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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 133, your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, and happy belated Juneteenth, and you can also read all the old issues at Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it Sam Bankman Fried and BJ and admin nights (which we should all do together one of these days), and listen to him Paul McCartney on Explosive song,walking through errors iOS 27 beta In order to use the good new Siri, trying to switch to it again and failing YouTube Musica free trial to navigate through the World Cup, and finally upgrade your camera setup with Elgato routerAnd find out if This strange and cheap headband It can help me fall asleep faster. So far…inconclusive.
I also have a new Pixar movie worth your time, a better way to hold your phone, a great upgrade for Android users, a beautiful new Windows laptop, 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/listening to/doing during commercials 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.)
- Toy Story 5. The bad guy is the iPad! I love him. By all accounts, the film works completely as a story and as a character A thoughtful look The real pros and cons of Screentime. We often talk about using devices in the wrong ways; Leave it to Pixar to get it right. I’ll be at the theater Saturday morning.
- letter. Markdown editors are a dime a dozen right now, but hardly anyone does text editing better than Shiny Frog, the folks behind the awesome Bear app. This text editor is in beta, but it’s already very fast and stable, at least for me. I’ll use this a a lot.
- PopSockets Low-Pro Grip. I may be the world’s biggest proponent of PopSockets and phone grips of all kinds. (Phones are not comfortable to hold!) I’ve been using Popsocket bolster For a while, but I would gladly trade it, along with $40, for the new ultra-thin model.
- Mastodon 4.6. I don’t spend a lot of time in Mastodon anymore, but this might help bring me (and some others) back. Groups are a smart way to solve Mastodon’s big discovery and search problem, and a good way to help people get started in a new social network. Additionally, you can allow people to sign up to email you your posts. Fediverse, baby!
- Surprising specifications. $2195 for a pair of smart glasses! Wild. I’ll admit, I’m not at all convinced anyone would want these things – they’re big, wonky, and way too expensive. But I also think Snap understands how people actually understand want to use it Technology is better than anyone else. So I’m not writing this yet.
- Android 17. Coming soon to a Pixel phone near you: an easier way to capture reaction videos, floating app windows that look like a very useful multitasking system that I hope iOS immediately copies, and a built-in controller for playing games on foldable devices. As always with Android, they’re just some features for some phones… but I like the direction Android is headed.
- Visco Studio Pro. VSCO does great stuff for photography, and this app, designed to edit huge batches of photos in one go, is pretty clever. “Make all my other photos look like this one” is just a useful editing trick! I’m not interested in the subscription model looming here, but I like what VSCO is making.
- “The music industry is broken“. A really good video by Drew Goodin on how the music industry is changing thanks to streaming services, artificial intelligence, ticket monopolies, and more. Sure, there’s some “you’re angry at capitalism” going on here, but Drew does a good job of going through all the ways things have changed, and why it all seems so bad.
- Microsoft Surface Laptop 8. there New Surface ProAlso, but I’ve long thought that the more ordinary Surface Laptop (not to be confused with the Ultra) was one of the best Windows machines out there. If the new Qualcomm chipset is as good as advertised, this should be a useful all-purpose laptop. And it seems great In green.
- Songs of the dead. The start of a new series co-written by Installerverse favorite Brandon Sanderson, called The Strata Wars, this book is about music, magic, time, space, and a million other things. Some reviewers seemed to find it a bit much, but others loved it. I know a lot of us love Sanderson.
Josh Kagas Just joined Edge This week as a producer on vertcast. (Which is now published every day, and He has great merchandise(Did you know??) Before joining us, Josh had a lot of life: he worked in the US House of Representatives, he was in a very good, great band, he made a lot of great things and he’s going to make a lot more with us. It’s also just good people.
I like to have something new edge People share their home screen with us early in their careers to find out who they really are before they’re lumped into a team full of mechanical keyboard weirdos and to-do list app nerds. So, here’s Josh’s home screen, plus some info on what apps he uses and why:
Phone: I have a Google Pixel 10.
wallpaper: A photo I took last year during a trip to Japan of Kiyomizu-dera Shrine at sunset (taken with a Pixel 9 Pro XL). Kyoto is incredibly scenic, especially at that time of day, and I was lucky enough to visit during cherry blossom season.
Applications: Settings, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Keep, Phone, Messages, Edge, Camera, Play Store, Photos, Translate, TrainTime, ChatGPT, Focus Friend, Snipd.
I use Microsoft Launcher To get rid of the widget and search bar at a glance, and allow me to use icon theme packs. I mostly used Flight Pack, Retro Mode – Neon, and Viral to give my apps a more cohesive look. KWGT It was also great at creating an Apple Music widget and a custom toolbar on my home screen. I also love the Google Photos widget that scrolls throughout the day, and my dog Butters is in my screenshot!
My first page covers my essentials (work apps, social networking, and streaming services) and a Favorites folder for shopping, banking, and food. Since it’s baseball season, my MLB app is usually used a lot. But not so much this year, because of the way the Mets are playing.
My second page is dedicated to fitness and productivity. I’m a Pixel Watch fan, so my Google Health widget is front and center, alongside my device MyFitnessPal Widget to track your daily calories. It has been my favorite productivity app Focus, friend Written by Hank Green, it’s equal parts Tamagotchi pet and focus timer. You’ll earn Bean Points every time you activate it and stay away from your phone, which you can then spend on items for your Bean Friend environment. And for podcasts, I used SNIPED Since it was first released it has never left. Its growing list of AI features like transcripts, summaries, clips, and insights make it easy to jot down ideas and catch up on my favorite shows.
I also asked Josh to share some of the things he’s interested in right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- I’m watching Mindy Kaling’s new show Not suitable for work on Hulu, which is surprisingly great for someone who doesn’t watch a lot of sitcoms. I’m big Seinfeld Man, this scratches the same itch in adults stumbling through life in New York City — but make it modern.
- I’ve fallen into the YouTube Shorts hole recently, and one of my favorite creators right now is AsamaPOV. If you want to “walk” through local restaurants in Japan without hopping on a plane, this is the guy to watch. His interactions with the owners and chefs are incredibly helpful, and the food he eats looks amazing.
- I keep coming back to PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale On my PS Vita. I’m a PlayStation fan at heart, even though that’s not the case Smash Bros.I love the gameplay, stages and finishing moves in this game. Especially PaRappa the Rapper!
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 watched Being alive. It’s a BBC comedy/documentary on the subject of ‘life’ from an absurdist perspective. It’s written by Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker. “I laughed so hard I had the hiccups.” – Kelly
“Really enjoy Young Sherlock On Amazon Prime. It’s Guy Ritchie at his best (almost): stylish, British, fast-talking, crime-filled, with a touch of humor and a healthy dose of fun. —Logan
“I’ve been using Wild birds Since closed beta it’s everything bird watchers want from Instagram, but better. — Michelle
“Playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition I really hope these titles change at some point. — Connor
“I’m studying for the technical exam and putting all the material in Claude. I have broken the material down into daily 30-minute study segments to be emailed to me over the next two weeks. Each email contains a prompt to take a short quiz at the end. It’s been a bit shaky to start, but it’s going well so far.” – Ian
“I’ve been using Dirty little Zayn A site for making pocket-sized photography magazines. A cheap, fun and easy way to bring your photos out of the digital wasteland and into the real world. – Mark
“I finished reading the series.” silo books Before the next season coming in July. —Chris
“I’m currently reviewing Craig Allanson Rapid intervention force Sci-fi novels, they’re kinetic and silly and a little rough around the edges all at the same time, and I enjoy them. -Carlo
“I’m back to playing Powerwash simulator After work. I’m actually kind of excited for Star Wars again after watching The Mandalorian and Grogu A few weeks ago, and now I’m looking forward to PWS2 star wars DLC next month.” – Al-Salt Palace
There was some big, big news for the Installerverse this week: Google Calendar now has more colors! Instead of just Google’s bad ideas about green and blue, you can now color-code your calendar with 200 custom colors. This feature is rolling out now, and it’s really changing the way I plan my days. I’ve been toying with the idea of ditching my to-do list entirely and living my life off my calendar – and I still aspire to be one One text file Kind of people – and now I can finally make my calendar look the way I want. I fight the urge to get road Very detailed with color coding, though I suppose that would happen. At the moment I’m just back com. timeblocking Like crazy. Feeling powerful.
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