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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 135 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, turn on the air conditioning. You can also read all the old issues on the site Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it Plunge cold and Colson Whitehead and Food truck mafiaFinally we got to the theater to see maniato watch Agency Because it’s apparently everyone’s favorite show, I nod sadly to Adam Conover’s video about it The death of sitcomsmaking a lot of noise while Sand Dunes: Part Three Tractor,test atlas As a visual magazine, you laugh endlessly at the new informationand slowly master the art of making s’mores on the grill.
I also have a cheap kit worth keeping, a pair of earbuds you might want to try, fun new toys for adults, and more.
And don’t forget that Tell me about your reading setup! I loved all your great Kindle tricks, your fun book shopping tricks, and the many ways to get things off the internet and put them on your reading device. Tell me more! I want to hear everything! More to come next week. For now, let’s get into it.
(As always, the best part of… Installer These are your thoughts and advice. What are you watching/reading/playing/listening/buying on Blu-ray 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.)
- iFixit Megalodon Driver Suite. It was last year Full With home repairs both small and large, I had to get a kit like this. It’s not a complete hardware repair kit (although iFixit has a good selection of those too), it’s more of a perfectly adequate collection of bits, adapters, and drivers for all the little repairs life requires. This and Huto screwdriver It’s basically my toolkit for moving forward.
- Earbuds None 3A. The wireless earbuds overall weren’t among the best you can get for $99. I’m also very intrigued by the new Audio Snapshot feature, which records a snippet of whatever you’re listening to — for me, it’ll mostly be podcast moments I want to remember — and syncs it to your phone. elegant! And it’s really nice to have it on the buds themselves.
- Ugmonk Analog Cards Variety Pack. I know there are a lot of analog fans in the Installerverse, and all the new card types look great for some pen and paper productivity. The more I tend to use the card daily to keep myself organized, the more I like it.
- gpt-live. AI Sound Modes has always struck me as both a good demo and an odd product. I don’t think aimlessly chatting with a chatbot is a good thing, and the bots didn’t work well anyway. By all accounts, this is a huge improvement and much more useful and less trying to be your best friend. Still too much active listening for my taste.
- “Apple USB-C Earpods review: Better than you think“. I’ve been screaming for years, to anyone who will listen, that everyone should have a pair or six of them Apple wired earbuds, $20. They sound good, the mic is great – they’re just a great pair of spare headphones. But don’t just believe me! Believe this great video from Adam Talks Tech, which has a lot of good tests.
- Blooms from Play-Doh. You can just imagine meeting at Hasbro. “Adults love Legos, don’t they? They’ll totally love Play-Doh too!” I have a three-year-old who loves this stuff, and I have to tell you: Logical paths. I don’t know if I was going to start arranging flowers? But there is something interesting here.
- Claude’s reflection. My colleague Hayden Field called it “Claude cabbage“, which is almost true. This is probably mostly a business analysis tool (Where did all those codes go??), but if these AI tools are part of our lives, a Screen Time-style report on how and how often we use them is probably a good idea, too.
- The man will burn. Oddly enough, I think understanding Burning Man is crucial to understanding this moment in technology, culture, and the world. This four-part series was created by people who love Burning Man, which certainly colors the doc — but at least the first episode shows off the place well.
- knockdown. A browser extension that tries to sort out junk Amazon brands from actual brands and helps you get to the best version of a product more quickly. It’s an incredible referendum on Amazon mandate, which is necessary, but… it’s absolutely necessary. Say goodbye to accidental purchases from brands called SKPVENT.
Ian Bogost He’s one of my favorite writers on technology, because he always seems to ask the right question: Is any of this new technology good for us as people? I have returned many times to His love letter to landlinesexplained by L Why email sucksAnd many more.
Ian has a book coming out this week called The Little Things: How to Live a More Satisfying Lifewhich answers the same question in a much broader and, frankly, more bizarre way. His argument is that we have completely lost touch with the world around us, both figuratively and literally, and that we need to find ways to regain it. To explain further would make me sound like your good friend talking about his hand, but that’s kind of the fun of it. (If you want to hear it, I am Ian was on vertcast This week, it was great. And kind of trippy.)
I asked Ian to share his home screen with us this week, but let him choose which device he wants to share. I wasn’t sure what he would choose as his digital home, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to use Homebridge! I like it, though. Here, plus some information about what it’s used for and why:
Device: This is the plugin page – which is similar to the apps page – for my home Homebridge stabilizing. Homebridge is server software that makes smart home devices that don’t work natively with Apple’s home automation app appear and work in the Apple Home app. It’s pretty weird, and requires an always-on server, so it’s not for everyone. But that seems to be the case for me.
wallpaper: Maybe you thought the answer was, “What’s the background?” But no, even the server software that no one sees allows customization. My device runs the orange theme in dark mode. (Other options include purple and deep purple. And I suppose I should also admit that orange is the default.)
Applications: A lot going on here. Association Allows me to control ceiling fans from Apple Home. Pico allows me to reprogram Otter Pizza Wall switch remotes to do anything I want – like control ceiling fans or open garage doors and gates.
Speaking of which, Garage Door Shelly1 links a Shelley continues I soldered up an old-school gate remote that’s not programmed for cycling, which opens the gate at the end of the alley behind my house, which means I can push a button on Carplay and it opens, my garage door, and my house open. Unifi protection It makes Ubiquiti security cameras appear on the home page – and also helps the doorbell work (long story). No cloud – I store all my camera footage locally on a 24TB RAID in the basement of my house. Having all this supposed surveillance makes my house seem more boring and less interesting – which is a theme I wrote about it Atlantic A few years ago.
I also asked Ian to share some of the things he’s interested in now. Here’s what he sent back:
- the r/strangely satisfactory com.subreddit.
- He asks ChatGPT To help with home repairs.
- Backgammon game (Just a tabletop set, with a hard enameled surface that makes the dice dance and spin in a satisfying way).
- Power over Ethernet (POE) Traitor.
- mad menthe best fictional TV show ever, which I rewatched for the second time this summer.
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.
“Re-reading Neuromancer Follow Apple TV devices Latest teaser. Edge Exactly true on Apple TV Crush sci-fi shows” – Austin
“I’m playing a new puzzle game 4 x 3” – Rohit
“Really loving Mike HurleyIt’s hard to choose just one, but it’s him Designed in California A Kickstarter project with Jason Snell about the history of Apple has completed, raising $300,000. Really amazing! —Rawan
“I spent a few hours setting up a new website Brother printer For my mother. It’s like the opposite of enshittification. Reasonable prices and prints only. It shouldn’t be a breath of fresh air, but it is.” —Ben
“An excellent read so far but bittersweet Clara and the sun By Kazuo Ishiguro, ahead of the release of Taika Waititi’s film version in October. – Hunter Complex
“I took mine Sony Aibo ERS210 From my mother’s attic to bring back to the United States. But it wouldn’t fit in my luggage…so I’ll need to come up with another plan. — Bart
“This video is about evolution Western musical scales and notation Not only was it great, but the production value was off the charts. Highly recommended even if you don’t know a lot of music theory! – Jordan
“New The ghost in the shell The anime on Amazon Prime is fantastic, identical to the manga and produced by the same studio that made it Dan da dan! Only one episode has been released so far but I’m already blown away. – Rayyan
“”The story behind the notorious Jedi problem in the Star Wars galaxy.’ Best interview/video I’ve seen on YouTube in a while. It’s a great story of software development for millions of users. Specifically, the central role that psychology plays, and whether the best interests of users and corporate incentives can be reconciled. —Gestal
This week’s sad product news is that TV Time, a a lot From people who use to find and track their favorite shows, The operation is turned off. You only have until July 15 (next Wednesday) to submit your data. Better news: every other app in this category since has created a TV Time importer! You can import your data into a service like JustWatch, or use your favorite Installerverse media tracker like Tract, sofaor sequelThey all have importers. Make sure you do all of this as quickly as possible, because losing years of tracking data would be really bad. Hopefully this will be the last of these apps to disappear for a long time to come.
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