Jacob Kastrenakes | The Verge

Phones don’t have lights

2026-09-25T14:06:58-04:00

Mark Zuckerberg has a new defense of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses: They’re actually doing more to signal they’re taking a photo than phones do. He’s brought this up in at least two recent interviews, noting that the glasses have a light that comes on to signal when a photo is being taken, while phones do not. In one of the interviews, Joanna Stern notes that, while phones do not always emit a light, someone does have to hold a phone up in the air, which is itself pretty noticeable.

On today’s Vergecast, we’re talking about Meta Connect, the Muse AI assistant, all the new smart glasses hardware, and Zuckerberg’s response to the privacy uproar around wearable cameras. First, we spend time diving into Muse, which has quickly turned the vibes around on Meta’s progress in AI by making agentic features vastly more accessible than others have in the past. That ties right into Meta’s glasses problem and the question of whether people will trust Meta enough with their privacy to link all their services up to Muse.

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There’s also a ton of hardware to discuss. We have thoughts on the new audio-only Ray-Ban Meta glasses and the new Meta VR Glasses. Then it’s onto Googlebooks, which arrived this week with surprisingly refined hardware and compelling integrations between desktop and mobile. It’s going to be a big hurdle to convince people to switch from Windows, but the laptops are full of interesting enough ideas that we’re excited to check them out.

Finally, everyone’s favorite podcast within a podcast returns after a brief hiatus. And then it’s on to the Lightning Round, where we’re discussing the Paramount settlement, YouTube’s embrace of AI tools, the state of Xbox, and Rode hooking its users up with 4K.

If you want to learn more about the stories we discussed, you can check out the links below:

Meta is making a standalone Muse AI gadget

2026-09-23T21:02:39-04:00

Meta is building a dedicated hardware device for its new Muse AI agent. The product, called Muse Charm, was briefly shown off by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the end of tonight’s Meta Connect presentation. It looks almost like a chunky smartwatch without the strap — just a big screen, plus a little lanyard for carrying the device around.

The Muse Charm has a fingerprint sensor on the top right corner that you can press to activate and begin speaking to the agent. There appears to be a small camera on the device as well, plus what looks like at least three holes for microphones on the front. Zuckerberg said you don’t have to unlock a phone or open an app to use the Charm, but he didn’t share how it’s actually connecting to Meta’s servers.

Meta plans to ship the Charm “in time for the holidays in December,” but as of now Zuckerberg says the company has “only built a few of these so far.” The company still needs to finalize “the finishing material,” he said. Throughout the keynote, he teased the device and made references to a translucent exterior that would let you see the gadget’s internals. He referred to it as an “elevated hacker aesthetic.”

Zuckerberg promised to share more details “soon.”

Muse is less than a month old, but the AI agent has already become a buzzy new product for Meta. The bot is capable of taking actions on a user’s behalf, and Zuckerberg dedicated part of tonight’s keynote to new capabilities Meta is adding to the agent, including computer use on Macs and control over an email address.

There are a lot of companies racing to win the still-undefined and largely experimental realm of AI hardware. The closest analog to the Muse Charm might be the Rabbit R1, a similarly sized cutesy device that housed an AI agent, which was not nearly capable enough to make the product worth carrying around. Connect is nothing if not a reminder of how badly Meta wants to win the race to whatever that next big hardware platform is — it’s moving quickly to see if Muse as a device is something that can stick.

The real story of the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera

2026-09-18T13:06:37-04:00

It’s one of the most fascinating years in a while when it comes to iPhone camera upgrades. The big story of the iPhone 18 Pro is the variable aperture main lens, which lets you open the aperture up wider for better low light shots and make the aperture smaller for better depth of field in group photos. But all I can get anyone to talk about is the software upgrades: it turns out, they’re a lot more useful day to day than the aperture on a camera this small.

This week on The Vergecast, David Imel and Allison Johnson are here for a deep dive into the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera. There’s a lot to explore here, from the aperture, to the camera app’s new manual controls, to the updated imaging pipeline and the improvements to ProRAW.

