We’re spending the week documenting and analyzing the first half-century of Apple’s existence, from the oft-overlooked creation of QuickTime to the iconic MacBook Air to Apple’s veering into antitrust territory. We’re also ranking the best Apple products of all time, and it’s causing us all to feel many feelings.
Apple at 50: the good and the bad
On The Vergecast: the state of Apple as a product company and a brand, the future of podcasts in a video world, and more.
On The Vergecast: the state of Apple as a product company and a brand, the future of podcasts in a video world, and more.
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.
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On this episode of The Vergecast, we begin by stepping back a bit to ask a big question: How is Apple doing right now? Obviously, by many measures, Apple’s doing great — trillion-dollar company and whatnot — but this is a company that has long taken pride in building better software, better hardware, better everything, and doing it in a better and cooler and more responsible way. Jason Snell, a longtime chronicler of all things Apple, joins the show to do a modified version of the annual Six Colors report card about where Apple stands right now.
After that, we look at a specific way in which Apple appears to be changing. Anil Dash, a blogger and entrepreneur and just a guy who thinks about the web a lot, helps us understand Apple’s new push into video podcasts — and why it might not be all good news. Podcasts are a remarkable technology, developed over decades in a durably open way, and the pivot to video might threaten that. But it doesn’t have to.
Finally, The Verge’s Allison Johnson joins to help David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about whether it’s feasible to leave your phone at home and live life with the computer on your wrist. Good news: it’s getting better on this front! Bad news: not that much better.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
- Apple in 2025: The Six Colors report card
- Apple turns 50: celebrating five decades of the tech giant
- Apple II Forever!
- From Anil Dash: “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement.
- From Anil Dash: Why Apple’s move to video could endanger podcasting’s greatest power
- I ditched my smartphone for a cellular smart watch — here’s how it went
- Who needs a laptop when you have a folding phone?
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Jason Snell
Amelia Holowaty Krales and T.C. Sottek
Joanna Stern
