Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 131, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy last week of productivity before the World Cup starts, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about the World Cup and peptides and parasocial media, catching up on Clarkson’s Farm ahead of the new season, buying literally every single new item in The Verge Shop, watching so so so many BTS concert clips on my social feeds, brainstorming ways to resurrect my old Facebook Portal, testing Spokenly to see if it’s the dictation app for me, and ponying up for a full year of GeForce Now just to play 007 First Light. No regrets.
I also have for you a YouTube phenomenon-turned-Hollywood hit, a bunch of Lego sets I bet you’ll want, new places to play Final Fantasy, new headphones and soundbars, and much more. Let’s go.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / listening to / playing / crocheting 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 Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act. TADC is one of the most successful animated series on YouTube, and one of the platform’s most impressive success stories. (It’s also just very good.) This is apparently the show’s series finale, and it’s in theaters for the next couple of weeks before it hits YouTube. The YouTube takeover continues!
- Lego’s Smart Play Pokémon. I’m still torn on Lego’s whole Smart Brick concept, which has lots of potential but not much actual cool use right now. But I suspect a lot of us are going to want to preorder the 12 new interactive Pokémon sets before they come out in August. I want that Jigglypuff bad.
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Yeah, fine, whatever, this is a two-year-old game, but it’s finally on Xbox and Switch! I know how many FF fans there are out there, and by all accounts this is one of the series’ best titles. I have always been too intimidated to get into it… but now that there’s a new way to jump into the story, I might need to change that.
- The Shokz OpenDots Air. This kind of clip-on, open-ear headphone definitely isn’t for everyone, but I love them for the times when I want to listen to music or a podcast without actually disconnecting from the real world — and I’m psyched to see a cheaper model. I’ve heard some people had connectivity issues with the previous model, so here’s hoping the upgrade fixes that.
- The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra. I am fascinated by Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip lineup, and the whole PC industry’s bet that AI will change the way we use our laptops forever. I’m not convinced, but I do love the sound and look of this ultra-powerful Surface Laptop, even though I’m sure it’ll be out of my price range when it launches later this year.
- Cape Fear. This trailer has been following me around the internet for a couple of weeks, and it sure seems like Javier Bardem pulled off yet another terrifying villain performance. At the very least, let this new Apple TV series be your sign to go watch both the 1962 and 1991 versions of the story. Cape Fear apparently just never misses.
- The Corasir Nightsword V2 mouse. “Nightsword” is just a hilariously overwrought name for a computer mouse, but I love the idea of a dedicated button for launching Stream Deck controls. I’m also just now realizing I need to make a lot more use of the virtual Stream Deck anyway, which is a pretty powerful way to control your computer.
- The WiiM Bar. Lotta WiiM fans out here in the Installerverse, so this is exciting news: a soundbar with pretty impressive specs and plenty of connectivity (other than AirPlay, alas), all for $479. I’m not sure I love the front-and-center touchscreen, but I’ve been shopping for a soundbar, and this one has serious potential.
- Swan Song. This is the kind of puzzle game I love: It’s not terribly chaotic or complex, but it does give you a million different things to do and think about. This one also makes incredibly clever use of music! I’ve been hearing great things about the demo, and the (warning: apparently pretty sad) story underneath the puzzles.
Last week, I finally caved and bought the tiny Xteink e-reader that has been all over my social feed the last few months. The very first thing I did after opening the box? Install the CrossPoint firmware, an open-source project that has become a huge hit in the e-reading community. (And the center of some interesting drama — I have a story on that coming soon.)
The person at the center of CrossPoint is Justin Mitchell, a developer I’ve known for a long time. I think we first met chatting about Newton Mail, one of my all-time favorite email apps. He also worked on a great voice notes app called Cleft Notes, and a bunch of other cool projects.
After Justin and I chatted this week about the state and future of CrossPoint, I asked him to share his homescreen with us. I half thought he’d just send a picture of his Xteink device, but what I got from him was even more surprising. And delightful. Here’s Justin’s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phone: Unihertz Titan 2. Full QWERTY keyboard and a massive screen / battery = I just work from my phone most days, no laptop needed. You didn’t ask but I’m also using Nothing earbuds and headphones.
The wallpaper: I have really leaned into the minimal and dark mode-only approach to homescreens over the last few years. No visual stimulation allowed.
The apps: Email, Slack, Messages, WhatsApp, Vivaldi, Discord, Reddit, X.
I’m running the always amazing Niagara Launcher. I have a custom widget of an app I built called In Your Space, which is a shameless rip-off of the iOS app In Your Face. What’s amazing about the world we live in now is that I can just AI-code my perfect meeting reminder app, and I don’t even have to share it with anyone else! This app exists solely on my phone and does exactly what I need, down to the most personal and unique details about how my life works, not yours or any other user’s.
I’m running Audiobookshelf for audiobooks, and Vivaldi for my browser. No YouTube, no TikTok, just pure productivity and connectivity. Claude is also pinging me about some code it wrote in my notification banner.
I also asked Justin to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:
- As someone who spends 16-odd hours a day working on a computer, I’m currently enjoying anything that gets me away from a backlight and holding something tactile. My Xteink is always in my pocket, and I blow through chapters of my books instead of doomscrolling on my phone now. It’s legitimately the best gadget I’ve bought in 10+ years.
- I’ve been finishing up the rest of the Threshold series of books by Peter Clines and listening to the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book.
- Kinfire Delve is a fantastic series of co-op board games my wife and I are quite enjoying right now.
- I’ve been 3D printing any and all fidget toys I can get my hands on, such as the very cool Zorbles from Blob Lab.
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.
“Been having fun with Roost. It’s a messaging app that delivers a message at the speed of whatever bird you are sending.” — Michiel
“I just started using LazyVim, and it may actually replace a niche use case for me. I use Jetbrains for most coding, but every once in a while I just need to edit a Python or JS script and not wait for PyCharm or VS Code to launch. LazyVim gives me the IDE experience without the bloat.” — Kevin
“Widow’s Bay continues to be the best thing on right now. Every week is a countdown ‘til the next episode.” — Pip
I am constantly watching for updates on my Clicks Power Keyboard, which have now started shipping to folks. Can’t wait to get my clickity clackity typing on without having to use the full (large) case on my Pixel 10 Pro.” — Josh
“Using Tuna to configure my workflow on my newly acquired IBM M2 keyboard. There’s a ton of Mac launchers out there, but Tuna is quick. It’s also configurable enough to make it powerful, but doesn’t feel like overkill like Raycast.” — Mike
“Hank Green has a new podcast, Humans.” — Stefan
“Marathon season two is spooky now, with a night map that’s actually dark, and gear was wiped, so everyone’s on (near) equal footing. It’s a great game that deserves more praise and attention.” — Train Man Emeritus
“Sesame. It’s a voice dialog with an AI bot to talk about pretty much anything. They don’t mention friendship or anything like that, although maybe it’s possible. I used it to explain details of a few topics that I needed to learn about. Conversations are extremely realistic. Almost like what Alexa should be but isn’t.” — Jay
“Unlike traditional clipboard managers that rely on keyboard shortcuts, Layr is designed from the ground up to be activated via trackpad gestures. The app’s design and gesture-first approach actually convinced me to replace Maccy. Because I already use Swish for window management, adding another trackpad gesture to my workflow felt completely natural. Despite some early bugs, the core concept is solid.” — Travis
“I got the RingConn Gen 2 Air about a year ago for $200. There’s no subscription, it looks like any other smart ring, the battery lasts for a week, and it tracks workouts and sleep. I would think that for the people (like me!) that don’t need all the bells and whistles of an Oura, a ring like this is an obvious choice.” — Bruce
There are a lot of big movies coming out this summer, but in my house the only one that matters is Toy Story 5. The movie’s out in two weeks, but the media tour is already in full swing, and it appears we’re due for a lot of really fascinating discussions about screentime, technology, and what it means to be human. Andrew Stanton, the movie’s director, gave a terrific interview to Polygon with some great perspective on all this, and why screens actually aren’t just a villain. Tom Hanks has some thoughts, too. I love that a “kids movie” might be our best chance in forever to have these conversations for real.
Also: We got a new Taylor Swift song to go with the movie. So it’s already a win.