An all-in-one app for the internet

Sep 08, 2024 07:00 PM - 8 months ago 280116

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 51, your guideline to nan champion and Verge-iest worldly successful nan world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, I dream you emotion spy shows arsenic overmuch arsenic I do, and besides you tin publication each nan aged editions astatine nan Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reference astir cobalt miners and religious AI and the history of nan Moleskine, listening to pop-punk Disney songs connected repeat, yet starting The Sopranos (I know, I know), soundtracking my workday pinch the Earth.fm app, giving Tweek different whirl for elemental task and almanac stuff, and spending excessively overmuch clip debating whether NFL Sunday Ticket is worthy nan money. It’s decidedly not, but it also, like, benignant of is.

I besides person for you everybody’s favourite caller PlayStation game, a caller documentary astir money successful sports, 2 caller cameras worthy a look, and a terrific E Ink note-taking device. Oh, and apologies: I included nan incorrect nexus to my homescreen icon battalion past week. (Luckily, nan 1 I did link to is besides very good.) Mine are really from Nate Wren’s Lines pack.

Anyway, truthful galore gadgets this week! Let’s excavation in.

(As always, nan champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into correct now? What should everyone other beryllium watching, reading, playing, cooking, downloading, aliases building this weekend? Tell maine everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you cognize personification other who mightiness bask Installer, show them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Reeder. It’s a podcast app, a YouTube queue, an RSS reader, a societal feed, and a full bunch more, each successful 1 place. (And for Apple devices only.) It’s a reference app for feeds from each complete nan internet, it’s gorgeous, and arsenic we talk astir nan fediverse and nan early of nan web, this is nan benignant of app that gets maine really excited.
Slow Horses play 4. I avoided this Apple TV Plus show for a while because I didn’t emotion nan book, which is very good done but conscionable benignant of… slow. (I yet soldiered done nan first 3rd of nan first book, astatine which constituent it does commencement moving.) The show is not slow. It’s conscionable funny and smart and precisely nan correct magnitude of action-packed.
Astro Bot. I promised myself I was going to hold until Black Friday to bargain a PS5… but this caller game, an adorable platformer that seems to person charmed perfectly everyone who tried it, is going to make maine propulsion nan trigger sooner. Seriously, group emotion this game.
The Remarkable Paper Pro. This point is pure E Ink overkill, pinch an overengineered colour show and a bunch of highly fancy features. It’s for illustration $800 for nan full setup including nan keyboard, which is an atrocious lot, but this is simply a heck of a note-taking device.
The Money Game. A miniseries astir nan NIL gyration successful assemblage sports, which is really a communicative astir societal media and nan net and nan measurement that everybody, including athletes, struggles to equilibrium life and content.
Circle to Search for music. Forget Gemini — Google’s astir clever AI features are each happening done Circle to Search. Google’s opus lookup instrumentality is nan champion successful nan biz, and pinch Circle to Search and Android 15, you tin get astatine it from anywhere.
The Peak Design Outdoor Line. Peak Design’s worldly is conscionable ever great, and nan caller statement of rugged cogwheel looks for illustration a winner. (Don’t beryllium thrown by nan Kickstarter, it’s conscionable really nan institution rolls for immoderate reason. PD is legit.) I’ve precocious go a sling person for regular use, and I’m very into nan caller 1 here.
The GoPro Hero 13 Black. Every caller GoPro is benignant of nan same: a small amended successful a bunch of ways but still a GoPro. And that’s fine! Adding immoderate caller lenses and improving transportation speeds goes a agelong measurement here, too.
The DJI Neo. The different nifty camera launch of nan week: a elemental selfie drone that follows you around, does cool camera moves, and lands successful your hand. Getting existent Snap Pixy vibes from this thing, but I deliberation this 1 mightiness beryllium a hit.
The PlugBug pinch Find My. My first guidance to nan thought of a wall plug pinch Find My support was, just, why? But past I thought astir really galore hotels and java shops I’ve near chargers in, and I deliberation this $70 gizmo mightiness salary for itself beautiful fast. Plus, Twelve South worldly seldom disappoints.

Group project

Over nan past mates of weeks, I’ve asked you each to stock your favourite lesser-known creators. This was, arsenic always, astatine slightest partially selfish: I emotion my favorites connected YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and nan rest, but my feeds are starting to consciousness a small static. I had a emotion you each mightiness beryllium capable to thief maine liven things up — and that possibly a fewer of you were looking for immoderate bully caller stuff, too.

