January 30, 2026

Tim Cook is destroying his own legacy

1 hour 35 minutes

We've been covering what's happening in Minnesota, and the killing of Alex Pretti, all week on The Verge. To begin this episode, Nilay explains why — and why so many others seem to feel the same way right now. After that, the hosts talk about the CEO-studded screening of Melania Trump's documentary last weekend, the disastrous public appearance from Tim Cook, and whether Cook and other CEOs have any other option but to capitulate to the Trump administration. Then it's time for some gadgets: we talk about the super-foldy, super-expensive Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, the Clawdbot / Moltbot phenomenon, and whether Google can finally put Chrome OS and Android together the right way. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for Brendan Carr is a dummy, Tesla's anti-car pivot, Apple's design hires, and more.

Further reading:

On the ground in Minneapolis after the killing of Alex Pretti

I grew up with Alex Pretti

Creators and communities everywhere take a stand against ICE

It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun

Why won’t anyone stop ICE from masking?

Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and AMD CEO Lisa Su are at the White House for a VIP screening of the Melania doc.

Tim Cook had ‘a good conversation’ with Trump about deescalation

Cook in 2020: Speaking up on racism

From The New York Times: Amazon’s $35 Million ‘Melania’ Promotion Has Critics Questioning Its Motives

From The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Melania’ Set for a $3 Million Opening Despite Amazon’s $35 Million Marketing Push

Here’s Tim Cook hanging out with accused rapist Brett Ratner at the Melania screening

What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed

TikTok USA is broken

TikTok is still down, here are all the latest updates

TikTok is still struggling in the US due to a “cascading systems failure.”

TikTok US is mostly back up and running

TikTok blames its US problems on a power outage

Oracle admits it broke TikTok.

Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law

Is New TikTok banning the word “Epstein” in DMs? Not really.

TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover

Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media

Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters

Bluesky is testing ‘live’ features to take on X

Best gas masks

The Samsung Trifold will cost nearly three grand

Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action

Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests

Moltbot, the AI agent that ‘actually does things,’ is tech’s new obsession

Clawdbot’s bad day

I used Claude to vibe-code my wildly overcomplicated smart home

The FCC’s Late Night Comedy Show

Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots

Tesla says production-ready Optimus robot is coming soon

Tesla hits a grim milestone: its second straight year of decline

Elon Musk invests $2 billion in Elon Musk

Hang on, there’s a Trump Phone Ultra coming too?

Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With is joining Apple’s design team

The Stream Deck-packed gaming keyboard is a monster of good ideas

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