Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 149, your guide to the finest and Verge-iest material in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, blessed It Actually Feels Like Fall Now At Least In My Neighborhood), and additionally you can peruse all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been study concerning Demis Hassabis and computer chips and permafrost, enjoying the archetypal episodes of Machine Gods,filming the next period of Version History (pet season!), seeing You Can See Everythingand afterward study and listening to entirely everything concerning it, painstakingly updating all the material in my 1Password, making small documents alongside Tiny Little Office, observing Conan O’Brien own Subway Takesthe way he formerly owned Hot Ones,finally getting correctly fine at CapCut, and blasting the soundtrack to The Mandalorian and Grogu all workday long.
I additionally have for you a new AI assistant, the most Duo-y new app for the iPhone Duo, my hunt for the next awesome browser, and much more. Let’s do this.
(As always, the finest part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you playing / study / observing / listening to / modding alongside Claude this week? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you cognize person alternatively who power bask Installer, onward it to them and inform them to subscribe here.)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Obviously, Grand Theft Auto VI is the biggest equivalent publish of the year, but a new COD is continually a big deal. This one doesn’t audio akin several expansive reinvention of the form, but fairly an equal additional playable, equal additional mighty type of what works. I was particularly enthusiastic to comprehend that the run manner is a huge betterment this time.
- The Blink Mini 4K. Ring cameras get a lot additional shine, but Amazon’s cheaper brand additionally makes several beautiful fine stuff. This one’s part of a entire new lineup of devices, but $80 for a 4K camera alongside two-way audio and plentifulness of astute safety features? Not a bad deal.
- JustWatch TV. As streaming services get incessantly additional expensive, I’m starting to bail on several paid services and expend additional period on the liberated ones. JustWatch’s new assistance is amazingly well-stocked out of the entrance — I doubtful they’ve been observing what group hunt for, and making several astute satisfied bets.
- Claude Duet. Here’s Anthropic’s answer to Muse, Instinct, and Dots. Duet seems to be focused on assisting you get material done at activity by making to-do lists, coordinating meetings, and compiling data for you. Still waitlist-only correct now, but it’ll be engaging to see if it’s as thirsty for notice as Muse is.
- Wildwood. Before you see this gorgeous, by all accounts outstanding stop-motion movie, peruse everything you can concerning how it was made. Not a pixel of generative AI in sight, fair an unbelievable amount of difficult activity and individual creativity. Humans rock, artists rock, this movie rocks.
- The Teenage Engineering EP-35. When you go to buy this thing, it’s technically called “Life is fantastic!” Which, sure. This thing is a power division powered, multi-input, multi-instrument amp alongside many of effects. As always, it is extremely cool-looking. I have no use for it, and I desire it fairly badly.
- Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. Nintendo basically hasn’t changed the equation current since Wii Sports from two decades ago, and I have entirely no issue alongside that. Anything that gives me that super-active tennis and bowling (plus volleyball, boxing, thumb wrestling, and more) is a win in my book.
- Delta 2.0. The next brace of weeks are going to be complete of engaging app updates as developers try to fig out what to create of Apple’s foldable phone. But among the finest is already available; Delta can now beautiful successfully cosplay as any handheld console ever. (Plus the Sega Genesis!)
- Kindle Plus. This is mostly fair a rebranding of Kindle Unlimited, but Amazon put a brace of engaging new features in its $12 monthly study subscription, including AI-narrated audiobooks. I am dubious of those, but enthusiastic concerning expanding admission to audiobooks. We’ll see.
The worst news of the week current in the Installerverse is that Arc is going away. This was evidently coming: The Browser Company bailed on Arc two years ago in favor of the additional AI-centric Dia, and Arc has been in care manner always since. But now it’s not fair being ignored, it’s going away. By Christmas, you won’t equal be capable to use the app anymore.
So now a lot of us are stuck looking for another browser. There are a myriad new ones out there, many of them location between “heavily inspired by Arc” and “a straightforward copy of Arc I made in Codex this morning.” I need to test a lot of them. I don’t cognize exactly anywhere I’ll district yet, but I figured I’d portion a bunch of the ones I’m looking at:
- Dia. It has lately gotten a lot of Arc’s finest features, and several of the AI material is beautiful cool. (And mercifully uncomplicated to rotate off.) The Browser Company’s notice to imaginative item remains the finest in the biz, so I’m starting here.
- Zen. A total ripoff of Arc, and I average that as a compliment. Zen runs on Mozilla’s Gecko motor fairly than Chromium, which is a win for anyone looking for a small little Google power in their lives. Last period I tried Zen it was a small buggy and unpolished, but I’ve heard it’s arrive a lengthy way.
