast, senior producer Will Poor explores the AI-tinged worlds of Dries Depoorter. Depoorter has built all manner of quirky and provocative installations and online experiments. There’s a clock that tells you how much of your life you’ve already lived; a phone charger that only works when your eyes are closed; a mobile chat app that you can only use when your phone has less than 5% battery.

His most eyebrow-raising work, though, is around AI and surveillance. In his projects Depoorter takes publicly available webcam footage from around the world, and uses it to stalk celebrities, catch jaywalkers in the act, keep politicians honest, and generally make you wonder about your own privacy and anonymity.

We talked with Depoorter about how he creates his work, how he thinks about the future of AI, and how he responds to the people who see his art and want to turn it into commerce. It’s a wild conversation, so check it out above. To see all of Dries’ work, head over to his portfolio.

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Gadgets are getting weird — and so are iPhone homescreens Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

Nilay, Alex, and David talk about what's happening on social media — and around the web — in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Then they talk about their early impression of Apple's public betas, from the redesigned homescreens to the iPad's fancy new math abilities. After that, it's time for a bunch of gadgets all asking the same idea: is this anything? Then it's off to the lightning round, filled with 4K streams and leaky infinity pools.

Further reading:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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Picking the perfect portable console Jul 16, 2024

Show notes

Today on the flagship podcast of nose bridge microphones:

03:10 - The Verge’s David Pierce enlists help from Alex Cranz and Sean Hollister to figure out the best gadget setup for his handheld gaming needs.

42:10 - Victoria Song joins the show to test out the microphones on a bunch of smart glasses and headsets.

01:10:26 - Later, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline.

North Focals glasses review: a $600 smartwatch for your face

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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Inside the AI memory machine Jul 14, 2024

Show notes

Humans are terrible at remembering things. On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk to one of the people who has been working on this problem for a very long time: Dan Siroker, the CEO of Limitless. We talk about what it takes to build a great memory aid, how we might use them in the future, and why it’s so tricky to get right.

We also talk about the human side of it all — what does it change about our lives when we stop forgetting things? Is remembering your friend’s birthday different when it’s actually an AI model doing the remembering? And will these tools ever really work outside of work? Tools like Limitless are coming fast and improving quickly, and we’re going to have to figure out how to live with them.

Further reading:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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Samsung’s new folds, flips, and Apple clones Jul 12, 2024

Show notes

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss the announcements from Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, Redbox shutting down, and more tech news from this week.

Further reading:

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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