Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 100, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for a big gadget week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage[1].)
This week, I’ve been reading about Tim Berners-Lee[2] and stain removers[3] and AI marriage problems[4], trying desperately to find time to go see One Battle After Another[5], firing up a one-month Shudder[6] subscription because it’s horror movie season, catching up on the terrible but also wonderful The Morning Show[7], stressing my way through 7 Days Out[8], giving the new Mem[9] a whirl for taking notes, accidentally restarting my Balatro[10] obsession, listening to The Life of a Showgirl[11] 100 times in a row, and introducing my entire family to the best cookie ever, Tim Tams[12].
I also have for you a bunch of impressive new Amazon gear, an AI social network, the new mouse to get, a great sequel to a great game, and much more.
And don’t forget, next week, Installer is becoming a subscriber-only newsletter here at The Verge! Starting next weekend, the only way to get Installer will be to subscribe to The Verge, a very good publication that I love and care about and want to be around forever. This is how we do it! Here’s what it means:
- If you’re currently getting Installer via email, absolutely nothing will change. Nobody on the list is getting kicked off it, regardless of whether you’re a Verge subscriber.
- If you want to subscribe to The Verge, go here[13]. If you just want Installer via email, you have a week left to get on the list for free by going here[14].
- Installer will still be in inboxes on Saturdays and on our website on Sundays, but the web version will also only be accessible to subscribers. If that’s how you’ve been reading Installer so far, you’ll need to subscribe to The Verge to continue doing so.
- I think that’s it! I’m hoping to make this transition as simple as possible, without causing trouble for all of you. This newsletter literally doesn’t exist without you, and I do not take that lightly. So, if you run into any trouble the next few weeks, email me, text me, @ me, we’ll get it sorted.
All right, enough of that. Huge week this week! Can’t believe we’ve done 100 of these — I am enormously grateful for everyone who has read, sent recommendations, and been part of this fun project with me. Here’s to so, so many more. Let’s dig in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / playing / listening to / shopping for / crushing in the blender this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com[15]. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here[16].)
- Version History[17]. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, more self-promotion. (I’m not sorry.) Our new show is launching this weekend! You can watch on The Verge’s YouTube channel, or on The Vergecast’s feed, but my big request is that you subscribe wherever you get podcasts. And give us five stars. And tell your friends. And send me episode ideas.
- Sora[18]. I’ve been using this “TikTok but it’s all AI videos” app for a couple of days, and I still don’t know if it’s a brilliant idea or a totally horrifying one. But I’ll tell you this: the quality of stuff Sora 2 can produce is pretty astonishing. We’re headed toward a “can’t tell if this is real or AI” crossroads faster than I realized.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5[19]. All the developer types I know are thrilled about how good Claude Code is becoming, and 4.5 gives the model the power and patience to do much more complicated stuff. I think I’m going to finally finish vibe coding my perfect note-taking app with this one.
- Ghost of Yōtei[20]. A sequel to the massively successful Ghost of Tsushima, this PS5 game is a completely different story but appears to be just as intense, just as sprawling, and just as compelling. Oh, and everybody keeps raving about how fun the fighting is.
- Comet[21]. Perplexity’s AI-forward browser is finally out and available to everyone. I’ve used it a little, and my main impression is that it’s a lot like every other AI-forward browser? The agentic stuff only kind of works, but I’m starting to really get used to the whole “chat with your tabs” feature that is making its way across every browser everywhere.
- Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft[22]. Amazon prioritized all the right things with the new Scribe, from lower-latency writing to integrating with other productivity tools. The Colorsoft is $630, which is way too much for an e-reader, but I know a lot of note-takers and comic book fans who are excited about it anyway. I get it, I am, too.
- Amazon’s Echo Dot Max[23]. Honestly, all of Amazon’s new stuff looks great — though I’m not recommending any of the fancier stuff until Alexa Plus proves itself. But if you’re like, blah blah AI who cares whatever just play me some music and set some timers, this little speaker sounds like a winner. I wouldn’t buy it just yet; give it a couple of months and I’d bet Amazon’ll be practically giving them away.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles[24]. I know almost nothing about Final Fantasy, and frankly I’m terrified to learn because all my FF-fan friends and colleagues are super into the new title and it seems like the exact right amount of complexity to hook me forever. Please, nobody else tell me how fun this game is.
- Kagi News[25]. Kagi continues to be my daily-driver search engine, and this is a good new addition to the product: a once-daily digest of big news stories, with AI summaries but mostly lots of broadly sourced reading material. Simple, straightforward, super useful.
- Adobe Premiere for iOS[26]. We knew this was coming, but now it’s here: the mobile version of Adobe’s popular video editing app. I definitely wouldn’t expect pro-level quality, and not every feature is here, but the app seems like a strong start. And Android is supposedly coming soon!
- Logitech’s MX Master 4[27]. Everybody you know who cares about their computer mouse probably has an MX Master. And with good reason! The $120 new one has haptic feedback, which is neat but probably most useful for really fine design work, and a configurable app-specific shortcut button that I will be fiddling with until the end of time.
- “The birth of the Excel spreadsheet[28].” Microsoft’s ubiquitous spreadsheet app turned 40 this week, and the BBC has a really fun nine-minute podcast history lesson about why rows and columns took over the world. (I just discovered this show, Witness History[29], through this episode, by the way, and it’s excellent.)
Group project
My brain works in lists. Always has, honestly. I have a to-do list, and a to-watch list, and a list of articles I read and liked recently, and a list of stories to work on, and a list of house chores I have to do periodically, and a list of beers I like, and a separate list of beers to try, and on and on and on. Every time I’ve tried to develop a different system, I always come back to lists.
Turns out it’s not just me! I asked all of you to share what lists you keep, and how you keep them, and so many of you responded. Thanks to everyone who emailed, texted, hit me up on social media, and everything. I heard a lot about to-do lists and shopping lists, but I also heard about a lot of other things you keep. Here’s a few:
- A bunch of you keep packing lists, sometimes several of them for different kinds of trips. I’ve never done it, but I love the idea of a lower-stress system for making sure you bring the right stuff.
- Otto said they keep a list of saved product manuals and documents, in PDF form, for easy retrieval.
- Ron has a list of people they want to keep in touch with, and tries to get to a few of them a week. (Ron also keeps a list of paint color names they use, which would have saved me a lot of time the last two weeks.)
- Lee keeps a list of pictures their kids created in restaurants, and of all the kid-related gifts they’ve received.
- Hannes has a list of their favorite quotes from books, and another one that’s a list of “personal best nostalgia-bait” songs from their youth.
As for the places you keep lists, the main thing I heard was chaos. We all have too many lists in too many places! But there was a pretty clear set of favorite tools:
- Pen and paper. A surprising winner here! I heard from so many of you that you’ve tried the apps, you’ve moved between platforms, and you went back to good ol’ writing stuff down. This may just be the way.
- Todoist[30]. I heard about a lot of to-do list apps, but Todoist seems to be the consensus favorite. It’s flexible, it’s fast, it’s available everywhere, I get it.
- Notion[31]. The other app that came up over and over, especially for people who keep really complex systems — not just a list of movies to watch, but a list of starred reviews for every movie you’ve ever seen. Notion’s great at that.
- The built-in apps. Lots of shouts for Google Keep[32] from the Android crowd, and many fans of Apple Notes and Apple Reminders[33] among the iOS users.
- Spreadsheets. I heard about Google Sheets[34], and Excel[35], and Smartsheet[36]. Turns out a lot of you are big fans of spreadsheeting just about anything. To which I say: I love it, but the mobile apps are all so terrible!
- Honorable Mentions: Craft[37] and Obsidian[38] both got some love in the note-taking world. AnyList[39] is a favorite for grocery shoppers in particular. Letterboxd[40] and Trakt[41] seem to be the best for tracking shows and movies. Sequel[42], a longtime Installer fave, also got some love as a way to keep track of all media.
Honestly, it felt great to hear that so many of you also love a good list, and also feel totally overwhelmed by trying to keep them all straight. Personally, I’ve been doing all my listing in Workflowy[43] recently, but you all just introduced me to a half-dozen new apps I need to try now. The chaos never stops.
Screen share
When I first started Installer, I made a list of people whose homescreens I wanted to see. Marques Brownlee[44] was one of the first names I wrote down — but then I realized he shares his homescreen in, like, every other video on his channel. But I kept finding I had questions about his homescreens! So I kept him on the list. And you all also kept asking me to have him. Asking me and asking me and asking me.
So, for our 100th edition, I asked Marques to share his homescreen with us. He shared two! Here they are, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:
The phones: Pixel 10 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro.
The apps: On Android: Superhuman, Photos, Discord, Arc Search, Notion, Instagram, Relay, Phone, Messages, Spotify, TickTick. On iPhone: Photos, Camera, Spotify, Settings, Carrot Weather, YouTube, YouTube Studio, Waze, Not Boring Habits, Superhuman, Copilot, TickTick, Phone, Tesla, Arc Search, Messages.
They’re kinda similar starting points on each phone, despite how differently I use them. The iPhone uses the Not Boring Weather[46] app widget, but I use Carrot Weather[47] to actually dig into details. Safari is my default, but Arc is my go-to for launching a quick search. The Pixel has the sweet new Android 16 wallpaper cutout effect on the lock screen.
I also asked Marques to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he shared:
- I’m really into the Sports-themed Connections[48] game by The New York Times right now. Partially because my brain can’t always handle the regular Connections.
- Also very much into this app called Athlytic[49] that takes all my Apple Watch / health data and displays it in a very Whoop-like way, without me needing to also wear a Whoop. It’s made it all the way up to my second homescreen.
- Also very unfortunately still loving using Arc[50] on desktop and mobile, and am in desperate need of a new browser since Arc is betraying us all.
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, this post on Bluesky, and this post on The Verge.[51][52][53][54]
“My partner and I got really into the drive-in movie scene in the Hudson Valley, but sitting in our pickup bed instead of the front seats. The problem became how to get great audio over a portable radio. Currently testing: FIIO RR11[55] portable radio for FM signal, then aux into a Soundcore Motion x600[56].” — Spencer
“Paying too much for it, but revisiting Super Mario Galaxy 2[57] in 4K on the Switch 2 is so wonderful!” — Tim
“I would like to recommend Everlog[58] for your diary / journal. You can get a lifetime subscription and, one of my favorite features, add updates to previous entries.” — Daryl
“Getting ready for Digimon Story: Time Stranger[59]. Gonna play on the PS5. Demo was fun, and it’s turning out to be the best Digimon game ever reviewed. With the new anime also starting next week, us Digimon fans are eating well.” — Bob
“I’m getting into Spooky Season by discovering Caitlín Kiernan, whose The Red Tree[60] is a really fun combo of nesting narratives and folk horror. Writer procrastinates desperately on deadline by discovering malign forces in her isolated rural homestead and beholding the process of another writer going insane — relatable!” — Adi
“Brave Search now has Ask Brave[61], like AI mode in Google but without the creepy tracking.” — Bryan
“My partner and I have been crushing Simply Aviation[62] reviews on YouTube. The channel focuses on economy! You can see differences that will make crossing oceans just a little nicer when you can’t lay flat.” — Sean
“I just got a Rode Wireless Go Gen 3[63], and it’s… magical? Local recordings, solid wireless sync, great battery life. But it comes with the goofiest USB-C charger that is sort of adorable.” — Rich
“A couple months ago, I moved all of my day-to-day task management out of apps and into Ugmonk’s Analog[64] paper and pencil system. It’s been great. De-digitizing key parts of my day is more thoughtful, less distracting, and just more fun than trying to manage the nth productivity app on my phone.” — HollowedLeaf
“Hades II[65] on the Switch 2, feels just as good to play as the original. Haven’t beaten it yet, but it feels like I’m endlessly unlocking new features and advancing, which makes it disgustingly addictive.” — Ben
Signing off
There was a lot of news this week, but at least in my life there was nothing more exciting than one tiny new Spotify feature: you can now exclude a single song from your “taste profile,”[66] which means Spotify won’t use it to program recommendations or playlists. This rules. I immediately did it with about a hundred songs my toddler loves (and a few I’m embarrassed I love), and every single entertainment platform needs to adopt this immediately. A “don’t hold this one against me” button should be available anywhere you watch or listen to anything at all. If only Netflix had it, my recommendations might mean something. Until then, at least my Discover Weekly will look normal again.
See you next week!
References
- ^ Installer homepage (www.theverge.com)
- ^ Tim Berners-Lee (www.newyorker.com)
- ^ stain removers (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ AI marriage problems (futurism.com)
- ^ One Battle After Another (www.themoviedb.org)
- ^ Shudder (go.skimresources.com)
- ^ The Morning Show (www.themoviedb.org)
- ^ 7 Days Out (www.themoviedb.org)
- ^ Mem (mem.ai)
- ^ Balatro (www.playbalatro.com)
- ^ The Life of a Showgirl (open.spotify.com)
- ^ Tim Tams (www.arnotts.com)
- ^ go here (www.theverge.com)
- ^ going here (www.theverge.com)
- ^ installer@theverge.com (www.theverge.com)
- ^ subscribe here (www.theverge.com)
- ^ Version History (link.chtbl.com)
- ^ Sora (apps.apple.com)
- ^ Claude Sonnet 4.5 (www.anthropic.com)
- ^ Ghost of Yōtei (www.playstation.com)
- ^ Comet (www.perplexity.ai)
- ^ Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (www.amazon.com)
- ^ Amazon’s Echo Dot Max (www.amazon.com)
- ^ Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (final-fantasy-tactics-the-ivalice-chronicles.square-enix-games.com)
- ^ Kagi News (kite.kagi.com)
- ^ Adobe Premiere for iOS (apps.apple.com)
- ^ Logitech’s MX Master 4 (logitech.cfzu.net)
- ^ The birth of the Excel spreadsheet (www.bbc.com)
- ^ Witness History (www.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ Todoist (www.todoist.com)
- ^ Notion (www.notion.so)
- ^ Google Keep (keep.google.com)
- ^ Apple Reminders (www.icloud.com)
- ^ Google Sheets (docs.google.com)
- ^ Excel (www.microsoft.com)
- ^ Smartsheet (www.smartsheet.com)
- ^ Craft (www.craft.do)
- ^ Obsidian (obsidian.md)
- ^ AnyList (www.anylist.com)
- ^ Letterboxd (letterboxd.com)
- ^ Trakt (trakt.tv)
- ^ Sequel (www.getsequel.app)
- ^ Workflowy (workflowy.com)
- ^ Marques Brownlee (www.youtube.com)
- ^ Backdrops (backdrops.io)
- ^ Not Boring Weather (notbor.ing)
- ^ Carrot Weather (www.meetcarrot.com)
- ^ Connections (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Athlytic (www.athlyticapp.com)
- ^ Arc (arc.net)
- ^ installer@theverge.com (www.theverge.com)
- ^ this post on Threads (www.threads.com)
- ^ this post on Bluesky (bsky.app)
- ^ this post on The Verge (www.theverge.com)
- ^ FIIO RR11 (www.fiio.com)
- ^ Soundcore Motion x600 (go.skimresources.com)
- ^ Super Mario Galaxy 2 (go.skimresources.com)
- ^ Everlog (everlog.app)
- ^ Digimon Story: Time Stranger (www.bandainamcoent.com)
- ^ The Red Tree (www.penguinrandomhouse.com)
- ^ Ask Brave (brave.com)
- ^ Simply Aviation (www.youtube.com)
- ^ Rode Wireless Go Gen 3 (go.skimresources.com)
- ^ Ugmonk’s Analog (ugmonk.com)
- ^ Hades II (go.skimresources.com)
- ^ exclude a single song from your “taste profile,” (newsroom.spotify.com)
- ^ See All by David Pierce (www.theverge.com)
- ^ See All Apps (www.theverge.com)
- ^ See All Gadgets (www.theverge.com)
- ^ See All Installer (www.theverge.com)
- ^ See All Tech (www.theverge.com)
- ^ See All Web (www.theverge.com)