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The Verge

The Vergecast is the flagship podcast from The Verge about small gadgets, Big Tech, and everything in between. Every Friday, hosts Nilay Patel and David Pierce hang out and make sense of the week’s most important technology news. And every Tuesday, David leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives – and which ones you should bring into yours.

The Vergecast

We're very bullish on the handheld future of gaming. But we're not bullish on the new ROG Xbox Ally. The Verge's Sean Hollister joins the show to explain why this Xbox-branded device barely feels like an Xbox, and why it's definitely not a threat to the Steam Deck, before he and David debate whether the future of Xbox is even in good hands. After that, The Verge's Hayden Field walks David through a couple of important recent studies, asking the same basic question: is AI making us dumb? Finally, Sean returns to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about hybrid computers, which are an extremely 2012 idea and also maybe the future of computing. But probably not.

Help us improve The Verge: Take our quick survey at theverge.com/survey.

Further reading:

 Xbox Ally and Ally X review: this is not an Xbox

 Prongs rock

 MIT: Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

 How chatbots — and their makers — are enabling AI psychosis

 Sam Altman says ChatGPT will stop talking about suicide with teens

 Some doctors got worse at detecting cancer after relying on AI

 Microsoft Research: The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

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The new Xbox is not an Xbox

1982's coolest gadget was the Sony Watchman portable TV. Decades before everyone was glued to YouTube on their smartphones, the Watchman popularized the concept of video on the go. In the early days of the personal-tech revolution, you’d find the Watchman antennas up everywhere from the church pew to the baseball bleacher. Victoria Song and Allison Johnson join David Pierce to dive into the engineering feat that made the first Watchman possible.

If you like the show, ⁠subscribe to the Version History feed⁠ to make sure you get every new episode.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.

We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Version History: Sony Watchman

Nilay’s back! And you can listen to The Vergecast with no ads, if you’re a Verge subscriber! Big week, really. Nilay and David start the show by talking about ads, podcasts, platforms, and subscriptions. Then they talk a bunch about Apple’s new M5-powered MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pro, and whether a chip bump is worth getting excited about. After that, Nilay reflects on a summer of using AI products, and explains why you can tell the whole story of this generation of AI just by talking about the smart home. Finally, in the lightning round, the hosts talk about AI song covers, Apple TV, TiVo, Roku, Cybertrucks, and the exploding Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

Help us improve The Verge: Take our quick survey at theverge.com/survey.

Further reading:

 Ad-free Verge podcasts have arrived

 Netflix is making a big bet on video podcasts

 Apple’s 2025 iPad Pro comes with an M5 chip inside 

 Apple just upgraded the Vision Pro with an M5 chip and new strap 

 Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro gets an M5 chip bump and faster storage 

 Logitech made an Apple Pencil-like stylus for the Vision Pro 

 Apple’s rumored smart home display hub might start at $350 

 Samsung officially teases Moohan headset launch for next week 

 Apple’s future smart glasses could have two separate UIs. 

 ChatGPT will soon help you shop at Walmart. 

 How OpenAI plans to make all its money. 

 Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it 

 As Microsoft bids farewell to Windows 10, millions of users won’t 

 Spotify says it’s working with labels on ‘responsible’ AI music tools 

 DirecTV will soon bring AI ads to your screensaver 

 OpenAI partners with Broadcom to produce its own AI chips 

 Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults 

 Apple TV Plus is being rebranded to… Apple TV 

 Apple exec on Apple TV rebranding: ‘let’s just do it’

 Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the first to ‘go up in smoke during a bend test,’ JerryRigEverything says

 Roku’s AI-upgraded voice assistant can answer questions about what you’re watching 

 DirecTV will soon bring AI ads to your screensaver 

 Soul Against the Machine

 TiVo has sold its last DVR 

 Tesla Cybertruck sales are flatlining 

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI can't even turn on the lights

If you're a paid subscriber to The Verge, there's great news: You can now listen to Decoder, Version History, and The Vergecast completely ad-free.

Just head to your Account Settings page to opt-in and start listening without ads. 

Not a member of The Verge yet? No worries! You can sign up at theverge.com/subscribe to get ad-free podcasts, plus other perks like exclusive newsletters and unlimited access to everything we publish.

More here: Verge subscribers, here’s how to set up ad-free podcasts
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Announcing an ad-free Vergecast feed for Verge subscribers

Google is on a bit of a heater when it comes to gadgets. The Pixel 10 lineup is one of the best Android phone options; the Pixel Watch 4 is suddenly a winner; the Pixel Buds are an excellent accessory; even the Pixel Fold got some welcome upgrades this year! With the help of The Verge’s Victoria Song and Allison Johnson, we do the impossible: we rank all six of Google’s Pixel gadgets, from worst to best. Are headphones better than smartphones? Can you really compare a tablet to a smartwatch? Who knows, but we try. After that, Allison and David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether the dumbphone movement is a real one.

Further reading:

 Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: finally, a more durable foldable

 Google Pixel Buds 2A review: the right kind of compromise

 The Google Pixel Watch 4 is the Android watch to beat

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google's gadgets, ranked

Back when text messages cost 10 cents each, BlackBerry came up with a better way: BlackBerry Messenger, commonly known as BBM. It was the first new idea about messaging in a long time, and it was a huge hit… for a while. Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern join David Pierce to talk about a messaging service that was years ahead of WhatsApp and iMessage, but ultimately fizzled.

If you like the show, ⁠subscribe to the Version History feed⁠ to make sure you get every new episode.

