Nilay and David talk about the future of social, in light of Bluesky's recent surge in growth. Threads is huge, Bluesky is ascendent, Mastodon is... around, but can any of them become the next Twitter? Is that even the goal? After that, Kylie Robison joins the show and the gang discusses Apple's smart home device (which is just an iPad), the AI scaling slowdown, and a new twist in the delivery wars. In the lightning round, it's all about disclosures, wireless carriers, and the sad end of Freevee.

Further reading:

• Twitter’s succession: all the news about alternative social media platforms 
• One million people have joined Bluesky in the past week.
• Bluesky adds 700,000 new users in a week
• The Guardian is quitting X.
• Remember the TikTok ban?
• Apple’s rumored six-inch ‘AI wall tablet’ could control your smart home by March 2025
• Apple is reportedly working on an Apple Home security camera 
• Anthropic co-founder Darius Amodei said we’ll have artificial general intelligence “in 2026 or 2027.”
• Just Eat is selling Grubhub to Marc Lore’s Wonder for $650M
• Boost Mobile says it’s a real wireless carrier now
• Amazon is shutting down Freevee
• Trump says Elon Musk will lead ‘DOGE’ office to cut ‘wasteful’ government spending

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On today's show: sleep gadgets, AI DJs, and sneaky TVs. Victoria Song joins the show to talk about her experiences with the Eight Sleep mattress pad, the Oura Ring 4, and other sleep gadgets. Can you really measure your way to a better night of sleep? After that, Allison Johnson gives us her take on Spotify's AI DJ, and we wonder exactly how an AI tool is supposed to help us find and listen to music. Finally, Nilay Patel comes on to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline about the Samsung Frame TVs — and how to figure out whether you need a TV at all.

Further reading:

• Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra review: for sale, good night’s sleep, just $4,700
• Ozlo Sleepbuds hands-on: resurrected and I’ve slept so good
• Oura Ring 4 review: still on top — for now
• Spotify’s AI is no match for a real DJ
• Samsung’s Frame TV is finally getting the knockoffs it deserves

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For the second episode in our three-part miniseries about the future of music, Charlie Harding, a music journalist and co-host of the Switched on Pop podcast, joins the show to tell the story of Auto-Tune. He walks us through how a simple plugin became such a recognizable sound in music, why both artists and fans gravitated to the Auto-Tune sound, and why Auto-Tune has continued to grow even through backlash in the music business. Then we look ahead to AI, and try to figure out what — if any — lessons we might be able to learn about the sound and culture of the AI era to come.

Further reading:

• Charlie Harding on X
• Switched on Pop
• From Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music
• From Rick Beato: How Auto-Tune DESTROYED Popular Music
• From Gabi Belle: The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

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Nilay and David talk about the election, and how The Vergecast plans to cover and talk about the next four years of the Trump administration. But only for a minute. Then it's onto our reviews of the new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro, which reset Apple's desktop and laptop lineup in an excellent way. After that, Sean Hollister joins the show to discuss his review of the PlayStation 5 Pro, the news about backwards compatibility for the Nintendo Switch successor, and the state of Nintendo's fight against emulators. In the lightning round, we talk about really expensive domain names, oddly named smart home standards, and cloud gaming whales. Which apparently exist.

Further reading:

• Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election
• What does Trump’s election mean for EVs, Tesla, and Elon Musk? 
• All the Big Tech leaders congratulating Donald Trump 
• Google CEO says company should be ‘trusted source’ in US election
• Another Trump presidency is literally toxic — his opponents are gearing up for battle
• Here’s FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sucking up to Donald Trump by threatening to take NBC off the air
• Apple Mac Mini M4 review: a tiny wonder
• Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024) review: the Pro for everyone
• Amazon says it’s fixing the Kindle Colorsoft’s yellow screen
• Kindle Colorsoft owners complain of a yellow bar on the e-reader’s screen
• PS5 Pro review: how close is your TV?
• Nintendo’s next generation is off to a great start
• Nintendo says the Switch successor will be compatible with Switch games
• Why is Nintendo targeting this YouTuber?
• Did OpenAI just spend more than $10 million on a URL?
• The Matter smart home standard gains support for more devices, including heat pumps and solar panels
• Nvidia to cap game streaming hours on GeForce Now instead of raising fees

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November 6th marks 10 years to the day since Amazon surprise-launched a new, cylindrical device called the Echo. It introduced the world to smart speakers, and to the idea that you might be able to get stuff done just by shouting aloud in your living room. But a decade in, what has Alexa really accomplished? The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk through the history of Alexa, Amazon's struggles to improve and extend its voice assistant, and the promise of a language model overhaul that might in theory make Alexa far more useful. There's a chance Alexa's second decade might be even more interesting than the first.

Further reading:

• Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you
• Amazon Echo review: listen up
• Alexa, where’s my Star Trek Computer?
• Alexa, thank you for the music
• The Alexa Skills revolution that wasn’t
• The Amazon Echo graveyard
• Amazon’s supercharged Alexa won’t arrive this year

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For the first episode in our three-part miniseries on the future of music, we tell the story of Track Star, a music game show that has become a viral hit on TikTok and Instagram. Jack Coyne, the show's friendly host, tells us how Track Star came to be, why the format works so well, and why A-list celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran, and Kamala Harris are all clamoring to be on the show. Coyne also tells us where Track Star might go next — and why the future of music content might look a lot like the past.

