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One way to think about the tech industry is just as a series of people trying to build stuff they saw in movies. Ready Player One helped kick of a flood of interest in the metaverse, despite the movie's deeply dsytopian undertones. If you've talked to anyone working in AI, they've surely told you about the assistant in Her, despite that movie's dystopian undertones. From the gesture interface in Minority Report to the hand-phone from Total Recall to just about everything from Back to the Future and Star Trek, you really can't underestimate how important and inspirational these movies and shows are to the tech imagination.

On this episode of The Vergecast, a bunch of us try to figure out which tech we actually want to us

A lot of the future of AI will be settled in court. From publishers to authors to artists to Hollywood conglomerates, the creative industry is picking a big copyright fight over the vast quantities of data used to train AI models - and the ultimate output of those models. (Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge's parent company, has a technology and content deal with OpenAI.) This week, we got rulings in two early cases, involving groups of authors suing Anthropic and Meta. In both cases, the tech companies won. Sort of.

On [this episode of The Vergecast](https://l

"Maybe you could organize your plants like this," my friend's text message said, with an attached photo of white pots of plants floating midair in front of a huge, sunny window. As a newbie plant collector, I do need to organize my growing collection of flora, but not like this - the photo was AI-generated and the plants depicted were not real.

Even as a beginner, I was able to identify issues with the photo. Obviously, my plants cannot physically defy gravity, but most egregiously, the organizational method of putting plants in direct sunlight would completely incinerate their leaves. This was the first time I came across AI-generated plant content from well-meaning people who earnestly believe it is real, but its proliferation is a growing problem in plant-l

After years of grand promises about how robotaxis would change the way we buy and use our cars, Tesla finally launched its taxi service. In one small portion of one city. With only a few cars and a few riders. Plus safety monitors in the passenger seat. Caution is a good thing in this industry, but what does all this say about where Tesla's self-driving efforts really stand?

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's [Andy Hawkins](http://tesla/%E2%80%99s%20robotaxi%20is%20live:%20here%20are%20some%20of%20the%20first%20reactions%20The%20Tesla%20Cybercab%20is%20a%20cool-looking%20prototype%20that%20needed%20to%20be%20much%20more%20than%20that%20Waymo%20says%

The idea behind Trump Mobile is relatively straightforward. It's easy to launch a mobile carrier these days, and it can be extremely lucrative - just ask Ryan Reynolds! You should know, though, that Trump Mobile is a pretty bad deal. And the network's supposed flagship phone? We're willing to bet that this $500, made-in-America, coming-soon device will end up being hardly any of those things. If it exists at all.

On [this episode of The Vergecast](https://link.chtbl.com/v

The Nintendo Switch 2 is great. In many ways, it's exactly what we hoped for: a Switch, only better. And yet there's something… underwhelming about it. Maybe it's unfair, but we've come to expect Nintendo to consistently amaze us with either how its consoles work or the games you can play with them. In this case, it still feels like a Switch. Only better. And not universally better, either.

On this episode of The Vergecast, now that a number of folks on our team have spent some real time with the Switch 2, it's time to talk about how we feel about this new console. Fi

The tech world is full of cycles. Things are always bundling and unbundling, going from minimalist to maximalist, embracing nostalgia before diving head-first into the future. And right now, it appears, we're doing glassy again.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David are joined by The Verge's Allison Johnson and Victoria Song to talk about all the news from Apple's annual WWDC software extravaganza. There's no place to start, of course, other than with Liquid Glass, the ne

As the tech world has standardized on USB-C, charging your devices has become much simpler. But it's still not simple enough. Sure, most things plug into most other things, but now you have to worry about power and data throughput, making sure that everything works properly with everything else. That's why we've spent years longing for what we call the God Cable: the one with fast enough everything to be the perfect charger for devices from phones to power tools.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we start by

There's a running theory in tech circles that says, basically, AI is the new UI. Not long from now, some people argue, you simply won't need a homescreen full of app icons or a traditional web browser or really anything other than an interface to an AI assistant and agent that accomplishes everything on your behalf. Is that the actual future, absurd AI boosterism, or something in between? Who knows! But the ranks of the AI believers seem to grow every day.

Apple, however, appears poised to go… a different way. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss some of the rumors surrounding WWDC, including the possibility of [a huge

Phones that flip and fold have been The Next Big Thing so long it almost seems like they might never happen. Even as they've gotten better, faster, and more durable, devices from Google, Samsung, and others have just had too many compromises. (They also cost way too much.) But bit by bit, year by year, it seems we might be getting closer to truly great flips and folds.

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about her review of Motorola's new Razr Ultra, one of the most compelling (and bes

It's not TV, it's HBO. No, sorry, it's HBO Go. And also HBO Now. But now it's HBO Max, except wait, now it's not HBO at all? It's just Max? Actually, I'm being told it is once again HBO Max. Thank you for joining us on this wild and utterly nonsensical branding journey. Please keep watching The White Lotus.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, David, and The Verge's Jake Kastrenakes start the show with some personal news before digging into Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to rename its streaming service again this week, re-embracing the HBO brand after [es

Product design requires considering lots of different things. How things look; how they work; how people will understand how to use them. Here's one probably not on a lot of designers' lists, though: the insect enticement factor. Maybe that needs to change, because as The Verge's Will Poor discovered, the way your gadgets are designed and made could have serious implications for what might decide to live inside them.

On this episode of The Vergecast, Will tells us about his post-vacation Sonos discovery, how he discovered he's not the only person on the internet trying to get the ants out of his speakers, and what he ultimately learned about insects and electronics. Some of the wild

Google is in antitrust court, fighting to preserve the search engine business that has made it so historically successful. At a few different moments through the various stages of the trial, high-powered executives from Apple have taken the stand - and largely taken Google's side. Just this week, Apple's Eddy Cue made the case that Google is actually in a hugely competitive market, is no longer the unstoppable force it once was, and should be largely left alone.

If it seems odd that Apple and Google would be aligned, here's a number to keep in mind: 20,000,000,000. That's how many dollars Google pays Apple every year, as part of a revenue-sharing deal that makes Google the default s

For sale: one browser, very popular. As the remedies phase of the Google Search trial heats up, two things have become very clear. The US government would really like to force Google to sell Chrome, and there are a lot of companies interested in buying it. What do you really get when you buy the world's most popular browser, though? And what would it really cost?

On [this episode of The Vergecast](https://l

It’s always a good idea to think about your phone and other devices when you travel. Things get lost, things get stolen, things get left in the seat-back pocket on the plane, and you should always make sure you have a plan. Right now, though, particularly if you’re traveling into the United States, there’s also the (relatively small but very real) possibility that someone will go through your phone to decide if you’re allowed into the country.

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Gaby Del Valle explains everything you need to know and do if you’re planning to travel ac

(If you’re reading this, please go vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! Voting is open for roughly another week, and we’re up against some steep competition — it would mean the world to us if you’d pick us. Thank you so much!)

It’s important to keep saying that we still don’t know much about what’s going on with the Trump administration’s tariff policy. They’re on again, they’re off again. They’re a negotiating tactic! They’re a permanent policy don’t even ask! With China, the numbers are quickly be

In most ways, Nintendo’s Switch 2 is exactly what we wanted: a Switch, only better. Nintendo has an occasional tendency to follow its best and most successful consoles with some of its weirdest ideas – Wii U, anyone? — but this time seems to have stayed the course in the best way. Still, this is Nintendo, so there are a few oddities in this console.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about all the best and worst things about the Switch so far. (I should say: one of the very worst things is that its pre-orders have been delayed because of the Trump administrati

Introduction

Every month we have a community check-in, to talk about the instance and how things are going, and to create a space where you can share stuff too. This post will be pinned and we'll check it regularly over the course of the month for new comments to read and respond to. We're really grateful that all of you have chosen this instance, and are making it such a great place to hang out thanks to your contributions. I get a serious hit of dopamine when I encounter someone who's made a great comment in a remote thread, and recognize the username is from this instance. It's a pleasure to admin for so many intelligent, thoughtful people.

Snippets from Last Month's Canvas

A 'Canvas Event' is a participatory time-limited art-form where individuals can alter one pixel at a time, and through competition, negotiation, or coordination with each other, create coherent images together. Now that the event is over, here's some feature