Does smart home tech work in a college dorm?

It can be hard enough to set up smart home tech in a house or an apartment, but what about a dorm room? Jennifer Pattison Tuohy recently tested out some smart home tech when she dropped off her son for his freshman year at Clemson. Jen reports back to David Imel on how the gadgets stood up to the challenges of college Wi-Fi and rules against hanging things on the wall. Further reading: Apple’s new M6 chip gets more cores and more AI compute Apple’s new Mac Mini has fresh M6 and M5 Pro chip offerings — and higher prices Apple launches new Mac Studios with its ‘most powerful chip ever’ — the M5 Ultra Android is getting its own weird dots to cure car sickness WhatsApp is making it easier to ignore spam calls Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02David Pierce?

  Welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of sending your kids to college. I'm David Amel, another David, filling in for David Pierce here and there while he's away. He's actually out contributing to society while I remain a childless cat man. Today on the show, we're talking to The Verge's senior smart home reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy about something a lot of parents are dealing with right now: sending their kids to college. But of course, Jen being Jen, she wanted to set her son's dorm room up with the same smart home stuff that he's been using for the last 18 years. So I'm going to be asking her how that went and what her recommendations are for other parents that are sending their kids to college and might want to make it a little more intelligent than most dorm rooms are on a day-to-day basis. But first, here's what's happening on The Verge today.

• 0:47David Pierce?

  This is 90 Seconds on The Verge for Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Today, Apple surprisingly dropped a bunch of new hardware on us, including a new Mac Mini with the all-new M6 and M5 Pro chipsets and higher prices. The cheapest Mac Mini now starts at $899, up $300 from the very well-priced M4 Mac Mini, which started at just $599. And if you want the M5 Pro chip, that's going to start at $1699, almost double that price. The M6 is Apple's first 2-nanometer chipset, and Apple says it should bring improvements in performance and power efficiency alongside a dual 16-core neural engine for AI workloads. Apple also dropped the new M5 Max and M5 Ultra chipsets in its Mac Studio and says the M5 Ultra is its most powerful chip ever.

• 1:32David Pierce?

  The M5 Ultra starts at 96GB of RAM, and Apple's cleaning up to 4.3x faster AI compute tasks. Alongside these upgrades, Apple also made one other pretty major announcement: a new polishing cloth, starts at $9 instead of $19. It's pretty much the same thing, just cheaper. Android's getting a new motion assist feature, which uses moving dots on your screen to help avoid carsickness. Apple launched a similar feature in 2024, and the feature is going to be rolling out to Android 17 devices in phases, with some Pixel phones getting the feature first. And finally, WhatsApp users on Android are now going to see more information about callers that aren't in their contacts, like what country the number's calling from and if you have any groups in common. You can also now add passwords for two-factor verification and multiple pass keys for both

• 2:16David Pierce?

  Android and iOS devices. You can read more at theverge.com. That's 90 Seconds on The Verge for Tuesday, August 25, 2026.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  When it comes to your business, you want cards and tools you can trust. AMEX Corporate helps put you in control. Set custom spend parameters to help fit your business needs and quickly issue unlimited corporate cash back cards, all backed by best-in-class fraud protection and the powerful backing of American Express. Get started at go.amex slash amexcorporate. Terms apply.

• 2:53Speaker 02

  Interrupted sleep, headaches, constant fatigue. For a lot of women, these aren't three separate issues. In perimenopause and menopause, they're often the same hormonal story, and you don't have to quietly push through. Midi can help, because your symptoms have answers. Visit joinmidi.com with code VOX right now to book your first visit today. That's joinmidi.com, code VOX to book your first visit. Joinmidi.com, code VOX. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage.

• 3:29David Pierce?

  Jen, welcome back to The Vergecast.

• 3:31Speaker 03

  Hello, David. So nice to be here with you on your inaugural episode.

• 3:36David Pierce?

  Thank you very much, thank you very much. Before we get started into the smart home dorm stuff, your son's off to his first year in college right now. We heard you on The Vergecast a few days ago, talking about Alexa and Gemini and asking for advice on how to handle that. So how has that been going for you?

