The Vergecast

This week Apple announced a Mac Mini made for AI and a Mac Studio made for AI, both with faster M6 and M5 Pro chips made for AI. But that's all an amuse-bouche to Sept. 9's (expected) main course: the long-awaited folding iPhone. Nilay Patel, Jake Kastrenakes, and David Imel run through all of this week's Apple news, including the most important story: a surprise discount on the legendary polishing cloth.Then, they react to Meta's settlement in its latest kids safety trial, geek out about Grand Theft Auto VI with the Hype Desk's Ashley Esqueda, check out the Pokémon Fitbit, and decide if Nvidia just saved the global economy.

Further reading:

⁠File a comment with the FCC⁠

⁠Apple announces September iPhone launch event⁠

⁠Apple’s new M6 chip gets more cores and more AI compute⁠

⁠Apple launches new Mac Studios with its ‘most powerful chip ever’ — the M5 Ultra⁠

⁠Apple’s new Mac Mini has fresh M6 and M5 Pro chip offerings — and higher prices⁠

⁠Apple’s ‘new’ polishing cloth is the same except $10 cheaper⁠

⁠Meta agrees to heavy restrictions on teen users in major lawsuit settlement⁠

⁠Meta is planning an ad blitz urging TikTok and YouTube to follow its lead.⁠

⁠All the ways Instagram and Facebook are changing for teens⁠

⁠Rockstar finally responds to ‘heartbreaking’ GTA 6 leaks⁠

⁠Fierce Network: FCC opens comments on E-Rate as the program gets attacked in court⁠

⁠Nvidia is about to be a hundred-billion-dollar-a-quarter company⁠

⁠Panic is passing Playdate tariff refunds on to customers.⁠

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.

0:00 Welcome to the Vergecast01:26 Apple Mac AI Hype02:26 Mac Mini Agent Craze06:32 Mac Studio vs Nvidia11:43 Price Hikes and Cloth17:01 iPhone Event Invite17:38 iPhone Fold Debate21:30 Camera Crash Out26:57 Meta Settlement Breakdown28:59 First Amendment Fallout36:59 Age Verification Push39:30 Filter Rules and Loopholes44:11 Will Teens Just Switch Apps45:20 Reels Versus Shorts46:35 Government Next Steps47:39 Break And Reset47:50 GTA VI Showcase54:29 Leaks And Spoilers57:12 Can GTA Save Games01:00:51 GTA Online Money01:02:04 Brendan Carr is a Dummy01:03:45 E Rate Fight01:08:46 Nvidia Earnings Hype01:17:50 Pokemon Sleep Fitbit01:22:41 Waymo Versus Tesla01:28:34 Decoder And Goodbye
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If, after months of increasingly dire RAMageddon warnings, you just now find yourself in the market for a new laptop... we're here to help. In the latest installment of our "RAMageddon Survival Guide," laptop reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto joins David Imel to offer his recommendations.

Further reading:

Apple announces September iPhone launch event

Xbox announces disc-to-digital feature that digitizes your physical games

Xbox’s limited-edition green Series X is already sold out

Panic is passing Playdate tariff refunds on to customers

A RAMageddon guide to back-to-school laptop shopping

An okay laptop with 16GB of RAM is better than a nice laptop with 8GB, and this $520 HP OmniBook proves it

This is my new favorite laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon the price already went up by $800

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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two-hour usage limits, age verification, and a $17.1 billion payout: We're breaking down today's big settlement in Meta's kids online safety trial. Senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner and senior tech and policy editor Adi Robertson discuss how we got here, why Meta settled, and what this means for the ongoing conversation around teen mental health and social media.

Further reading:

Meta agrees to heavy restrictions on teen users in major lawsuit settlement

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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It can be hard enough to set up smart home tech in a house or an apartment, but what about a dorm room? Jennifer Pattison Tuohy recently tested out some smart home tech when she dropped off her son for his freshman year at Clemson. Jen reports back to David Imel on how the gadgets stood up to the challenges of college Wi-Fi and rules against hanging things on the wall.

Further reading:

Apple’s new M6 chip gets more cores and more AI compute

Apple’s new Mac Mini has fresh M6 and M5 Pro chip offerings — and higher prices

Apple launches new Mac Studios with its ‘most powerful chip ever’ — the M5 Ultra

Android is getting its own weird dots to cure car sickness

WhatsApp is making it easier to ignore spam calls

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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you remember your first BlackBerry? Do you remember when that first BlackBerry launched? On this episode taped before David Pierce went on leave, producer Travis Larchuk leads David, Nilay, and The Verge’s Sean Hollister through a game of memory and history and a surprising amount of feelings tied to gadget launches.

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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices