Searching for the perfect minimalist smartphone | The Vergecast

David has a Light Phone III, and it's making him wonder a lot of things about technology. So The Verge's Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about the whole trend of minimalist smartphones, and to figure out which features a smartphone absolutely needs, and which ones we could all probably do without.

After that, The Verge's Andy Hawkins takes us through a big weekend in the Tesla Takedown movement, what's happening with Elon Musk's car company, how automakers are responding to impending tariffs, and whether we're wrong to be excited about the new Nissan Leaf.

Finally, The Verge's Jen Tuohy answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11, or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about all-seeing cameras in our homes. Which mostly don't exist yet. Mostly.

Further reading:
Light Phone III review: everything in moderation: https://www.theverge.com/reviews/637178/light-phone-iii-review-minimalist-smartphone

There’s no perfect minimalist phone — yet: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/3/17304466/minimalist-light-phone-nokia-3310-unihertz-jelly-punky-mp01

One year with the Light Phone 2: https://www.theverge.com/24140675/light-phone-2-one-year-retrospect

We went to 10 anti-Tesla protests — and a couple counter protests, too: https://www.theverge.com/tesla/639183/tesla-takedown-protest-march-29-elon-musk-doge

‘Tesla Takedown’ protesters planning ‘biggest day of action’: https://www.theverge.com/news/633091/tesla-takedown-protesters-planning-biggest-day-of-action

How Elon Musk turned the Tesla brand so toxic: https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/633200/tesla-takedown-protest-elon-musk-toxic

The Nissan Leaf lives on as a compact SUV with a Tesla charge port: https://www.theverge.com/news/636386/nissan-leaf-third-generation-ev-suv-nacs

Ring’s latest security camera is a drone that flies around inside your house: https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21453709/ring-always-home-cam-indoor-drone-security-camera-price-specs-features-amazon

Project Astra is the future of AI at Google: https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156296/google-ai-gemini-astra-assistant-live-io

Alexa Plus arrives with promise but plenty of questions: https://www.theverge.com/amazon-alexa/622172/amazon-alexa-plus-panos-panay-interview

Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Light Phone 3
03:00 Minimalist smartphones with Alison Johnson
20:20 Essential apps for a minimalist phone
25:03 AI Chatbots
35:15 The future of minimalist phones
38:15 Tesla protests
39:39 Global day of action against Tesla
42:04 Elon Musk's response
47:27 Tesla's sales and market data
54:45 Tariffs and the auto industry
01:00:58 Nissan Leaf's new look
01:03:39 Smart home AI and privacy concerns (Hotline)

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