Watch, headphones, phone: Which AI gadget is best?

So far, there have been exactly zero great AI-first gadgets. But that hasn't stopped the tech industry from trying to figure out what shape and size these new gadgets might take, and whether any of them can best the device in your pocket. The Verge's Allison Johnson and Victoria Song join David to rank all those shapes, from pendant to smartwatch to rectangle, to see whether there is actually a next big thing out there. Further reading: ⁠Apple sues OpenAI for allegedly stealing hardware secrets | The Verge⁠ ⁠Less is more with the Oura Ring 5 | The Verge⁠ 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

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of single day battery life. I'm your friend David Pierce, 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. So what we're going to do on 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 13th, 2026.

• 0:47Speaker 00

  Apple's public betas just dropped, which means you can now go test all of the various OS 27s for your many Apple devices. Public betas are usually stable enough to not completely destroy your device, but they are still betas, so proceed with caution until things actually ship this fall. But more than most years, I would give it a whirl. Siri AI is a huge improvement, and I like a bunch of the changes to Liquid Glass and all of the other UI stuff, too. And maybe most importantly, they fixed the corner radii on the Mac. Our long national nightmare is finally over. Meanwhile, it's been a complicated few days at OpenAI. First, the CEO of apps, Fidji 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

• 1:30Speaker 00

  by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple." Yeesh. The case names I/O, which is Johnny Ive'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's 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.

• 2:15Speaker 00

  Really, it just depends on how that ring feels on your finger. You can read more about all of this at theverge.com. That is 90 Seconds on The Verge for Monday, July 13th.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Company spending is complex. Managing it should be simple. Amex Corporate connects cards, expenses, and payments to streamline the way you work. Built to simplify, designed to scale. This is Amex Corporate. Get started at go.amex slash Amex Corporate. Terms apply.

• 2:48Speaker 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.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  All right, let's talk AI gadgets. Joining me now, my rank friends. I think of you as my rank friends. The Verge's Alison Johnson. Hi, Alison.

• 3:32Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 3:33Speaker 00

  And The Verge's Vee Song. Hi, Vee.

• 3:35Speaker 04

  Hi.

• 3:36Speaker 00

  We're here to get yelled at 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.

• 3:43Speaker 03

  Listen, the iPad does not belong.

• 3:49Speaker 00

  Beep, beep, beep.

• 3:49Speaker 04

  I'm glad that Alison is leading the charge, because I got some heat for starting that take, and you're welcome to take that heat, Alison.

• 3:59Speaker 00

  I still get emails about this, and I still feel incredibly vindicated by the audience's response to 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 order. We're going to rank these from one to eight. I have pendants, which are, you know, thing on a string

• 4:43Speaker 00

  that you wear around your neck. I have pins, which 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 put it anywhere. It is a thing you stick onto you in some way. Glasses, obviously. Rectangles, specifically, like, the Rabbit R1 is probably the best-known rectangle, but 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.

• 5:28Speaker 00

  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 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. Alison, you go first. What did you have number eight on the list?

• 5:57Speaker 03

  I'm going to go with pin. I just, I can't get behind a pin. You know, 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. So I'm going with pin.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  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 where you would put a name tag and just declare to the world that I am recording you from my chest. Like, it's a tough sell. Vee, did you have this here, too?

• 6:49Speaker 04

  It's in the bottom, for sure. Like, if we're talking like a humane AI pin, pin, oh yeah, super, super, throw that down there. That's a bottom as 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 Bee tracker, which could be worn as a pin, it's a lot less intrusive, 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

• 7:32Speaker 04

  just because it's not a particularly useful, you know, clothing item. It's easy to lose. You're 100% going to 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 going to wear this a lot of the time thing.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  Doesn't really go with my, like, athleisure, you know, leggings, everyday kind of look.

• 8:05Speaker 00

  It's also just a lot of work, right? Like, I think the thing that I'm coming around to, Vee, 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 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.

• 8:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  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.

• 8:42Speaker 00

  Just by the fact that they're right here on you all of the time.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  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.

• 8:52Speaker 00

  Yeah. That said, I didn't have this last. I had pendants last because 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 omies 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 gonna 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

• 9:36Speaker 00

  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.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  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.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 9:57Speaker 04

  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.

• 10:08Speaker 00

  That's interesting.

• 10:09Speaker 04

  Yeah. Turns out if you have women, uh, think about jewelry sometimes on your design team, you might get something that doesn't look like an air tag that glows and is stuck on a shoelace.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  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?

• 10:29Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  I, I, one, I, 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.

• 10:40Speaker 04

  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

• 11:23Speaker 04

  gonna get a device to look like that. It's always gonna be kind of a statement piece. And it's always gonna be a niche. I think I'm gonna 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.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  Are these the two that you had as the bottom two, V, also? Did we all have these at the bottom two?

• 11:58Speaker 04

  I did. I did have these two as my bottom two.

• 12:01Speaker 00

  All right. So I think in that case, we're, we're close enough. We'll just let majority rule here. We'll go pendant eight, pin seven. Uh, I had no trouble making that decision because we're the bottom two. Um, V, you go next. What did you have number six?

• 12:16Speaker 04

  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 packs 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.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:50Speaker 04

  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, um, 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, uh, light and easy travel, tiny little fanny pack. I'm just going about and living my best life, uh, 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.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Yeah. There's, there's room for one rectangle. Yeah.

• 13:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 00

  And that's pretty much spoken for.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  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, a second gadget that you can use. Like when the Rabbit R1 came out, we were all dazzled by, you know, the, the gadgetiness 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, um, if it could be the, the voice recorder that I bring to a meeting and it has the advantage

• 14:21Speaker 03

  of like, it's not stuck on your person. Um, so I can see it be a little more, you know, almost like socially acceptable to be like, I'm gonna use this for XYZ purpose and then put it away. Um, but that depends on it being useful.

• 14:40Speaker 00

  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 work, 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

• 15:20Speaker 00

  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 yet. So I'm not, I'm not like ruling out rectangle forever.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  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.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  I think it is.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  All right.

• 15:52Speaker 04

  Also, you can't stick it in a pocket. Women's pockets, very small. This is, yeah.

• 15:58Speaker 00

  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 this.

• 16:18Speaker 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.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  Companies shouldn't have to choose between speed and control. Amex Corporate connects cards with flexible spending controls and real time visibility to help teams adapt faster. Built to simplify, designed to scale. This is Amex Corporate. Get started at go.amex/ammexcorporate. Terms apply.

• 17:19Speaker 05

  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/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 17:48Speaker 06

  Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard? But not the pipeline? That's bullspend. And marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.

• 17:57Speaker 07

  My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had: impressions.

• 18:05Speaker 06

  Cut the bullspend. See revenue, not just reach. LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 18:20Speaker 00

  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?

• 18:32Speaker 03

  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 Oura rings.

• 18:50Speaker 00

  But again, this is AI gadget. This is not, we're not doing a wellness debate here. This is as an AI gadget.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I think that 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, is that even an AI gadget? I don't know.

• 19:17Speaker 04

  It's like an AI transcription gadget. So I actually think it's much better than the pins on the pendants. Because I was like, I am god with this ring. I am journalism interview recording god. Because like, not only could I take notes, I went to the enhanced games and I had this Vochi ring on and I was like 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, you know, pull the quotes out much more easily. Because the thing I hate most is going back to a transcript

• 20:00Speaker 04

  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 gonna 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.

• 20:43Speaker 04

  Some people are not super into rings as a form factor.

• 20:46Speaker 00

  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, right? 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 Allison on Monday. And it just dumps a thing into your reminders that reminds you to call Allison on Monday. Like, that is better than digging out my phone to do it. 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.

• 21:28Speaker 00

  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 gonna 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 the thing.

• 21:59Speaker 04

  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 so small.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  But now it's rectangle. Now it's rectangle.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 22:18Speaker 04

  No, because the case, case fits in woman's pocket.

• 22:21Speaker 00

  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, like, absolutely not.

• 22:31Speaker 03

  Because then you don't have to.

• 22:32Speaker 00

  Now you have two devices?

• 22:33Speaker 04

  You don't have to. It's, 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 a case with you.

• 22:40Speaker 00

  Sure, okay, that's fine.

• 22:41Speaker 04

  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.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  It's an idea.

• 23:17Speaker 04

  I had it at four is where I had it.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  Okay, what did you have at five, V?

• 23:20Speaker 04

  I had glasses at five.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Whoa.

• 23:23Speaker 00

  So did I.

• 23:23Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 23:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  V, make the case.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  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.

• 23:42Speaker 00

  You've brought up that exact example so many times on this show.

• 23:47Speaker 04

  Because it keeps happening to me.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  What happened?

• 23:50Speaker 00

  Do we just need to tell this story?

• 23:52Speaker 04

  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, eh, eh, not that great a lot of the times. If they have a display, that, that stuff hurts my eyes a lot

• 24:37Speaker 04

  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 where you're risking getting punched in the face by someone who thinks you're a psyop, you know?

