Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 30, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome. So psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been playing the fun puzzler Close Cities<\/strong><\/em>, <\/strong>scrounging up money to buy TikTok, reading the latest in my favorite spy-thriller series<\/strong>, <\/strong><\/em>debating becoming a mansion squatter<\/strong>, testing Today<\/strong> for simple tasks, taking notes on this great video about the editing in Oppenheimer<\/em><\/strong>, and yelling \u201cSPACE!\u201d while watching the most recent SpaceX launch<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a new AI productivity tool, a great way to find stuff to watch, some new shows about old events, and a deep dive into the collapse of the Apple Car. Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What app are you obsessed with right now? What show can you not stop talking about? What game is burning all your controller batteries this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer<\/em>, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Michael Fisher goes by many names. Michael Fisher is one of them. But he\u2019s also MrMobile<\/strong>, and Captain2Phones<\/strong>, and \u2014\u00a0this is my personal nickname for him \u2014 The World\u2019s Only Remaining Fan of The Palm Pre<\/strong>. He\u2019s also, as of recently, the co-founder of a nifty new keyboard case for iPhone called Clicks<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Michael and I recently had a long, fun chat about keyboards, which is coming to a Vergecast<\/em> feed near you very soon. But I also asked him to share his homescreen, because, I mean, there aren\u2019t many people on Earth who have had as many homescreens as he has. I secretly hoped he\u2019d send me 12 screenshots and just say, like, \u201cSorry, these are all my daily drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alas, all I got was one. But it\u2019s a fun one. Here\u2019s Michael\u2019s homescreen, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>Google Pixel Fold. Thirteen years of reviewing smartphones has cursed me with an unquenchable thirst for novelty, so I switch devices constantly even when I don\u2019t need to \u2014 but I find the Pixel Fold never gets far from my daily rotation. Turns out a digital Moleskine is quite a comforting thing to carry, at least for tech nerds of a certain age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>I\u2019ll be honest: when Google briefed me on its emoji wallpaper last year, I rolled my eyes. But having a bunch of icons representing your interests splayed out in a pleasing pattern on the screen you see the most? Turns out it\u2019s pretty cool! (Also, I like how it \u201cbreathes\u201d when I tap it.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Phone, Google Voice, NYC Ferry, Instagram, Gmail, Reddit, Todoist, Slack, Food Bazaar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the things I adore about large-format foldables is all the space they afford me to just… spread out. So my choice of layout is more notable than my list of apps, which I\u2019ve clustered into five folders for two-tap access whether the phone is open or closed. Alongside those, an anchor row of apps that used<\/em> to be critical core features… but as I write this, I realize how little I actually use the dialer or Google Voice (my SMS solution since it was called GrandCentral before Google scooped it up). Habit is a helluva drug.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another thing I\u2019ve spent too long doing: letting phones try to guess which apps I might want to use at any given time. That\u2019s the bottom row there, and Google\u2019s done a pretty good job of suggesting, on this Monday midafternoon, a mix of productivity and messaging apps. I generally save my Reddit sessions until after bedtime, and I\u2019ve never used my local grocery store app before sundown, so those are oddballs… but I still appreciate the suggestions that do<\/em> make sense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I will shout out one app: NYC Ferry, which lets me navigate my fair city by sea instead of subway. If you live in New York City and you don\u2019t use the ferry, I genuinely don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing. (Bonus: they let local elementary schoolers name all the boats, so you\u2019re whisked to and fro by vessels bearing legends like \u201cTooth Ferry\u201d and \u201cLunchbox.\u201d It\u2019s the best.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally: I\u2019m big on glanceable info, so I use a trio of widgets to make sure I\u2019m getting useful data the second I open my phone. All three are from Google: Calendar for my schedule, Weather for whether I need an umbrella, and At A Glance to give me reminders about stuff I might have missed on the other two.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Michael to share a few things he\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s what the <\/em>Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email <\/em>installer@theverge.com<\/em> or message +1 (203) 570-8663 with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m a week late, but I wanted to get a single point on the board for Pandora<\/strong>. The new music page highlights artists that match my tastes, and they still have a stupendous radio feature \u2014\u00a0hardly surprising considering they popularized it. Also, Pandora has a slight edge by keeping podcasts (a feature I do not use) tucked away out of sight, while Spotify loses points, like some people I know, for never shutting up about Joe Rogan, who clearly peaked in the 90\u2019s on News Radio.\u201d \u2014 Will<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNew Pok\u00e9mon TCG<\/strong><\/em> set coming next week, so prepping for that, as well as playing Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/strong><\/em>, because well\u2026 I\u2019m always playing Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/em>\u2026 always.\u201d \u2014 Bobby<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOne small stuff that completely changed the way I use my lockscreen on iOS\u2026 Random photos<\/strong>. When I realized that I can hand pick the photos super easily, apply cool filters and make them change randomly when I touch the screen, it became the best way to revive weekends, holidays or last night\u2019s parties by featuring the five-to-ten best pictures on my lock screen. It\u2019s so much more practical and fun than having to open the Photos app.\u201d \u2014 Benoit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bMore and more of my friends have been signing on to BeReal<\/strong> \u2014\u00a0wonder if any other friend groups are seeing this growth. Also, the app keeps trying to get you to view public profiles and I would like them to stop that.\u201d \u2014 Wisdom<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe amazing Empty Fasting<\/strong> app that launched this week. One-time fee for a beautifully designed fasting app.\u201d \u2014 Esteban<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI thought I\u2019d throw in a great \u2018audio products\u2019 reviewer, Darko Audio<\/strong>. He has some good info and thoughts at the high end and some nerdy written content on streaming protocols. Personally, I\u2019m a Spotify user since, as you say, it\u2019s everywhere. I do feel pushed ever further away from Spotify with each software update that seems to chip away at what was a near perfect interface.\u201d \u2014 David<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBought a used, but excellent condition Pixel 7 Pro<\/strong>. After trade-in, $201. Wife recently got the same-condition iPhone 13<\/strong>. Makes you think about upgrade cycles. Also Zack from JerryRigEverything<\/strong> has left an impression on me regarding recycling tech and parts and whatnot.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Omar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s owl breeding season, and I\u2019m back to watching live streams of nesting European eagle owls<\/strong>. In addition to being cute, the camera quality for bird cams is so much better than it was just a couple years ago. Tristan and Isolde on Cam 3 have a clutch of 4 eggs this year!\u201d \u2014 Daniel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWatching Mr. & Mrs. Smith<\/strong><\/em> and organizing my notes using the PARA method in Microsoft Loop<\/strong> and Capacities<\/strong>.\u201d \u2014 Carter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Over the last two weeks, my 15-month-old son has become a Train Kid. He wants to look at trains, make train noises, yell at the trains outside, walk by the train car outside the library whenever we go past. After months of just, like, watching Wiggles videos on repeat, trains are a terrific new trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And y\u2019all: if you\u2019re not already into TrainTube, you are missing out. <\/em>Hours<\/strong> upon hours<\/strong> of beautifully<\/strong> shot videos<\/strong> of awesome-looking trains in beautiful locations. It\u2019s peaceful, it\u2019s surprisingly good background noise for working to, and there is nothing funnier to me than the fact that an hourlong video of trains<\/strong> has 107 million views \u2014 and according to the comments, most of them are toddlers. I love the internet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Signing off<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n