Verge Longreads

Most recent stories in Verge Longreads

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  The Verge

  

  2 days ago

  The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat

  The Verge - Josh Dzieza

  On the afternoon of March 11th, 2011, Mitsuyoshi Hirai, the chief engineer of the cable maintenance ship Ocean Link, was sitting in his cabin 20 miles off Japan’s eastern coast, completing the paperwork that comes at the end of every repair. Two weeks earlier, something — you rarely knew what — …

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  The Verge

  

  Peloton is a media company now, with media company problems

  The Verge - Victoria Song

  Jessika Fernandez uses Peloton about two hours a day — maybe even four if she’s training for a marathon. In her house, you’ll find not one but two Peloton machines. There’s the bike that the company is known for, and in her garage, there’s the company’s smaller treadmill. A rack of running medals …

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  The Verge

  

  “A fucking clown show”: how Vice’s execs burned down its newsroom

  The Verge - Elizabeth Lopatto

  Vice was once promised to become the brash young voice of news. But wild expenses, shady deals, and greed turned it into ‘a fucking clown show.’ Shane Smith built Vice into a cultural behemoth by bluffing his way into round after round of funding — until he reached a dizzying $5.7 billion valuation …

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  The Verge

  

  Pitchfork lived and died by the internet

  The Verge - Elizabeth Lopatto

  Pitchfork exploded as the music industry changed, then was cut down to size by another wave of technological change. Was that it? Last year, in an appearance on Rick Rubin’s podcast, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor observed that over the course of his career, music has become more ubiquitous — and, …

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  The Verge

  

  The Echo Hub is Alexa’s missing piece

  The Verge - Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

  Amazon’s new control panel makes using an Alexa-powered smart home as easy as flipping a light switch (only better, trust me). Amazon’s Echo Hub ($179.99) is the best solution yet for an affordable, intuitive way to control your smart home. I’ve lived with home automation for over a decade and one …

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  The Verge

  

  Inside King of the Hammers, a gnarly off-road race that’s “Burning Man for rednecks”

  The Verge - Emme Hall

  While the event is known as one of the biggest motorsport events in the world, it’s also a place to showcase technology, land stewardship, and just a tiny bit of nightlife. Every year, tens of thousands of people gather here in the Mojave Desert with two goals: to see some incredible off-road racing …