Apple is in a stretch of open-ended gadget experimentation, with the iPhone gaining more screens, the MacBook adding a touchscreen, and the HomeView running CarPlay apps. The Vergecast co-host David Pierce described the period as unabashed experimentation by the most successful product maker, adding that the results are not always perfect but are fun to watch. In the MacBook Pro's case, that experimenting amounts to putting a touch panel on a new model to see whether users might employ it.
On the podcast, Pierce and co-host Nilay Patel debated whether a touchscreen laptop makes sense. Patel said he is absolutely, positively going to buy the new MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR Display. Pierce, as usual, asked whether the device could have been an iPad.
The episode also covered Instagram's move into long-form content and Adam Mosseri's increasingly complicated relationship with AI content. According to the discussion, Instagram is at once extraordinarily powerful and under serious threat, and Mosseri will have a hard time making it all work.
The hosts also spent time on a segment called Brendan Carr is a Dummy, along with news about Anthropic's IPO and Anduril's laptops. The Vergecast episode was published on October 30, 2026.
Other Verge items listed alongside the episode included Reddit's plan to force everyone to log in, Microsoft's AI future having fewer jobs, and a piece on how the Apple Pencil turned the Duo into a new favorite notebook. The list also cited Anthropic's business plan described as build God or die trying, and an item saying Apple finally combined a toaster and a refrigerator.
The source article is a podcast summary and does not include further detail on the MacBook Pro's touchscreen, the PROLED XDR Display, Instagram's long-form plans, Mosseri's AI content decisions, Anthropic's IPO, or Anduril's laptops.
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