The Vergecast

• Do we really want Rosie the Robot?

  This week on The Vergecast, the co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, joins The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, to discuss what the ideal home robot is. Are we close to creating a Rosie the Robot — an all-in-one humanoid robot that can take care of our homes, or should we take an entirely different approach to home robotics? They dive into the advances in technology powering this shift and ponder what purpose robotics in the home should really serve. Then, Jen takes a journey back into smart home history to help us understand its future. Grant Erickson, Principal of Nuovations, a former Apple, Nest, and Google engineer who was part of the team that developed Thread, joins the show. He shares the story of how and why, back in 2011, the Nest team, led by Tony Faddell and Matt Rogers, decided to create a smart home protocol. It involves a thermostat, fragmented ecosystems, and one of the best smart home products ever made. They discuss how Thread became the foundation of the Matter smart home standard — an unprecedented industry collaboration with a herculean task — to make the smart home simpler. To close out the show, Grant sticks around to help answer a Vergecast hotline question (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]) about how Matter manages your data. Further reading: Maybe I don’t want a Rosey the Robot after all Amazon left Roomba with a huge mess to clean up Figure will start ‘alpha testing’ its humanoid robot in the home in 2025 Amazon Astro review: too much Alexa, not enough arms Samsung is finally releasing Ballie This Pixar-style dancing lamp hints at Apple’s future home robot iRobot’s founder is working on a new kind of home robot iRobot OS is the newest ‘brain’ for your Roomba Amazon bought iRobot to see inside your home I tested a robot vacuum with an arm, and my dog may never forgive me Inside the Nest: iPod creator Tony Fadell wants to reinvent the thermostat Nest CEO Tony Fadell on Google acquisition Fire drill: Can Tony Fadell and Nest build a better smoke detector? How big companies kill ideas — and how to fight back, with Tony Fadell Situation: there are too many competing smart home standards Matter’s plan to save the smart home Nest’s home security system costs $499 and comes with magnetic door sensors Google says Matter is still set to fix the biggest smart home frustrations Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home Nanoleaf launches a smart switch after eight years of trying Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol It could be 2026 before all your Thread border routers work together Matter will be better in 2025 — say the people who make it The Nest Learning Thermostat gets its biggest upgrade in over a decade killedbygoogle.com Google’s ADT partnership finally has a new home security product to show for it Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale door lock Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system Appliance makers are teaming up to reduce your electricity usage — and save you cash Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• Vibe coding through the GPT-5 mess

  GPT-5 is here, and it’s not going so well. This week on The Vergecast, Jake, Vee, and Hayden discuss the bumpy launch of OpenAI’s latest model and why GPT-5 isn’t as big of a leap as GPT-4. Then, everyone shares their vibe coding projects and the bumpy journey to making anything usable. After that, our newest segment: Corporate Shenanigans, where we rate the week in strange corporate moves on a scale from “actually serious” to “total joke.” Finally, the Thunder Round returns, new and improved, to discuss ditching your phone for a smartwatch, doctors relying too much on AI, AOL dial-up shutting down, the Pebble Time 2, and why you shouldn’t trust what AI chatbots say about themselves. Further reading: ChatGPT won’t remove old models without warning after GPT-5 backlash OpenAI will update GPT-5’s “personality” after user backlash ChatGPT is bringing back 4o as an option because people missed it Sam Altman shared more about what went wrong with those GPT-5 graphs OpenAI gives some employees a ‘special’ multimillion-dollar bonus Anthropic just made its latest move in the AI coding wars Anthropic’s Claude chatbot can now remember your past conversations Perplexity offers to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion Apple is suing Apple Cinemas Apple Cinemas responds to Apple lawsuit Apple returns blood oxygen monitoring to the latest Apple Watches Elon Musk says he’s suing Apple for rigging App Store rankings Ditching my phone for an LTE smartwatch was a humbling experience Here’s a look at the final Pebble Time 2 design  Some doctors got worse at detecting cancer after relying on AI Google’s healthcare AI made up a body part — what happens when doctors don’t notice? Chatbots aren’t telling you their secrets AOL is finally shutting down dial-up Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• How to save a smart home company