• 3:52Speaker 03

  Well, I don't generally take the advice of the AI. That was more just for a demo. But it was, you know, it was kind of interesting what it had to say, which was the piece of advice I hear from a lot of people, which is you've just got to let them fly. Don't check in on them, and that's been the hardest part. I have Live 360, shh. But in general, it's been a really fun experience for all of us. The whole of The Vergecast is all about babies right now, whereas I'm letting my baby fly off. So I'm at the other end of the spectrum from the rest of the staff, looking at their exciting

• 4:32Speaker 03

  news with fond memories, but every stage of your kid's life is so much fun. And I have to say, this one has been one of the most exciting. And for a smart home reviewer, moving into a new room, a new dorm, new space was like, I'm a kid in a candy store. Like, I get to try new things, try things, you know, that I probably wouldn't have done in my own home. And also, he'd been in his room since he was six, so we'd never really done like a complete makeover. And this was an exciting, exciting time for both of us.

• 5:12David Pierce?

  Yeah, I imagine there's a big difference between having a room since he was six, that you were just retrofitting with things as they came out, and then taking the state-of-the-art and just completely building out a room with what we have available today.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. It was a really fun experiment for me, especially as I often get asked questions around, like, smart home devices for renters or smart home devices for smaller spaces or apartments. And, you know, I live in a single-family home, and I've not had a lot of experience in those spaces, so it was great for me to be able to try out a new space. It was kind of like a dorm room, like, extreme makeover, because I had, like, two hours, and I had no idea what I was going to do or what was going to work, because I hadn't even really seen the space. So it was like, you know, I was like one of the Property Brother twins, you know, just given a box of things in a room and go, like, go!

• 6:06David Pierce?

  Yeah, yeah. Was your son mostly on board with you kidding out his dorm room?

• 6:11Speaker 03

  He was. He was excited. He has never been a huge, like, I must have this smart tech, but I think that's also because it's just been around him his entire life. And he, you know, it's sort of just part of things, a light switch that doesn't, that he doesn't need to use a switch, he just uses his voice as just the way it's always been. I've made this joke before on The Vergecast, but this actually happened again, which made me laugh. So the very first time he went away from home, he went to Clemson, which is where he's at college now, for a tennis camp, and he was, I think, 14 or 15. And so we took him to a dorm, they were staying in dorms for the week, and they handed him

• 6:53Speaker 03

  a key, and I walked down to the dorm with his stuff, and he went to, like, looked at the key and looked at the door and looked at me.

• 7:01David Pierce?

  How do we use this archaic technology?

• 7:04Speaker 03

  I've never used one of these before.

• 7:07David Pierce?

  To be fair, even in 2013, when I was in college, they had key cards for our dorm rooms, so.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Okay, so it wasn't, yeah, he wasn't completely unusual. And his new dorm room does have a key, and he went to use the key, and he knew how to use the key, to be clear. It just wasn't working.

• 7:26David Pierce?

  Okay, okay.

• 7:27Speaker 03

  But yeah, they use their phones, their student pass and their door key, everything is on their phone.

• 7:34David Pierce?

  Wow.

• 7:35Speaker 03

  So, yeah, he just used his phone to, it has like the reader, it's like a reader you would use to get into your office, that kind of thing.

• 7:41David Pierce?

  Yeah.

• 7:42Speaker 03

  So, yeah, it started off smart, so he was happy to continue, but we were kind of limited. And like I said, I didn't know what we're going to be able to do, so I just kind of like piled a whole bunch of gear that I was thinking, this might work. And then, then, like I said, I had my sort of stopwatch and let's go.

• 8:00David Pierce?

  Were his roommates kind of down for you to kid it all out?

• 8:03Speaker 03

  Yes, they were. So his roommate is his best friend since second grade, so his roommate, totally used to all of this stuff. The main thing that was, the most important thing for both of them, and I think really the most interesting part for any kind of dorm room was lighting, was the smart lighting. Because, I mean, the dorm rooms, this may be different in colleges across the country, but I'm guessing not, two fluorescent lights.

• 8:34David Pierce?

  Spotty fluorescent lights from the ceilings, yep, yep. Nothing that you want to be working in, for sure.

• 8:39Speaker 03

  No, just miserable, like, I think we have some before and after pictures, but you can see like what it would look like before, all brightly lit. I mean, it's definitely, like, keep you awake, but also not, I mean, there's so much about lighting that does affect your mood. And having been able to change that mood from like bright and light in the morning when you're getting ready, to sort of a good light for studying, to sort of wind-down mode, that circadian rhythm, that, you know, that is all really important, especially when you're doing, you're making such a big change in your life, going from living at home, going to high school, to being independent, living on your own in college, to have something

• 9:20Speaker 03

  that just kind of helps you feel better, I think, was really, I mean, I don't think he viewed it that way. I think he viewed it more like RGB lighting, cool, but for me, I was like, this just feels like a nice place to be. And they only have one window, and it's like in the corner of the room, so there was really no natural lighting.

