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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 127 is your guide to the best and edge-The most wonderful things in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, My Scorpion challenges your Sub-Zero to a duel, and you can also read all the back issues at Installer Home.)
This week I was reading about it Hassan Baker and Lines and David Sacks and Learning while sleepingcatch up Andor (for me) and The Adventures of a Young Jedi (For my little baby), prostration Thousands of new Artemis II imagesAnd listen for potentially many hours The longest YouTube video everWith more walking thanks Pedometer++ 8.0I’m losing my mind every second In every Arsenal matchand spend a lot of time setting up scenes using Hue lights In my basement.
I also have the exciting return of a great workout app for you, a concert doc you won’t want to miss, a fun new board game, a book on creativity, and so much more. Let’s get into 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.)
- Zombies, run! One of our favorite fitness app adventure games of all time is back with new stories for the first time in forever. the The story of the game’s rebirth It’s so cool, I can’t wait to start playing the game again. (I mean it actually! Wild!)
- Tabby box. A nifty little tap-and-swipe accessory for your e-reader, very similar to the Kobo Remote but actually more capable (and perhaps hackable in a good way). These page turners are the kind of accessory that you never think about until you get one and then they instantly become impossible to live without.
- Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour. James Cameron’s latest film is… wait for it… a concert documentary? strange! Apparently it’s cool too. It’s shot in 3D, in a way that everyone seems to agree on and it works perfectly, and it seems to have the immersive effect that everyone thought we would only get in VR. Maybe I need to see this in theaters.
- Gorgeous, pure paper. It is perhaps the most exciting e-ink notebook on the market. $399 is a pretty good price for this category, and Remarkable made all the right decisions – more memory, more storage, and no expensive and/or flimsy color display. I’ll end up buying one of these, I can say that.
- Bose Lifestyle Ultra. Is it weird that I kind of forgot about Bose? They definitely make good headphones, but the brand seems to have lost a bit of its luster. This new set of speakers really sounds great — and I love that they’re a complete speaker system designed to work with the streaming apps you already use, not adding another app to your phone.
- Mortal Kombat II. Honestly, I don’t know what else you could want from this movie other than a bunch of sick action scenes, incredibly mediocre dialogue, and a largely dramatic story. Is this a good movie? Maybe not. Will I cheer loudly the first time someone says “Finish it!”? You are Bisha.
- Mixtape. This type of game – like a video game, or some kind of movie, or mostly a suspense – is just that truly It’s hard to do right. I often get bored very quickly. But in the parts I’ve played so far, Mixtape It has such great music and good writing that I never tire of it one bit.
- Game Changer: Home Edition. Big week for all us dropout racers! This new board game has some fun, Skull-Each game’s style is a different energy to its structure and looks like it will suit most family game nights. It’s a Kickstarter game, which always comes with risks, but I’ve already made room in my game closet for this.
- Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. All of David Epstein’s books are excellent, but this collection of stories about the importance of boundaries (and the danger of not having them) is full of things I think you’ll find fascinating. There too Great excerpt in Wiredabout the team at General Magic that invented the iPhone ten years prematurely.
Adam Molina has very good taste in almost everything. He’s a productivity nerd and I gestured to him while Waveform Podcast (which he produces), he’s always sharing great stuff on his channel Cool supplies Newsletter, and he seems to have exactly the collection of watches I’m coveting. What I’m saying is that it’s perfect Installer-The taste.
I’ve had Adam on my screen sharing list forever, but I thought this week was the perfect week – Adam just launched an app called Color snapwhich gives you every day color and the challenge of capturing an image of exactly that color in the real world. Very cool idea, very interesting app, I think you will like it too. This is a perfect excuse to get Adam to share what he’s doing now.
This is Adam’s home screen, plus some information about which apps he uses and why:
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
wallpaper: A photo posted by someone on the ceiling strings of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Rome.
Applications: Signal, WhatsApp, Pocket Casts, Color Snap, Gradient Weather, Google Translate, Spotify, and YouTube.
