The Vergecast

The Vergecast starts off this week in a traditional fashion with a talk about dongles — Microsoft’s $80 USB-C dongle to be exact. But there’s a whole bunch of little things that also happened this week that Nilay, Dieter, and Paul discuss. We’ve got Apple acknowledging the problem with its MacBook keyboards, Google demoing Duplex, and Apple releasing the Mojave public beta. Also this week, we bring you two new rotating segments on the show. First we have transportation reporter Sean O’Kane with “This Week in Elon Musk” — a rundown of the news that happened this week in the Elon Musk canon. Second, culture reporters Megan Farokhmanesh and Bijan Stephen run though their favorite “Culture Headlines” on The Verge this week. And of course we’ve got Paul’s weekly segment that he does every week, “Rhymes With What’s Poppin’,” so if you listen to the whole show, you’ve got a stew going. 02:20 - Microsoft’s Surface USB-C dongle launches on June 29th for $79.99 09:15 - Apple acknowledges faulty MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboards with new repair program 15:00 - macOS Mojave is now available in public beta 20:59 - Intel now faces a fight for its future 29:06 - This week in Elon Musk with Sean O’Kane 33:41 - Google Duplex really works and testing begins this summer 42:03 - BlackBerry Key2 review: a keyboard with a phone 42:59 - LG says screw everything, we’re doing five cameras for the V40 43:57 - The Galaxy Note 9 hits the FCC, with launch of Samsung’s next flagship presumably on the horizon 45:51 - AT&T more than doubles ‘admin fee’ for every wireless customer 48:31 - Culture headlines with Megan and Bijan 52:58 - Honda retires its famed Asimo robot 53:41 - Paul’s weekly segment “Rhymes with whats poppin” 55:58 - Amazon adds voice control to its Alexa iOS app 59:19 - Sonos Beam review: living room upgrade

Instagram announced on Wednesday a standalone app called IGTV, a place for watching long-form vertical video. Casey and Ashely — who went to Instagram’s event that announced the app — talk with Nilay, Dieter, and Paul about their initial feelings about the platform and predict how it will fit into the social mediasphere. Also, Nilay Patel sits down with Kara Swisher to talk about the recent AT&T and Time Warner merger. Kara published a book in 2003 about the AOL and Time Warner merger There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere (the merger split off in 2009) so the two discuss the similarities and differences between the two mergers and what they can potentially mean when distribution companies own content. There’s a whole lot more in between that — like Paul’s weekly segment (now up for sale) “Shaavoop” — so listen to it all and you’ll get it all. 01:54 - Instagram announces IGTV, a standalone app for longer videos 19:33 - AT&T launches new WatchTV streaming service at aggressive $15-per-month price 27:26 - Tinder parent company buys anti-Tinder dating app Hinge 35:51 - Kara Swisher talks AT&T - Time Warner merger 1:07:12 - Paul’s weekly segment “Shaavoop” 1:11:51 - What happens if Apple loses its Supreme Court App Store antitrust appeal? 1:19:27 - Apple’s AirPower charging mat rumored to ship in September following ‘technical hurdles’ 1:19:48 - Apple and Oprah are teaming up to make videos

In addition to our classic Nilay, Dieter, and Paul trio, we’ve added a few things this week. To give you the best coverage of E3, culture editor Laura Hudson gives us a quick rundown of the news from the expo to start off the show In the second half of the show, Nilay sits down with Sonos CEO Patrick Spence. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of other classic Vergecast — some gadget talk, Paul’s weekly segment (you know, “How big is the Moon?”), and some deep dives into net neutrality, antitrust law, and Comcast’s $65 million bid on 21st Century Fox. 02:06 - Laura Hudson’s E3 roundup 07:13 - Sony issues weak response to Fortnite cross-play controversy on PS4 and Switch 11:26 - Microsoft is getting ready for the next Xbox vs. PlayStation console war 16:33 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt is defending a controversial plan to crowdsource Beyond Good and Evil 2 art 25:01 - Interview with CEO of Sonos Patrick Spence 1:02:49 - Paul’s weekly segment “How big is the moon?” 1:06:28 - I picked up a Boring Company Not-A-Flamethrower and it’s mine now 1:07:04 - The Boring Company’s Chicago project seems awfully cheap for something so big 1:11:18 - HTC U12 Plus review: fixing what didn’t need to be broken 1:12:54 - Samsung upgrades the Chromebook Plus with a second camera and new processor 1:13:44 - Eero promises not to brick routers if you don’t pay a subscription 1:17:47 - Net neutrality is dead — what now? 1:19:48 - Comcast makes $65 billion offer to steal 21st Century Fox away from Disney

