Hello friends! Welcome to Installer #54, Your Guide to the Best and edge-the best stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, you're so excited you found us and you can read all the back issues here too Installer homepage.)
I read about it this week AI flop And Sports betting And Jony Iveto clear my schedule for the new season The Great British Bake Off, Watch out Sicario And pirates of the Caribbean And A Quiet Place: Day One on airplane screens, as their directors intended, with Insta subscriptions Hasan Minhaj's new YouTube showand just relentlessly troll people with it Vergecast Clips through The new feature of Pocket Casts.
I've also got you covered with a few new meta gadgets, the mobile game that's going to eat up all your free time, a few highly anticipated new movies, the best Spotify feature in ages, and more. There's so much going on! Let's dive in.
(As always, the best part Installer are your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else read/watch/play/try/build from clay this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy it Installertell them to sign up here.)
The drop
- Metas Quest 3S. My biggest issues with the Quest 3 were the price and passthrough, and this new model seems to have solved both. It's back in the realm of a “totally reasonable games console” and the passthrough demos looked it much sharper than before. They look great, although not as good as…
- The limited edition Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers. I already own two pairs of Meta smart glasses (don't ask), but I'm still lusting after this clear pair. They're more expensive and actually ruin some of the good non-gadget vibes of the other models, but they look good so good.
- Balatro Mobile. This may be the most recommended thing in the history of Installer – I swear, every week someone tells me how much this poker roguelike has defined their life. And now it's on your phone! $10, no data collection, no microtransactions, my screen time is about to go through the roof.
- Wolves. This Clooney Pitt Apple TV Plus movie has a fascinating backstory that says a lot about the future of Hollywood, but I also just love a big budget movie with movie stars saying cool lines in cool ways. That seems to be exactly that.
- The new Roku Ultra. I helped review the Google TV Streamer this week and I really love the thing. But I'm also glad that Roku is moving forward – the new thing isn't reinventing the wheel, but it's faster and better, and that's a very good thing.
- The wild robot. I'd really like to tell you to see “Megalopolis” this weekend, but everything points to the movie being hot garbage. But people seem to be excited about this movie, a cartoon about a stranded robot that sounds charming and delightful and is something I'll end up watching a hundred times.
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. A Zelda game…where you can play as Zelda. That's the dream! This game doesn't seem as big or impressive or platform-defining as Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but it still sounds clever and fun.
- Spotify's AI playlist feature. This is terrible news for my relentless attempt to quit Spotify: the AI playlists are it Great. Now that the feature is available in the US, I've been using it to name a few bands or songs and create an overall mood. She also selects a few dozen songs that, at least so far, are always well received. Spotify is very, very good at this part of the music game.
- Social studies. Being a child is hard work. And this paper, with a group of students, delves into how much…maybe not always more difficult, but definitely more complicated, social media has made being a child in 2024. This also comes from a good team, and I'm excited about it.
- The nothing-ears-open. The Nothing headphones were really solid, and since I recently switched to open earbuds, I'm excited to see how these sound. They look so cool too! Big week for clear gadgets.
Screen sharing
Interesting fact: Joanna Star is the main reason I ever got a job The edge first of all. (This story is long and, if I remember correctly, involves her playing a fairy in a video? But I promised her I wouldn't tell that story.) These days she's a columnist at The Wall Street Journalan Emmy winner and most recently the creator of Joannabot, the AI chatbot that tells you everything you need to know about the iPhone 16. (And apparently can do some other things too if you're smart enough, but again: we'll leave that alone.)
I asked Joanna to share her homescreen because she just tested the iPhone 16, so she Only had to set up a homescreen. And because she's constantly using new devices and switching between things, I was curious to see what always ended up at the top of the pile.
Here is Joanna's home screen, as well as some information about the apps she uses and why:
I'm sending my homescreen And on my Control Center screen because I'm proud of the work I've done on the Control Center. I can submit it for an award. But really, I just want to use this as a forum to complain about the all-in-one connectivity widget in the new Control Center in iOS 18. I don't like it. I like the individual buttons so I can easily toggle them on/off or long press to get in. Unfortunately the single Wi-Fi button has been eliminated, but I read on this great website that it's coming back in iOS 18.1.
The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max.