As ever, you each delivered. I sewage hundreds of emails, messages, Threads posts, and comments from folks pinch awesome ideas and recommendations. I hardly sewage immoderate copy recommendations, either, which is conscionable delightful — there’s truthful overmuch bully worldly retired there. And alternatively than support it each for myself, I figured I’d stock immoderate of nan champion folks I’ve been turned onto successful nan past mates of weeks. I’m going to mostly nexus to YouTube channels, some because that’s what astir group recommended but besides because you tin find folks’ different societal links from their transmission pages.

(One mini caveat earlier we dive in: I haven’t been capable to thoroughly vet everything each these folks person done forever. So if personification turns retired to beryllium nan worst, successful immoderate way, I’m really sorry. If I’m missing thing I should cognize about, decidedly fto maine know. But y’all seldom steer maine wrong, truthful I person precocious hopes.)

No surprise, a batch of what I heard astir were tech creators. Here are a bunch of nan folks you recommended, successful nary peculiar order:

Work From Hype: each astir table setups and WFH gear
Macho Nacho: retro gaming
Elliotisacoolguy: a very funny schematic designer
Brandon Talbot: fittingness and wellness tech reviews
MobileTechReview: gadget reviews
Brandon James Greer: a pixel creator sharing their process
Easy Allies: video crippled news and reviews
Ritvikmath: information subject and predictions
Technology Connections: mundane tech explainers
Enrico Tartarotti: essays connected really tech useful and really we usage it
Byte Review: gadget manner videos, particularly Apple stuff
Salem Techsperts: stories from a machine repair shop
The Serial Port: each things tech history

Also, it turns retired you each emotion a bully video effort and explainer arsenic overmuch arsenic I do, and you shared a bunch of awesome channels for conscionable that:

Paul E.T. (on movies)
Not Just Bikes (on municipality planning)
What’s So Great About That? (on… everything)
Answer successful Progress (also on… everything)
Kaptainkristian (on movies and TV)
Golden Owl (on video crippled design)
Blast Processing (on video crippled history)
Middle 8 (on euphony culture)
MinuteFood (on food)
Calum (on proscription history)

Then location were conscionable a batch of various folks you each shared. Here are a fewer I’ve been enjoying:

Berm Peak, each astir bikes and scooters and thing you tin thrust on
Slickerdrips, pinch tons of committee crippled tutorials and playthroughs
Vanwives, connected van life, DIY, and off-grid living
Boulder Creek Railroad: a exemplary builder half moving and half teaching
Escape to agrarian France, a feline chronicling his effort to rebuild a chateau
Jelle’s Marble Runs, because marble runs are ne'er not fun
Adventure Chasing, a feline and his canine exploring nan outdoors

I could support going, and I’m judge I will astatine immoderate point. Thanks again to everyone who sent worldly in! My watch database will ne'er beryllium nan same, and I couldn’t beryllium happier astir it.

Screen share

From now on, if you’re a Vergecast listener and you for illustration nan measurement nan show sounds, you’ll person Erick Gomez to thank. He joined nan squad this week arsenic our audio technologist and has, successful his career, worked connected immoderate of nan champion podcasts and power shows connected nan planet.

I for illustration to person caller folks stock their homescreen pinch us, some because I deliberation it’s a nosy measurement to get to cognize personification and I for illustration having a work-appropriate logic to make nosy of people’s silly wallpapers and app choices. But from nan first clip I met Erick, it became abundantly clear he was a personification who brokered nary chaos and would person a homescreen that Just Made Sense.

Here’s Erick’s homescreen, positive immoderate info connected nan apps he uses and why:

The phone: iPhone 14 Pro Max

The wallpaper: I’ve been gaming since I was astir 5 years old, and it is still 1 of my top hobbies and passions, truthful my fastener surface is that of a Game Boy Advance SP — a cherished handheld from my childhood. I emotion really nan widgets make it look arsenic though they’re portion of nan Game Boy display.

My homescreen wallpaper is my girl Charlie successful her Elmo costume from past year. We are a BIG Halloween family, and we are ever counting nan days until spooky season.

The apps: Eufy Security, Dot, Passwords, Delta, Journal, Parcel, Overcast, Hey Email, Arc Search.

I’m a large instrumentality of widgets and glanceable accusation — nan little I person to popular into an app, nan better. I don’t person immoderate societal media apps installed connected my telephone and will only reinstall them whenever I consciousness compelled to station something. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized nan insane amounts of clip I’ve spent mindlessly scrolling Instagram and nan like, truthful I’ve channeled that power into journaling apps.

