On this episode of The Vergecast, hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn welcome on a few of our colleagues to discuss the week’s important stories.
First up, deputy editor Dan Seifert stops by to cover our recent 13-inch MacBook Pro review, what is going on with the next Pixel phone, and why Windows’ laptop design has gotten so good.
In the second half of the show, Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton joins to discuss the implementation of Facebook’s independent oversight board that’s dealing with censorship and free speech on the platform and how it can establish a precedent for other social networks.
Last but not least, Verge reporter Julia Alexander is back to update us on how the streaming wars have been handling the world staying at home, how well Quibi is doing after launching last month, and whether WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service, HBO Max, can be successful in a very crowded field.
Listen here or in your preferred podcast player to hear it all.
Stories discussed this week:
- The doomsday bunker market is thriving amid the coronavirus pandemic
- Amazon asks Congress to pass a law against price gouging during national crisis
- Uber’s response to COVID-19: face masks, selfies, and fewer people in the car
- The lockdown live-streaming numbers are out, and they’re huge
- Elon Musk defies coronavirus order and asks to be arrested
- Tesla has already started making cars again at its California factory
- Twitter introducing new labels for tweets with misleading COVID-19 information
- Google says that the majority of its employees will work from home until 2021
- The mastermind of Google’s Pixel camera quietly left the company in March
- Google Pixel 4a Performance Review tests the phones
- Android 11’s public beta to launch with June 3rd live stream
- TCL wants to be the next big name in budget phones
- Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020) review: return to baseline
- Dell launches new XPS 17 and redesigned XPS 15 with 16:10 edge-to-edge displays
- Alienware’s Area-51m, m15, and m17 laptops are getting new 10th Gen Intel chips and upgraded GPUs
- Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job
- Half of all Facebook moderators may develop mental health issues
- How Facebook is using AI to combat COVID-19 misinformation and detect ‘hateful memes’
- Facebook’s independent oversight board could be overwhelmed by the challenge
- Tenet is now Hollywood’s litmus test for what happens next
- The Mandalorian’s second season won’t be delayed, says Disney CEO
- AMC Theaters will no longer play Universal movies after Trolls World Tour’s on-demand success
- Alamo Drafthouse launches Alamo on Demand VOD service
- HBO Max will use anime from Crunchyroll to compete with Netflix’s growing empire
- HBO is teaming up with Scener to give subscribers the ability to watch TV together
- WarnerMedia expands free HBO Max deal to HBO subscribers who pay through Apple’s servies
- Quibi will add sharing features as the app struggles to find subscribers
- Jeffrey Katzenberg Blames Pandemic for Quibi’s Rough Start
- Major CBS All Access changes coming this summer as company speeds up relaunch
- Wannabe influencers are being trained to film a believable YouTube apology video
The Vergecast /
Weekly tech roundup and interviews with major figures from the tech world.