Version History | The Verge

The hidden monopoly behind your TI graphing calculator

2026-09-20T08:22:18-04:00

The same calculator has been on most kids' back to school shopping list since the early 2000's and the dominance of Texas Instruments' calculator division goes back even farther.

In the next episode of Version History, David Pierce is joined by The Verge's Nilay Patel and Victoria Song to tell the story of TI graphing calculators and how one company managed to take over the market and never let it go.

This is the second episode of the fifth season of Version History where we're heading back to school. We've already talked about the perilous journeys of The Oregon Trail that many students experienced in the computer lab and over the cou …

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How The Oregon Trail became a generational icon

2026-09-15T12:18:10-04:00

Whether you played it in the back of your classroom or on your computer at home, if you were a kid in the last 30 years you almost certainly grew up playing The Oregon Trail.

On the season 5 premiere of Version History, our fearless wagon leader David Pierce is joined by gaming journalist Chris Grant and Philip Bouchard, the designer and team leader of the game's most iconic version. They talk about the academic origins of The Oregon Trail, the game's complicated legacy, and whether anyone ever really died of dysentery.

This is the first episode of the fifth season of Version History, and this time we're going back to school. In the week …

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The Clapper was a bad smart home gadget — and a viral sensation

2026-07-19T09:28:26-04:00

Clap on. Clap off. Well, more like, Clap, pause for half a beat but no longer because otherwise it'll stop hearing you, clap again because you waited too long, clap louder and faster, that didn't work, clap two more times, and suddenly: on. The Clapper didn't always work - and even when it did, it might fry your gadgets in the process - but it managed to become a big hit anyway.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of The Clapper, from its beginnings as The Great American Turn-On to its debut alongside one of the great advertising campaigns of all time. The Verge's David Pierce and Victoria Song are joined by Allison Marsh, …

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How Philips Hue got the smart home right

2026-07-12T10:38:01-04:00

A photo of a lightbulb glowing purple. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The state of the smart home can be frustrating, because it is just so obvious how things ought to work. You should be able to control everything from everywhere. Your spaces should adapt to what you're doing and how you're feeling. Making your home smart shouldn't require renovating, and the smarts should be mostly invisible. All of this is, of course, incredibly hard to pull off - but the goal is pretty clear.

Until now, maybe no product has come closer to nailing the smart home than Philips Hue. And on this episode of Version History, we dig into all the things Hue got right. The Verge's David Pierce and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy are joined …

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How Keurig saved — and ruined — your coffee

2026-07-06T05:58:07-04:00

Before Keurig, the coffee in your office was almost certainly terrible. Old, burned, made by someone who would rather poorly eyeball than properly measure. Just altogether gross. After Keurig? You could make your own coffee, a cup at a time, exactly when you needed it. The single-cup brewer was an elegant solution to an extremely common problem. At least, that's how it started.

On this episode of Version History, we dig into the history of the Keurig and the ways in which the idea got vastly bigger than anyone expected. K-Cups and Keurig machines became ubiquitous in offices all across the US, then quickly began to invade our homes as well. …

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Nest’s quest to fix your thermostat

2026-06-29T05:57:24-04:00

The founding story of Nest is pretty much a perfect tech myth. A legendary product maker (in this case, Tony Fadell) helps create one of the most successful products ever (the iPhone) and then rides off into the sunset to enjoy the rest of his life, only to have an experience that drags him back for one last job. For Fadell, that job was to try and reinvent the thermostat. And maybe change the way our homes work forever.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the early days of Nest. The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy describe Fadell's frustration with outdated, expensive temperature controls …

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How Roomba started a robot revolution

2026-06-22T05:41:40-04:00

If you had a Roomba, especially in the early days of the robot vacuum, it was in many ways a fairly unsophisticated machine. It would just bump around your house, looking for something to suck up, until its battery died or its (way too small) tank filled up. Not that it mattered, though. You probably loved your Roomba. You probably gave it a name.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Roomba and how it made vacuums lovable. The Verge's David Pierce and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy are joined by iRobot's cofounder and former CEO Colin Angle to trace the robovac revolution back to its origins, with a group of engineers tryin …

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The impossible dream of the universal remote

2026-06-15T06:03:12-04:00

You don't really ever have to explain why a universal remote is a good idea. You have a bunch of stuff that needs controlling; this thing controls them all. Many companies have set out to build a product worthy of this idea, and one product came much closer than most. It was called the Harmony, and for many years it was the best universal remote on the market. Maybe the only one that mattered. And still, even the Harmony couldn't make it work.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Harmony. The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and John Higgins are joined by Matt Rogers, the CEO of Mill and former cofounder of Nest, t …

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How AT&T created the most iconic phone ever

2026-04-13T05:44:01-04:00

For years, even decades, virtually everyone in the United States had the same phone. Nobody really thought about it, it didn't even matter what it was called - it was just The Phone. Well, The Phone was called the Western Electric 500, and when landline phones ruled the world, the Western Electric 500 ruled the landlines. It was so ubiquitous for so long that even if you've never touched a landline, you've encountered the 500. The Phone app on your iPhone? Looks like a 500.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Western Electric 500, and the deeply strange world it came to represent. David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and prof …

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How the Amazon Echo learned to talk — and listen

2026-04-05T08:24:45-04:00

A photo of a black speaker, the Amazon Echo, on a gray background. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Jeff Bezos badly wanted a voice computer. He had been saying so publicly since the very early days of Amazon, telling anyone who would listen about why voice might make it easier and more natural to interact with technology. (And to buy stuff from Jeff Bezos.) But when a team at Amazon set out to actually make the voice computer a reality, they encountered a seemingly endless series of hard problems. Eventually, though, they created two products, the Echo speaker and the Alexa voice assistant, that would help bring a new kind of computer to millions of people.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Echo's development i …

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