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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 106 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, Happy Thanksgiving Week, and you can also read all the old issues on the site Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it Prediction markets and Hilary Duff and Bellone died and yeastmake room for Steam machinePlaying News Tower Thanks Stephen Totilo’s recommendationchecking to make sure I remember all evil Words (I do, don’t worry) before we see For good, Ditching my fantasy football team and recording season 2 of Release date. It’s fun.
I also have a new way to use my Windows computer, a new Google MBA, a documentary that will take up an entire weekend in the best way, and much more.
(As always, the best part of… Installer These are your thoughts and advice. What are you reading/watching/playing/building/eating 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.)
- RayCast for Windows. Raycast — a player, clipboard manager, shortcut system, and more — is the first app I install on any new Mac. And now it’s finally available on Windows too! it’s not completely On par with the Mac app in this public beta, but it’s pretty close, and I suspect it will make a lot of things about your PC better.
- Kirby Air Riders. I don’t think anyone expected this game, a Switch 2 sequel to a delightful and very strange GameCube title. It’s a racing game, a battle game, and it doesn’t let you do much but also seems to be full of chaos and mayhem all the time. Perfect combo, if you ask me.
- Marvel’s Deadpool VR. I can’t remember the last time a new VR game knocked my quest off its charging dock. But this movie, with Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of Deadpool and plenty of crazy movie action energy, might keep me playing again.
- Gemini 3. Google’s LLM seems to be among the best all-purpose models available today, and you can use it practically everywhere. It’s in the app, it’s in the search, and you can use it to create apps and visuals and all sorts of things. Google…may be the winner.
- Samsung smart keyboard. This ultra-small, ultra-light keyboard is a great travel accessory – bring it with your phone or tablet, and you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in a short time without needing your laptop. You can find models for cheaper than $110, which will cost you a lot, but the size and weight are hard to beat.
- Comet for Android. All AI browsers seem to be starting on Apple devices — and mostly just Macs — so it’s good to see them spreading to the rest of the ecosystem. Summaries and quick answers are actually a killer use case for a mobile browser.
- American Revolution. Ken Burns alert! This comes at an opportune time, as Burns delivers a 12-hour history lesson on how the United States of America was created. Even the parts I’ve seen are complicated and would piss some people off – but no one does it like Burns does.
- “NASA shares images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS“. NBD, just a collection of data and images about a comet it is traveling from Another strange solar system. This stream is an hour long but it’s totally worth it, and it’s there Great explanation And on NASA’s website as well.
- 3D analog. I’ve been waiting for this thing – a Nintendo 64-based analog controller – for so long I’ve given up hope that it will ever ship. But now it’s shipping! The reviews are excellent, the games are plentiful, the only problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to stay in stock.
At this point, my most used device other than my phone is the Boox Palma. If you’ve been reading this newsletter, or my other work, for a while, This won’t surprise you. As a result, over the past couple of years I’ve become a Palma guide for a lot of people – and it turns out I’m not the only one who believes in the idea of a more focused, simpler device that fits in my pocket.
I just reviewed the new one Palma 2 Pro (Which I was both excited about and very disappointed about), so I had the opportunity to rethink my use of Palma. I like where my new home screen ended up, and I brought it back to Palma 2 I still love. I thought I’d share. Here is:
(Funny thing about this screenshot: It doesn’t look like that on my device! It’s black and white on the Palma’s e-ink screen. It looks much better that way.)
wallpaper: It’s called “Tree,” and it’s one of the built-in wallpapers. It’s been empty for a while, but this feels better to me for some reason.
Applications: Cloud, NYT Games, MyMind, Libby, Roku, Kindle, Readwise Reader, Workflowy, Spotify, Pocket Casts.
It’s pretty straightforward, really. Kindle and Libby for reading books, and a reader for articles. Spotify for listening to music, and Pocket Casts for podcasts. (I He hates Spotify as a podcast app.) Workflowy for taking quick notes (it’s a very sparse app, perfect on the E Ink screen), and MyMind for saving quotes, screenshots, and other snippets of things you’ve come across. NYT games because that’s what I do in bed and this thing mostly lives next to my bed. Claude, in case you need to look up something, I will do anything to avoid too much writing on Palma. And the Roku as a backup remote for the TV needed that, which came in handy more than once.
The only other app I have installed on the Palma is 1Password, but that doesn’t need to be on the home screen. This setup does everything I need and nothing else in particular. Which is exactly what I’m looking for.
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 just replaced the battery on my 10 year old PS Vita With iFixit collection It took me about 20 minutes and was actually a lot of fun. -Jonathan
“After years of ignoring well-intentioned advice about this new and unusual way of learning a language, I finally gave in and listened to some short advice.” Language transfer Lessons. I’ve never been so completely enamored with the teaching method: nothing special it seems, but it’s actually a real game-changer. By explaining how the language works through short conversations, you really understand and learn it. I even modified my language lessons (I teach secondary education). Language transfer is good. And it’s free.” – Peter
“Currently reading This gorgeous coffee table book All about Jordan Brand. It’s about advertising, his branding, photography, etc., rather than his career as a player. The first chapter is about 40 years of his shoe development…” – Poco
“Rewatch Strange things Season 1-4 before the season finale drops next week. — Alex
“I’ve got physical pocketbooks back. I’ve bought Space pen Because it’s beautiful and small, now keep it Field notes A notebook with me at all times and I use it for everything: to-do lists, ideas, memos, etc. It’s completely addictive and I highly recommend it. -Josh
“Try a new animated wallpaper app for Mac called Background. It’s the only app I’ve seen that unifies a live wallpaper between the desktop and the lock screen. – Ross
“I just started reading Beyond borders By CLR James. It’s been described as the greatest sports book ever written, but I mostly got it because I enjoyed it Black Jacobins. Also the cover is easily my top 5 of all time (1st place is forever the Penguin Galaxy issue). The left hand of darkness).” – Rich
“My recommendation is L Cyberspace.online. It’s social media, but text-based; Just like when the internet was good. I haven’t had this much fun online since 2007 with the original Tumblr! – Jordan
“Writing for a recommendation Rock diagram App for iPad. It’s buggy, it’s primitive, but – and I hope you’re prepared for this – you can add annotations to your calendar entries! It displays your calendar and then allows you to write on it in pencil. It even has a Tasks section next to it. It was made by the people who created it A rock of paper and a pencil tip (Highly recommended).” – Mario
We live in strange times, where it is often difficult to know what is real and what is not. When I first saw a photo of a skydiver in front of the sun, I filed it under “Artificial Intelligence” and went on with my day. But I was wrong! What it is instead One of the most striking images I have ever seen: A shot with the required great detail An amazing amount of planning And very human creativity. And photographer Andrew McCarthy – who you may also know @cosmic_background On Instagram – he has a collection full of similar amazing works. My favorites follow after a while.
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