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference happened this week, and Nilay, Dieter, Jake, and Ashley are on top of it. Second half of the show, we’ve got Dieter’s exclusive look at the Sonos Beam, Microsoft buying GitHub, a new Fire TV thingy, and breaking news for Essential. There’s a whole lot more in between that — like Paul’s weekly segment (hosted by Jake Kastrenakes) “Hey look at this thing I just found on theverge.com“ — so if you listen to it all, you’ll get it all.  02:48 - Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 04:35 - Siri will soon be able to pull off multistep routines through Shortcuts 15:40 - Walkie-Talkie on the Apple Watch is a clever riff on FaceTime Audio 19:01 - Apple’s Memoji lets you create an Animoji of yourself 23:35 - Apple CarPlay will soon let you use Google Maps, Waze, and other third-party maps 25:21 - Apple will let developers port iOS apps to macOS in 2019 33:51 - The Apple TV is finally getting Dolby Atmos support 38:56 - The Essential Phone’s first new module since launch is a magnetic headphone jack 41:02 - The Beam is Sonos’ ambitious attempt to win the living room 50:40 - Amazon’s Fire TV Cube is an Echo, streaming box, and universal remote in one 55:05 - Paul’s weekly segment “Hey look at this thing I just found on theverge.com” by Jake 57:30 - Microsoft confirms it’s acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion 1:00:07 - Facebook accused of giving over 60 device makers inappropriate access to user data 1:06:06 - Instagram might soon let you post videos up to an hour long 1:09:48 - California’s net neutrality bill could set a national standard

The Vergecast is here once again to fulfill the weekly prophecy of illuminating tech news. This week, Dieter is at Recode’s Code Conference, but he still calls in to talk to Nilay, Natt, and Paul about what he saw and heard. Also, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is next week, so the crew runs through what to expect. There’s a whole lot in between that — like Paul’s weekly segment “Embarrassingly parallel,” rumors about the next Pixel phone, and some deep philosophy about whether a phone is a tool or an instrument — so listen to it all, and you’ll get it all.  00:41 - Code Conference 2018 5:32 - Evan Spiegel on Facebook: ‘We would really appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices’ 11:56 - AT&T and Verizon both want to run massive ad-tracking networks to rival Facebook 21:03 - Apple’s WWDC 2018: iOS 12, macOS, and what else to expect 27:31 - Apple’s AirPlay 2 with multiroom audio streaming and stereo 37:41 - Paul’s weekly segment “Embarrassingly parallel” 40:24 - Cryptocurrency mining rigs are just PCs — so why won’t Stripe let you sell them? 44:04 - Google reportedly planning Pixel 3 for October, and the XL model will have a notch 48:26 - 2018 O’Reilly AI Keynote, Thomas Reardon, CEO, CTRL-labs 53:02 - Your phone is an instrument, not a tool

You know those privacy policy emails flooding your inbox lately? Turns out those are thanks to the European Union’s crackdown on websites that collect your personal data. The Verge’s Russell Brandom explains the regulation known as the GDPR and why Europe seems to care about your security more than America. 

