The Vergecast

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.
Website : https://www.theverge.com/the-vergecast
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Last Episode : August 19, 2025 9:00am
Last Scanned : 3.8 hours ago



Episodes
Episodes currently hosted on IPFS.
Confirmed 3
Do we really want Rosie the Robot?This week on The Vergecast, the co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, joins The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, to discuss what the ideal home robot is. Are we close to creating a Rosie the Robot — an all-in-one humanoid robot that can take care of our homes, or should we take an entirely different approach to home robotics? They dive into the advances in technology powering this shift and ponder what purpose robotics in the home should really serve.
Then, Jen takes a journey back into smart home history to help us understand its future. Grant Erickson, Principal of Nuovations, a former Apple, Nest, and Google engineer who was part of the team that developed Thread, joins the show.
He shares the story of how and why, back in 2011, the Nest team, led by Tony Faddell and Matt Rogers, decided to create a smart home protocol. It involves a thermostat, fragmented ecosystems, and one of the best smart home products ever made.
They discuss how Thread became the foundation of the Matter smart home standard — an unprecedented industry collaboration with a herculean task — to make the smart home simpler.
To close out the show, Grant sticks around to help answer a Vergecast hotline question (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com) about how Matter manages your data.
Further reading:
Maybe I don’t want a Rosey the Robot after all
Amazon left Roomba with a huge mess to clean up
Figure will start ‘alpha testing’ its humanoid robot in the home in 2025
Amazon Astro review: too much Alexa, not enough arms
Samsung is finally releasing Ballie
This Pixar-style dancing lamp hints at Apple’s future home robot
iRobot’s founder is working on a new kind of home robot
iRobot OS is the newest ‘brain’ for your Roomba
Amazon bought iRobot to see inside your home
I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me
Inside the Nest: iPod creator Tony Fadell wants to reinvent the thermostat
Nest CEO Tony Fadell on Google acquisition
Fire drill: Can Tony Fadell and Nest build a better smoke detector?
How big companies kill ideas — and how to fight back, with Tony Fadell
Situation: there are too many competing smart home standards
Matter’s plan to save the smart home
Nest’s home security system costs $499 and comes with magnetic door sensors
Google says Matter is still set to fix the biggest smart home frustrations
Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home
Nanoleaf launches a smart switch after eight years of trying
Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home
Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now
The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol
It could be 2026 before all your Thread border routers work together
Matter will be better in 2025 — say the people who make it
The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade
killedbygoogle.com
Google’s ADT partnership finally has a new home security product to show for it
Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale door lock
Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system
Appliance makers are teaming up to reduce your electricity usage — and save you cash
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Expires in 2 hours
Published Tuesday
Vibe coding through the GPT-5 mess
GPT-5 is here, and it’s not going so well. This week on The Vergecast, Jake, Vee, and Hayden discuss the bumpy launch of OpenAI’s latest model and why GPT-5 isn’t as big of a leap as GPT-4.
Then, everyone shares their vibe coding projects and the bumpy journey to making anything usable. After that, our newest segment: Corporate Shenanigans, where we rate the week in strange corporate moves on a scale from “actually serious” to “total joke.”
Finally, the Thunder Round returns, new and improved, to discuss ditching your phone for a smartwatch, doctors relying too much on AI, AOL dial-up shutting down, the Pebble Time 2, and why you shouldn’t trust what AI chatbots say about themselves.
Further reading:
ChatGPT won’t remove old models without warning after GPT-5 backlash
OpenAI will update GPT-5’s “personality” after user backlash
ChatGPT is bringing back 4o as an option because people missed it
Sam Altman shared more about what went wrong with those GPT-5 graphs
OpenAI gives some employees a ‘special’ multimillion-dollar bonus
Anthropic just made its latest move in the AI coding wars
Anthropic’s Claude chatbot can now remember your past conversations
Perplexity offers to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion
Apple is suing Apple Cinemas
Apple Cinemas responds to Apple lawsuit
Apple returns blood oxygen monitoring to the latest Apple Watches
Elon Musk says he’s suing Apple for rigging App Store rankings
Ditching my phone for an LTE smartwatch was a humbling experience
Here’s a look at the final Pebble Time 2 design
Some doctors got worse at detecting cancer after relying on AI
Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice?
