You just left your house. As you peel out of the driveway and tear down the street in the coolest way possible, your garage door... well, what does it do? The answer’s probably nothing, and that feels like the wrong answer. The smart home was supposed to have fixed this by now.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we didn’t necessarily set out to talk about smart garage doors for as long as we did, but The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern joined the show with a lot of thoughts about Apple Intelligence, notification summaries, and how we all — and in particular, how Apple’s software leader Craig Federighi — manage their own houses. Given the reporting that Apple is gearing up for a big hardware push into the smart home, what does the company really think it can do here? (Make sure you watch Joanna’s recent interview with Federighi for more!)
At the beginning of the show, though, we talk about some of the week’s AI news. We discuss the just-launched search engine inside of ChatGPT, which may be a threat to Google but is definitely a statement about how we use the internet now. We also talk about this week’s Big Tech earnings, and what they taught us about how AI is actually being used — and how it makes money.
With Joanna, we dig into not just garage doors but also the rest of Apple’s big week of Mac announcements. After seeing the new Mac Mini, the new iMac, the new MacBook Pro, and some new accessories, a lot of people were left with the same question: they put the power button and charging port where? So we talk about power buttons, and chip bumps, and why the Mac Mini feels more important than ever.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about Netflix’s gentle push into the social era, and Tony Fadell’s decidedly curse-filled thoughts on AI. Then we talk briefly about The Verge’s presidential endorsement and all our election coverage, which you should read. And read the comments!
If you want to know more on everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with AI:
- OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPTMeta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, tooGoogle Maps will use AI to answer questions about the new restaurant you want to tryMicrosoft’s gaming revenue keeps going up, even though hardware sales are downReddit is profitable for the first time ever, with nearly 100 million daily usersMore than a quarter of new code at Google is generated by AI
And in Apple news:
- Apple’s Mac week: everything announcedApple announces redesigned Mac Mini with M4 chip — and it’s so damn smallApple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-CApple put the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom againApple updates the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max chipsApple updates the iMac with new colors and an M4 chipApple’s first smart home display could pay homage to a classic iMacFrom The Wall Street Journal: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More
And in the lightning round:
