2024 had some unforgettable tech moments from new wearable AI assistants to latest displays in EVs and gaming. We’ve covered almost all of it, but there are a few things that we've missed. So we sat down with The Verge staff to hear about the technology that stood out to them the most this year. Take a watch and see if your favorite tech made it in or just get reminded of all that came out this year.
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00:00All right it's almost end of 2024 and I want to look back at some of the stuff that happened this
00:05year so let's do that together. We got a bunch of events, AI, AI, AI, the year of the sparkle,
00:11Vision Pro, that was January, AI wearables, you're holding a taco, new EVs, smart glasses,
00:19this is kind of getting creepy, but we also didn't make videos for everything so we're
00:24going to bring in our staff to tell you what their 2024 highlights were.
00:34For me the gadget of the year is these, the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. They technically
00:39launched late in 2023 but 2024 was their year. Even as Apple shipped Vision Pro,
00:46Snap updated the Spectacles, and Meta shipped its own new Quest headsets,
00:50all any of those things did was prove how right Meta got these. They're great as a pair of
00:55headphones, they have a terrific microphone in the nose, and they're a delightful hands-free camera.
01:02Most importantly, they look like glasses. They're not a ridiculous space helmet.
01:07For those reasons alone, these were already the best smart glasses out there, but then this year
01:11they also got Meta AI, which is a built-in assistant that can answer questions and help
01:16you with stuff and even see through the camera to look at the world the way that you do. It can
01:21help you identify things or translate text and even get around. Everybody, like everybody,
01:27is trying to build smart glasses that look good and work well and most importantly are actually
01:32useful enough that you might put them on your face. Meta already did that, and in 2024 all
01:37these smart glasses did was pull further ahead.
01:46Is that right? Okay, look, I know Google's AI overviews told us to put glue on our pizza,
01:52and OpenAI and Perplex here are both getting sued to death over copyright infringement,
01:56and there's much uncertainty about how AI-powered search is going to impact the bottom line of
02:01newsrooms. Still, I don't think it's going anywhere, and I also found it incredibly useful this year.
02:07I do so much googling for my job. The simple fact that a chatbot can allow me to ask complex,
02:13compound questions and follow up so quickly is really helpful. ChatGPT's web search engine was
02:18a standout for me. It delivered me the information I needed quickly, and then I was able to go read
02:23the articles it cited. This was important when I dug into how Trump's proposed terrorist may
02:27impact AI, all the stories behind Anthropic's computer use, and who is still married from
02:32Love is Blind, even though it keeps messing that one up. Um, let's see at first. All of these
02:40couples are correct, but it's oddly not a full list. That's useless. That's useless. Then I just
02:46have to go to one of these websites and see their lists, and more reliably just go to their Instagram
02:52and stalk them and see, which is way more work. I just want to know. There is much to hate about
02:57it, and I get it. If it can ever be done right and ethically, though, it is a powerful and useful
03:02tool. Americans need more affordable EVs, and this year they finally started getting some decent
03:11options. Chief among them is the Chevy Equinox EV, a mid-$30,000 compact SUV with solid tech
03:18and plenty of range. And with tax credits, that price comes down to $27,000 for some trims.
03:24Sure, it's an Equinox, which doesn't exactly inspire the same devotion as the Honda CR-V
03:30or Toyota RAV4, but it's clear that Chevy has a hit on its hands, selling nearly 10,000 units
03:35in its first quarter of sales. More importantly, the Equinox EV is part of GM's big experiment to
03:40get rid of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, using a Google-based system instead that is more deeply
03:45integrated with the vehicle's functions. Now, I tested the Equinox EV for over a week, and I can
03:50say that it almost, almost made me forget about CarPlay. The UX was really good, even great at
03:55times, until I realized that this was also a play to collect more of my data. Still, it wasn't a
04:00total deal-breaker, and that alone makes the Equinox EV worthy of your consideration.
04:11It's bloody gorgeous. That's really all you need to know about the fourth-gen Nest Learning
04:16Thermostat. Looks matter in the smart home, and Google nailed it with this one. They took
04:21everything I've loved about the Nest Learning Thermostat for 10 years and made it better,
04:28with one exception. It's bigger, but sleeker. Prettier, but more useful. I love the dynamic
04:35farsight and its subtle graphics that tell me at a glance what the weather's like,
04:39combined with improved customization that show me the time and date, too. This has been super
04:45helpful when dashing between my kids' bedrooms in the morning, getting them ready for school.
04:49The smarts are all still here, too, only now the thermostat gives you a heads-up when it's using
04:55its AI learning features that adjust your climate based on your movements and patterns,
04:59which is nice. In a year where it felt like the smart home was getting just too complicated,
05:05the Nest Learning Thermostat epitomizes everything a great smart home gadget should be.
05:10Intelligent, good-looking, and easy to use. Plus, it now works with Matter,
05:16which means I can finally add it to Apple Home. My only disappointment is that Google ditched
05:22Thread from this version, a version of which had been on all the previous learning models.
