It’s not TV, it’s HBO. No, sorry, it’s HBO Go. And also HBO Now. But now it’s HBO Max, except wait, now it’s not HBO at all? It’s just Max? Actually, I’m being told it is once again HBO Max. Thank you for joining us on this wild and utterly nonsensical branding journey. Please keep watching The White Lotus.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, David, and The Verge’s Jake Kastrenakes start the show with some personal news before digging into Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to rename its streaming service again this week, re-embracing the HBO brand after eschewing it only a few years ago. (Now that we think about it, maybe we should have seen this coming from a company that couldn’t come up with a better combined name than “Warner Bros. Discovery.”) The hosts also talk about the rest of the news in a busy week in streaming, from ESPN’s upcoming service to the plan for Fox One.
After that, it’s time to talk gadgets. Apple’s next-generation CarPlay, now called CarPlay Ultra, is finally here, but it’s not at all what we expected. Google revealed the colorful, bouncy future of Android, and we really like it — but we’re not sure who’s actually going to get to see it. Ahead of Google I/O next week, we have plenty of questions about what’s next for Google’s phone plans, and for Gemini in general.
Finally, in the lightning round, it’s time for another edition of Brendan Carr is a Dummy. We also talk about the strange, uncanny future of sponsored content — and why “the Oscar goes to… Coca-Cola!” is a sentence we might need to get ready to hear. And we discuss the new Airbnb, and whether the company’s pivot to experiences and services will actually pay off.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with streaming:
And in Android and CarPlay news:
And in the lightning round:’