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After that, Hayden Field is on the show to discuss the state of the AI safety debate. Concerns are still boiling over after an Anthropic researcher quit his job to warn about the dangers of AI, and any chance for policy solutions seems to have hit a dead end. We discuss whether what’s likely to happen in the interim — third-party evaluators being embedded within the big AI labs — has any teeth, and where the safety conversation goes from here.

Finally, it’s time for a Lightning Round. We discuss Waymo’s ability to call the cops, a new ereader from Boox, and a couple of tiny retro-style cameras.

If you want to learn more about any of the topics we discussed, you can check out the stories below:

We unfolded the iPhone Duo

2026-09-11T16:29:34-04:00

You only get one chance at a first impression, and getting to introduce Apple’s first folding phone is certainly a strong way to start things off as Apple’s CEO. On The Vergecast today, we’re talking all about Apple’s launch event: how John Ternus did in his first appearance as CEO, what we make of the new iPhones, and whether Apple is stepping into dangerous territory with its new AI features on the Apple Watch.

First up, Allison Johnson joins me to discuss the new iPhones, which she had a chance to test in Cupertino. Both of us have some questions about the new variable aperture camera on the iPhone 18 Pro — and whether the real upgrade simply lies in the wider aperture, not the ability to stop it down. Then we dig into the iPhone Duo and how Apple decided to pick and choose the best parts of Android foldables.

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After that, Victoria Song joins me to discuss the new Apple Watches, which she also had a chance to test out. We dive into the new sensor array and whether it allows for legitimately new metrics or just more vibesy health data. And then we both break down a little while figuring out what it means that Apple added the ability for both new Apple Watches to have an always-on microphone that summarizes all of your conversations.

This is an Apple-packed episode, so from there we jump to a special segment with Nilay Patel and David Imel, who speak with AI researcher CJ Trowbridge about the state of running local LLMs on the Mac. Finally, it’s the long awaited return of the Thunder Round, as we race through stories so that Allison can make it to the airport. We’re chatting OpenAI math drama, digital ocarinas, and more.

If you want to learn more about this week’s stories, you can check out the links below:

1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project

2026-09-06T10:30:22-04:00

David Faugno, CEO at 1Password, at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 11th, 2025. | Photo: Zed Jameson / Bloomberg via Getty Image

1Password faced immediate backlash from customers this week over a $300,000 pledge in support of a Linux distro created by David Heinemeier Hansson, who has regularly published overtly racist blog posts that include comments calling for deportation of ethnic minorities in Europe. The popular password manager is now a “distinguished corporate patron” of Omacom, the nonprofit foundation that oversees a popular Linux distribution known as Omarchy.

One viral blog post declared that 1Password “Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe” because of the donation. Others on social media asked for suggestions for alternative password managers so they would not support the funding of a project from Heinemeier Hansson, better known as DHH.

The donation has also resulted in internal pushback from employees of 1Password who are disappointed by the affiliation, The Verge has learned. 1Password CEO David Faugno and cofounder Roustem Karimov have since posted internal messages addressing what Faugno describes as “concerns, both internally and externally” that have been raised “due to the polarizing nature” of DHH.

DHH is a Danish entrepreneur best known for creating Ruby on Rails, Basecamp, and the Hey email client. Omarchy is DHH’s “opinionated” version of Linux, meaning it’s Linux the way he likes to use it. It’s based on Arch Linux, with certain apps that install by default. It’s also, apparently, one of 1Password’s big customer environments.

The backlash to 1Password’s funding should have been predictable; DHH’s reactionary comments aren’t new. Way back in 2023, Duke University Libraries dropped one of DHH’s products, Basecamp, citing “harms we see perpetuated by the leadership of Basecamp’s parent company, 37signals,” which is co-owned by DHH. At the time, Duke noted DHH’s attack on DEI programs and The Verge’s reporting on Basecamp banning “societal and political discussions” at work.

This year, DHH has published rants that appear to call for ethnic cleansing in Europe. In his July 21st blog post titled “Wolves, sheep, and gypsies,” DHH implies that immigrants are “wolves.” His solution? “When wolves get out of control, you shoot them. When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them.”

