From The Verge.
Once again, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and his bad ideas about free speech have rankled a late night host. And once again, Nilay and David talk through what the equal-time rule actually means, why organizations keep caving, and why it’s apparently up to people like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel to fight back. After that, the hosts discuss the facial recognition feature Meta hopes to launch for its smart glasses, plus the gadgets we’re likely to see Apple launch in the couple of weeks. In the lightning round, we get some bleak news on Tesla’s self-driving skills, a robovac security disaster, and the future of Warner Bros.
0:00 Welcome to The Vergecast (and TV is just YouTube marketing now)
00:46 Show rundown & why we’re starting with “Brendan Carr is a dummy”
03:02 Colbert vs. the FCC: the equal-time “chilling effect” explained
08:47 The Streisand Effect: banning the interview makes it blow up on YouTube
10:07 What the law actually says: news exemptions, precedent, and why CBS could fight
12:37 CBS’s weasel statement & The Verge’s “put your name on it” policy
18:19 Is Brendan Carr ‘winning’? Media owners, speech policing, and the Murdoch comparison
27:12 Meta Ray-Bans and the ‘Name Tag’ facial recognition plan
32:14 Why face-ID glasses are the killer app—and a surveillance nightmare
39:26 Apple’s March 4 press briefings: spec bumps, new iPads/Macs, and pricing anxiety
42:21 RAM shortage fallout: pricier consoles, scarce gadgets, and AI data centers hogging supply
45:53 Apple’s AI gadget roadmap: glasses, camera AirPods, and the ‘pendant’
47:28 The iPhone stays the hub: battery, connectivity, and Apple’s services reality
49:35 Visual intelligence is hard: cameras, Google Lens, and the content moderation problem
52:36 AR’s political minefield: truth, labels, and getting hauled before Congress
55:13 Will new interfaces kill the phone? Input revolutions and Apple’s leadership moment
01:00:04 Pixel 10a hands-on: minimal upgrades, flush camera, and the best ‘berry’ color
01:04:41 Lightning Round: DJI ‘Romo’ Robovac hacked—7,000 devices exposed via AI tools
01:09:37 Galaxy S26 privacy display leak: anti-shoulder-surfing (and subway phone-watching)
01:12:55 Epstein file oddities: 4chan denial, email encoding, and the PDF Association
01:16:55 Streaming merger chaos: Warner/Paramount/Netflix bidding war heats up
01:20:15 Tesla Robotaxi crash stats vs humans + a WordPress AI assistant (
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