The Vergecast

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.⁠




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(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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