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Not ideal.

• 24:50Speaker 04

  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, negative 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, you know, 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,

• 25:35Speaker 04

  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 tech. If you look online at least, so yeah.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  But can I defend flipping ring and glasses here? Because I feel like I 100% agree with all this stuff about glasses and like getting punched in the face. But the

• 26:13Speaker 00

  We're anti getting punched in the face, to be clear.

• 26:15Speaker 03

  Don't love being punched in the face.

• 26:16Speaker 00

  On this show, we are anti punching or being punched in the face.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  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, I don't see how it could do more than that. And the glasses like could and kind of are like 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, on your phone, which is actually the ultimate AI device, spoiler alert.

• 26:54Speaker 00

  Don't ruin it.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  But I don't know. Do I, do I have this wrong? Like?

• 26:59Speaker 00

  No, I think you're right, but I think, I actually think 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 of 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.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  Cause 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 down ranking all of the ones that are sort of fundamentally pointing at other people all the time. And up ranking 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, 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.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  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. And it's not

• 28:39Speaker 04

  Like, that's also why I put it at five, because it was actually fairly easy for me to do six, seven, eight. 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.

• 29:24Speaker 04

  You're going to 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 and 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.

• 30:08Speaker 04

  So until I'm shown otherwise, I think the hurdles for glasses are the highest of any gadget on this list.

• 30:16Speaker 00

  I think I agree. Okay. So I think in the interest of moving on, um, I think V and I are going to overrule you here, Alison. Did you have glasses like way higher?

• 30:26Speaker 03

  No, I, I'm fine with this. I can look at it.

• 30:30Speaker 00

  Okay. And I think ring, we're going to leave it four because I, we had it at three, four and five. So we'll just take it right in the middle. Which brings us, so, so far, just to recap, we have pendant at eight, pin at seven, rectangle at six, glasses at five, ring at four. I think five and four, 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?

• 30:58Speaker 03

  This is tough, but I put headphones at three.

• 31:02Speaker 00

  So did I. Okay.

• 31:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:04Speaker 00

  Tell me why.

• 31:04Speaker 03

  It feels like there is a lot of potential. And um, as a, as a means of like talking to the AI that's on your phone or whatever, getting the, 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, uh, you know, permission to be like talking with Airbut, 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 going to dim the, the, you know, make the music quieter.

• 31:47Speaker 03

  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 higher.

• 31:57Speaker 00

  But I feel like that, I feel like that fight is lost. I don't think by and large, people agree with you anymore.

• 32:03Speaker 03

  Really?

• 32:04Speaker 04

  I'm really not younger people. Like I still have that same problem, but I see Gen Z people all the time, just.

• 32:10Speaker 03

  Oh no, I'm an old.

• 32:13Speaker 00

  One of the things that I find the wildest is seeing couples like walking along, holding hands, both wearing headphones.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  People do that?

• 32:22Speaker 00

  Like what on earth are we doing here?

• 32:23Speaker 03

  That sucks.

• 32:24Speaker 00

  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? I think at, at most society is at 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.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Oh my gosh.

• 32:45Speaker 00

  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. 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 it's 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, I'm good to go for a huge number of things.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  David, do you take your AirPods out to go order your breakfast sandwich?

• 33:27Speaker 00

  I either take both out or I take one out like very demonstrably in front of them. Do you know what I mean?

• 33:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 33:35Speaker 00

  Where it's like, I do the, I do the, I am listening to you now gesture. I would never just walk up with one in that they, that they didn't see. Cause then, then it's like, I want it to be clear that I am listening to you. Do you know what I mean?

• 33:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. All right.

• 33:47Speaker 00

  But I see people all the time. I saw somebody the other day with like giant Sony noise cancelling cans.

• 33:54Speaker 03

  No.

• 33:54Speaker 00

  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 happier.

• 34:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:06Speaker 00

  It's insanity. V, did you have headphones here too?

• 34:09Speaker 04

  I had them higher. I had them at two.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  Really? Okay. What did you have at three?

• 34:13Speaker 04

  I had watch at three.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Oh my gosh, that's just so fun.

• 34:16Speaker 04

  Okay. Just because, um, 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, or like 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, the stuff with the camera for most people. Although some people, razor, cough, cough, Project Motocross, are trying to stick cameras in over your headphones. And don't do that. Don't do that. Uh, just don't do that.

• 34:58Speaker 00

  Don't, don't be that person.

• 34:59Speaker 04

  Don't be that person. But yeah, I have yet to see AI integrated into the watch itself in a way that.

