is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Meta obviously believes in smart glasses. It’s not alone: Google, Apple, Samsung, and others all appear to be heavily invested in the idea that the next big gadget will be on your face. But at least for now, it appears Meta is the company building the best, most interesting, and most successful version of that gadget.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk a lot about Meta’s big bet on face computers. But first, a surprise! Nilay joins the show for a special episode of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, America’s favorite podcast within a podcast, to talk about why it matters so much that Jimmy Kimmel’s show was suspended, how Carr and the Trump administration are finding leverage to control speech, and why this incident has caused such backlash across the political spectrum.
After that, Nilay goes back to parental leave, and we turn to Meta. The Verge’s Jake Kastrenakes and Richard Lawler discuss the Meta Ray-Ban Display (the one with the screen), the Oakley Meta Vanguard (the one with the sick wraparounds) and the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 (the one that’s like the old one.) These devices are name crimes, and we say so. Then we talk about Meta’s differing approaches to each model, and whether any of them are likely to convince people who wear glasses — and, even tougher, people who don’t — to put on a new pair.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on Brendan Carr and the FCC:
And in Meta Connect news:
And in the lightning round: