Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 50, your guideline to nan champion and Verge-iest worldly successful nan world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, I committedness it’s not ever this galore costly gadgets, and besides you tin publication each nan aged editions astatine nan Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reference astir crime rings and paleontology beefs and the unusual connection of TikTok, watching Kevin Can F**k Himself and Trap, re-upping my Yousician subscription to get backmost into nan guitar, doing a batch of weird stretches aft spraining my finger, and trying to make nan celebrated Levain cookies.
I besides person for you a bunch of caller wearable gadgets, a caller Star Wars game, nan return of a fabulous YouTube series, and overmuch more.
Also, I still want to know: who’s your favourite lesser-known creator? I’ve gotten truthful galore awesome answers truthful far, but I want to do it REALLY large adjacent week pinch tons of awesome group to cheque out. So support your favorites coming!
All right, large gadget-y week 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 playing, reading, watching, eating, downloading, buying, aliases making retired of wood? Tell maine everything: [email protected]. And if you cognize personification other who mightiness bask Installer, show them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
- The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. I’ve had these for a week and they’re easy 1 of my favourite gadget upgrades of nan twelvemonth truthful far. For day-to-day dog-walking and grocery-running and exercising headphones, I’ve been wholly converted to bony conduction complete nan people of this year. These caller ones person much bass, mercifully non-awful mics, longer battery, USB-C — I genuinely emotion them truthful far.
- Star Wars Outlaws. I person been burned by truthful galore Star Wars games before, but this 1 sounds… well, if not for illustration nan astir innovative crippled successful history, astatine slightest for illustration a earnestly bully time. And arsenic personification who doesn’t emotion an endless open-world game, nan slightly much rigid structure sounds cleanable for maine to dive into.
- BeRreal Roulette. Are group still utilizing BeReal? I honestly don’t know. But I emotion this idea: it’s nan regular BeReal experience, isolated from it grabs a changeable from your camera rotation and lets you respond to it arsenic you stock it. So clever, truthful very dangerous.
- The Dyson Airwrap i.d. Look, I don’t person capable hairsbreadth to opportunity whether Bluetooth connectivity for “personalized curling routines” is anything, but I do cognize that each azygous personification I cognize pinch an Airwrap loves nan point to bits and will astir apt for illustration nan caller attachments.
- “I consciousness arsenic stupid arsenic I look - Brilliant Labs Frame.” There’s really a batch of cool worldly successful these AR glasses, astatine slightest from a hardware perspective. But arsenic Linus and nan Short Circuit folks find, nan AI conscionable ain’t ready. I sewage measurement excessively galore Rabbit and Humane vibes from this video.
- The Garmin Fenix 8. Garmin’s ultrapremium smartwatches now travel with OLED screens, a mic and a speaker, and immoderate nifty messaging features. These are priced For Serious Outdoorspeople Only, but they’re beautiful compelling — and a month-plus of artillery life conscionable straight-up rules.
- Anthropic Artifacts. As chatbots go, this is nan coolest UI anyone has built yet. You tin usage Claude to build thing and really spot it activity and alteration successful existent clip adjacent to nan chat; it makes nan process of making things overmuch much collaborative and useful.
- The Plaud NotePin. Another day, different AI sound recorder thing. I still person nary thought if these will ever beryllium really useful to astir people, but I’ve been testing this $169 1 for a fewer days, and it’s beautiful bully astatine transcribing and summarizing immoderate delirium I opportunity into it each day. (And speaking of AI notes: Cleft Notes, 1 of my favorites, officially launched connected iOS this week.)
- “The Sustained Two-Shot.” I mentioned my emotion for Every Frame a Painting a fewer weeks ago, and now they’re back! I get nan consciousness this adjacent bid is going to beryllium very meta since nan EFAP duo is making their ain film, and I’m highly present for it.
Screen share
We made it to Installer 50! The first day of Installer was 2 weeks ago, a truth I missed entirely. Thank you truthful overmuch to everyone who has signed up, clicked links, sent maine recommendations, yelled astatine maine astir typos and formatting, and made life successful nan Installerverse incredibly nosy complete nan past twelvemonth (and 2 weeks). I person large plans for twelvemonth 2 and hopefully tons and tons of nosy worldly to share.
My scheme has ever been to stock my ain setup successful this abstraction each 25 issues, which useful retired to astir each six months. It’s a bully chance to return banal of my ain setup and systems, but besides to stock what I’m learning and discovering arsenic Installer’s Downloader-in-Chief. (Here’s my erstwhile setup, from Installer #25.)
So here’s my homescreen arsenic it is correct now, positive immoderate info connected nan apps I’m utilizing and why:
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro, pinch a surface progressively scratched to bits and that will hopefully beryllium replaced — either by an iPhone 16 aliases a Pixel 9, depending connected really nan adjacent fewer weeks spell — this fall.
The wallpaper: Still my woman and boy connected nan lockscreen, but a caller image of nan small dude connected nan homescreen. I’ve been moving nan iOS 18 beta each summer, which intends I’m yet free from nan stupid app grid, which made tons of caller photos into plausible options. This one’s my fave.
The apps: Readwise Reader, Kindle, Maps, Day One, Spotify, Phone, Pocket Casts, Camera, Messages, Fantastical, Capacities, Arc.
I person go a civilization icon convert, and there’s conscionable nary going back. This battalion is nan Vera Icon Pack from Vuk Andric, which I bought for $4 and for illustration very much. Dark icons are nan champion icons.
My most-used apps haven’t really changed since past time, isolated from I person less of them connected nan surface now.
- I’m successful nan midst of my longest journaling streak of each clip successful Day One, and it’s wholly because I changed nan regular punctual to “what did you do today?” which feels truthful overmuch lower-stakes than astir journaling that I find myself doing it overmuch much happily.
- I americium desperately trying to discontinue Spotify, which has gotten bloated and costly and conscionable worse over time. I don’t cognize wherever to spell yet… but I’m moving connected that.
- The Calendar widget is from Apple Calendar because each nan different almanac apps I tried required maine to unfastened them excessively often conscionable to refresh nan widget. This one’s not beautiful, but it’s astatine slightest up to date.
- The “Comms” and “Content” folders are moving really good for me. Any benignant of communication: Comms! (Comms is besides nan only files allowed to person badges aliases notifications.) All my news / games / endless scrolling apps spell successful Content. I usage Spotlight hunt for everything else.
- I’m for illustration 2 weeks into testing Capacities for each my notes and projects, and truthful far, my reappraisal is “it’s Notion but uglier but way faster.” I’m into it truthful far.
I stock each week what I’m into correct now, but present are a fewer I don’t deliberation I’ve mentioned present precocious that I highly recommend:
- I emotion Tom Wolfe’s penning but someway had ne'er publication The Right Stuff before. Good lord is this book great. (It’s astir astronauts and combatant pilots and what it takes to determine to consequence your life for nan skies.) Apparently, immoderate of nan specifications are, ahem, somewhat overdone, but moreover if it’s axenic fiction, it’s still a heck of a story.
- I started watching Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE more aliases little by accident, stepping into nan room correct aft my woman started it. But this K-pop title show, which turns retired to really beryllium astir fandom and fame and nan net and successful places gets profoundly bleak and difficult to watch, hooked maine immediately, and I’ve been reasoning astir it nonstop each week.
- I utilized to play a batch of Retro Bowl — astir apt excessively overmuch Retro Bowl — connected my phone. Now I’m trying to do little of everything connected my phone, truthful I dropped $5 connected the Switch type of nan game. Bigger screen, amended controls, aforesaid absurdly nosy game. No notes.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what nan 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 than I could fresh here, cheque retired nan replies to this station connected Threads.
“As a chap nerd who keeps dreaming of nan perfect note-taking setup, I can’t judge I’ve ne'er seen anyone urge Emacs to you, and particularly nan built-in Org-mode. It’s endlessly customizable, it’s ace flexible, and particularly erstwhile you constitute thing for a surviving (articles, scripts, emails, code), it’s by acold nan champion instrumentality I person recovered retired there. Beorg is simply a really bully iOS app that supports it excessively (and a decent if plain note-taking app successful general), and connected Android, I usage Orgzly instead.” — David
“Match Land. I’ve been looking for games to play mindlessly while listening to music, and this crippled has gotten maine hooked. This crippled uses nan match-3 mechanic arsenic a measurement to stack up harm for an incredibly addictive RPG that’s each astir combos. And it’s sewage tiny 8-bit graphics to boot!” — Shani
“Been playing a batch of Deadlock! It’s Valve’s MOBA / third-person leader shooter hybrid that someway conscionable works. It’s successful an early playtest authorities connected Steam — and does person a batch of capacity / gameplay unsmooth edges, on pinch a schedule for erstwhile nan crippled really *lets* you play online. Doesn’t extremity it from being fun, though, and I emotion Bebop now, truthful it’s worthy it.” — Arthur
“Somehow Ryan George made the cleanable drama skit astir Elon’s ownership of Twitter. I’ve watched this truthful galore times this week.” — Jordan
“I precocious accomplished thing genuinely nan Vergiest point ever (and possibly a small crazy): merging nan Mac and Samsung ecosystems! Here’s nan breakdown. NearDrop is AirDrop, but for Android and Mac. It moreover useful some ways (with a small instrumentality to initiate transfers from Mac to Android by mimicking sharing a record from different Android telephone to make it visible to nan Mac). Parallels lets maine tally Windows connected my Mac, and Phone Link provides seamless copy-paste betwixt devices. I tin moreover formed aggregate apps from my telephone / tablet to nan Mac’s surface pinch drag-and-drop support! Mirrcast connected Tab S9: Turns my tablet into a 2nd show for nan Mac AND routes audio done my Buds 3 Pro. The cleanable seamless car audio switching betwixt nan Mac and my Phone!” — Khalil
“I’m loving Terminus connected my Steam Deck. Turn-based zombie endurance crippled that conscionable released retired of Early Access.” – Justin
“I recovered this podcast’s position connected generative AI from Australian musician Ben Lee to beryllium refreshingly different to nan accustomed concerns astir licensing aliases quality.” — Andrew
“I’ve been listening to Darknet Diaries, by Jack Rhysider. This is simply a podcast astir hackers, breaches, protector authorities activity, hacktivism, cybercrime, and each nan things that dwell connected nan hidden parts of nan network. It besides involves beingness penetration testing, societal engineering, and hardware hacking for fun.” — Sinan
“For group who person clip and are wanting to tidy up their individual record organization, I would powerfully urge Johnny.Decimal. It’s a really intuitive (to me, astatine least) measurement of keeping files organized, and he’s conscionable launched a speedy commencement pack to thief group get into nan system. Also, his website is beautiful cool.” — Nathan
“I cannot urge the latest Waveform episode enough, 1 of nan champion explainers for nan conception of nan fediverse and its protocols.” — Filip
Signing off
First of all, acknowledgment to everyone who said you’d beryllium down for Installer Fantasy Football adjacent year. I’m in! Let’s do it — it’ll beryllium bonkers. Time to commencement prepping.
Second of all, a typical shoutout to Jim, who sent maine an email astir their imagination setup that perfectly filled maine pinch joy. Here it is because this is really it’s done:
“It’s acold from perfect, and I’m not judge it saves maine immoderate time. However, it’s good organized, and I’ve learned a batch on nan way. All of nan information is contained successful Google Sheets. I usage App Scripts to import each of nan data:
- I usage APIs to import my various imagination teams from Yahoo, Sleeper, and ESPN. This gives maine entree to rosters, transactions, standings and free agents/waivers
- I scrape information from various websites (FantasyPros, Ourlads, Pro Football Reference) straight via Apps Scripts
- Some tract are a spot excessively analyzable to navigate for Apps Scripts, truthful I usage Python to scrape those and create a CSV which I import to Google Sheets
- Lastly, I usage various R libraries (nflreadr, nflfastr, ffanalytics, ffscrapr) to download and manipulate nan ridiculous magnitude of information that they make available. I export those to CSV arsenic good and import to Google Sheets
It’s a analyzable process, but I usage MacOS Automator and Google Apps Script Triggers to automate astir of it. It only requires a mates of play rodent clicks to update each of nan data.”
You are each my people. This rules.
See you adjacent week!
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