Hello friends! you are welcome installer Number 127, your guide to the best and the verge-The best stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to My Scorpion Challenges Your Sub-Zero to a Duel, and you can also read all the older versions installer home page.)
This week, I’m reading about Hasan Pikar And lines And david sax And sleep learningCatch internal management and (for me) and young jedi adventures (for my child), while meditating Thousands of new Artemis II photospossibly listening for several hours Longest YouTube video everthanks for more walks Pedometer++ 8.0losing my mind every second every arsenal matchand spending too much time setting the scene with colored light In my basement.
I have an exciting comeback for you, a great workout app, a concert doc you won’t want to miss, a new fun-sounding new board game, a book about creativity, and much more. Let’s join in.
(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.)
- zombies, run! One of my all-time favorite fitness apps slash adventure games is back with new stories for the first time in forever. The story of the game’s rebirth is pretty amazing, and I can’t wait to start running towards the game again. (That’s really what I mean! Wild!)
- Boox Tappy. Nifty little assistant for tapping and scrolling on your e-reader, kind of like the Kobo remote but actually significantly more capable (and probably hackable, in a good way). These page-turners are the kind of accessory you never think about until you have one and then instantly it becomes impossible to live without it.
- Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. The latest James Cameron film is…wait…a concert documentary? Strange! Apparently also amazing. It’s shot in 3D, in a way that everyone agrees works perfectly, and it seems to have the immersive effect that everyone thought we’d only get in VR. I may need to see it in theaters.
- remarkable paper net. Probably the most exciting e ink notepad on the market. $399 is a very good price for this category, and Remarkable made all the right decisions – more memory, more storage, no expensive and/or bad color screen. I’m going to buy one of these, I can tell.
- Bose Lifestyle Ultra. Is it strange that I forgot about Bose? It definitely makes good headphones, but it feels like the brand has lost its luster a bit. However, this new speaker lineup looks really cool — and I like that it’s an entire speaker system that’s designed to work with the streaming apps you already use, not just add another one to your phone.
- Mortal Kombat II. Honestly, I don’t know what you want from this movie other than a ton of bad action scenes, incredibly mediocre dialogue, and an overly dramatic story. Is it a great movie? Probably not. The first time someone says “Kill him!” So will I cheer louder? you betcha.
- mixtape. This style of game – like a video game, like a movie, mostly hanging – is In fact It’s hard to get right. I often get bored very quickly. But the pieces I have played so far, mixtape It has such great music and such good writing that I never get tired of it at all.
- Game Changer: Home Edition. Big week for all us Dropout contestants! Have some fun in this new board game, skull-style, each game structure has a different energy and looks like it would fit in with most family game nights. It’s a Kickstarter, which always comes with risk, but I’m already making room for it in my game cabinet.
- Inside the Box: How Obstacles Make Us Better. All of David Epstein’s books are excellent, but this set of stories about the importance of boundaries (and the dangers of having none) is packed with material I suspect you’ll find engaging. there is also a great piece in wiredAbout the team at General Magic that basically invented the iPhone just 10 years ago.
Adam Molina has great taste in everything. He’s the productivity geek I nod to during wave Podcast (which he produces), he’s always sharing good stuff great supply Newsletter, and it looks like he has basically the same watch collection I aspire to. what i’m saying is perfect installer-Temptation.
Adam’s always been on my screen share list, but I thought this week was the best week – Adam recently launched an app called color snapWhich gives you a color every day and challenges you to take a picture of that same color in the real world. Great idea, super fun app, I suspect you’ll love it too. And a perfect excuse to share whatever Adam is loving right now.
Here’s Adam’s homescreen, along with some information about the apps he uses and why:
phone: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Wallpaper: A photo that someone posted on a thread of the ceiling of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Rome.
Apps: Signal, WhatsApp, Pocket Casts, Color Snap, Gradient Weather, Google Translate, Spotify, and YouTube.
My phone philosophy is that everything should be at most a swipe and a tap away. The first page is about quick access to my most used apps, and the second is about quick information. Then I use an app called button mapper It turns all the physical buttons on my phone into action buttons so I can access even more by holding or double-tapping. For example, holding volume up for a long time launches my Home Note obsidian. I obviously spend a lot of time thinking about all this when I don’t have any subway service.
The first page is just for my most used apps. I have the usual suspects like YouTube, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. I also like the new one very much gradually weather The app that was shown installer a few weeks ago. Then WhatsApp/Signal for messaging, Google Translate – which has a new Duolingo competitor built-in that I’m using – and my own app, Color Snap (shameless plug). Color Snap is the reason I have a little white widget on my homescreen: the color changes every day, and you have to find that color in the real world and take a picture of it. I wanted to challenge myself to take more photos and this seemed like a fun way to do it. (It’s Android only right now, but I promise an iOS version is coming soon.)
The second page is all about quick-view information and controls. So changing songs, changing podcasts, or just looking at what’s on my calendar today.
I also asked Adam to share some of the things he’s currently involved in. Here’s what he sent back:
- I was super into anime in high school, so I’ve been trying to get back into it recently, and currently the thing I’m obsessed with is Freeren: Beyond the End of the Journey. I just finished it last week and I’m already halfway through rewatching it. Highly recommend this if you’re into fantasy/anime.
- I recently discovered a new podcast called simple and clearone who dives deep Kingdom Hearts game. This has become my favorite walking-the-dog podcast.
- One YouTuber I’m crazy about right now is @halfoff8. He’s a designer who is turning his beautifully crafted journal entries into beautifully crafted Blender videos that are less than 5 minutes long. He doesn’t post often, but they’re all bangers.
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.
“I recently purchased an M5 MacBook Air – my first Mac laptop! One transition hurdle from Windows was the lack of a native ‘Always on Top’ feature, which I relied on heavily, through Microsoft PowerToys. After searching for a MacOS alternative, I found Light. This allows me to focus on my primary tasks while keeping the video feed or conversation easily accessible. -Travis
“I don’t know how I missed stop and catch fireBut we just finished the last last episode and wow. I wish there was more like this: character development, not to mention different amazing camera angles and shots. Amazing all around.” – Mark
“Checkout the app stop it On Android. It’s like a brick on iOS, which completely blocks you from your phone until the timer completes.” -Gaurav
“Really enjoying the new season hacksAnd there’s that weird combination of cozy/secondhand embarrassment chickenBoth on HBO Max.” — pegasusisme
“I’ve put several campaigns’ worth of D&D characters into Tomadachi Life: Living the DreamAnd now it’s my responsibility to tell the players about all the plays that have happened since.” – Nicholas
“I am playing very well.” maptap” – JD
“Unfortunately I have failed to play again timberbornAn adorable beaver-themed survival city builder (which recently had a 1.0 release!), that ranges from small scenic farms to massive infrastructure projects with water physics. It’s so addicting, and those otters are so cute.” – Olof
“Just got it Gamesor Pocket Taco And rediscovering a ton of amazing GBA games. right now i’m really into it metroid fusion!” – Sajishnu
“I’m messing around VirkenA project by Davey Ottenheimer (formerly of Inrupt). An OpenCL-style LLM portal that is private by design. Nice project!” – Rich
“I hacked my Nintendo Switch a few months ago (you’ll definitely need some comfort in tearing it apart to do this) and I’ve been holding on to some old 3DS games, thanks retroarchPerfect for the Switch format. -Gabriel
I know I’ve mentioned this here before, but I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately and have tried a lot of different things to help me sleep. an episode of Office In the background it’s often just what my brain needs to calm down; like the podcast sleeping with celebrities Do this also. The problem is that I sleep in the bed with someone else who has much less interest in late-night noise than I do. As a result, I’m constantly sleeping with AirPods in and waking up with one either stuck in my ear or lost somewhere between the covers. Am I the only one facing this dilemma? Do I buy dedicated? sleep headphones? one of them funny speaker pillow sayings? Maybe I need to convince my wife to love the people at Dunder Mifflin as much as I do. This is probably the easiest answer. If you have a better one, I’m all ears.
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