Hello, buddies! Welcome to Installer No. 101, your information to the most effective and Verge-iest stuff on the earth. (For those who’re new right here, welcome, hope you want foolish equipment, and in addition you’ll be able to learn all of the outdated editions on the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been studying about Intel factories and Nobel Prize winners and ATM thieves, watching this pop-punk “Defying Gravity” cowl on repeat, reliving my teenage music style now that The Format is again, catching up on the brand new Critical Role marketing campaign, taking all my calls with the pleasant Pop Phone handset, watching extra Love Is Blind than I’m pleased with, sending this deep dive on RSS readers to anybody who hasn’t blocked me, sticking issues on Google’s Pixelsnap Charger, and attempting desperately to evade the chilly that’s going round. Good luck to us all.
I even have for you a brand new approach to make use of ChatGPT, a terrific new online game podcast, Tim Robinson’s new present, the most recent Battlefield, and far more. Let’s dig in.
(As at all times, the most effective a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What are you into this week? What ought to everybody else be studying / watching / enjoying / sticking on the wall / reducing up with scissors? Inform me every thing: e mail installer@theverge.com, or hit me up on Sign @davidpierce.11. And if you already know another person who would possibly take pleasure in Installer, inform them to subscribe to The Verge and are available hang around with us.)
- Apps in ChatGPT. OpenAI is beginning to discuss ChatGPT as an working system, which is each an clearly sensible and ruthless tactic — it’s good enterprise proudly owning the OS! — and a technique to make the product itself make extra sense. Open the bot, deal with an app, and ask Spotify to make you a playlist or Expedia to seek out you flights. This… works for me.
- Hidden Levels. Two of my favourite podcasts — 99 P.c Invisible and Limitless Thread — are teaming as much as make a six-part podcast in regards to the fascinating real-world results of online game mechanics and devices. That is all of my pursuits colliding, I’ll take a thousand extra episodes please and thanks.
- “A cartoonist’s review of AI art.” A extremely beautiful, and poignant, take from The Oatmeal on the present state of generative AI. (Now that is a sentence I by no means thought I’d write.) It’s about what artwork feels, each to make and to devour, and whether or not AI stuff will ever really feel the identical.
- The Chair Company. Tim Robinson has, at the very least for me, entered the “I’ll watch something they make it doesn’t matter what” realm of comedians. Plus, what’s a extra present premise than a comparatively regular factor occurring to a man that sends him down a world-bending conspiracy principle rabbit gap?
- “Clean your TV Screen The Right Way.” In 5 minutes, (pal of Installer) Caleb Denison satisfied me to cease utilizing Windex on my TV, acquired me to purchase some big microfiber towels, and has my TV the cleanest it has ever been. Even the toddler fingerprints are lastly gone!
- Subway Builder. For those who’re ever performed a sport like Mini Metro or Train Valley, this sport goes to rock your world. It’s a brilliant real looking, outrageously detailed sport with real-world knowledge and simulations that places you fully in control of constructing and sustaining the subway system.
- Battlefield 6. I haven’t performed a lot Battlefield the previous couple of years — I like a brilliant tight shooter sport, not big sprawling open multiplayer on-line worlds. However the critiques of this one all appear to say it discovered a very good center floor between these issues, and that the sport is lastly extra enjoyable than slog once more.
- The Belkin Stage PowerGrip. Is that this $80 exterior battery / digital camera grip for the iPhone a good suggestion? I don’t know. Right here’s what I do know: I hate utilizing Digital camera Management, one-handed panorama iPhone photos are awkward, okay advantageous I’ll purchase one this can be a good thought.
I see Stephen Robles’ face all around the web. He’s proper there on the homepage of Riverside.fm, the platform we use to report podcasts, the place he makes product movies and tutorials. And thru his wonderful Primary Technology podcast, and his tremendous useful YouTube channel, dude simply at all times appears to be in my feeds!
I reached out to Stephen this week as a result of he and I must battle about Shortcuts. I feel Shortcuts is a complete failure of a product, whereas Stephen makes numerous nice content material about easy methods to make and make use of actually cool Shortcuts. I complain about Shortcuts; Stephen tells me I’m flawed. We’re going to have it out on The Vergecast. However I additionally requested Stephen to share his homescreen, to see how he manages all of it. And to see if he’s actually as Shortcuts-pilled as he appears.
Right here’s Stephen’s homescreen, plus some information on the apps he makes use of and why:
The cellphone: iPhone 17 Professional Max.
The wallpaper: My homescreen modifications by Focus mode on the weekends / evenings. My important wallpaper is from Fundamental Apple Man, September Gradients. My weekend lockscreen is the NASA picture of the Pillars of Creation, ’trigger it’s superior. (Sure, I’ve a reminder to do Wordle day by day.)
The apps: Maps, Pockets, Pictures, Instagram, Perplexity, Dwelling, Issues, Reminders, YouTube, Slack, Bear, YouTube Studio, Safari, Threads, Messages, Foodnoms.
I’ve moved a big share of my internet looking out to Perplexity, so it earned a spot on the homescreen. Bear is the most effective notes app. I exploit the kanban view in Reminders for YouTube planning, however Things for venture / activity administration, so sure I’ve twin activity apps.
Most not too long ago I began monitoring energy and macros with Foodnoms, which had a terrific replace for iOS 26. It’s made the method a lot simpler than different apps I’ve tried and have misplaced 30 lbs in the previous couple of months due to it!
I additionally requested Stephen to share just a few issues he’s into proper now. Right here’s what he despatched again:
- Having solely not too long ago found them, Hank and John Green have began to devour a lot of my podcast and YouTube time. Hank’s takes on Sora and the web as an entire are value listening to.
- Launched my children to Happy Gilmore and the sequel, they’re each nice.
- I learn Four Thousand Weeks earlier this 12 months and it’s nonetheless messing with me.
- My children are enjoying the brand new Skate sport, so I save TikToks of hilarious tips and all of us watch them as a household.
- Additionally, Shortcuts.
Right here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I need to know what you’re into proper now as effectively! E mail installer@theverge.com or message me on Sign — @davidpierce.11 — along with your suggestions for something and every thing, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, try the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“A pair years in the past I joined Instagram with the intention to comply with a band, The Beths. In a short time I began seeing posts from a wierd however compelling account, The Dream Eaters, that was doing quick music movies mixing goth, ‘80’s digital, steel, and dream pop on hilarious off-the-wall matters. There’s no approach I might have ever discovered of them, an NYC art-rock outfit, in the event that they hadn’t began posting quick movies to TikTok after which Instagram. Now they’re considered one of my favourite artists ever.” — Jon
“I’ve been catching up on First, Last, Everything. It’s a terrific interview podcast to date with fascinating visitors (and a tech angle in fact).” — Roman
“This week I’ve fallen headfirst into what I’d describe as Nouveau Retro gaming by modding a PS Vita. Unimaginable stuff. A great deal of hacks, tweaks, plugins, homebrew. An actual nerdy treasure trove.” — Simon
“Simply purchased a 2010 5,1 Mac Pro. Upgrading / fixing it will likely be a very good weekend venture.” — SaltedPork
“I not too long ago upgraded my Murena account for extra storage and higher help. Ultimately I’ll most likely improve to a cellphone bought straight from Murena. Within the meantime I switched suppliers to Proton, but I nonetheless really feel drawn to an ecosystem I choose: Nextcloud. Its suite of on-line companies — workplace, calendar, notes, duties, artistic‑observe apps like Carnet, and even the beta ‘Cookbook’ characteristic — matches what I’ve lengthy wished from Google. I attempted internet hosting my very own Nextcloud occasion, however the upkeep turned overwhelming, so I’m pleased to pay for an annual service that helps a more healthy web and cellphone ecosystem.” — Stephen
“I made my Change 2 translucent with the brand new ExtremeRate kit!” — Sophia
“I hold a listing of saved product manuals and paperwork. I additionally uploaded all of them right into a pocket book in NotebookLM, so now I simply must ask ‘How do I de-scale the Sage espresso machine’ to get the information I would like!” — Sara
“Been studying Japanese and Kana for iOS helped me so much to study the characters. Enjoyable and quick, been doing fast and huge quizzes on a regular basis on my cellphone. Good to see stats going up and no advertisements, moreover different apps they should continue learning.” — Uli
“Demo for Skate Story, probably the sickest-looking sport of the 12 months, simply dropped.” — Sophie
“I simply acquired a bounce rope, attempting to re-build a health behavior. And I instantly observed that this can be a purpose to purchase new exercise headphones, as my AirPods Professional 2 don’t stay in my ears whereas rope skipping. I ended up getting the Powerbeats Pro 2. Actually love them to date!” — Matthias
For years, anytime somebody would ask me what film they need to watch, I might at all times say Somm. It’s a documentary following 4 folks coaching to turn out to be Grasp Sommeliers — which requires passing one of many world’s most-failed assessments — nevertheless it’s additionally a narrative about ardour and laborious work. And wine. I discovered extra about wine from Somm than from 1,000,000 vineyard excursions.
Nothing I’ve seen since has fairly scratched the identical itch, however a brand new present this week would possibly come shut. It’s referred to as Knife Edge, it’s on Apple TV Plus, and it’s all about cooks attempting to get, or keep, their Michelin star. Just one episode is out, however to date the vibe is sort of Hell’s Kitchen meets Drive to Survive, if that is sensible? It’s all very melodramatic, nevertheless it’s a blast. I at all times love watching folks be good at their jobs, and this does that basically effectively. It additionally made me hungry roughly 60 instances within the first episode.