• 35:08Speaker 04

  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 potential is high there. Battery life is better than these like pins and pendants marginally.

• 35:39Speaker 04

  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, for AI. Oh, hello, Peedy. You've joined the ranking squad.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  Peedy is with me on watches. I can tell.

• 36:26Speaker 04

  Peedy is the number one AI gadget killer.

• 36:29Speaker 00

  That I believe. So this suggests also that both of you had smartphone at number one. Yeah?

• 36:33Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 36:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:35Speaker 00

  Was that, was that a complicated decision for either of you to make?

• 36:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 36:38Speaker 04

  No. One and like seven and eight were like super easy.

• 36:42Speaker 00

  You're both wrong.

• 36:43Speaker 03

  Whoa.

• 36:43Speaker 00

  The answer is watch.

• 36:44Speaker 03

  No.

• 36:46Speaker 00

  So my, my top three were watch, smartphones, headphones, in that order.

• 36:55Speaker 00

  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.

• 37:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, same.

• 37:15Speaker 00

  I actually sort of like the, the idea of talking to a thing.

• 37:18Speaker 03

  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?

• 37:26Speaker 00

  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 the 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 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.

• 38:11Speaker 00

  But it, it, it 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. But I get that that's just me.

• 38:45Speaker 03

  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.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  So slow. It's so slow to get the answers.

• 39:04Speaker 03

  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.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  That is a very fair point. I cannot argue at that point.

• 39:21Speaker 03

  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 ages ago. That's what I got.

• 39:41Speaker 04

  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, one, you put cameras on a watch, I, I'm going to write a 4,000 words, greet on theverge.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, in the watch band at one point. Just nostril shots all day. Nobody wants that.

• 40:10Speaker 03

  I have a toddler to take pictures of my nostrils with my phone. He does that very well on his own.

• 40:16Speaker 00

  Okay. So I think, I think where we're going to land here is that we, we all have 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 at two and headphones at three versus headphones at two and watch at three? Do either of you want to make a really impassioned case for one of them to be ahead of the other?

• 40:44Speaker 04

  In my gut, I think headphones is two, 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 gadget.

• 40:54Speaker 00

  I think there are a lot of people who would tell you the Apple Watch is the best Siri gadget that currently exists.

• 40:59Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay, screen. It's the screen because I can see what it thinks I'm saying. And the headphones, I just have to like hope to God. And then like based on the reaction I get back.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  Can I just say, this is a random tangent, by the way, but I've been using the developer beta of iOS 27. 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, Vergecast, not Verge Smash. Like of, 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.

• 41:45Speaker 03

  It's an improvement. Yeah.

• 41:47Speaker 04

  I'm okay. Like this is weird, but I'm okay with the watch being at two. It feels weird being the wearable lady, being like, I'm okay with the watch being at two, but I am okay with it.

• 41:56Speaker 00

  Okay. I think, I think this is the right place to land.

• 42:00Speaker 00

  So that means in order, our ranking is phone, watch, headphones, ring, glasses, rectangle, pin and pendant. That feels right to me. There, there's nothing here that feels like a million miles away from where it's supposed to be.

• 42:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, nailed it.

• 42:15Speaker 00

  And phone still wins. Boy, it's going to be a bummer for a lot of companies out there that phone still wins the rankings.

• 42:21Speaker 03

  Look, I've been saying this for a year.

• 42:23Speaker 00

  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.

• 42:31Speaker 04

  But also for everything else on that list, you need the phone for it to work. So.

• 42:35Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 42:36Speaker 00

  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.

• 42:51Speaker 04

  That's just a rectangle.

• 42:53Speaker 00

  It's true. It is a rectangle.

• 42:54Speaker 04

  It's just a rectangle.

• 42:54Speaker 03

  It's true.

• 42:55Speaker 00

  It is one of the good rectangles. Call the hotline 866 VERGE11. Send us emails, [email protected]. Allison V, good to see you both. Thanks for doing this.

• 43:03Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 43:04Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  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 866 VERGE11. Email us, [email protected], especially if you think I'm right and V and Allison are wrong. Those are my 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.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  Go to theverge.com/subscribe. It makes a huge difference. Thank you in advance. The Vergecast is a Verge production and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. The show is produced by Josh Kahas, Eric Gomez, Brandon Kiefer, Travis Larchuk and Aaron Lucassio. We'll see you tomorrow. Rock and roll.

• 44:05Speaker 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.

• 44:42Speaker 08

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way. Because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claud.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claud.ai/spotify.