Chatbots aren’t telling you their secrets
AOL is finally shutting down dial-up
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published Friday
How to save a smart home company
This week on The Vergecast, we enter the Jen-era of Hot Girl Vergecast Summer, with a deep dive into the business of the smart home. The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen), chats with Ken Fairbanks, a longtime customer of Insteon who ended up buying the smart lighting company when it went into bankruptcy.
Ken shares the story of how one of the original smart lighting protocols, founded in the post-X10 era when home automation moved from wired to wireless, floundered, and how he and a band of users brought it back from the dead. He dishes what he’s learned about how to keep the lights on — from customer loyalty and the value of subscriptions, to what tariffs are doing to the industry and how some hardware companies are just pyramid schemes.
Then, in a special supersized (and we mean SUPER) Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com), Jen is joined by smart home expert Richard Gunther, co-host of The Smart Home Show, to tackle a bunch of your burning smart lighting questions. They answer everything from how to move your smart home to which Thread border router you should buy for your Matter setup. Plus, they run down their own smart lighting set-ups.
Further reading:
Insteon’s troubles are a smart home tale as old as time
Insteon Raises the Curtain for the Next Act
Someone turned Insteon’s lights back on
Insteon customers turned Insteon’s lights back on
Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home
Smart switches or smart bulbs? How to choose the right smart lighting for your home
Controller for HomeKit
Philips Hue Play sync box and gradient lightstrip review: wholly unnecessary, totally delightful
Taming Wi-Fi in the Smart Home:
Leviton’s new smart light switches don’t require a neutral wire
Every smart home device that works with Matter
Aqara’s new seven-inch home control tablet can replace a light switch
These smart lights could solve the kitchen cabinet problem
Hue launches a pricey new sunrise lamp
Smart string light showdown: Nanoleaf versus Lifx
The best floodlight camera to buy right now
How to move a smart home
Moving a smart home - The Smart Home Show
Living with the ghost of a smart home’s past
Smart ceiling light showdown: Aqara T1M versus Nanoleaf Skylight
Binding should be the next big thing for smart home devices
Aqara adds support for 50 new Matter device types
Flic is ready to control all your Matter devices
Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home
Google Nest Thread border routers
Google TV Streamer review: smarter than your average set-top box
Google Nest Hub (2nd-gen) review: sleep on it
Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now
The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol
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Published 08/12
GPT-5's big new feature: less lying?
It’s a huge week in AI, with OpenAI releasing GPT-OSS and GPT-5, Grok getting deeply problematic again with its “spicy” video generator, and Tim Cook admitting that Apple may need to cut some deals. Then we talk the age gating of the internet and how you might soon need an ID card to get just about anywhere online. Finally, the Lightning Round gets re-rebranded. Adi Robertson and Alex Heath join the show to discuss.
Further reading:
GPT-5 is being released to all ChatGPT users
OpenAI releases a free GPT model that can run on your laptop
Why open-source AI became an American national priority
Mark Zuckerberg promises you can trust him with superintelligent AI
xAI’s new Grok image and video generator has a ‘spicy’ mode
Grok’s ‘spicy’ video setting instantly made me Taylor Swift nude deepfakes
I tested Grok’s Valentine sex chatbot and it (mostly) behaved
Tim Cook says Apple ‘must’ figure out AI and ‘will make the investment to do it’
Tim Cook says Apple is ‘open to’ AI acquisitions
Ready or not, age verification is rolling out across the internet
The UK is now age-gating the internet
The UK is slogging through an online age-gate apocalyps
The UK’s new age-gating rules are easy to bypass
Reddit and Discord’s UK age verification can be defeated by Death Stranding’s photo mode
Reddit rolls out age verification in the UK to comply with new rules
Five EU states to test age verification app to protect children
The EU approach to age verification
Commission presents guidelines and age verification app prototype for a safer online space for children
Porn age-gating is the future of the internet, thanks to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court just upended internet law, and I have questions
Florida Sues Huge Porn Sites Including XVideos and Bang Bros Over Age Verification Law
“Over the last two and a half years, 19 states – home to more than a third of Americans – have passed laws that require pornography websites to confirm a user’s age by checking a government-issued ID or scanning their face, among other methods.”
