The Vergecast

It’s Pixel week. Jake, Vee, and Allison are chatting about all things Google. First, there’s the Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and 10 Pro Fold, which get a mix of hardware upgrades (dust-proofing on a foldable!) and downgrades (a worse camera on the Pixel 10?) and a ton of new AI features, including Magic Cue and Pro Res Zoom, which puts AI right inside the camera app. Next, there’s the Pixel Watch 4, Fitbit’s AI fitness coach, the Pixel Buds 2A, and a tease of Google’s next smart home speaker. Finally, we wrap it up with the Thunder Round and a discussion of Hank Green’s Focus Friend, Ricoh’s GR IV, Netflix’s new content strategy, Masimo’s attempt to sue over the Apple Watch again, and most importantly, Chipotle’s drone delivery.

Further reading:

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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 [email protected]) 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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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:

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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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 [email protected]), 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:

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In this bonus episode of The Vergecast, Senior Reviewer Victoria Song sits down with a bunch of Verge staffers to talk about how they use AI tools in their everyday lives. Not all of it went smoothly — we definitely get into the ways these tools fall short — but we explore how AI can be used to help bedtime go more smoothly for parents, plan big cross-country moves, supplement your internet searches (always double-check!), and even vibe code an app for your next tabletop role-playing game.

If you have any examples where AI was useful to you, we’d love to hear them. (For what it’s worth, we’d also love to hear stories where it spectacularly failed.) Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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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:

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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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 [email protected].

Further reading

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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:

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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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 [email protected].

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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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:

Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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