• 9:38David Pierce?

  Just like my apartment. He's just like me. Just like me. Yeah, we should note that when when smart home stuff was first coming on to the market, the number one thing was always the smart lighting. And it seems that that is still people's biggest desire when it comes to smart home equipment. Now, my question here is, a lot of the the Wi Fi networks at colleges have weird like captive portals and things like that. Did you experience any sort of strange setup issues that you wouldn't have at an actual regular home, you know?

• 10:08Speaker 03

  Well, so I've I haven't completely finished. I would say this out front because, like I said, I got there with no idea what I was going to face. I knew they had Wi Fi, but I didn't know whether I would be able to connect any of the devices. And I wasn't able to do any Wi Fi connection while I was there. However, we've since discovered, and I think I think it wasn't up and running yet, was one of the reasons, that the university has three separate Wi Fi networks. They have one for you to connect your computers to. And then they have one for you to connect, like guest network. And then they have one specifically for media devices.

• 10:53Speaker 03

  And that's so like, if you want to set up a streamer device or a smart speaker, those types of things. And that required you had to like, log the, you are not the URL, the MAC ID of all the devices you wanted with the university. It's like, this is not something I'm going to be doing in two hours.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  And I kind of knew that that was going to be the case. It was going to Wi Fi was going to be an issue. So I kind of went into this with, I don't want to have to rely on Wi Fi. I want to set this room up so that it can be completely controlled without using Wi Fi, which was a challenge. And I was excited to try that out and see if I could surmount that challenge. Because also, in the smart home, in my smart home, even though you don't need the internet for a lot of locally controlled devices, you do need a LAN, you do need a local area network, some form of Wi Fi to for the communication. And so, and I didn't have that as an option. There were Ethernet ports in the room. And we plugged his, he has a gaming PC, we plugged it in.

• 11:55Speaker 03

  It was 935 gigabytes.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  I was like, oh, okay, you're good.

• 12:03David Pierce?

  So he had gigabit internet in his dorm room. Okay. I was surviving off of like, one megabit. So that's, that's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  I have to ask David before we dive in more onto my son's dorm. What was your dorm like? Because I think dorms have changed quite a lot.

• 12:18David Pierce?

  You know, it's funny, I went to school in Santa Cruz, which is right in the heart of Silicon Valley. And we still, we still had terrible, it was not, it was not built out. I'm sure Stanford or something would have been nice. But we had one Wi Fi network that didn't work half the time. And you really had to go to the computer lab to get anything done. But, you know, I was also very, didn't have a lot of money. So I was working off an old Dell display. But yeah, yeah, definitely not smart. Smart, smart home stuff was brand new at the time. So, and if that really. So what else besides the lighting, did you guys want to install in this dorm?

• 12:52Speaker 03

  There were a few things that we'd kind of earmarked beforehand that I wanted. I wanted him to have a smart speaker. Eventually, I want, I'm hoping we'll be able to get that connected. But I also wanted to be his alarm clock. So I went with what is probably my favorite smart alarm clock option, which is the Amazon Echo Spot. Because it doesn't have a big screen, which can be distracting. And also, if it's an Echo device, will show you an ad if it has a big screen. And then it has, but it does have the time. And you can, you know, you can have some manual control of it to to turn on and off and set things. So that was one, one thing I wanted him to have. And once we do get the Wi Fi, if we do, the Wi Fi step, he'll be able to use voice control.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  And it's also, all of the Echo devices are Matter controllers. So that's my next stage, if I get to spend another two hours, is I want to use local Matter devices in the home. And most everything I did set up can now connect, can connect to Matter in the future when we get that, the local area network going. The other thing I had heard from other moms was that the air quality in the dorms was pretty bad.

• 14:04David Pierce?

