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Hello friends! Welcome to Installer No. 53, Your guide to the best and Edge-the best things in the world. (If you are modern here, welcome, we are very excited that you found us, and you can also read all the ancient issues at Installer (home page.)
This week I read about Beyoncé AND Rosanna Pansino AND Bowen Yangpouring my life back in Todoist, I’m watching the end The Big Trip, I’m catching up My Brother, My Brother and Me sections, checking if Pixel recorder the application can replace my trusty dictaphone and moving Headroom to my home screen to see if it helps me meditate better. (Not yet.)
I also have a really crazy modern pair of AR glasses, a Batman series on HBO, a great modern book about the end of Twitter, a fun social media twist, and more. Lots of good modern TV this week! Let’s get to it.
(As always, the best part Installer are your ideas and tips. What are you super into right now? What should everyone else be reading/playing/watching/buying/downloading/building with Legos right now? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And do you know anyone who might like InstallerPlease pass this message on to them and tell them to sign up here.)
- SocialAI. The reaction to this iOS “social network” where you post and a thousand AI bots respond immediately has been so hilarious. Some loved it, some hated it, and half seemed to think it was a joke. It’s not a joke, but actually a very thoughtful approach to interacting with LLM. It also feels unsettlingly similar to being on real social networks these days. Maybe even better.
- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Ruined Twitter. A great addition to the canon of books about Musk’s takeover and rebuilding of the social network we once knew. There’s also a lot of great modern detail here about the chaos of becoming X—a really good read.
- Simple Snapchat. I would like to tell you to buy a modern Snap Glassesbut they are ridiculous and inaccessible to ordinary people. But you will be be able to get a modern Snapchat design that’s a lot cleaner and more accessible than the app has been in recent years. I’m not sure it’ll gain many modern users, but Snapchat is still one of the best messaging apps.
- Bose QuietComfort In-Ear Headphones. The AirPods 4 got all the shine this week, but I’ve been a fan of Bose’s earbuds for a while — they sound great, have great battery life, and I love the modern “Hey headphones” word on the modern model. And at $179, they’re a solid alternative to Apple’s.
- Omni Loop. The reading of this time-travel movie starring Ayo Edebiri and Mary-Louise Parker seems like it will frustrate continuity pedants, but there are some good and thoughtful things in there and a lot of fun. I’ll be enjoying it as soon as possible.
- Penguin. “The Gritty Batman show on HBO” is all you need to tell me to fully believe in The Penguin. The reviews so far have been a bit mixed — I’ve seen “best show ever” and “kind of meh,” with many comparing it unfavorably to The Sopranos. Personally, I can’t wait.
- Trips 3.0. I’m traveling a lot in the fall, so I’m once again looking for a good place to put all my confirmation numbers, flight details, and expenses. Tripit is okay, but Tripsy looks much better. I also like the map view, which is a surprisingly helpful way to plan your day.
- Agatha all the time. WandaVision is the only Marvel show I would recommend to people who aren’t into Marvel because the whole thing was incredibly structured and smart. This spin-off sounds just as clever and just as cold. More Kathryn Hahn is always a good thing.
- UFO-50. A group of developers in 2024 set out to make a bunch of games that look like they came from the 80s. Taken together, what they created is kind of a historical document about gaming, but also just, like, some really cold retro games. Such a cold concept.
- “Interview with Mark Zuckerberg.” You’ve probably seen the photos from last week Acquired podcast hosts interview Zuckerberg at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The resulting 90-minute episode is… a little awkward at times, but also really insightful. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Zuckerberg talk about his CEO story like this before.
Alex Goldmanexcellent podcaster and former co-host of the best technology podcast Reply to allhas a new program! It’s called Hyperfixedand basically Alex’s job is to solve problems for people of all kinds. The first two episodes are silly and deep, and this show is going to be great.
I asked Alex to share his home screen with us as his new show launches, because if there’s one thing I know about Alex, it’s that he’s a man of many interests and obsessions. (I always liked it when he wrote about the songs he composed in his attic, to name just one example.) I was curious to hear what his phone would say about what he was doing now.
Here’s the Alexa home screen, plus details about the apps she uses and why:
Wallpaper: A photo of my kids having a great time at the beach.
Applications: Camera, Weather, Settings, Notes, App Store, FaceTime, Amazon, Proton Mail, Find My, Overcast, Patreon, Koala, News, Google Voice, Gmail, Safari.
I know my home screen is a mess, but I stopped trying to organize it a long time ago. It’s reached an uneasy state where I know where everything is, and it’s been a while since I’ve downloaded an absolutely necessary modern app.
Everything I need is on the first page: from games to exercises, apps for watching TV and listening to music, social media platforms, etc. My favorite apps are Notes (I make a list of things I need to do every morning), Voice Memos (it’s really handy if you have an idea or a good tune comes to mind, you can just record it before it disappears), and Threes. Threes is a game where you try to connect blocks of the same number on the playing field without exhausting the space, and honestly, I haven’t gotten any further in the last three or four years, but I still play it four times a day. Just out of nervous habit. And Overcast is a podcast app. Everything else is weak in comparison.
I also asked Alex to share some of the things he’s interested in right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- Pinball Map. I love pinball. But loving pinball means you’re a pinball snob and like some games more than others. For me, the Midway/Williams pinball games of the mid-90s were a renaissance, so I’m constantly trying to find copies of Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Bride of Pinbot. Luckily, Pinball Map helps me locate them.
- Koala. Koala is an incredibly powerful sampler app. You can record sounds directly from your phone, or upload sounds, or rip audio directly from video. It has almost all the features of the classic Roland SP-404 samplers, except those cost $500, while Koala costs about $5.
- LXR-02 by Erica Synths. A cheap portable drum machine that you can load sounds onto or create sounds on. I’m the type of guy who makes little beats on public transport.
- Watch out for the WFMU blog. A blog for a non-profit radio station in New York City that closed almost a decade ago but is full of fantastic, obscure recordings, comics, and weird cultural stories. Probably best known for being the only place you can find the story of how Paul Simon allegedly stole a few songs on Graceland from Los Lobos.
This is what Installer community is this week. I want to know what you like now too! Email installer@theverge.com or hit me up on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.