Are you driving somewhere for the holiday weekend? Here at _The Verge_ we'd like to encourage you to use a car that's wholly or at least primarily powered by dirty fossil fuels. On this week's episode of _The Vergecast_, Nilay, Natt, Casey, and Paul discuss how we're financially beholden to Big Car, and what to do about it now that Elon Musk has called us out on our bias. We also got a chance to discuss Nilay's insane theory about Apple's dongle suppression campaign, Mark Zuckerberg's wacky trip to the EU, and spoke with unearned confidence about Dieter's hands-on with the Red Hydrogen One. Paul's weekly report on robots that do backflips is, of course, also something that happened. 01:50 - Elon Musk 27:54 - Red Hydrogen One hands-on 32:34 - RIP Essential? 36:37 - BlackBerry KEY2 41:19 - Dongle suppression EXPOSED 47:15 - Paul’s weekly segment “Robot backflip weekly update” 51:08 - GDPR is happening 55:54 - Mark Zuckerberg in the EU 1:03:51 - Casey shamelessly plugs Converge 1:06:35 - What’s happening in the rest of tech

As you may have heard on The Vergecast, The Verge is launching a new podcast hosted by Vergecast regular Casey Newton. It's called Converge with Casey Newton and you can listen to it right here in the Vergecast feed. If you like what you hear, go on and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. RSS feed Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher Overcast Pocketcast TuneIn Castbox Radiopublic Breaker Castro

The Vergecast trio comes together this week to discuss an internal Google video that was obtained by The Verge titled “the Selfish Ledger.” That topic takes up a good chunk of the show, but there’s a lot more after that. Nilay, Paul, and Dieter jump into other Google-related topics, like what’s happening to YouTube Red, Google Duplex theories, and a list of gadget news. They were able to fit in Paul’s weekly segment he does every week “Don’t block my chain,” so if you listen to it all, you’ll get it all.  04:04 - Google’s Selfish Ledger is an unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering 19:02 - Apple Watch behavioral science 19:47 - Google Duplex demo, or say whether the calls were edited 23:56 - Google Chrome is removing the secure indicator from HTTPS sites in September 28:12 - Entire Nest ecosystem of smart home devices goes offline 30:16 - YouTube Music and YouTube Premium announced as YouTube Red replacement 39:28 - OnePlus 6 announced with a glass back and a notched 6.3-inch display 41:42 - The RED Hydrogen One is coming to AT&T and Verizon this summer 44:16 - Onkyo’s receivers will work with Sonos, thanks to upcoming June firmware update 46:33 - A new Wi-Fi standard could let different mesh routers work together 48:41 - Paul’s weekly segment “Don’t block my chain” 52:46 - Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2 is designed for an office of the future 53:29 - Microsoft reportedly working on $400 Surface tablets to compete with the iPad 53:44 - The desktop belongs to Electron 1:01:38 - Uber CEO: our future won’t just be cars

Ctrl-Walt-Delete returns for a special episode all about the iMac 20th anniversary. Walt Mossberg and Nilay Patel reminisce on the introduction of Apple's iMac, and how it influenced the open web and computers going forward.

So much happened this week in the world of The Verge. Both Google and Microsoft hosted their annual developer conferences and announced a whole bunch of stuff, so Nilay, Paul, Natt, and Dieter gather to break it down and give you the highlights. And this wouldn’t be an episode of The Vergecast without the segment Paul does every week, “Kick flip the kickstand script.” It’s a big one, so listen to the whole episode to get everything you need for this massive week in tech news. 01:28 - 10 Biggest announcements from Google I/O 03:45 - The selfishness of Google Duplex 21:09 - Android P 26:41 - At I/O Google showed its willingness to change and shape our lives 34:33 - JBL’s Android-powered soundbar does a lot of things right 38:43 - Volvo’s native Google integration is the next level for Android Auto 44:06 - Six new Google Assistant voices, including John Legend 47:49 - Nadella’s Microsoft 56:51 - What is edge computing? 1:08:16 - Paul’s weekly segment “Kick flip the kickstand script” 1:10:38 - Net neutrality, mergers, AT&T, and Michael Cohen: what we know so far

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay returns to the show after welcoming a child! Dieter is out this week, so Nilay and Paul bring on Adi Robertson and Casey Newton to discuss what happened at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, the Oculus Go, and some earnings talk. There are also a lot of new Instagram features. Is it slowly just becoming Facebook? There’s a lot more in between that — like Paul’s weekly segment “Safety first!’ they said” — so if you listen through this whole episode, you’ll be all caught up on the tech news this week. 05:51 - All of the news from Facebook’s F8 developer conference 22:51 - Oculus Go review 36:47 - Video calls are coming to Instagram 42:21 - Over 400 Startups Are Trying to Become the Next Warby Parker. Inside the Wild Race to Overthrow Every Consumer Category — Inc. 46:14 - Paul’s weekly segment “Safety first!’ they said” 47:45 - Koss Porta Pro Wireless 49:13 - Sprint and T-Mobile have announced that they will merge 59:56 - Verizon is putting Oath bloatware like Go90 on its Galaxy S9 phones 1:04:18 - Apple reports solid iPhone revenue but stays quiet on HomePod sales

This week on The Vergecast, Dieter, Natt, and Paul are still without Nilay but there’s a whole lot to talk about. Google made some changes with Gmail — which is now live, and Snap surprised us this week with their new edition of Spectacles — but what makes them different from the original model? Also, there’s a whole bunch of Amazon news and rumors this week, including an Echo Dot for your child. There’s even a whole lot more in between that — like the segment Paul does every week (say it with me) “I’ve carved this for you out of aluminum” — so listen if you listen to this whole episode of The Vergecast, you’ll be all up to date with the tech news of the week and won’t have to worry about much else the rest of your weekend.  01:20 - Gmail’s biggest redesign is now live 09:49 - Google is finally making a standalone Tasks app 16:38 - Snap’s second-generation Spectacles are more grown up — and more expensive 28:05 - Amazon will now deliver packages to the trunk of your car 32:33 - Amazon’s new Echo Dot Kids Edition comes with a colorful case and parental controls 37:04 - Amazon is reportedly working on its first home robot 40:29 - Amazon teases upcoming Fire TV Cube 43:41 - Paul’s weekly segment “I’ve carved this for you out of aluminum” 45:53 - Dieter essential phone feels 47:47 - There are a ton of sketchy rumors about an upcoming iPhone SE 2 50:44 - The OnePlus 6 is coming on May 16th 52:56 - Spotify launches a redesigned app with on-demand playlists for free users

It was a slow week until Google decided to attempt another fix for Android messaging and Nintendo made the entire staff fall in love with cardboard. Nilay’s still on paternity leave, but Dieter and Paul are joined again by Technology Editor Natt Garun to explain it all. We also jumped on the hot-button issues like the Russian ban of Telegram and how Alexa Skill Blueprints aren’t Turing complete. And, of course, Paul’s weekly segment “Ring-a-ding-ding” has all the insightful Bluetooth MIDI accessory commentary you crave. 1:20 - Chat for Android 20:48 - Telegram 29:22 - Nintendo Labo 37:41 - Amazon Skill Blueprints 41:09 - Motorola G6 43:44 - Paul’s Weekly Segment "Ring-a-ding-ding" 46:39 - New free Spotify 48:51 - RIP vaunt

After a week of Facebook-intensive news, The Vergecast is here to break it all down for you. Nilay is out this week, so Dieter and Paul welcome senior editor Natt Garun and Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton to the show to go over all the news. Even though Mark Zuckerberg took up most of the site this week, there was a still a lot of other stuff happening. Spotify may be releasing some hardware products, we reviewed the Huawei P20 Pro, and the cast gets into some classic talk about the web. There’s a whole lot more in between that — like Paul’s weekly segment “Record resolution revolution” — so listen to it all, and you’ll get it all. 02:03 - Mark Zuckerberg testifies in front of Congress 33:17 - Spotify’s first hardware device might be this music player for your car 43:00 - Apple’s RED iPhone 8 43:37 - Huawei P20 Pro review 49:15 - Paul’s weekly segment “Record resolution revolution” 51:34 - Web apps are only getting better 52:52 - HP goes up against the iPad Pro with its $599 Chromebook x2 52:56 - This is the new Gmail design