Version History

Vergecast: ELIZA, the world's first chatbot

From The Vergecast, this episode takes a look back at one of the earliest chapters in the history of AI. Before Alexa and Siri, there was ELIZA. The first chatbot ever w

The Clapper: Light work

Clap on. Clap off. The Clapper may not have been a very good product, but it came with one of the all-time great marketing campaigns. And it might have even been a great,

Philips Hue: The smart home’s light bulb moment

The humble light bulb might be the ultimate success story in the smart home. Our connected, adaptable homes are supposed to be customizable, connected to everything, and

Keurig: The K-Cup invasion

The Keurig is a simple idea – what if it was really easy to make pretty good coffee, one cup at a time? — with a wildly complicated history. David Pierce is joined by Eat

Nest: The iPod of thermostats

Thermostats were ugly. Best case scenario, you never had to think about it. Then a couple of Apple legends decided they could make something better, and set out to turn c

Roomba: Rise of the robovac

The team of engineers and researchers that created iRobot didn’t set out to build a vacuum cleaner. They built robots — a lot of robots, with a lot of jobs — before reali

Harmony remote: Control freak

The Harmony Universal Remote was supposed to be the only controller you needed for all the devices in your life. So what happened? David Pierce is joined by The Verge’s N

Western Electric 500: Monopoly phone

For years, even decades, virtually everyone in the United States had the same telephone. You didn't even think about it — it was just The Phone. Well, The Phone was calle

Amazon Echo: Always listening

For years, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos knew the computer he wanted to build. He wanted it to be cheap, accessible everywhere, and controlled entirely by voice. It took Amazon a

Macintosh: All in one

The Macintosh wasn't a hit, at least not in its first incarnation. But it was still unquestionably one of the most iconic computers ever made — and it came with one of th

Vocoder: Magic mic

The vocoder was never meant to change the music business – it wasn’t meant for music at all. But the research that started a century ago as a way to cheaply move voices o

Clubhouse: Pivot to audio

If you were launching a new app in 2020, it was either the worst timing (see: Quibi) or the best timing (see: Clubhouse). Clubhouse was an initially invite-only, audio-ba

Furby: Talk Furbish to me

In 1997, David Hampton and Caleb Chung took one look at a Tamagotchi and decided they could bring the virtual pet craze into the real world. Their robotic companion, Furb

TiVo: Press pause

Best remote ever? Best remote ever. When TiVo first debuted, it felt like magic: You could pause live TV! You could rewind it! The concept immediately became a phenomenon

Flappy Bird: Game over

Flappy Bird was a mean game. It was extremely simple and yet punishingly difficult; if you could get 10 points, that meant you were pretty good! For a few weeks, the game

Nintendo Power Glove: I love it. It's so bad.

In the mid-1980s, Nintendo pretty much ruled the video game industry. And somehow, a few toymakers and inventors convinced Nintendo that the controller of the future was…

AIM: Away message

AOL Instant Messenger was, for years, one of the very best things on the internet. Before iMessage and WhatsApp, before Twitter and Facebook, AIM was simply how people ta

iPhone 4: You're holding it wrong

The iPhone 4 was one of the best iPhones ever — and definitely the most dramatic iPhone ever. It was lost in a bar in California, sold to Gizmodo, and published for the w

Google Glass: In your face

Google didn't invent the concept of smart glasses, but it was one of the first companies to actually put them on people's faces. It was a revolution, and also a problem:

Vine: Six seconds of fame

Vine was the original short-form video platform, and pioneered so many of the ideas we now take for granted in reels and TikToks. It was a cultural engine whose executive