Feature

The Verge, Year One: our big stories, February 2012 to April 2012

By Laura June 11.16.2012

This month marks the one year anniversary of The Verge. In online publishing, you tend to spend most of your time moving forward, and we’re no different. For the entire month of November, however, we’ll be taking a look at some of our favorite work from the past year, to celebrate, just a bit. One of the areas we’re most proud of is in our long form features. We knew from the earliest planning days of The Verge that we wanted to invest the time, money, blood, sweat, and love that is required to publish longform content on the web. We’ve stretched ourselves to think differently about the kind of articles which can and should appear here, and we’ve worked hard to make sure that the photography, text, graphics, layout, and (of course) our videos all work together to bring you an experience that is truly unique on the web.

These are some of our favorite feature stories from the first year that The Verge was alive. Enjoy.

Note: Check out the first three months here!

Research, no motion: How the BlackBerry CEOs lost an empire

Jesse Hicks February 21, 2012

RIM, once a giant in the smartphone game, finds itself falling behind and struggling for relevancy in a quickly evolving landscape. How did it happen?

At MWC, carriers wage a sorry war on the free and open internet

Chris Ziegler March 6, 2012

Chris Ziegler hits net neutrality head-on at the world's largest mobile show.

SXSW: David Carr and the Curator's Code

Joseph Flatley March 12, 2012

Is there a proper way to blog, reblog, and beyond?

Homeless Hotspots: the best, worst, smartest, dumbest part of SXSW

Laura June March 13, 2012

A social media stunt at a social media event turns sour.

Sparrow takes flight: how a startup built the Gmail app Google couldn’t

Ellis Hamburger March 14, 2012

Can someone fix Gmail's nagging annoyances? A tiny startup tries to do just that.

Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier

Ellis Hamburger March 29, 2012

A novel idea: a drawing app for the iPad.

The Verge interview: David Carr on curation, crowdsourcing, and the future of journalism

Jesse Hicks April 3, 2012

The New York Times writer discusses his craft with Jesse Hicks.

Don't start a band: why everyone should be making video games

Joshua Kopstein April 5, 2012

Video games as the next thing all the cool kids are — or should be — doing.

Instagram is the best, Instagram is the worst

Chris Ziegler & Dieter Bohn April 9, 2012

Chris and Dieter argue about a much loved and very popular photography application.

The best stylus for iPad: we review the hits and misses

Ellis Hamburger April 10, 2012

Ellis Hamburger's most popular feature to date: the quest for an iPad stylus.

'Akira' creator Katsuhiro Otomo exhibits his life's work

Jeff Blagdon April 13, 2012

The famous Japanese artist in a retrospective.

Paper is like Instagram for drawing

Paul Miller April 13, 2012

Paul Miller writes about his love for the drawing application, Paper.

Filters vs. failure: Instagram's perfect messes could spell trouble for creativity

Joshua Kopstein April 27, 2012

The Instagram debate continues.

NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise: the NYC fly-by in pictures

David Pierce April 27, 2012

A photo essay of the Shuttle Enterprise as it returns home.

I'm leaving the internet for a year

Paul Miller April 30, 2012

On the last day of April, Paul Miller made a controversial announcement: he left the internet, apparently for a year.