Google is using AI age checks to lock down user accounts
Today's Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy
Age Verification Harms Users of All Ages
Blocking Access to Harmful Content Will Not Protect Children Online, No Matter How Many Times UK Politicians Say So
Zero Knowledge Proofs Alone Are Not a Digital ID Solution to Protecting User Privacy
Age Verification in the European Union: The Commission's Age Verification App
RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine contracts
Epic just won its Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same
Google has just two weeks to begin cracking open Android, it admits in emergency filing
Instagram adds a reposts feed and rips off Snap Maps
OpenAI charts crime
OpenAI gets caught vibe graphing
Nintendo raises the Switch 1 price from $299 to $339
Apple says Trump’s tariffs are adding another $1 billion to its costs
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published 08/08
Online shopping is full of copycats
This week on The Vergecast, guest host Mia Sato talks to YouTube fitness pioneer Cassey Ho (better known as Blogilates) about the well-oiled machine that is the dupe economy. Ho shares her experience creating her own line of athletic wear that sooner or later gets ripped off by countless copycats — and how she tries to fight back.
Then, Mia brings an audio diary from a visit to Fabscrap, a textile recycling facility in Brooklyn, that is working to save fabric and other materials from the landfill. Fashion is a wasteful industry, not unlike tech — luckily, there are people like Fabscrap staff and volunteers who are working towards solutions.
Finally, Victoria Song swings by to help answer a hotline question about how to make the high-tech Clueless closet a reality. If you have a question for us, call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com.
Further reading
How dupes turned online shopping upside down
Lululemon sues Costco over viral alleged “dupes”
The US finally acknowledges textile waste in new report
Your stuff is actually worse now
Ghana becomes dumping ground for the world’s unwanted used clothes
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Published 08/05
Diving into Apple’s Liquid Glass
It’s time. The public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and more are finally out for everyone to try. Jake Kastrenakes, Vee Song, and Antonio G. Di Benedetto give their takes on Apple’s Liquid Glass design language after two months of living with it. Antonio shares his experiences with macOS and the upgraded Spotlight, and Vee dives into the ups and downs of watchOS’s AI fitness coach. Then, Andy Hawkins and Eater's Matthew Kang talk about Tesla’s rough quarter, the new Tesla Diner, and what Epic Bacon has to do with it all. Finally, the Thunder Round returns, and we all learn what Labubus are.
Further reading:
Apple releases public betas of its new software updates with Liquid Glass
How to install the iOS 26 public beta
The biggest changes coming to your iPhone with iOS 26
Liquid Glass is fine, I guess
Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign is shaping up to be a snoozer on Macs
You can actually multitask on an iPad now and it’s the best new feature in 15 years
watchOS 26 preview: a subtler take on AI
Apple launches $20 subscription service to protect your gadgets
Tesla’s earnings hit a new low, with largest revenue drop in years
Elon Musk finally admits the new, more affordable Tesla is just a stripped down Model Y
Undeterred by limits, Elon Musk plots a big robotaxi expansion
Everything Eater Editors Ate at the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles
The Full Tesla Diner Menu, Revealed
The Tesla Diner Will Track When Guests Are Nearby to Prepare Their Orders
Inside the New Tesla Diner in Los Angeles
Anti-Elon Musk protesters are coming for Tesla’s new diner
Faraday Future is back with another wild EV that probably will never get made
Amazon buys Bee AI
Jake: AppleCare One is a good deal, but not for everyone
Uber’s making it easier for women riders and drivers to find each other
The frenzied, gamified chase for Labubus
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published 07/25
A-lister antics and Schedule A shenanigans
Summer blockbusters like the new Superman and Jurassic World movies may be doing great at the box office, but promoting them is more complicated than ever. The old celebrity playbook of magazine profiles, TV chat shows and press junkets isn’t enough in an era of audience fragmentation. Publicists now have to strategize which podcasts to make time for, and whether their clients will eat chicken on YouTube with Amelia Dimoldenberg or Sean Evans.
This week on The Vergecast, guest host Mia Sato talks to Vulture’s Fran Hoepfner to break down the ever-changing new media circuit, whether you’re a beloved A-lister, a formerly-beloved A-lister, or an aspiring A-lister.
Then, we take a deep dive with Sarah Fackrell into a controversial legal tactic brands are using to go after online sellers hawking everything from grumpy cat T-shirts to closet hooks.
Finally, Victoria Song joins Mia to answer a Vergecast hotline from a listener wondering whether an AI translator will be able to keep up with his partner’s Colombian mother. If you’ve got a question for us, call 866-VERGE11 or e-mail vergecast@theverge.com.