Further reading:

• Track Star on TikTok
• Jack Coyne on Instagram
• The Olivia Rodrigo episode
• The "Every Track Star Song" playlist
• The Malcolm Todd episode
• Public Opinion

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Nilay and David discuss a big week in AI news, including the new web search features in ChatGPT and the reporting that Meta is working on something very similar. They also briefly talk about this quarter's tech earnings, and what they say about the ways AI is really being used. Then, Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern joins the show to talk about Apple Intelligence, Apple's week of Mac launches, and why Siri still can't open her garage. Finally, in the lightning round, the hosts talk about Netflix's gentle push into social features, Tony Fadell's AI thoughts, and our endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Further reading:

• OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT
• Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too
• Microsoft’s gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are down
• Reddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily users
• Snap Inc. - Financials - Quarterly Results
• Apple’s Mac week: everything announced
• Apple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it’s so damn small
• Watch Apple show off the M4 Mac Mini in its reveal video - The Verge
• Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C
• Apple put the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom again
• Apple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
• Apple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chip
• Apple’s first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMac
• Apple Intelligence is out
• WSJ: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More
• Netflix is making it easier to bookmark and share your favorite parts of a show
• Tony Fadell calls out Sam Altman
• Tim Walz and AOC are going to play Madden together on Twitch
• The Verge’s guide to the 2024 presidential election
• Tech leaders line up to flatter Trump’s ego
• Jeff Bezos is no longer relentlessly focused on customer satisfaction
• “You have a Washington Post problem.”
• From The New York Times: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election

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Kylie Robison joins the show to talk about the recent dueling AI blog posts from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. What do these CEOs think the future of AI looks like? Then, Will Poor tells us the story of ShakeAlert, an earthquake alert system that has huge potential and some surprising challenges. On The Vergecast Hotline, Allison Johnson joins Will to figure out whether the iPhone's new Camera Control is really as fast as advertised.

Further reading:

• Sam Altman: The Intelligence Age
• Dario Amodei: Machines of Loving Grace
• Anthropic’s CEO thinks AI will lead to a utopia — he just needs a few billion dollars first
• OpenAI plans Orion AI model release for December
• ShakeAlert
• If you live on the West Coast and you have an iPhone, here's how to turn on the "Local Awareness" feature that speeds up WEA messages:
• Download the MyShake app on for iOS
• or for Android
• Ready.gov's earthquake advice:
• About emergency and government alerts on iPhone
• Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus review: all caught up

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Nilay, David, and Richard Lawler talk about all of the coming Apple gadgets and software, from the new iPad Mini to the upcoming week of Mac announcements to the many flavors of iOS and Apple Intelligence heading to a device near you soon. Then they talk about the other news in AI, from Anthropic's new computer-using model to the growing set of lawsuits against AI companies. In the lightning round, they discuss the Boox Palma 2, T-Mobile's "lifetime" deals, and the battle over FTC's click-to-cancel rule.

Further reading:

• Apple iPad Mini 2024 review: missing pieces
• iOS 18.2 will let everyone set new default phone and messaging apps
• Apple’s first iOS 18.2 beta adds more AI features and ChatGPT integration
• Apple teases ‘week’ of Mac announcements starting Monday
• Apple is preparing an M4 MacBook Air update for early next year
• Tim Cook says he uses every Apple product every day — how does that work?
• Tim Cook on Why Apple’s Huge Bets Will Pay Off
• Anthropic’s latest AI update can use a computer on its own
• Humane slashes the price of its AI Pin after weak sales
• Apple is ‘concerned’ about AI turning real photos into ‘fantasy’
• News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ and New York Post
• Kevin Bacon, Kate McKinnon, and other creatives warn of ‘unjust’ AI threat
• Industry groups are suing the FTC to stop its click to cancel rule
• The Boox Palma 2 has a faster processor and adds a fingerprint reader
• Seniors are PISSED that T-Mobile won’t honor its “lifetime” price guarantee.

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The Verge's Victoria Song joins the show to talk about her year of testing smart rings, and which of the many new options is the one you should buy. Then Chris Welch takes us through his testing of the new hearing health features for Apple's AirPods, including the surprisingly intense hearing test you can take right on your phone. Finally, Andrew Webster helps us answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline: why doesn't Apple buy Nintendo, and what would happen if it did?

Further reading:

• We tested six smart rings, and there’s a clear winner
• Oura Ring 4 review: still on top — for now
• Apple’s AirPods Pro hearing health features are as good as they sound
• Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 could forever change how people access hearing aids
• Super Mario Run hands-on: like Mario, just simpler
• Microsoft’s Phil Spencer says acquiring Nintendo would be ‘a career moment’

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For the last eight months, David Cogen has been living a double life. By day: a YouTuber and creator, the face of the TheUnlockr channel, reviewing phones and testing ebikes and explaining how food smokers really work. By night and morning and every single other available in-between moment: a coffee shop entrepreneur, working to get a Brooklyn spot called Coffee Check up and running. In this episode, the second in the two-part miniseries that we’re calling How To Make It In The Future, Cogen tells the story of how a YouTuber becomes a coffee shop owner — and how to bring those two things together without ruining them both.

Further reading:

• TheUnlockr on YouTube
• David’s Coffee Check announcement
• Coffee Check’s website
• Another fun YouTuber story: Me, Myself, and iJustine

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