Automattic just bought Tumblr from Verizon for reportedly 3 million dollars. CEO of Automattic Matt Mullenweg sits down with The Verge's Julia Alexander and Nilay Patel for this emergency episode of the Vergecast to share what his plans are for the micro-blogging platform. 
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Exclusive: Matt Mullenweg and Automattic bought Tumblr. What’s next?

The Vergecast is the flagship podcast from The Verge about small gadgets, Big Tech, and everything in between. Every Friday, hosts Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz 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.

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The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz discuss President Biden signing the TikTok ban bill, Apple's May 7th iPad event, Tesla's flop era, and more.
Further reading:

Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden’s desk

Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it

Rabbit R1 hands-on: early tests with the $199 AI gadget 

Apple announces May 7th event for new iPads

What to expect at Apple’s May ‘Let Loose’ event

The Mercedes G-Wagen, the ultimate off-road status symbol, goes electric 

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have multimodal AI now 

Kuo: Apple cuts Vision Pro shipments due to low demand

Tesla’s in its flop era

Tesla lays off ‘more than 10 percent’ of its workforce, loses top executives

Tesla recalls all 3,878 Cybertrucks over faulty accelerator pedal 

Tesla reveals a new Model 3 Performance with more horsepower and faster acceleration

A cheaper Tesla is back on the menu

Sonos announces redesigned app that puts everything on your homescreen

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon X Plus and Elite processors 

Apple might be the streaming home of soccer’s next big tournament 


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Anyone want to buy TikTok?

Today on the flagship podcast of forced app divestiture: 
03:07  - The Verge’s David Pierce and Lauren Fiener discuss the latest tech policy bills floating through Congress, including a privacy bill, a generative AI bill, and the TikTok divest-or-ban bill.

TikTok ‘ban’ passes in the House again

TikTok divest-or-ban legislation could suddenly be fast-tracked in the Senate

Lawmakers unveil new bipartisan digital privacy bill after years of impasse 


A real privacy law? House lawmakers are optimistic this time 

New bill would create public datasets to train AI and incentivize innovation.


34:17 - David talks with Nikola Todorovic and Tye Sheridan about their company Wonder Dynamics, which is creating AI-powered production tools for filmmakers. 

1:09:16 - David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline about messaging apps.

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Congress takes on TikTok, privacy, and AI

The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss third-party iPhone app stores, game emulators, Google Android and hardware team restructuring, the latest TikTok news, and more.
Further reading:

Third-party iPhone app store AltStore PAL is now live in Europe

The free Delta game emulator for iPhones is live on Apple’s App Store

A new NES emulator was briefly available on the Apple App Store

The first Apple-approved emulator for the iPhone has arrived... and been pulled

Apple opens the App Store to retro game emulators

Google is combining its Android and hardware teams — and it’s all about AI

Meta’s battle with ChatGPT begins now

AI isn't useless. But is it worth it?

Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child

Big Papa Joe, world's biggest TouchWiz Fan - The Vergecast (clip)


Facebook’s AI Told Parents Group It Has a Gifted, Disabled Child  

Sony might have perfected Mini LED TVs with its new 2024 lineup

Broadcast TV still exists, and now it’s sort of getting a built-in DVR

TikTok Notes starts rolling out as a new rival to Instagram

TikTok gives users more in-app ways to buy event tickets.

TikTok divest-or-ban legislation could suddenly be fast-tracked in the Senate

Report: ByteDance still has access to US users’ TikTok data despite Project Texas

The president could delay a TikTok ban an extra six months under a reported House proposal.

TikTok to restrict users who repeatedly post problematic topics from ‘For You’ feed

Twitch’s new TikTok-style Discovery feed is rolling out to everyone soon

Spotify is developing a remix feature to rival sped-up TikTok tunes

Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to ‘inject a sense of crisis’

Boston Dynamics’ new electric Atlas robot is swiveling nightmare fuel


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Emulators are taking over the App Store

Today on the flagship podcast of undersea cable management: 

04:10 - The Verge’s David Pierce and Josh Dzieza discuss the industry of laying and maintaining undersea cables that connect us to the internet. 
The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat

43:43 - Tom Warren and Joanna Nelius join the show to discuss the future of Arm chips on PCs and whether or not we’re about to get a huge jump in performance on most laptops. 

Microsoft is confident Windows on Arm could finally beat Apple

Microsoft to hold a special Windows and Surface AI event in May

Microsoft’s first AI PCs are the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for businesses

Qualcomm claims its Snapdragon X Elite processor will beat Apple, Intel, and AMD

Qualcomm says most Windows games should ‘just work’ on its unannounced Arm laptops


1:11:18 - Alex Cranz answers questions from the Vergecast Hotline about e-readers and the latest Kobo devices. 

Kobo announces its first color e-readers 

The best ebook reader to buy right now


Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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The internet really is a series of tubes

The Verge's Nilay Patel, David Piece, and Alex Cranz discuss David's review of the Humane AI Pin, Taylor Swift's music back on TikTok, a new party speaker, and much more.
Further reading:

Humane AI Pin review: the post-smartphone future isn’t here yet

Here’s What Reviewers Are Saying About the Humane Pin

We now have a better look at what’s inside the Humane AI pin

OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4 

Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok

Apple will open the iPhone to repair with used parts

Kobo announces its first color e-readers

Sony’s new headphones and speakers are all about skull-rattling bass

Official: here’s the DJI Avata 2, possibly one of the best sequels in years

Google Vids is the latest AI-powered app in Workspace

Meta says it’s fixing ‘HD’ photo sharing in Facebook Messenger 

Marissa Mayer’s eternal Sunshine

The MPA has big plans to crack down on movie piracy again


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Exclusive: Matt Mullenweg and Automattic bought Tumblr. What’s next?

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