Let us know what you think: 866-VERGE-11 or vergecast@theverge.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Version History: BlackBerry Messenger

Say this for OpenAI: it's very good at raising money, and it's very good at getting attention. David and Jake are joined by The Verge's Hayden Field to talk about OpenAI's demo day, the company's app store plans, why it's trying to build every possible ChatGPT feature all at the same time, and more. After that, the hosts talk about the ongoing popularity of the Sora app, and whether OpenAI has truly built a new kind of social network. Then Hayden has to leave, so David and Jake take on the lightning round to discuss Intel chips, Alex Cooper's Google deal, Starry internet, and more.

Further reading:

 OpenAI will let developers build apps that work inside ChatGPT

 ChatGPT apps are live: Here are the first ones you can try

 
OpenAI: all the news about the makers of ChatGPT

 
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT said it will significantly evolve in the next six months. 

 OpenAI will eventually allow “mature” ChatGPT apps. 

 
OpenAI and Jony Ive’s secret device won’t be ‘your weird AI girlfriend’

 AMD teams up with OpenAI to challenge Nvidia’s AI chip dominance

 Sam Altman says there are no current plans for ads within ChatGPT Pulse — but he’s not ruling it out

 A busy week for OpenAI’s social video machine.

 
Sora now lets users limit how their AI double is used

 
OpenAI teases licensed fictional characters on Sora

 
OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

 
Developers can bring Sora 2’s AI video generation into their own apps. 

 Katie Notopolous on Threads

 Sora’s Slop Hits Different

 
A new iPhone setting will stop CarPlay from stealing your AirPods’ audio 

 
Here is Panther Lake, Intel’s 2026 laptop chip with next-gen graphics\

 Facebook is turning into TikTok 

 
Alex Cooper is making ads for Google / Pixel

 
Here’s how Apple is locking down iPhones to comply with Texas’ age verification law

 Verizon buys the not-quite-5G wireless ISP Starry to expand wireless broadband 

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maybe it's real, maybe it's Sora

Oh, you thought AI was just in your browser and on your phone? Well, the AI is coming from inside the house. The Verge's Jen Pattison Tuohy and Google's Anish Kattukaran both join the show to discuss last week's Google smart home news, including the company's big bet on the Gemini assistant. Anish explains why Google cares about the smart home in the first place, why things haven't exactly gone great so far, and why he's so convinced the new generation of AI can make it work. After that, The Verge's Vee Song joins the show to talk about Peloton's newest gear, including a $6,695 treadmill and a huge new push into personalized AI training features. Vee then sticks around to help David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about how many smartwatches is too many smartwatches. Spoiler alert: the answer is two. But it's not quite as simple as that.

Further reading:

 Peloton increases fees and introduces new hardware including a $6,695 treadmill

 Peloton appoints Apple Fitness Plus cofounder as new CEO

 Peloton is a media company now, with media company problems

 Google dismantled Nest — can Gemini save what’s left?

 Hey Google, meet Gemini: the new voice of your smart home

 The new Google Home Speaker is built for Gemini

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google's extreme smart home makeover

In 2015, self-balancing scooters (which quickly became known as hoverboards) exploded in popularity, and then began literally exploding. Andrew Hawkins and Sean O’Kane join David Pierce to explore the multiple conflicting origin stories behind the hugely popular rideable, the many knockoffs, and why a device that doesn't actually hover ended up being called "hoverboard."

If you like the show, subscribe to the Version History feed to make sure you get every new episode.

Let us know what you think: 866-VERGE-11 or vergecast@theverge.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Version History: Hoverboards

This week, everything is a HomePod. And has ads. The Verge’s Jen Pattison-Tuohy joins the show to talk about all of Amazon’s new hardware, the current state of Alexa Plus, and whether the new Kindle Scribe is the one we’ve been waiting for. Then, The Verge’s Emma Roth tells Jen and David about her experience with Telly, the TV that ships to your house for free in exchange for showing you ads all the time. Telly may not be for everyone. Finally, in the lightning round, the gang talks about a handy new Spotify feature, Emma’s first Waymo ride, and the glory that is Chunk.

Further reading:

 
Amazon’s 2025 hardware event: the 8 biggest announcements

 Here’s where to preorder all of Amazon’s new Alexa devices and when they arrive

 
Amazon finally did the damn hardware right

 
Amazon’s new Echo Dot Max smart speaker bumps up the bass

 
Alexa Plus is smarter — but it’s not yet smart enough

 Alexa Plus on the TV is made to save you from your phone 

 
Alexa Plus is smarter — but it’s not yet smart enough

 Alexa Plus on the TV is made to save you from your phone 

 
Amazon sticks two cameras together for the 180-degree Blink Arc

 
The new Google Home Speaker is built for Gemini

 
Hey Google, meet Gemini: the new voice of your smart home | The Verge

 
I spent three months with Telly, the free TV that’s always showing ads

 OpenAI made a TikTok for deepfakes, and it’s getting hard to tell what’s real

 
Spotify now lets you exclude specific songs from your algorithm

 
All hail the new Fat Bear Champion

 Ring launches upgraded cameras with ‘Retinal Vision’ 4K recording

 
Microsoft is giving Copilot AI faces you can chat with

 Waymo adds YouTube Music

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The real price of a free TV

For the second episode in our three-part miniseries about the future of music, Charlie Harding, a music journalist and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast, joins the show to tell the story of Auto-Tune. He walks us through how a simple plugin became such a recognizable sound in music, why both artists and fans gravitated to the Auto-Tune sound, and why Auto-Tune has continued to grow even through backlash in the music business. Then we look ahead to AI, and try to figure out what — if any — lessons we might be able to learn about the sound and culture of the AI era to come.
Further reading:

Charlie Harding on X

Switched on Pop

From Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

From Rick Beato: How Auto-Tune DESTROYED Popular Music

From Gabi Belle: The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Auto-Tune always and forever

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