AirPods, Touch Bars, and the rest of Tim Cook's legacy
4/24/20261 hr 38 min
Now that we've had a few days to digest the Apple CEO succession news, Nilay and David get some help from Daring Fireball's John Gruber to discuss Tim Cook's legacy, the potential for change under John Ternus, and whether the Touch Bar actually could have been great. Then, Nilay and David react to some breaking news: Microsoft is going back to the Xbox. And everything is an Xbox now. Finally, in the lightning round, we have a round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, a very 2026 new microphone, a BMW we can't figure out, and Meta's new AI training tool: its employees. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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. Further reading: Behold the cursed 2027 BMW 7 Series interior (via Car and Driver) Tim Cook’s departure is the start of a new era at Apple Read Tim Cook’s letter to the Apple world as he departs as CEO Wearable health tech might be Tim Cook’s greatest legacy Who is Apple’s new CEO John Ternus? Tim Cook: “I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this new role for a long time.” Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price cut but loses new Call of Duty games Microsoft says the ‘idea’ of an Xbox mobile store ‘is not dead’ Call of Duty never made much sense for Xbox Game Pass We found Microsoft’s amicus brief about the Xbox mobile game store. Variety: Trump’s FCC Wants Input on Whether ‘Transgender and Gender Nonbinary’ TV Programming Is ‘Appropriate’ for Children Anthropic’s most dangerous AI model just fell into the wrong hands Insta360 is putting screens on its next wireless mics to show logos or images Now Meta will track what employees do on their computers to train its AI agents --EPISODE RUNDOWN-- (Timestamps are approximate.) 00:01:00 Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO 00:50:00 Xbox rebrand 01:06:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy 01:08:00 FCC targets "transgender and gender nonbinary" kids' TV 01:13:00 Mythos 01:21:00 BMW 7-Series' confusing interior 01:27:00 Insta360 mic with screen 01:30:00 Meta tracks employees Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
Adobe Acrobat, your team's home base. Collaborate within a shared PDF space. You've got your docs, your plans, your specs. And then invite the crew to build what's next. They talk up the teamwork. You could update and render. They think that this design. Could be a contender. But when somebody wonders. What's the next steps? AI helps you finish the rest. Bolts are tight. Tight. Now your plan's refined. Fined. Run a smoother business when you're all aligned. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more at adobe.com/dothatwithAcrobat. Adobe Acrobat, your team's home base. Collaborate within a shared PDF space. You've got your docs, your plans, your specs. And then invite the crew to build what's next. They talk up the teamwork. You could update and render. They think that this design. Could be a contender. But when somebody wonders. What's the next steps? AI helps you finish the rest. Bolts are tight. Tight. Now your plan's refined. Fined. Run a smoother business when you're all aligned. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more at adobe.com/dothatwithAcrobat.
Speaker 11:00
UnitedHealth Group is bringing in-home treatment directly to patients, closing care gaps, identifying risks earlier, and improving patient outcomes. In 2025, patients received over 19 million home visits. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com/commitment.
David Pierce· Host1:14
[upbeat music] Welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of California's Laguna Seca Raceway, where new Apple CEO, John Ternus, apparently drives very fast, which is cool. Good for John Ternus.
Nilay Patel· Host1:26
It rules.
David Pierce· Host1:27
[laughs] Uh, I'm your friend David Pierce.