A Perfect Week for Tech Enthusiasts

Hey gamers! Welcome to Installer No. 148, your go-to source for the coolest and quirkiest tech in the gaming universe. If you’re new here, welcome aboard! Hope you’re enjoying all the seasonal treats, and don’t forget you can catch up on past editions at the Installer homepage.

This week, I’ve been diving into the fascinating world of Marc Andreessen and the future of mathematics, reflecting on the glory days of MySpace, and sending out an article to apologize for my poor texting skills. I’ve been jamming to the Pet Shop Boys’ new album inspired by Alan Turing, pondering the mysteries of that “flying” Tesla Roadster, and obsessively searching for the perfect tripod to stabilize my phone for social videos. Seriously, I’ve spent way too much time thinking about tripods.

I’ve also got some exciting new tech documents and a bunch of gadgets that are definitely worth your attention. It’s gadget season, folks! Let’s dive in.

The Drop
* You Can See Everything. I can’t recall the last time I was this hyped about a documentary, especially one that runs three hours. The combination of Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder, the jaw-dropping access, and the overall meta-narrative has me counting down the minutes until I can watch it. And don’t miss Josh Johnson’s hour-long set on Elizabeth Holmes afterward—pure gold.
* Musk. And here’s another four hours of tech documentary goodness! The reviews are stellar, and even if you’ve kept up with the news over the past decade, experiencing it all in one go is bound to be eye-opening.
* The Apple HomeView. I keep eyeing the buy button on this new $299 home hub. I’m not entirely sure what I’d use it for—my basic smart home setup is working just fine—but there’s something nostalgic about it feeling like a family computer. I’m definitely looking for fewer reasons to stare at my phone.
* The new Siri Remote. While I can’t wholeheartedly recommend a $300 Apple TV, I can definitely suggest spending $60 on the new Find My-enabled remote! Just wait until you misplace your current one first. Trust me, it’s bound to happen.
* The Fairphone Fairbuds 2. I’m really digging Fairphone’s minimalist design and focus on repairability. The fact that they’ve packed all of that into a lightweight, compact, and more affordable-than-AirPods package is pretty exciting.
* The Xbox Nano Controller. Check out this little gem! A pocket-sized game controller is more useful than you might think (it makes waiting rooms way more entertaining), and this one has all the buttons you’d expect for Xbox and other games. If the battery life holds up, this could be a real winner.
* The Fitbit Edge. I’ve been using a Fitbit Air for a while now, and while I like it, I miss having a fitness tracker that also tells time. This one does that and offers additional workout and biometric tracking. It’s not the most stylish wristwear, but it’s definitely a Fitbit.
* The CMF Speaker S. I’m a sucker for a cool Bluetooth speaker, and these futuristic milk carton-shaped devices are fantastic. I snagged one of the smaller models right away and am already considering getting a second to create a stereo setup. More companies should focus on making speakers that look this good!
* E Ink Kaleido 4. This isn’t just about one specific gadget; it’s great news for an entire category! We’ve got a new version of the color E Ink panel that promises improved colors and performance. Kaleido has disappointed in the past, but I’m excited to see what this new iteration brings.

Screen Share
I’ve been reading Kevin Roose’s latest book, The AGI Chronicles, and I can’t recommend it enough. We often poke fun at Kevin for his enthusiasm for AI, but this book is incredibly well-researched and has clarified so much about the AI industry for me.

And Kevin’s not stopping there! He and Casey Newton are gearing up to launch their new show, Machine Gods, next week. If you were a fan of Hard Fork, you’ll definitely want to tune in. I thought it’d be a good time to see how Kevin manages it all—who knows if I’ve even been texting with the real Kevin this week!

Here’s a peek at Kevin’s homescreen and the apps he’s using:
The phone: iPhone 15 Pro (barely functional, battery life is a joke, storage is full, but I’m holding out until I can preorder the Duo).
The wallpaper: A photo of my son fishing at the Russian River.
The apps: Voice Memos, WhatsApp, Signal, Spotify, Google Maps, Safari, Day One, Brick, Stash, Superwhisper, Substack, Slack, Town, Apple Notes, Phone, Gmail, Messages.

I’m all about dictation these days; I hardly type anymore. I use Superwhisper and Voice Memos for everything. I’ve also created a Pocket alternative called Stash that I still enjoy months later. Building your own apps is a blast! I’m running a fleet of AI agents, including Skynet (my ChatGPT Dot for personal tasks), Hootie (my work agent from an app called Town that Casey introduced me to), and Nancy (my Muse agent, who trades Kalshi for me and has cost me $41 so far).

I’ve organized my apps into a “red flags” folder for social media and other brain-rotting distractions, a “green flags” folder for enriching content, and an AI folder for all my quirky bots.

I also asked Kevin to share some of his current favorites. Here’s what he sent back:
* I’m hopelessly addicted to Balatro, a poker roguelike game that Casey got me into. (I’ll never forgive him for this.)
* We’re launching a new YouTube-first podcast, so I’m watching a lot of popular shows like New Heights and Good Work for inspiration.
* For fun, I stick to my hobby channels: Served (a tennis podcast hosted by Andy Roddick) and Roffle Lite (a Balatro streamer whose videos I sometimes fall asleep to), plus some content my son enjoys (Mark Rober, Bluey, Yoto stories) that I’ve also gotten into.
* My favorite new app is Dreambeans, a quirky Google Labs app that sends AI-generated illustrations of personalized suggestions for daily activities. I’ll open it up and see something like, “Today you could go birdwatching at Point Reyes,” complete with a cartoon of me looking at a heron through binoculars. I don’t think many people know about Dreambeans, but I love it and will be sad when Google inevitably shuts it down in six months.

Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to hear what you’re enjoying too! Email your recommendations to installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — and we’ll feature some of our favorites here each week. For even more great suggestions, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“I’ve been using the markdown writing app, Em. I’ve always loved iA Writer, but this one integrates so well with Ghost that I’m hooked.” — Chris
“Just got my Bose Wired Earbuds, and I haven’t felt this excited about earbuds since AirPods.” — Sai
“I’ve been enjoying the app Shelf & Story for finding good books for my kids. Goodreads never quite worked for me.” — Martha
“Made by the founder of TV Time, Bingers is my new favorite media tracker. It has some really neat features (like easily updating dates and auto-populating a watchlist). It still has room for improvement, but it’s off to a great start and is my go-to over Letterboxd these days.” — pegasusisme
“Just finished the latest season of Jet Lag: The Game. It’s probably their best yet and a fantastic entry point for newcomers.” — Shane
“Carrie, as soon as my internet provider resolves the outage affecting my area.” — Kev
“Doing my annual listen to Snow Crash — definitely worth picking up for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure (Jonathan David is a joy to listen to).” — Jonathan
“Still playing Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. Just completed my first path, right in time for the expansion pass announcement.” — Connor
“I’ve been really into small roguelikes, like the city-builder meets Balatro in Combolands and billiards in Ultrapool. I’ve been playing them on the Steam Deck, which works well with some mouse tweaks, but you need to be comfortable with the trackpads.” — Scott

Signing Off
I mentioned last week that I’ve switched note-taking apps again, this time to Capacities. A few of you asked what finally clicked for me, and the answer is simple: Capacities uses “objects” instead of “notes,” treating everything you save as a distinct type of item. Images are categorized one way, PDFs another, and text notes yet another. Everything is organized by tags, dates, and however else you want. Setting this up takes some effort, as you need to create and customize each object, but I spent an afternoon watching football and entering metadata, and now I can actually find things in my notes app again.

This system might not be for everyone—it can be a bit finicky—but if you decide to explore Capacities, take a good look at this page in the documentation first. It’ll be helpful.

Catch you next week!