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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 125 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, send me your cereal recommendations, and you can also read all the old issues on the site Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it NASA seamstresses and friction and Muskiah and Scootershighlighting the heck of it A wonderful new short story by Jeff VanderMeer,listen to anatomy The new season of the podcast is all about Daft Punk and giving back Firefox Another round as my favorite surfer, which blew my mind Great music video directorsAnd he nods his head John Oliver on prediction markets. I’ve also been dealing with sick kids and a bunch of emergency electrical work so my house doesn’t burn down. Fun times! And also the reason we’re doing merciless self-promotion week next week – which is to keep reviewing all your emails, thanks again to everyone who wrote in!
I also have some very exciting new computer equipment, a spring movie to watch, a couple of really useful new AI apps, a high-tech postcard, and much more. let’s do it.
(As always, the best part of… Installer These are your thoughts and advice. What are you reading/watching/playing/listening to/dunking on hummus 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.)
- Laptop frame 13 pro. I love the whole Framework thesis that computers should be more upgradable and repairable. For the first time, it looks like they’ve also made a truly real laptop Nice – good. If this thing lives up to its spec sheet, and our first impressions, it’ll be a big winner for Linux and Windows users.
- Laptop frame sleeve. I love a good laptop holder, and this one — especially the silver model, which isn’t duct tape but looks just like duct tape — is a great one. It’s obviously designed for Framework gear, but it should fit a lot of other laptops too.
- Stranger Things: Tales from ’85. I feel compelled to tell you about this new animated show on Netflix — because, you know, Stranger Things — even though it’s not very good by any standards. If you watch it anyway because you can’t get enough of the Hawkins gang, know that I get it.
- New things. Our dear friend Joanna Stern just started her newsletter/YouTube channel/everything, and it’s already so much fun and joy, Joanna Way. Go subscribe! And stay tuned, because we’ll be bringing Joanna back into this space one way or another.
- additional. As I got worse at maintaining my email inbox, I became more and more drawn to the possibility of managing it using AI. Using Extra requires a complete rethink of the purpose of your email, but I find it’s full of smart organizational ideas.
- Amnesty International note. These smart transcription apps are a dime a dozen now, but this one has a few things going for it. Firstly, it was created by the developer of NotePlan, which means it is carefully designed and really smart. Two, it is fast. So far, speed has been the difference between AI tools I quickly abandon and AI tools I continue to use.
- Vampire reptiles. Every now and then, all my gamer friends drop off the face of the earth for a few days, because they’re all obsessed with some new game. It’s happening now, and all because of this very addictive old-fashioned deck building game. Maybe I shouldn’t get into this game. I’m going to get into this game.
- Classic Govee Table Lamp. Half the power is currently out in my house, which makes this type of product — a smart bulb that can be plugged in or portable — incredibly useful. Overall, I find Govee products to be almost as good as Hue, and much cheaper. Not a bad combo.
- Spotify Cloud Connector. If you’re skeptical or nervous about trying AI tools, here’s my advice: connect one to Spotify. (ChatGPT has had a link for a while, and Claude got it this week.) It’s a fun, useful, and surprising way to organize and discover music.
Every 25 or so issues in this space, I like to share my home screen. As the Head of Experience at the Installerverse, I’m always trying out new systems, new apps, and new ways of doing everything. Plus it’s a fun record for me where my thinking is.
at the moment? My thoughts seem to be… everywhere. This is as disorganized as I’ve ever been, on a bunch of different levels. My home screen isn’t intentionally organized, so much as it’s just a record of my phone’s recent habits. (I also have a lot of unread stuff.) Here it is, as of this week:
Phone: iPhone 17. I love color wise, I am Kind of annoying I’m still an iPhone user, but here we are.
wallpaper: blue. I’ve had a solid black background for a long time, so I guess this is sprucing things up? Honestly, it’s too bright, especially at night – need to go back to all black.
Applications: Coffee pool, RB CollegeMemo AI, Craft, DualShot Recorder, Todoist, Google Maps, MyMind, Obsidian, Readwise Reader, Phone, Pocket CAsts, Spotify, Camera, Messages, Notion Calendar, I’m vibe-coding app, Arc.
Some of these are basic materials: The wise reader, Pocket cast, Mindand bracket They’re all apps I’ve used for a long time and am very happy with them. The rest are all experimental in one way or another.
I’m a long time fan Retro bowl, It’s basically a perfect mobile game, so of course I jumped into it College football game. I’m also a long-time fan Golf coffeea fun game you can play for a few minutes a day, and Billiards shooting version Completely satisfactory. I don’t usually have games on my home screen, so these probably won’t stay here forever.
As you can probably see, I’m in a productivity app crisis. craft, Obsidian, Amnesty International note, Todoistuntil Conceptual evaluation -I’ve tried them all, and many more (eg Workflow, twoand NotePlan) to see if I can find a new system that works. My life now has a lot more deadlines than it normally does, so I’m looking at some of the ideas behind time blocking to see if maximizing my schedule works for me. So far… sort of.
(And also, that nine-dot app? I hate the icon, thanks for nothing, Cloud Code, but it’s the beginnings of a tool I’m trying to build to bring all this stuff together for me. It won’t be useful to anyone in particular, but I’m excited about it. More on that next week.)
Finally, if you shoot a lot of video and don’t try DualShot recorderChange that as soon as possible. It captures horizontal and vertical videos simultaneously, which is simple and great whether you’re a content creator or just trying to get your kids’ videos to the right aspect ratio. it’s not completely My default camera app so far, but it might get there. Best $10 I’ve spent on an app in a long time.
Oh, and the tools: Notion Calendar, you know, good. Peak weather He is amazing. It’s made by the people who built Dark Sky, and it has the same ability to tell me everything I need to know — the weather, the probability of rain, the probability that the forecast will be wrong, and in fact it’s true He is It’s going to rain – in about two seconds. Already my favorite weather app.
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 love Earth.fm program. I’ve never felt like Soundscape apps helped me focus or relax, but these natural field recordings are the sweet spot for me. It’s a nice app too! – son
“I know I’m late to the party, but I started using Nvidia GeForce Now – This thing is incredible on the iPad Pro. – Jean Francois
“Check out you had Application for Android. It’s like reckless But for Android. It’s in early access – beautiful design. – Guarav
“Absolutely adorable Mike, Nick, Nick and Alice. One of my best films this year. Hilarious and great work. There’s a 5-minute argument between grown men about who’s the best friend on Gilmore Girls. It’s Logan by the way. -Justin
“Just snapped Aoun AC55 Clip-on-Ear Headphones Recently I wanted to stress that this style of headphones is still rocking, didn’t really die out after the 90s/00s along with American Hi-Fi, and offers an excellent alternative (along with flat earphones) to large over-ear sets and IEMS. the Cos KSC75 is the venerable affordable range of this model, but Aune is breaking new ground with some very high-end collections. – Brian
“It’s played enclose.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 did a YouTube video about Great games for adults without time. Really great recommendations. Vampire survivors and Dredge In particular, they’re both great and both are built into Apple Arcade. -Witzki
“It’s called a new, all-native font manager Becca macOS dropped this week, and us design nerds are pretty concerned about it. – Pedro
“Space Design Warehouse is an under the radar Mac YouTube channel phenomenon. Host Nicholas Johnson will obsess over specs and tests as much as you want, while keeping them accessible and fun. Everyone’s episode features a Mac on fire and a Dunkin’ Donuts, so I’m not sure what else you might want. He also does innovative things like having a secondary audio track in certain videos where he just paraphrases what he’s thinking. —Clinton
The funniest thing that’s happened to my YouTube over the past few months. In the context of research stories and Release date Episodes, I spent a lot of time watching very old videos on YouTube – and this apparently convinced the YouTube algorithm to send me more Really old YouTube videos! Recently I’ve been reminded of some great things The most epic rap battles in historyAnd some first class Lonely Island ShortsAn iconic clip from Jay-Z and Timbaland in the studioAnd even Charlie the unicorn. Early YouTube was a great time. Mostly a very good idea.
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