  This week on The Vergecast, we enter the Jen-era of Hot Girl Vergecast Summer, with a deep dive into the business of the smart home. The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen), chats with Ken Fairbanks, a longtime customer of Insteon who ended up buying the smart lighting company when it went into bankruptcy. Ken shares the story of how one of the original smart lighting protocols, founded in the post-X10 era when home automation moved from wired to wireless, floundered, and how he and a band of users brought it back from the dead. He dishes what he’s learned about how to keep the lights on — from customer loyalty and the value of subscriptions, to what tariffs are doing to the industry and how some hardware companies are just pyramid schemes. Then, in a special supersized (and we mean SUPER) Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]), Jen is joined by smart home expert Richard Gunther, co-host of The Smart Home Show, to tackle a bunch of your burning smart lighting questions. They answer everything from how to move your smart home to which Thread border router you should buy for your Matter setup. Plus, they run down their own smart lighting set-ups. Further reading: Insteon’s troubles are a smart home tale as old as time Insteon Raises the Curtain for the Next Act Someone turned Insteon’s lights back on Insteon customers turned Insteon’s lights back on Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home Smart switches or smart bulbs? How to choose the right smart lighting for your home Controller for HomeKit Philips Hue Play sync box and gradient lightstrip review: wholly unnecessary, totally delightful Taming Wi-Fi in the Smart Home: Leviton’s new smart light switches don’t require a neutral wire Every smart home device that works with Matter Aqara’s new seven-inch home control tablet can replace a light switch These smart lights could solve the kitchen cabinet problem Hue launches a pricey new sunrise lamp Smart string light showdown: Nanoleaf versus Lifx The best floodlight camera to buy right now How to move a smart home Moving a smart home - The Smart Home Show Living with the ghost of a smart home’s past Smart ceiling light showdown: Aqara T1M versus Nanoleaf Skylight Binding should be the next big thing for smart home devices Aqara adds support for 50 new Matter device types Flic is ready to control all your Matter devices Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home Google Nest Thread border routers Google TV Streamer review: smarter than your average set-top box Google Nest Hub (2nd-gen) review: sleep on it Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• We found stuff AI is pretty good at

  In this bonus episode of The Vergecast, Senior Reviewer Victoria Song sits down with a bunch of Verge staffers to talk about how they use AI tools in their everyday lives. Not all of it went smoothly — we definitely get into the ways these tools fall short — but we explore how AI can be used to help bedtime go more smoothly for parents, plan big cross-country moves, supplement your internet searches (always double-check!), and even vibe code an app for your next tabletop role-playing game. If you have any examples where AI was useful to you, we’d love to hear them. (For what it’s worth, we’d also love to hear stories where it spectacularly failed.) Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• GPT-5's big new feature: less lying?

  It’s a huge week in AI, with OpenAI releasing GPT-OSS and GPT-5, Grok getting deeply problematic again with its “spicy” video generator, and Tim Cook admitting that Apple may need to cut some deals. Then we talk the age gating of the internet and how you might soon need an ID card to get just about anywhere online. Finally, the Lightning Round gets re-rebranded. Adi Robertson and Alex Heath join the show to discuss. Further reading: GPT-5 is being released to all ChatGPT users OpenAI releases a free GPT model that can run on your laptop Why open-source AI became an American national priority Mark Zuckerberg promises you can trust him with superintelligent AI xAI’s new Grok image and video generator has a ‘spicy’ mode Grok’s ‘spicy’ video setting instantly made me Taylor Swift nude deepfakes I tested Grok’s Valentine sex chatbot and it (mostly) behaved Tim Cook says Apple ‘must’ figure out AI and ‘will make the investment to do it’ Tim Cook says Apple is ‘open to’ AI acquisitions Ready or not, age verification is rolling out across the internet The UK is now age-gating the internet The UK is slogging through an online age-gate apocalyps The UK’s new age-gating rules are easy to bypass Reddit and Discord’s UK age verification can be defeated by Death Stranding’s photo mode Reddit rolls out age verification in the UK to comply with new rules Five EU states to test age verification app to protect children The EU approach to age verification Commission presents guidelines and age verification app prototype for a safer online space for children Porn age-gating is the future of the internet, thanks to the Supreme Court The Supreme Court just upended internet law, and I have questions Florida Sues Huge Porn Sites Including XVideos and Bang Bros Over Age Verification Law  “Over the last two and a half years, 19 states – home to more than a third of Americans – have passed laws that require pornography websites to confirm a user’s age by checking a government-issued ID or scanning their face, among other methods.” Google is using AI age checks to lock down user accounts Today's Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy Age Verification Harms Users of All Ages Blocking Access to Harmful Content Will Not Protect Children Online, No Matter How Many Times UK Politicians Say So Zero Knowledge Proofs Alone Are Not a Digital ID Solution to Protecting User Privacy Age Verification in the European Union: The Commission's Age Verification App RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine contracts Epic just won its Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same Google has just two weeks to begin cracking open Android, it admits in emergency filing Instagram adds a reposts feed and rips off Snap Maps OpenAI charts crime OpenAI gets caught vibe graphing Nintendo raises the Switch 1 price from $299 to $339 Apple says Trump’s tariffs are adding another $1 billion to its costs Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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