The wallpaper: This is my dog browser. It's not the best shot of him, but the framing is good to put him in the center of the screen. My lock screen background is this awesome retro iPod created by a designer named Shane Levine. I purchased it through this website last year after featuring it in my newsletter.
The apps: WSJ, ChatGPT, Apple Notes, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Instagram, YouTube, Clock, Threads, Signal, Photos, Slack, Spotify, Phone, Safari, Messages, Gmail.
My apps are so simple and make me feel so easy. I work (Slack, Gmail). I message (messages, signal). I listen and watch things (YouTube, Spotify). I social media (threads, Instagram). I work more (Google Docs, WSJ). If it doesn't appear on that main homescreen, I usually just search for it.
Before iOS 18, I had a widget stack on the home screen with weather and time zone widgets, but I moved it to another screen. Maybe I'll move it back. Maybe not. I have to live a little.
I also asked Joanna to share a few things she's interested in right now. Here's what she shared:
- The devil on the elbow. I'm currently listening to this audio book by my extremely talented colleague Valerie Bauerlein. It's all about the Murdaugh murders. The writing style, the details, the whole thing is so captivating. I just sit in the garage and wait for a chapter to be finished.
- Full of momentum. I know I'm late to Netflix's popular Golf-U series, but I started playing golf again this summer and I love these players' stories and how psychological the sport really is.
- Bring your pet to the school day. My 3 year old loves this book. I don't want to give it away, but the pets are taking over Maple View Elementary School and, well, Mrs. Ellen is pissed.
Crowdsourcing
Here's what the Installer The community is there this week. I also want to know what you’re into right now! e-mail installer@theverge.com Or message me on Signal – @davidpierce.11 – with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we'll feature some of our favorites here each week. And you can find even more great recommendations in the answers to this post on Threads.
“Sliding seas. It's a match-three (or match-four) game, but it has a lot more to offer: real strategy is required to beat levels at the top, but it's never unfair, and while there is In-app purchases and power-ups for you What you can buy to make a level easier, you definitely never have to do. It is the most addictive and mobile-friendly game I have ever found and a gem that I can recommend without reservation.” – Jamie
“Gisnep is another daily puzzle game, this time by David Friedman of Ironic without. It appears to be a crossword-like grid, but the words just run across and around the perimeter. The goal is to reveal both a quote and the source by typing letters from vertical columns. “I’ve already got some of my friends hooked.” – Kyle
“Satisfactory 1.0 was released about a week ago. A great group of developers have actually created a game that feels like work but is fun. If you love conveyor belts and staying up all night, this might be for you.” – Matt
“I can’t believe you didn’t mention the move to OmniFocus! As a long-time “task manager switcher,” this app is a regular part of my rotation.” – Pedro
“I recommended it before App in the air as a great travel companion, but unfortunately he is discontinued. If you are looking for an alternative, Fluttery is excellent, especially for travel stats, and they are building an importer for app-in-the-air users.” – Vivian
“We watched English teacher on FX. Constant laughter and so far every episode has been better than the last. Certainly one of the funniest shows on TV right now.” – Danial
“This was given to me Humanscale FR300 Ergonomic Foot Rockera very technical sounding name for a very manual/mechanical swinging footrest. The application is very pleasant. I've been into it sometimes too… which isn't safe, but it's certainly fun!” – Wisdom
“I keep adding this to my Amazon cart Black Milanese bow for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I came close to buying it three times. Now it's sold out. Even Apple says early November for shipping.” – Scott
“I played with different LLMs LM Studio. I integrated it into mine Obsidian Vault to group things together and organize them into specific formats. It was extremely cool!” – Cody
Log out
I've been on back-to-back trips over the last two weeks and wanted to quickly introduce you to my #1 new travel hack: a charger that doubles as a large charger. Ass portable battery. I have this anchor modelwhich costs $55, charges a USB-C and a USB-A device at the same time, and also charges itself, giving me 10,000 mAh of power when there's no outlet nearby. (There are also a newer one (with two USB-C ports and even faster charging, but less battery capacity.) It's huge and heavy, but this thing and a long cable are now the only charging equipment I travel with, and they're the only reasons why My devices have survived trains and air travel. Here at Installerwe love a sensible charging strategy, and this is as sensible as it gets.