Vergecast

Senior reviewers Allison Johnson and Victoria Song trade host and guest duties in a Vergecasting ouroboros that’s never been attempted before and will probably never be attempted again. Allison talks about the iPhone 18 Pro’s new camera, Victoria talks about the Watch 12 and Ultra 4’s new sensors, and they both give their verdicts on who should upgrade.

Last week, an Anthropic researcher resigned and posted on X, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” These warnings are nothing new, but this one managed to go mainstream. So, do the people making AI really think it could kill us all? How? And if it really could be as dangerous as they say, why would anyone continue to work on it? Senior AI reporter Hayden Field joined us to answer your questions about the AI freakout.

Sean Hollister got his hands and face on Valve’s new VR headset, the Steam Frame. It’s expensive, starting at more than $1,000. It’s buggy — he and CNET’s Scott Stein both felt like beta testers as they reviewed it. But it’s also full of interesting ideas, including the promise that Steam games could one day come to your mobile phone. This week on The Vergecast, Sean and Scott discuss who exactly this device is for, in a world that mostly seems to have moved on from VR.

AI doomerism broke containment last week with an Anthropic researcher’s proclamation that there’s a >10% chance AI could kill all humans within the decade. The Vergecast is recording an all-AI hotline with senior reporter Hayden Field, and we want to hear from you. Comment on this post, e-mail vergecast@theverge.com, or call us at 866-VERGE-11.

Following Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event, The Vergecast is going live to share our first reactions and answer your questions. Folding phones, non-folding phones, non-phones, we’ll talk about it all. Come hang out!

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.

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

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. Guest host David Imel talks to Lauren Feiner about today’s 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

For better or worse, Amazon Alexa and Google Home’s smart voice assistants have been imbued with new generative AI powers.

Senior reviewer Victoria Song leads a Vergecast roundtable with editors Dominic Preston and Cameron Faulkner to talk about 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.

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. Check out part one of our conversation here.

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.

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 reviews of the newest robotic mowers and to let you know if they’re finally worth all that money. Read my review for more and check out Brandon’s video review.

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.

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.

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 on the biggest screen. Now that Spider-Man is moving onto IMAX screens, it may be even harder.

You have questions. We have (some) answers! For this week’s hotline episode, Travis Larchuk asks David your questions about E Ink-ish 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.

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.

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 screen, 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.

A recent study from the Oversight Board found that leading AI systems are less likely to criticize authoritarian governments than democratic ones.

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.

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.

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.

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?