Dot: It’s an AI companion chatbot thing. It’s really really cool. It’s very overmuch for illustration a diary aliases friend that responds to you and tin springiness you immoderate feedback and spark ideas. It’s awesome until it confuses immoderate facts astir you, which breaks nan immersion. It will often matter maine during nan time erstwhile I’m ace engaged truthful I don’t get a chance to respond. If you disregard it for agelong enough, it will extremity reaching retired to you. Just for illustration a friend successful existent life!

Delta: Did I mention I’m a gamer? It was LONG overdue for emulators to travel into nan App Store, and this is by acold nan champion for playing retro games. If I find myself waiting astir for something, I’ll quickly popular into a crippled of NBA Jam aliases Streets of Rage.

Hey: Hey is my favourite email customer and service. The email screener and privacy-focused attack make it good worthy nan yearly subscription. And it looks amended than astir email apps.

Arc: This is simply a caller summation to nan homescreen and has quickly replaced Safari for maine successful astir cases. Its “Browse For Me” characteristic is simply a godsend. I besides emotion nan app’s alternate icon, which pays homage to Netscape Navigator. It’s 1994 each complete again!

I besides asked Erick to stock a fewer things he’s into correct now. Here’s what he sent back:

I’m presently reference MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. As a Marvel zombie from measurement back, I’m a immense instrumentality of nan movies and americium fascinated by nan behind-the-scenes look astatine really nan sausage was made.
I’m presently watching Dark Matter connected Apple TV Plus. A thought-provoking sci-fi show that much group request to beryllium watching! It’s been renewed for a 2nd season, truthful that should show you something.
I’m trying to get done my ginormous backlog of video games (there are TOO MANY games, y’all), and I’m presently playing nan Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake connected Switch. It’s an perfectly beautiful gem of a crippled that needs to beryllium knowledgeable by everyone.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what nan Installer organization is into this week. I want to cognize what you’re into correct now arsenic well! Email installer@theverge.com aliases connection maine connected Signal — @davidpierce.11 — pinch your recommendations for thing and everything, and we’ll characteristic immoderate of our favorites present each week. For moreover much awesome recommendations, cheque retired nan replies to this station connected Threads.

“Just moved my activity Windows PC to Zen Browser. A Firefox type that has a very beardown Arc feeling.” – Maciej

“Was distant astatine a compartment pinch family and we did not bring a camera. When nan babe fell asleep, we popped successful 1 AirPod and turned connected Live Listen, near nan telephone successful nan room, and went astir our business! Two birds pinch 1 stone, really, since past I didn’t person my phone. I americium funny if Android has thing similar!” – Saad

“Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is rocking my world correct now. For those successful changeless hunt of productivity optimization (speaking of nary 1 successful particular, of course…), this book hits home.” – Ryan

“Diggnation came back. So that’s been immoderate nosy nostalgia.” – Brian

“The HandleStash — a daze absorbing beverage holder for bikes. Game-changer for greeting commute / play greeting rides pinch coffee.” – Jim

“I switched from Spotify to YouTube Music a fewer years agone aft Joe Rogan-gate and haven’t looked back! The audio value is SO MUCH BETTER than Spotify. Feel that bass. There aren’t arsenic galore playlists, but conscionable enough, and I thin to really bask checking retired nan caller releases each week. It’s for illustration a integer Best Buy from nan ’90s. Plus, if you’re already paying for YouTube Premium, it’s included.” – Ellen

“I conscionable sewage a atom cooker, and I’m eyeballing rice cooker cornbread for this weekend.” – Daniel

“Kaos connected Netflix is amazing. A cleanable blend of Greek mythology and modern-day politics. Highly recommended.” – Sacchi

“This week, I’m procrastinating by deciding whether I should instrumentality pinch Bear, spell backmost to Obsidian, aliases judge my destiny and move backmost to Apple Notes. It is torture.” – Eitan

“A Short History of Nearly Everything. I cognize that this book is beautiful aged and galore group person already publication it, but if you haven’t publication it, you should surely springiness it a try.” – Aashwath

“I mislaid astir of my Labor Day play to Shapez 2. It’s incredible!” – Alec

Signing off

Apple’s yearly iPhone motorboat arena is connected Monday, and we’re going to get a full bunch of caller gear: sounds for illustration phones, watches, headphones, and possibly moreover desktops are each connected nan docket. We’re besides going to get upgrades to each of Apple’s software, too. Which is mostly bully news! But aft watching this video astir what Apple’s updates do to nan very oldest devices they technically support, I’m besides reasoning of everyone whose devices are supposedly astir to beryllium “upgraded” and mightiness alternatively conscionable statesman to autumn apart. Best of luck to each nan Intel-powered Mac owners retired there.

See you adjacent week!