Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where host Nilay Patel discusses the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay brings in Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert and news editor Chaim Gartenberg to discuss the features added in Apple’s iOS update to 14.5, Apple and other tech companies’ skyrocketing earnings despite the ongoing pandemic, and how the global semiconductor shortage is affecting the tech industry.

Later in the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman runs through the recent developments in podcasting platforms. At an event last week, Apple announced a new subscription feature within Apple Podcasts for creators to offer to their listeners. Ashley discusses the audio product developments announced this week from competitor companies like Spotify, Facebook, and SiriusXM, and what this may mean for podcast creators.

There’s a whole lot more in between all of that — like Samsung’s newly announced Galaxy Book Pros and the upcoming trial between Epic Games and Apple — so listen here or in your preferred podcast player to hear the full discussion.

Stories discussed in this episode:

• People who are vaccinated don’t need to wear masks during many outdoor activities, CDC says
• Social media platforms become triage centers as India struggles with a COVID-19 surge
• The first problem was vaccine supply. Now, it’s demand.
• Officials lift pause on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine
• iOS 14.5 is out now with new Face ID mask features and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency
• Why Apple’s new privacy feature is such a big deal
• Apple’s iPhone 12 and Mac sales skyrocket despite ongoing pandemic
• Here’s who Apple and Epic are calling to testify in next week’s trial
• Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013
• Apple fined $12M by Russian regulator over App Store monopoly abuse
• Can Apple get you to pay for podcasts?
• Spotify launches podcast subscriptions, but you can’t subscribe in-app
• Spotify’s miniplayer for Facebook launches today
• Facebook is building its own in-app podcast player
• Clubhouse is partnering with the NFL for draft week programming
• SiriusXM acquires Roman Mars’ 99% Invisible and a bigger stake in the podcasting world
• Spotify is raising prices for lots of its plans
• Spotify premium subscriber count increases 21 percent to 158 million
• Spotify is okay with Joe Rogan telling 21-year-olds not to get vaccinated
• Samsung’s new Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360 are lightweight laptops with OLED screens
• Samsung announces a cheaper entry-level Galaxy Book with no OLED
• Samsung’s Galaxy Book Odyssey introduces Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 Ti
• Elon Musk says Tesla made ‘significant mistakes’ with solar roof project