Hello friends! you are welcome installer Number 122, your guide to the best and the verge-The best stuff in the world. (If you are new here, welcome, visit ‘Zona’, and you can also read all the old editions here installer home page.)
This week, I’m reading about Early Apple employees And weather apps And One Page Productivity SystemWatching Avatar: Fire and Ashes On my phone in installments the way James Cameron intended, but tried and failed Find a Better Gmail Address Compared to the fool I chose to watch 20 years ago Artemis II launch Because the place is so nice, I’m buying it a new mug It was very expensive but extremely brilliant, has changed the soundtrack of my work This incredible DJ set Hearing from Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter darknet diaries episode about music fraud (Thanks to Josh for the tip), and fixed the first vibe-coded thing I’ve ever made, which is actually pretty cool.
I also have a new way for you to read on the Internet, a new mario A more private way to make movies, video chat, and more. Lots of apps this week! You like watching it. Let’s do this.
(As always, the best part of installer Have your thoughts and suggestions. What are you watching/playing/reading/listening to/spreading cheese on 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.)
- sofa 5. A big update to the Installerverse favorite, this app is now a great way to manage everything you want to watch, read, play, and even do IRL. When it was mostly just movies and shows, I never maintained it, but now I think of it as a notion for my personal life. Sadly, Apple devices only, but boy do I love this app.
- wave. After a long beta, this feed reader/social network/timeline app finally launches, and I still think it’s a great idea. Fediverse doesn’t need to look like Twitter! It could be many things! Surf is one of those things.
- super mario galaxy movie. The cast for this movie is incredible, and although the reviews aren’t great, they weren’t for the last movie either, and I loved that movie! I suspect my child and I will watch it about 446 times.
- Hoji. I’ve really come to appreciate the casual game genre recently. Life is hard, y’all; It’s nice to do something peacefully silly. In this case, that thing is home renovation and decorating, and it’s a lot more fun than it should be.
- proton meat. There are many good reasons to be concerned about the privacy of your meetings, the recording of those meetings, the AI summaries of those meetings, and everything else. Proton’s new tool is encrypted, simple, and seems to work well. A lot of Google Meet will be swapped for this.
- “In danger! youtube version.Don’t watch this thinking it’s a great episode danger. Check it out for nonstop meme references, Ken Jennings trying his best to be young and cute, and a bunch of extremely answerable questions for anyone who’s been online even a little bit.
- first day chat. A chatbot that prompts you through a journal entry, so that every day is a conversation instead of a monologue. This certainly isn’t how everyone journals, but it may make it easier to start the habit. (By the way, you should also worry about making journal entries in the AI tools, but Day One seems to be handling it right.)
- NewsBlur for Android. There aren’t enough good RSS readers for Android. NewsBlur is one of the best, and the new version has got a much-needed redesign as well as a bunch of new organization and search features. Might be my new favorite feed app on Android.
- “Cindy Cohn – Fighting for Digital Human Rights privacy protector” a wonderful, detailed daily show Segment with the head of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who turns in an incredibly understandable perspective on why privacy matters and what we can do to preserve it. A lot of the conversation about this has been weird and circular, but Cohn is very clear. I want to go study his book Now.
i am using deuceA note-taking and to-do list app, a lot over the years. app does one Very, But in a very direct way, and it’s exactly the way my brain works. All my problems with the app were with its design and its polish – the app never made me feel like it was done right.
Well, parker kleinThe developer of Tooze shipped a new version of the app this week that’s a big improvement in that regard. Every corner of the app feels cleaner and more refined, and I’ve been loving it in beta for the past few weeks. The wildest part? The whole thing was built with cloud code. Parker told me he’s basically not writing any code himself anymore – he’s streamlining the process, and deeply understands how the whole thing works, but is coding the cloud.
I asked Parker to share his AI setup with us to see what I could steal for my own projects. Here it is, and some details about it:
- “I use the cloud mac app On my MacBook Pro, on their Max plan. It works with directories and files directly on my computer, and then I commit to GitHub and deploy automatically. Sometimes, I use it Cloud Code Extension in VSCodeBut it kept crashing while working on new tools, so I switched to the cloud app.
- I currently use opus 4.6 and previously used auto mode cursor Unless they changed their price.
- “This picture shows the cloud on the right and the iOS simulator on the left. I was working on cropping photos for a custom wallpaper in New Toose’s Capture View. I use the same flow for Android and now the new web. You can see I use very simple language and let it do its thing.”
Parker said he doesn’t have any particular prompts he uses frequently, but he offered a clever tip: Ask the cloud to create its own documentation for larger features and architecture, and then share that documentation back with the tool when it’s time to work on bugs or new features. Saves a lot of “let me read all these files” time, and keeps everything much more organized.
I also asked Parker if he had any tips for new Toos, and he gave me the same one he always gives me: “My advice will probably never change. Write things down. We’re designed to capture anything quickly, so we’re optimizing for that. I still use chat heavily for lists, bookmarks, search, and recall, but they’re only useful if you’re writing things down.” Friends, he is not wrong.
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 each week. For more great recommendations, check out these answers This post on threads And This post on BlueSky.
“John Siracusa’s App hyperspace On the Mac App Store – Great for saving space on your Mac (but it doesn’t actually delete any files through its use of APFS). – Quack
“I found an awesome/amazing colorful e-ink photo frame: the Vidabay Snap. No wires, no batteries. Transfer exactly one (1) photo via NFC. This only works on iOS (for now?), I have to move a white image around to clean it thoroughly before converting the photo, and it’s very janky. But it’s good and it makes me happy. I want half a dozen of them.” — Daniel
“I’m playing crimson desertAmazing open world RPG with characters that have no personality and a main storyline with no diegetic quest delivery. But it’s gorgeous and massive, the combat is fun, and it lets you pick locusts off the field. Really feels like a next-gen Bethesda RPG, albeit with stale cracker bowl writing. -Jordan
“One of my favorite YouTube channels that I keep coming back to again and again Ryan’s edits. he takes star trek Blooper reels, mainly from tngand re-edits them into episodes, usually with appropriate music and sound effects. The results are absolutely hilarious and I would love to see an entire episode done this way. – Nicholas
“We recently watched this unexpectedly explosive documentary about extreme birdwatching called listers “It deserves more attention.” – Goods
“indie game works. Release of an excellent new book from ROM on the greatest indie games of the 21st century. -Andy
“Lately I’ve been mostly searching ‘how to use old phone as media server’ in Google and the cloud, and Reddit suggested I should try amby. It’s a little slow – maybe I should connect Ethernet to my TV – but it’s great!’ – Aftab
“I’m an avid fan of audiobooks and thought these recommendations might be of interest. demon circle Peter V. Brett’s series is an epic world of magic, monsters, and fantasy. A deep and fascinating cultural delight! Too, Stormlight Archive Brandon Sanderson’s series – the epitome of large-scale fantasy. The battlefield, gods and evil. What do you dislike!” – Brian
“I have recently given traveler An attempt to plan my family’s summer road trip. This made it easier to co-plan it with my husband. It also saved us from accidentally driving for 12 hours. Such a great tool!” – Naomi
Guinness World Records My new favorite thing on TikTok. I don’t know how I didn’t find it until this week, but it’s perfect: an endless feed of notable achievements, whether they be clap a billion times a minute, driving a truck through an impossibly small holeor bus to be a very big snake. Why are most of these records, or even things that people try, the way they are? Don’t know! But this whole concept is perfect for endlessly scrolling through short-form videos, and boy have I closed that account this week. Zero regrets.
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