  That's true. That's generally true. Yeah.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  Yeah. So an air purifier was an important one. And the boys actually wanted that, too. So that wasn't sort of something we had to convince them. I had, I gave them a couple of options of ones I wanted them to try. And they went with the kind of cool, black one, which is a We Love air purifier. It's a, it's a really good air purifier. And it's also Matter compatible. But it has controls on it. So this was another key thing for me. I wanted everything that I put in the room to you, to be able to be controlled either over Bluetooth using the phone, or have actual physical devices. Because I didn't want his roommate to have to download apps to be able to turn things on and off.

• 14:44David Pierce?

  To press some buttons, turn things on and off, for sure.

• 14:47Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, and the We Love has really nice, clear controls on the top. And there's like a sleep mode you can just hit at night that turns the lights off. It also has cool, fun RGB lighting on it. So, which is something they both really wanted.

• 15:02David Pierce?

  Benefits you in college. Yeah. And for the listeners, the benefit of Matter, for sure, is that it's all local, correct? Like, that's, that kind of gets around the, the college Wi Fi issue a little bit?

• 15:14Speaker 03

  So that had been my thought, but because I couldn't even get on at all to any. So one thing, what I was thinking about doing, and then we will go back, like I said, I'm going to try and do the whole MAC ID route. But is there, I do have an Ethernet port. So I was thinking I could just get like, a small, inexpensive router and just set up.

• 15:34David Pierce?

  Set up your own network. Is that allowed at a lot of these colleges? Or do they not allow it?

• 15:38Speaker 03

  That wasn't sure.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, I haven't, I hadn't dug, hadn't dug into the TOS of the college internet yet, and probably not. As I said, from the get go, I, because I, there was a lot of unknown variables. And to your point, you know, yeah, this college, he's actually, we didn't mention, but he's at Clemson University in, in South Carolina, has excellent Wi Fi and Ethernet, but a lot don't. And you may not want the load of some of these devices on whatever system you're using, especially if, you know, you are using Wi Fi for your work. That's the priority in college, right? The work.

• 16:16David Pierce?

  Yeah. Not the, not the hours of gaming late into the night, avoiding your homework. No.

• 16:21Speaker 03

  I know. So, yeah, I, again, being able to control things locally. But yes, Matter is a local area, can be used entirely locally without an internet connection for certain devices. It's sort of, it's up to the individual device manufacturer, how they set up their device. But that is sort of built into it that you should be able to control it locally on a local LAN. So there's also Thread, which would be the option instead of Wi Fi. But for that, you need a Thread border router, which also needs to connect to the internet. Although there are some Thread devices that can just talk to each other. But the kind of devices we were setting up in the smart home, in his smart dorm, didn't really fit in that mold.

• 17:03Speaker 03

  He didn't need a lot of the kind of like, sensors, door locks, that kind of stuff. And also Thread lighting. I did think about Thread lighting, but there just weren't a lot of options yet. And I really wanted to have that Bluetooth control. And there were, and we didn't mention this, but there were only two brands I could find that I knew I could reliably set up and be able to control with an app to turn on and off and change the color and change the tone. So to get that sort of, you know, that nice ambience. Most smart lighting does need Wi Fi, even if it has Bluetooth, you still need Wi Fi for any kind of control, even just directly through the app while you're in the room.

• 17:47Speaker 03

  The two brands that you can control locally over Bluetooth are Philips Hue, which was a little pricey.

• 17:53David Pierce?

  They're a little pricey.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  For this setup. And also, they do have some newer, less expensive ones. But what he really wanted was the really fun colors and the kind of

• 18:04David Pierce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:04Speaker 03

  effects, really fun RGB type effects. So we went with Govee, which is the other brand that can also, that also has complete local Bluetooth control. So he can just open the app. He's got three, we've got three devices set up right now. We have a floor lamp, a table lamp, and a light strip under his bed. So his bed's lofted, so the light strip's under his bed, and his desk is under his bed. So it kind of gives him like, that soft light, but over his workspace. Because the other big challenge is you can't stick things on walls in dorms.

• 18:38David Pierce?

  Right. They probably have very specific rules around that.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Very much so.

• 18:42David Pierce?

  So how did you, how did you get that around? Did you just have to only use lamps and stuff that were standing on their own?

• 18:48Speaker 03

  So lamps were the, the big key there. As long as you've got some outlets, big pro tip, take as many extension cords with you as you can.

• 18:58Speaker 03

  Because you, there's so much you need to plug in. And I think I ended up leaving him with five separate extension cords.

• 19:04David Pierce?

