An early contender for Movie of the Year


Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 120 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready to pen opinions, and you can also read all the old editions at Installer Home.)

This week I was reading about it Banksy and Music applications and Influential agentsWatch Netflix docs about Atmosphere and Hot red pepperamazed Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco write the songsEnjoy Young Sherlock More than I expected, subscribe right away Joanna Stern’s New Tech Channelusing Sleep with me A podcast to fall asleep to, and make lots of cake with Costco’s unbeatable combination.

I also have a movie to watch this weekend, some fun new ways to play with AI, a fun, innovative piece of furniture, and much more. Let’s do this? Let’s do this.

(As always, the best part of… Installer These are your thoughts and advice. What are you watching/reading/listening to/playing/sticking to the wall with thumbtacks 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.)

  • Hail Mary project. According to everyone I know and read, you need to see this movie. In a theater. As soon as humanly possible. I admit I didn’t like the book as much as I do Martian -I loved both this book and the movie – but I’m still getting tickets to this book this weekend.
  • AirPods Max 2. genuinely? It’s infuriating to me that Apple would update these headphones without making them lighter or fixing that stupid charging case. But, in the sense that these “AirPods Max are just better,” they’re better in a bunch of really useful ways. Just, I mean, this issue. Come here.
  • Jury duty Season two. The first season was one of the joys of my recent TV history, so much so that I still think it was too good to be true. Looks like they pulled it back! The preparation this time is a retreat for the company, and I am fully prepared for it.
  • Netlify.new. I recently discovered Netlify, an amazingly simple way to deploy web applications. The platform’s newest feature — integrating AI agents so you can also create an app with a prompt — works surprisingly well, and is a fun way to spaghetti with some functional software actually coded.
  • The BoxGo 10.3 2nd generation. A nice update to the great e-reader. You get a fresh version of Android, beautiful front lighting (if you buy the Lumi model, which you should), and, as always, all the Android apps you can afford on the E Ink screen.
  • Laundry chair. Nobody does it like Simon Gertz. This project is so fun and a little old-fashioned also Shockingly practical! I’m forever guilty of throwing my clothes on a chair, and the idea of ​​organizing that mess a little without having to actually clean up is very appealing. (This is technically from last week, but I missed it, so I decided to share it.)
  • Claude Cowork Dispatch. Another day, another OpenClaw but less dangerous. I’m fascinated by how much messaging apps have become an interface for these AI agents, and how powerful the things people want to do from their phones are.
  • Building Google Artificial Intelligence Studio. Big swing at Claude Code, Gemini style. I’ve heard good things about what people are building (and I’m also hearing good things about it stitchthe company’s new AI design system). It looks like we’re headed toward a really interesting three-way battle to become your go-to AI app.

When I asked you for pen and notebook recommendations, I didn’t expect that amazing How many recommendations will I get! (Obviously I should have, the lesson as always is to never underestimate the Installerverse.) Since my screen sharing guy has been failing all week, and I’ve gotten a lot of good stuff, let’s do an impromptu group project.

As you kind of expected, everyone has a favorite notebook and pen, and there are a million good options out there. (Shoutout to Tim, who directed me to… Japanese stationery awardsan absolute goldmine of great organization and productive stuff, and to Omar for sending it to me Peter MacKinnon’s setting is very inspiring.) But there are a few products and brands that showed up a lot in my inbox this week:

  • Al-Manara 1917. The biggest winner in my inbox this week was this German company, which… Classic notebooks He seems to be pretty much universally loved. They come in many sizes and colors, but I’ve heard the largest is the A5 size. I bought a couple.
  • Field notes. There’s no particular surprise here — no one makes notebooks as small, sturdy, and well-designed as Field Notes does. A few of you mentioned using these as disposable accompaniments to larger, more permanent notebooks, and I really like that idea.
  • Baronvig. A bunch of you love it Confidant A notebook, which is also one I’ve used and liked in the past. I got a number of votes for Square Also the pen, which is $65, but you swear it’s worth it.
  • Almosafer Company. This is a completely new brand to me, but it doesn’t just have popular notebooks, it has a whole ecosystem of accessories, charms, stands and clips, so you can completely over-engineer your own notebook setup. Very much my kind of thing.

The pens were more diverse. Below are a bunch of recommendations I got, and to my surprise, most of them are much cheaper than I expected! It turns out that you can just go to the store and buy a very good pen. I don’t know anything Regarding pens, here are a few recommendations I got:

She’s also shared a lot of good tips and tricks, some of which I’ve already taken to heart. Thicker paper is better; Dot grid notebooks are an excellent all-rounder; Don’t try to build a completely beautiful system at first; Do not use a full fountain pen until you are ready to use a full fountain pen. I appreciate everyone who took the time to share systems and recommendations, and when my package gets here, I think I’ll try it… well, no Full Analog, but at least a little more Analogue. I’m so excited about it.

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 just finished Part 1 of 13 Fela Kuti: Do not be afraid of anyonewhich completely passed me by until I saw it on both The New Yorker‘sand The GuardianEnd of year podcast lists.” -Richard

“Unfortunately, I’ve become a little obsessed Wikipedia gachaThe new Wikipedia card collecting game. – Unix

“I was playing with a 10-year-old Olympus Light Pen E-PL8taken on Map Camera, Tokyo. Small enough to carry every day, but large enough (with a Micro Four Thirds sensor) to take much better photos than the iPhone. And with the old silver-tinted lens, it’s even more adorable! – Brian

“I just found out something Reignite The site that adds a ton of tools/games/utilities to your Kindle device through the browser in an e-ink friendly webpage! -Andrew

“I’m watching The fall and rise of Reggie Dinkins (Basically 30 Rock) and Scrubs (literally Scrubs) So I’m desperately trying to trick my brain into thinking it’s 2008. -Zach

“Since 1Password increased the price, I tried strongbox And it’s more beautiful.” – Sergey

“After what seemed like a street-level advertising blitz last Friday, I resumed the conversation The decline of esotericism on Steam and proceeded to spend most of my weekend playing it! I didn’t play Disco Elysium So far, but I hear that’s very much in this context of gaming. We highly recommend jumping into the shoes of The Cleric to find out what happened to the teahouse, as well as who to vote for. —Adam

“I recently discovered the daily illustration that accompanies each now communication The puzzle can be accessed by clicking on the lightbulb icon at the top of the puzzle. It gives a little hint or two about the solution in a really cool creative way. Even if I don’t need to use it for help, I enjoy checking it every day and find it strangely soothing! —Tom

I’ve worn an Apple Watch for years. Then I got one of Pebble 2 new duowhich I love! Except I don’t like how it looks. I also want to use less technology on my body at all times, so I’m back in the market for wearing a watch that’s relatively not luxurious but also not ugly. Surprisingly hard to find!

By far, the best part of my trip was going down the rabbit hole Moders Casio: Watchmakers are deconstructing these simple digital watches and updating them in various ways. Sometimes they get new features, other times they get torn down and completely rebuilt from scratch. I’ve been staring at you This is a modification of the A700 All week, I’m in love with Adam Savage watch from Casio Royale. The modding community is so fun and full of good ideas, I have a feeling by the end of this I’ll have quite a few hours left. None of them are fancy, though.

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