Further reading:
Box Office: ‘Superman’ Surpasses $400 Million Globally, ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Nears $650 Million Milestone
The Celebrity Press-Tour Road Map
Fame and Frustration On the New Media Circuit
Sydney woman who sold a cartoon cat T-shirt told to pay US$100,000 in Grumpy Cat copyright case
How Does a Mom Get Slapped With a $250,000 Judgment Over $380 of Homemade Luke Combs Merch? Experts Cite ‘Cottage Industry’ of Mass Counterfeit Suits in Illinois
A SAD Scheme of Abusive Intellectual Property Litigation
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Published 07/22
The creepy AI era is here
Would you like Siri more if it had a face? This week on The Vergecast, we’re talking about AI assistants getting smarter… and uncomfortably personal. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk about her early tests of Alexa Plus, which is finally AI-powered and a lot more capable. Jake shares his uncomfortable first interaction with Grok’s anime girlfriend. And Waveform cohost David Imel is here to talk about Sony’s RX1R III and other premium “compact” cameras.
Finally, the THUNDER ROUND is back. New, improved, and still loud.
Further reading:
24 hours with Alexa Plus: we cooked, we chatted, and it kinda lied to me
Alexa Plus launches to “small number” of people More than a million people now have Alexa Plus
Elon Musk’s AI bot adds a ridiculous anime companion with ‘NSFW’ mode
I spent 24 hours flirting with Elon Musk’s AI girlfriend
System prompt dump of xAI / Grok’s new AI anime girlfriend
Elon Musk teases AI anime boyfriend based on Edward Cullen
“We will, of course, have another character inspired by Mr. Darcy”
xAI has open roles for building AI “waifus.”
US government announces $200 million Grok contract a week after ‘MechaHitler’ incident
Grok will no longer call itself Hitler or base its opinions on Elon Musk’s, promises xAI
Sony’s pocket-sized RX1R camera returns with its first update in 10 years
Original RX1R
RX1R II
Google exec: ‘We’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android’
Our biggest questions about ChromeOS and Android merging
Ikea goes all in on Matter/Thread
Eric Migicovsky
Texts.com
Google Nest subscription
The next batch of emoji includes Bigfoot
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published 07/18
How the low-vision community embraced AI smart glasses
On this episode of The Vergecast, we’re going to dive deep into why accessible design is universal design. First, guest host Victoria Song will chat with Jason Valley, a visually impaired Verge reader. Jason initially reached out to Victoria after her Live AI hands-on, challenging the notion that the feature was a “solution looking for a problem to solve.” Jason shares how the tech has helped him live a more independent life, what he’s hoping to see improve, and how the blind and low-vision community has enthusiastically embraced the technology.
After that, Victoria sits down with Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley. Be My Eyes is an app that pairs blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers to help them go about their day. Buckley gives his thoughts about how accessible tech design benefits everyone, why smart glasses and AI are a natural combo, and what challenges and opportunities in this space remain.
And finally, we have features reporter Mia Sato on to answer a spicy question about smart glasses from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com). Specifically, do smart glasses belong in the bedroom?
Further reading:
Live AI on Meta’s smart glasses is a solution looking for a problem
Meta’s smart glasses can now describe what you’re seeing in more detail
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses actually make the future look cool
Be My Eyes AI offers GPT-4-powered support for blind Microsoft customers
The principles of wearable etiquette
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Published 07/15
All eyes on Samsung's thin new foldable
Summer phone season kicks off with Samsung’s latest launch. Jake, Vee, and Allison talk about Samsung’s new lineup of foldables, including the very thin new Z Fold 7 and Allison’s disdain for the Z Flip 7 FE. Vee has impressions of Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 8 lineup and its squircle-y new redesign. Then, it’s time to talk Big Tech shakeups. Apple’s COO is leaving, Zuckerberg is buying himself an AI dream team, X’s CEO is out — and its chatbot Grok is on a rampage. Finally, big things are in store for the Lightning Round… which shall henceforth be known as the THUNDER ROUND. Lots to talk about, including Lorde’s CD problems, Apple’s Liquid Glass changes, and HBO Max finally becoming HBO Max again.
