is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 98, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, please tell me if you bought an orange iPhone, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about competitive massage and space soda and how people really use AI, checking out Adolescence now that it won all those Emmys, playing The New York Times’ new domino game, finally listening to The Lazarus Heist, doing a bunch of writing in Ulysses, using Remind Me Faster for all my task-writing needs, and taking copious notes on Federico Viticci’s iOS 26 review.
I also have for you a new set of smart glasses, a browser you should check out, an interesting new AI product from Google, and some important viewing and listening about the internet.
And I have a question for you: what lists do you keep, and how do you keep them? I want to know all about your to-do lists, your bucket lists, your grocery lists, your movies to watch, your favorite places to eat pasta, all the lists you keep. Why do you keep them, and how do you maintain them? I am a huge list-maker, and I’ll share mine if you share yours.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / listening to / playing / building out of toothpicks this week? Tell me everything: [email protected]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
- Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Gen 2. Meta’s new smart glasses with a screen look like a technical achievement, but if you’re in the market for smart glasses, the simple model seems like the right one. The upgraded version is more expensive at $379, but comes with double the battery and a bunch of other upgrades too. It’s still not a must-have device, but I really like mine.
- Skate. I’ve been waiting for this game for a while, and it mostly delivers: it’s a big, open space in which you mostly just wander around jumping over stuff, and it’s very fun to do so. The game is still in early access, and there’s only so much to do so far, but I’m having fun.
- American Sweatshop. A thriller about a content moderator is both a genius premise and a very 2025 one. It’s about what people do, what people post, and how it changes all of us online. Reviews are good, it sounds pretty intense, and I’m ready for it.
- Vivaldi 7.6. A big update to one of my favorite browsers, which is really close to replacing Arc as my day-to-day app. The big new thing here is all customization, and be warned: you will, like I did, spend half a day getting your browser exactly the way you want it. Eh, whatever, I had a blast.
- Google for Windows. A million years ago, Google had a really useful desktop app that could search files, the web, and more from your desktop. Bizarrely enough, it’s back as a local AI tool! It’s only an experiment, but I’ve been hearing good things about it.
- Swiped. In the vein of Dropout and WeCrashed, this Hulu movie seems to be kinda-sorta true and kinda-sorta worked over to be a better story. But it’s about Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble and a key character in the rise of online dating. She’s fascinating; I’ll watch.
- The Kuxiu X40 Turbo charger. I am a huge proponent of multi-device charging stands, which become just a default place to drop all your crap every day. My colleague Thomas Ricker loves his Kuxiu charger, and this one’s even more powerful — and folds up super small for travel.
- Notion 3.0. Notion’s big idea is to build an AI system that can do all the busywork you do in Notion — and potentially elsewhere. Its new tools sound incredibly ambitious, and maybe more intrusive than some people are looking for. I’m fascinated by the size of the swing, and curious to see whether it makes this complex app make a little more sense.
- “How Social Media Exacerbates Disaster & Disinformation.” Really, really great episode of Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show podcast, talking to The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel about how Being Online has changed us both individually and collectively. It’s bleak! But it’s important.
- Lego Voyagers. I love this concept so much: a cooperative two-player puzzle game in which every solution involves building of some kind. Somebody please convince my wife to spend a million hours playing this with me.
If you’ve ever listened to The Vergecast, you know I am not a person who knows things about TVs. Generally speaking, I have always just stolen opinions and theories from Caleb Denison, who worked at Digital Trends for a long time before starting his own YouTube channel this year called CalebRated. You should subscribe! It’s great!
I originally asked Caleb to share his homescreen earlier this year, around the original launch of his channel, but then he got embroiled in a legal dispute about it all. Now it’s settled, and he’s back making great stuff! So, to mark the relaunch, I asked Caleb again. And he agreed.
Here’s Caleb’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: iPhone 16 Pro Max — I gotta have the best video capture and largest screen!
The wallpaper: It’s stock. Call me boring, but the more distracting the wallpaper is, the less I like looking at the phone. I enjoy looking at the part of the globe I’m currently in — it’s fun to have that little reminder when I’m traveling, which is often. It’s also mortifying when I realize the sun’s about to come up and I haven’t yet slept.
The apps: Mail, YouTube, YouTube Studio, Instagram, X, The Weather Channel, Messenger, Waze, Google Maps, Photos, Google Calendar, Calendar, Google Photos, Podcasts, Wallet, FaceTime, Camera, Clock, Settings, Premiere Rush, Instacart, Peacock, Phone, Chrome, Messages, Starbucks.
Look, I search for my apps because I don’t have time to remember what folder I put something in. Consequently I have stopped putting things in folders. The only apps I tap are The Weather Channel, because it is consistently the most accurate of any of the weather apps, even though I despise the app itself; the Camera app, because I can’t be bothered to set up a shortcut; and the Google Calendar app, which I use religiously. Oh, and the Settings app. I use that a fair bit.
I don’t know why Peacock is there — I don’t know how it got there or why I haven’t moved it. I do not currently subscribe, even. It just sits there… mocking me. Mocked by the ’Cock. Dammit.
I also asked Caleb to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- I am into rewatching shows I loved a decade ago. I started with Lost, then it was Prison Break, and now The Blacklist. Lost was outstanding TV. The latter two are formulaic as all get-out, but they are mindless without being trashy, which is exactly what I need. I use these binges to get me in between episodes or seasons of really excellent modern-day shows, like Reacher, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, whatever Star Wars drivel Disney is trotting out, and, like, The Night Manager was freaking delightful!
- I play about 30 weddings per season (I play trumpet) and that has me traveling all over the Pacific Northwest, from the far reaches of Idaho to the Southern Oregon Coast. I listen to a LOT of music and podcasts on the road in my little 2005 Audi TT with the top down (total midlife crisis-mobile, and I don’t care). Favorite podcasts are: Ear Hustle, Radiolab, and Snap Judgment, not necessarily in that order.
- I also spend WAY too much time looking at vintage audio gear on the internet. I have a major thing for tube amps, tube pre-amps, vintage receivers, reel-to-reel decks, and turntables. It’s like I can smell them through the screen. Talk about a dopamine hit! WHOOOO!!!!
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email [email protected] or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads, this post on Bluesky, and this post on The Verge.
“After enjoying KPop Demon Hunters, I worked through Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE. I had no knowledge of the competition before diving in. I still haven’t watched the YouTube portion of the competition. You get to sort of see what it takes to make your way into a K-Pop band with a constantly changing competition.” — Sean
“After getting really tired of cheaters in Fortnite, I’ve started learning Overwatch 2, and I’m having a blast. I mean, it’s like trying to play pickup basketball where every player has five different roles, but when it works, it’s magic!” — Laszlo
“New Spotlight in MacOS Tahoe is a game changer for running Shortcuts and other automation.” — Jack
“Folks, if you’re not into comics, now is a great time to get into them. DC Comics just renewed the Batman series with Batman 1 written by Matt Fraction, art by Jorge Jimenez, letters by Clayton Cowles, and color by Tomeu Morey. It’s a familiar yet different take on Batman with excellent art every panel.” — John
“Burning thru seasons of Taskmaster NZ in order to laugh rather than cry — highly recommend (it’s on YouTube!)” — Amaro
“The DJI Mini Pro 5 is prrreeeety nice with the after dark safety upgrades (tempting me to trade in the 4). Great breakdown video here. “ — Jonny
“I’ve spent every morning this week in the company of NTS Radio. I really like the variety of the music the hosts play — anything from Wilco, latin jazz, and ambient music to obscure 80s meditation tapes and video game soundtracks. It’s 24/7, ad-free, and listener-supported!” — tobysaurus99
“I’m into reading this book Apple In China by Patrick McGee, and it’s a doozy. Lots of learning, gossip and drama. The perfect mix for a book to keep me glued to it.” — Sencion
“I’ve been unwinding with Hindsight, a low-stress, no FOMO RSS reader. Instead of real-time feeds, it shows you yesterday’s news. It’s become a welcome part of my morning routine!” — Kyle
Signing off
It’s been a week, y’all. Life’s busy, news is nuts, just a lot happening! For some reason, the thing that has made me feel better over and over this week has been Smartypants, the truly genius Dropout show in which very smart people give totally unhinged presentations about deeply bizarre subjects. You might have seen Hank Green fixing grocery stores or Alexis Rhiannon teaching you how to email like a white lady, but nothing has made me laugh like Zach Reino’s argument against the ocean. I have since used the phrase “per period of time” at least 500 times per period of time.
See you next week!
