David Imel is taking over a chunk of The Verge’s reviews beat for six weeks, according to an announcement by Imel on the site. He said he is filling in for senior reviewer Allison Johnson and will be covering new products from Apple, Google and Samsung during the stint.
The assignment matters mostly to the people who read reviews before buying phones, cameras and other expensive rectangles. Imel’s stated areas of obsession line up with the hardware beat: computational photography, analog photography, protocols, emoji and linguistics. That is a fairly specific bundle, which at least suggests readers may get fewer vibes-only camera takes and more attention to what image pipelines and social systems actually do.
Imel also said he will host a subscriber-only AMA at 11AM PT, or 2PM ET, on July 10. The session is pitched around the subjects he expects to cover during the fill-in run, including photography, protocols, ambient computing and emoji.
Who is filling in
Imel describes himself as a technology reporter and co-host of the Waveform Podcast, the show associated with Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD. The Verge’s author bio says he has covered the technology industry since 2007 and previously worked as an engineer.
His earlier work for The Verge includes camera reviews, coverage of the Switch 2 launch event, and appearances on The Vergecast and Version History podcasts, according to Imel’s announcement. He also said he previously quit an engineering job at Intel to lead reviews at Android Authority from 2016 to 2021.
Imel said his interest in tech coverage dates back to seeing the first iPhone introduced at MacWorld during a school trip. He said he bought an Android phone the following year. In high school, he said Microsoft paid him $100 to place one of his Android apps in the Windows Phone store. Windows Phone, as the historical record keeps reminding Microsoft, did not become the third mobile platform it wanted to be.
What readers should expect
Imel said his work often tests the gap between what companies claim their products offer and how people use them. That is the correct place to start for consumer tech reviews, where marketing language regularly tries to outrun the hardware, the software and sometimes the laws of physics.
For the next six weeks, The Verge readers should expect Imel’s name on coverage tied to new releases from major consumer tech companies, with Johnson absent from that role during the period he described. The announcement did not specify which products he will review or the exact end date for the fill-in assignment.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