In an internal Slack message obtained by The Verge, 1Password’s Karimov downplayed the overtly racist comments from DHH, telling staff the following:

As I said, people have different personal opinions. You believe in your heart that DHH is evil, that you have the moral high ground, and that nothing will change your mind.

However, not everyone believes that. It is not fair to claim a monopoly and ostracize team members who might disagree with you.

There are people who are afraid to speak up simply because they will be personally attacked.

1Password CEO Faugno took a different approach, trying to reassure staff that “1Password does not endorse hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views, including those shared publicly by DHH.”

Nonetheless, it seems the company has sacrificed a moral position for a “mission-driven” position. In the same message to staff, Faugno says “the scale and growth of [Omarchy’s] use among our customers is significant – Omarchy has grown to be the second most used Linux distribution among 1Password users.”

Faugno then tries to create distance, telling staff that its contribution is “to the Omacom Foundation, not an individual.” Still, he says “we recognize that Omarchy is associated with DHH, its founder. Our donation is not in any way an endorsement of his personal views or conduct.”

We asked 1Password for comment on its funding of the Omacom Foundation on August 31st, and again today. We did not receive a response in time for publication.

The Omacom Foundation is also funded by 12 “founding patrons” who each contributed $1 million, including Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison, Michael Dell, Jack Dorsey, and Shopify’s Tobias Lütke — who recently endorsed the idea that wealthy Canadians should have more voting power in democracy than poorer people. Even before 1Password contributed, this page looked like a rogues’ gallery of tech. (DHH himself also gave $1 million to the project.)

1Password employees don’t seem impressed by its leaders’ comments based on dozens of emoji reactions we saw in their internal Slack conversations. 1Password’s CEO says the company will speak more about it internally at an all-hands meeting.

The iPhone Fold could make concerts even worse

2026-08-28T13:03:26-04:00

You know the person blocking your view of the concert because their phone is swaying in the air, recording the entire thing? Get ready for the unfolded version of it.

This week on The Vergecast, we dive right into the big week of Apple news. First, it’s the refreshed Mac Mini and Mac Studio, as well as the new M6 and M5 Ultra chips. Apple is advertising them all as achievements in AI inference, but we’re skeptical this is more than a marketing ploy for now. Then we get into the newly announced Apple event, why we’re not expecting to see an iPhone 18, and whether the folding phone form factor is really good enough yet for Apple.

After that, there’s a lot to discuss about the Meta settlement. Teens are getting a host of new restrictions on their accounts that, truthfully, a lot of adults would love to have, too. But the bigger question is what happens next: Will other platforms be forced to adopt these rules, too? And which rules could actually be implemented by law, should lawmakers ever get their act together? The settlement has a lot of terms that immediately run into the First Amendment.

Finally, we’ve got a packed closing segment: The Hype Desk returns to talk GTA VI and whether it’s going to make us all more responsible individuals, Nilay breaks down how FCC chairman Brendan Carr has infuriated librarians nationwide, and we close out with a Lightning Round on whether Nvidia has saved the US economy, why Fitbit is partnering with Pokémon, and why Waymo is starting to beef with Tesla.

If you’re interested in reading more about the stories we discussed, check out the links below:

Pixel 11 gets in on the digicam trend

2026-08-21T14:24:41-04:00

I recently looked back at a photo I’d taken on a smartphone in 2014, and I was struck by just how good it looked. The details were soft, the shadows were dark. It was the kind of photo I felt like I hadn’t seen out of a phone in years. That might be changing, though. The Pixel 11 includes a suite of new photography features called Camera Looks that allow those who really care about those things (hi, it’s all of us) to dial in their preferences and get rid of that modern over-processed look.

On today’s episode of The Vergecast, David Imel joins us to discuss his time reviewing the Pixel 11 Pro and how he’s thinking about its new approach to computational photography. After that, we’ve got a super-sized edition of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, everyone’s favorite podcast with a podcast. It was a big week for bad telecom policy, and we’re giving it the time it deserves. Finally, we’ve got a Lightning Round, where we’re talking Apple’s AirPods leak, Fairphone heading to the US, and YouTube changing how it counts video views.

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If you want to read more about the topics we’re discussing, you can check out our stories below:

Pixel 11 event live blog: Let’s watch Trevor Noah introduce Google’s new phones

2026-08-12T19:25:27-04:00

It’s almost time for the Made by Google keynote, where the company will show off the brand-new Pixel hardware it announced today. Like last year, it’ll be a celebrity-packed live show, though Trevor Noah is hosting instead of Jimmy Fallon. If the 2025 show was any indication, today’s broadcast might be something of a cringefest.

If you’ve been following tech news this morning, you already know a lot about the new Pixels. Press and creators were able to publish extensive hands-on impressions of the new hardware hours ago, and you can read our coverage of the Pixel 11 phones, their new camera features, the Pixel Watch 5, and more right now.

Google could pull something unexpected out of a hat. But it seems more likely that this show isn’t for the people who devour every hands-on the moment they’re published. Instead, the event is likely intended to reach a more mainstream audience that might watch the livestream after work or as a replay at a later time.

Victoria Song will be there in person, while the rest of us will be watching remotely, and we’ll all be blogging all of our secondhand embarrassment right here.

Things kick off at 6PM ET / 3PM PT. You can watch the event on the embedded YouTube video while following along with our live thoughts below.

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We react to Google I/O 2026

2026-05-19T18:59:05-04:00

What better way to unwind from a two-hour keynote presentation than to pore over the weirdest and wildest details, from a Gmail bot you can converse with to DeepMind’s leader saying the singularity is near. The Vergecast went live right after the show, with senior AI reporter Hayden Field joining me to discuss the highlights.

First up, we talk about the buzzword of the show: agents, which seem to be Google’s new answer to making AI useful. Google has a new service called Spark that sounds a lot like a Gemini-flavored OpenClaw, upgrades to its Antigravity platform, and a bunch of agents that will shop for you and track search topics. We also go over Google’s model updates, as well as its shift to world models with Gemini Omni, a theoretically ambitious new family that is off to a very focused start.

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Then, we discuss how Google Search is evolving — or put more plainly, being stuffed with AI features that turn Google into your final destination when browsing the web. We also talk vibe-coding Android apps in Google AI Studio, the new Google Pics app, and Google’s expansion of access to content authentication tools so that people can learn what is and isn’t real.

We wrap up discussing Demis Hassabis’ proclamation that AGI and the singularity is near, which got surprisingly little stage time (one sentence) for such a bold statement. And finally, Hayden takes us through her thoughts on the Musk v. Altman trial, which wrapped up earlier this week.

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Thanks to everyone who tuned in to the livestream — we’re going to keep them coming. In the meantime, you can always reach us at the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11) or send us an email at vergecast@theverge.com.

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Valve made Microsoft’s dream console

2025-11-14T08:31:49-05:00

Microsoft keeps describing this model for the future of a game console that sounds great for players: it’s as easy as a console, it can play a huge library of PC titles, and it even supports third-party stores. That’d be a wonderful product if someone could build it, and it sure looks like Valve has beaten Microsoft to the punch with its new Steam Machine.

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay Patel, Jake Kastrenakes, Sean Hollister, and special guest Joanna Stern sit down to talk through Valve’s ambitious new hardware initiatives — and what it means for Microsoft and Windows. Do consumers still use Windows in the future? Or are games (and an overemphasis on AI) going to push people over to Linux? There’s dissatisfaction brewing, and the rise of SteamOS is just one sign of it.

Next, Joanna dives into her story for The Wall Street Journal about the Neo robot, which she got to spend time with in person and even control herself. Right now, the robot is far from ready for nimbly perform just about any daily tasks. But the big question we want to know is whether the AI is going to get there at all. As of now, there’s a human behind the robot.

Finally, it’s time for the Lightning Round. On the docket: Amazon’s Fire TV piracy crackdown, Apple’s $230 designer crossbody sock, the ongoing YouTube TV and Disney carriage dispute, Apple’s new support for mini apps, Waymo hitting the highway, and tablets being the villain in Toy Story 5.

If you want to know more about the stories we discuss in the episode, you can check out the stories below: