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- [00:02]
A
Hello and welcome to the vergecast, the flagship podcast of single day battery life. I'm your friend David Pearce and today on the show we're talking about AI gadgets. Not really any particular AI gadget, but really the shapes and sizes of AI gadgets. We have a lot of different products out there, all attempting to be the next idea about the kind of gadget that you might have. Maybe it's a necklace that you wear, maybe it's a pin, maybe it's a thing that goes in your pocket that isn't your phone but looks kind of like your phone or so what we're going to do in the show is we're going to put all of those in a pot and we're going to rank them to see what is the best idea about AI gadgets. Not the best AI gadget, but the best idea about AI gadgets. But first, here's everything else happening on the Verge today. This is 90 seconds on the Verge for Monday, July 13, 2026. It's been a complicated few days at OpenAI. First the CEO of Apps Fiji Simo left the company for health reasons and then Apple sued OpenAI over what it called, quote, a pattern of theft of Apple's trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at App. Yeesh. The case names IO, which is Jony I've's hardware startup that OpenAI bought, and a couple of OpenAI executives. Apparently more than 400 ex Apple people now work at OpenAI and Apple's allegation is that OpenAI basically built a system for those people to bring confidential information with them. This is a big accusation and presumably just the beginning of a very long legal process. But these companies were very close. ChatGPT was part of Siri. It's now very hard to imagine that happening ever again. And finally, the Verge is Victoria Song reviewed the new Oura Ring 5 and it's good, but it's complicated. The ring is good, it's smaller, Big deal. It has the same sensors, but it still requires a subscription, it's still expensive and you can get all the features on the old one. Really it just depends on how that ring feels on your finger. You can read more about all of this@theverge.com that is 90 seconds on the Verge for Monday, July 13th.
- [01:54]
B
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that Long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses. Setup required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18.
- [02:20]
A
Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell.
- [02:41]
B
Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different.
- [02:45]
A
And Messi only trusts Duracell. All right, let's talk AI gadgets. Joining me now, my. My rank friends. I think of you as my rank friends. The Verge is Allison Johnson. Hi, Allison.
- [02:57]
C
Hello.
- [02:58]
A
And the Verge is V. Song. Hi, Vee.
- [03:00]
D
Hi.
- [03:01]
A
We're here to get yelled out by the Internet again. This is what we do from time to time. We put things in order, and then everyone gets mad at us about the order in which we put those things.
- [03:08]
C
Listen, the iPad does not fly.
- [03:14]
D
I'm so glad that Alison is leading the charge because I got some heat for starting that. That take, and you're welcome to take that heat, Allison.
- [03:24]
A
I still get emails about this, and I still feel incredibly vindicated by the audience response where the iPad belongs in the Apple rankings. But what we're going to do today is we're going to rank AI gadgets. And I don't mean specific individual gadgets, because by and large, most of them are not very good. But I think what has happened is that we've seen kind of a full run of a bunch of ideas about what shape an AI gadget might take. Like, what is the main thing through which you are going to interface with some AI tool or another. And so we've seen a bunch of shapes. And essentially what I want to do is I want to rank shapes today. Here are the eight that we're going to do in no particular, particular order. We're going to rank these from 1 to 8. I have pendants, which are, you know, thing on a string that you wear around your neck. I have pins, which I. I define relatively broadly as just like a thing you stick somewhere on your body. Right. Like the humane AI pin is the most common example, but you could. You could put it anywhere. It is a thing you stick onto you in some way. Glasses, obviously, rectangles, specifically, like the. The rabbit R1 is probably the best known rectangle, but it is. It is a thing that is sort of the shape of a phone, but is very deliberately not A smartphone. It is not intended to replace your smartphone. It does not do lots of things that smartphones do, but it is fundamentally a rectangle with a screen on it. We have headphones, we have rings, we have smartphones, and we have watches. Those are the eight. I don't think I've missed any. And I think pins we can define a little more broadly to include a couple of other, like, wacky wearable types that we've seen out there. But I think this is actually pretty much the run of the whole series of AI gadgets that we've seen so far. So let's. Let's start at the bottom, as we always do. I found the bottom of this list much easier to make than the top of this list, which I thought was very interesting. Allison, you go first. What did you have number eight on the list.
- [05:21]
C
I'm going to go with pin. I just. I can't get behind a pin. You know, it's a. It's a vibe. Like, I don't think I'm ever going to be a pin person. Like, I don't wear brooches. It just feels like the amount of stuff you have to put into it, like a battery and like a wireless antenna and a camera, it gets so heavy. And I think the humane AI pin proved out that none of that works. Um, so I'm going with pin.
- [05:54]
A
It does feel like, arguably, in a weird way, out of all of these, the most ostentatious thing you could do is, like, just stick something right over, you know, right. Right. Where you would put a name tag and just declare to the world that I am recording you from my chest. Like, it's. It's a. It's a tough sell. Uh, V. Did you have this here, too?
- [06:14]
D
I. It's in the bottom for sure. Like the. If we're talking like a humane AI Pinpin. Oh, yeah, super, super. Throw that down there. That's a bottom ass AI Gadget. But if you're talking about something more like the Plod pin, which is a much more sleek device, that's a pin. Or if we're talking about like the B tracker, which could be worn as a pin, it's a lot less obtrusive. And it's not like doing something that it's pretty discreet. You're not wearing it all the time, and it's kind of useful. But, yeah, I mean, it's not a. I could see it being eight just because it's not a particularly useful, you know, clothing item. It's easy to lose. You're 100% gonna stick it in the wash by accident. Brooches are making a comeback at Fashion Week and on the red carpet, but I think the average person. A brooch is not an everyday. You're gonna wear this a lot of the time.
- [07:24]
C
Doesn't really go with my, like, athleisure, you know, leggings, everyday kind of look.
- [07:30]
A
It's also just a lot of work. Right. Like, I think the. The thing that I'm coming around to, V, even for the stuff that you just described, is like, I actually don't want to maintain an accessory ecosystem for a device like this. And I think way back to. Do you remember that phase where Fitbit was trying to be the. The sort of innocuous thing that you're describing? And they made all these different cases and you could clip it and you could put it lots of different places. And it turns out, actually what people want to do is put it on and never, ever, ever think about it again.
- [07:56]
D
Yeah.
- [07:57]
A
To me, I think pins, even in the best case, violate the. I just want this thing to be simple and kind of out of my way most of the time. Just by the fact that they're right here on you all of the time.
- [08:10]
D
Yeah, they're on you. And it's like, if you put it on outerwear and you take your jacket off, like, it's just a logistical nightmare, if you think about it.
- [08:17]
C
Yeah.
- [08:18]
A
That said, I didn't have this last. I had pendants last because I. I think. I think AI necklaces are just a bad idea and everybody should stop doing it now. Like, I just don't. I don't get it. Like, you look at the Friends of the World and the. The Omis and all of these other things. Lots of people have had this idea of what if you wear this giant blocky necklace around your neck that just dangles in front of you and records your meetings and, like, A, never going to happen in a business context. B, looks bad, just, like, straightforwardly bad. And C, I think, is actually a way more limiting form factor than a lot of the stuff that even a pin can do. So it's like these are. These are the two that I think are clearly the bottom two to me. And pendant is worse because it is actually, like, it can do less stuff just because it's a weird thing around your neck.
- [09:11]
D
It also depends on the look. So I think a lot of the AI pendants that have come out are not designed by people who are very fashionable or stylish.
- [09:22]
A
Sure.
- [09:22]
D
So I actually hosted a wearable panel recently, and I saw an AI pendant that just looked like a piece of jewelry and, like a very nice piece of jewelry and that I was like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Turns out if you have women think about jewelry, sometimes on your design team, you might get something that doesn't look like an airtag that glows and is stuck on a shoelace.
- [09:44]
A
But we've done this a million times. Right. Remember when all the watchmakers were making Android wear watches, and it turns out that actually if you buy a really expensive necklace, you'd rather not have to upgrade the firmware in three months?
- [09:54]
D
Like, yes.
- [09:54]
A
I, I, I wonder. These ideas seem like they are compatible, and I feel like over and over and over, the tech industry discovers that actually fashion and technology do not want to be the same thing.
- [10:04]
D
Hmm. It's just very hard because when you're making something at scale and you have to account for everyone's different fashion senses, like, a lot. And we'll get, we'll get into it. When we talk about glasses, you end up hewing to the most versatile, AKA bland and boring design that you can to fit the most amount of people. So, like, style is very personalized. And, you know, a necklace that, like, there is a world where I think a pendant would make sense, but, you know, the pin, the humane pin, would just, like, weigh down that guy's shirt every single time he wore it. And I was just like, oh, my God, that's ridiculous. And a pendant, like, I have a pendant right now, and it's very small and it's very tiny, and I don't think about it. And it's light and it's easy. You're never going to get a device to look like that. It's always going to be kind of a statement piece, and it's always going to be a niche. I think I'm going to agree and say pendant is last over a pin being last, because at least with the pin, you could have a reason to wear it, and it could be unobtrusive and easy to remove or whatnot. But like, a pendant, if the style isn't something that you like or isn't something that's gonna go with the outfit, you're just not gonna wear it. It's such, it's, it's, it's an even bigger niche than a pin would be.
- [11:18]
A
Are these the two that you had as the bottom two? V. Also, did we all have these as the bottom two?
- [11:23]
D
I did. I did have these two as my bottom two.
- [11:25]
A
All right. So I think in that case, we're close enough. We'll just let majority rule here. We'll go pendant eight, Pin seven. I had no trouble making that decision. These were the bottom two. V, you go next. What did you have? Number six.
- [11:41]
D
I had rectangle at number six. Just because, like, they don't do much. And it's another gadget that you have to carry that's at least somewhat sizable. And you're like, I think about this, like, little fanny pack that I carry around when I'm just running about and doing stuff. I can fit a phone in there. I can fit a pair of headphones in there easily. And then wearables in general tend to be pretty small or things you wear, so it's not taking up space in a little bag I have to carry. A rectangle takes up space, and my phone is the main rectangle in my life, and it does a lot of stuff.
- [12:14]
C
Yeah.
- [12:14]
D
So it feels like a little bit of a luxury. And I would put Kindles in there too. Like, I love my Kindle and whatnot, but a lot of times if I'm having to go out, I'll just use the Kindle app on my phone to make progress on and, like, you know, I'm not carrying a big bag. I will just be like, oh, you are a secondary device. You're a device that if I'm gonna be on a plane or having a work bag with me, you're not coming in my light and easy travel, tiny little fanny pack. I'm just going about and living my best life on the go bag. So just from, like, a usage standpoint, am I gonna carry this with me everywhere Standpoint? I was like, rectangle is the least functional to me.
- [12:58]
C
Yeah, there's room for one rectangle. Yeah.
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D
Yeah.
- [13:03]
A
And that's pretty much spoken for.
- [13:04]
C
Yeah, it's spoken for. We can't have any more rectangles in the little fanny packs. I agree with this. I put rectangle here, and it's like, I like the idea of a second gadget that you can use. Like, when the rabbit R1 came out, we were all dazzled by you. The. The gadget of it. It just wasn't very useful, which was a real bummer. I, like, I could see this moving up the ranks if it got more useful. If there was, like, if it could be the. The voice recorder that I bring to a meeting, and it has the advantage of, like, it's not stuck on your person. Um, so I can see it be a. A little more, you know, almost like, socially acceptable. To be like, I'm going to use this for X, y, Z purpose and then put it away. Um, but that depends on it being useful.
- [14:04]
A
I also had rectangle here, but the only case I had for rectangle is exactly what you just said, that I actually think there are real upsides to a thing that is not your phone. Uh, we encounter this all the time at.
- [14:19]
C
At work.
- [14:20]
A
Right. Like, it is. It is different to be in a meeting and put a voice recorder down on the table than it is to put your phone down on the table recording a voice memo. Like, it's. It's just a different thing because the first thing is your phone. And there's also, like, every time you get a phone call, the voice memo stops and everything falls apart. Like, there. There's just a lot of baggage that comes with your phone. And I both mean, like, literal and emotional baggage that comes with your phone. That it is really nice to have a subset of things that I can do that are not with my phone. And so I can sort of close my eyes and imagine a world in which people feel the same way about AI devices that they feel about, like, digital cameras, where it's nice to have a thing for this purpose. But I agree with you that we certainly have not seen anything that clears that bar. So I'm not, like, ruling out Rectangle forever. Yeah, but, Alison, you've been bearish on this for, like, two years now, and I think history is proving you much more right than it's proving me so far.
- [15:14]
C
I think it is.
- [15:16]
A
All right, well, we're saying you can't
- [15:18]
D
stick it in a pocket. Women's pockets, very small. This is. Yeah, yeah.
- [15:23]
A
Listen, I do appreciate the number of episodes of the Vergecast that come back to litigating the number and size of women's pockets. And I think that is the correct thing for us to harp on. Like, if we at the Verge can just solve women's pockets, we will have done society a great service. I really believe
- [15:42]
B
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- [17:17]
D
this episode is brought to you by Google Health. Stop chasing someone else's definition of health. What matters is what's healthy for you. Google Health offers a new kind of cookbook built with Gemini for effortless tracking, sleep insights and holistic coaching tailored to you. Visit googlestore.com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. Requires Google Account, Google Health app Internet and Google Health Premium subscription Features subject to change availability and results vary. Not intended for medical purposes. Works independently of Gemini Apps. Check responses for accuracy.
- [17:47]
B
Is Kamala Harris running for president again?
- [17:50]
C
Listen, I might, I might.
- [17:54]
B
I'm thinking about it, but does anybody want that?
- [17:58]
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [18:00]
A
Well, I don't see why not. Absolutely.
- [18:02]
D
I think Kamala Harris should run for president again.
- [18:04]
A
I don't think there'll never be a woman president in the United States.
- [18:08]
D
Now.
- [18:08]
B
Wait, wait, wait. You can't just walk away on that. Tell us why. I know it's still early to talk about 2028, but as we build to our post Trump future, it seems to be a big question about the Democratic Party. Kamala Harris leads all of the presidential polling. So does this mean that the person who led the ticket in 2024 is going to lead the party again in 2028? The campaign needs to be called Bye Bye Biden.
- [18:34]
A
It's just a tainted brand.
- [18:36]
B
Do you think from a donor community largely that there's any appetite for a Harris return?
- [18:41]
A
I don't.
- [18:42]
B
I'm Estet Herndon and this is America. Actually, catch us Every Saturday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:54]
A
So pendant, pin, rectangle, it's the bottom three. I think that's about right. This actually now kind of immediately starts to get complicated for me. Allison, what did you have at number five.
- [19:05]
C
Yeah, this is tricky. I think, I think I put ring at five just because, and I caveat this because the rings are very popular. I like, I was just traveling with my family and like everywhere across this country people are like wearing their aura rings.
- [19:23]
A
But again, this is AI gadget. This is not. We're not doing a wellness debate here. This is as an AI gadget.
- [19:28]
C
Yeah. So I think the, it's just so limited, I think. And V, you can, you can correct me on the state of the art rings, but like how much of a battery can you fit into that thing? And like the most compelling one was when you had where you like lift it up and talk to it. But then is that even an AI gadget? I don't know.
- [19:50]
D
It's like an AI transcription gadget. So I actually think it's much better than the pins and the pendants because I was like, I am God with this ring. I am a journalism interview recording God. Because not only could I take notes, I went to the enhanced games and I had this bocchi ring on and I was taking notes while I was at the event being like, this is strange note for later. And it's very discreet, it's great. And there was like a little button on it that I could press and it would highlight parts of the transcript so that when I would go back to the AI transcript, I could pull the quotes out much more easily. Because the thing I hate most is going back to a transcript and just reading back all the ums and uhs I've said and my stupid questions and having to face that while like picking out the good quotes. So that just made it really easy. It was super convenient. And other journalists noticed I was doing it and they were like, oh my God, what is that product? And they were taking pictures and they wanted it. So that was actually pretty cool. But again, the limitations there, as you mentioned, are going to be one, your ring size if you're swelling in the summer, and battery. Because I got maybe like two or three hour long interviews before I had to stick it back into a case. And then I would also forget to charge it because it would just be on my finger as a ring. Some people are not super into rings as a form factor.
- [21:19]
A
You also just described the entire use case like there is no other ceiling past what you just said as what you can do on your smart ring.
- [21:29]
C
Right.
- [21:29]
A
And I think to a large extent that's fine. Right. Like the. I am perpetually fascinated by the pebble index, which is basically just a little Ring with a button that you bring up to your mouth like a spy. And you say like, remember to call Alison on Monday. And it just dumps a thing into your reminders that reminds you to call Alison on Monday. Like that is better than digging out my phone to do it. It's. It's innocuous. It's simple. Like as a pure form factor, I really love the ring. Actually. I have the ring higher here. I had the ring at three in part just because if all I'm doing is talking to something, this of like having my hand up to my mouth is about as natural an AI interaction as you're going to find anywhere. It's just. There's nothing else you can do with these things. And like we're not getting cameras into rings, we're not getting speakers into rings, we're not getting screens into rings. There's just. There's no ceiling on it. And so for a certain kind of AI gadget, I'm like very into these. But as a, as a sort of overall form factor, this is I think pretty clearly not. It's.
- [22:32]
D
It's just battery life and processing power. Right. Because there's always like this issue like some people are doing interesting things where they're having the case be how you upload and kind of like as like a little hub to help with battery life as well as, you know, just like the, the fact that it's.
- [22:47]
A
But now it's rectangle. Now it's rectangle.
- [22:50]
C
Yeah, exactly.
- [22:52]
D
Case fits in woman's pocket.
- [22:54]
A
No, I'm sorry. If my ring needs a. If I have to bring a charging case for my ring for it to work, it's eight on this list. I'm dead. Like absolutely not.
- [23:03]
C
Because then you just can't.
- [23:05]
D
Devices you don't have to. It's for when you're charging at home that it can also help with the processing and the uploading. You don't have to bring.
- [23:13]
B
Sure.
- [23:13]
A
Okay, that's fine.
- [23:14]
D
That's different. I also had the ring higher but also just because there are some. If you could fix the battery issue, which is a. Is a pretty challenging engineering issue. You can like kind of do some two in one interestingness there. Like the Evan and reality's G2 glasses has a smart ring that you. Not only does it track fitness and whatnot, but you use it as a gesture control to control your glasses. So that's like an interesting use case. Did it work? Well, eh, not really. But when it did work, it's an idea.
- [23:49]
A
It's an idea I had it at
- [23:51]
D
4, is where I had it.
- [23:52]
A
Okay, what did you have at five, Vee?
- [23:53]
D
I had glasses at five. Ooh.
- [23:55]
A
So did I. Wow.
- [23:57]
D
Yeah.
- [23:58]
A
Vee, make the case.
- [23:59]
D
Well, glasses are just a different right now, in their most useful form, they are really great headphones for when you don't want to get run over by your local Range Rover from the suburban mom with road rage.
- [24:15]
A
You have brought up that exact example so many times on this show because
- [24:20]
D
it keeps happening to me.
- [24:22]
C
What happened?
- [24:22]
A
Do we just need to tell this story?
- [24:24]
D
There is this one woman in my neighborhood in this Range Rover, and she is aggressive. And, you know, in suburban America, sidewalks are sometimes there and they're sometimes not. So it became when I. When I moved to New Jersey from New York, New York, you always have sidewalks. This is not an issue. But here I was like, oh, no, I really need the open ear headphones when I'm going on my. My runs and my walks, because otherwise this woman is gonna pancake me. It was a close call a couple of times. So, yeah, they're great as open ear headphones. The AI is not that great. A lot of the times if they have a display that that stuff hurts my eyes a lot and you look kind of goofy doing it. But really, really the issue is not only is the battery life not great enough on most of these for all day wear, you're risking getting punched in the face by someone who thinks you're a psyop.
- [25:22]
A
You know, not ideal.
- [25:23]
D
Not ideal. And then if you're someone like me, I'm wearing a pair of smart glasses right now that happen to accommodate my really garbage prescription. Love that. For me, negative 10 in this eye, minus 8.75 in the other. Like, that's great. But that's not the case for a lot of people. Just in terms of your face fit, the fact that you can't replace the batteries on this, everyone's like, face size is different, everyone's nose bridge is different, and everyone's vision is also different. There's so many obstacles into making a nice looking pair of glasses that fits everyone that has battery life that lasts a long time. Like, I am increasingly skeptical that this is the AI gadget of the moment. Even though, you know, let's be real, the executives at Meta really, really, really are hammering that home, and big tech can't get over glasses. It's just, it's such a challenging thing to get right. And the societal backlash against it has me putting it here. Because to sell it, you really have to litigate the camera. And right now that, that conversation is not going well for Big Black, if you look online at least.
- [26:34]
B
So.
- [26:34]
C
Yeah, but can I defend flipping ring and glasses here? Because I feel like I, I 100 agree with all this stuff about glasses and like getting punched in the face,
- [26:45]
A
but we're anti getting punched in the face. Don't love being on this show. We are anti punching or being punched in the face.
- [26:52]
C
Yeah, we're just looking out. But the ring, the ring feels like an input device for something else that's doing the AI and it feels like I don't see how it could do more than that. And the glasses could and kind of are able to do a little more with the AI and like having the display and you can talk to the AI assistant. Maybe it's not much more than like, you know, relaying to the AI on your phone, which is actually the ultimate AI device. Spoiler alert.
- [27:27]
A
Don't ruin it.
- [27:28]
C
But I, I don't know, do I, do I have this wrong?
- [27:32]
A
Like, no, I think you're right. But I think I, I actually think you're, you're, you're both actually sort of aligned in a funny way, which is the great challenge of these devices, right? Which is that they are so by default outward facing, that they can do a lot of new, exciting, different things. They are going to have lots more power than lots of other kinds of devices. But with every single increase in functionality, all of the social mess is going to get harder and all of the, like, all of the battery life issues are going to get worse and all like, every bit of functionality you add into a pair of glasses makes all of the other things about them worse. And so I think this is the thing. I struggled with this one more than any other because I actually think you could make a case that glasses could be as high as like number one on the list in terms of like, raw potential for AI utility. But for me, I'm, I'm struck by like going through these. I found myself downranking all of the ones that are sort of fundamentally pointing at other people all the time and upranking the ones that are sort of fundamentally private. And I think the glasses to me are like the most other people facing ones in the sense that they are like the most noticeable version of the thing. So like we're. Even though pins and pendants are pointing at other people. Like they're called glass holes. You know what I mean? Like, this is, this is just the thing that we're doing because it is, it is eye level it is how we look at each other. And I think that is just such a hurdle to overcome that I pulled it down on the list. Even though all the utility stuff, you're absolutely right. I mean, V has tested a bunch of these things. Like, they can do more than all these other devices, glasses.
- [29:11]
D
And it's not like. That's also why I put it at five, because it was actually fairly easy for me to do 6, 7, 8. And then I was like, and glasses goes down there. And not because I'm a hater, and not because I think that they're not some of the most useful AI gadgets that we have at the moment. For certain communities, they're extremely useful. It's just the challenges with glasses, I think, are higher than any other gadget on this list for so many different reasons. Like, in its simplest form, glasses are a medical device. Like, they are a medical device. I need them to see when you get, like, conversations about, like, Philadelphia courts banning smart glasses, what happens if you show up for jury duty and they're like, well, actually, your glasses, they have a smart recording capability. You're gonna have to put it with your Kindle and not have it. Well, you're boned. That's really bad. And so then, do I have to carry backup glasses in my bed? These are actual thoughts that I've had as I wear these and as I put them out into, like, go out into the world with these smart glasses. So there are different utilities and functions that you can have with the glasses that I think are really great. There are glasses that are double as hearing aids. There are glasses that help blind people. There are, you know, a lot of cool things it can do. It's just the camera. It's really litigating the camera. For them to reach maximum potential, they must have a camera. You must have the multimodal AI. And I just don't think that something that society is having an easy time grappling with. So until I'm shown otherwise, I think the. The hurdles for glasses are the highest of any gadget on this list.
- [30:49]
A
I think I agree. Okay. So I think in. In the interest of moving on, I think V and I are going to overrule you here. Alison, did you have glasses, like, way higher?
- [30:59]
C
No, I. I'm fine with this.
- [31:01]
A
I can look at that. Okay. And I think ring. We're gonna leave at 4, because I. We had it at 3, 4, and 5, so we'll just take it right in the middle. Which brings us so. So far, just to recap, we have pendant at 8, pin at 7, rectangle at 6, glasses at 5, ring at 4. I. I think I. 5 and 4. We, we could, we could sit here and flip back and forth all day, but we can just leave them where they are for right now. This brings us to our top three. Alison, what did you have at three?
- [31:30]
C
I. This is tough, but I put headphones at three.
- [31:35]
A
So did I.
- [31:36]
C
Okay. Yeah.
- [31:36]
A
Tell me why.
- [31:37]
C
It feels like there is a lot of potential and as a, as a means of like talking to the AI that's on your phone or whatever, getting the input and, you know, language translation. It's. It's very socially acceptable to be wearing AirPods all the time, but I think the, the societal, you know, permission to be like, talking with Airbus, like AirPods in. I hate it. I feel like a jerk. You know, whenever I go, I'm like, I will always take them out, even if I have that, like the pass through mode on where it's like gonna dim the, the, you know, make the music quieter. Yeah. I feel like you, you, you look like a jerk when you talk to people with AirPods in. And that would have to change before I would rank them, but I feel
- [32:30]
A
like that, I feel like that fight is lost. I don't think by and large people agree with you anymore.
- [32:35]
C
No, really?
- [32:38]
D
Not younger people. Like, I still have that same problem, but I see Gen Z people all the time just, oh, no, I'm an old.
- [32:45]
A
One of the things that I find the wildest is seeing couples, like, walking along, holding hands, both wearing headphones.
- [32:53]
C
People do.
- [32:54]
A
This is just like, what on earth are we doing here?
- [32:56]
C
That sucks.
- [32:57]
A
I, I mean, I agree with you, but I think to me it's like the, the, the coffee shop question is a good one. Right? Like, what do you do when you walk into the coffee shop to talk to the person at the counter? Um, I think at. At most society is it take one of your AirPods out. And I think a lot of people, I know for sure, a lot of people just roll in headphones on and talk to the person at the counter. Oh my gosh. Which is, I think, a case for why headphones belongs high on this list. Because that sort of ubiquity in society suggests that you can wear them all the time without people looking at you twice.
- [33:27]
C
Yeah.
- [33:28]
A
Which is also why I had them here. Like, I think I still remember how exciting it was when the hey, Siri stuff started working. And I could talk, I could set reminders on my phone through my AirPods with my phone in My pocket. And just like that, that little thing was such a nice little quality of life improvement in using my phone that I feel the same way about all of these AI features. Like just put voice mode into my headphones and I'm good to go for a huge number of things.
- [33:56]
C
David, do you take your AirPods out to go order your breakfast sandwich?
- [34:00]
A
I either take both out or I take one out like very demonstrably in front of them. Do you know what I mean? Where it's like, I do the I am listening to you now gesture. I would never just walk up with one end that they, that they didn't see because then, then it's like I want it to be clear that I am listening to you. Do you know what I mean?
- [34:19]
C
Yeah. Yeah. All right.
- [34:20]
A
But I see people all the time. I saw somebody the other day with like giant Sony noise canceling cans clearly playing something, essentially walk up to the counter and like yell at the person what, that they wanted a bacon, egg and cheese. And I just wanted to walk up and just be like, buddy, you can just, you can just take these off. Like, everybody will be, Everybody will be happy. Yeah, insanity. Vee, did you have headphones here too?
- [34:41]
D
I had them higher. I had them at two.
- [34:43]
A
Really? Okay, what did you have? Three.
- [34:45]
D
I had watch at three. Oh my gosh. That's just because. Okay, just because it's not a natural thing to just yell at my watch. I've. I've used Gemini on the wrist. I've used Siri on the wrist. It's just more natural to use my headphones to do that. Like, I don't think it's, it's as weird. And all the things that I like about using AI and glasses can also be done with. A lot of it can be done with headphones. So like the audio element of it just, it's simpler. You don't have to litigate the stuff with the camera for most people. Although some people, Razer, Cough Cough, Project, Motoko, are trying to stick cameras in over your headphones and don't do that, don't do that. Just don't do that.
- [35:31]
A
Don't be that person.
- [35:32]
D
Don't be that person. But yeah, I have yet to see AI integrated into the watch itself in a way that I think is really great. I think the, the potential there could be like a health coach situation where you are looking at stuff or I'm curious whenever it is that they roll out Siri for the Apple Watch, the new Siri for the Apple Watch, how it integrates with the phone in terms of like, at least you'll be able to see and read a little bit more and like kind of go back and forth. I'm curious. I think the picture potential is high there. Battery life is better than these like pins and pendants. Marginally. I think the potential is big. But if we're talking about like, what is useful now as an AI gadget, I think headphones are a little bit more easy to do. The one argument I would have maybe if you wanted to put watch higher, is that it's an actually portable rectangle. It's an actually portable rectangle that takes up no pocket space. And if you were to do translations, you could do it by the wrist. It is, it is like, I think of all these devices, headphones and watches are the ultimate companion for your phone. So together all three is like a pretty great AI gadget ecosystem. But I do think headphones is just a bit more natural than a watch for AI. Oh, hello, Petey. You've joined the ranking squad.
- [36:56]
C
Petey's with me on watches. I can tell Petey is the number
- [36:59]
D
one AI gadget killer.
- [37:02]
A
That I believe. So this suggests also that both of you had smartphone at number one.
- [37:05]
D
Yeah. Yes.
- [37:07]
C
Yeah.
- [37:07]
A
Was that a. Was that a complicated decision for either of you to make?
- [37:10]
C
No.
- [37:11]
D
No one. And like 7 and 8 were like super easy.
- [37:14]
A
Um, you're both wrong.
- [37:16]
C
Whoa.
- [37:16]
A
The answer is watch.
- [37:17]
C
No.
- [37:18]
A
Um, so my, my top three were watch smartphones, headphones in. In that order. Um. V. You just made a really good case for headphones. Except that I think a thing we just fundamentally disagree on is I think this, this motion of like bringing my, my wrist up to talk to it is actually very natural in a way that I still find just like shouting to Nothing with my AirPods on to be weird.
- [37:47]
C
Yeah, same.
- [37:48]
A
I actually sort of like the. The idea of talking to a thing.
- [37:51]
C
Yeah. It signals to everyone around you like I'm doing a thing rather than just like they don't have to wonder like, are you talking to someone or.
- [37:59]
A
Exactly. And I think there is something to the fact that there's a lot of watch stuff that is still two handed in a way that is not ideal, but especially as you get to more voice control and more of this stuff like this, this sort of just bring your wrist up, look at it and talk to it. Gesture. I love like it is. I. I wore an Apple watch for so many years for no other reason than to set timers and reminders with my watch, which is like an insane thing. To spend all of that money on. But it really, really was what I used it for. And so to me it's like the, the upside of a watch over a phone is I don't have to take it out of my pocket. It doesn't come with, like we talked about all the baggage of the phone. It doesn't kill my phone's battery, which is kind of important, but is actually this extremely accessible thing. The downside is I think a lot of people are going to try to put cameras in watches and I think that is going to go universally, terribly, and that no one should try that and that fundamentally a lot of what we need is a camera to do some of the stuff that we want. So, like, phone is eventually going to win on just like RAW utility, I think there's no question about that. But to me, there's just something about. I was just thinking about it and I'm like, what, what is the thing? If I had all of these in front of me, what would I naturally gravitate to? And I think for me it's the watch. Yeah, but I get that that's just me.
- [39:18]
C
I like, I think it's the. I, I still have it at number two, but I think it's the strongest of the AI gadgets here because, like you can have that cellular connectivity in it. Like, we've solved that so slow.
- [39:34]
D
It's so slow to get the answers.
- [39:37]
C
Exactly, exactly. Why phone is number one? Because the watch works best if it's the thing you have on you and you have your phone with you and then it all comes together.
- [39:50]
A
Um, that is a very fair point. I cannot argue at that point.
- [39:54]
C
Yeah, like, we solved all these problems so long ago. Like the battery, we can cool them down, you know, the cellular connectivity. You're not going to find a better like cellular modem for your headphones than a, than a phone. It just, it just won. It won the ages ago. That's also what I got.
