The Vergecast

Now that we've had a couple of days to digest all the Siri AI updates, the new corner radii, and everything else Apple announced at its developer conference, we spend the episode answering all your most burning questions. What non-AI stuff are we excited about? How much catching up did Siri really do this week? And wait: what about the HomePod?

Further reading:

⁠WWDC 2026: All the news from Apple’s developers conference⁠

⁠5 things I already love from the iOS 27 beta⁠

⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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Long before Steve Jobs was the unstoppable force of nature atop Apple, shipping hit product after hit product, he was practically run out of the company after a series of bad product and management decisions. But as Geoffrey Cain argues in his new book, Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary, the 12 years Jobs spent outside of Apple turned him into the leader the world came to know. Cain joins the show to talk about Jobs' experiences at NeXT and Pixar, how Jobs learned to be a successful leader, and the true power — and danger — of the reality distortion field.

Further reading:

Steve Jobs in Exile

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:01:30 Intro

00:01:56 90 Seconds on The Verge

00:03:46 Interview with Geoffrey Cain
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Apple's annual developer conference keynote was a strange one this year. The company breezed by its normal slew of operating system upgrades, and talked instead about helping people manage their relationships with their devices, and AI. Lots and lots of AI. On this post-keynote livestream, David Pierce, Hayden Field, and Jake Kastrenakes give their first takes on Siri AI, the Apple Intelligence features coming this fall, Apple's new Screen Time design, and everything else we liked and disliked from the keynote. Including the corner radii.

Further reading:

⁠Apple WWDC 2026: The 7 biggest announcements⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:00 Why This Keynote Felt Chaotic

00:05:00 AI Takes Center Stage

00:06:00 Apple Plays Catch Up

00:09:00 Privacy and Private Cloud

00:12:00 Useful Versus Creepy AI

00:18:00 Why Apple Went All In

00:25:00 New Siri Voice

00:33:00 Siri App Intents

00:37:00 Vibe Coding Shortcuts

00:39:00 Siri Goes Orb Mode

00:41:00 Too Many Siri Gestures

00:42:00 Apple Trust and Screen Time

00:46:00 Kids Safety and App Responsibility

00:50:00 App Store Dissonance and Regulation

00:52:00 OS 27 Device Cutoffs

00:59:00 Favorite Features and Liquid Glass

01:04:00 Dictation Confusion and Wrap Up
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It's developer conference season, and one of the themes so far has been big swings at AI apps. We've seen Gemini Spark, Microsoft Scout, and so many other attempts to figure out what people, and companies, actually want their AI to do. Nilay and David discuss their experiences with the apps, before turning to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's vision for the AI-filled laptop of the future. Finally, in the lightning round, it's time for the Hype Desk, Brendan Carr is a Dummy, a deeply dumb Meta hack, and the future of a favorite VR game.

Further reading:

⁠Testing Google’s Gemini Spark AI agent: it’s incredible, and creepy ⁠

⁠Gemini’s new AI agent is about as good as Google’s demo ⁠

⁠Microsoft Scout is a new AI personal assistant built on OpenClaw ⁠

⁠Microsoft’s Project Solara is an OS for AI agent gadgets ⁠

⁠As AI gets better, it reveals an empty promise ⁠

⁠Let us filter AI slop, you cowards⁠

⁠Microsoft and OpenAI broke up — now they’re ready to fight ⁠

⁠These are the first Nvidia RTX Spark laptops ⁠

⁠This is the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia RTX Spark ⁠


⁠A first look at Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface Dev Box⁠⁠ ⁠

⁠Nvidia is already planning N2X and N3X chips — the goal is the Star Trek computer ⁠

⁠This could be Windows’ M1 moment — but expect it to cost a ton ⁠

⁠Computex 2026: All the news and announcements ⁠

⁠Meta’s own AI was exploited to hijack Instagram accounts⁠

⁠Apple’s strategy for smart glasses is the same as for smart watches ⁠

⁠It sure seems like the Vision Pro isn’t getting upgraded for a while — if ever.⁠

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:01:00 Intro

00:03:00 New Verge Merch Drop

00:09:00 Gemini Spark Test Drive

00:13:00 Privacy Tradeoffs Debate

00:21:00 Software Brain Pushback

00:36:00 Jensen Huang Computer Future

00:39:00 Microsoft Build Reality Check

00:41:00 Nvidia Spark Recall

00:42:00 Microsoft Badge Agents

00:54:00 Escaping Apple Tax

00:57:00 Wearables Walled Gardens

01:05:00 Hype Desk

01:06:00 Bond Game Streaming

01:09:00 Summer Games Fest

01:11:00 State of Play Highlights

01:11:00 God of War

01:14:00 Wolverine Gore Talk

01:15:00 Widows Bay

01:17:00 Lightning Round

01:17:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:26:00 Apple Glasses Rumors

01:36:00 Privacy Backlash Risk

01:38:00 Meta AI Hack Fiasco

01:43:00 Supernatural Returns

01:47:00 Wrap and Next Week
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Microsoft's commitment to AI is not news. Copilot has been everywhere for... a while now. But at this week's Build developer conference, the company made clear that it wants — and needs — to be a bigger player in the space. The Verge's Tom Warren joins David to talk about the new Scout AI assistant, the Solara operating system concept, and whether Microsoft can hang with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Also: How's the new era of Xbox going?

We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube.

Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters and our ad-free podcast feed.

We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11.
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