Nest’s quest to fix your thermostat
The founding story of Nest is pretty much a perfect tech myth. A legendary product maker (in this case, Tony Fadell) helps create one of the most successful products ever (the iPhone) and then rides off into the sunset to enjoy the rest of his life, only to have an experience that drags him back for one last job. For Fadell, that job was to try and reinvent the thermostat. And maybe change the way our homes work forever.
On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the early days of Nest. The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy describe Fadell's frustration with outdated, expensive temperature controls …
Ad-free streaming is a luxury now
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about the streaming industry, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Streaming was once a reprieve from cable. Not only could you watch whatever you wanted at any given time, but you didn't have to sit through five-minute-long commercial breaks. And the best part was the price: Netflix, for example, cost just $7.99 / month when it launched its standalone streaming service in 2010. Amazon's Prime Video was the same, offering ad-free streaming as a p …
TMD’s keyless bike lock is a $280 solution to a $60 problem
I've seen lots of so-called "smart" bike locks over the years, but none so far could justify the added cost. A newcomer that got its start securing ATMs for banks is trying to change that. There's nothing wholly unique about the TMD Chain Lock, but the combination of materials, performance, and insurance-friendly ART-2 certification makes it worth considering.
TMD's first bicycle lock combines a Bluetooth proximity sensor and motion alarm with a slender core of hardened steel chain wrapped in a soft and lightweight sleeve of high performance Dyneema and Kevlar fibers. That makes this lock tough, yet flexible enough to conveniently wrap arou …
Teenage Engineering adds lo-fi mode, USB audio, and more to its KO II sampler
Teenage Engineering has already issued multiple substantial updates for its surprisingly capable $329 EP-133 KO II sampler. Its latest is one of the biggest yet. OS 2.5 adds audio over USB, selectable sample rates for lo-fi fun, sample reverse, an arpeggiator, equal-length autochopping, and it extends the maximum length of a sample from 20 seconds to 40 seconds by capturing mono, instead of stereo, audio.
Sample reverse is such a simple feature that it's shocking it wasn't implemented earlier. An arpeggiator doesn't always make a ton of sense on a sampler, but the KO II sounds so incredible repitching samples (like the SK-1 successor I've a …
Margaret Atwood says the problem with AI is ‘garbage in, garbage out’
Maraget Atwood, the storied author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, was interviewed as part of the Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal. As it usually does at these things, the issue of AI came up, and Atwood didn't mince words.
According to Deadline's recap, Atwood said she'd used an AI chatbot exactly once, Anthropic's Claude, and came away unimpressed. She was looking for information about the British detective series Father Brown and, well:
"Claude gave me the wrong answer, or it lied. Of course, it didn't know it was lying because it's not a human being; it's a large language model… It had skimmed a …
Apple wants permission to buy memory from a blacklisted Chinese supplier
Apple is looking to alleviate some of the pressure on its supply chain by seeking an exception from the Trump administration to buy RAM chips from CXMT, a company blacklisted by the Pentagon over ties to the People's Liberation Army, according to the Financial Times. The skyrocketing prices of RAM and storage have driven Apple to raise prices on almost all of its products this week, so it makes sense that it would seek alternative sources.
Legally, Apple isn't barred from buying chips from CXMT, but doing business with a company tied to the Chinese military would carry serious reputational risks. It's possible that CXMT could still find it …
The Guardian’s Kai Wright refuses to buy a new phone
Kai Wright is the co-host of Stateside with Kai and Carter over at the Guardian. But Wright has been bringing his unique insights to listeners for years. He's also hosted Notes From America, The United States of Anxiety, and Indivisible. He's a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has profiled powerful men, explored what it means to be American, and chronicled the AIDS epidemic.
When he's not diving deep on sex, race, and politics, he's gardening, listening to John Coltrane, and steadfastly refusing to buy a new phone. Wright was kind enough to give us a glimpse into his daily routine, how he unwinds, and offer some simple but powerful advi …
Indie developers got tired of waiting for a new Star Fox, so they’re making their own
Nostalgia remains a powerful force. So much so that, in exploring the echoes of a late-'90s childhood spent skimming the water of Corneria and sneering "cocky little freaks!" in time with a monkey encased in a Gundam suit, I'm simultaneously describing playing Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars if you're nasty) in 1997 and streaming it through Nintendo Switch Online today.
The franchise has been revived through a splashy remake on the Switch 2, but it's also a series that has not seen an all-new entry since Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. Yet Nintendo's neglect of the series has been gently offset by indie creators. Ex-Zodiac and Whisker Squadron: Survivo …
Why is Apple asking me to pay more for Big Tech’s AI obsession?
Tim Cook recently said price increases were "unavoidable" and described the company's pricing as "unsustainable." The 16-inch MacBook Pro saw its price go up by $300. The 11-inch iPad Air went from $599 to $749. Even the HomePod Mini got a $30 bump to $129. Cook squarely placed the blame at the feet of the AI industry, which is not surprising. RAMageddon has already come for your desktop PCs and gaming consoles. The Xbox has seen its price climb nearly 25 percent depending on the model, and Nothing even canceled an entire phone launch. Apple is just the most recent to jack up prices and point the finger at AI.
The price hikes are "basic eco …
Inside the room where the smart home industry is still betting on Matter
Four years ago, overlooking a canal in Amsterdam, the smart home industry collectively launched Matter, the one interoperability standard to rule them all. Heralded as the solution to the industry's struggles, Matter was built on open standards and existing technologies and is the result of years of collaboration between traditional rivals, including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung.
Matter promised an end to walled gardens and ecosystem lock-in. It promised to make a smart home device, like a lock, lightbulb, or sensor, easy to buy and set up. It promised you could choose any brand, use any platform, no expertise required - it would just …