The Vergecast

@thevergecast · Podcast

Latest segments

• Anthropic's $2T IPO slip, 2026-10-30
  Reads the S-1 for risk factors and feelings
  Reads the S-1 for feelings: the risk factors, the $800 billion in ten-year commitments, the TPU and Amazon chip mix, and Claude for Legal. The argument is whether the AI economy is a house of cards and whether frontier models get commoditized - opinion and framing on a filing already on the record.
• Reddit locks down old.reddit, 2026-10-30
  Reads the shareholder letter on lost referrals
  Reads from Reddit's shareholder letter to explain the login push: search referral traffic fell meaningfully in Q3 and kept falling into October, with more than a million referrals lost per week. Frames it as Google's AI Overviews killing the supply chain that feeds it.
• Instagram tests long-form video, 2026-10-30
  Questions the missing creator rev share
  Picks up the Features test and the creator question the announcement left open: what's the rev share. Notes Mosseri has said Instagram will try to figure out creator payouts, and frames the test as Instagram closing a loop it created as YouTube's discovery layer.
• Sexy AI comics steal jokes, 2026-10-30
  Plays Mosseri on AI comics stealing bits
  Plays the Colin and Samir clip of Mosseri on fictional AI comedians stealing bits and reads it as a man who knows the fix but cannot act on it. Adds a comparison inside Meta's own house: it restricts what can be shared from its glasses but not AI content.
• Instagram tests long-form video, 2026-10-30
  Speculates on AI bets devaluing the ad business
  Recaps the Features push and the TV app rollout, then spends most of the segment on Mosseri's creator-economy interviews and on how Meta's AI bets and a Muse shopping agent could devalue Instagram's ad business. Speculation and framing, not new reporting.
• Apple's OLED iPad mini, 2026-10-30
  Argues the iPad is squeezed from both sides
  Treats the iPad mini as a stealth launch - a press release and executive tweets, OLED, thinner and lighter, no new capabilities - and uses it to argue the iPad is being squeezed from below by the Duo and above by the touchscreen Mac. Stays inside the announcement already on the record.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-30
  Plays Jobs on vertical touch ergonomics
  Recaps the LA influencer event demos, including the Gaussian splatting demo rendered on four Mac Studios, and plays a Steve Jobs clip on vertical touch being ergonomically terrible. Lands on the same read as the earlier coverage: a minor convenience, not a new computing idea.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-30
  Debates whether it is a plan or a spec
  Debates whether the touchscreen MacBook Pro reflects a grand plan or a spec added because panels come that way, and reads the Wired interview as evidence Apple has no larger intention. Stays inside the framing of the announcement and the hands-on impressions.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-29
  Debates the magnifying traffic-light buttons
  Runs through the small macOS touch tweaks, chiefly traffic-light buttons that magnify when tapped. Antonio calls the magnification messy and doubts anyone will use it; David calls it the bare minimum. Reaction to the launch, not new reporting.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-29
  Relays Ternus deflecting on Apple Pencil
  Relays a first-hand exchange with John Ternus at the launch event: asked about Apple Pencil support on the new MacBook, Ternus deflected to the iPad as the best device for a stylus. The hosts then speculate the MacBook will get Pencil support eventually.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-29
  Argues touch was framed as a convenience
  Picks up the hands-on demos and argues Apple never framed touch as a new computing paradigm, just a convenient extra for swiping timelines and pinching to zoom. Stays inside the demo read already on the record, adding only the accessibility-menu off switch.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-29
  Describes the chaotic LA launch demos
  Describes the LA launch event itself: a short, chaotic presentation followed by a rush to hands-on demos, where professionals from fashion, photography, video and ILM tapped the touchscreen only occasionally rather than showing a changed workflow.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-29
  Ranks touch below weight loss and OLED
  Reaction segment on the new MacBook Pro: the touchscreen is the least compelling change, the weight loss and OLED matter more day to day, and the ProLED XDR naming signals touch is secondary. Stays inside the announcement.
• DoorDash buys Instacart, 2026-10-29
  Reports the $17 billion Instacart purchase
  Leads the news rundown with DoorDash's roughly $17 billion purchase of Instacart, noting the brand stays separate and weighing the bet against Amazon, Walmart and Uber in low-margin grocery delivery.
• Amazon's Echo fall event, 2026-10-28
  Argues Amazon is shifting to pricier Echo hardware
  Ties the new lineup to a hardware strategy shift: Amazon moving from cheap, disposable Echo devices to expensive, capable ones. Goes through the Omnisense sensors and beam-forming microphones and lands on the price question, noting the Dot doubled to $100.
• Amazon's Echo fall event, 2026-10-28
  Questions putting a camera in the Echo Studio
  Walks through the Echo Studio with Home Camera: the 13-megapixel camera, Visual ID, and the Panos Panay demo call to his parents with a Fire TV as the screen. The price and the no-camera option are already on the record; the new material is the hosts' own skepticism about a camera in a soundbar.
• Amazon's Echo fall event, 2026-10-28
  Frames the Echo Time as a bedside Trojan horse
  Walks through the Echo Time as a bedside Trojan horse: the touchscreen clock, the ultrasound sleep sensing, the sunrise dimming and the Zigbee and Matter bulb control. A hands-on retelling of the launch, with the hosts' framing on top.
• Amazon's Echo fall event, 2026-10-28
  Pitches the Photo Frame as Alexa's way into homes
  Walks through the Alexa Photo Frame as a gifting product: voice search by place, time and face recognition, voice memos attached to photos, and the pitch that it is the Trojan horse that gets Alexa into homes. Stays inside the launch-day specs.
• Amazon's Echo fall event, 2026-10-28
  Adds the $100 pre-order discount on the Show 16
  Walks through the Echo Show 16's four persistent screen options and Alexa Cards, then weighs the $400 starting price and $570 NanoMatte version against the HomeView. The one fact not yet on the record is the $100 pre-order discount.
• Touchscreen MacBook Pro pricing, 2026-10-28
  Recaps the $2,899 touchscreen MacBook Pro
  A 90-second news roundup leads with the touchscreen MacBook Pro at $2,899, notes the OLED display and the returning glowing logo, then moves on to Amazon's Echo lineup and Virgin Galactic's Apeiron. A quick retelling of the day's announcement.