Allison Johnson

Allison is a senior reviewer covering smartphones and wireless carriers for The Verge. Previously, she wrote about digital cameras and mobile photography at DPReview. She’s a small phone enthusiast, home barista in training, and a roller derby retiree. You can find her on Threads most hours of the day at @allisonjo1.

Allison JohnsonSep 30

Frictionmaxxing our way through the AI agent boom.

I chatted with 9to5Google’s Will Sattelberg about Meta’s AI agent Muse, the labor of opening a website, and why calling your gas company might actually be the spice of life. Is the agentic AI era all about automating away “the ins and outs of living,” as one astute Verge reader put it? Is there a happier, carefree life waiting at the end of your to-do list, or just more stuff to do? It’s always an excellent time catching up with Will and spiraling about the pain points of modern living in good company.

Allison JohnsonSep 24

Hot Jimothy summer is over; now it’s “three bowls of water” fall.

The Jimothy craze has died down up here in Seattle just in time for a new Weird Internet Thing: three mysterious bowls of water on the walking path around Green Lake. It started with an innocent question on r/Seattle: what’s up with the bowls? Commenters turned it into a bit, because we can’t resist a bit, which inspired an on-the-scene report by City Cast Seattle. Spoiler alert: it’s probably just water for dogs, but I like the mysterious “geese” theory.

Meta’s AI agent is a cute little guy who’s great at spending my money

Muse did a decent job with my to-do list, but boy is it handy with a credit card.

Allison JohnsonSep 23

Allison JohnsonSep 18

Another Clicks Communicator update.

Clicks is offering another updated look at the much-awaited Communicator and a couple of pleasant surprises for those who have already pre-ordered the device: more RAM, a slightly bigger battery, and Android 17 included as standard.

It’s expected to ship in December to customers, and this video gives a look at some of the software features Clicks has been working on.

The iPhone 18 Pro: an ambitious new camera on the margins

The Pro camera’s major upgrade offers minor image quality improvements — whether or not you know what an f-stop is.

Allison JohnsonSep 16

Allison JohnsonSep 10

This Qi2 ring charger has a built-in fan.

Charging your phone wirelessly can get mighty toasty. ESR’s new CryoBoost 25W charging pad has a clever solution: a fan built right into the charging puck. The company claims the design allows it to charge an iPhone 17 Pro halfway up to 28 percent faster than the official Apple MagSafe 25W charger. Maybe I’m no fun, but once you’re plugging a cable in to run a fan while you charge your phone why not… just use wired charging?

Update: We’ve seen chargers with fans (and some with fanless cooling too) before; let us know if you’re using one with this type of design and if they live up to the sales pitch.