In this special live episode of The Vergecast, from the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, it's time to talk CES. Nilay and David run through some of the show's biggest stories, plus the Meta news that dominated the conversations all week in Vegas. Then Allison Johnson, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, and Victoria Song join the show to talk about all the newest, best, weirdest, and worst gadgets they've seen this year. AI is everywhere, everyone's making smart glasses, the smart home might be turning a corner, and we've seen it all this week.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the live show! And if you couldn't make it, stay tuned — this won't be the last time we all get to hang out.

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Happy Holidays! The Vergecast is off this week, but we also know you might be doing a lot of traveling and / or avoiding of your family this time of year, so we figured we'd do something a little different. We compiled a bunch of our favorite Vergecast segments and moments from this year — a full six hours of them! — in case you need something to listen to. You may have heard them all before! They might all be new! Maybe it'll be a mix! This one's an easy skip if you're looking for one, but if you need some Verge in your ears this holiday season, we've got you covered. We'll be back for real in January, starting at CES. If you'll be in Vegas, come see us live on Wednesday, January 8th! https://voxmediaevents.com/vergecast And in the meantime, have a great holiday, and rock and roll.

Here are the segments we picked, in order, with timestamps (because we can't do chapters, we know, we hate it too):

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Happy holidays! Before we disappear into family time and catching up on our favorite shows, we have one more episode for you. And it's 90 minutes of deep nerdery about the smart home. Every year, we try to dig into one standard or spec that has impacted our lives this year, and we couldn't think of anything more potentially great and occasionally infuriating than Matter. Matter is supposed to be the protocol that makes the smart home work — so, uh, how's that going? The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins to discuss the state of the smart home, before we play a game to see how well we understand things. Then, Home Assistant creator Paulus Schoutsen tells us what it's like to try and make Matter work, and where we might be headed next year.

Further reading:

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The Verge's Victoria Song and Kylie Robison join the show to talk about all of Google's recent AI and XR announcements, and the company's big and Gemini-powered vision for the future of computing. Then Chris Grant, the group publisher for Polygon and The Verge, explains why GTA VI and the Nintendo Switch 2 are so important to the future of gaming — plus a few predictions about how they'll turn out. Finally, The Verge's Helen Havlak answers a hotline question about how she plans her garden in Figma. Which is a real thing she really does.

Further reading:

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For the second episode in our two-part 2025 preview, Nilay and David are once again joined by Wall Street Journal columnist (and friend of The Verge) Joanna Stern to talk about what will, and won't, happen in tech next year. This time, David joins us after a quick jaunt to the end of next year, and relays a bunch of things that happened in tech in 2025. But some of them are lies. Joanna and Nilay have to decide which things really will happen next year, and which won't. As always, the hosts get points for good guesses and negative points for bad ones. And once we're all in late 2025, we'll declare a winner.

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Nilay, David, and The Verge's Richard Lawler talk about a big week in AI news. First, they go over all the latest on Google's Gemini 2.0 launch, and try to figure out whether Project Astra and Project Mariner will ever turn into products people use. They also discuss OpenAI's release (and un-release) of Sora, the new Reddit Answers tool, and what's new in iOS 18.2. Finally, in the lightning round, there's talk of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Sonos, and Cruise. There also is and isn't talk of quantum computing. Because that's possible now.

Further reading:

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A week ago, The Verge launched a subscription. And you had questions! So we have answers. The Verge’s Helen Havlak and Nilay Patel join the show to talk about how we priced the subscription, why ad-free podcasts are hard to do, Apple News, what we do during ad breaks, and much more. And if we didn’t answer your question, let us know! Call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11, or email [email protected], with all your questions. Thanks to everyone who sent them in!

Further reading:

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Welcome to our two-part preview of the year to come! For the first installment, Nilay, David, and Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern bring all the predictions for 2025 — their mildest, medium-est, and spiciest ideas about the year to come. Each host presents their take on TikTok bans, social platforms, smart homes, streaming services, and more, and the others get to decide whether they agree. Whoever gets the most right at the end of the year will win a big prize. (There's a points system for determining all that, but we'll figure that out later.)

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Nilay and David talk a bit about this week’s launch of the Verge subscription, plus what’s coming next. (There’s still time to send questions for next week! 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected].) Then they talk about the streaming news of the week, and the ways streaming services are continuing to act like cable companies. Then Kylie Robison joins to talk about the lowering stakes for AGI, shipmas at OpenAI, and more. Finally, in the lighting round, it’s crypto and browsers and Intel. And more crypto.

Further reading:

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The Verge's Thomas Ricker joins the show with an update on his question to live the #vanlife. He shares stories about Starlink Mini, the new Peak Design backpack everyone loves, converting a Sprinter van to a mobile apartment, and more. Then, The Verge's Andru Marino takes us through his tests on a bunch of new creator- and social-friendly microphones, which plug into your phone and promise to make everything sound better. Finally, we answer a question about web browsers on the Vergecast Hotline.

(Don't forget to send us your questions about The Verge and The Vergecast for next week's episode! Call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected] with all your most meta questions.)

Further reading:

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