A quest for the best headphone mics
On this episode of The Vergecast, we kick off Hot Girl Vergecast Summer with a classic Vergecast segment: the mic test. Guest host Victoria Song is joined by Vergecast producers Andru Marino and Erick Gomez to see how the Nothing Headphone 1, Sony WH-1000XM6, Apple AirPods Max, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra hold up against what's possibly the noisiest street in Brooklyn.
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After that, Victoria is joined by Ladder CEO Greg Stewart to talk about what it takes to build a successful strength training app — especially for people just starting out. As it turns out, it's quite challenging, between curating playlists, accommodating users' different access to equipment, skill levels, and preferences for coaching styles. (And maybe, some occasional beef with Peloton?)
Lastly, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com) about AI fitness summaries, whether people actually like them, what's frustrating about them, and what scenarios they might actually be useful for.
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CNET
2 hours ago
- CNET
I Get 5G on My Phone at Home, So Why Can't I Get 5G Home Internet? Here's What I Learned
If you can get 5G on your phone while at home, you should be able to get 5G internet at your house, right? Not exactly. 5G is no longer the shiny new thing, thanks to efforts from major carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, but 5G home internet service isn't strictly available at the same addresses as 5G cellular service. I ran into this when I switched my mobile carrier from AT&T cellular service to T-Mobile phone service. I was immediately impressed with the phone's 5G performance. However, even though I got T-Mobile 5G cell service at home, my address wasn't eligible for T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. It's not just T-Mobile. The same applies to Verizon's cellular service as well as AT&T's. Their 5G home internet products are also not categorically available at all addresses covered by the company's 5G coverage map. For example, even if you have Verizon's Ultra Wideband service in your neighborhood, it's not a given you'll be able to sign up for Verizon 5G Home Internet. Let's get into the details about why. First things first: What is 5G? Before we get into the details on the main 5G home internet providers, let's clear up any confusion about what 5G actually is. 5G stands for "fifth generation." It represents the fifth generation of wireless data networks, not to be confused with 5GHz, a specific frequency band often used by Wi-Fi routers. If you have 5G home internet, you're using a fixed wireless internet connection provided by a cellular provider. You may have a 5G home internet connection that uses a Wi-Fi router with a 5GHz frequency. Locating local internet providers Also of note, 5G comes in three types: millimeter-wave, midband and low-band. Cellular home internet providers often use all three to create strong, varied networks. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all offer 5G home internet T-Mobile and Verizon were the first to use cellular airwaves to offer dedicated 5G home internet plans. Each provider's plans feature straightforward, all-inclusive pricing that ditches equipment fees, data caps, term agreements and other added hassles often associated with internet service providers. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet features plans for $50 to $70 per month for speeds of 87 to 415 megabits per second. Verizon offers two plans -- Verizon 5G Home ($50 a month) and Verizon 5G Home Plus ($70 a month). Qualifying Verizon and T-Mobile phone plans can also knock $15 off the price of your monthly bill. Simplicity and a straightforward approach seem to be key for both companies. What about AT&T, you ask? Although an AT&T spokesperson told CNET that "fiber remains our focus," the company also offers 5G home internet: AT&T Internet Air. It provides potentially higher download speeds than its hybrid DSL service (up to 225 megabits per second) and is now available in more than 100 locations across the US. If AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are serious about home internet, why isn't it as available as their overall 5G coverage? Verizon also includes its 5G equipment in your monthly fee. Sarah Tew/CNET When my former CNET colleague Eli Blumenthal tested Verizon 5G Home, he noted that the 5G connection on his iPhone was better than the one for his 5G Home hub. He was on to something. A Verizon spokesperson told me that it designed its network with its mobile customers in mind. "We continue to allocate spectrum to ensure our mobile customers have the reliability they've come to expect from Verizon," they said via email. "As we deploy more spectrum -- in excess of what our models show we need for the highest reliability for our mobile customers -- we are able to offer 5G Home service as well." 5G allows for a greater connection density -- approximately 1 million devices per square kilometer -- than previous generations of cellular connectivity. Is that a lot? Yes, it's about 100 times better than 4G, but it's not limitless. Telecom insider Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research, said he believes T-Mobile has also been judicious about selling home internet because of how a home internet product puts a heavy capacity usage on a mobile network. He pointed me to a YouTube interview with Kendra Lord, T-Mobile's director of geospatial engineering and analytics, where she likened 5G home internet availability to the number of seats on a plane. "It's not only the number of households that we believe could get [T-Mobile 5G Home Internet]," she said, "but how many within a given sector we could say yes to." A spokesperson corroborated that mindset when I contacted T-Mobile for further insight. "There are still many households that do not qualify for Home Internet yet, even though they may get 5G on their mobile device -- and that's intentional," I was told via email. "Our fixed wireless Home Internet runs on the extra capacity on our wireless network. In some areas, we have extra capacity on the network, but in others, we don't. So, we allocate access to Home Internet on a sector-by-sector, home-by-home basis." In other words, it's entirely possible that I could get 5G cellular service in my home, and my next-door neighbor might even have T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. However, my address might not be serviceable for that home internet product because of the capacity limits for my area's cellular coverage. Is home internet just a side hustle for mobile carriers? T-Mobile, whose gateway device is shown here, includes equipment in the monthly fee as well. Amanda Kooser I was tempted to think that getting into the ISP game was a lark for these companies. Moore considers another layer at play. "Mobility is the core business for T-Mobile, and for the most part, it's the core business for Verizon," said Moore. "But T-Mobile, in particular, is telling Wall Street that in addition to selling [home internet] services to businesses, it's also saying it's increasingly pushing into rural America. I don't think it's just a PR stunt. All of the numbers support Moore's assessment. In its Q1 2025 report, T-Mobile proudly announced it had reached nearly 7 million customers. That's an impressive number coming less than four years after the product's nationwide launch. Overall, T-Mobile has been aggressive in its pitch. In 2022, it began its Internet Freedom push, which leaned into Americans' dissatisfaction with ISPs and encouraged people to "break up with Big Internet" by trying T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. It continues to seek consumers' attention, recently launching an aggressive summer campaign. Verizon also has been ambitious with its offers while ringing less of an "ISPs are evil" note. That's probably because Verizon Fios -- the company's fiber-optic internet service -- is an ISP and one of the few that's regularly highly rated. In its case, 5G home internet seems less of a blow against "Big Internet" and more of a play to extend the Verizon home internet game beyond the Northeast (Verizon Fios' playground) and out to the rest of the country. At the very least, 5G home internet has succeeded in being a convenient and reliable way to get online, especially for rural customers. So the next time you ask, "Why can't I get 5G home internet even though I have 5G on my phone at home?" I advise you to hang tight. Both carriers are actively optimizing their networks for mobile first and home internet second, in a dynamic process that changes month to month. 2025 could be your year to try 5G for your home's broadband connection.
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Tom's Guide
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T-Mobile vs. Verizon — here's why we updated our pick for the best phone carrier
T-Mobile and Verizon seem to be playing a game of leapfrog when it comes to our best phone carrier rankings. One of the wireless phone service providers will make a change — maybe to its assortment of data plans, maybe to the various perks it offers — and vault ahead of the other in our estimation. Then, the other company will respond, and our ratings will change once again. Well, it's T-Mobile's turn at the head of the line. In our most recent report on phone carriers, the Uncarrier has overtaken Verizon as our pick for the place to turn for your wireless phone service. Picking the best phone carrier boils down to more than just who offers the lowest monthly rate for the most data — though attractively priced cell phone plans are a big part of the discussion. But there's also customer service, coverage and network performance, and the perks that come with getting your service from a specific carrier. At the moment, T-Mobile ticks more of those boxes. Here's why we reshuffled our phone carrier rankings. T-Mobile wouldn't seem to be a likely candidate to climb up the phone rankings after it introduced its Experience More and Experience Beyond plans earlier this year. While certainly fine options for unlimited data, they're on the pricey side — a single line of Experience More costs $85/month while Experience Beyond is $100. You'll find cheaper options at both AT&T and Verizon among the larger carriers. More to the point, the arrival of those new T-Mobile plans came at the expense of some of my favorite offerings at the Un-carrier. Plans like Go5G Plus may still be in operation for existing customers, but you won't see those plans on T-Mobile's website anymore. So how'd T-Mobile pull off its rise up the rankings? I think it comes down to three factors. Experience More and Experience Beyond may be on the pricier end of the spectrum for the best cell phone plans. But they come loaded with perks, starting with a five-year price guarantee, an increasingly popular benefit from phone carriers at a time when prices seem to be rising all around us. But there are other noteworthy perks as well. Looking at just the Experience More plan, you get free subscriptions to Netflix and Apple TV Plus included in your plan. Considering how prices for streaming services seem to constantly be on the rise, it's good to have those folded into your price-locked wireless plan. You get 15GB of high-speed data when you travel in Mexico and Canada and 5GB in 215-plus other countries. And you can upgrade your phone every two years. Perks are even more generous with Experience Beyond, as you'd imagine for the more expensive plan. There, you can upgrade your phone every year. You get larger data allotments when traveling to other countries. And Hulu joins the mix of free streaming services included with your T-Mobile subscription. Earlier this summer, T-Mobile dangled another benefit toward its customers — a year of DoorDash's DashPass, promising no delivery fees and reduced service fees when you order food or groceries. Customers have until August 8 to claim that perk. Current TV ads from T-Mobile make a lot of hay out of the fact that the carrier's network is now rated tops in the country. That's based on findings from third-party test firm Ookla, which says that T-Mobile won its Speedtest Award for best mobile network in the U.S. for testing covering the first two quarters of 2025. Ookla isn't the only testing firm to sing T-Mobile's praises. In Opensignal's January 2025 report on network testing, T-Mobile swept the overall experience categories and also posted wins for 5G download speeds and 5G coverage. (Verizon tops the overall coverage category for Opensignal and shares honors for reliability with T-Mobile.) It's worth noting that a third firm, Rootmetrics, recognizes AT&T as the best overall network, while also praising Verizon's 5G speed and reliability for its report covering the first half of the year. That same report does recognize T-Mobile for having the highest 5G availability among the major carriers. This coming week, T-Mobile throws the switch on its satellite-to-mobile service. Starting July 23, a network of 650-plus satellites will offer texting support when there's no cellular connectivity. The service is supposed to work out of the box with 75% of the devices currently in use on T-Mobile's network. Data-based connectivity follows in October, which is the same month that T-Mobile expands emergency texting to any mobile customer from any carrier who's got a compatible phone. For T-Mobile customers, the service is included on Experience Beyond plans and is a $10/month add-on for other plans. I don't want to give the impression that Verizon's slip down to No. 2 in our rankings reflects any backsliding by that carrier. Really, the rankings change reflects the new things going on at T-Mobile more than anything. Indeed, Verizon remains a formidable contender and is the carrier that I turn to for my wireless service. That's a reflection of how strong Verizon's signal is where I live and work, but there are other factors keeping me in the Verizon fold as well. I like the flexibility of Verizon's unlimited plans, which come in three different tiers starting with the $65/month Unlimited Welcome offering. Unlike T-Mobile, you can mix and match different Verizon plans if you have more than one line, so that some lines can turn to Unlimited Welcome while others enjoy the better perks of either Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate. I wish Verizon would follow T-Mobile's lead and add complimentary streaming services with its plans. Instead, like other perks, those are $10/month add-ons. The benefit to this approach is that you can drop extras when you don't need them, such as a travel benefit covering data use when you're overseas, that's of little use if you're not on the go. Even at $10/month, these perks save you money, as I'm able to add on the Disney Plus bundle at a $7 savings each month over what I'd pay for that streaming package without Verizon. And, as I noted up above, Verizon gets high marks for its coverage from testing firms. Rootmetrics ranks Verizon tops in most categories surrounding 5G service, while Opensignal says the carrier has the best overall coverage experience in the U.S. The point is, it's a pretty tightly contested fight between the top carriers in our rankings. T-Mobile may be the choice at the moment, but if I know one thing, its rivals will be ready to fire back very soon.
