Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 64, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for some weird documentaries, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about raw milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching A Man on the Inside and the new Ken Burns da Vinci doc, finally getting caught up on The Great British Bake Off (about which I have SO MANY FEELINGS), storing all my loyalty numbers and Airbnb codes in Cheatsheet, and doing a genuinely upsetting amount of research on pizza stones.
I also have for you a delightful new mobile game, an E Ink tablet worth a look, a gorgeous new to-dos app, and much more. It’s a strangely Netflix-centric week, which is odd for mid-December? But so it goes. Let’s dive in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / playing / baking / listening to / soldering this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)
The Drop
- Monument Valley 3. I’ve thought about it, and Monument Valley is my favorite mobile game series of all time. It’s gorgeous, quiet without being ponderous, and infinitely replayable. Even the soundtrack is one of my all-time faves! It’s a bit odd to say “you have to have a Netflix subscription to play this game on your phone,” but you do. And if you already have one, it’s a huge win.
- Mozi. Ev Williams built Twitter, Medium, and now this — an app for making plans with your real friends, and connecting with folks who are in town. Strikes me as kind of… niche? But clever. And since Facebook stopped mattering, there’s really nothing else like it.
- iOS 18.2. I’m including this one mostly as a PSA to iPhone owners: all the Apple Intelligence stuff is whatever, but the fact that you can change go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps and change what you use for keyboards, calls, email, and more, absolutely rules. Go make it work the way you want.
- The Supernote A5 X2 Manta. Dumb name, really cool-looking new E Ink tablet. $459 is a lot for a device like this, but I dig Supernote’s emphasis on making it repairable and upgradeable. I love that these digital notebooks continue to get better.
- Joi Planner. You surely already know this about me, but I am a sucker for a beautiful app. And this one, a combo calendar / tasks / habit tracker for iPhones, is one of the best-looking “day at a glance” designs I’ve ever seen. The app is, and feels, like it’s missing some features, but I dig it.
- Nickel Boys. Based on the terrific, brutal novel of the same name, the movie is filmed almost entirely in first-person views. And it seems to work. A lot of people think this is going to win a lot of awards — don’t miss it.
- “Behind the scenes calling the Simpsons Monday Night Football Game.” I never totally got the appeal of these animated side broadcasts, but the technical story of how they work is extremely cool. Pair that with this new video on how football is shot for TV, and it’s like a production master class all at once.
- Carry-On. I don’t know if it’s just my algorithm or what, but this Netflix movie has been everywhere on my feeds the last few weeks. It also might be the new record holder for giving away the whole thing in the trailer. But I’ll still be watching it this weekend — here’s hoping it’s good, and Christmas-y, and can go in the Die Hard holiday canon.
Screen share
Did you subscribe to The Verge yet? You don’t have to in order to get Installer, but you should anyway! I’m not remotely biased, and I think it’s a pretty good website. And we have big plans.
Esther Cohen is the person making all those plans, and making them real. She’s been working like crazy the last few months as our director of subscriptions, and so I figured now would be a great time to ask her to do more work and share her homescreen with us. How many subscriptions does the subscription director have, you know? Inquiring minds want to know.
Here’s Esther’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why:
The wallpaper: A picture of my (very big) kids and me from my birthday this year. (It’s also my lockscreen, where I can see their faces.) Apparently, I am a masochist and every time I see that my 11-year-old son is my height it makes me want to cry.
The apps: Weather, Settings, Apple Maps, Safari, Slack, The Verge, Apple Notes, Spotify, Phone, Mail, Messages, WhatsApp.
One way to summarize my apps is basic. At the top right, I keep all my utility stuff: things I use as I go about my day. (I’m mostly looking up places in NYC and figuring out how to get there — don’t @ me, I prefer Apple Maps!)
The bottom left corner is where I spend the most time, mostly on work-related apps like Slack, the Verge homepage, and Apple Notes. I’m terrible at unplugging and feel the need to stay updated on work at all times, so having the calendar widget front and center is a lifesaver. I tend to lose track of time when I’m deep into a project, so seeing my upcoming meetings at a glance is super helpful.