  Wow.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, so we did lamps. And then we also, he, he has like a salt lamp, which has color in it, too. So, yeah, lamps were the best solution. And then the only place we could put the light strips were under his lofted bed. But that worked well, because then that's over his desk. And his desk now has light, because that's the other downside of being under a lofted bed is, you don't have any light, even if from the overhead light. So, yeah, once we had the Bluetooth setup, so now he can just open the app and hit one button off, and all three lights will turn off. And one button on, and they'll all turn on. And then he can, he can change the colors. And you can also sync Govee devices to music. So he can do that with his phone.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  He can have his, you know, one of the lights sort of flash while he's studying.

• 19:51David Pierce?

  Right. Considering he has room, a roommate, can, does the roommate have access to all these things, too, through his apps?

• 19:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I told him to, I said, you can have him download the app if he wants, but he can also just, so they all have physical controllers. So you can just turn it off.

• 20:08David Pierce?

  And will that sync to like, all the devices, though? Or just one at a time?

• 20:11Speaker 03

  No, because they're not networked, which they, you know, that, I said, that would be my next step, is to network them. No, you'd have to turn them off individually, you know, it's a hardship, but it's kind of like, just using a light switch.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  Interrupted sleep, headaches, constant fatigue. For a lot of women, these aren't three separate issues. In perimenopause and menopause, they're often the same hormonal story. And you don't have to quietly push through. Midi can help. Because your symptoms have answers. Visit joinmidi.com with code VOX right now to book your first visit today. That's join M I D I dot com, code VOX to book your first visit. Joinmidi.com, code VOX. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  Company spend can be complicated. Managing it shouldn't be. Amex Corporate connects cards, expenses, and payments all in one place. That's less time managing work and more time doing work that matters. Built to simplify, designed to scale. This is Amex Corporate. Get started at go.amex slash Amex Corporate. Terms apply.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com slash Superior Access to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.

• 22:08Speaker 06

  I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

• 22:16Speaker 05

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 22:32David Pierce?

  Are you guys using any smart plugs? Because that's like, that seems to be the other big category for people.

• 22:38Speaker 03

  That's what I want to do next. Because so the other really interesting challenge in this room was the lofted bed. So you know, you don't have a bedside table. So I was like, how am I, how's he gonna have like his alarm clock? And we also needed a light up there and a fan because it's South Carolina. It's like 900 degrees here right now. And also, you know, his phone. So I actually, I came up with a really cute. I think this was a great solution. I did see it on TikTok, so I'm not taking credit for it. There is the dorm room makeover. TikTok is, is a rabbit hole. You could spend a lot of time in if you want to go down it. There's some crazy stuff out there. But this was a great solution because you can't stick anything on the wall. Was a suction mount for your car.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Just suctioned to the wall. And then I got an extra long, like 10 foot USB C charger. Plug that in down underneath. Because obviously all the outlets are down on the ground floor. And so he can just put his phone. And I told him, put it horizontally and it'll be in standby mode. And it'll be just like your clock right next to your head when you go to bed. So that was my solution for the alarm clock up there. And then he has another alarm clock. He has the spot down on the main level. But yeah, that worked out pretty well. And then we just clipped a little like inexpensive clip light on the side of the rail they have to make sure you don't fall off and break your neck.

• 24:04David Pierce?

  Right, right, right. I had that as well. That was not new technology when I was in college.

• 24:09Speaker 03

  But yeah, the smart plugs is a good one. I'm definitely going to try and, but you need the wifi or you need some kind of hub to connect to that. And I, we hadn't got that set up yet.

• 24:19David Pierce?

  Considering you had to have a lot of loopholes to get around all these college restrictions, do you think that companies should be making smart home stuff specifically for dorm rooms? It seems like a pretty open opportunity to me.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, especially for this last couple of years. The like, it just seems to be people are spending a lot of money on their, on their college dorm setups. I think, I think, I'm not sure they really need to make a big change. I just, I do think the Bluetooth element really helps. I mean, I've always sort of poo-pooed using Bluetooth in the smart home because the range is bad. You know, if you leave the room, it no longer, you can no longer control it. But a dorm room is a space that is sort of uniquely designed for you to just to be using it when you're in it. You don't really need to control it in any way when you're not there. Especially because the, the key situation is already under the control of the university. You have your key there.

• 25:14Speaker 03

  You don't need a smart lock or any sort of smart security. I did float the idea of cameras, but both of them said no.