My philosophy with a phone is that everything should be done with one swipe and one tap at most. The first page is about quick access to your most used applications, while the second page is about quick information. Then I use an app called Button chart Which turns all the physical buttons on my phone into action buttons so I can access more by holding or double-tapping. For example, long pressing volume up plays my home note Obsidian. I obviously spend a lot of time thinking about all of this when I don’t have subway service.
The first page is only for my most used apps. I have the usual suspects here like YouTube, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. I was also really into the new one Gradient weather The application that appeared in Installer A few weeks ago. Then WhatsApp/Signal for messaging, Google Translate – which has a new built-in Duolingo competitor that I’ve been using – and my own app, Color Snap (shameless plug). Color Snap is also the reason I have a little white widget on my home screen: every day the color changes, and you have to look for that color in the real world and take a picture of it. I wanted to challenge myself to take more photos, and this seemed like a fun way to do that. (It’s only available for Android at the moment, but I promise an iOS version is coming soon.)
The second page is all about information and quick controls that you can look at. So change songs, switch podcasts, or just check what’s on my calendar today.
I also asked Adam to share with me some of the things he’s interested in right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- I was really obsessed with anime in high school, so I’ve been trying to get back into it lately, and the anime I’m currently obsessed with is Freezing: after the end of the trip. I just finished it last week and am already in the middle of rewatching. I highly recommend it if you’re a fantasy/anime fan.
- I recently discovered a new podcast called Simple and cleanwhich dives deep Kingdom Hearts games. It has become my favorite podcast for walking the dog.
- One YouTuber I’m obsessed with right now is @halfof8. He’s a designer who turns his beautifully designed journal entries into beautifully designed Blender videos that are under 5 minutes long. He doesn’t post very often, but they’re all obsessed.
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 recently purchased an M5 MacBook Air – my first Mac laptop! One of the hurdles of switching from Windows was the lack of the native Always on Top feature, which I relied on heavily via Microsoft PowerToys. After searching for an alternative to macOS, I found floating. It allows me to focus on my essential tasks while keeping videos or chats easily accessible. —Travis
“I don’t know how I missed it He stood up and burst into flamesbut we just finished the last episode and wow. I wish there was more like this: character development, not to mention the various great camera angles and shots. Amazing all around.” – Mark
“Exit the application Blockit on android. It’s like Brick on iOS, it completely blocks you from accessing your phone until the timer runs out. – Gaurav
“I’ve really enjoyed the new season Hacksand the strange mixture of relaxed/passive awkwardness RoosterBoth are on HBO Max. -Pegasusia
“I’ve put D&D characters in many campaigns Tomadachi Life: Living the DreamAnd now I’m obligated to inform the players of all the drama that has happened since then. — Nicholas
“Playing with hell MapTap“. – Dinar
“I unfortunately stumbled back into play Timberbournea fantastic beaver-themed survival city building game (recently released 1.0!) that runs the gamut from cute little farms to massive infrastructure projects with water physics. “It’s very addictive, and these beavers are so cute.” – Olof
“Just got on GameSir Pocket Taco Many amazing GBA games have been rediscovered. Now I’m really in Metroid Fusion!” – Conspiracy
“I’m messing around He worksa project by Davi Ottenheimer (formerly Inrupt). Special type based on OpenClaw-style LLM gateway design. Great project! – Rich
“I hacked up my Nintendo Switch (you’ll definitely need some rest when tearing it apart to do this) a few months ago, and I’ve been able to catch up on some old 3DS games thanks to… Retro Arch,Perfect for the Switch format.” —Gabriel
I know I’ve mentioned this before here, but I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately and have turned to a bunch of different things to help me sleep. episode of The office In the background my mind often needs to be quiet; Podcasts like Sleeping with celebrities Do that too. The problem is that I’m in bed with someone else, and he’s less concerned about this late-night noise than I am. As a result, I’ll constantly fall asleep with my AirPods inside me, and either wake up with one jammed in my ear or missing somewhere between the covers. Am I the only one facing this dilemma? Can I buy customized? Sleep headphones? One of these Stranger Things Pillow Speaker? Maybe I just need to convince my wife to love the people of Dunder Mifflin as much as I do. This is probably the easiest answer. If you have a better one, I’m all ears.
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