Our favorite cozy game is back

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 112, your guideline to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, I dream your location is warmer than excavation correct now, and besides you tin publication each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)

I besides person for you a caller Star Trek show to get into, Apple’s caller imaginative suite, a reboot of an aged societal network, a caller Claude Code-adjacent instrumentality worthy trying, and overmuch more. Lots going connected present successful mid-January! Let’s dive in.

(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reference / listening to / playing / building / putting AA batteries into this week? Tell maine everything: [email protected]. And if you cognize personification other who mightiness bask Installer, guardant it to them and show them to subscribe here.)

Have you noticed that beingness keyboards are benignant of having a comeback? There’s the Clicks worldly from CES this year, but besides Unihertz is making a caller Titan phone, and I support proceeding from group who for illustration the Minimal Phone — there’s conscionable thing successful the h2o astir these devices that are little focused connected screen and much connected doing stuff.

When I deliberation astir beingness keyboards, I deliberation astir Kevin Michaluk. Yes, CrackBerry Kevin himself, the man down the Bring Back BlackBerry movement, and the laminitis and president of Clicks. Nobody has believed successful beingness keyboards longer, aliases much fervently, than Kevin. I asked him to stock his homescreen pinch us, successful portion to spot what weird keyboard telephone he’s utilizing (as you’ll see, I was very disappointed), but besides to spot really a existent typing seed mightiness shape his integer life.

Here’s Kevin’s homescreen, positive immoderate info connected the apps he uses and why:

The phone: It’s an iPhone 17 Pro Max successful Deep Blue, pinch a Clicks Keyboard successful Smoke. I besides person a 17 Pro successful Cosmic Orange arsenic backup, and a “RAZRBERRY” (i.e., a Moto Razr w/ Clicks Keyboard). The 17 Pro Max is my primary, truthful let’s look astatine that…

The wallpaper: It’s a wallpaper 1 of our designers made. Dark-mode-friendly pinch a spot of pizzazz. I often conscionable make coagulated colour wallpapers utilizing the Color instrumentality successful the Add New Wallpaper conception of iOS. Occasionally I stone a photograph of my woman and/or our canine connected the lockscreen (especially erstwhile I’m successful the proverbial doghouse).

The apps: Photos, Google Maps, Clicks, ChatGPT, Shopify, Triple Whale, Twos, LinkedIn, Instagram, Signal, Messages, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Beeper, Phone, Gmail, Safari, Camera.

Too galore apps! I usually effort to do a purge early successful the twelvemonth while connected a formation (it’s an yearly tradition!) and delete unused ones and cancel immoderate subscriptions I’m still paying for but not actively using. I person a bad wont of trying caller apps connected free tests and past forgetting to cancel them. I often wonder, really overmuch subscription app gross successful the manufacture is tied to “zombie” customers who hide to cancel?

Over the years I’ve tried to optimize my app layouts clip and clip again, and americium beautiful happy pinch the existent structure, though I really person a shortcut hack these days that makes the homescreen layout a spot null and void: I beautiful overmuch usage Spotlight hunt and type for them. With the Clicks Keyboard, I conscionable property Command + Spacebar and I conscionable commencement typing the app, contact, aliases mounting I want and I bypass apps and folders altogether. I besides person tons of shortcuts connected the keyboard mapped retired for dialing contacts aliases doing heavy app actions for illustration opening Spotify straight to the playlist I want. It’s a next-level iPhone experience.

I optimize the bottommost half of the telephone for my most-used messaging apps — Slack / WhatsApp / Telegram — truthful they’re wrong an easy scope of the thumb. Shoutout to Beeper — I get a batch of DMs connected each of the different societal platforms, truthful usage this arsenic my cosmopolitan DM inbox for X, Instagram, Discord, LinkedIn, etc. This measurement I tin amended debar getting sucked into the feeds of those apps but still reply to messages. I besides support my smart location apps and euphony apps successful a files connected the homescreen arsenic I want those accessible. The 1 widget that earns a Page 1 slot is Calendar.

Page 2 is my Health / Habits page. My 2026 resolutions don’t commencement until I’ve recovered from CES (usually the 3rd week of January!), which is erstwhile I effort to swipe successful present much often and usage the fittingness and nutrient apps and trackers.

Page 3 is each the different apps successful MY folders. I dislike Apple’s car suggested and populated App Library. I request to beryllium capable to group up my folders and put the apps successful myself truthful I retrieve wherever to find everything later (I wish location was an action to disable the app library!).

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

Here’s what the Installer organization is into this week. I want to cognize what you’re into correct now arsenic well! Email [email protected] 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 the replies to this station connected Threads and this station connected Bluesky.

“If you for illustration connection games, cheque retired WurdWeb connected Apple Arcade, which features a regular game. It’s portion of my regular daily on pinch the NYT games, Apple News games and Rogue Words (a free Balatro-like Scrabble connection game).” — Kurt

“Cooked is simply a neat instrumentality for ingesting recipes. To usage it, I prepend a look url pinch ‘cooked.wiki/.’” — BTTK

“Got myself a Walkman successful 2026. I’m a euphony huntsman astatine bosom and while I won’t discontinue beloved Apple Music, I americium slow rebuilding my ain library. Taking my emotion of intentional euphony listening connected vinyl connected the go. I’m backmost successful my iPod era. It’s been fun.” — Manny

“Puzzmo added a caller crippled for the caller twelvemonth called Ribbit, and it’s sewage everything. Words, frogs, a rotate button… What much could you inquire for?” — Andy

“Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Specifically, the audiobooks. The narrator, Jeff Hays, is truthful bully he will ruin each different audiobooks.” — Weddle

“I unfastened up Sill each greeting to find retired what events and stories my friends and folks I travel connected Bluesky and Mastodon person been sharing while I’ve been sleeping and person been different unplugged.” — Mita

“I’ve been watching a batch of Landman connected Paramount. I cognize that Billy Bob Thornton much aliases little plays the aforesaid feline successful everything now, but I consciousness powerfully that it is an underrated show. Plus it has Sam Elliot. The show’s biggest detriment is that it is connected Paramount Plus.” — Geoff

“I’d for illustration to make a proposal for a awesome video astir ASML. Who’s that? The institution that makes the machines that make the etched wafers for processors. The subject that goes into it is for illustration magic. Well worthy the hr position time.” — Shawn

“Hijack play 2 connected Apple TV is yet out. Seems really bully truthful far!” — Nathan

I’ve been walking a bunch recently, which for maine intends a lot of clip spent manually downloading worldly to an iPad to watch connected planes. Most streaming apps now let downloads, which is great, but you cognize what I’ve really been enjoying? YouTube’s “Smart Downloads” playlist, which conscionable grabs a bunch of worldly the algorithm thinks you’ll for illustration and dumps it connected your phone. Mine is presently a small overstuffed pinch toddler-friendly content, and the algorithm present doesn’t look to return large swings, but I really admit that. It’s conscionable a bunch of worldly I haven’t seen but americium fundamentally guaranteed to like.

If you person YouTube Premium, adjacent clip you travel, effort turning connected the Smart Downloads, and possibly besides download your Watch Later database if that’s a point you support updated. I overmuch for illustration this to fighting pinch the plane’s Wi-Fi.

See you adjacent week!