Hello friends! you are welcome installer Number 125, your guide to the best and the verge-The best stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, send me cereal recommendations, and you can also read all past editions here installer home page.)
This week, I’m reading about NASA’s seamstresses And confrontation And mustorism And Scooterhighlighted Jeff VanderMeer’s fantastic new short storyI am listening Cutting Introducing a new season of a podcast about Daft Punk firefox Another ran as my favorite browser, blowing my mind amazing music video directorand nodded along John Oliver on Prediction Markets. I’m also dealing with sick kids and emergency electrical work so my house doesn’t burn down. Fun times! That’s why we’re going to do Ruthless Self-Promotion Week next week – still looking at all your emails, thanks again to everyone who wrote in!
I’ve got some really exciting new PC gear for you, a must-see movie of spring, some really useful new AI apps, a high-tech postcard, and much more. Let’s do this.
(As always, the best part of installer Have your thoughts and suggestions. What are you reading/watching/playing/listening to/dipping into hummus this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know anyone else who might enjoy installerForward this to them and ask them to subscribe here.)
- Framework Laptop 13 Pro. I like the framework’s overall thesis that computers should become more advanced and repairable. For the first time, it looks like it’s even made a laptop that actually, actually Good. If this thing lives up to its spec sheet and our first impressions, it’s going to be a big winner for Linux and Windows users.
- framework laptop sleeve. I love a good laptop carrier, and this one – especially the silver model, which isn’t duct tape but looks exactly like duct tape – is amazing. It’s obviously designed for Framework Gear, but it should fit many other laptops too.
- Stranger Things: Stories from ’85. I feel obligated to tell you about this new animated Netflix show — because, you know, Stranger Things — even though by all accounts it’s not really very good. If you watch this anyway because you can’t get enough of the Hawkins Gang, just know that I’ve got it.
- new things. Our good friend Joanna Stern recently started her newsletter/YouTube channel/whole thing, and it’s already hilarious and extremely Joanna-y. Go subscribe! And keep an eye out, because one way or another we will get Joanna back to this place.
- Excessive. As I get worse at maintaining my email inbox, I’m becoming more and more attracted by the prospect of managing it with AI. Using Extras requires rethinking what your email is for, but I’m finding it full of clever organizational ideas.
- Memo AI. These smart transcription apps are now a dime a dozen, but this one has a few things going for it. One, it’s built by the developer of NotePlan, which means it’s thoughtfully designed and really clever. two, this is Fast. Until now, speed has been the difference between AI tools I immediately abandon and AI tools I keep using.
- vampire crawler. From time to time, all of my gamer friends drop to earth for a few days because they’re all obsessed with some new title. It’s happening right now, and it’s all because of this highly addictive, retro-styled deckbuilder. I probably shouldn’t get into this game. I am going to join this game.
- Govi Table Lamp Classic. Half the power in my house is out at the moment, which makes a product like this – a smart lamp that can either be plugged in or moved around – incredibly useful. In general, I find Govi’s stuff to be almost as good as Hue’s and much cheaper. Not a bad combo.
- Spotify Cloud Connector. If you’re skeptical or nervous about trying an AI tool, here’s my advice: connect someone from Spotify. (ChatGPT has had a connector for a while, Cloud got it this week.) It’s a fun, useful, surprising way to organize and discover music.
Every 25 points in this area, I like to share my homescreen. As the self-appointed thing-trying head of the installerverse, I’m always experimenting with new systems, new apps, and new ways of doing everything. Also, it’s a fun record for me to see where my own thinking is.
at this time? My thinking is apparently… all over the place. It’s about as disorganized as I’ve ever been, on various levels. My homescreen isn’t intentionally organized, so much so that it’s just a record of my phone habits recently. (I also have a lot of unread stuff.) This is as of this week:
Phone: iPhone 17. I like the sage color, I’m a little annoyed that I’m still an iPhone user, but here we are.
Wallpaper: Blue. I had a solid black background for a long time, so I guess this counts as accentuating things? To be honest, it’s too bright, especially at night – everything needs to be turned back to completely black.
Apps: coffee pool, RB CollegeMemo AI, Craft, DualShot Recorder, Todoist, Google Maps, MyMind, Obsidian, ReadWise Reader, Phone, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Camera, Messages, Notion Calendar, App I’m Vibe-Coding, Arc.
Some of these staples are: readable reader, pocket cast, My MindAnd arch These are all apps I’ve been using for a long time and am very happy with. All the rest are experimental in some way or the other.
I’ve been a fan for a long time retro bowl, An essentially perfect mobile game, so of course I got into it. college football game. I’m a long time fan too coffee golfA fun game to play for a few minutes a day, and Pool-shooting version That’s equally satisfying. I don’t usually have homescreen games, so these probably won’t be here forever.
As you can probably see, I’m in a bit of a productivity app crisis. craft, obsidian, Memo AI, to do listeven Assumption Calendar – I’ve been trying them all, and more (like workflow, deuceAnd note scheme) to see if I could find a new system that worked. I have a lot more deadlines than I normally have right now in my life, so I’ve been taking a look at some of the ideas behind time-blocking to see if schedule-maxing works for me. So far…kinda.
(Also, that app with nine dots? I hate the icon, thanks for the cloud code, but this is the start of a tool I’m trying to build to bring all these things together for myself. It won’t really be useful to anyone, but I’m excited about it. More on that next week.)
Finally, if you shoot a lot of video and haven’t tried dualshot recorderChange it as soon as possible. It captures horizontal and vertical video simultaneously, and it’s simple and brilliant, whether you’re a content creator or just trying to get your kids’ videos in the right aspect ratio. it extremely My default camera app isn’t there yet, but it may be getting there. Best $10 I’ve spent on an app in a long time.
Oh, and widgets: Notion Calendar, you know, right. acme weather Is fantastic. It’s made by the same people who created Dark Sky, and it has the same ability to tell me everything I need to know – the weather, the chance of rain, the chance of the forecast being wrong, and it actually Is It’s going to rain – in about two seconds. Already my favorite weather app.
what’s here installer Community is in this week. I also want to know what you are doing right now! email installer@theverge.com Or message me on Signal – @davidpierce.11 – with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For more great recommendations, check out these answers This post on threads And This post on BlueSky.
“I am loving earth.fm Application. Never felt like soundscape apps helped me focus or relax, but these nature field recordings do that for me. And it’s a beautiful app too!” – Ben
“I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve started getting used to nvidia geforce now – This thing is incredible on the iPad Pro.” – Jean-Francois
“Check it out to fly App for Android. like it Flickering But for Android. It’s in early access – beautiful design.” – Gurav
“Absolutely loved it Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. One of my top movies of this year. Hilarious and great action. Adult men have a 5 minute debate over who had the best boyfriend on Gilmore Girls. By the way this is Logan.” -Justin
“Just picked up Aune AC55 Recently tried on-ear clip headphones and wanted to point out that this headphone style is still awesome, with American hi-fi not really fading since the 90s/00s, and offers an excellent alternative (along with flathead earbuds) to larger over-ear sets and iems. Kos KSC75 The genre’s iconic affordable set, but Aune is breaking new ground with some very high-end sets. – Brian
“Was playing circle.horse For a few months now. Always enjoy it as it is a quick daily game but not focused on words/letters.” — Peter
“Clayton Morris made a video on YouTube Best no time games for adults. Really great recommendations. escape from vampires And to sprinkle are particularly great and both are included in Apple Arcade.” – Witzke
“A new, completely native font manager called pica scale macOS was deprecated this week and we design experts are worried about it.” -Pedro
“space design warehouse There is a phenomenal under the radar Mac YouTube channel. Host Nicholas Johnson will take you through the specs and testing as much as you want, while keeping it accessible and fun. Every episode features Mac on Fire and Dunkin’ Donuts, so not sure what else you want. He also does inventive things like placing a secondary audio track on some videos where he repeats what he is thinking. – Clinton
The funniest thing has happened to me on YouTube in the last few months. In the course of researching stories and version history episode, I spent a lot of time watching really old YouTube videos – and this apparently convinced the YouTube algorithm to send me More Really old YouTube videos! I’ve been reminded of some great things lately epic Rap Battles of Historysome top notch Lonely Island ShortsAn iconic clip of Jay Z and Timbaland in the studioand even charlie the unicorn. There was a time in early YouTube, y’all. Mostly very good.
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