Version History: Daily Summaries Delivered

The Clapper: Light work

Clap on. Clap off. The Clapper may not have been a very good product, but it came with one of the all-time great marketing campaigns. And it might have even been a great, ahead of its time idea. The Verge's David Pierce and Victoria Song are joined by Allison Marsh, a writer and professor at The University of South Carolina, to talk through the Clapper's whole history. It involves lawsuits, broken gadgets, and a pioneering idea about laziness and the smart home. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Philips Hue: The smart home’s light bulb moment

The humble light bulb might be the ultimate success story in the smart home. Our connected, adaptable homes are supposed to be customizable, connected to everything, and incredibly easy to use, and nothing has made that work quite like Philips Hue lights. In this episode, The Verge's David Pierce and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy are joined by smart home journalist and expert Richard Gunther to tell the Hue's story. We trace the product's history from its origins in the smartphone revolution, try to figure out how Philips managed to turn a staggeringly expensive lightbulb into a must-have gadget, and look at whether there's even more invention left in the future of lighting. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Keurig: The K-Cup invasion

The Keurig is a simple idea – what if it was really easy to make pretty good coffee, one cup at a time? — with a wildly complicated history. David Pierce is joined by Eater editor Melissa McCart and champion barista and author Morgan Eckroth to discuss the whole history of Keurig, from its creation in a Boston apartment to its invasion of seemingly every house, doctor's office and conference room in the US. Keurig was certainly a success, but was it a good thing? For coffee, for the world? That's more complicated. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nest: The iPod of thermostats

Thermostats were ugly. Best case scenario, you never had to think about it. Then a couple of Apple legends decided they could make something better, and set out to turn changing the temperature into a high-tech experience. On this episode, David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy tell the full story of the Nest Learning Thermostat, from its complex development to its huge debut. The Nest was the beginning of a crucial era in the smart home — could it have been something even bigger? We have some ideas. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roomba: Rise of the robovac

The team of engineers and researchers that created iRobot didn’t set out to build a vacuum cleaner. They built robots — a lot of robots, with a lot of jobs — before realizing that people might actually want a robot that could help clean their house. And thus was born Roomba. The Verge’s David Pierce and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy are joined by iRobot co-founder Colin Angle to tell the whole story of all those robots, the pivot to vacuums, and why the Roomba was so easy to love even when it couldn’t really clean. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harmony remote: Control freak

The Harmony Universal Remote was supposed to be the only controller you needed for all the devices in your life. So what happened? David Pierce is joined by The Verge’s Nilay Patel and John Higgins, as well as Nest co-founder (and current Harmony user) Matt Rogers, to follow the Harmony's timeline from its origins as the "Easy Zapper," through Logitech's acquisition, all the way to its slow death at the hands of smart TVs. And their vastly inferior remotes. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Western Electric 500: Monopoly phone

For years, even decades, virtually everyone in the United States had the same telephone. You didn't even think about it — it was just The Phone. Well, The Phone was called the Western Electric 500, and it was the result of nearly a century of AT&T's monopoly over the US phone system. It was also a really great phone. In this episode of Version History, David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and author and professor Tim Wu explain how AT&T's monopoly grew, how the phone system worked, and how it happened that there was really only one phone in the country. Until the whole system started to fall apart. We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube. 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 vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon Echo: Always listening