Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 138, your guideline to the champion and Verge-iest worldly successful the world. (If you’re caller here, welcome, happy August, and besides you tin publication each the aged editions astatine the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reference astir microwave sounds and Meta glasses and Alex vs. Alix, testing the Logitech Alto Keys K98M to spot if I’m fresh for the mechanical keyboard life, digging into the history of the first chatbot, clearing abstraction connected my table for a Bob Ross deskmat, doing a afloat Ted Lasso rewatch up of the caller play adjacent week, yet getting into Cyberpunk 2077 now that it’s truthful cheap, cackling and nodding astatine this Adobe dislike post, and upgrading my location camera setup pinch the genuinely tremendous Elgato Prompter XL.
Also, I person immoderate individual news: I’m having a baby! (If your consequence to this is, Didn’t you conscionable person for illustration 37 different babies, yes, yes I did. Pray for me.) I’m readying to beryllium retired from astir mid-August to the opening of October, but I’m besides successful could-happen-anytime onshore now. So if I’m abruptly gone, that’s why! Just for illustration past year, my workfellow Jay Peters will beryllium taking complete Installer while I’m out, and conscionable for illustration past year, he’s going to beryllium great.
But for now, I’m still here! I besides person for you a caller superhero movie, a caller return connected an aged game, immoderate awesome Musk-related comedy, and overmuch more. Let’s do it.
(As always, the champion portion of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reference / playing / listening to / putting successful a blender 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.)
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Tom Holland Spidey era conscionable ne'er seems to miss. It’s beautiful awesome to propulsion disconnected a much aliases little afloat communicative reboot while keeping each the aforesaid actors and characters, but by each accounts this 1 pulls it off. Since I still can’t get IMAX Odyssey tickets, this one’s astatine the apical of my to-watch list.
- Pastebot 3. Missed this 1 past week! Great clipboard managers are correct up location pinch launchers and matter expanders successful the “how did I ever usage a machine without this” category, and Pastebot is 1 of the Mac’s best. The caller type has smart statement options, support for each kinds of media, and overmuch more. The benignant of app you’ll find caller uses for… forever.
- President Curtis. I was going to picture this arsenic “basically a Rick and Morty spinoff” earlier I realized it’s actually a Rick and Morty spinoff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, group look to either emotion it aliases dislike it. I deliberation astir of america would work together R&M is not what it erstwhile was, but the thought of throwing each its chaotic power into the US authorities does salary disconnected astatine slightest a fewer times. And it’s not not political commentary, you know?
- “Why Is So Much AI Tech Useless?” Two of my favourite group connected the net — Joanna Stern and Hasan Minhaj — spell heavy connected wherever AI is, and isn’t, really bully and useful successful our lives. Minhaj’s complete disbelief astatine each these overhyped products conscionable gives maine life.
- Halo: Campaign Evolved. Confession: I was ever unspeakable astatine Halo, and I’ve ever been unfairly huffy astatine the bid because of it. The caller remake appears to beryllium a mediocre crippled (with unspeakable dialogue) but awesome nostalgia bait, and that mightiness beryllium capable for a batch of group looking to get Master Chief backmost into their lives.
- Leafy Corner. This crippled exists location connected the spectrum betwixt Animal Crossing and RollerCoaster Tycoon, and I mean some arsenic a compliment. It’s a quiet, cozy game, but besides thing of a guidance sim, each successful the confines of a works shop. Adorable.
- Spotify Running Mode. I really deliberation Spotify’s last take connected running, pinch adaptive tempos and generative beats, was some cooler and a much absorbing return connected AI. But Spotify’s prompted playlists person mostly been beautiful good, and I admit having the timing updates built successful alternatively of having immoderate different app perpetually ducking my euphony to show maine I’m excessively slow.
- “Elon’s Epic Ego Explained.” Nobody does topical drama for illustration Josh Johnson, and this is my favourite of his caller sets. It’s not just 45 minutes of making nosy of Musk — it’s besides astir The Odyssey and a bunch of different things — but it’s some ruthless and correct astir the world’s richest man.
- The SwitchBot Battery Circulator Fan 2 Pro. My workfellow Thomas Ricker has successfully convinced me that SwitchBot’s fans are worthy a look complete the “whatever’s connected the support astatine Target” models I’ve been buying for years. This caller $120 exemplary is quiet and powerful, charges complete USB-C, and is going to unrecorded connected my patio the remainder of the summer.
I buried the lede here: The biggest caller point of the week, astatine slightest successful my book, is Instapaper 10. Instapaper is 1 of the original read-later apps, and has continued to beryllium among the champion connected the market. After immoderate weird ownership worldly complete the years, Instapaper has been successful the hands of Brian Donohue, who has been steadily improving the work successful tons of ways. This week’s launch comes pinch a really bully redesign, a way better web app, and a batch of adjuvant statement and reference tools. I’ve been testing it, and I deliberation it’s backmost to being my go-to proposal for reference apps. (For powerfulness users I still deliberation Readwise is the move.)
With the caller app out, I asked Brian to stock his homescreen pinch america — I wanted to spot really he organized his stuff, and if he mightiness beryllium moving connected moreover much cool stuff. Turns retired he is! Here’s his homescreen, positive immoderate info connected the apps he uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 16 Pro. I almost ever acquisition iPhones each different generation. Maybe a foldable this year?
The wallpaper: My daughter, arsenic a reminder that my apps must beryllium bully different she will not person nutrient connected the table.
The apps: Safari, Google Calendar, Emerald, Google Maps, Weather, Photos, Instapaper, Kobo Books, Reddit, 1Password, Google Authenticator, Slack, Google Docs, Google Sheets, ForeFlight, Flight Circle, Claude, Linear, Phone, Sunflower, Messages, Spotify.
I’ll commencement pinch the ones not yet successful the App Store: Emerald and Sunflower.
Emerald is simply a Markdown editor I’m moving connected that solves 2 individual symptom points: autochthonal iOS / macOS client, and collaboration connected markdown files. I person been a large Obsidian personification the past 2 years, but it’s been failing maine successful those areas. I’ve been penning pinch Emerald exclusively for the past fewer months and it’s almost fresh for beta testing. Waitlist successful the link.
Sunflower is simply a caller email customer from Bobby Goodlatte and friends. It’s beautifully designed and has immoderate tasteful AI features, for illustration summarizing your inbox, chatting pinch your email, and an Autopilot characteristic which seems to beryllium perpetually “Coming Soon.” I’ve been trying a fewer clients successful the “AI email” abstraction for illustration Extra, and an autopilot instrumentality called Cora, which didn’t stick.
Instapaper’s large motorboat this week included a caller location surface widget. It fits nicely successful the widget stack alongside the Apple News, Stocks, and Weather widgets.
Additionally, you person galore of the accustomed suspects. I americium doing a immense magnitude of my activity pinch Claude and Linear these days, some of which person awesome iOS apps.
I besides asked Brian to stock a fewer things he’s into correct now. Here’s what he sent back:
- I’ve ever been inspired by imaginative builders, and 2 travel to mind correct now. The first is Andrew Jones, who has been building free & open-source alternatives to paid package (e.g. Granola, Wispr Flow) — fingers crossed Instapaper is not next. The 2nd is Q, a designer who has been building small, single-purpose websites for himself that I find inspiring. It almost reminds maine of a purer, distant type of the Internet, wherever you built a bunch of Geocities pages for nosy and without expectations of fame and fortune.
- Hyper Mesh. Q has been exploring image uncover animations, and built a instrumentality to tweak presets connected the first disguise and the animation that reveals the image.
- SVG Star Editor. Create a prima from different settings and export to SVG.
- Chess Moves. Q is learning really to play chess pinch his woman and made this tutorial website arsenic a companion tool.
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.
“I americium hopelessly hooked connected the crippled Murdoku. It’s free online, aliases you tin play aged schoolhouse through books. It’s a logic crippled wherever you lick crimes by process of elimination.” — Kurt
“I’ve been loving Paradiso for uncovering movie showtimes. Not only does it alert you erstwhile thing connected your Letterboxd watchlist is playing adjacent you, it besides thumps Fandango aliases different apps for simply browsing first tally showtimes.” — Mike
“My friend precocious ordered a Galaxy Z Fold 8 and I had to present them to Good Lock.” — B
“I emotion Anker worldly and thin to take it complete everything else. But I person the Anker 3-in-1 recreation charger and… this ESR one (a marque I hadn’t really heard of) is the amended merchandise successful each way. The Apple Watch charger is successful a amended place, it’s thinner, and the cooling instrumentality useful better. I can’t vouch for semipermanent reliability yet, but I person 1 by my bedside and 1 successful my recreation bag!” — Peter
“Finally switched from a messiness of read-it-later apps to a 2nd encephalon pinch Obsidian + Claude, inspired by Karpathy’s LLM Wiki concept. Hoping this setup is the 1 that really sticks…” — Kartik
“I usage Readwise Reader for each my newsletters. It has unsocial email addresses to either adhd newsletters to your room aliases RSS feed. I emotion keeping each my things to publication each successful the aforesaid app, publication later, newsletters, pdfs…” — Rich
“HIGHLY urge the movie Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. It’s a crime and shame that Paramount isn’t putting this into much theaters, AND that the movie was leaked connected X earlier this year. Amazing movie pinch all-time stunning visuals that honestly near maine angry I was watching it connected TV astatine home. Deserves bettering than being dumped connected Paramount Plus.” — Nolan
“Watching the restored type of Lawrence of Arabia. Peter O’Toole’s bluish eyes are dreamy.” — SaltedPork
The coolest net acquisition I had this week was scrolling done the Everything Machine, a heavy and elaborate breakdown of really your telephone works. It’s only the first section of what I dream will beryllium a very long exploration of really smartphones changed everything, and I emotion the measurement it seems to interact pinch your telephone arsenic you scroll. Our phones are specified a “This is water” point successful our lives now, and I really bask thing that makes maine salary a small much attraction to the object, the taste force, and the economical motor that takes up truthful overmuch of my life. Highly urge taking a scroll.
See you adjacent week!
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