Spotify is my most-used “fun” app; it’s what I use for podcasts and music while working, working out, cooking, etc. Oh, and I recently moved social media apps off my home screen — it’s been a game-changer for my stress and focus.
I also asked Esther to share a few things she’s into right now. Here’s what she sent back:
- Watching: Shrinking. I’ve been really enjoying this show — it’s one of the least cynical things in entertainment right now. It’s not quite Scrubs level (highly recommend a rewatch!), but it’s heartfelt, funny, beautifully written and shot, and never saccharine.
- Playing: Mahjong! The kids and I play a few times a week during dinner, and it’s so relaxing. I even have the Real Mah Jongg app on my phone. It might actually be the only app I pay for?
- Listening: Molière: Le Spectacle Musical. Hear me out: last year, TikTok kept serving me clips of this French musical that’s like an urban-pop Hamilton about Molière’s life. I recently found the soundtrack on Spotify, and it’s been on repeat in our house. I don’t understand a word, but the songs are total bangers.
- Reading: The Atlantic. This might cement my basic girly status, but I recently subscribed to The Atlantic and — honestly? — every single story is so good. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a publication worth paying for, and I love that I genuinely want to read almost everything on their homepage and social feeds.
Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email 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 every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.
“I’m trying to learn 3D modeling because I just got a Bambu A1.“ — Erwin
“My favorite music-to-work-by site is myNoise. I particularly like ‘Medieval Library’ and ‘Medieval Village’ (with turned-down blacksmith’s clang). It’s free to use, but if you toss the fascinating French sound engineer obsessive Stephane a few bucks you get lifetime access to a bunch more sounds as well as some nice tools.” — Molly
“Caves of Qud is an esoteric masterpiece of a game, I’m on my tenth character, I’ve barely seen a fraction of the world, but I’m hooked” — Jack
“I have finished reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. It provided useful insights about how to take time out of your busy schedule to focus on deep work. It also provided how to minimise distractions and cut down shallow work.” — Ankur
“I got really really enamored by the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. I don’t know why. The thickness of it, just sitting next to a 15 Pro Max and then unfolding it to that screen inside… it’s something.” — Abhi
“The game Mouthwashing is getting a lot of attention right now, but I am just letting Indiana Jones and the Great Circle wash over me. It’s been a very long time since we had anything even remotely good with this franchise, but this game seems to really nail the vibe.” — Mike
“Reading the gargantuan Wind and Truth from Brandon Sanderson! It’s been quite a doozy of a book.” – Jiatao
“I needed a cheap pair of earbuds while I wait for the AirPods Pro 3. I bought the Baseus Bowie MA10 and they work better than I could ask for. They do exactly what I need them to do: play my music and podcasts.” — Alex
“I just bought a ROG Ally X and I’m excited to dual boot it with Bazzite to turn it into half Steam Deck / half Windows gaming handheld, so that I can get the best of both worlds.” — Benny
“Just finished the excellent Stories Are Weapons by Annalee Newitz, about the power of storytelling & worldbuilding in propaganda & psyops. Fascinating, insightful, often funny & tragic in turns. A really great read that’s helping me process our increasingly polarized world.” — Kailey
“So I am completely new to graphic novels. Went on Reddit to see the top recommendations. Came across Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound. What an amazing intro to this medium! Highly recommended for fans of Miles Davis and jazz.” — Mike
Signing off
Last week on The Vergecast, I mentioned that I consistently have a hard time figuring out inexpensive, relatively universal gifts to buy for co-workers, Secret Santa exchanges, and that kind of thing. A bunch of folks responded with great ideas, so I figured I’d share some:
- Power banks. Give the gift of battery power.
- Scratchers. Everybody loves a fun lottery ticket!
- Local gift cards. A lot of folks said I shouldn’t just do Starbucks for everyone, but should help people find and try new local spots. I love this idea.
- Coffee. Forget the gift cards, just buy them a pound of good coffee.
- Candles. Is a candle too, like, intimate for an acquaintance? I don’t know! Probably not! But I do love a good candle.
These ideas have already made my holiday shopping easier — let’s just say a lot of folks in my life are getting some scratchers this year. Hope this helps you, too. And if you have other ideas, keep ‘em coming. I need all the gifting help I can get.
