How clips ate the internet

It's now surprisingly easy to watch most of a movie without ever trying to, or to spend hours with a podcast without ever playing an episode. In the burgeoning clip economy, everything is being cut into bite-sized pieces and being blasted around the internet hoping to land in your feeds. The Verge's Mia Sato explains the machinery of how all this works, and wonders what it means for our social media experience. After that, The Verge's Victoria Song joins to discuss the Fitbit Air, the new $99 Google fitness tracker she and David have both been testing. It's a fascinating, thoroughly AI-ified device, and it actually has some pretty good ideas. (And some bad ones!) Finally, Vee sticks around to help David answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about smart glasses, and whether helping you find your other gear might just be a killer app.

Further reading:

Inside the cutthroat community of ‘clippers’

Google’s taking a big swing at AI health with the Fitbit Air

What’s the role of a simple fitness band in the AI health era?

All these smart glasses and nothing to do

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(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:00:00 Brick Your Phone

00:03:00 Clips Go Industrial

00:06:00 How Clipping Platforms Work

00:08:00 Why It Looks Organic

00:11:00 Clavicular Case Study

00:13:00 Shady or Just Marketing

00:20:00 Platform Rules and Reality

00:26:00 Slop and the Future of Clips

00:36:00 Watch Band Color Debate

00:38:00 Why Fitbit Air Matters

00:40:00 Whoop Dupe Or Fitbit Roots

00:45:00 Google Health AI Coach

00:50:00 Limits And Lab Upload Friction

00:53:00 Privacy And Data Tradeoffs

00:56:00 AI Health Personalities Compared

01:04:00 Hotline Smart Glasses Tracking

01:09:00 Future Of All Day Glasses

01:13:00 Wrap Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices