Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 147, your guide to the finest and Verge-iest material in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, I missed you all, and additionally you can peruse all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I’m rear from parental leave! Part time, anyway. Thanks to everyone who sent fine wishes and tips for managing three kids. I need ’em all. This week, I’ve been study concerning McMansions and data centers and sports cardsand ICANN, trying to run my existence on the Dell XPS Googlebook, evaluation a new and very purple Kindle, reinventing my entire note-taking scheme now that Google Docs can handle Markdown files, listening to event following event of No Such Thing as a Fish,and observing all of Shrinkingbetween the hours of 1 and 5AM during feeding a baby.
I additionally have for you the new Facebook movie, a tech-related procedural, a brace of awesome new gadgets, the Star Wars equivalent that is going to demolish my productivity, a terrific publish concerning the AI industry, and much more. Let’s do this.
(As always, the finest part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What have you been observing / study / playing / listening to / putting in the air fryer 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.)
- The Social Reckoning. My hopes were not excellent elevated for this movie, and the reply so far suggests it’s fine but a far cry from The Social Network. (Which I fair watched recently, and entirely motionless rips.) Still, Aaron Sorkin and Jeremy Strong volition end up in the annals of Big Tech Movies, and I volition not be missing this one.
- The Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro. For the archetypal period ever, Amazon decided — and I cognize this power audio far-fetched — to fair build an notable tablet. And it seems it may have! There’s many of evaluation to do, and I’m particularly inquisitive concerning this high-end example alongside the fancy screen, but I’m hopeful this is the “iPad but cheaper” we’ve been waiting for. For years.
- The AGI Chronicles. However bizarre you think the AI industry is, I commitment Kevin Roose’s publish volition convince you it’s equal additional so. Roose has been profound inner the AI labs for the final few years, and I think came out alongside the most crucial narrative in AI: how a few executives, and the relationships between them, somehow came to decide the forthcoming of everything.
- Star Wars: Galactic Racer. It’s a excellent high-fidelity Star Wars racing equivalent in which you (eventually) get to pilot a podracer. That’s all I needed to hear! Oh, and if you’re a Prime subscriber, you can play it for free on Amazon’s Luna service.
- Cupertino. The folks who made The Good Wife made a display concerning technology, and it is exactly what you think it is. I benevolent of affection it! What I’ve seen so far is beautiful thoughtful concerning several complex real-life lawful material in tech and AI, and the procedural setup is frankly a nice interrupt from all these miniseries and four-hour docs.
- The Surface Laptop Ultra. Microsoft revealed all the particulars of its most notable laptop, and during it’s costly ($2,600!), it additionally looks and appears fantastic. Microsoft is pushing the device’s AI capabilities, but this additionally looks akin the uncompromising MacBook Pro competition a lot of Windows users power want.
- Gears of War: E-Day. When it comes to raw, ruthless combat, Gears doesn’t young female extremely often. This one additionally seems to provision on narrative and exploration, which aren’t continually the series’ powerful points; a lot of group have been waiting for the origin-story title, and I’m thrilled the equivalent pulls it off.
- Blockers. Michael Lewis tells the narrative of Elon Musk and DOGE, and in particular of the authorities workforce who tried to halt them from operating roughshod complete the national government. I really enjoyed The Fifth Risk, Lewis’ final publish concerning the government, and I anticipate to akin this one too.
One item concerning parental depart is that it involves a lot of period alongside one hand free. Over the final seven weeks I’ve spent dozens, perchance hundreds of hours on the couch during a small murphy of a baby sleeps or cries or farts on top of me. So what did I do alongside all that time? Goofed about on my phone, mostly. Too much Reddit, too much TikTok, mercifully at smallest a small study and crosswording.
I additionally redid my complete homescreen, since of way I did, and I figured I’d share. Here’s my current setup:
The phone: iPhone 17. I have no desire to upgrade to the 18… but I discover myself hopelessly lusting following a Duo. I must not provision in.
The wallpaper: Black. I am on an endless quest to create my phone small engaging to appearance at, and this helps. It additionally helps create my phone a small little blaring whenever I’m looking at it in the dark, which I do a lot these days.
The apps: Unread, Instapaper, Google Maps, Capacities, Daygame, Flora, Phone, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Camera, Prism, Mimestream, Arc.
A few things I desire to citation here:
- The widgets at the top are Calendars and Acme Weather. Acme is a fabulous climate app, and I affection the hourly widget; Calendars is, like, fine. I toggle between it and Fantastical all the time. I don’t think I akin any calendar app.
- The lone really new things on my homescreen are Flora and Prism. Flora is a journaling app currently in TestFlight for Apple devices, and it is fabulous. It’s uncomplicated and straightforward, but additionally pulls in exercise data, photos, and additional to provision a really chill snapshot of your day. Prism is a note-taking app that is as accelerated as texting yourself but alongside many additional organizational powers. I have spent everlastingly looking for a quick, transient way to jot material downward and arrange it later; Prism power be it.
- In case you’re following my endless hunt for notes apps: I’m rear on Capacities, which eventually clicked for me. It is a project to get the app completely customized, but it turns out to activity exactly akin my brain does.
- I switched from Readwise Reader to Instapaper since I lately bought a Kobo, and Instapaper is so nicely unified into the device. I akin the entire setup, but additionally the Boox Palma 3 is coming, so my study cosmos power be in for yet another overhaul soon.
- Daygame, in the center there, is a item I built for myself to oversee all the regular games I perform — it’s fair a leaf complete of links to games, which open in assorted apps and tabs. I power try and pine it up and portion it additional widely. Send games I should include!
Before I forget, a few additional recommendations from my parental leave:
- Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Maybe the strangest movie I watched complete the final brace of months, and certainly the one that made me think the most concerning tech and AI and the forthcoming we’re heading toward.
- Tuner. A movie concerning a keyboard tuner who falls into a earth of safecracking. Nothing I say concerning this movie volition create it audio compelling, but I promise: It’s great.
- Furious. One of the most intense, propulsive infringement shows I’ve seen in forever. Could barely put it down.
- Footnotes. A really chill (Apple-only) journaling and notes app, alongside accent on taking pictures and video correct next to your notes. One of the most uniquely designed mobile apps I’ve always used.
- Podcast Shuffle. I had no idea I needed this app until I tried it. You fair media a button, and it randomly plays an event from any podcast or podcasts you’ve selected. I use it for falling asleep, I use it for lengthy drives, I affection not having to scroll fair to get item playing.
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.
“Playing StarCraft II since the notice of a new StarCraft in 2030. Just learned that macOS volition autumn assistance of Rosetta 2 in 2028 so no additional StarCraft for Mac.” — Christian
“I’m going on a 13-hour highway trip, formerly again guided solely by an old-school Garmin dashboard-mounted GPS. (DriveSmart series; I ignore what size.) I akin that it’s a single-purpose equipment alongside no ads, no subscriptions, and that continues to get map updates.” — sringsmuth
“The recent Hyperfixed podcast episode concerning the microwave popcorn clasp is among the Verge-iest non Verge podcasts I’ve heard in a lengthy time. A BUTTON IS A PROMISE.” — MrEnthusiasm
“I lately completed playing Wolverine on PS5, and I’m blown distant by its amazing narrative and graphics. Insomniac delivered on that unspoken commitment of slashing and dashing through bad guys — it feels akin a entire new flat for the character and for fans of Wolverine.” — Josue
“Just saw Other Mommy. It’s akin a fun amusement park journey in the form of a theatrical fear film.” — Kevin
“I’m construction a shed. The tech viewpoint is learning new things using YouTube, online archive books, and several AI reviews of local construction code pdfs to inspect if I missed anything. I’m likely doing it all wrong, but that’s what the blaze pit is for.” — Tim
“I have fallen headfirst into retro gaming on a Nintendo 3DS XL. The catalog of DS & 3DS games is entirely massive. Running on native, effortlessly reparable hardware, it’s difficult to attack in conditions of achievement and cost. Ok…back to Picross 3D.” — Jacob
“The Ezra Klein interview alongside the ex-OpenAI guy and the Jon Stewart interview alongside the another ex-OpenAI guy.” — Chung
“I have been listening to World War II by Tom Hanks from the History Channel.” — Michael
You power already cognize concerning the HTX Studio YouTube channel, but if you don’t, trust me, you need to inspect it out. It’s a squad of makers and creators from China who are making several of the most innovative tech videos I’ve seen in years. I have watched their video concerning AirDesk about 25 times, and I desire that array additional all sole period I see it. The conduit is a bit complete a twelvemonth old, and I have yet to discover an HTX video that isn’t value the period — equal the one concerning the cow.
See you next week!
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