- [40:14]
D
Everyone expects a camera to be in a phone, right? You're not going to have this problem that glasses are running into and like that's. You put cameras on a watch. I, I'm going to write a 4,000 word screed on the verge.com about why that's a stupid idea. Like, I don't put cameras on your fricking watch. What do you want to have the nostril shot at all times with your camera watch? There was a, there was a band that put a camera in the watch band at one point. Just nostril shots. All day. Nobody wants that.
- [40:43]
C
I have a toddler to take pictures of my nostrils with my phone. He does that very well on his own.
- [40:49]
A
Okay, so I think. I think where we're going to land here is that we. We all had the top three, just in slightly different orders. But it seems like a consensus that will work for all of us is we'll put phone number one. That's okay. It's wrong, but it's okay. And then I think, how do we feel about watch it 2 and headphones at 3 versus headphones at 2 and watch it 3? Do either of you want to make a really impassioned case for one of them to be ahead of the other?
- [41:16]
D
In my gut, I think headphones is too, just because the utility of the AI is immediately there. But versus, like, judging on a watch's potential to be a really great AI
- [41:27]
A
gadget, I think there are a lot of people who would tell you the Apple Watch is the best Siri gadget that currently exists.
- [41:32]
D
Yeah.
- [41:33]
C
Okay. Screen. It's the screen. Because I can see what it thinks I'm saying in the headphones. I just have to, like, hope to God.
- [41:43]
D
Okay.
- [41:43]
C
And then, like, based on the reaction I get back.
- [41:46]
A
Can I just say this is a random tangent, by the way, but I've been using the developer beta of iOS27, and there's a thing that Siri does now, which is ask if it. If it doesn't quite hear you correctly, it will. It will ask, did you say this or this? And it is so much better. But it drives me so crazy every time where I'm just like. Every time I'm like, how did you not hear me? Like, I said. I said Vergecast, not Verge smash. Like, what are you. What are we doing? And then I'm like, oh. But the last time, it would have just gotten it for the last 15 years, it would have just gotten it wrong and moved on. So, like, I guess. I guess we have made progress.
- [42:18]
C
It's an improvement. Yeah.
- [42:19]
D
Yeah, I'm okay. Like, this is weird, but I'm okay with the watch being at 2. It feels weird being the wearable lady. Being like, I'm okay with the watch being at 2, but I am okay with it.
- [42:29]
A
Okay. Yeah, I think. I think this is the right place to land. So that means in order, our ranking is phone, watch, headphones, ring glasses, rectangle, pin, and pendant. That feels right to me. There's nothing here that feels like a million miles away from where it's supposed to be.
- [42:47]
C
Yeah, nailed it.
- [42:48]
A
And phone still wins.
- [42:49]
C
Phone wins.
- [42:49]
A
Boy, it's going to be a bummer for a lot of companies out there that phone still wins the rankings.
- [42:54]
C
Look, I've been saying this for a year.
- [42:56]
A
How many, like billions of dollars in venture capital is out there trying to solve the problem? That phone is number one on the list, and yet here we still are.
- [43:04]
D
But also for everything else on that list, you need the phone for it to work. So exactly.
- [43:09]
A
There is that. There is that. All right, thank you both for doing this. If anybody has thoughts about the rankings, if there are any whole device types that we missed, if you want to get really mad about how the iPad should have been higher on this list, also, we would love to hear from you. Call the hotline.
- [43:24]
D
That's just a rectangle.
- [43:25]
A
It's true. It is a rectangle.
- [43:26]
D
It's just a rectangle.
- [43:27]
A
This is one of the good rectangles. Call the hotline. 866verge11 Send us emails vergecastheverge.com Alison V. Good to see you both. Thanks for doing this.
- [43:36]
C
Thank you.
- [43:37]
D
Thank you.
- [43:38]
A
All right, that's it for the show. Thank you to V and Allison again for being here. And thank you as always for watching and listening. As always with these episodes in particular, I really earnestly do want to know your feedback. What did we get wrong? What are we missing entirely? What ideas about some of these gadgets have you been trying that we haven't seen yet? I want all of your feedback. Call the hotline. 866verge11 email us vergecasthevirge.com especially if you think I'm right and V and Allison are wrong. Those are my favorite favorite emails. Keep them all coming. And as a reminder, as always, the best thing you can do to support everything the Verge is up to is to subscribe to the Verge. Theverge.com subscribe it gets you all of our podcasts ad free, including this one. It gets you all of our exclusive newsletters. It gets you all of our coverage of AI gadgets and everything else. Go to theverge.com subscribe it makes a huge difference. Thank you in advance. The Verge cast is a Verge production and part of the Vox Media Podcast network. The show is produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brandon Kieffer, Travis Larchuk, and Aaron Locasio. We'll see you tomorrow. Rock and roll.