Vergecast

Somehow, even after the Cybertruck launched, we still don’t know how many wipers it has. But we do know a lot more about it, including how to open the door! We also kinda sorta got some closure on the OpenAI drama, but as always the CEOs are still out here saying some wild stuff on stage and on the internet. Thank goodness we have a podcast where we get to loudly ask the digital gods: why?

Do you ever open the Netflix app and wonder why you’re seeing what you’re seeing? It turns out the story is both more and less complicated than you might think — and resistant to all my conspiracy theories about Netflix bullying you into watching stuff.

Also, if you haven’t been watching this season of Planet Earth, you’re missing out. And the stories behind the way the filmmakers capture incredible footage in awful conditions will only blow your mind more. Because this is The Vergecast, and care too much about drone cameras.

We tried to just tell the story in order, which is tough to do. Then we tried to figure out how this happened, what it means, and what might happen next. Grab the audio for your preferred podcast app right here.

And because this story won’t stop, we didn’t even get all the news – because one outcome we didn’t think of is that Sam Altman might go back to OpenAI after all. Sure!

Is it the end of the green bubble? Who knows! Probably not. Did Nothing make this happen? LOL, no. We dug into all things RCS and the future of messaging, before talking about Bing, the Windows app, wearable graphs, and whatever the Playstation Portal is. At the end of the day, we’re all just bubbles, you know what I mean?

Can you make an app that’s good for music, podcasts, audiobooks, discovery, library management, and like 100 other things? That’s what Spotify’s trying to figure out. Meanwhile, Disney is out here trying to eat the entire entertainment business one brand at a time. And trust me, friends: it’s going to be called Disney Plus.

I won’t spoil things, but we spend quite a while talking about Humane’s AI Pin and what a device needs to be to get us to put down our phones.

We also talk about the other big AI news of the week: Open AI’s new app store. Its no-code approach to building new GPTs seems very cool, even if its approach to compensating new GPT builders seems decidedly less so.

All that plus a steamy lightning round.

Epic v. Apple has come and gone, but now it’s Google’s turn to face the Fortnite maker.

Verge senior editor Sean Hollister is reporting from the courthouse, but I sat down with David Pierce earlier this week to discuss what all this could mean for the Play Store.

What do we expect our phones to be able to do for us? And what does it mean to be a good steward of the open web? Apple, Google, and the rest of us all have to answer those questions for ourselves — but on the internet, nothing’s ever quite as simple as it seems. (I almost just compared backlighting and SEO, but this metaphor is getting away from me.)

Also, Disney is buying Hulu, and we have tips on how to raise a troll army to defend you online. All that in one podcast episode! Imagine!

Okay, so “space black” isn’t the Black MacBook return we were hoping for, but Apple’s new Pros sound pretty nice. Which one should you buy, though? It’s complicated. Plus, that Scary Fast event was shot on an iPhone — so where does that mean we are in the evolution of smartphone cameras? All that, and some AR glasses, and you don’t even have to listen at 8PM on a Monday night.

We have some pretty good costume ideas for Apple’s Scary Fast event on Monday. We also have big ideas about the future of Threads, Mastodon, and year two of Elon Musk’s Twitter. And during one of the ad breaks, we watched the entire Blade: Trinity trailer. For some reason. It’s The Vergecast!

It’s the long-awaited meta episode! We talk about what Nilay is like as a boss, the mics we use, inter-podcast beefs, our big bold plans for the future of everything, and much more. Also at one point Nilay gets so uncomfortable I thought he was going to quit the show forever. It’s the flagship podcast of The Vergecast!

(Also, for the timestamp aficionados: check out this episode on YouTube, where we have each question linked.)

“Which Apple Pencil should you buy?” should not be a complicated question but is a complicated question. Same with “is the Cybertruck good, or even real?” We sort through the big-picture problems behind these questions, all while trying to discover what it would really take to cancel Netflix.

Would you wear Meta’s new smart glasses to a wedding? Well, Victoria Song would, and she brings us the tale of her many adventures in New York City as an indoor sunglasses-wearer.

Then, iFixit’s Kyle Wiens tells us what to expect from the CA right-to-repair law, and why the fight’s not over yet. All that and more, on the flagship podcast of Glassholes.

Adam Mosseri has a lot of thoughts about Threads’ role in the news business. We have a lot of thoughts about his thoughts. We also have thoughts about the intense about-face in the Sonos v. Google speaker fight, the Apple Search Engine that wasn’t, and much more. We also have some CSS news.

It has taken a full Vergecast to learn this sad fact, but, at long last, a measure of justice is done.

Pixel 8 reviews are live! So is the Pixel Watch 2 review! AI and cameras and Fitbit everywhere you look. We talked through them both, and then tried to figure out what to make of the new Chromebook Plus designation. Google gadgets: still here, and getting kind of good. Emphasis on kind of.

Are cameras liars? Have they always been liars? What do we do when our cameras and our photos apps aren’t even trying to capture the world as it really is? All of that is to say, we talk a lot about the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro this week. Plus more Android stuff, streaming price hikes, and much more.

The government is in the middle of a trial with Google, heading toward one with Amazon, and in general trying to change the way we think about monopolies. Also: Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial has begun, and it has already been eventful. All that, and an ebook debate, on the flagship podcast of the Sherman Act.

First we run through the greatest hits of the Code Conference (including Linda Yaccarino’s interview, which was ... something!). Then we catch up on all the news from Meta Connect, how Hollywood is approaching AI and data going forward, the Logitech racing chair of Nilay’s dreams, and much more. It’s The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of publishing late today.

This week I bought a DVD, for journalism. Because with Netflix’s disc-delivery service coming to an end, we wanted to know: what’s next for physical movies and TV? We asked Redbox’s owner that very question. Then we talked about streaming metrics, why they matter, and whether they actually mean anything at all.

(Also, we wrapped this episode just before the news hit that the writers’ strike was over. We’ll have lots more on that later this week.)

Amazon and Microsoft both had big device launches this week — and both were actually big AI launches. What’s next for gadgets, when AI seems to be the present and future of everything? Do you still need a laptop with a plinth? (Spoiler alert: yes. You do.)

We also talk YouTube, Xbox leaks, and Ed Sheeran. Cotton Eye Joe 2.0 is here, and it’s everywhere.

Still on the fence about which iPhone to buy, the 15 or 15 Plus the 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max? Can’t decide if it’s time to double-tap your way to a Watch upgrade? Wondering what the difference is between a homescreen widget and a lockscreen widget and whatever happens in the Dynamic Island and a Live Activity? Well, us too. So that’s all we did on The Vergecast today. We even figured some stuff out.

Sorry this week’s episode is a little late! But it’s a good one — we definitively did not solve the Thread mystery, but we have some ideas. And we don’t exactly know what a general search engine is, either, but we have some thoughts on what’s been happening in the biggest antitrust trial in two decades. It’s The Vergecast!

You might have missed that this week was Apple’s fall iPhone launch event, but fortunately for you we were on the ground in Cupertino for it and recorded a Vergecast to go over all the announcements. Join Nilay Patel, Allison Johnson, Victoria Song, and Dan Seifert as they discuss the event, the announcements, and their impressions of everything Apple announced.

Is the iPhone 15 going to blow your mind with its incredible new features? Probably not. But it might have a new port, a new material, and even a new name. And you better believe it’s going to have a Dynamic Island. Plus we have Chrome news, GoPro news, Sonos news, Disney news, and much more. Start working on your new YouTube face, friends!

It’s the last week before Labor Day in the US, which means it’s also the last week before Gadget Season begins again in earnest. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, Google, it seems like everybody’s got a product launch in the next six weeks. Today on the show we preview a bit of what’s to come, and dig into all the best stuff coming out of IFA this year. It’s the year of wireless charging, y’all!

Many people know the Internet Archive through the Wayback Machine, one of the most important web history repositories in existence. But its broader archival initiatives have left it facing legal challenges from the publishing and music industries. On today’s Vergecast I broke down the status of the suits and what they could mean for the future of digital preservation... and while we’re at it, what’s copyright really meant for, anyway?

We just don’t really understand why you’d make a pair of $200 headphones without Bluetooth. But we absolutely understand why you’d want a 57-inch Samsung monitor.

We’re super excited to see all the awesome throwback computer setups from our Vergecast listeners! Here are some of the cool submissions we’ve received in response to Nilay’s call on last week’s episode. Thanks for sharing!

If you want to share your own vintage battlestations, email us — vergecast@theverge.com.

Can you make a top-notch PC out of a block of wood? Maybe more to the point, would you want to? And can Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, or anyone anywhere, build a true super app? Today on the show we accidentally investigate the biggest and smallest visions of computing, all in one place.

On the last episode of The Vergecast, Nilay put out a request for photos of your childhood computer rooms and while we’ve already received a bunch of submissions from listeners, we need more.

Modern gamer dens with LED lighting and racing chairs are appreciated but unnecessary here — we’re looking for pictures of a 486-holding hutch from the era of floppy discs and dot-matrix printers. Email us -  Vergecast@theverge.com.

Still need an example? This is is what I’m talking about.