• 25:21David Pierce?

  I'd probably say no to that too, so.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  I just was like, you know, maybe you could have one that you could turn on when you leave, just in case you're worried about any kind of security. But I did also float a doorbell. And there was, this was a good solution.

• 25:36David Pierce?

  That's an interesting.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  The switchboard has a doorbell. So when someone presses the doorbell, it automatically shows up on the interior display. And you do not need to connect that to any internet. It's just communicating directly. And it can be battery powered, which again, not going to be wiring a doorbell in any dorm. I thought that was a good solution. And we did try that out. And he said, no one uses it. And that is my experience with video doorbells in general. People just knock on the door.

• 26:03David Pierce?

  Yeah, it's not really, you're not saving a lot of time by, by, yeah. It's a strange innovation.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  That also has a local SD card on it. So it could store recordings, but we couldn't get, we weren't able to get that recording functionality set up without the wifi. But we were able to get it to set up so that you could just see, so they can see who's at the front door and ignore them if they wanted to.

• 26:29David Pierce?

  Which in a college dorm, you might not really be able to. But yeah.

• 26:32Speaker 03

  It can be hard. And of course, I did think about a robot vacuum because I'm like, my son does not use vacuums.

• 26:39David Pierce?

  Could be helpful, especially for a very small, very square space.

• 26:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, but they kind of, they were humming and hawing about that. So that's, that's the next step. Next time I, so I'm going back in like three weeks and I'm probably going to swap all this stuff out. But the problem I thought with the robot vacuum was that you really do have to look after it. It needs some, some maintenance and someone to sort of take ownership. And I could just imagine I would come back in three weeks and it would be under a bed with like seven cables sucked into it and dead.

• 27:11David Pierce?

  That would happen in my apartment too, for what it's worth.

• 27:14Speaker 03

  Did you have a robot vacuum in your apartment?

• 27:16David Pierce?

  I don't because I live in the cellar where the floors are super warped. And there's no way it would, yeah, it would just crash all the time.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  Well, we ended up going with a stick vac because that.

• 27:27David Pierce?

  That makes sense.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  It's simple and you know, they do have to clean their rooms. There's no one.

• 27:32David Pierce?

  They have to manually do it themselves. Yeah, do a little hard labor.

• 27:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, so, and then of course, a Bluetooth speaker was another thing that they both really wanted.

• 27:42David Pierce?

  Which one did you get for them?

• 27:44Speaker 03

  So a lot of the stuff I got for him was things that I'd had around, lying around. Pro tip, when you start planning for college, shop your house first.

• 27:53David Pierce?

  That's a great tip.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, you don't have to buy everything brand new. Especially, especially for a dorm room, they're only going to be there for a year. I did think about this for things that were going, that could easily translate into the next space that they're going to be living in. But in terms of the dorm room itself. So this was actually a speaker I've had for, I think I've had this for almost like eight years. It was an older one, but it's a Marshall. And it's, it's really cool because it looks like an amp. And my son's roommate is a big guitar player. So it kind of fits the vibe. Yeah. And it also has Alexa built in. But again, we didn't get that. We haven't got that side of the smart home setup yet.

• 28:39Speaker 03

  I'm not sure if he even needs it. That was the other reason I was waiting on the wifi. It was like, let's see if you feel like you need it. So we go back up in like two, three weeks. And I was like, let's see how your first few weeks go and if you enjoy it or not. And so far, it's all been pretty positive. I haven't had a lot of chance to find out because you know, college kids don't call their moms very often.

• 29:02David Pierce?

  That's, yeah, I would know.

• 29:05Speaker 03

  But I did get some texts this morning because I was like, do you mind if I talk about all of your gear?

• 29:10David Pierce?

  Yeah, sure.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  On the podcast. And he said, he said, all the Govey stuff has worked great and has been really easy to use. So that was good.

• 29:19David Pierce?

  Okay.

• 29:20Speaker 03

  And then I said, how about the doorbell? And he says, no one's using it.

• 29:24David Pierce?

  Okay. Very, yeah, that's good info, good info. The stuff you don't need is just as important as the stuff you do need.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  Exactly. That's the, you don't want to take too much. And then I said, is your room the coolest one you've seen? And he didn't reply.

• 29:37David Pierce?

  Wow, yeah.

• 29:40Speaker 03

  Because I was very proud of his room. I thought we did a good job.

• 29:42David Pierce?

  Yeah. Well, for for parents that are sending their kids to college in the next few weeks, because we're entering college season, just to wrap up here and give people like a takeaway. What are what are the the top three to five things that you think are actually making a difference in his dorm?

• 29:57Speaker 03

  So I would say the lighting, you know, obviously, we kicked off with that. And that's what they were most excited about. And again, to the point of like, is the is the roommate going to like it? That's the type of thing your roommate's going to appreciate, I think, unless you're just going to be flashing your lights all day. But I don't think that's been happening. So I do think that the lighting is is really key. The thing I wasn't expecting to really want or need, but I'm glad I'm really glad we did bring was the air purifier.

• 30:24David Pierce?

  Great call. Could have used that.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, although they're already sick and they've only been there a week. So but I don't think that was the air purifier's fault. I think that was probably going to happen anyway.

• 30:34David Pierce?

  The thousands of other kids, yes.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  That's probably that is probably what happened. And then, yeah, a good Bluetooth speaker, because, you know, there are lots of inexpensive ones that have tinny sound. But the Marshall, even though it's pretty old, and there is a new version of it you can buy these days, but something like that they're going to have for a really long time. It's going to work and you've got really good sound. So light and sound are two, you know, two things that's going to make a room feel more like home. And I think that as long as you don't annoy the neighbors too much with loud noise, I think that's I think those two are really good, good option. And then the surprise winner for me was the the suction cup by the wall.

• 31:21David Pierce?

  Yeah.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  For the lofted bed. It's hard to, you know, you don't want too much stuff up there and you don't want cables that might like strangle them in their sleep. And so that that was like, I think it was like 20 bucks on Amazon. I forget the name of the brand off the top of my head. I can there's so many of them though.

• 31:40David Pierce?

  Sometimes the TikTok hacks are the ones that are actually useful.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  Wigoo, there you go. Wigoo vacuum magnetic phone holder for your car. That works so well. I was I was very proud of myself on that one. So yeah, and then I did a lot of tech for the desk setup, too. But that was, you know, I think the most important thing there, as I mentioned, is extension cables. Bring lots and bring different sizes and shapes with different plug sizes and figure out which one works. Because those, you know, you you need to be get creative with using the outlets and the space that you have. So some kind of cable management, when you're trying to make the space feel more like home, is definitely worth considering. Those are those would be my top tips. And you don't

• 32:27Speaker 03

  need the Wi Fi, but if you have the Wi Fi, you can get a little broader and you can add voice control and out of home, out of room control. So that would be the next level.

• 32:39David Pierce?

  Well, I think with enough RGB, your son is going to be the most popular kid in college. So Jennifer Fadisintui, thank you for joining us. I'm excited to hear what you end up adding and changing when you go back in three weeks, what he has to say. We're gonna have to have you back on the show and maybe we can get your son on the show at some point. That might actually be pretty helpful.

• 32:59Speaker 03

  It'll be fun. We'll see if we can if you can nail him down for 10 minutes on a video call. It's not easy.

• 33:04David Pierce?

  That's true. I remember those days. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you for coming.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  You're welcome. Thank you.

• 33:10David Pierce?

  That's it for The Vergecast. Let us know what you think. Call the hotline 866 VERGE11 or email [email protected]. And to support everything we do here and to get ad free podcasts, subscribe to The Verge. The Vergecast is produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brendan Kiefer, and Travis Larchuk. See you next time. Next time.

• 33:32Speaker 02

  Interrupted sleep, headaches, constant fatigue. For a lot of women, these aren't three separate issues. In perimenopause and menopause, they're often the same hormonal story. And you don't have to quietly push through. Midi can help. Because your symptoms have answers. Visit joinmidi.com with code VOX right now to book your first visit today. That's joinmidi.com, code VOX to book your first visit. Joinmidi.com, code VOX. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage.

• 34:08Speaker 07

  If you've got an insurance question, you could talk to the butcher at your local grocery store. He'd probably talk about trimming the fat, but it'd be about your brisket, not your insurance policies. Or you could talk to your local Geico agent. They offer personalized assistance in finding the choicest cuts of coverage for all your insurance needs, which means more money for filet mignon, or if you're a vegetarian, tofu le mignon. To find a Geico agent near you, visit geico.com-local.