Further reading:
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Everything announced at the July event
Galaxy Z Fold 7 hands-on: Samsung finally made the foldables we’ve been asking for
Samsung cuts price of its foldables with the Z Flip 7 FE
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series hands-on: squircle squad
Samsung seems to have leaked its own trifold phone design
Samsung says its trifold phone should launch ‘this year’
Samsung snuck a trifold tease into (January) Unpacked
One of Tim Cook’s possible successors is leaving Apple
Sabih Khan
Apple’s design team will report to Tim Cook
A close look at who could succeed Tim Cook
Mark Zuckerberg announces his AI ‘superintelligence’ super-group
Meta is paying $14 billion to catch up in the AI race
Meta’s ‘superintelligence’ hiring spree adds an AI leader from Apple
Pay packages of up to $300 million over four years
Meta is trying to win the AI race with money — but not everyone can be bought
X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down after two years
X’s CEO is out after failing at basically everything she claimed she wanted
Threads is catching up to X on mobile
X has a new head of product
Elon Musk’s xAI buys Elon Musk’s X for $33 billion on paper
xAI updated Grok to be more ‘politically incorrect’
Grok stops posting text after flood of antisemitism and Hitler praise
“In other posts it referred to itself as “MechaHitler”.
Musk makes grand promises about Grok 4 in the wake of a Nazi chatbot meltdown
Adobe’s new camera app is making me rethink phone photography
Ikea’s latest speaker lamp ditches Sonos for Spotify and inexpensive Bluetooth
Ikea ditches Zigbee for Thread going all in on Matter smart homes
Perplexity launches Comet web browser
OpenAI’s next big launch could be an AI web browser
E Ink is turning the laptop touchpad into an e-reader for AI apps
Lorde’s new CD is so transparent that stereos can’t even read it
I tried playing Lorde’s new CD
Appeals court strikes down ‘click-to-cancel’ rule
Nothing’s ‘first true flagship’ phone plays it a little safe
Adding calendar events with a screenshot is AI at its finest
The government’s Apple antitrust lawsuit is still on
Apple just added more frost to its Liquid Glass design
Apple’s second-generation Vision Pro might launch this year
Nvidia briefly became the first $4 trillion company on Wednesday
The makers of Cameo just launched... a birthday-tracking app?
Nintendo is ending its cost-saving Switch game vouchers
HBO Max is officially HBO Max again
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published 07/11
A quest for the best headphone mics
On this episode of The Vergecast, we kick off Hot Girl Vergecast Summer with a classic Vergecast segment: the mic test. Guest host Victoria Song is joined by Vergecast producers Andru Marino and Erick Gomez to see how the Nothing Headphone 1, Sony WH-1000XM6, Apple AirPods Max, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra hold up against what’s possibly the noisiest street in Brooklyn.
After that, Victoria is joined by Ladder CEO Greg Stewart to talk about what it takes to build a successful strength training app — especially for people just starting out. As it turns out, it’s quite challenging, between curating playlists, accommodating users’ different access to equipment, skill levels, and preferences for coaching styles. (And maybe, some occasional beef with Peloton?)
Lastly, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com) about AI fitness summaries, whether people actually like them, what’s frustrating about them, and what scenarios they might actually be useful for.
Want to learn more about the topics in this episode? Here are some handy dandy links for your reference:
Nothing Headphone 1 review
Sony WH-1000XM6 hands-on
Apple AirPods Max review
Bose QuietComfort Ultra review
A lazy person’s guide to getting into shape
Ladder isn’t done trolling Peloton
The unbearable obviousness of AI fitness summaries
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Published 07/08
The movie and TV tech we actually want to use
One way to think about the tech industry is just as a series of people trying to build stuff they saw in movies and on TV. Some of that tech is great, some of it is deeply dystopian, and most of it would make the world a very different place if it suddenly existed. In this episode, a bunch of us try to figure out which tech we actually want to use. David is joined by The Verge’s Allison Johnson, Jennifer Pattison-Tuohy, Mia Sato, and Victoria Song — aka the hosts of Hot Girl Vergecast Summer — to draft their way through the movie, show, and game tech they’d want to make real. Some of the picks you’ll expect, and some we bet has never crossed your mind. And some big-name tech goes undrafted!
Once you've finished the show, make sure you take the poll and tell us who won: https://forms.gle/Q1wFhpzCdM3B5bqj9
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Published 07/01