05:27It would have been a nice touch to have the thermostat also help form a stronger
05:31IoT network in my smart home, but clearly, I can't have everything.
05:41I think the breakout hit of the year is a piece of sweet, sweet hardware. It's the Google Pixel 9 Pro
05:47Fold. Phone makers want us to think 2024 was all about AI and software. They're wrong. It was about
05:53hardware. I love this phone. It is so nice. That's the first thing I thought when I picked it up for
05:59the first time, and it's just lighter and slimmer and shaped better than the first Pixel Fold.
06:06On the one hand, we had the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is kind of remote control shaped,
06:11and then we had the original Pixel Fold, which was shaped like a passport, more or less.
06:16This feels like it's right down the middle, and it is ideal. Now, this is going to sound backwards,
06:22but the best thing about this folding phone is that it just feels like a normal phone when you're
06:26using it. When I have it closed and I'm using the cover screen, it's so light that I forget I'm
06:32using a folding phone. You still have that inner screen when you want it, and the inner screen is
06:37very nice, but you don't have to make this big sacrifice to have the big screen when you want it.
06:43That is crucial because that's how you use this phone most of the time. You don't have to make a
06:47huge sacrifice to have the big inner screen, and I love the inner screen. I like opening it up and
06:53playing my little games, but at the end of the day when you close it, it just feels really nice, and that rules.
07:02It was kind of a boring year for smartwatches, so I spent a good chunk of 2024 testing smart rings.
07:09The Aura Ring 4 was the best of the lot, and I know a lot of people hate that it has a subscription,
07:15and I totally get it, but as far as smart rings go, this has the smoothest overall experience.
07:22The hardware has been redesigned to be more accurate with recessed sensors. Battery life is
07:27improved, so you're reliably getting about a week's worth on a charge. The app's also been overhauled,
07:32so all that data is not so cluttered anymore. Another plus is expanded automatic activity
07:37detection. The other rings I tested either had syncing issues, or the data was iffy, or just
07:43presented in a really jumbled way. What I really felt with the Aura Ring 4 was, oh, this is a product
07:50made by people with a lot of experience, and that experience shows. Case in point, this is on its
07:56fourth gen ring, while everything else on my fingers is either first gen or just launched a
08:02second gen. That said, I also felt like two competitors gave Aura a run for its money.
08:07Samsung's Galaxy Ring absolutely nailed it with the hardware, and the Ultra Human Ring Air came
08:13in pretty close in terms of overall software. So yes, Aura's still on top, for now, but there are
08:20some neat ideas brewing in the smart ring space, and I'm excited to see where it's all going.
08:26Once upon a time, people distrusted OLED screens, fearing burn-in and excessive battery draw.
08:31But slowly, surely, they've become the best displays in existence, appearing in every premium
08:36phone, many a laptop, and most of the hottest TVs. And 2024 is the year they cemented their
08:42overwhelming victory. This January, we were finally introduced to no-compromise
08:46OLED desktop computer monitors. With both the speed for display and the ease of use,
08:51we named the 32-inch, 240Hz, 4K-resolution Alienware AW3225QF one of our best-in-show at
08:59CES 2024. I've been using it ever since, for both work and play, and it's one of the first
09:04OLEDs I've ever used that feels ready for an always-on Windows desktop. Unlike an OLED monitor
09:10I used last year, or the OLED TV I used before that, this year's OLED monitor feels like a
09:16Unlike an OLED monitor I used last year, or the OLED TV I used before that,
09:21I've never had to think about burn-in or been distracted by overzealous auto-dimming features.
09:26And it's just one of a wave of screens using brighter, longer-lasting Samsung and LG panels,
09:32many of which now come with burn-in warranties. I also spent a big chunk of this year using the
09:36Steam Deck OLED, and long-term tests have shown not only are burn-in fears overblown,
09:42OLED isn't the battery-life culprit we once thought.
09:51Alright. Okay, so my pick is the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, and it might even make me leave the GoPro
09:58ecosystem altogether. There are many things that I like about the new GoPro camera, especially
10:04just as an action camera for skiing, snowboarding, and sports in general,
10:08but I've been using the Osmo Action Pro in tandem this year, and there are so
10:11many things that I like about it as well. The build quality is really good, the OLED screen
10:15on the front and the back, there's built-in storage, there's incredibly good battery life,
10:21bigger sensor also allows for better low-light, and it's compatible with other DJI products like
10:26the Mic 2. In all these aspects, it is just a much more reliable little action camera.
10:32The thing that is keeping me in the GoPro ecosystem is its subscription package.
10:36Uploading footage when charging a battery is a fantastic feature if your internet speeds allow
10:42it, but it feels like every other company, including Insta360 with the new Ace Pro 2,
10:48which I haven't had a chance to review yet,
10:50are just working on pushing the limits of what action cameras are capable of doing.
10:57Okay, so those are our 2024 picks, and we probably missed something,
11:01so let us know down below if you had a favorite event happening, story, gadget, whatever you want,
11:07down in the comments. Our next video is going to be looking into the future,
11:11so we're going to be talking about 2025 predictions, so stay tuned for that one.