- Orion. I am a dedicated and extremely blessed Kagi user, and I’ve heard fine things concerning how uncomplicated and resource-friendly the company’s browser is. Given the seamless Kagi integration, I kind of anticipation this one wins for me.
- Vivaldi. I used Vivaldi for a while, and I affection how customizable it is. I eventually got it set up exactly the way I wanted it. But correct next to all that customization is fair a emotion of fiddliness, and I couldn’t fairly get comfortable in the browser. Might try again.
- Helium. The contrary of Vivaldi, this is a excellent minimalist, no-frills browser. It’s likely what I need, honestly.
- Firefox. Its confusing stance on AI aside, I akin a lot of the latest scheme and characteristic choices Firefox has made. I’m additionally intrigued by several of the Firefox forks, akin Waterfox and Floorp, which provision it equal additional customization options.
- Brave. Brave has continually felt too dense to me, and akin it’s continually trying to convince me to use additional of its own proprietary (and frequently underpowered) features. But it seems to continually win in privacy comparisons, so I power need to provision it a go again.
On mobile, it’s easy. Quiche is my favorite iOS browser by a mile. Arc was never awesome on Android, so I’m betting most of us never switched there in the archetypal place.
There are additionally the default browsers, of course, akin Chrome, Safari, and Edge. But all of those browsers continues to neglect me in one way or another, and so my hunt continues. If you’ve established your browser of the future, inform me all concerning it! Otherwise, I’ll study rear current periodically through my journey.
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I desire to cognize what you’re into correct now as well! Email [email protected] or communication me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — alongside your recommendations for item and everything, and we’ll characteristic several of our favorites current all week. For equal additional awesome recommendations, inspect out the replies to this article on Threads and this article on Bluesky.
“Youth is an complete SCREAM on HBO Max at the moment.” — Jonathan
“Todoist has a stellar integration alongside Siri AI that has eventually made me completely commit to fair using it If you delete Reminders, Todoist becomes the default on Siri AI and you can add a to-do to any project alongside tag AND location assistance (using Apple Maps saved locations akin residence and work!). The finest part is that it all plant WITHOUT having to say ‘... in todoist’ at the end of all query!” — Sajishnu
“Apple added Sound Glow to existing HomePod models and it’s fair kinda fun to observe the ray on top of HomePod glow and flash. So I’m doing that alongside several of my favorite playlists.” — Connor
“I’m study a publish called How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler since I desire to get improved at inspection and study for understanding vs. engaging essential information.” — Rhoades
“My partner took a train journey up the west shoreline and reported that no small than four distinct group asked her if her 2024 Samsung Galaxy Z-Flip 6 was the new iPhone Duo.” — Nicholas
“I lately peruse Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske, and it was excellent. What if med academy was magical, but everyone was motionless sleeping alongside all another and stressing complete pupil loans? Then an unexpected deceased build shows up during finals.” — Emmett
“I got a Framework Laptop 13 Pro operating Ubuntu final month, and I’m really blessed alongside it. (I haven’t done item alongside Linux in perchance 20 years — it’s arrive a lengthy way!) So now I’m trying to see if I can substitute Capture One alongside Darktable. If I can, that would interrupt my final tie to macOS, and I’ll substitute my iMac alongside a Framework Desktop.” — Morgan
“Exploring the new Nektropos Castle dungeon in EverQuest Legends. The equivalent has been specified a nostalgia trip rear to 1999, but new satisfied in an ancient equivalent is a bizarre delight.” — Alex
“Setting up Navidrome and having Claude build me a conclusive ‘Songs From the Black Hole’ playlist from my Weezer MP3 collection. (It’s harder than archetypal appears: is ‘Lisa’ track 12 or not!?)” — Micheal
“Best Buy had a beautiful insane agreement on a Bambu A1 Mini, so we got my 12 twelvemonth old son a 3D printer for his birthday. It’s amazing how uncomplicated it was to put out a apparently absolutely exact PLA print, compared to fear stories from older printers.” — Jeff
Last week, my spouse and I went car shopping. Our scheme was fair to run a bunch of cars — we knew we needed item alongside three rows, and really had no cognition alongside any of them — and afterward go home. Somehow, a few hours later, we were the arrogant and slightly bewildered owners of a new Kia Carnival.
So far the car has been great, but wow are there a lot of weird tech ideas in cars now. I’m fine alongside CarPlay and Android Auto. I dislike how much everything has rotate into a touchscreen. But I’m most thrown by how many features of my car now be in a companion app. How do we awareness concerning this? I nearly young female whenever I had no idea what to do concerning the inspect motor light.
Anyway, I’m a minivan dad now. I think I’m fine alongside it. Send car tips! Send minivan tips! Send help! See you next week!
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