Why The Atlantic signed a deal with OpenAI

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky prides himself on thinking very differently than other CEOs, and his answers to the Decoder questions about how he structures and manages his company were almost always the opposite of what I’m used to hearing on the show. Airbnb is pretty much a single team, focused on a single product, and it all rolls up to Brian. That’s very different from most other big companies, which have lots of divisions and overlapping lines of authority. And Airbnb’s relationship to cities is changing as tourism changes. Airbnb used to be the poster child for a tech company that showed up without permission and fought with regulators, but as the company has grown and the pandemic has changed things, it’s entered what is hopefully a more mature phase — it just came to a deal with New York City after ten years of argument. I asked Brian about that and about what it’s like to run a public company now — the transition from scrappy startup to public company engaged with regulators is a big one. Of course, I also had to ask about cryptocurrency and the metaverse — does Brian think we’re all going to be visiting virtual NFT museums on vacations in the future? You have to listen and find out. Okay, Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, here we go. Links: Can Brian Chesky Save Airbnb? Jony Ive is bringing his design talents to... Airbnb Zillow reportedly needs to sell 7,000 houses after it bought too many City of New York and Airbnb Reach Settlement Agreement Airbnb hosts discriminate against black guests based on names, study suggests Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22547463 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Andrew Marino, our research was done by Liz Lian. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

16 Nov 20211h 11min

Nilay Patel talks to Steven Yang, the CEO and founder of Anker Innovations. The conversation covers the full stack of Decoder topics: taking bets on new tech like gallium nitride, building a direct-to-consumer business on Amazon, and the complexity of managing the Amazon relationship, regulatory issues, platform fees — you name it. And all from a company that started making phone chargers. Anker is endlessly fascinating. Links: Anker CEO Steven Yang is all in on USB-C Amazon-Native Brand Anker Goes Public EU proposes mandatory USB-C on all devices, including iPhones Gallium nitride is the silicon of the future Video: Is gallium nitride the silicon of the future? Anker MagGo devices snap on for wireless iPhone charging in your car and home Amazon confirms it removed RavPower, a popular phone battery and charger brand Another Amazon-first gadget brand has suspiciously vanished: Choetech Doug DeMuro on Decoder Nebula Capsule II mini projector review: TV in a can Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22533880 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams, and Andrew Marino. We are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

9 Nov 20211h 2min

Welcome to a special Thursday edition of Decoder. You may have read on the site that Verge executive editor Dieter Bohn has been working on a documentary called Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone. It's about a company called Handspring and I think the Decoder audience will be really into this story so today we're interviewing Dieter. We talked about his documentary and he brought an exclusive clip that didn't make it into the film. That documentary is streaming now on The Verge's new streaming apps that you can get on your TV or set top box. We have them for Android, for Amazon Fire TV, for Roku and Apple TV. We've been working on these for a long time. It's a little more complicated than you might think to make these apps, make them good, distribute them on everyone's app stores, some real Decoder pain points in there. Links Springboard trailer and how to get the streaming apps Transcript https://www.theverge.com/e/22526129 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4 Nov 202121min

Facebook announced a major corporate rebrand by changing its company name to Meta. The new name is meant to solidify the social media giant’s longterm bet on building the metaverse. On this episode of Decoder, vice president of Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth talked with The Verge’s Alex Heath about Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, how content moderation will work in the metaverse, and the hardware journey from virtual to mixed reality, and eventually, AR glasses. Links: Mark Zuckerberg on why Facebook is rebranding to Meta Facebook is spending at least $10 billion this year on its metaverse division Eight things we learned from the Facebook Papers Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22517027 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Andrew Marino and we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1 Nov 202142min

Adobe is one of those companies that I don’t think we pay enough attention to — it’s been around since 1982, and the entire creative economy runs through its software. You don’t just edit a photo, you Photoshop it. We spend a lot of time on Decoder talking about the creator economy, but creators themselves spend all their time working in Adobe’s tools. On this episode, I’m talking to Scott Belsky, chief product officer at Adobe, about the new features coming to their products, many of which focus on collaboration, and about creativity broadly — who gets to be a creative, where they might work, and how they get paid. Transcript Links: NFTs Explained Adobe brings a simplified Photoshop to the web Adobe is adding a collaborative mood board to Creative Cloud Soon you can use Photoshop to prepare your art as an NFT The Dog Ramps Tweet The Furry Lisa, CryptoArt, & The New Economy Of Digital Creativity A $120,000 Banana Is Peeled From an Art Exhibition and Eaten Adobe and Twitter are designing a system for permanently attaching artists’ names to pictures "I still own you" clip Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams, and Andrew Marino and we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

26 Okt 20211h 3min

This week we are talking to Jeep CEO Christian Meunier – and there’s a lot to talk about. Jeep just announced its second hybrid electric vehicle in the US, the Grand Cherokee 4xe. It also announced a plan for its first electric car in 2023, and to have EVs across the line by 2025, which is very soon. And it’s now part of a huge global car company called Stellantis. So I wanted to know: why start with hybrids, instead of jumping straight to EVs? What does it mean to be the CEO of a brand like Jeep inside of of a huge international company like Stellantis? How does the Jeep team make decisions about features and technology, and how much do they have to defer to a larger parent company? And what does it mean for Jeep, one of the most iconic American car brands, to be part of a huge global company now? Christian and I talked about all of that, as well as how the chip shortage is affecting Jeep, what cars will look like in 2040, and Jeep’s use of the name “Cherokee” in 2021. Yeah, this interview goes places. Links: The first plug-in hybrid Jeep Grand Cherokee is here Tested: 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe Complicates a Simple Machine 2021 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4xe: A Hybrid That Comes Up Short The electric Mustang Mach-E takes Ford in a whole new direction Jeep Badge of Honor App Jeep EV Day video Episode Transcript Credits: Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams, and Andrew Marino. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

19 Okt 20211h 12min

My guest today is Dave Limp, the senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon – or, more simply, the guy in charge of Alexa. Dave’s group at Amazon also includes the Kindle e-reader, the Ring and Blink security camera systems, the Eero wifi router, and a host of other products that connect to Amazon services.  We wanted to know what the business behind Alexa looks like — Amazon sells Echo products at basically break even, it runs the Alexa for all of them for free, and it employs thousands of engineers who work on it. How does that make money? How might it make money in the future? How should we think about Alexa competing with other smart assistants, and for what kinds of business? The answers were not what you’d expect. Links: Why the global chip shortage is making it so hard to buy a PS5 Amazon's new Ring Alarm Pro combines a security system with an Eero Router Say Hello to Astro, Alexa on wheels Amazon is now accepting your applications for its home surveillance drone Amazon Glow is a video chat gadget with built-in games to keep kids engaged Amazon’s new Echo Show 15 is meant to hang on your wall Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite adds a bigger screen, longer battery life, and USB-C Amazon starts making its own TVs with new Fire TV Omni and 4-Series Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max review: the one to buy How to connect Alexa to Spotify, Apple Music, and more Amazon's race to create the disappearing computer Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22483986 Credits: This episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams, and Andru Marino. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

12 Okt 20211h 15min

In Land of the Giants: The Apple Revolution, Recode’s Peter Kafka explores the company that changed what a computer is — and then changed what a phone is. From its beginnings as a niche personal computer company, Apple became the preeminent maker of consumer tech products, a cultural trendsetter, and the most valuable company in the world. And along the way, it changed the way we live. Listen to Land of the Giants on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

7 Okt 202133min