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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 130 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, don’t forget to hydrate, and you can also read all the old editions at Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it Victor Wimbanyama and Jung and Pearls of Wisdom Merlin Mannsee more of Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals Than I expected, watching road also a lot videos About lighting a home studio, spending long hours adjusting settings Vivaldi,Cleaning up my late Google images library, and finally – finally – Organizing my home office. Nest.
I also have the best new Bond game in years, a major update to the iconic smart ring, a new entry in the Spider-Verse, and much more. Let’s do this.
(As always, the best part of… Installer These are your thoughts and advice. What are you watching/reading/playing/downloading/cutting into pretty shapes this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy it InstallerSend it to them and let them know Subscribe here.)
- 007 first light. I’ve played a lot of James Bond games over the years, and have been disappointed by most of them. (At least since then Golden eyeone of the best games ever.) By almost any measure, this is the Bond game we’ve all been waiting for. I have no idea how I will wait for the Switch 2 version to be released.
- Oura ring 5. My main issue with the Oura Ring has always been its size – it is only Big enough that it seems to blend into everything when I wear it, and I never get used to it. The new version has some smart new features, but it’s also lighter and smaller. This is a big win in itself.
- Black spider. The Spider-Verse movies remain some of the coolest and most innovative superhero movies I’ve seen in years. This new show looks quite stylish, but maybe it’s a little short on substance… I’ll keep watching, though.
- Halide Mark III. Halide is still the gold standard for third-party camera apps, and the new update is coming A very useful feature: You can now take RAW images with other cameras and use Halide to process them with Halide’s fantastic new range of filters and presets. Halide is a much better photo editor than me, I’ll tell you that.
- Sennheiser Momentum 5. Perhaps Sennheiser deserves more shine in the world of headphones. I know a a lot From people who love the Momentum 4s, the new model comes with longer battery life, better noise cancellation, and a user-upgradable battery. It’s very interesting to try these headphones when they ship next month, especially to see if the ANC can really handle the Sony and Bose.
- Mina Al-Jouf. According to uh everyone, this might be the best game of the year so far. It comes from the developer behind Shovel knightand people compare it to some of the greatest games ever. It’s a fairly simple-looking game that’s hiding something huge and ambitious, and I can’t wait to dive into it.
- Back rooms. I don’t know if you should watch Kane Parsons’ brilliant and innovative YouTube series before you see the movie he turned those clips into, or if you should go into the movie not knowing what’s coming. Either way, this is a great story between YouTube and Hollywood, and a horror film not to be missed.
- Spotify articles. A collection of curated, narrated and long-form journalism, and Premium users can listen to a few of them for free each month. There are some strange essay selections here, but there are also some real classics, including Searching for the great cocaine treasure.
- Star City. For all humanity is a long-time favorite show here in the Installerverse, so this Soviet Union-focused spin-off may already be on your watch list. From what I’ve heard, it’s not quite right FamStandard, but cool space stuff keeps coming, and I’m here for all of it.
- Ferrari los. This must be the most expensive thing in history Installerright? I really don’t care about the look of Ferrari’s first electric car (and apparently… Nor anyone else), but there are some really cool things going on inside it. If you want to take me on your trip, I won’t complain.
I love shop talking to you Daniel Stussy. Danielle is the product manager for Edgewhich means she spends her days thinking about and working on ways to make our experience, and the entire experience of journalism and storytelling on the web, better. (There’s also a non-zero chance of running into Danielle, now that I think about it – she spends a lot of time talking to people in… edge community on how to serve them better.) Danielle has led a lot of the work behind our new homepage, and she has a bunch of super cool new features up her sleeve too. Including one, coming soon, that I know will make a lot of us very happy.
Anyway, I asked Danielle to share her home screen with us, curious to see what that was all about edge Nerds are the same thing or whether, as a productive person, she may have a completely different concept of her phone. It turns out a little bit of both! This is Danielle’s home screen, plus some information about which apps she uses and why:
Phone: iPhone 14 Pro in deep purple. I’m about to get a promotion, but I’ll hold out for this one a little longer. Fun fact: I bought it while living in Australia when the 14 Pro debuted, so I ended up with the UK version which has one eSIM and one physical SIM. Getting back to the US with my phone numbers was a nightmare.
wallpaper: Mixing pictures for my son!
Applications: Settings, Google Maps, Photos, Camera, ChatGPT, Google, Chrome, Brave, Calendar, Apple Notes, Find My, CareConnect, Phone, Messages, Spotify, Mail.
I try to spend less time on my phone by making it almost entirely utilitarian and boring.
I use Spotify for podcasts and music. I’ve been a huge Spotify fan for ages. I’ve been teaching fitness for a decade and Spotify has been my assistant teacher. Definitely not a fan of the 20th anniversary icon…
I love Hatch Sound machine for my little boy. The app is pretty decent. I love setting the tone for my baby’s bedtime routine.
I also asked Danielle to share some of the things she’s interested in right now. Here’s what I sent back:
- Death by lightning. I just finished. I loved.
- ChatPRD. An AI tool for product managers, created by Claire Fu, who was an interesting person to follow also in the project management/AI space. I use it mostly for rubber dodging and processing my product ideas.
- the Techno sapiens Newsletter. Evidence-based guidance for parenting in the digital age. This is an accessible newsletter by Jacqueline Nessie, a clinical psychologist and professor at Brown University. It makes me feel… better raising a kid around this much technology.
- Tomato gardening. Fortunately, I live on the central coast of California, where tomatoes practically grow themselves. I’ve got 13 plants this year: survivors from last season, volunteers, and some extras purchased from the Ag department at our local university. I grow Tasmanian Chocolate, Bodacious, Beauty King, etc, all of which are strictly tracked in very Serious Google Sheets Matrix Cultivation.
Here’s what Installer community this week. I want to know what you’re up to now too! Email installer@theverge.com Or send me a message 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 the responses to This post is on topics and This post is on Bluesky.
“I’ve finally arrived Indiana Jones and the Grand Circle On PS5. It’s a fun adventure game, very well executed and has puzzles with just the right amount of challenge. Scratches it unknown itch. Really dig it. – Colin
“As storage prices continue to skyrocket, I’m rediscovering burning files/images to CDs and DCDs with ImageBurn Software.” – Allen
“Think about the vision mania At the cinema again after being impressed (for free) upon first viewing. – how
“I’m currently obsessed with playing Pursuit: Overtime In Early Access on Steam. It’s an absolute blast. Retro theme, dystopian, Blade Runner– A very addictive side-scrolling/shooter/platform game. -Kent
“With the death of Allbirds, I was reeling Ovos Tennis shoes, which are great shoes for recovery at the beach, the office, and definitely after long weekend hikes. -Jimmy
“I’ve just finished Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, 1952. Pianistabout a near-future dystopia where automation has displaced all workers and engineers and management live a luxurious life despite not actually doing anything. Nothing relevant there!! -Andy
“I bought a Kobo Clara PW In January I try to read more and scroll less. I’ve been pretty successful at achieving this goal so far, but I would recommend High red Book series by Pierce Brown. I’m on the third book Morning starWhich is great so far. Featuring sci-fi, romance, and societal commentary, this is an excellent series with a spiraling plot! I’m really enjoying it so far, and it’s been fun reading it on my Kobo. —James
“I watched Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Yesterday movie. The series could have only been two episodes, but it was good. -Justin
“I downloaded Poppy but I find it very verbose and incorrect at times. A few months ago I came across it additionalthe first AI application for emails and calendaring. It’s finally out of beta and I’m really liking it. ” – Jay
Spotify page matching The feature is my favorite new tech thing forever. You can use it by taking a photo of your book, on paper or on an e-reader, and Spotify will detect where you are in the book and instantly pick up the audiobook in the right place. It can also do the opposite, directing you to the correct page in your book. He – she rules.
I have Spotify Premium, so I get a bunch of hours of audiobooks for free every month, and being able to easily switch between reading and listening has helped me get through books much faster. Read in bed; Listen while I walk the dog. Read on the couch. Listen while I fold the laundry. I can’t recommend him enough.
Also: Listening to audiobooks is reading. I will not take questions. Yay audiobooks! See you next week!
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