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Let get this out of the way: Nilay and Dieter are not on the show this week. But really, we’ve got a great show hosted by Verge podcast professionals Lauren Goode and Casey Newton. Oh and Paul is still here, too! So what are we talking about on the show today? Well, a lot. Lauren, Casey, and Paul analyze the news that was at the top of the site this week, including a glitch that left American Airlines without pilots during the week of Christmas; a rundown of the new trivia app HQ; and the reveal of the man who deactivated Trump’s Twitter account briefly a few weeks ago. Also, Lauren gives us a closer look into the newest episode of her video series Next Level, which deals with solar panels that turn air into drinking water. There’s a whole lot in between that, like Paul’s weekly segment “Whiskey pods? No.” So, listen to it all, and you know what? You’ll get it all. 02:56 - Google might merge back with Nest to make more smart home products 10:23 - The man who deactivated Trump’s Twitter account has revealed himself 17:35 - HQ 25:35 - Facebook uses selfies as login authentication for suspicious activity 29:02 - Verge holiday book recommendations 32:00 - ‘Only a few hundred’ American Airlines flights still lack pilots after massive computer glitch 34:27 - Inside the decade-long fight to expose Morgan Marquis-Boire 38:53 - Next Level season 2 episode 3 52:07 - Paul’s weekly segment “Whiskey pods? No.” 55:56 - Amazon unveils $250 AI camera and machine learning tools for businesses 1:04:50 - Is now a good time to buy a new phone / laptop / TV? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Vergecast day! Look we’ve got a new logo! This week, in honor of The Verge’s fifth anniversary and the redesign of the website, we start off the show by giving some behind-the-scenes details on the new things you see on the site and things we’ve changed. But don’t worry, we still have that weekly news you all subscribe for. Nilay, Dieter, Paul, and Dan discuss using the Google Home speaker and how it works with the Google Assistant. Also, we have reviews of the 13-inch Macbook Pro (yeah the one without the Touch Bar), Paul’s weekly segment “Cookie Pods,” and some great ad reads in between. 01:49 - The Verge turns 5 15:58 - Google Home 27:49 - Google Assistant 40:35 - Macbook Pro 1:06:27 - Paul’s weekly segment “Cookie Pods” We want to thank the listeners, new and old, for tuning in each and giving feedback on the show, we greatly appreciate it. A quote from Nilay on this week’s episode: “We launched The Verge basically on the back of this podcast. This podcast when Paul and I were doing it with Josh as the Engadget podcast was so popular that we could fucking leave and start a new podcast, our listeners came with us, and we were able to launch This Is My Next and then The Verge so it’s wild that we’ve done it for five years.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Vergecast, Nilay, Paul, Dan, and Dieter cover two big events and announcements from the past few days. As you may have read on the site, Google announced a plethora of hardware devices on Tuesday. Then yesterday, Oculus announced a few new features for their VR platform. Will Nilay buy a Pixel on the show? Listen and find out. 01:42 - Google event, new products, and new competition 38:16 - Oculus event and VR 49:08 - Paul’s weekly segment “Having a Coke with you” 51:14 - Lightning round Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices